Book Reviews | Chapter 16

Goin’ to Memphis Where the Beat is Tough

Robert Gordon’s Memphis Rent Party captures the grit and heart of the blues

By Randy Fox | March 1, 2018

Memphis Rent Party: The Blues, Rock & Soul in Music’s Hometown is a fascinating journey through the back alleys and juke joints of Memphis as nonfiction author Robert Gordon searches for musical icons and forgotten heroes. Gordon will appear at the Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis on March 9, at Earnestine & Hazel’s in Memphis on March 10, and at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 17.

Trading Mystery for Intrigue

Body Farm co-author Jon Jefferson raises the stakes with a new thriller, Wave of Terror

By G. Robert Frazier | February 26, 2018

Jon Jefferson, half the mystery-writing team known collectively as Jefferson Bass, switches gears from forensic mystery to scientific intrigue in his new novel, Wave of Terror. Jefferson will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on March 4, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 7, and at Star Line Books in Chattanooga on March 8.

The Long Arc of History

Minrose Gwin’s new novel tells a tale of racism in the aftermath of natural disaster

By Tina Chambers | February 23, 2018

On April 5, 1936, a massive tornado producing winds greater than 300 miles per hour destroyed half the city of Tupelo, Mississippi, in a matter of minutes, a story Tupelo native Minrose Gwin tells in her latest novel, Promise. Gwin will appear at Novel in Memphis on February 27.

Faith and Serpents

Julia C. Duin turns up a sordid tale at the fringes of American religion

By Peter Kuryla | February 21, 2018

With ln the House of the Serpent Handler Julia C. Duin depicts the lives of the faithful in Appalachian serpent-handling churches, charting the tragic fall of one its leading lights.

Laying the Foundation

Mary Ellen Pethel’s Athens of the New South credits Nashville colleges for the city’s post-war prosperity

By Sean Kinch | February 16, 2018

Mary Ellen Pethel’s Athens of the New South argues that Nashville’s growth as a center for commerce and culture is rooted in the institutions of higher education that were founded in the decades after the Civil War.

The Gray Man Returns

Memphis native Mark Greaney sends his fictional super-assassin to Syria

By Peggy Burch | February 15, 2018

Mark Greaney’s seventh Gray Man novel, Agent in Place, launches Court Gentry, professional assassin and occasional CIA agent, on an unlikely mission to Syria to retrieve the infant son of a brutal dictator. Greaney will appear on February 24 at Novel in Memphis.

I Gotta Sing!

By Alice Faye Duncan
WaterBrook
40 pages
$14.99

“A whole barnyard makes noise ‘in the Spirit of joy’ throughout this raucous picture book, a sweetly heartwarming sing-along by Duncan. Kellam conveys comfort and happiness as the loved ones reflect sunny enthusiasm in this gladdening rendition of the Black American religious folk song ‘I’m Goin’a Sing When the Spirit Says Sing.’”

~Publishers Weekly