December 3, 2013 Karen Spears Zacharias is a veteran author of nonfiction, but her new book, Mother of Rain, is a foray into historical fiction. Set during the Depression and World War II in a close-knit community in East Tennessee, the story centers on a troubled young woman, her first baby, and their Appalachian neighbors’ good-hearted efforts to save them both.
November 27, 2013 Housebound, the debut novel by Knoxville author Elizabeth Gentry, is an adventure in genre, immersed in the strange, dark world of fairy tales and gothic novels. The story centers around Maggie, the eldest of nine children in a family held together by a mysterious collection of unspoken yet airtight rules. When she breaks house rules by announcing her intention to leave home, Maggie embarks on an adventure that will change her life. Elizabeth Gentry will discuss Housebound at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville at 6 p.m. on December 6, 2013.
November 14, 2013 Jonathan Miles’s second novel, Want Not, follows a middle-aged linguistics professor, a pair of Dumpster-diving “freegans,” and a suburban housewife, all living in greater New York City, as they come to terms with the refuse of their lives. It’s a droll and affecting tale that disguises its philosophical message beneath a comic veneer. Miles will read from Want Not at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 16, 2013, at 4 p.m.
November 13, 2013 Nikki Giovanni is a poet who speaks directly about the business of living, whether she’s celebrating simple pleasures, observing the difficulties of love, or denouncing injustice. On November 20, 2013, at 6:15 p.m., she will discuss her new collection, Chasing Utopia: A Hybrid, at the Nashville Public Library. The event, part of the Salon@615 series, is free and open to the public.
November 12, 2013 In The Valley of Amazement, bestselling author Amy Tan revisits her hallmark themes of female identity and struggle through the story of a young half-American courtesan in early twentieth-century Shanghai. Tan will be in Nashville to discuss and read from the novel on November 18, 2013, at 6:15 p.m. at the Hume-Fogg Academic High School Auditorium. The event, which is free and open to the public, is part of the Salon@615 series.
November 8, 2013 In 2011, when actress Nicole Kidman, who lives in Nashville, optioned Kevin Wilson’s debut novel, The Family Fang, for a feature film, the Sewanee author was dumbfounded. “It’s crazy,” he told Chapter 16’s Tina LoTufo at the time. “That’s the furthest thing from your mind when you’re writing a book. [But] maybe in the back of my head I was thinking if I could write a good-enough novel I would get to meet Nicole Kidman. And it would all be worth it.”
