Nonfiction

August 11, 2014 There is endless debate about whether zealous policing and harsh sentences are effective in reducing crime, but according to sociologist Alice Goffman they have a profoundly damaging effect on troubled, low-income communities. In On the Run: Fugitive Life in an American City, Goffman reports her observations from six years spent in a tough Philadelphia neighborhood, where she found that aggressive law enforcement cripples lives, ruins relationships, and creates a major barrier to escaping crime and poverty. Goffman will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 10-12, 2014.

August 4, 2014 With In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette, Memphis native Hampton Sides, known for his suspenseful historical writing, records a heroic three-year struggle for survival by the crew of a nineteenth-century polar expedition. Sides will appear at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on August 8, 2014, at 7 p.m., and also at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on August 12, 2014, at 6:15 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

July 28, 2014 Clay Risen, a frequent Chapter16 contributor, returns to the historic struggle for civil rights in The Bill of the Century: The Epic Battle for the Civil Rights Act, a penetrating account of the heroic effort to pass the landmark 1964 legislation. He will appear at the Southern Festival of Books in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.