Soulful Dudes
In Before Elvis, acclaimed writer Preston Lauterbach digs into the deep culture of Black Memphis, finding the origins of the superstar’s music and style.
Nonfiction
An American Original
Jeff Apter’s Carl Perkins: The King of Rockabilly tells the story of a legitimate rock ‘n’ roll pioneer, as influential as his more celebrated peers at Sun Records like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash.
Latin Lessons
Immigration, Policy and the People of Latin America, a new book by attorney Bryce Ashby and historian Michael LaRosa, combines history, policy, and personal profiles to illuminate the diverse experiences of migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and Colombia.
The Way Forward
Memphis-born storyteller Alice Faye Duncan has made it her life’s mission further the message of Martin Luther King Jr. through her transcendent work as a children’s author, educator, and librarian. Her recent picture books celebrate African American music as a source of joy and a form of resistance.
How Country Grew Up
The conceit of Geoffrey Himes’ In-Law Country: How Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, and Their Circle Fashioned a New Kind of Country Music, 1968-1985 is that a group of ambitious country and pop musicians found a way to make country even more adult than it had been previously.
Feeling Welcome and at Home
In Lessons from the Foothills, Gretchen Dykstra digs into Berea College’s past and present, from its 19th-century founding by John G. Fee, a Kentucky-born preacher with a dream of an integrated school that served Appalachians, to the school’s myriad challenges today.
