Nonfiction

March 1, 2011 In her fascinating new history, Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution, Vanderbilt associate professor Holly Tucker brings to life the highly charged and sometimes dangerously ignorant world of research that gave birth to what we now regard as “scientific method.” Tucker will discuss and sign copies of Blood Work on March 2 at 11:30 a.m. in the main Nashville Public Library. The event is part of the Thinking Out of the (Lunch) Box series, a joint venture of Vanderbilt University and the Nashville Public Library. The event is free and open to the public.

February 17, 2011 For years racial identity in America was enforced by strict laws and social mores. Such dicta told people whom they could marry, how they could do business, and, for the first century of the nation’s existence, who owned whom. But no matter how rigid things looked on paper, on the ground it was a different story. In The Invisible Line, Daniel Sharfstein follows three families from the Civil War to the Civil Rights era, showing how each managed to manipulate racial restrictions and live and thrive in the very communities that might have shut them out. No mere recounting of events, The Invisible Line’s taut narratives show that race in America is a far more complex affair than many history books would have us believe. Daniel Sharfstein will discuss The Invisible Line at 7 p.m. on February 22 at Borders Books in Nashville.