Ann Patchett's Blog, page 23

Southern Festival of Books 2020 Preview: It’s Almost Here!

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The Southern Festival of Books starts tomorrow!

Usually this time of year, we are getting ready to set up a big tent on Legislative Plaza and fill it with books upon books upon books. Of course, this year is different. We won’t necessarily miss the part where we have to haul all those heavy boxes around. (OK, maybe Cat Bock, our powerlifting inventory manager, will miss it.) And the fact that the festival is virtual this year isn’t just good for our lower backs — it means it will be easier than ever to see everything you want to see. No rushing from the parking garage or scrambling between sessions!

We also know that many of our readers are from places far from Nashville, and this year you don’t need to take a road trip to attend our hometown festival. How great is that? Of course there will be some adjustments, but we’ll get through them together. So, let’s get started…

Here’s the part that will be different

Videos of all the sessions will be streaming through the festival app (available via Android or Apple). You can also access all of the livestreams from a computer (no download required) through this website right here. Easy, right?

The folks at SFB tell us the computer method is more interactive, as it allows for more engagement with other attendees and staff through moderated chats. In other words, it will feel more like a festival this way. Plus, you’ll get access to giveaways!

If you miss an event, you can catch recorded versions of many sessions on the festival YouTube or Facebook pages.

Here’s the part that will be the same
[image error]Ann Patchett. Photo by Heidi Ross

Authors. Lots of them: Yaa Gyasi, Ayad Akhtar, Brit Bennett (National Book Award longlist), Nikky Finney, Kiley Reid (Booker Prize longlist), Erik Larson, Joy Harjo (U.S. Poet Laureate), Natasha Trethewey, C. Pam Zhang (Booker Prize longlist) and Julia Alvarez, to name just a very few.

Nashville writers on that list include Tiana Clark, Jordan Ritter Conn, Lisa Donovan, Caroline DuBois, Jennie Fields, Mary Robinette Kowal, Andrew Maraniss, Mary Laura Philpott, Alice Randall, Ruta Sepetys, Rob Simbeck and Jamie Sumner to name a few more.

Here’s a link to the entire list of authors.

And here is a link to the schedule, which lets you know, for example, that everything kicks off with Ann Patchett interviewing Yaa Gyasi tomorrow night at 7:30, or that Musing editor Steve Haruch will be in conversation with Margaret Renkl on Tuesday, Oct. 6 at 6:30pm.

There also will still be book-related fun for all ages, including appearances by Meg Medina, Karina Yan Glaser, Elizabeth Bunce, Courtney Stevens, Rita Lorraine Hubbard, Sharon Cameron and more.

Here’s the part that will be the same but also different

We are proud to be the official bookseller of the Southern Festival of Books (same) but will be handling all sales this year online (different). You can visit our SFB shop here, and you can also shop by section:

Fiction
Nonfiction
Poetry
Picture Books
Middle Grade
Young Adult

As always, a portion of every sale will go toward supporting the festival and Humanities Tennessee!

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This is part of our Southern Festival of Books preview series. See our interview with Cinelle Barnes, editor of A Measure of Belonging, and look forward to Authors in Real Life featuring C. Pam Zhang and an interview with Connor Towne O’Neill, author of Down Along With That Devil’s Bones.

Southern Festival of Books Preview: Cinelle Barnes, Editor of A Measure of Belonging

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If you happened to attend the Southern Festival of Books author reveal party — which, like the festival itself and almost everything this year, was held online — you got to hear Tiana Clark, better known as a poet, read from a powerful essay called “Treacherous Joy: An Epistle to the South.”

“Dear Tennessee,” the essay begins, “I thought I hated you — I didn’t love you until I left you.”

That’s the kind of reckoning at work in the forthcoming collection where that essay appears: A Measure of Belonging: Twenty-One Writers of Color on the New American South. Expertly curated by editor Cinelle Barnes — who is also author of the memoir Monsoon Mansion and the essay collection Malaya — A Measure of Belonging looks at our region and all its attendant baggage with love and skepticism, fondness and disappointment, exasperation and hope. And in so doing, it also brings together a diverse, thoughtful cadre of gifted writers whose parts create an unmistakable whole. Barnes spoke to Musing editor Steve Haruch recently, and their conversation, lightly edited for length and clarity, appears below.

A Measure of Belonging will be published on Oct. 6, and Cinelle Barnes will be appearing virtually at the Southern Festival of Books on Sunday, Oct. 4 at 1pm Central. So read the interview, pre-order the book — a portion of sales go to support the festival — make plans to attend!

Parnassus Musing: Congratulations on the book! Just to start out, I was curious if you could talk about how the idea for the book came up and the genesis of it.

Cinelle Barnes: Yeah, I talked a little bit about it in the intro, how long I’d been thinking about this book and not realizing it was going to be a book. When we first moved to Charleston, I just started finding myself in situations where I felt like I couldn’t go against what was, or break the mold. And really one of those first interactions was at my husband’s new place of work, at a welcome dinner, where someone asked me, “Well, how do you like it here?” I cannot hold a poker face. I cannot bite my tongue. I’m terrible at small talk. But I basically said, you know, “I love the beach, I love historic downtown and it’s so beautiful here — you’ve got the marsh, and the architecture — but there are some things I would definitely change.” And I kind of went on a little bit, about how I moved from Harlem so this seems really strange to me that the — I might have even said, “Charleston seems a little bit like the Disneyland for plantation life” — and I remember the woman saying, “Well honey, no one asked you to move here.”

And so I thought, “Oh, OK, so my resistance is now coming up against her resistance.” And I just thought, I can’t not tell the truth, ever, and that kind of scared me when we first had that encounter. I thought, “Oh gosh, this is the world I live in now.” For a while, maybe up until the pandemic, we thought publishing only happens in New York, and here I was throwing myself into the Disneyland of plantation life — how would I ever publish books or essays that I wanted to write, that I wanted to read? And I thought, “Well, I’ll just make it happen.”

I think for many of us, the past four years have been excruciating. Last year, I remember thinking back to our motto at Voices of the Nations Arts — which is a workshop and residency that happens every year and is only for writers of color — and that’s where I met some of the writers that are in the anthology. Some of them were faculty members, some were students like myself or writers in residence. Something we said a lot was “writing is resistance,” and “the personal is political.” I thought, if writing is resistance, then why keep doing it in such a solitary way? Why not bring people together? Particularly as a Filipino woman, right?

I’m Asian but my history is so deeply tied to American history — and social psychologists will tell you that Filipinos have the same decision-making patterns and buying patterns and consumption patterns as Americans, and are basically the Americans of the Pacific. We’re also the Latinos of Asia; we share history with other former colonies of Spain. We also — comedians joke about —Filipinos are the Black people of Asia: You guys are somewhat of an outcast, you give so much to the culture, culture has been taken from you repeatedly, it’s been appropriated out of your hands. That all just comes through the reality of who I am as a Filipina, as an Asian American woman.

For my MFA at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, my thesis is about the role of not just race, particularly as Asian Americans in literature. One of the things I studied was the concept of racial triangulation, where Asians and Asian Americans are that one point on the triangle where we’re either white-aspiring or white-presenting, or we uplift our brown and Black brothers and sisters. And very early on, I understood that everything I was going to do in publishing or literature was going to be one or the other. Whether it was a conscious or not conscious choice. So this book, it was really one way of looking at who really makes up the South, and who is often neglected, not just in representation but in the diversity within the diversity of that representation, right? And so I looked at the demographics of the South, and I was like, the book has to look like that.

[image error]Cinelle Barnes. Photo by Joshua Garcia.

When I started pitching to agents, I remember at one of my in-person pitches, someone said, “This is your year to pitch, because they’re really looking for a woman of color.” And I was like, “Oh, so it’s this year?” All of the other years, I’m not sellable? I was like, that’s really sad. That’s great, that this is the year I’m pitching, but this has worked against people who look like me in the past, and it’s going to work against people who look like me in the future.

I think at the time, not even four percent of authors were authors of color, or Black or indigenous. I thought, “I can change that.” I can leverage what I know, which is writing and editing and essays in particular, and what I’m capable of — organizing, strategizing, getting people together. I can do everything from line editing to developmental editing and fast-forward to publicity. And I wanted to use everything that I had and that I was capable of just to tip that percentage — at once, 21 writers of color were published.

PM: Speaking of the contributor list, there are definitely some names I knew and some I wasn’t familiar with, You said you were very conscious about who you wanted to include, could you talk a little bit about that?

CB: Some of them were people I just enjoyed reading, or had learned from, like Evelina Galang and of course Kiese Laymon. Jennifer Hope Choi was editing and writing food essays here in Charleston, and we met at a happy hour here. Some of them I’d gone to workshops with or shared an editor with, like Natalia Sylvester, Devi Laskar. Some are professors I know taught at colleges where either I had spoken, or my husband might have gone to school, like Aruni Kashyap is at UGA. My husband was a grad student there almost a decade ago and I remember hearing such great things about their faculty. Other people are writers and editors for Southern-based publications I enjoy — like Osayi Endolyn was writing for Gravy. And Latria Graham, she reports a lot on the South, and Nichole Perkins I thought was great, and Regina Bradley, her connection to Southern hip-hop. Toni Jensen — my husband and I came across one of her essays on Catapult.

The writing community is a really generous community. A lot of us are really engaged online on social media, and I put out a call on Instagram. Kali Farjado Anstine, who wrote Sabrina & Corina — we met in Spartanburg maybe eight years ago, she was a writer in residence at Hub City, and I was finishing my MFA at Congress College and she hosted a community event — and she saw this Instagram call. I said, “Hey, I’m looking for my POC writers who want to contribute to an anthology about the South,” and she introduced me to Ivelisse Rodriguez, who asked me, “Have you talked to this person? Have you talked to this person?”

It really was this amalgamation of things I liked, and writers I loved and places that I’ve lived in, and people that I love, love. Crystal Wilkinson and I did an event at the New York Times building two summers ago and have just kept in touch and she also recommended a few people. It was actually really fun. I would say it worked more seamlessly than what other anthology editors might report to you!

PM: There are several themes that go through the book, but one of them is very much this idea of movement. In your introduction you talk about arriving in the South from New York, and then you have Nichole Perkins going from the South to New York and you have Tiana Clark leaving and coming back. Then that piece of the South stays with you or that latches on to you. Is that something you were thinking about consciously or did that just kind of arise out the submissions?

[image error]CB: That arose on its own. What I really just wanted — it was a really loose assignment, so to speak. I remember just asking essayists, “Hey do you have something already written, or can you write something about your sense of place here in this region?” And however they took that, they ran away with it. So some people took it as it’s a place that I’ve arrived at, or it’s a place left, or it’s a place I keep coming back to, or it’s a place family lives. For Natalia, it’s a sense of displacement. For Nichole and, I would say, Regina, it’s a place that never leaves you. It’s replicated elsewhere. Or people see this place in you wherever you go.

With that, it just reinforced the idea that places are not static. And places are not just structures. Places are not just negative space. Places breathe, places have memory. Places have intuition. Places have beat and pulse, and all those things are a type of movement. Even in Soniah Kamal’s essay — it’s called “Face” — place is her womb, and place is her heart, and place is that cemetery in the end. And then for her, her essay starts with, “Should I kiss his face?” Should I make this move? Should I give in to this action? Or should I not?

PM: The wonderful thing that can happen in these kinds of collections is that there are these self-contained pieces but they speak to each other in ways that people didn’t plan, and as the editor you get to see it as it’s happening. And everyone else gets to see it at the end. I felt like there’s a real feeling of continuity throughout the pieces even though they’re very different from each other, and that’s the mark of a really good collection. I think the book is engaging with visibility, right? Like, who do we think of as Southern, how do we make that picture bigger and more inclusive. And there’s this other conversation going on in the broader culture that visibility in itself is not the ultimate goal. How do you see those things speaking to each other and working together?

CB: I think the opposite of visibility — I’m hesitant to say invisibility, because that makes it sounds so natural. The opposite of visibility is erasure. And what I hope Meg Reid and Kate McMullen and Betsy Teter and I have done here is undo that erasure. Or at least a part of it. And the stories that were selected for this anthology go beyond just visibility because the stories are so nuanced, and each voice is so nuanced. There’s not a single writer here that writes like someone else in the collection. I feel like we’ve already done the work of the census, you know? [laughs] I just saw an ad from someone who works for the Census Bureau saying, “I really really need you all to take this survey. This survey dictates X, Y, Z.” And I hope that these life experiences here show that yeah, these are the lives you touch and change without ever knowing or without ever meaning to.

I hope that the fact that this is even coming out this year — in the midst of all that’s going on, right before the election — I hope it shows these are the people that you’re voting with. These are the people you live with that you might not know you live with. These are the people that teach you at your school that maybe you have neglected to see. Or whose erasure you might have found negligible or that you’ve accepted. I think every essay here truly is unforgettable, and hopefully these scenes and these voices and these experiences will live in people enough that it activates them to do X, Y, Z.

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This is part of our Southern Festival of Books preview series. Stay tuned for more in the coming weeks, and don’t forget to check out the festival schedule!

September Staff Picks for Young Readers

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It’s a great time to be a young reader (or live with one), and our booksellers have been hard at work finding the best new reads! This month’s selection includes a bigger-than-usual selection of YA, but don’t worry — there’s a little something for everyone. And in case you missed it, we published an excerpt from Tune It Out, the new middle-grade novel by Jamie Sumner and our very first selection for the new Spark Book Club. Check it out here and see below for more information! Happy reading!

PICTURE BOOKS


Recommended by Rae Ann
Maud and Grand-Maud

By Sara O’Leary & Kenard Pak (Illustrator)

This charming picture book about a girl and her grandmother shows their relationship through weekly sleepovers that include breakfast for supper and black-and-white movies. Perfect for Grandparents Day (Sept. 13).


INDEPENDENT READERS


Recommended by Rae Ann

Everything Sad Is Untrue

By Daniel Nayeri

Daniel Nayeri weaves Persian folk tales with the story of his own family’s arrival in America via a refugee camp in Italy in this autobiographical novel. A unique and powerful story.


Recommended by Ann

The Silver Arrow

By Lev Grossman

I heard Lev read the first two pages of this novel and I was hooked — two kids get a magic train and a cast of talking animals. I loved every page. This is middle-grade fiction at its very best.


Recommended by Gavin, age 9

Rowley Jefferson’s Awesome Friendly Adventure

By Jeff Kinney

This book was well worth the quarantine countdown! This is the second book in the Rowley series and it’s super funny. Like, you just want to keep reading it over and over. And I have!


YOUNG ADULT


Recommended by Rae Ann

Fable

By Adrienne Young

Reading Fable made me feel like a ship’s sails popped in the wind overhead and the sea was spread out before me. Mystery, intrigue, and adventure galore.


Recommended by Rae Ann

Now That I’ve Found You

By Kristina Forest

After Evie Jones is blacklisted from Hollywood, only a reunion with her famous grandmother will put her back in the spotlight. When her grandmother disappears, Evie sets out to find her grandmother and save her career in this fun YA rom-com.


Recommended by Kay

Elatsoe

By Darcie Little Badger & Rovina Cai (Illustrator)

I had a hard time putting down this extremely charming blend of murder mystery and ghost story. Between the creative world-building, own-voices Lipan Apache protagonist, ghost dog sidekick, and beautiful illustrations, there’s a lot to love here.


Recommended by Becca

Cemetery Boys

By Aiden Thomas

Cemetery Boys is a LGBTQIA romantic adventure that draws readers into the story of a transgender brujo working to gain the acceptance of his conservative family and save his community from self-inflicted destruction at the same time. I can only hope that this magical world gets a sequel, so that we can follow Yadriel, Maritza, and Julian on even more adventures. I can’t wait to read more of Adrian Thomas’ work!


Recommended by Kay

Chasing Starlight

By Teri Bailey Black

This is an extremely entertaining old-school murder mystery set against the backdrop of 1938 Hollywood. While responsible and organized Kate has her hopes set on a career in astronomy, she soon finds herself dealing with a different sort of star when she moves in with her retired silent film legend grandfather and his house full of eccentric aspiring actors. The lovable cast really makes this one shine!


Recommended by Chelsea

The Voting Booth

By Brandy Colbert

Marva is stoked to vote in her first election. She’s driven, focused, passionate about civic involvement and unapologetic. Duke is only voting out of honor to his older brother’s memory. When Duke learns he isn’t at the right polling place, Marva has to step in. Their whirlwind day takes off from there, and the two strangers learn more about themselves and each other. A sweet story that isn’t afraid to comment on current social issues, The Voting Booth is a great read – and a great listen for those who enjoy audiobooks!


Recommended by Rae Ann

Punching the Air

By Ibi Zoboi & Yusef Salaam

Sixteen-year-old Amal is sent to prison for a crime he didn’t commit. His life moves from art student to felon in this powerful novel in verse co-written by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam of the Exonerated Five.


Recommended by Sarah

Girl, Unframed

By Deb Caletti

The description of this book led me to believe that it is a YA thriller, but it ended up being much more than that. It’s a hard look at self-discovery and coming of age as a young woman in a misogynistic society. If you loved Caletti’s A Heart in a Body in the World as much as I did, this should be next on your list.


Recommended by Jordan

Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From

By Jennifer De Leon & Elena Garnu (Illustrator)

Liliana Cruz learns to practice cultural code-switching to fit in at her new mostly white school, honor her family’s Latinx culture, and stay true to herself in her inner-city neighborhood. When family secrets start to spill out and racial tensions at school begin to rise, Liliana must take a stand. This timely coming-of-age book handles issues such as immigration, deportation, and racism in a vibrant way, incorporating teachable moments with humor and heart. It is a must read for fans of The Hate U Give and The Sun Is Also a Star.






Spark Book Club — Our September Selection
Tune It Out

By Jamie Sumner

We are so excited to celebrate the first Spark Book Club selection:Tune It Out by Nashville author Jamie Sumner. In Tune It Out, Lou Montgomery’s mom wants her to be the next big star, but Lou can only hear the fear in her voice. She doesn’t like crowds or loud noises. She just wants a house to live in and a school to attend like other kids. Tune It Out is a courageous story of finding your voice and being your own person with the help of new friends.

Early sparks for the novel:

“A vivid, sensitive exploration of invisible disability, family bonds, and the complex reality of happily-ever-after” —Kirkus (starred review)

“..an appealing, sensitively told tale.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Spark Book Club is the first editions club for middle grade readers. Every month members will receive a first edition middle grade novel — plus a letter written by the author especially for club members. Makes a great gift for the independent reader! Sign ups are available for 3, 6, or 12 months.








ParnassusNext — Our September Selection
We Are Not Free

By Traci Chee

The September ParnassusNext selection is We Are Not Free by New York Times bestselling author Traci Chee. Inspired by her own family history, Chee tells the stories of Japanese Americans forced into internment camps through the multiple perspectives of 14 teenagers. The teens navigate the universal teenage experiences of growing up while also forced to face down racism and distrust in a country they call home.

Early buzz for the novel includes:

“A compelling and transformative story of a tragic period in American history. Each voice is powerful, evoking raw emotions of fear, anger, resentment, uncertainty, grief, pride, and love. An unforgettable must-read.​” —Kirkus (starred review)

“The novel may be fiction, but it will be hard for readers not to fall deep into the harsh realities these teens face. The writing is engaging and emotionally charged, allowing the readers to connect with each character. Chee’s words are a lot to take in, but necessary and beautiful all the same.” —School Library Journal (starred review)

ParnassusNext is the book subscription box for YA lovers. Every member of ParnassusNext receives a first edition hardcover of each month’s selected book, signed by the author. There is no membership fee to join — and no line to stand in for the autograph. Not only will you have one of the best YA books of the month when it comes out, you’ll have it straight from the author’s hands, with an original, authentic signature! Set up a subscription for yourself or buy a gift membership for your favorite YA reader for 3, 6, or 12 months.

Here, Here: 16 Great New Reads for September

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Somehow it’s … September? And maybe those emails have not been finding you well. But you’ve made it. (Us? We are, as Ann told O Magazine recently, “all walking around in our blindfolds with sticks trying to find the piñata.”) We’re still here, though. You’re still here. That’s a reason to celebrate. And what better way to celebrate, really, than with more books? It’s our favorite way, at least, and a new month brings a new bounty. Here’s to keeping on keeping on.

FICTION


Recommended by Ann
Black Bottom Saints

By Alice Randall

This book is a true tour de force — 52 real-life Black saints in Detroit, their stories woven together by the magical Uncle Ziggy. Alice Randall has given us a treasure chest of triumph, talent, and splendor.

Editor’s Note: Our August First Editions Club selection. Read an excerpt here!


Recommended by Ann

Actress

By Anne Enright

The story of the legendary Irish actress Katherine O’Dell as told by her daughter. This novel is smart, sympathetic, and casts the kind of spell one imagines the mythical O’Dell would have cast had she been a real person.


Recommended by Cat

Transcendent Kingdom

By Yaa Gyasi

Gifty is currently a Ph.D. candidate researching reward-seeking behavior. She is also a Ghanaian immigrant who was raised in Huntsville, AL, a young woman whose brother died of an overdose, and the daughter of a mother who was nearly destroyed by her son’s death. This book is heartbreaking, yet carries a unique hopefulness and resilience that was just what I needed.


Recommended by Ben

Northernmost

By Peter Geye

From Odd Einar Eide’s survival on the icy northern reaches of Norway’s Spitzbergen in 1897, to Greta — his great-great-great-granddaughter — whose marriage is failing in Minnesota in 2017, events reverberate across generations as they discover what they most deeply desire, what gives their lives purpose. Infused with adventure and romance, dual storylines show how even in the bleakest of moments, memory and hope sustain us.


Recommended by Kathy

The Woman Before Wallis

By Bryn Turnbull

The royal family, the Windsors and a huge scandal … what’s not to like? Before he married Wallis Simpson, Edward, Prince of Wales was involved with Gloria Vanderbilt’s sister, and the fallout threatened to bring them all down. Good, juicy historical fiction (and not really so much fiction).


Recommended by Erin

Set My Heart to Five

By Simon Stephenson

In the near future, humans have locked themselves out of the internet. Elon Musk’s blown up the moon. And androids like Jared, free from emotions or empathy, take on the jobs that don’t require either. (He’s a dentist.) Then he discovers classic ’70s and ’80s films, starts feelings things, and finds himself facing a hard reset. Part road trip novel, part love story, Jared’s journey to emotional sentience is all heart.


Recommended by Kathy

The Wright Sister

By Patty Dann

Delightfully told in letters and diaries, this is the story of Orville Wright’s sister Katharine, who marries late in life and finds the close relationship with her famous brother fractured when he shuns her. A picture of life in the early 20th century as well as a great read.


Recommended by Rae Ann

Atomic Love

By Jennie Fields

Rosalind Porter lives with regret over her role in the Manhattan Project. When a stranger shows up asking her to spy on her ex-lover, a man accused of selling secrets to the enemy, she’s pulled back into her past. Atomic Love is a story of espionage, love, and a woman battling danger to make a better tomorrow.

Editor’s Note: Watch an archived video of our virtual event with Jennie Fields and Ann Patchett!


NONFICTION


Recommended by Karen

Caste

By Isabel Wilkerson

By framing the argument that racism in the U.S. and the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany have strong parallels to the caste system in India, Wilkerson focuses the lens on the origins of these social ills and how they still prevail in our current day lives. If we want change, this is must reading for everyone. As the NYT’s review says, Caste “is an instant American classic.”


Recommended by Karen

Intimations: Six Essays

By Zadie Smith

Smith wrote these brilliant essays in the last few months about the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. Despite the fact that they are about the time we are in, I think 10 years from now they will be thought of as timeless. Treat yourself to the audio, which Smith reads.


Recommended by Andy

His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope

By Jon Meacham, afterword by John Lewis

John Lewis’ quest for justice — risking limb and life to bear witness for the powerless in the face of the powerful — took him from the lunch counters of Nashville to the halls of Congress. Jon Meacham does a superlative job of chronicling this singular life. In the afterword, Lewis writes that the movement “brought about a nonviolent revolution—a revolution in values, a revolution in ideas. The soul force of this movement enabled America to find its moral compass.”


Recommended by Heather

The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness: A Memoir

By Sarah Ramey

Pain. Uncertainty. Dismissed by doctors. Through cycles of hope and despair over 15 years of struggle, Sarah Ramey draws on a reservoir of internal strength and tenacity to find a space in which to thrive. If you know someone who is struggling with a mysterious illness, of course you want to read this book. But you should also read it if you are a woman, care about a woman, are interested in the future of medicine, or simply want a well researched, thoughtful, gut-wrenching, suspenseful book.


Recommended by Steve

The Last Stargazers: The Enduring Story of Astronomy’s Vanishing Explorers

By Emily Levesque

The words “conversational” and “astronomy” don’t often appear near each other, but the, uh, stars have aligned for this one. A hybrid of memoir and history, Levesque’s exploration of research telescopes — and the obsessive, fascinating and fascinated people who love them — is both charming and illuminating.


Recommended by Andy

The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War–a Tragedy in Three Acts

By Scott Anderson

With the same kind of deep research and riveting story telling he employed in Lawrence in Arabia, Scott Anderson provides an incredible look into the early days of the C.I.A. From the end of WWII to the Hungarian Revolution, Anderson follows the careers of four legendary spies. Each of them is forced to confront the consequences of their actions both on postwar geopolitics and their own lives. Compelling from start to finish.


POETRY


Recommended by Ben

When the Light of the World Was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry

By Joy Harjo (Editor)

The first Norton anthology of solely Indigenous poetry, this is a vital and stirring addition to American letters. Arranged into five geographical regions, it features the work of 161 poets, representing 90 Native nations and spanning four centuries. While expansive in subject matter, cultures, traditions, techniques, voices, styles, and forms, editor Joy Harjo admits this teeming compendium “is only a slivered opening into a vast literary field.”


Recommended by Steve

Finna: Poems

By Nate Marshall

One of the sharpest collections you’ll read this year, swerving from rapid-fire lyricism to experimental silences, all of it with a weary, worldly wisdom that feels both of this moment and slightly ahead of it.






Book Club

In-person Book Club is on hold for now, as our store remains closed to the public. If you’re interested in joining virtually via Zoom, fill out this form and you’ll be added to the mailing list!

September’s selection will be The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.






First Editions Club: September Selection
Transcendent Kingdom

By Yaa Gyasi

Yaa Gyasi’s stunning follow-up to her acclaimed national best seller Homegoing is a powerful, raw, intimate, deeply layered novel about a Ghanaian family in Alabama.

Gifty is a sixth-year PhD candidate in neuroscience at the Stanford University School of Medicine studying reward-seeking behavior in mice and the neural circuits of depression and addiction. Her brother, Nana, was a gifted high school athlete who died of a heroin overdose after an ankle injury left him hooked on OxyContin. Her suicidal mother is living in her bed. Gifty is determined to discover the scientific basis for the suffering she sees all around her. But even as she turns to the hard sciences to unlock the mystery of her family’s loss, she finds herself hungering for her childhood faith and grappling with the evangelical church in which she was raised, whose promise of salvation remains as tantalizing as it is elusive.

Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief — a novel about faith, science, religion, love. Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, this is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to Gyasi’s phenomenal debut.

More about our First Editions Club: Every member receives a first edition of the selected book of the month, signed by the author. Books are carefully chosen by our staff of readers, and our picks have gone on to earn major recognition including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the PEN/Faulkner Award. Plus, there’s no membership fee or premium charge for these books. Build a treasured library of signed first editions and always have something great to read! Makes a FABULOUS gift, too.

The Next Big Gig: Read an Excerpt From Tune It Out by Jamie Sumner

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In Tune It Out, music-loving 12-year-old Lou Montgomery has a beautiful voice. Her mom wants her to be the next big star, but Lou can only hear the fear in her voice. She doesn’t like crowds or loud noises. She just wants a house to live in and a school to attend like other kids. Tune It Out is a courageous story of finding your voice and being your own person with the help of new friends. It’s also the first selection for Spark Book Club — our new monthly book subscription box for middle-grade readers!

The excerpt below comes from Chapter 1, as Lou and her mom prepare for a performance in front of some very important guests. Read, then pre-order your copy and make plans to join author Jamie Sumner for a virtual event on Wednesday, Sept. 2 at 6pm!

Bagels and Joe can’t be more than the size of your average motel room, but it is wall-to-wall jars of roasted coffee beans. The whole place smells nutty and warm on this cold September morning. No one looks for a truant in a place like this. Ordinarily I love it here, curled up with a book and headphones in a corner where I can be any age at all in the low light. But today I can’t hide. Because today I am the entertainment.

It’s been a month since our last show and my most recent episode. I can still feel the terrible panic, hear the confused voices of the crowd, and see Mom trying to gather our money and run. I suppose I should be grateful for the four-week break with no shows along the lake. She has a job now too, at the diner down the road, so we’ve usually got enough leftover hash browns and day-old donuts to keep us fed. But that doesn’t mean she still hasn’t been trying, like always, to land me the “next big gig.” And today we’ve got a show.

I can’t tell if the time off has made the fear better or worse. Do I want to throw up more or less than I normally do before a performance? It’s too close to call.

It doesn’t help that Bagels and Joe is also “the place” to come in Lake Tahoe to find undiscovered talent. I can’t believe Mom finally talked Joe, the owner, into it. Maybe he heard about what had happened in front of the restaurant and felt sorry for me. Everybody always feels sorry for me after they see me melt down.

That can’t happen today. Mom’s already given me the “stand tall, be brave, keep it together” speech. She also tacked on the “you have a gift to share with the world” speech for good measure. But there are so many people clinking cups and scraping forks on plates. They’ve crammed themselves around wobbly tables that Joe himself moved out through the open doors and onto the deck. I am standing with my back to it all, tuning Mom’s guitar and swallowing buckets of air. No matter how many breaths I take, it’s not enough. I feel light-headed and fluttery, like a paper caught on a fence.

[image error]Jamie Sumner

The tuning is good. It gives my hands something to do. I won’t be playing the guitar, though. That’s Mom’s job. Whenever it comes time to sing in front of people, I can’t do anything but squeeze my hands tight behind my back. I used to close my eyes, too, but once I turned eleven, Mom said I had to keep them open or I’d creep out the customers. Good. Let them be as creeped out by me as I am by them. It’s like the moment right before you’re supposed to blow out the candles on your birthday cake, when all the pressure’s on you. Except none of them can step in and help if I can’t do it.

I look out over the railing. The lake and the sky are the same blue—so light they’re almost white, and it makes me think of heaven. And rest and quiet. I tug at Mom’s sleeve so she’ll pull back from the audience she’s currently “meeting and greeting.”

“I want to start with the Patty Griffin song,” I whisper. She nods without looking away from the couple at the front table in black spandex active wear.

She jerks a glittery pink thumbnail toward them so only I can see. “Ray Bans and Rolexes,” she says. “Today’s the day, baby. I can feel it. Somebody in this pack is a scout from LA.”

She stares at the couple, lazily stirring their coffees with tanned hands, like she’s hungry for something that has nothing to do with food. My insides turn to soup, and I feel sloshy and heavy all at once. My suede jacket feels too tight. Like saran wrap that’s shrinking. Joe gives me a thumbs-up over by the open doors. He’s been nice, nice enough to let me sing on his property and to allow Mom in all her glory to put up flyers all over the place and basically boss his servers around all morning long. There’s always some promising musician up here trying to get a Saturday spot on the deck. He must do pretty well. I bet he doesn’t have to sleep in a truck like Mom and me. I shoot him a tiny smile.

Maybe this time will be different. At least out here on the deck, the customers are a good four feet away. No unexpected touches. I take a breath like I’m about to dive underwater as Mom starts to speak in the voice she saves especially for shows. She sounds like the ringmaster in a circus. Or a car salesman.

“Now this show is about to get underway, and we so appreciate your attendance. If you would, please hold your applause until the end. And boy will you want to applaud.” She pauses and chuckles like she always does. “And now, the lovely Louise Montgomery!”

Virtual Event

Jamie Sumner, author of Tune It Out

Wednesday, Sept. 2 at 6pm

Facebook Live

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A Silver Lining to the Pandemic: Nashville Literary Center The Porch Leans Into Online Workshops

[image error]From left: Katie McDougall and Susannah Felts, co-founders of The Porch. Photo by Leila Grossman.

We think of ourselves as a community space as well as a bookstore, so it has been hard not to team up with fellow Nashvillians as we usually do. That includes The Porch, a literary center that does great work — we’ve co-hosted many author events with them in the past, including Lauren Groff, and Julia Phillips and Alexis Olin, to name just a couple. They also provide a wide variety of writing workshops, and we couldn’t help noticing that this fall’s slate is particularly strong. So we caught up with Porch co-founder Susannah Felts and asked about how they’ve taken their mission into the virtual space.

Parnassus Musing: For folks who may not be familiar, can you give a brief overview of the Porch and what you do?

Susannah Felts: We have been around since 2014. We think of ourselves as a literary center or literary arts organization. We have the full slate of classes for adults that is new every fall, spring and summer, and then we have a youth program that serves, really, students of all ages from elementary school kids to high school kids. We do the creative writing for immigrants and refugees program that will return this fall. In normal times we do a lot of literary events. We usually have at least one thing happening per month. It’s been slower lately, but we have a monthly series called Mirror House that we launched back in February, right before the pandemic, and we’re still doing that virtually. It’s kind of a hybrid music and lit series, and that’s been fun. Our mission statement is to inspire, educate and connect readers and writers of all ages and stages through classes and literary events — and that’s what we try to do.

PM: You mentioned going virtual on your events, and when did you know things were going to have to change, and can you talk about that process? Because so much of what you do is around in-person interaction.

SF: Around mid-March, when the world started to realize that COVID was in the United States and wasn’t going away, we had to quickly figure out what to do with our scheduled spring classes. Within two weeks we had made the decision to pivot to the online space as much as we could. We reached out to any instructors who had classes scheduled and asked if they’d be willing to teach online using Zoom. Most of them did, some didn’t. We decided to do that and see how it went. Maybe a few weeks after that, we added some additional spring classes, thinking we might as well give this a go.

And what we found actually was kind of a silver lining of the pandemic: We had a lot more registrations for spring that we ever anticipated, and we were getting people registering from all over the country, not just Nashville. That was wonderful and kind of surprising. We were like, “Wow, these people are finding us from California and Oregon and Maryland.” And that’s continued to be true. I would say our fall registrations are probably about 20-30 percent outside of Tennessee. And one thing that’s also been nice about the online classes is that we’ve heard that they live maybe an hour, two three hours from Nashville and there’s nothing like this where they are. They’ve known about the Porch for a while, but they are so excited because suddenly they can take whatever they want.

We’ve been pleased that having to go online has opened some doors for us and for our constituents. We of course miss in-person classes, because it is different. Once we’re able to meet again, we will, but we’ll keep online options as well.

PM: You mentioned the silver lining of the pandemic, and we’re all trying to find them where we can. It sounds like it’s been great in terms of finding students you might not have found otherwise. Has that also been true of instructors?

[image error]Claire Jimenez

SF: Yes. That was huge, especially when I started thinking about our fall programming. I was really excited, actually, because I thought now I can reach out to some of these folks who don’t live near us. I mean, really it started in the spring when we put out a call for instructors and realized that we were going to be adding some online classes. I reached out to a few folks who had taught for us, had been visiting authors who came through town and taught for us in person. One of whom was Megan Sielstra, who is just a fantastic teacher. That was a big success to have her and a few other people teach in the spring.

Once fall came around I thought, “This is exciting. I’m not bound by Tennessee at all.” We can work with talented writers who work elsewhere, and [that] has made it easier to diversify our teaching ranks, which is something we have been wanting to do. It’s always been top of mind and I don’t want to act like Nashville doesn’t have the resources — because I’m sure we could do a better job with people here on the ground — but it’s hard, you know? So just being able to go beyond Middle Tennessee for teaching artist has been huge both in terms of diversity of classes we can offer and the diversity of those individuals.

PM: Are there classes that you’re particularly excited about, maybe partly because it’s a class you might not have been able to offer otherwise?

SF: I’m really excited about a class we have coming up in September called “Creating Diverse Worlds in Fiction.” This is a class that was asked for by one of our former scholarship recipients. She’s a Black woman writer, and when the Black Lives Matter movement really heated up this summer, she wrote to us and said, “I really wish you would offer a class like this.” And we were like, “Yes, we’ve thought about it, and thank you for lighting the fire beneath us.” That one is going to be taught by Claire Jimenez, who was here, is a Vandy MFA grad … so we’re excited to be able to work with her and offer that class.

[image error]Minda Honey

We’ve got some really great personal essay or creative nonfiction classes. One is taught by Minda Honey; she’s teaching a class called “The Truth and Nothing But: How to Stop Writing Around What You Really Need to Say.” She’s a super dynamic young woman. She’s one of those people where you’re just like, “How do you do everything you do? Have you cloned yourself?”

And we have a memoir class by Sheree Greer, a writer out of Florida who runs a literary center there that’s specifically for Black women writers, so I’m really excited to have her in the fold. Those are just a few.

PM: You’re in this unique position where you’re following publishing, you’re following writers who are just getting established, and you’re a place for aspiring writers to come to. Is there anything you’re seeing that you could generalize, sort of about how this moment is affecting the way people approach writing or think about it?

SF: That’s a good question. Well, I think two things. I think that there is a strong desire to write about this time, to document what life feels like now, because we do recognize it’s so upside-down and strange. There’s that sense of someday — even though it feels awful now — we’ll want to remember what this is like. And the small joys of this time, too. I think people are really interested in documenting those things. So people are bringing a lot of that and trying to grapple with the moment in their work.

But secondly, I think there’s a strong subset of folks who are just — maybe they have more time on their hands right now, or they’re looking for something to kind of latch onto and give their attention to. So people are still wanting to pursue novel writing and pursue poetry. There’s the writing that takes you away from this world, too, which I think is important to give people the opportunity to explore.

Redemption Is Everything: Read an Excerpt of the New John Lewis Biography by Jon Meacham

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In many ways, John Lewis’ life speaks for itself. He was a champion of justice who risked his life in the name of freedom countless times, and continued on in public service until his very last days. But with lessons not only from the recent past but for our present day and beyond, the story and witness of John Lewis is one that bears telling — and hearing — again and again.

In the forthcoming biography His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope, historian Jon Meacham lays out the arc of Lewis’ extraordinary time on this earth: from his early days as “the boy from Troy,” as Martin Luther King Jr. called him in their first meeting, to the front lines of the civil rights movement, to the halls of government as a U.S. Senator, and finally to the pantheon of history. The book includes an afterword by Lewis himself, written not long before his death this past July.

“He was as important to the founding of a modern and multiethnic twentieth- and twenty-first century America as Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and Samuel Adams were to the creation of the nation-state in the eighteenth century,” Meacham writes. “This is not hyperbole. It is fact—observable, discernible, undeniable fact.” Meacham also submits that John Lewis might meet the requirements of an even loftier title: saint.

In this excerpt, taken from the introduction, John Lewis has just visited the bridge above the Alabama River where he was beaten nearly to death years before, on the march from Montgomery to Selma.

Taken together with sit-ins to integrate lunch counters and other public facilities and Freedom Rides to integrate interstate travel, the Selma march, Lewis recalled, “injected something very special into the soul and the heart and the veins of America. It said, in effect, that we must humanize our social and political and economic structure. When people saw what happened on that bridge, there was a sense of revulsion all over America.” Revulsion, then redemption: Is there anything more American? “Redemption—redemption is everything,” Lewis said. “It is what we pray for. It is what we march for. It is the work of America. In the ’60s, and now, and always.”

[image error]Jon Meacham. Photo by Heidi Ross.

In the middle of the last century, he marched into the line of fire to summon a nation to be what it had long said it would be but had failed to become. Arrested 45 times over the course of his life, Lewis suffered a fractured skull and was repeatedly beaten and tear-gassed. It takes nothing away from the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., or of Rosa Parks, or of any of the legions who marched and worked and struggled for justice, to say that John Lewis was the fullest and bravest embodiment of the raw courage required to end a century of Jim Crow in America.

His plea was not rhetorical but real. He led by example more than by words. He was a peaceful soldier in the cause of a religiously inspired understanding of humanity and of America. And he bent history to his will—though he would insist the important thing was not his will, but God’s. No other American represented the harsh realities and the high hopes of the civil-rights movement more vividly over a longer period of time more than John Lewis; no other prominent American bore such steady witness over as many decades to the belief, grounded in scripture and in the American tradition, that all men are in fact created equal.

The world was one way before John Lewis came out of Pike County and into the maelstrom of history, and it was another way when he was done. Though, to be strictly accurate, he was never done. “In the final analysis, we are one people, one family, one house—not just the house of black and white, but the house of the South, the house of America,” Lewis said. “We can move ahead, we can move forward, we can create a multiracial community, a truly democratic society. I think we’re on our way there. There may be some setbacks. But we are going to get there. We have to be hopeful. Never give up, never give in, keep moving on.” Devoted to the ideal of a soul’s pilgrimage from sin to redemption, from the wilderness of the world to the Kingdom of God, Lewis walked with faith that tomorrow could be better than today, and that tomorrow was but prelude to a yet more glorious day after that.

To put complicated matters simply: John Robert Lewis embodied the traits of a saint in the classical Christian sense of the term. A complex concept, sanctity has at various times been applied to all believers or to a special few. In Greek, the language of the New Testament, sainthood is derived from hagaizo, which means “to set apart” or “make holy.” (The Latin is sanctus.) Generations of believers have held that some human lives are in such harmony with the ideals of God that they should be singled out. One need not embrace Catholic practice and doctrine to benefit from the contemplation of men and women who, in the words of an old hymn, “toiled and fought and lived and died for the Lord they loved and knew.” One test of a saint, closely tied to the test of a martyr, is the willingness to suffer and die for others. Which Lewis was willing to do—again and again and again, on the streets of America the day before yesterday.

This may sound sentimental and overly grand, and if one were saying it about virtually anyone other than Lewis, it likely would be. To see John Lewis as a saint and hero, however, is not nostalgic, nor does such an understanding flow from a kind of easy-listening historical sensibility in which the civil rights movement is white America’s safe and redemptive drama. It comes, rather, from the straightforward story of what Lewis did, how he lived, and why. He accomplished something on the battlefields of twentieth-century America, in the skirmishes in our streets and in our cities and in our hearts, that links him with the saints of ancient ages, with the revolutionaries of the eighteenth century, and with the abolitionists and Union soldiers of the nineteenth. In Abraham Lincoln’s First Inaugural, the new president appealed, eloquently but theoretically, to “the better angels of our nature.” John Lewis is a better angel. The American present and future may in many ways hinge on the extent to which the rest of us can draw lessons from his example.

Excerpted from His Truth Is Marching On by Jon Meacham. Copyright © 2020 by Jon Meacham. Excerpted by permission of Random House, an imprint of Random House. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

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Pre-order your copy of His Truth Is Marching On, then make plans to join us for a virtual event with Jon Meacham on Wednesday, Aug. 25!

Patron Saint of Self-Invention: An Excerpt from Alice Randall’s Black Bottom Saints

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We’ve got a real treat for you today. Alice Randall’s ingenious new novel Black Bottom Saints — our First Editions Club pick for August — is, as our own Ann Patchett calls it, a “tour de force.” And we’ve got an entire chapter for you to imbibe before digging into the entire thing. (Did we mention each saint has their own libation, and each chapter ends with their recipe?)

A tribute to the legendary Detroit neighborhood, a mecca for music, sports, and politics, Black Bottom Saints takes a cue from the Catholic Saints Day Books. On his deathbed, Joseph “Ziggy” Johnson — who had been a gossip columnist for the city’s African-American newspaper and the emcee of one its the hottest night clubs — assembles his collection of 52 saints. Among them there are big names, local legends, and big personalities that passed through, including Dinah Washington, Nat King Cole — and as you are about to see, a fierce performer named Valda Gray.

Read the excerpt below then be sure to order your copy!

Week 12

Twelfth Sunday after Father’s Day

Long before the documentary movie on competitive drag balls called Paris Is Burning and the delicious television series Pose, there were three friends from the Brewster projects who started coming around the school announcing they wanted to become female impersonators. One of the older students new to the school announced that Ziggy would throw the trio out of the building when he heard their plans. Ziggy heard. With a silencing wave of his jeweled right hand, Ziggy loudly reminded everyone present in the dance studio that he had choreographed for the great female impersonator Valda Gray long before any of his current students were born.

The three friends, Tyrone, David, and Levon, kept coming around. One had a sister who could sew. If the Supremes had skirts four inches above their knees, she sewed skirts five inches above the knee and bought contrasting fishnet stockings, plus go-go boots with the tallest heels. Impressed by the trio’s sartorial swagger, Ziggy demanded that the group do what they had been afraid to do: sing for him. They could sing. They could dress. But their faces were rough, even when made up, and the way they moved was all kinds of raggedy. “When you walk, you look like twenty dollars all in loose change.” “You got somebody can fix that?” “Valda Gray.”

When Valda Gray arrived, she immediately renamed the individual artists Jackie, Lee, and Pat. “Those names,” Valda explained, “mean you have to work harder. Call you Mary, Amy, and Ann, and the names do half the work.” Then she pronounced the trio, Trio.

At Colored Girl’s elementary school (St. Philip’s Lutheran) weekdays and at her Grandma’s church (King Solomon Temple) on Sunday, you were a boy or you were a girl. The thing that decided that was whether you had a pocketbook in your panties or a weenie. Everything was set after sex was determined. Whether you got pink or blue clothes. Whether you got a football or flowers. Whether you got an extra math class or an extra art class. On Saturday things were different; at the ZJ School of the Theatre, gender wasn’t just and always about what was in your panties or shorts, or panties and shorts.

At the Woolworth five-and-ten when they were out and about buying makeup for Trio, Valda, who was dressed as she had to dress to enter a store and make purchases, in slacks and sweater and having us call her Mr. Baker, pointed to a case of pink lipsticks. Valda said, “There are as many different ways to be a girl as there are shades of pink. Look at those purples! It’s hard to tell if you should call them pink or blue. People want to think they are pink or blue. Everybody is really purple. Don’t tell your parents I told you that! Don’t tell your parents Ziggy let me take you to Woolworth’s. Don’t tell your parents anything. Most of them are nothing like Ruth Ellis’s parents. Lie!”

Valda Gray was born in Indianapolis and given the name Harold Baker at birth.

 

Valda Gray

Patron Saint of: Self-Invention, Gender Nonconformists, and Exuberant Living

I have not always wanted what I wanted, without regard to the ways others might assign desire. Want this if you are a boy! Want that if you are a girl! Want this if you are white! Want that if you are Black! Want this if you are mulatto!

Valda Gray taught me to refuse all such instructions. I teach the art of this particular refusal in my School of the Theatre. It is one of my specialties. Female impersonating was Valda’s.

There is a particular, public queer Black world where I have spent a good bit of time, a world largely created by the peerless sun-kissed female impersonator Valda Gray. Valda produced shows, often starring in the very ones she produced. All her shows were solely cast with men performing as women. In the 1930s when I was just starting out in life and in my career, I choreographed for Valda and the amazing talent she gathered around her—Petite Swanson, Carole Lee, Frances Dee, either one of the Dixies (Dixie Jean or Dixie Lee), and Calla Donia.

The first show we worked together, Valda chided me when I referred to her as a him. I didn’t do that again. I wanted her favor and I needed the work. And I liked being a part of the public queer Black world of 1930s Bronzeville—it seemed so shockingly new.

But that was only “seeming.” Quiet as it’s kept, except at Halloween when it’s an open secret and everybody came to the Southside to attend the big drag balls Eddie Plique produced, there has been a public queer Black world for as long as there has been a Black show world—and that goes back to minstrel show days.

[image error]I was there when Alfred Finnie was a queer street hustler and gambler who was just getting the big public fun started in 1935 at the first Finnie’s Club Ball. Perhaps what seemed new at the time was the heightened sense of shared intoxication born of exuberant and unfettered public self-presentation.

Actually, there has been a private queer Black world since as long as we’ve been Black in these Americas.

I knew from the beginning what I announced without guilt, guile, or shame in my column: boys will be girls. I’ve known some boys who have been girls since high school. And many of them hung out at the Cabin Inn.

The Cabin Inn, called by some Chicago’s oddest nite spot, by others Chicago’s most unique nite spot, was called by Valda, and by much of queer Chicago, a second home. Eventually, she got put out of her second home and found others, my favorites being Joe’s Deluxe Café and the Club DeLisa. But for as long as Valda produced shows in Chicago, wherever she was putting on the show was the center of the public queer Black world.

Not everything improves over time. Once upon a time, there was less hate for boys who would be girls, and for girls who would be boys, and for girls, period, in our world. It isn’t like us to hate. Valda swore that was true, and it jibed with what I knew. But now that hate is on the rise.

Inside the Bronzeville of my youth, inside our schools, our churches, our barbershops, our beauty shops, our houses, apartments, and hotels, bright lines between what a man does and what a woman does, what a man wears and what a woman wears, how a man talks and how a woman talks don’t exist as absolutely and always polar opposites. Valda believed sepian maids toted ofay distinctions between the pronouns “he” and “she” home to us in apron pockets. In ofay homes, men do one thing and women do another: men swear and women don’t; men like sex and women don’t; he is he, and she is she, and the heshe, shehe that is so much of everyone’s real life goes unacknowledged.

Valda impersonated no one. Valda Gray was always Valda Gray. Always queer, always funny, always sepian, always femme, always fine, always vigorous, always powerful.

Want what you want. When people find it hard to do that, they should meditate on Valda. Discerning your desire is the first business of being human. Tall Valda in a demure gown with a bow at the neck, lithe and lovely, sweet-singing a song, or energetically running her way through all those shows she produced: “Anything Goes,” “Doing the Jive,” “At the Jazz Band Ball,” “Turn on the Heat,” and “Swing Patrol.” So many are forgetting Valda and her most-prized lessons.

Valda fears that part of the price of integrating into the white world is losing a world where men can openly dress as women and love other men if they want, and also losing a world where women are valued. She says the white men hate to be compared to women for two big reasons, and both are ugly. First, they hate women, and second, they think that women are powerless.

Things are changing. At the Cabin Inn we prized eccentrics and individuality. Today, every Negro is being asked to conform, to wear suits and ties or dresses and pumps to the sit-in. Valda doesn’t play that. Golf-sweater and silk-suit-wearing Negro that I am, I prize that. I prize Valda running around this world on heels in dresses, even with Dr. King preaching respectability so hard, so often, so loud, and so silently that somehow, now, it feels easier for me to get married and hide.

Valda doesn’t believe many things are one thing or another. She thinks everything is just like her—mixed. I want my students to know Valda. I want them to know that most important things about themselves are a choice. They can choose their own names. Choose to know and announce their true sex. Choose who they work with. Choose a life of art. Choose to see when politics is failing. Choose to build community. Choose to be as vibrant as Valda. Or not.

My favorite times with Valda are not on the public stage. Our best time was semiprivate and dim lit, those creole card parties of a late afternoon, those times when after working all week it would be someone’s birthday and we would post up far from stage, in our kimonos, twelve or fifteen of us, eating gumbo, drinking cheap brandy, playing spades, and laughing like old biddies and steel-driving men. This was the time to remember the moonlight that had fallen on our shoulders and all the lips we had shamelessly kissed. In these moments we did not talk of caliber, we did not evaluate our performances; we talked of besotted love, of those times we had discovered that bit of boy in our girl, or that bit of girl in our boy, or that we were all-boy, or all-girl, so many delightful variations to be found when you boldly lose yourself in someone else. I can’t tell my students about that. Part of Valda’s power and joy was inhabiting a sensual life.

[image error]Alice Randall. Photo by John Partipilo.

For years our female impersonators were in almost every issue of Ebony magazine and in all the Black newspapers all the time without apology or explanation. In Detroit they were in the Chronicle. Some of our best of our Detroit best? Valerie Compton, Priscilla Dean, Princess DeCarlo, Ricky DePaul, Lamar Lyons, and Baby Jean Ray. This, for me, was a sign that ours wasn’t a pink-and-blue world. Our sepian world was many shades of purple, some closer to pink, some closer to blue.

Valda Gray would have had a little something to say to MLK, had she gotten the chance. Valda would have let Bayard Rustin stand at the front at the March on Washington. Others hissed he was homosexual and should be shunted to the side. Others were wrong. Bayard Rustin produced that show, the March on Washington, and he should have gotten to take a more visible bow. We pay many prices to be fully recognized as citizens of these United States. One of them should not be the sacrifices of Valda Gray and Bayard Rustin. And me.

A gesture I loved having seen? Valda snap a perfectly manicured finger and try to call Bayard’s name in her singsong drawl, “You know who I mean, that siddity Quaker colored kid from West Chester, Pennsylvania, with a sweet tenor voice, sings ‘Trouble.’ What’s his name? Bayard Rustin! I knew Bayard then and I stand with Bayard now.”

Where’s the place for Valda Gray in our civil rights dream? Why is Bayard way off to the side when the preachers start arranging the congregation for photos and television coverage? Why is there no place for Valda at all?

If Valda was here, she would say, “Don’t pay him no mind, Zig. After they go in through the front door, one of them runs back to the kitchen and opens the back door for me. Acknowledged or unacknowledged, we always up in the house.”

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Libation for the Feast of Valda Gray:

The Art of Refusal

This riff on a Crimean Cup à la Marmora serves 10. Valda always moved in a crowd.

2 jiggers Jamaican rum

2 jiggers maraschino liqueur

2½ jiggers brandy

1 pint Torani almond syrup

1 bottle (750 ml) Champagne

1 quart soda water

Place all the ingredients in a pretty bowl. Pack the bowl in fine ice. When chilled, serve cold in fancy glasses.

Excerpted from Black Bottom Saints by Alice Randall. Copyright © 2020 by Alice Randall. Excerpted by permission of Amistad Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

These Will Rock You: 12 Great New Reads for the Young and Young at Heart

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Hello again, friends! It’s a new month, and time for a new school year, however unusual. But there is one constant: books! Our booksellers have selected their favorites for you once more. And we have some news: Spark Book Club, a subscription box for young readers, is now live! See below, or click here to learn more and sign up! And don’t forget about our upcoming virtual event next Tuesday, Aug. 11 at 6pm with Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (bestselling author of The War That Saved My Life) for her new book Fighting Words!

PICTURE BOOKS


Recommended by Rae Ann


Sun and Moon Have a Tea Party

By Yumi Heo & Naoko Stoop

The sun is sure children spend their entire days at school, while the moon is sure kids spend all their time sleeping. When the sun and the moon stay up past their bedtime, they see things as they really are. A fun read-aloud.


Recommended by Rae Ann

We Will Rock Our Classmates (Penelope #2)

By Ryan T. Higgins

Penelope the T. Rex signs up for the school talent show before losing her nerve. With the help of her classmates she gets the courage to take the stage and rock out. Tip: Remove the cover for a special treat underneath.


Recommended by Becca

Gustavo, the Shy Ghost

By Flavia Z. Drago

Gustavo is lonely. No one can ever see him, and he just wants to make some friends! But as the Day of the Dead approaches, Gustavo comes up with a plan to connect with his ghoulish peers. This beautiful, bright little book by debut Mexican author/illustrator Flavia Z. Drago is just sure to delight all fall, and provides a great opportunity to teach little ones about friendship and Día de los Muertos.


Recommended by Chelsea

Over in the Woodland: A Mythological Counting Journey

By Nicole Abreu, Susanna Covelli & Shar Abreu

Beautiful illustrations and rhyming, rhythmic text partner up in this new interpretation of the classic rhyme “Over in the Meadow.” This is a perfect read-aloud for kids (and adults) to count magical creatures and let imaginations soar!


Recommended by Niki

Smashy Town

By Andrea Zimmerman, Dan Yaccarino & David Clemesha

My construction vehicle-loving toddler can’t get enough of this delightful picture book. Perfect for kids who love things that go!


INDEPENDENT READERS


Recommended by Madeline

Something to Say

By Lisa Moore Ramée

The author of A Good Kind of Trouble brings another incredible novel about facing one’s fears of anxiety and public speaking. Lisa Moore Ramée illustrates in this gripping story how to not only stand up for what’s right, but also forgiving one another even when you mess up again and again.


Recommended by Steve

Treasures of the Twelve

By Cindy Lin

The sequel to The Twelve, a fantasy rooted in the signs of the Chinese zodiac, it’s a story of sibling love and learning to use newfound powers. But probably the best review I can offer is that my 10-year-old has hardly looked up from this book since I handed it to her.


Recommended by Rae Ann

One Year at Ellsmere

By Faith Erin Hicks

Juniper wins a scholarship to Ellsmere Academy, but boarding school is not as fabulous as she thought it would be. Some girls are mean and it’s rumored a mysterious beast roams the forest next to the school. This graphic novel is a friendship story with a twist.


Recommended by Kay

Beetle & the Hollowbones

By Aliza Layne, Natalie Riess & Kristen Acampora

This story has absolutely everything. Beautiful artwork, a world full of spooky magic, a (benevolently) haunted mall, and a race-against-time mystery. On its surface it’s a fun story about a goblin witch-in-training trying to save her ghostly best friend from a sinister land development deal. Beneath that is a heartwarming story about love, friendship, and family. Absolutely not one to miss!


YOUNG ADULT


Recommended by Becca

This Is My America

By Kim Johnson

This Is My America explores the timely (and timeless) subject of racial injustice in America, from the point of view of a 17-year-old Texas girl whose family is sucked into the middle of our broken criminal justice system. Activist Kim Johnson’s debut novel is the perfect book for YA readers looking to expand their worldview and learn about the issues that our country is facing today from a new perspective.


Recommended by Chelsea

Lobizona: A Novel (Wolves of No World #1)

By Romina Garber

Manuela lives in fear of ICE, and then her nightmare comes true — her mom is arrested. When she sets out to find out about her father’s family, even more hidden truths come out. Full of Argentine folklore and magic, Garber’s novel explores identity and belonging while Manuela yearns for, and eventually finds, a place where she truly fits in.


Recommended by Kay

The Dark Tide

By Alicia Jasinska

The island of Caldella is cursed. Each year the Witch Queen must select a boy to drown, or else a dark tide will rise and flood the entire city. But when Linda offers to trade places with a boy in order to save him, she’s faced with the curse’s second rule: The sacrifice only works if the Queen loves the one she drowns. It’s a race against time to break the tide’s curse in this darkly charming fairy-tale romance.






Introducing Spark Book Club!

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Spark Book Club is our newest monthly subscription box for young readers — featuring a first edition book, beautifully packaged, and a note from the author written just for club members! Spark starts in September with Tune It Out by Jamie Sumner. Learn more and sign up here!







ParnassusNext — Our August Selection
Raybearer

By Jordan Ifueko

The August ParnassusNext selection is Raybearer by debut novelist Jordan Ifueko. It is always exciting when we select a debut novel for the ParnassusNext box, and we are thrilled to present this own voices Nigerian-inspired fantasy novel as this month’s pick.

Tarisai has been magically bound by her mother to kill the Crown Prince of Aristar at any cost. Within his palace walls, Tarisai finds a life she’s always dreamed of, but will her mother’s curse force her to betray her found family?

Early buzz for the novel:

“A fresh, phenomenal fantasy that begs readers to revel in its brilliant world.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“Fierce, kindhearted characters from ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds enhance the well-paced, exquisitely crafted plot, which thrills and inspires while fostering readers’ hope for a sequel.” —Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)

ParnassusNext is the book subscription box for YA lovers. Every member of ParnassusNext receives a first edition hardcover of each month’s selected book, signed by the author. There is no membership fee to join — and no line to stand in for the autograph. Not only will you have one of the best YA books of the month when it comes out, you’ll have it straight from the author’s hands, with an original, authentic signature! Set up a subscription for yourself or buy a gift membership for your favorite YA reader for 3, 6, or 12 months.

August Lights: 21 Great New Reads

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Even though yesterday was March and lasted seven years, somehow it’s August. Right? It’s a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world, but one thing you can rely on is that when the calendar turns over, we’ll be back with a fresh round of recommended reads. So, without further ado, we present our August books, hand-picked by our staff and hand-delivered to you (contactless, curbside) or shipped to wherever you may be!

FICTION


Recommended by Karen
Hamnet

By Maggie O’Farrell

Little is known about the life and family of William Shakespeare, but with what little is known, O’Farrell has woven an unforgettable story. The turning point of this novel is the death of Shakespeare’s son, Hamnet (a name that at that time was interchangeable with Hamlet) at age 11. The main focus is the remarkable Agnes (or Anne), William’s wife. She is the centerpiece of this exquisite tale.


Recommended by Steve

The Death of Vivek Oji

By Akwaeke Emezi

Before you even open this book you know that Vivek Oji is dead. But a life is so much more than how it ends. As it unravels the backstory, this taut, lyrical novel shows how sometimes even those closest to someone aren’t able to see them as they really are — especially when they don’t fit simplistic gender definitions. Moving and tenderly drawn.


Recommended by Sarah

Saving Ruby King

By Catherine Adel West

This is a timely debut about friends, family, faith, community, and the Black experience on the South Side of Chicago. It’s told from several different perspectives, but the voices I loved most were those of the bold, unapologetic women trying to piece together their families’ pasts so they can take control of their own futures.


Recommended by Kathy

Blue Marlin

By Lee Smith

Only 123 short pages in this novella by Lee Smith. Delight yourself with this funny and touching story of a family vacation to Florida in 1958. We need books like this right now!


Recommended by Ben

Migrations

By Charlotte McConaghy

Franny Stone is determined to follow the last Arctic terns as they migrate south. Aboard the fishing vessel Saghani, her fraught love with Niall and deep-buried secrets emerge, endangering the motley crew. Wild, fragile Franny can’t escape what haunts her, even by going to the farthest reaches of the coldest seas. Daring in scope and vividly detailed, this debut is atmospheric, resolute, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful.


Recommended by Steve

Must I Go

By Yiyun Li

A woman named Lilia, near the end of her life, annotates the diaries of a former lover — who was also the father of her first child. That child, Lucy, killed herself. In her notes, Lilia addresses her granddaughter, Lucy’s daughter, while trying to make peace with the past. An odd and quietly heartbreaking novel about the fallibility of love and writing — and who tells your story.


Recommended by Becca

Sex and Vanity

By Kevin Kwan

Sex and Vanity was my only summer vacation for 2020, and I don’t know what I would have done without this break from reality. It has all of the decadence of Crazy Rich Asians, with even more heart and substance. As the characters flit around the world from Capri to East Hampton, it’s almost impossible not to get wrapped up in the rumors and intrigue of the international upper upper upper class. Dip your feet in a kiddie pool, keep the sparkling water on ice, and enjoy this trip from the comfort of your own back yard!


Recommended by Marcia

The Lost and Found Bookshop

By Susan Wiggs

Anyone else need a fun escape for summer 2020? Rae Ann and I both love this book! Not many of us here can resist a story about a main character inheriting a bookstore in San Francisco and the hunky contractor she hires to make repairs on the building. But wait! There’s another guy! My coworker’s text to me: “A date with Trevor Dashwood & Peach on guitar. Mmm hmm.