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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
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.
Read more
In White Tears, Hari Kunzru summons up the voices of early American blues and its ghosts
Hari Kunzru’s White Tears is a literary thriller and a ghost story that deals directly with race, privilege, and American history. Kunzru will appear with musical guest Patrick Sweany at The Basement in Nashville on March 30 at 7 p.m., as part of the Books, Bars and Guitars series sponsored by Parnassus Books and The Porch Writers’ Collective.
Read more
In Hannah Tinti’s The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, a father’s past haunts his daughter
In Hannah Tinti’s The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, a father with a long criminal history settles down with his daughter on the Massachusetts coast in a futile search for normalcy. Tinti will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 29 at 6:30 p.m.
Read more
