Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

The Greatest Miracle

Anne Lamott offers her signature musings on mercy

In her new book, Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy, Anne Lamott is on the same page as Shakespeare when it comes to mercy, believing that it “blesseth him that gives and him that takes” and, frankly, that we all need a lot more of it. Lamott will discuss her new book, Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy, at First Presbyterian Church in Knoxville on April 9 at 7 p.m.

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How to Succeed at Being You

Jami Attenberg’s All Grown Up is a funny book with a serious point

Jami Attenberg’s All Grown Up tells the story of a single woman negotiating the trials of adulthood in New York City. Attenberg will discuss her sixth novel at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 11 at 6:30 p.m.

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American Tragedy

Daniel J. Sharfstein captures two larger-than-life opponents of the Nez Perce war in Thunder in the Mountains

Thunder in the Mountains: Chief Joseph, Oliver Otis Howard, and the Nez Perce War, a new work of narrative history by Daniel J. Sharfstein, vividly portrays a bloody conflict and its leaders, in the process offering new insight into the enduring power of dissent. Sharfstein will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 6 at 6:30 p.m.

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Fragments Swarming Together and Apart

Jenny Offill discusses the unexpected success of Dept. of Speculation

“The threat to the narrator may be existential in nature but it’s still a threat,” Jenny Offill says of her novel Dept. of Speculation. “Her life is falling down around her.” Offill will read at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on April 6 at 7 p.m.

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For Opening Day

A Chapter 16 writer meditates on the mysterious power of baseball

The Knoxville team was a AA affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, so of course it was called the “Knox Sox.” Its games drew scarcely any fans, and many of those who came seemed lost, like troubled souls stumbling into an empty church—or, like me, simply sitting in the silence, absorbed by the mysteries of the game.

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A Comedy Show in Music City?

If pedal taverns could make it here, surely a live talk show was a lock

The idea was simple: we’d host a live comedy talk show in a theater every week and interview people from around town. Just like Letterman if Letterman was broadcast from a tiny theater in Nashville—or, really, just like Letterman if Letterman wasn’t actually broadcast.

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