March 20, 2012 Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism have awarded Vanderbilt professor Daniel Sharfstein the 2012 J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize for The Invisible Line: Three American Families and the Secret Journey from Black to White (Penguin Press, 2011), a “sensitive account of the fine line people of mixed race have tread in the United States since the nation’s beginning,” according to a press release by Columbia.
March 15, 2012 Sebastian Junger, bestselling author of The Perfect Storm and A Death in Belmont, discusses his 2010 book War and the difficulties of writing within combat zones. Junger will appear at Middle Tennessee State University’s Tucker Theatre in Murfreesboro on March 20 at 2:40 p.m. to deliver a free public lecture entitled “Dispatches from War: Stories from the Front Lines of History.”
March 14, 2012 Legendary Rolling Stones sideman Bobby Keys has just produced a surprisingly lucid and detailed account of his hazy whirlwind life on the road and in the studio with many of modern music’s greats. Written with the assistance of former Nashville Lifestyles editor Bill Ditenhafer, Every Night’s a Saturday Night meticulously traces Keys’s extraordinary rise from the dusty outskirts of Lubbock, Texas, to bear witness to the glory years of rock ‘n’ roll. Bobby Keys will discuss Every Night’s a Saturday Night at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 19 at 7 p.m., and at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on March 21 at 6 p.m.
March 6, 2012 In an experimental “novel” combining fictionalized biography, recorded music, and artwork, Cyril E. Vetter, a writer and occasional record producer, recounts the life of Louisiana musician Butch Hornsby amid the frantic music scene of the late sixties and early seventies. Vetter will discuss Dirtdobber Blues on March 8 at 6:30 p.m. at Parnassus Books in Nashville.
March 5, 2012 Eugenia Bone’s Mycophilia is the perfect “did-you-know” book. For instance, did you know that the largest single living organism on the planet is a fungus? Located in the Blue Mountains of eastern Oregon, this particular specimen of the wood-decaying fungus Armillaria gallica is the size of 1,666 football fields and is more than two thousand years old. It’s been nicknamed “the humongous fungus.” Bone’s delightful book is full of such fascinating facts, as well as vivid portraits of the unique mycophiles (or “fungus-lovers”) who inhabit the tremendously diverse and often surprising world of mushrooms and their fungal relatives. Readers will enjoy the science but stay for the story of the author’s growing awareness of and appreciation for the world around her—and us. Bone will discuss the book at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on March 7 at 6 p.m.
February 22, 2012 A Country Music Hall of Fame inductee and a Grand Ole Opry member from 1955 until his death last year at age 83, Charlie Louvin worked as a musician for six decades; Ira, the elder of the duo known as the Louvin Brothers, died in an automobile accident in 1965. The great bulk of Satan Is Real, Charlie Louvin’s posthumously published autobiography, tells the story of their lives and legendary career together. Wistful at times, the book is not without humor, a heavy shake of salty language, and fascinating anecdotes from life on the road.
