June 2, 2015 In Matthew Thomas’s debut novel, We Are Not Ourselves, Eileen Tumulty is determined to rise above her Irish working-class roots. When she meets Ed Leary, a scientist who is also from Queens, she thinks she has found the perfect companion to accompany her on the upward journey. Matthew Thomas will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 5, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.
June 1, 2015 I grew up wanting something I couldn’t name. I was raised in the Reform Jewish “tradition,” though the word here is gross hyperbole. The temple I attended as a kid in Memphis represented a variety of Judaism designed to be invisible, to blend indistinguishably with the Christ-haunted Southern landscape. As a consequence, I was virtually untouched by tradition and had not even an awareness of its absence. Nevertheless, one Sunday, playing hooky from confirmation class, I went exploring the old red brick pile of our temple along with a couple of partners in crime.
May 28, 2015 High-wire acts performed by an acrobatic enchantress; a young couple making love in a giant tree in the midst of an earthquake; a drug-dealing bookstore clerk who finds a decades-old history of his neighborhood and discovers that he himself appears as a character in its pages—these are some of the elements of The Pinch, Steve Stern’s latest novel. Stern will appear at Burke’s Book Store in Memphis at 6 p.m. on June 4, 2015.
May 20, 2015 Samantha Owens, the protagonist of What Lies Behind, J.T. Ellison’s latest thriller, has left crime-scene investigation to take a plum job in academia. Then a brutal crime pulls her back in. Ellison will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 26, 2015; at Reading Rock Books in Dickson on May 28, 2015; and at Books-A-Million at Nashville on May 29, 2015. All events are free and open to the public.
May 19, 2015 Betsy Phillips’s new book, The Wolf’s Bane, is the inaugural project of the Nashville Limited Edition Club. Founded by Jennifer Knowles of Brown Dog Bindery and Chuck Beard of East Side Story, the club will connect authors, artists, and bookbinders to create one-of-a-kind books published by Knowles and distributed by Beard. Phillips will launch The Wolf’s Bane with a reading at East Side Story in Nashville on May 22, 2015, at 6 p.m.
May 15, 2015 In The Fatal Flame, Lyndsay Faye continues her popular Edgar-nominated series with a thriller in which Timothy Wilde is forced to confront his intense fear of fire to pursue an arsonist. Faye will discuss The Fatal Flame at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on May 17, 2015, at 3 p.m.
