Book event!

Plus something new you need to read

A heads-up: If you’re in or around Charlotte, I’m doing a discussion of memoir with my friend Judy Goldman on Wednesday at Charlotte Lit on Central Avenue. It’s free, but registration and proof of COVID vaccination are required.

The main reason we’re doing this is that Judy has a new book out. It’s called CHILD, and it’s about Judy’s lifelong relationship with the black woman who lived as her family’s live-in maid. It’s both heartfelt and hard-edged, as Judy grapples with not only the racism of the Jim Crow South but her own privilege. It’s well worth your time. And if anybody wants to talk about THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM, I’ll be happy to do that.

I love doing book events—usually authors do them only when they have a book out, so this is a nice bonus for me. Whenever I have a new event, I’ll make sure and mention it here first. Which means, if you want to keep up, you should …

One other thing before I go: It’s publication day for HER COUNTRY, a fascinating book by Nashville journalist Marissa R. Moss about how women in modern country music have had to battle the Nashville establishment to get heard.

I interviewed Marissa for an episode of SouthBound that drops tomorrow. If you’re new to me and the newsletter: SouthBound is my podcast from WFAE in Charlotte where I talk to interesting people about how the South shapes who they are and what they do. You can subscribe to that on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever else you listen to podcasts. SouthBound also has its own page at WFAE.org.

See y’all on Friday with links of the week and more.