Southern Festival of Books: Top Ten
1
It’s next weekend, friends! Soon, the Tennessee State Museum and Library and Bicentennial Mall will buzz with authors, book lovers, vendors, food trucks, and music. Some of the year’s biggest authors are coming, plus a political luminary: Ann Patchett (Whistler),…
Poet, novelist, thinker, farmer – lover of God and people and his Kentucky home – Wendell Berry died on August 31, 2026. Other lives well lived: Martha Ingram, Annie Trost, John Beasley. We will not soon forget you in Nashville….
I’ve had a longstanding secret crush on the Jewish faith. It started in college, when I had close Jewish friends, several of the male variety. It seemed to me that Southern Baptists (me) and these beautiful Jewish boys had a…
Varina Buntin Willse left an advance copy of her lovely new book in my mailbox the other day – “Beneath and Between: And Other Overlooked Words That Illuminate God.” For the spiritual seeker and someone who loves words, this book…
I was driving a loaner vehicle in Green Hills when I heard the news. My car’s AC is being repaired at an outrageous price because it’s hard to go without AC in Nashville. I was on my way to Paper…
O Caledonia, by Elspeth Barker, takes you into the mind and heart of a girl growing up in the wilds of Scotland long ago. If a poem could leap from the page and come to life – a swirl of…
Nashville friends: the new film about Mary Oliver is coming to the Belcourt! See details below. (Many thanks to my friend Grace for noticing and letting us know!) Please note: this film is also currently available for purchase on Apple…
On the banks of Lake Tillery, God drenches the world in blood. And it is beautiful. Many miles away, in my weedy yard, the ageratum opens. The agastache – unsteady – leans. The Rose of Sharon weeps. (Why keep your…
A Marriage at Sea: A True Story of Love, Obsession, and Shipwreck is the best book I’ve read in 2026. I couldn’t put it down and couldn’t wait to tell you about it! The tale itself is extraordinary, making headlines…