A Mother’s Whisper
In Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s new novel Happy Land, Black mothers and daughters reconnect with each other and the land that shaped them. Perkins-Valdez will discuss Happy Land at Novel in Memphis on April 11.
Fiction
The Best Night of His Life
“I’m a baseball player,” 12-year-old Timothy “Pumpsie” Strickland declares. “Baseball is my life.” In Andrea Williams’ new middle-grade novel, Inside the Park, Pumpsie must overcome his fears and think fast to save the day when sinister forces threaten his beloved team, the Nashville Wildcats.
Pain and Pure Beauty
Author Chris Offutt wastes no time in the opening of The Reluctant Sheriff, as two liquor delivery drivers come across a dead body in the parking lot of a local tavern. This body is only the first to fall. Readers who’ve come to know and love Offutt’s Mick Hardin series can safely anticipate that there will be more to follow.
Strangers on a Train
Emma Donoghue’s The Paris Express tells the story of an 1895 train disaster through a diverse cast of passengers who represent the period’s entrenched divisions. Emma Donoghue will discuss The Paris Express at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 25.
Ghosts and Strangers
In Alice Austen’s debut novel, 33 Place Brugmann, residents of a Brussels apartment building resist the German occupation by preserving art, beauty, and kindness. Austen will discuss 33 Place Brugmann at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 13.
Song of My Songs
Daniel Black’s ninth book, Isaac’s Song, is a novel about Black gay becoming in the 1980s. It dunks us into the colorful life and language of Isaac Swinton, carrying us through recollections of his rigid childhood in Missouri and life in Chicago amidst the AIDS crisis.
