A Publication of Humanities Tennessee

Charlotte, Sixty Years Later

By Margaret Renkl

April 23, 2012 Michael Sims is a curious—but not a nosy—biographer, as Chapter 16‘s Serenity Gerbman pointed out in her review of Sims’s bestselling 2011 book, The Story of Charlotte’s Web: “White was famously reclusive and—strange as it may seem for a biographer—Sims understands and respects that need for privacy. Allowing White’s words and experiences to speak for themselves, he offers readers a deeper understanding not only of the life and mind that created Charlotte’s Web, but of the creative process that led to the book and of the sheer work it entailed. The Story of Charlotte’s Web is quite literally that: a biography of the book itself. How did it come to be? What forces and experiences throughout White’s life shaped him and converged to bring his timeless classic into being?”

What E-Books Really Cost

By Margaret Renkl

April 20, 2012 The Justice Department rode in on a white charger last week to defend the American consumer from predatory pricing in the e-book market. The hitch? Justice wasn’t aiming for Amazon, the online goliath that’s selling e-books at a loss to drive sales of its Kindle e-reader (and, not coincidentally, create a de facto monopoly of the e-book market). Instead, the target is Apple and five U.S. publishers destined for extinction if Amazon realizes what increasingly looks like its ultimate goal: to become an entirely self-contained, in-house publishing industry—Amazon the agent, publisher, distributor, and bookstore. It’s not entirely unreasonable to wonder if, somewhere deep in the bowels of its corporate megalopolis, Amazon is preparing to beta-test an e-author, too.

Ann Patchett Is On Another Roll

By Margaret Renkl

April 19, 2012 Since last May, when she published a bestselling novel (State of Wonder) and simultaneously announced that she and Karen Hayes were opening a bookstore in Nashville (Parnassus Books, now the most famous independent bookstore in the country), Ann Patchett has been having what she calls “a media-heavy moment.” In fact it’s been a media-heavy year, and the spotlight shows no sign of dimming. Patchett has been shortlisted for the Orange Prize, written an op-ed piece for The New York Times, made Time magazine’s list of the hundred most influential people in the world, and appeared on the PBS NewsHour—all in less than thirty-six hours.

"That Uncertain Country Where Faith and Science Collide"

By Margaret Renkl

April 18, 2012 Chris Scott, who has written book reviews and conducted author interviews for Chapter 16 since the site was launched in 2009, and who reviewed books for the Nashville Scene for years before that, is also both a geologist by day and an aspiring novelist by night (and by weekends, and by vacation days). The book Scott has recently finished revising, Written in Stone, is a novel of suspense that combines the science he conducts by day and the writing he does by night. It is also a quarterfinalist for the 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

Under Water

By Margaret Renkl

April 16, 2012 Amid the many books and articles commemorating the anniversary of the date the “unsinkable” Titanic sank to the floor of the Atlantic ocean a hundred years ago, Memphis native Hampton sides got perhaps the most visually arresting assignment of the bunch: in a cover story for the April issue of National Geographic, Sides describes the way technology has changed what we know about the ship.

Firing Back

By Margaret Renkl

April 13, 2012 Chapter 16 readers know Ashley Judd as the author of a memoir, All That is Bitter & Sweet, and as an advocate for children with AIDS and victims of sexual violence. Nashville readers know her as Naomi’s daughter and Wynnona’s little sister. But to the rest of the world, Ashley Judd is a celebrity, an award-winning actor who’s had leading roles in films like Smoke, Kiss The Girls, and De-Lovely. And because she’s a celebrity, star rags and bloggers have always felt entitled to comment on (read scathingly criticize) her appearance. But Judd’s not taking it any more.

TAKE THE SHORT READER SURVEY! CHAPTER 16 SURVEYOR SURVEYING