Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

The Weight of Mountains

Mesha Maren’s debut novel, Sugar Run, is a tale of suspense and gritty social realism

In Sugar Run, her debut novel, Mesha Maren explores the complications of addiction, obsession, and rural poverty through the lens of an ex-convict’s love affairs with two captivating and self-destructive women. Maren will discuss Sugar Run at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 22.

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Nothing Left to Lose

A Sky for Us Alone, the debut YA novel by Nashville author Kristin Russell, portrays a struggling coal-mining community

Kristin Russell’s A Sky for Us Alone opens on Harlowe Compton’s eighteenth birthday. It’s a wonderful summer day in the country. It’s also the last time Harlowe will see his older brother alive. Russell will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 18.

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Double Album, Double World

In That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound, Daryl Sanders documents the making of Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde

In That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound, Nashville music journalist Daryl Sanders painstakingly and reverently narrates the making of Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, offering a window into the creative process of a genius and the crucial influence of Dylan’s Nashville collaborators in producing a singular work of art.

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You Just Have to Listen

In The Whispers by Greg Howard, a boy searches for his mother with the help of mysterious beings

In the debut middle-grade novel by Nashville author Greg Howard, a child turns to the “Whispers,” nearly invisible creatures in the woods, for help in solving his mother’s disappearance. Howard will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 15, at Star Line Books in Chattanooga on January 17, and at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on January 18.

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A Flawed Hero in Tumultuous Times

Preston Lauterbach’s Bluff City looks at the strange legacy of a civil-rights figure who worked as an FBI spy

Preston Lauterbach considers both the bravery and seeming treachery of a civil-rights photojournalist and FBI informant in Bluff City: The Secret Life of Photographer Ernest Withers. Lauterbach will appear at Novel in Memphis on January 14.

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Gwendolyn Blooms

In her new picture book, Alice Faye Duncan pays tribute to the legendary Gwendolyn Brooks

In A Song for Gwendolyn Brooks, Memphis children’s author Alice Faye Duncan captures the life of distinguished poet Gwendolyn Brooks.

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