Reading Roadtrip: 50 Books for 50 States: Tennessee

Winona Cole, an orphaned child of the Lakota Indians, finds herself growing up in an unconventional household on a farm in West Tennessee. Raised by her adoptive father John Cole and his brother-in-arms Thomas McNulty, this odd little family scrapes a living on Lige Magan's farm with the help two freed slaves, the Bougereau siblings. They try to keep the brutal outside world at bay, along with their memories of the past. But Tennessee is a state still riven by the bitter legacy of the civil war and when first Winona and then Tennyson Bouguereau are violently attacked by forces unknown, Colonel Purton raises the Militia to quell the rebels and night-riders who are massing on the outskirts of town. Armed with a knife, Tennyson's borrowed gun and the courage of her famous warrior mother Winona decides to take matters into her own hands and embarks on a quest for justice which will uncover the dark secrets of her past and finally reveal to her who she really is. Exquisitely written and thrumming with the irrepressible spirit of a young girl on the brink of adulthood, A Thousand Moons is a glorious story of love and redemption.

What you see here, what you hear here, what you do here, let it stay here. In November 1944, eighteen-year-old June Walker boards an unmarked bus, destined for a city that doesn't officially exist. Oak Ridge, Tennessee has sprung up in a matter of months--a town of trailers and segregated houses, 24-hour cafeterias, and constant security checks. There, June joins hundreds of other young girls operating massive machines whose purpose is never explained. They know they are helping to win the war, but must ask no questions and reveal nothing to outsiders. The girls spend their evenings socializing and flirting with soldiers, scientists, and workmen at dances and movies, bowling alleys and canteens. June longs to know more about their top-secret assignment and begins an affair with Sam Cantor, the young Jewish physicist from New York who oversees the lab where she works and understands the end goal only too well, while her beautiful roommate Cici is on her own mission: to find a wealthy husband and escape her sharecropper roots. Across town, African-American construction worker Joe Brewer knows nothing of the government's plans, only that his new job pays enough to make it worth leaving his family behind, at least for now. But a breach in security will intertwine his fate with June's search for answers. When the bombing of Hiroshima brings the truth about Oak Ridge into devastating focus, June must confront her ideals about loyalty, patriotism, and war itself.

When his wife asks for a divorce, Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville's top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency titled Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it'll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his wife.

Dayton, Tennessee. 1925. It is in this sleepy mountain town where Annabel, a devout woman, falls in love with George Craig, a cosmopolitan defense attorney. Annabel's outlook on everything from life to love to the law is shaped by her faith; George sees the law something to bend to his will, and sees a world shaped by science and reason alone. By the end of the year, their marriage, and the private battle waged within it, will come up against the true battlefield that Dayton is destined to become when John Scopes, a local teacher, is arrested for teaching Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The trial is a spectacle unlike anything Dayton has seen before. Journalists descend in a frenzy, thrusting the town and its denizens into the national spotlight. It is in this light that the cracks in Annabel's marriage to a fickle yet cunning man--along with her most steadfast beliefs--emerge. As the ongoing trial divides neighbor against neighbor, so too, does it divide the Craigs in unexpected ways. But it is in these conflicts--one waged in newspaper headlines, and another behind closed doors--that Annabel will truly begin to wonder, for the first time in her life, for herself and herself alone, and discover that the path to our greatest evolution of all, is self-discovery.

While surveying an estate in rural Tennessee, a cartographer uncovers human remains with a double-wolf sigil carved into its skull, and investigates on his own after witnessing the homeowner lying to the police about being familiar with the symbol.

From the author of the award-winning Shadows of Pecan Hollow comes a novel set in the country music world of 1970s Nashville about a struggling musician who writes a hit song that both promises her long-sought-after fame and implicates her in a heinous crime.

In the sweaty music clubs and late-night house parties of Nashville, an aspiring songwriter tries to make friends, find love, and write songs-without losing herself.

Returning home to Pennywhistle, Tennessee, for her beloved daddy's funeral, PJ Spoon, abandoning her PhD program at Vanderbilt, impulsively takes a job as a fry cook at the Chickie Shak, where she meets and falls for Boof, a talented singer-songwriter searching for her birth mother.

In the summer of 1995, ten-year-old Joan, her mother, and her younger sister flee her father's violence to the only place they have left: her mother's ancestral home in Memphis. Half a century ago, Joan's grandfather built this majestic house for her grandmother--only to be lynched, days after becoming the first Black detective in Memphis, by his all-white police squad. This wasn't the first time violence altered the course of Joan's family's trajectory, and given who lives inside this house now, she knows it won't be the last. When her aunt opens the door, Joan sees the cousin who once brutally assaulted her. Over the next few years, she is determined not just to survive, but to find something to dream for. Longing to become an artist, she pours her rage and grief into sketching portraits of the women in her life--including old Miss Dawn from down the street, who seems to know something about curses.

Savannah Cade's dreams are coming true. The Claire Donovan, editor-in-chief of the most successful romance imprint in the country, has requested to see the manuscript Savannah's been secretly writing while working as an editor herself--except at her publishing house, the philosophy is only highbrow works are worth printing and commercial fiction, particularly romance, should be reserved for the lowest level of Dante's inferno. But when Savannah drops her manuscript during a staff meeting and nearly exposes herself to the whole company--including William Pennington, new publisher and son of the romance-despising CEO herself--she races to hide her manuscript in the secret turret room of the old Victorian office. When she returns, she's dismayed to discover that someone has not only been in her hidden nook but has written notes in the margins--quite critical ones. But when Claire's own reaction turns out to be nearly identical to the scribbled remarks, and worse, Claire announces that Savannah has six weeks to resubmit before she retires, Savannah finds herself forced to seek the help of the shadowy editor after all. As their notes back and forth start to fill up the pages, however, Savannah finds him not just becoming pivotal to her work but her life. There's no doubt about it. She's falling for her mystery editor. If she only knew who he was.

Legal investigator Finley O'Sullivan has had a difficult year in the wake of her husband's murder. But in her line of work, there's no time to grieve. Her job is to protect the firm's clients and defend their innocence through grueling investigative work. Ellen Winthrop is a force to be reckoned with in the financial world. In a male-dominated industry, she shattered the glass ceiling by empowering and promoting women. But now her husband is dead, killed in the Winthrop family home-and she stands accused of his murder. Finley, as the investigator at the firm Ellen Winthrop hired to defend her, has a clear objective: prove that Ellen didn't do it. But the deeper Finley digs into the Winthrops' marriage, the more she starts to doubt Ellen's story. The uncomfortable truth is that Ellen Winthrop may in fact have killed her husband. And he might not have been the first.

A novel about a close-knit theater community in Memphis and one turbulent, transformative production of King Lear.

Georgina Havoc's dream of a happily-ever-after falls apart when her boyfriend blindsides her with a pause. She is determined to pick up the pieces of her previously perfect life, but with the reappearance of her troubled twin sister, plus the presence of a ruggedly handsome ex-sniper, she's left facing not only her shattered future, but also her past.

When investment banker Jessie Kim is laid off in a virtual meeting...she storms out...After moving back home to Tennessee to live with her loving but meddling mother and father, she runs into her childhood nemesis, Daniel Choi...Jess begrudgingly accepts Daniel's help to relaunch her long abandoned Korean cooking YouTube channel...But just as she discovers Daniel's life isn't as perfect as it seems and there's more to him than meets the eye, he shows up for a life-changing business opportunity, and their rivalry is back on.

When John Nickel's lover takes away his son, Nickel is left only with his Beale Street bar in Memphis. He hires a young waitress named Fay Taft, who brings with her a desperate, dangerous brother, Carl, and the possibility of new intimacy. Nickel finds himself consumed with Fay and Carl's dead father--Taft--obsessing over and reconstructing the life of a man he never met. A stunning artistic achievement, Taft confirms Ann Patchett's standing as one of the most gifted writers of her generation and reminds us of our deepest instincts to protect the people we love.

Sara King has nothing, save for her secrets and the baby in her belly, as she boards the bus to Memphis, hoping to outrun her past in Chicago. She is welcomed with open arms by Mama Sugar, a kindly matriarch and owner of the popular boardinghouse The Scarlet Poplar. Like many cities in early 1960s America, Memphis is still segregated, but change is in the air. News spreads of the Freedom Riders. Across the country, people like Martin Luther King Jr. are leading the fight for equal rights. Black literature and music provide the stories and soundtrack for these turbulent and hopeful times, and Sara finds herself drawn in by conversations of education, politics, and a brighter tomorrow with Jonas, a local schoolteacher. Romance blooms between them, but secrets from Mama Sugar's past threaten their newfound happiness with Sara and Jonas soon caught in the crosshairs, leading Sara to make decisions that will reshape the rest of their lives.

Set in 1926 Nashville, this novel follows a death-defying young Cherokee horse-diver who, with her companions from the Glendale Park Zoo, must get to the bottom of a mystery that spans centuries.

Olivia Bender designs exquisite home interiors that satisfy the most demanding clients. But her own deepest desire can't be fulfilled by marble counters or the perfect rug. She desperately wants to be a mother. Fertility treatments and IVF keep failing. And just when she feels she's at her lowest point, the police deliver shocking news to Olivia and her husband, Park. DNA results show that the prime suspect in a murder investigation is Park's son. Olivia is relieved, knowing this is a mistake. Despite their desire, the Benders don't have any children. Then comes the confession. Many years ago, Park donated sperm to a clinic. He has no idea how many times it was sold--or how many children he has sired. As the murder investigation goes deeper, more terrible truths come to light. With every revelation, Olivia must face the unthinkable. The man she married has fathered a killer. But can she hold that against him when she keeps such dark secrets of her own?