Fiction | Chapter 16

A Theory of Love and History

In fiction and essays, Julian Barnes proves that truth is multiple

By Sean Kinch | March 21, 2016

March 21, 2016 Reading Julian Barnes is a paradoxical pleasure: the author makes clear, in book after book, that literature provides no reassurances, no uncanny access to wisdom or happiness, no affirmation to troubled readers—and yet the experience of reading his work is strangely comforting. Now seventy, Barnes keeps exploring profound questions and continues to produce brilliantly conflicting answers. He will give a free public reading at Vanderbilt University’s Ingram Hall in Nashville on March 23, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.

A Perfect Marriage, Interrupted

In a new thriller, Nashville’s J.T. Ellison plots the unlikely disappearance of a golden-boy med student and the ensuing hell for his young wife

By Liz Garrigan | March 15, 2016

March 15, 2016 Aubrey and Josh Hamilton have been inseparable since they were tweens, and life is looking pretty good for them until Josh mysteriously disappears, and authorities finger Aubrey as the suspect. J.T. Ellison will discuss her new standalone mystery, No One Knows, at Parnassus Books in Nashville on March 22, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.

If the Ghosts Don’t Get Her, the Coon Suppers Might

Jeff Crook’s acerbic crime-scene photographer is forced by fate, and restless spirits, to solve another mystery

By Betsy Phillips | March 4, 2016

March 4, 2016 In Jeff Crook’s The Covenant, a recovering heroin addict with a less-than-steady job as a crime-scene photographer can’t afford to turn down work. But when she stumbles across a murder that local police seem disinclined to solve, she starts to wish she’d never left Memphis.

The Red Door Inn

March 1, 2016

“Liz Johnson is a rock-solid writer. Any book by my friend Liz will be creative, well researched, and intriguing.”

–Max Lucado

Going Gonzo

Tim Dorsey takes wacky crime on the road in Coconut Cowboy, his latest Serge A. Storms novel

By Michael Ray Taylor | February 25, 2016

February 25, 2016 Tim Dorsey’s Coconut Cowboy is the nineteenth installment in a gonzo series that seems as indestructible as its history-loving and occasionally psychotic protagonist, Serge A. Storms. Dorsey will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on February 27, 2016, at 2 p.m.

Things Change, and Often for the Better

Bestselling author Debbie Macomber talks with Chapter 16 about A Girl’s Guide to Moving On

By Serenity Gerbman | February 23, 2016

February 23, 2016 In A Girl’s Guide to Moving On, bestselling author Debbie Macomber continues to explore the experiences of women whose lives take an unexpected turn. Macomber recently answered questions via email in advance of her appearance at the Nashville Public Library on February 24, 2016, at 6:15 p.m.

I Gotta Sing!

By Alice Faye Duncan
WaterBrook
40 pages
$14.99

“A whole barnyard makes noise ‘in the Spirit of joy’ throughout this raucous picture book, a sweetly heartwarming sing-along by Duncan. Kellam conveys comfort and happiness as the loved ones reflect sunny enthusiasm in this gladdening rendition of the Black American religious folk song ‘I’m Goin’a Sing When the Spirit Says Sing.’”

~Publishers Weekly