Fiction | Chapter 16

Down the Mountain, Into Despair

In Tim Johnston’s second novel, a Wisconsin family shatters when their college-bound daughter disappears

By Stephen Usery | December 3, 2015

December 3, 2015 Tim Johnston didn’t expect his second novel to hit The New York Times bestseller list when it was published in January, but Descent merges lyrical prose and complex emotional development into a propulsive, page-turning mystery. Johnston will launch the book’s paperback release at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on December 8, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.

Between the Mystery and the Wonder

Korby Lenker’s debut story collection brings magic to the everyday

By Sara Estes | November 30, 2015

November 30, 2015 Medium Hero, the debut story collection by musician Korby Lenker, confronts everyday perils with humor and an honest eye. Lenker will sign copies at Parnassus Books in Nashville on December 1, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.

The Adventuress

November 24, 2015

“This tenth entry in Alexander’s historical series offers important character development, while giving the reader the feeling they’ve also been on holiday on the Riviera–minus the dead bodies. An enjoyable historical murder mystery that will please existing fans, while being very accessible to new readers.”

–Library Journal

Undersea, Undercover, Under Attack

In Mark Greaney’s new Tom Clancy novel, a Putinesque strong man aims to capture former Soviet lands

By Stephen Usery | November 24, 2015

November 24, 2015 Memphis author Mark Greaney first garnered attention for his Gray Man thrillers, but he entered the bestselling stratosphere when Tom Clancy tapped him as a co-author on the Jack Ryan series. Since the legendary author’s death in 2013, Greaney has continued the franchise as a solo act. He will sign the latest installment, Tom Clancy Commander in Chief, at Barnes & Noble in Memphis on December 1, 2016, at 7 p.m.

Flaming Malevolence

In Erica Wright’s second thriller, beloved New York drag queens are the target of a hate group

By Liz Garrigan | November 19, 2015

November 19, 2015 In Erica Wright’s second thriller, The Granite Moth, private eye Kathleen Stone is still trying to nab drug kingpin Salvatore Magrelli. But her caseload multiplies when two drag queens, colleagues of her dear friend Dolly at the Pink Panther nightclub, are killed in an ostensible accident during the city’s Halloween parade on Sixth Avenue. Wright will discuss The Granite Moth at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 24, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.

X Stands for Mistakes

Nothing is quite what it seems in Sue Grafton’s twenty-fourth Kinsey Millhone mystery

By Faye Jones | November 16, 2015

November 16, 2015 If mystery fans were afraid Sue Grafton would run out of steam before she finished her alphabet series, her new novel, X, proves she still has many narrative routes to explore. Grafton will appear in conversation with Judy Kaye at the Nashville Public Library on November 20, 2015, at 6:15 p.m.

Radical Volunteers: Dissent, Desegregation, and Student Power in Tennessee

Katherine J. Ballentyne
University of Georgia Press
244 pages
$29.95

“Radical Volunteers tells the largely unknown story of southern student activism in Tennessee between the Brown decision in 1954 and the national backlash against the Kent State University shootings in May 1970. As one of the first statewide studies of student activism—and one of the few examinations of southern student activism—it broadens scholarly understanding of New Left and Black student radicalism from its traditionally defined hotbeds in the Northeast and on the West Coast.”

~the publisher