Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Taming the Cruelest Animal

Ernest Freeberg tells how animal rights became part of the 19th-century reform movement

In A Traitor to His Species: Henry Bergh and the Birth of the Animal Rights Movement, award-winning historian Ernest Freeberg tells the story of the founding father of the ASPCA and how Americans rallied to alleviate the needless suffering of animals.

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In Between One Thing and Another

Alexander Chee illuminates the writing life in How To Write An Autobiographical Novel

In his powerful essay collection, How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, Alexander Chee charts his own history as a writer and invites readers into a close engagement with the process of writing a novel from personal materials. Chee will appear at a virtual event hosted by Vanderbilt University on November 12.

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Alone and Never Touched

A lonely young woman becomes a murder suspect in R.J. Jacobs’ Somewhere in the Dark

In his second psychological thriller, Somewhere in the Dark, Nashville writer R.J. Jacobs sends his troubled young protagonist on a quest to find a killer and exonerate herself.

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The Glorious Pastime: Indya Kincannon

Knoxville Mayor Indya Kincannon loves biographies and My Brilliant Friend

Indya Kincannon arrived in Knoxville in 2001, a self-described “trailing spouse” who relocated for her husband’s job. Today she’s the city’s mayor, committed to “creating and spreading opportunity to all parts of Knoxville.” Mayor Kincannon, a longtime education advocate and former teacher, shares a bit of her reading life with Chapter 16 via our Glorious Pastime questionnaire.

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Soldiers with No Names

Jeffrey Jackson tells a story of love, art, and resistance during World War II

In Paper Bullets, Jeffrey Jackson reconstructs the fascinating tale of two French women living on the British island of Jersey, resisting the occupation by Nazi Germany. Jackson will launch his book with a Zoom event hosted by Rhodes College on November 10 and will appear at a virtual event hosted by Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 12.

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The Diplomat’s Shadow

Historian Thomas Schwartz chronicles the political life of Henry Kissinger

In the tumultuous, polarized atmosphere of the 1970s, Henry Kissinger served as the primary architect of American foreign policy. Thomas Schwartz examines his influences, ideas, and calculations in an impressive political biography, Henry Kissinger and American Power.

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