Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

The Little Bookstore That Could

With the launch of Star Line Books, Star Lowe celebrates her faith in Chattanooga readers

February 2, 2016 Star Line Books, Chattanooga’s only independent bookstore, opened last August just across Market Street from the famed Chattanooga Choo-Choo. Owner Star Lowe is passionate about books, her customers, and the Chattanooga community. She only wishes she had more time to read.

Read more

The Desperate Housewives of Hong Kong

In Janice Y. K. Lee’s The Expatriates, Americans abroad learn to persevere

January 25, 2016 Janice Y. K. Lee’s new novel, The Expatriates, depicts the intersecting lives of three women in Hong Kong. When their world of privilege is thrown into disarray, they learn how to overcome trauma and rebuild their lives. Janice Y. K. Lee will read from The Expatriates at Parnassus Books in Nashville on January 26, 2016, at 6:30 p.m.

Read more

A Hidden Mission and Adventure

Karen Spears Zacharias’s newest novel, Burdy, is a sequel to Mother of Rain

January 22, 2016 Burdy is Karen Spears Zacharias’ second novel based on Christian Bend, “a way-back place” in the mountains of East Tennessee. It features Burdy, one of the vividly-drawn characters of that tiny community, as she tracks down a townsman presumed dead after the Normandy invasion.

Read more

Longings so Large

A woman considers her troubled childhood in Elizabeth Strout’s My Name is Lucy Barton

January 19, 2016 In My Name is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout takes readers into the mind and heart of a woman who has survived a troubled childhood, revealing a spirit that is both beautiful and deeply wounded. Strout will appear at the Nashville Public Library on January 21, 2016.

Read more

A Fatal Gathering

Human traffickers bring harsh reality to a bachelor party in Chris Bohjalian’s latest novel

January 12, 2016 Chris Bohjalian’s new novel, The Guest Room, brings the violence of the international sex trade to a well-to-do New York suburb, as a bachelor party becomes the scene of a bid for freedom by two young women held by Russian mobsters. Bohjalian will appear at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis January 13, 2016.

Read more

Portrait of the Artist as a Screenwriter

Stewart O’Nan’s latest novel captures F. Scott Fitzgerald’s quest for authenticity in Hollywood

January 7, 2016 In his novel West of Sunset, Stewart O’Nan imagines F. Scott Fitzgerald’s final years, a time when he tried to make a fresh start in Hollywood. O’Nan will appear at Crosstown Arts in Memphis on January 12, 2016, at 6 p.m.

Read more
TAKE THE SHORT READER SURVEY! CHAPTER 16 SURVEYOR SURVEYING