Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

A Finely Drawn Tragedy

Anna Olswanger’s A Visit to Moscow depicts a modern exodus

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: In 1965, an American rabbi investigating persecution of Jews in the former Soviet Union escaped KGB handlers to make a remarkable discovery, as told in A Visit to Moscow, a graphic history by Memphis native Anna Olswanger.

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The Aroma of Life

Theresa Levitt’s Elixir chronicles an early collaboration between perfumers and chemists

In Elixir, historian Theresa Levitt shows how perfumers and chemists in revolutionary and post-revolutionary France set out to unveil the mystery of life. Levitt will discuss the book at Novel in Memphis on December 5.

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Cracking the Code

Gordon A. Martin revisits United States v. Lynd, the civil rights case that forever changed the South

FROM THE CHAPTER 16 ARCHIVE: Most Americans are familiar with the landmark civil-rights case Brown v. Board of Education. Less known is United States v. Lynd, the 1962 trial that paved the way for the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Count Them One by One: Black Mississippians Fighting for the Right to Vote is an account of the groundbreaking trial that put Hattiesburg, Mississippi, at the center of the civil-rights debate. Written by Gordon A. Martin, Jr., one of the Justice Department attorneys in the case, the book uses oral history, legal commentary, and first-person reportage to put readers on the front row of a trial that forever changed the nature of race relations in Mississippi and the South. 

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Chasing Tales

Ray Trotter’s short story collection of Southern gems shines

Ray Trotter assembles a stylized, bite-sized, pure personality of a debut short story collection, And Dogs to Chase Them, exploring the quirks and nuances of rural Southern living.

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A Murder on Campus

The psychology of deception takes center stage in R.J. Jacobs’ new thriller

R.J. Jacobs’ This Is How We End Things delivers a twisting, turning grad school murder mystery.

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A Different Dark

Jim Minick captures the human drama of a deadly F5 tornado in Without Warning

Jim Minick’s Without Warning: The Tornado of Udall, Kansas offers a gripping nonfiction narrative of the deadliest tornado in Kansas history. Minick will speak at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City on November 15.

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