Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Jim Patterson

In Praise of Regulation

Ganesh Sitaraman explains how to fix flying

Anyone who relies on the airline industry to get where they need to go can tell stories about delays, cancellations, shrinking storage space, and general dissatisfaction with the entire process. Vanderbilt University professor Ganesh Sitaraman spells out the remedy for this state of affairs in Why Flying Is Miserable and How to Fix It.

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A Connection to the Earth

Brooks Lamb works to preserve the family farm

Family farming is hard work, acknowledges Brooks Lamb in Love for the Land: Lessons from Farmers Who Persist in Place. But he says it’s also a rewarding lifestyle worth saving, for the sake of the environment and ourselves. Lamb will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on July 29.

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Ministering to the Least of These

A family learns about grace from a death row prisoner 

He Called Me Sister: A True Story of Finding Humanity on Death Row, by Suzanne Craig Robertson, chronicles the relationship between her family and death row prisoner Cecil Johnson. Robertson will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 21.

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Your Brain on Music

Richard Manning explores the mysterious allure of song

In If It Sounds Good, It Is Good, Richard Manning makes a case for learning music by ear and explains why it’s a shame music-making is left more and more to professionals. Manning will appear at the 2022 Southern Festival of Books in Nashville on October 14-16.

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Always Graceful

Margaret Renkl discusses her new essay collection, Graceland, at Last

Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache from the American South collects 60 of Margaret Renkl’s essays for The New York Times. Her fascinating explanations of the natural world are the standouts, but she also weighs in with authority on politics and culture. Renkl will discuss the book at a free ticketed event held in Harpeth Hall’s Frances Bond Davis Theater in Nashville on September 14, at a virtual event hosted by Novel in Memphis on September 16, and at the online 2021 Southern Festival of Books.

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