Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

An American Original

Jeff Apter surveys the life of a modest rock star in Carl Perkins: The King of Rockabilly

Jeff Apter’s Carl Perkins: The King of Rockabilly tells the story of a legitimate rock ‘n’ roll pioneer, as influential as his more celebrated peers at Sun Records like Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Johnny Cash.

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Hot Collaboration

A writerly love story, happy ending not guaranteed

The debut romance novel from Tennessee writer Katie Holt, Not in My Book, is a steamy slow burn in which the two main characters write a romance novel together.

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Abundant Goodness

Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s Bite by Bite is a nourishing, lyrical sampler

Aimee Nezhukumatathil’s latest book, Bite by Bite: Nourishments and Jamborees, offers a veritable smorgasbord of flavors and a multi-course menu of memories. Nezhukumatathil will appear at Begonia Labs in Nashville on January 16.

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How Country Grew Up

Geoffrey Himes describes the marriage of country music and modern sensibilities

The conceit of Geoffrey Himes’ In-Law Country: How Emmylou Harris, Rosanne Cash, and Their Circle Fashioned a New Kind of Country Music, 1968-1985 is that a group of ambitious country and pop musicians found a way to make country even more adult than it had been previously.

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‘When You’re Dead We’ll Cherish You Again’

Poet Maria Zoccola brings Homeric mythology to small-town Tennessee in Helen of Troy, 1993

In her mesmerizing debut, Helen of Troy, 1993, poet Maria Zoccola merges the mythological and the modern, casting Helen of Troy as a restless housewife and mother in Sparta, Tennessee. Zoccola will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on January 14.

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Infinite Little Island

Playworld, a new novel by Adam Ross, observes a year in the life of a Manhattan teenager

In Playworld, novelist Adam Ross depicts a Manhattan teenager who ricochets between acting for television and bumbling in reality. Ross will discuss Playworld with Mayor Freddie O’Connell at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 6.

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