June 22, 2015 A Nashville teacher, writer, and anti-death-penalty activist, Joseph B. Ingle has sat at the side of too many condemned men to count. His new book, Slouching Toward Tyranny, indicts not only the death penalty but also the systemic racism behind it.
June 11, 2015 In a new memoir, Harrison Scott Key recalls his father’s rage against his boss, and books, and the Boy Scouts, and any sign of civilization that he stumbled across. Key will discuss The World’s Largest Man at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on June 15, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.
June 9, 2015 In Longing for the Bomb, sociologist Lindsey A. Freeman tackles the myths of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and their meaning in a nuclear America. Freeman will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on June 14, 2015, at 2 p.m.
June 3, 2015 When Marja Mills lived next door to Harper Lee, she frequently dined with the legendary author of To Kill A Mockingbird, her sister Alice, and their close circle of friends. Mills will discuss her memoir about the experience, The Mockingbird Next Door, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on June 10, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.
June 1, 2015 I grew up wanting something I couldn’t name. I was raised in the Reform Jewish “tradition,” though the word here is gross hyperbole. The temple I attended as a kid in Memphis represented a variety of Judaism designed to be invisible, to blend indistinguishably with the Christ-haunted Southern landscape. As a consequence, I was virtually untouched by tradition and had not even an awareness of its absence. Nevertheless, one Sunday, playing hooky from confirmation class, I went exploring the old red brick pile of our temple along with a couple of partners in crime.
May 27, 2015 In Jacksonland: Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab, Steve Inskeep has produced a compelling study of the interwoven lives of Jackson and Ross, as well as the struggle over land that played out between whites and Native Americans. Inskeep will appear at the Bijou Theater in Knoxville on June 2, 2015, and at the Nashville Public Library on June 4, 2015.
