In Remembering Roots: How an American Classic Transformed the World, Lucas L. Johnson II sketches the history of Alex Haley’s Roots and its TV adaptation, surveying their impact through commentary from scholars, genealogists, artists, and ordinary people from different walks of life. Johnson will sign and discuss the book at the Z. Alexander Looby Theater in Nashville on June 14.
FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: In Dynamite Nashville, Betsy Phillips plunges into the world of white supremacist violence in Nashville during the civil rights era.
In On Witness and Respair, a collection of essays and speeches, Jesmyn Ward deals with beauty and ugliness, dread and hope. Ward will discuss the book at Fisk University in Nashville on May 18.
Otis Sanford’s Newsman: The Road from Route 2 Box 9 surveys the author’s life from a childhood in rural Mississippi to a 50-year career in journalism. Sanford will appear at Bookstock at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library in Memphis on May 2.
In American Bacon: The History of a Food Phenomenon, Mark A. Johnson examines the complicated 400-year history of what some argue is America’s favorite food — and all the cultural baggage it carries. Johnson will discuss American Bacon at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on April 16.
Patrick Radden Keefe turns his investigative powers to the death of a young con artist in his sixth book, London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth. What begins as an inquiry into a 19-year-old man’s possible murder quickly evolves into what Keefe is best known for: a bedrock-deep exhumation of some bad people’s biggest secrets. Keefe will discuss London Falling at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 11.
