Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Chris Scott

Toward the Trail of Tears

Peter Cozzens’ new history describes the largest war between the United States and Native Americans

The vicious Creek War determined control of the Southeast. In A Brutal Reckoning: Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South, Peter Cozzens places Old Hickory at the war’s epicenter.

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The Quiet General

Jack Hurst reveals the secret of Ulysses S. Grant’s success

In America’s Hardscrabble General: Ulysses S. Grant from Farm Boy to Shiloh, Jack Hurst shows how Grant’s upbringing and life’s struggles perfectly prepared him for achieving greatness as a leader in America’s bloodiest war.

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How Right Made Might

Jon Meacham highlights Abraham Lincoln’s moral code in a new, essential biography

Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham continues his exploration of moral leadership and America’s search for a more perfect union in And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle. Meacham will discuss the book at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on October 23.

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The Games of Life

Fight like hell and then forgive, but don’t forget

Everyone in my family played something. Dad loved word games, dice games, and pool. Mom was a fierce competitor at Monopoly, rummy, and double solitaire, during which, in her motherly way, she would trash talk her offspring to gain psychological advantage.

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The Animal in the Mirror

Susan Orlean shows us ourselves in stories about furry and feathered companions

The four-legged and two-winged subjects in Susan Orlean’s essay collection On Animals include the wild and domestic, the friend and the servant. But really, it’s more about the people. She will be appearing at a virtual event with Elizabeth Strout and Ann Patchett in the Salon@615 series on October 20.

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Smelly and Sticky and Slimy, Oh My!

Erika Engelhaupt finds the joy of science in the gross stuff

Knoxvillian Erika Engelhaupt’s Gory Details: Adventures from the Dark Side of Science is a lighthearted but serious examination of the gross, the grisly, and the grimy. She will discuss the book in a virtual event hosted by Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on March 30.

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