January 6, 2016 In Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean, a new essay anthology edited by Adrian Blevins and Karen Salyer McElmurray, contemporary Appalachian writers explore the secretive elements of their cultural inheritance.
January 5, 2016 In Only Love Can Break Your Heart, longtime Chapter 16 contributor Ed Tarkington hits many of the classic coming-of-age tale’s familiar notes, but the cast of characters and the rural Virginia town he populates in his accomplished debut are nothing less than singular. Tarkington will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 5, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.
December 10, 2015 In his new biography, Alex Haley and the Books That Changed a Nation, Robert Norrell not only chronicles the life of a fascinating author but also reveals how The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Roots shaped our thinking about African-American history and culture.
December 9, 2015 A single mother in central Tennessee struggles to save a family farm threatened by a (barely) fictional corporate-poultry giant in Chicken Stock, a first novel by Tracy City journalist Leslie Lytle. Although Lytle is clearly a proponent of sustainable farming, the book deftly avoids becoming a poultry polemic.
December 8, 2015 In a new memoir, The Man from Muscle Shoals: My Journey from Shame to Fame, Rick Hall tells an idiosyncratic tale of his life and career as a ground-breaking producer of classic Southern soul, rock’n’roll, pop, and country records. Hall will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on December 12, 2015, at 2 p.m.
December 7, 2015 About Women: Conversations Between a Writer and a Painter by Lisa Alther and Françoise Gilot is a lively dialogue between longtime friends about family, war, sex, fashion, food, and any number of other subjects. The conversation meanders through the history of the twentieth century, exploring the way culture and circumstance shaped the lives and work of two brilliant, unconventional women.
