Book Reviews

In Wayétu Moore’s memoir, The Dragons, the Giant, the Women, Moore details her flight from Liberia’s civil war, her disorientation in an America obsessed with skin color, and her search for the warrior-woman who helped her family escape.

In Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, Patrick Radden Keefe masterfully combines the unsolved mystery of a kidnapped Belfast woman, the story of a secret oral history archive in Boston, and a richly reported history of the Troubles. A free online public masterclass on the book will be led by University of Tennessee, Knoxville professor Monica Black on June 10 at 7 p.m. EDT.

Travis Stimeling’s Nashville Cats: Record Production in Music City examines the contributions of uncredited session musicians to the “Nashville Sound” and the emergence of the city as a recording center.

With Zeus, Dog of Chaos, Kristin O’Donnell Tubb has written another charmer, sure to be popular with young dog lovers for its sheer joyful exuberance, while it also demonstrates the vital role service dogs play in the lives of those who benefit from their selfless loyalty. Kristin O’Donnell Tubb will discuss the book during a virtual launch party on Parnassus Books’ Facebook page on June 2.

Susan Choi’s National Book Award-winning and Pulitzer-nominated Trust Exercise is a novel that sneaks up on readers in the best possible way. A free online public masterclass about the book will be led by University of Tennessee, Knoxville professor Hilary Havens on June 3 at 7 p.m. EDT.

“To a Southerner, any place outside of the South is ‘out there.’ There’s the South, and then there’s everywhere else,” writes Claire Fullerton in her novel Little Tea. Celia Wakefield has worked hard to put the tragic events of her Southern upbringing behind her, but when her friends are in trouble, she must go home again.