Now in its sixth year, the Gordon Jewish Community Center’s Nashville Jewish Book Series is back with a bevy of author talks to keep you reading all season.
“What I like about the series is our amazing committee made up of authors, literature professors, librarians and ordinary people like me, and we try to select books that reflect the depth and breadth of the Jewish experience,” says series co-chair Amy Goldstein. “The books are either secular works by Jewish authors or books written by Jewish and non-Jewish authors featuring Jewish themes and topics. You don’t need to be Jewish or a member of the JCC to be involved in our events, which is awesome, and they’re typically quite affordable.”
The series kicked off with a conversation between SNL and Curb Your Enthusiasm writer Alan Zweibel and his friend and colleague Wayne Federman in December, and a virtual event with author Francine Prose earlier this month. Things continue to truck along next month, when Widowish author Melissa Gould and Zibby Owens, editor of the anthology Moms Don’t Have Time to Have Kids, will discuss the trials and successes of parenting in a virtual panel moderated by Nashville’s Claire Gibson on Monday, Feb. 7. Later in the month, the series will move to The Bobby Hotel to celebrate local interior designer and photographer Alyssa Rosenheck’s The New Southern Style: The Interiors of a Lifestyle and Design Movement on Wednesday, Feb. 16.
Thursday, March 3, brings Qian Julie Wang and her moving memoir of her early life as an undocumented child living in poverty in America, Beautiful Country. The book’s accolades include mentions in The New York Times, NPR and Barack Obama’s best books of 2021 list.
On Monday, March 14, Heather Cabot will discuss The New Chardonnay: The Unlikely Story of How Marijuana Went Mainstream, in which the author hits the road with Snoop Dogg and his business partner Ted Chung as the rapper rolls out his own brand of weed. The deeply reported book also introduces us to racial justice activists, marijuana moguls and plenty of interesting characters to get an array of perspectives on the rebranding of cannabis. Both Wang’s and Cabot’s events will be virtual. Looking into spring, Louie Kemp will visit Nashville to discuss his bookDylan & Me on Thursday, April 7. Kemp is a childhood friend of Bob Dylan and is sure to shed some light on the enigmatic songsmith.
Goldstein says she hopes the selections show the diversity and warmth of the city’s people.
“Nashville’s Jewish community is somewhat small in numbers,” she says, “but to me, it is surprisingly stronger and more vibrant than many other communities across the U.S. There’s a wide variety of Jews in Nashville in terms of who identifies, who is an active member of a synagogue. ... From what I’ve heard, in larger communities, it’s rare to have such unity among the different subgroups, and here, all the rabbis hang out and like each other.
“The Jewish Community Center is central to bringing us all together and celebrating Jewish culture,” she adds. “People genuinely care about each other.”
The Scene’s most-anticipated new release:
Destiny O. Birdsong’s Nobody’s Magic follows three Black women with albinism in Shreveport, La. The book is presented in three separate narratives, and each woman finds herself at a crossroads that is entwined with complicated social and racial histories. Be on the lookout for author events at Parnassus and across the city. Preorder here.
Our favorite reason to read:
East Side outpost The Bookshop’s annual reading challenge won’t tell you what to read. Instead, it suggests a theme for each month. In January, select a book that won an award in 2021. In February, go for a book by a Black author. In March, read something published by an indie press. The Bookshop’s staff members are always happy to offer suggestions, so be sure to hit them up throughout the year.
The interview we’re looking forward to:
Nichole Perkins, author of the excellent Sometimes I Trip on How Happy We Could Be, will join Ladyland podcaster Kim Baldwin for a virtual conversation as part of The Porch Writers’ Collective’s Birthing the Book Series at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 22. Visit porchtn.org to register.
We’re on the lookout for:
Parnassus Books is monitoring COVID trends to lock in its winter events schedule, but the store plans to host in-person and virtual events with Mary Laura Philpott, Allison Moorer, Jennifer Haigh and many more. Keep an eye on parnassusbooks.net for details.
Author event we’re most looking forward to:
The Porch Writers’ Collective will host Kiese Laymon, author of the incredible memoir Heavy, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, March 10, at 14Tenn. After the free reading, Laymon will join Porch supporters at the nonprofit’s annual fundraising dinner.
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