Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Hot Time in the City

Hermione Hoby’s Neon in Daylight is set during an endless NYC heat wave

For the young protagonist of Hermione Hoby’s debut novel, Neon in Daylight, an alcoholic writer and his danger-seeking daughter lend an alluring glamor to a sweltering Manhattan summer. Hoby will discuss Neon in Daylight at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 1 at 6:30 p.m.

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After Tragedy

Two men’s lives are forever changed in Steve Yarbrough’s The Unmade World

The paths of two very different men intersect in Steve Yarbrough’s The Unmade World, and both lives are changed forever. This tale of entwined fates becomes a meditation on guilt, innocence, and ordinary injustice, as well as a story about how we seek meaning even in the face of life’s most baffling cruelties.

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Discovering the Right Stuff

Astronaut Scott Kelly tells the story of his quest for the stars

In Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, Scott Kelly and Margaret Lazarus Dean describe the making of an astronaut and the almost yearlong mission that made him a living science experiment in extended space flight.

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Testing Positive for Hope

Gregory Boyle offers a lifeline to gang members in Los Angeles

In his latest nonfiction book, Barking to the Choir, Gregory Boyle highlights a central tenet of gang-member rehabilitation: the importance of kinship. Boyle will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 29.

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A Bit of a Renaissance

Mrs. Fletcher is Tom Perrotta’s timely—and timeless—tale of a mother and a son and an empty nest

Whether he’s dissecting student-teacher power games, riffing on overinvolved parenting, or taking inspiration from an actual doomsday cult, Tom Perrotta writes books that are slick, delightful explorations of classic suburban mores garnished with contemporary concerns. Perrotta will discuss his new novel, Mrs. Fletcher, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on August 9 at 6:30 p.m.

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