World Book Day is April 23rd and to celebrate we are going to highlight some local bookstores and authors as well as some books set in our lovely Scenic City!  

Local Bookstores

We’ve got several local bookstores here in Chattanooga. The Book & Cover, Winder Binder, and Allgood’s are in our downtown and northshore area. The Book & Cover sells new books and has a coffee shop inside! Winder Binder sells used books as well as records and comics. Allgood’s is a used book and coffee shop that also holds events occasionally. You couldn’t go wrong with any of these!  

If you’re looking for books on a budget, you should check out McKay’s located about 20 minutes from downtown. McKay’s is a huge used bookstore, but they also sell used electronics, records, CDs, Legos, board games, movies, and video games.   

Books by Chattanooga Authors

There are several great authors from Chattanooga and the surrounding areas! Let’s take a look at some of them and their work.  

Fiction: 

Cardboard Castles by K.L. Young is a young adult fantasy novel focusing on mental illness and twisting reality. This story is about 17-year-old Josilyn's struggle to survive and stay afloat while being dragged between two worlds: real life where CPS has taken her away from her mentally-ill father and the world of her father's delusions which she is now able to see. 

Making Arrangements by Ferris Robinson is a fictional novel about love and loss. Just when things are looking up for Lang Eldridge her beloved husband drops dead on the one-year anniversary of her cancer recovery. Lang is reunited with her family while dealing with the loss of her normalcy, but while she is getting arrangements ready for her husband's funeral Lang finds her husband may not have been who she thought he was. 

The Story that Cannot Be Told by J. Kasper Kramer is a young adult historical fiction novel set in 1989 Communist Romania. The story follows Ileana who loves to collect stories and folklore, but some stories can be dangerous. Her Uncle published a story criticizing the communist government and now Ileana's family fears for her safety and sends her away to grandparents she has never met. 

Non-Fiction: 

The Locust Years by Kelly Hanwright is a memoir of her childhood with real-life stories and poetry that expresses her experiences as a child. Hanwright always felt like she lived in two parallel worlds with her paranoid schizophrenic mother. Her memoir is to help others with traumatic childhoods and stop the stigma of mental illness. 

The Liberator's Daughter by Deborah J. Levine is a unique memoir dedicated to her family's Jewish roots and her GI father who fought in WWII. This memoir covers her family's unusual history and what their life was like before, during, and after the atrocities of WWII. 

Children's:

Pap Pap Goes to Paris: And So Does Ricky by Janie Dempsey Watt is a children's book about a young boy named Ricky who sees a snow globe with the Eiffel Tower in it and becomes determined to climb it with his grandfather. After convincing his parents, Ricky and his grandfather head to Paris and discover all the city has to offer including the Eiffel Tower. 

Thresholds of the Grand Dream by Alex Scott is a children's novel about a young girl named Sonia who discovers when the kids at her new school fall asleep they all enter the same dreamworld called the Grand Dream. Sonia quickly learns the Grand Dream isn't exactly what it seems and with help from a mysterious girl Sonia has to help her friends and classmates escape!

Books Set in Chattanooga

There are several books set in our beautiful Scenic City! Let's take a look at some.

Fiction:

The Best Lies by Sarah Lyu is a contemporary young adult thriller about a young woman named Remy. Remy thought her life was almost perfect with a great boyfriend Jack and an even greater best friend Elise, however after Jack is shot dead and Elise is suspected to have been the one to pull the trigger Remy is left in shock. As police begin to investigate, so does Remy going through her memories to try and understand what could have driven Elise to do such a thing. 

Extended Stay by Bradley Cannon is a mystery thriller set in September 2009 when for the first time in over 200 years no one had died in Chattanooga in 24 hours. After another day of no one dying, the city starts becoming anxious. Each chapter of this novel covers a different perspective of the 30 days to come and the different reactions people have to their newfound immortality. 

The Family Plot by Cherie Priest is a paranormal horror novel following Chuck Dutton and his daughter Dahlia who run Music City Salvage, a company that focuses on buying condemned historic properties and re-selling them. Times are tough for the Dutton family until Augusta Withrow appears at just the right time wanting to sell her massive family estate. Chuck sends his daughter Dahlia to oversee this project with a small crew, but when she gets to the Withrow estate in Chattanooga they notice a lot of things left out of the paperwork and the whole place feels angry and lost. 

Non-fiction: 

Haunted Chattanooga by Jessica Penot focuses on the paranormal history of Chattanooga. Whether it is the ghost of the Delta Queen still lingering from the days of the river trade, the porter who forever roams the grounds of the historic Terminal Station, or the restless souls that haunt from beneath the city in its elaborate underground tunnel system, the specter of Chattanooga's past is everywhere.

Chattanooga Sludge by Molly Bang is the true story of John Todd who was determined to start a greenhouse with plants that would clean the toxic sludge from a creek in Tennessee. 

Chattanooga 1863: Grant and Bragg in Central Tennessee by Mark Lardas and Adam Hook focuses on the Chattanooga Campaign of the Union army led by Grant that ultimately led to the Union soldiers breaking the siege of Chattanooga.  

Part of a Series: 

American Gods (Book 1) by Neil Gaiman is about a war brewing between Old Gods forgotten by Americans and the New Gods like Technology and Media. The final fight scene is set in Chattanooga!

Ghosts of the Shadow Market (Book 1) and Learn about Loss (Book 4) by Cassandra Clare are both set in Chattanooga, this young adult fantasy series is all about the paranormal, magic, and romance. This series is a Shadowhunter series, a spin-off of Cassandra Clare's well-known Mortal Instruments series. This series focuses on The Shadow Market where faeries, werewolves, vampires, and others buy devious magical objects. 

Don't Cry (Book 1) and Don't Say a Word (Book 2) by Beverly Barton are a crime thriller series set in Chattanooga.  A grief counselor Audrey and Special Agent J.D. Cass work together to try and catch a horrific serial killer with links to a long-ago series of disturbing crimes with a personal connection to Agent Cass.