Book Reviews

At the heart of Adria Bernardi’s third novel are five female friends, displaced from their homes and trying to carry on in a new place. Bernardi will appear at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16 and at The Porch in Nashville on November 9.

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Kody, the 16-year-old protagonist of Julia Watts’ Needlework, secretly enjoys dressing up like his idol, Dolly Parton. When he receives a Facebook message from a young woman who claims to be his sister, Kody finds himself forced to keep more and more secrets from those he loves. Julia Watts will appear with Susan Underwood and Marianne Worthington at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on September 25 and at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.

When journalist Casey Parks’ grandmother revealed fond memories of “a woman who lived as a man” in her rural Louisiana hometown, Parks undertook a decade-long search for the truth behind this elusive figure — an odyssey she documents in Diary of a Misfit: A Memoir and a Mystery. Parks will discuss Diary of a Misfit at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.

Andrew Maraniss’ Inaugural Ballers, a new nonfiction book for teen and young adult readers, describes the formation of the first U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team and the challenges they overcame on their way to making history. Maraniss will discuss Inaugural Ballers at Parnassus Books in Nashville on September 13 and the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.

“The play’s the thing” in Twelfth, Janet Key’s debut novel for middle-grade readers. It was not 12-year-old Maren Sands’ idea to attend Charlotte Goodman Theater Camp. Now she’s stuck in the middle of the woods with a bunch of theater kids she doesn’t know — and, as it turns out, possibly a ghost. Janet Key will appear at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.

Raised for several years in a religious commune known as The Body, Shawna Kay Rodenberg delves into the complex intersection of religion, femininity, familial expectations, and personal agency in her memoir Kin. Rodenberg will appear with Robert Gipe at the Johnson City Public Library on September 10 and at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.