Book Reviews

Prolific Murfreesboro poet Gaylord Brewer turns his hand to short nonfiction in Before the Storm Takes It Away, his latest from Red Hen Press. While the structure of the 125 pieces here may project Brewer’s voice in a different light, Brewer’s fans and new readers alike will relish the opportunity to walk with the poet on his personal journey through the seasons of the year captured in this collection.

Bill Wasik and Monica Murphy’s Our Kindred Creatures is a provocative, sometimes disturbing examination of Americans’ evolving attitudes toward animals from 1866 to 1896. The authors will appear at The Bookshop in Nashville on May 23.

Women and Children First, the debut novel by Alina Grabowski, delivers a kaleidoscopic narrative that proves girls and women cannot be pigeonholed into the role of victim. Grabowski will appear at The Bookshop in Nashville on May 15.

He was a corruption-battling editor, educator, entrepreneur, attorney, and inventor. Jack McElroy’s Citizen Carl captures the lives and times of Carl Magee.

Stephen Hundley returns to Georgia as his literary stomping ground in his debut novel, Bomb Island, featuring a defunct sunken-bomb-turned-tourist-attraction and a tiger named Sugar.