Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

High Stakes Whydunit

Rea Frey talks with Chapter 16 about her second thriller, Because You’re Mine

In Rea Frey’s second thriller, Because You’re Mine, a single mother and her young son confront dark forces. Frey will discuss the book at Star Line Books in Chattanooga on September 5; at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on September 10; and at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville on October 11-13.

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Eye of the Beholder

Ottessa Moshfegh discusses beauty, humor, and the ecstasy she finds in writing

By turns provoking and illuminating, Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation speaks to our modern anxieties and absurdities, revealing what endures inside us no matter how we try to numb or distract ourselves. Ottessa Moshfegh will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville on Oct. 11-13.

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Courting Jim Crow

Steve Luxenberg chronicles the characters behind Plessy v. Ferguson, the Supreme Court decision that sanctioned racial segregation

In Separate, Steve Luxenberg provides a rich, multi-layered narrative of race in 19th-century America, culminating with the landmark Plessy v. Ferguson case. Luxenberg will discuss Separate at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville on October 11-13.

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Real-Life Applications

Scott Hylbert’s debut thriller is scary because its implications are so authentic.

In the age of Craigslist killers, illicit mail-order drugs, and cryptocurrencies, debut Nashville author Scott Hylbert renders a thriller about a Silicon Valley service-for-hire startup that’s chilling in its implications.

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Rugged Country

Min Jin Lee discusses identity, diaspora, and resistance in her novel Pachinko

Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, a finalist for the National Book Award, follows a Korean family through four generations of migration, hardship, and survival, telling their interlocking stories in vivid detail. 

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Meeting in the Middle

Julia Watts’s new novel for teens finds room for friendship in the so-called culture wars

Quiver, Julia Watts’s new novel for teens, is a story of acceptance against all odds. 

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