Nonfiction

September 22, 2010 What do Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull, and Michaelangelo Antonini’s L’avventura have in common—apart from being uncontestable classics of the cinema? For Sam B. Girgus, a professor of English at Vanderbilt University, these films come together under an umbrella he calls the “cinema of redemption.” In his new work of criticism, Levinas and the Cinema of Redemption: Time, Ethics, and the Feminine, Girgus explores how many of the ideas illustrated by these films resonate with those of French philosopher Emmanuel Levinas. Girgus will discuss the book at Davis-Kidd Booksellers on September 22 at 7 p.m.

September 20, 2010 In Interstate 69: The Unfinished History of the Last Great American Highway, Matt Dellinger writes about an unlikely subject: a highway linking Canada to Mexico that may never be completed. (In Tennessee, for example, I-69 remains nothing more than a page of maps and studies on the state Department of Transportation website.) Touted as the “NAFTA Highway” after the North American Free Trade Agreement, the highway is, like the trade deal, controversial, and in that conflict Dellinger has found a story. Matt Dellinger will discuss Interstate 69 at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on September 23 at 6 p.m. and at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on September 24 at 2 p.m.

September 16, 2010 Of all the manifestations youthful idealism can take, perhaps the most earnest—and also the most apt to end in disappointment—is the one recorded so memorably by Henry David Thoreau. Walden; or, Life in the Woods was first published in 1854, and for the last 150 years it has inspired a certain kind of young person to move to the wilderness and “live deliberately.” Thoreau’s own life in the woods lasted two years. Jim Minick’s dream of being an organic blueberry farmer lasted a decade longer than that. Minick will discuss his memoir, The Blueberry Years, at 3 p.m. on September 17 at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville, and 2 p.m. on September 18 at Carpe Librum Booksellers in Knoxville.

September 9, 2010 Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Americans of Japanese descent were rounded up by the thousands and placed in primitive “relocation camps” in the interest of national security. With Inside America’s Concentration Camps, investigative journalist James L. Dickerson places that shameful episode inside a larger narrative. Adhering to the psychological theory that abuse begets abusers, Inside America’s Concentration Camps traces America’s ambivalent history of detention and torture, from its beginnings in old-world Europe through the Trail of Tears and World War II to the current internment camp at Guantánamo Bay. James Dickerson signs Inside America’s Concentration Camps at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on September 11 at 1 p.m. and at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on September 25 at 2 p.m.

September 8, 2010 If Thomas R. Flagel’s The History Buff’s Guide to the Civil War is any indication, the use of top-ten lists can be an effective way to teach history. Flagel, an instructor in the history department at Columbia State Community College, has developed a successful franchise in best-of lists, and the newly revised edition of the founding book of his series is a sound and entertaining guide to a world not as distant as the years might suggest. Thomas R. Flagel appears at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Brentwood on September 10 at 7 p.m.