Southern Festival of Books is just around the corner, and we’re excited that we’ll be a part again this year! In celebration, we’ve polled our DJs about what they’re reading. Look below for all kinds of recs, ranging from musical to comic!
DJ: popGeezer
Show: The English Breakfast
What I’m Reading: Any DC Comic from Tom King or Brian Michael Bendis.
Still in the middle of Lincoln In the Bardo by George Sanders.
Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns documentary accompanying “Country Music” tome is waiting to move into the rotation.
But Flannery O’Connor’s The Complete Stories always stands at the ready for quick consumption at any time.
DJ: Chad Pelton
Show: Dustbin Days
What I’m Reading:
Karl Ove Knausgaard- My Struggle Book 6:
I am one of the many that got entangled in the minutiae of the daily life of Knausgaard, as he takes us through the sometimes cringeworthy growing pains of his life. And being one that likes to finish what I start, here I am lugging the 1200 page final tome of the series on my vacation with me. Good for the 8 hour flights.
Val Wilmer- As Serious As Your Life (Black Music and Free Jazz Revolution, 1957-1977):
Not only a great photographer, Val Wilmer is also an engaging storyteller, and this book is a great read for someone who, like me, is diving headlong into the world of free jazz with very little knowledge on the subject. My radio show focuses in the folk/country world, so it is refreshing to switch gears and hear about the achievements of the likes of Milford Graves, Albert Aylor, John Coltrane, and Cecil Taylor.
Jesse Graves & William Wright – Specter Mountain (poems):
Jesse is an old pal from Knoxville, and his latest volume of poetry is a team effort with fellow poet William Wright. Together they have created a book-length poetry collaboration rooted in the hills and valleys of the southeastern mountains. Praised by Robert Morgan, and weighing in at 67 pages, it is a delight to see what two differing voices combined together in a single, lengthy poetry cycle can evoke.
DJ: Michael Roark
Show: Slings & Arrows
What I’m Reading: You Can Say You Knew Me When by K. M. Soehnlein
This is the third book that I’ve read by Soehnlein. It’s the second he wrote of three. Together they make a kind of trilogy (though written out of order). He’s a gay author who deals with awakening sexuality in the late 1970s in suburban New Jersey and onward. This novel is what happens at the start of the new century in San Francisco, when it blew up with dot-coms and mass gentrification. It delves into homophobic self-destruction, pot smoking, and deep dark closets being opened by the death of a father. It’s about inheritance, financial and genetic. And one of the reasons I may be enjoying it is that it provides a grand tour of a San Francisco—a San Francisco at a crossroads, one that I visited several times during that period in the late 1990s and early twenty-first century.
DJ: LT
Show: Shout, Sister, Shout!
What I’m Reading: How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell, who seamlessly weaves a tapestry of interdisciplinary ideas into a cohesive book that encourages us to resist the attention economy without hiding from it. Pauline Oliveros’ theory of Deep Listening is explored alongside Buber’s I and Thou, Thomas Merton’s writings, birdwatching + bioregionalism, and more.
DJ: Laura Powers
Show: Needles+Pins
What I’m Reading: The Children by David Halberstam
The Children is former Tennessean reporter David Halberstam’s account of the Nashville Student Movement in the late 50s and early 60s. The Nashville Student Movement was responsible for ending racial segregation at downtown lunch counters and led the famous Freedom Riders who challenged segregation on public buses in the Deep South. At a time when Nashville is changing so much I feel it’s important to know our history. And it’s inspiring to read about young people who saw wrongs that needed to be made right and were brave enough to make it happen.
DJ: Trevor
Show: Our Golden Tones
What I’m Reading: Nate Chinen’s Playing Changes: Jazz for the New Century. Many wild and wonderful worlds are illuminated in this. It’s excitingly relevant. I’ve been hooked on its analysis of the various ways “traditional” and “free” jazz communities and practitioners have splintered in certain contexts, but also worked together in others. It’s as interesting of a cultural study as a musical one. It’s also like if Jacques Ranciere’s Aisthesis was a history of jazz. Wowee!!
DJ: DJ Karl
Show: Dizzy Spell
What I’m Reading: Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons by J R L Carter – A fascinating exploration of the life and fiery death of Thelemic magician and rocket scientist Marvel “Jack” Parsons.
DJ: Anne McCue
Show: Songs On The Wire
What I’m Reading: If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino. I’m re-reading this wonderful book after many years. Calvino has a limitless imagination and comes up with many ‘novels’ within this post-modern creation/novel. It is a love story for and about readers and reading.
DJ: Alexis Stevens
Show: Free Association
What I’m Reading: Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh. I loved My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Moshfegh, so I wanted to go back and read her earlier work. Her books are great for anyone going through Fleabag withdrawals. And she’s coming to the Southern Festival of Books!
DJ: Sirena
Show: Music for Grownups
What I’m Reading: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Besser van der Kolk, M.D. This book outlines mind-body therapeutic practices being integrated into bio-medicine which I believe to be a promising approach to healthcare. Before that I read, Hearthmath Solutions by Doc Childre and Howard Martin. Both books support current research in neurofeedback methods to promote self-regulation as a means to address dis-ease. I just bought my book club selection for this month, Eva Luna: A Novel by Isabel Allende . I look forward to transitioning to some well written fiction!
DJ:Adam Ebb
Show: Body to Body
What I’m Reading: Soft Fruit In The Sun written by Oliver Zarandi. It’s a collection of short stories that explore doomed familial, romantic and sexual relationships through the lens of “body horror.” It’s a great debut thats funny, disgusting, and very relatable.
Photo Credit: Humanities Tennessee on Flickr
DJ Juanny Cash spinning records
Anne McCue Performs
