Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Paging the Cake-Mix Doctor

Anne Byrn comes to the rescue with a whole new set of recipes for real life

November 4, 2014 Anne Byrn—famously known as the Cake Mix Doctor—talks with Chapter 16 about surviving her own culinary emergencies, the gift she brought Julia Child, and why home-cooking really is better than takeout (and not much harder to pull off). Bryne will discuss her new cookbook, Anne Byrn Saves the Day! at Parnassus Books in Nashville on November 11, 2014, at 6:30 p.m.

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Clever Monster

In Octopus, Richard Schweid considers the cephalopod

October 22, 2013 Richard Schweid, a Nashville native who now lives in Barcelona, has written books on eels and cockroaches, and with Octopus he continues his fascination with the less-cute creatures of the natural world. This lively book introduces readers to a creature who is strange, tasty, and surprisingly intelligent.

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Race and Justice in Reconstruction-Era New Orleans

Michael A. Ross recovers the fascinating story of a forgotten kidnapping case that reveals the complexities of Reconstruction-era politics

October 21, 2014 In The Great New Orleans Kidnapping Case, historian Michael Ross adapts the genres of true-crime narrative and courtroom drama to recover a forgotten story that captured national attention nearly 150 years ago. In clear, bright prose Ross deftly sorts through the complexities of Reconstruction-era politics to tell the story of two mixed-race women accused of abducting a white toddler. He will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on October 28, 2014, at 6:30 p.m.

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When It Works, It Never Ends

Michael S. Roth argues for the necessity of a liberal-arts education

October 17, 2014 Liberal education, argues Michael S. Roth, is a tool that “matters far beyond the university because it increases our capacity to understand the world, contribute to it, and reshape ourselves. When it works, it never ends.” Roth will give a free public lecture at Rhodes College in Memphis on October 23, 2014, at 6 p.m.

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The Diary of Nannie Haskins Williams: A Southern Woman’s Story of Rebellion and Reconstruction, 1863–1890

The Diary of Nannie Haskins Williams: A Southern Woman’s Story of Rebellion and Reconstruction, 1863–1890

The Diary of Nannie Haskins Williams: A Southern Woman’s Story of Rebellion and Reconstruction, 1863–1890

Minoa Uffelman
Univ Tennessee Press
371 pages
$34.95

“Nannie’s diary may record only one woman’s experience, but she represents a generation of young women born into a society based on slavery but who faced mature adulthood in an entirely new world of decreasing farm values, increasing industrialization, and young women entering the workforce. Civil War scholars and students alike will learn much from this firsthand account of coming-of-age during the Civil War.”

–From the Publisher

Facing the Music

Facing the Music

Facing the Music

Jennifer Knapp
Howard Books
304 page
$24

“Facing the Music is a fascinating read on so many levels. Knapp is brutally honest about herself, about what she experienced, and what was happening in her head and her heart as she grew in her relationship with music, Christianity, and her sexual orientation. It pulls back the curtain on the Christian music industry to look at the business behind the worship and the squeaky clean image. It’s a story that many of us will be able to relate to, in our own way, and readers of Facing the Music will find not only Knapp’s story, but their own as well.”

–Ross Murray, Director of News, GLAAD

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