Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Learning the Value of a Dollar

Dollar General CEO Cal Turner Jr. traces the humble beginnings of a multi-billion-dollar company

In My Father’s Business, Cal Turner Jr. shares his family’s incredible success story and the leadership lessons he’s learned along the way. Turner will appear in conversation with Dave Ramsey on May 18 at Lipscomb University in Nashville.

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Idler’s Manifesto

Alan Lightman makes the case for slow living with In Praise of Wasting Time

With In Praise of Wasting Time, Memphis native Alan Lightman delivers an eloquent argument for the necessity of idleness.

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The Power of Belief

Teens confront the issue of sexual abuse in Ashley Herring Blake’s latest YA novel

In her new YA novel, Girl Made of Stars, Ashley Herring Blake addresses complex cultural issues in the context of the everyday drama of high school. Blake will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 18 in conversation with novelist Lily Anderson.

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The Wrong Side of History

In Varina, Charles Frazier portrays the first lady of the Confederacy as a reluctant witness

Charles Frazier’s Varina returns to the era of Cold Mountain but focuses on the Southern elite who bear the historical burden of instigating the Civil War. Frazier will discuss Varina, in conversation with novelists Paula McLain and Ann Patchett, at the Nashville Public Library on May 14.

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Unanticipated Consequences

Sarah E. Igo’s The Known Citizen considers the case for privacy

In her sweeping, meticulously researched new book, The Known Citizen: A History of Privacy in Modern America, Sarah E. Igo charts the evolution of privacy as a peculiarly American principle. Igo will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 12.

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Trauma, Suffering, and Joy

Karen Spears Zacharias winds up her Appalachian trilogy

Karen Spears Zacharias’s Christian Bend is the final novel in a trilogy set in the small East Tennessee community of the same name. It adds new characters and plot twists to the major issues set up in the first two novels, Mother of Rain and Burdy.

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