In a dystopian North America, a boy is pulled into the competition of a lifetime. The winner is guaranteed to never go hungry again, but the losers never make it out alive. The 50th Hunger Games have arrived, and sixteen-year-old Haymitch Abernathy must go into the arena to fight for his life. Suzanne Collins takes […]
Susan Cushman
September 15, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Susan Cushman has nine published books—two novels, (Cherry Bomb and John and Mary Margaret,) one short story collection, two memoirs, and four anthologies for which she served as editor. A native of Jackson, Mississippi, she has lived in Memphis, Tennessee, since 1988. Susan has been married for 54 years and has three adopted adult children, […]
“She Had To Die” by Rebecca Barrett
September 14, 2025 by Leave a Comment
In Rebecca Barrett’s new novel She Had To Die (2025), murder in a small-town near Mobile Alabama sets off a riveting police procedural steeped in late-sixties atmosphere. A beautiful young woman, Ruby Stanton, is found shot dead in a shabby motel, and Mobile detectives Hugo August and his longtime friend Junior Knight are called in. […]
Donna Meredith interviews Susan Gilmore, author of “The Curious Calling of Leonard Bush”
September 11, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Book Summary: When twelve-year-old Leonard Bush loses his leg in a freak accident, he decides to give his leg a proper burial in the hilltop cemetery of his East Tennessee town. This event somehow sets off a chain of miraculous and catastrophic events—upending the lives of Leonard’s rigidly God-fearing mother, June; his deeply conflicted father, […]
“The Curious Calling of Leonard Bush” by Susan Gilmore
September 10, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Susan Gilmore’s The Curious Calling of Leonard Bush (Blair, 2025) opens with a funeral—for an amputated leg. A “curious” beginning, to be sure, but not a gimmick. Instead, this unusual event launches a deeply meaningful, beautifully written story about grief, guilt, community, and healing in Sweetwater, Tennessee. Through rotating third-person perspectives, Gilmore delivers a tender, […]
“The Cross, The Candle & The Crown: A Narrative History of Morehouse College 1867-2021” by Marcellus Chandler Barksdale
September 9, 2025 by Leave a Comment
Few institutions in American life carry the symbolic weight of Morehouse College. It is the alma mater of Martin Luther King Jr., Maynard Jackson, Spike Lee, Raphael Warnock, and thousands of men whose lives have shaped communities across the country. In The Cross, the Candle, and the Crown: A Narrative History of Morehouse College, 1867–2021, […]