Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Polished Jewels

Margaret Renkl weaves personal and natural history in Late Migrations

Margaret Renkl surveys the natural world and her personal history in Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss. Renkl will appear with Mary Gauthier on the “Sundays with Mary” program, streamed live on Facebook and YouTube on March 28. She’ll also be the keynote speaker for Rural Assembly Everywhere, held online April 20-21.

Read more

Calling Evangelicals to Account

Anthea Butler speaks with prophetic candor in White Evangelical Racism

In White Evangelical Racism, Anthea Butler identifies a racist agenda at the heart of rightwing evangelical politics. Butler will discuss the book at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on March. 25.

Read more

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.

Read more

Eternal Questions, Evolving Answers

Alan Lightman explores the limits of knowledge in Probable Impossibilities

Alan Lightman’s latest essay collection, Probable Impossibilities is a mix of cutting-edge science, philosophical reflection, and storytelling that celebrates rational inquiry while respecting experiences of mystery and awe.

Read more

Winnowing

The gift of letting go

The challenge wasn’t just the spice drawer with the unopened 30-year-old jar of coriander and the multitude of little packets of red pepper delivered with more than a decade of pizzas. Not just the UCLA T-shirt I bought in 2007 on my son’s college tour. Not the second-best stew pot. No, when I got right down to the bone, it was the last tangible relics of my father I had trouble letting go.

Read more

The Second-Chance Ranch

In Julia Claiborne Johnson’s Better Luck Next Time, desperate women seeking divorces find friendship and love

Set at a “divorce ranch” in Reno, Nevada, Julia Claiborne Johnson’s Better Luck Next Time describes the surprising, tender friendships that develop between two women looking to end their marriages and a young ranch hand who helps them transition to new lives.

Read more
TAKE THE SHORT READER SURVEY! CHAPTER 16 SURVEYOR SURVEYING