May 22, 2014 With Paula Deen laying low, Southern cooking has room for a new star. Welcome John Currence, a jovial, down-home chef whose Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey: Recipes from My Three Favorite Food Groups and Then Some weds Deep South comfort with Continental technique. Currence will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on May 28, 2014, at 5 p.m., and again at The Public House at 6:30 p.m. The later event will include food samplings.
May 14, 2014 Uganda Be Kidding Me is the fourth memoir by Chelsea Handler, comedian and (until recently) host of the late-night talk show, Chelsea Lately. The new book offers exuberant accounts of Handler’s exotic travels, along with a healthy dose of Handler’s First World problems (like feeling fat in Botswana), and is rife with the comedian’s trademark R-rated humor. Chelsea Handler will appear at Peter Nappi in Nashville on May 17, 2014, at 2 p.m.
May 12, 2014 Southern Sin: True Stories of the Sultry South and Women Behaving Badly, an essay collection edited by Lee Gutkind and Beth Ann Fennelly, is about blowing it, betraying loved ones, sleeping with the wrong people, breaking the law, and, most importantly, having the nerve to fess up. In the South, this is not as easy as it may seem.
May 8, 2014 Tupelo Honey Cafe made a name for itself in Asheville, North Carolina, by bringing a spirit of adventure to a range of traditional Appalachian recipes. Now that Tupelo Honey has expanded throughout the Mountain South—including several Tennessee locations—head chef Brian Sonoskus has partnered with writer Elizabeth Sims to create a collection of recipes and stories that highlight regional dishes. Sonoskus will sign copies of Tupelo Honey Cafe at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on May 16, 2014, at 5 p.m.
April 23, 2014 A married father of two fighting a rare cancer, Christian Wiman faces the bottomless questions of existence and craves the “poetry and prose of knowing.” His memoir, My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer, draws on both forms to describe his own experiences of grace. Wiman will speak at the Buechner Institute at King University in Bristol on April 24, 2014, at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.
April 17, 2014 In a music career spanning six decades, Jim Rooney has worn nearly every hat—from stage hand, promoter, and performer to producer, publisher, and biographer— and crossed paths with all manner of luminous talents: Bob Dylan, Howlin’ Wolf, John Prine, and Iris DeMent, just to name a few. Rooney will discuss and sign copies of his autobiography, In It For The Long Run, at Parnassus Books in Nashville at 6:30 p.m. on April 23, 2014, and at The Station Inn in Nashville on April 24, 2014, from 6 to 8 p.m.
