In Varina, Charles Frazier portrays the first lady of the Confederacy as a reluctant witness
Charles Frazier’s Varina returns to the era of Cold Mountain but focuses on the Southern elite who bear the historical burden of instigating the Civil War. Frazier will discuss Varina, in conversation with novelists Paula McLain and Ann Patchett, at the Nashville Public Library on May 14.
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Sarah E. Igo’s The Known Citizen considers the case for privacy
In her sweeping, meticulously researched new book, The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America, Sarah E. Igo charts the evolution of privacy as a peculiarly American principle. Igo will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 12.
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Karen Spears Zacharias winds up her Appalachian trilogy
Karen Spears Zacharias’s Christian Bend is the final novel in a trilogy set in the small East Tennessee community of the same name. It adds new characters and plot twists to the major issues set up in the first two novels, Mother of Rain and Burdy.
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Jon Meacham sees a hopeful future in America’s past
In The Soul of America: The Battle for Our Better Angels, Jon Meacham examines this country’s history of division and finds optimism in the way Americans have responded to trying times. Meacham will appear in conversation with Governor Bill Haslam at Montgomery Bell Academy on May 12.
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Rick Bragg is back with another family memoir—this time with recipes
Rick Bragg’s subject in The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma’s Table is the family’s foodways—its long legacy of Southern cooking, its relationship with food through hard times and flush seasons, the recipes handed down generation upon generation. Bragg will appear at Novel in Memphis on May 7 and at the Nashville Public Library on May 8.
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In Make Trouble, Cecile Richards recounts a life of agitating for justice
In Make Trouble, Cecile Richards shares the lessons she’s learned in a lifetime on the front lines of battles for social change. Richards will appear in conversation with Ann Patchett at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music in Nashville on May 9.
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