Chapter 16 - Part 20

Defeating Dementia

Walter Mosley talks with Chapter 16 about aging, politics, and the many jobs of a prolific writer

By Michael Ray Taylor | September 2, 2011

September 2, 2011 In his new novel, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Walter Mosley handles themes of family, aging, and death with the confidence and grace of an author who has published thirty-nine books and received the PEN USA Lifetime Achievement Award. What may be more stunning than the brilliance of this novel, however, is that it was published within six months of both Mosley’s political memoir and the latest installment of his popular Leonid McGill detective series—just one of the several Mosley creations being developed for television, film, and the stage. Mosley recently spoke by phone with Chapter 16 in advance of his appearance at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. The event is free and open to the public.

The Beat Goes Down

Clyde Edgerton brilliantly captures the complex dance of music and race in a small Southern town in 1963

By Michael Ray Taylor | August 12, 2011

August 12, 2011 At barely 200 pages, The Night Train is Clyde Edgerton’s shortest book, and yet in its simple story of two musically inclined teenagers, one white and one black, it may surpass Walking Across Egypt and The Bible Salesman as his best. Edgerton will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.

Backwoods Noir

Ace Atkins—best known for his historical crime fiction—launches a contemporary series that captures a bleak Southern landscape

By Michael Ray Taylor | June 20, 2011

June 20, 2011 In The Ranger, veteran crime writer Ace Atkins brings disturbingly to life a Mississippi that is a gothic green hell of ignorance and corruption. Set in fictional Tibbehah County (think Yoknapatawpha thrust into the twenty-first century), the novel introduces Quinn Colson, on leave from yet another combat tour in Afghanistan to bury his uncle, the county sheriff. What Colson finds at home just ain’t right, and he intends to set things straight. Ace Atkins will read from The Ranger on June 21 at 6 p.m. at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis.

Future Flight

Greg Lindsay and John D. Karsada envision a future of instant cities built around airports

By Michael Ray Taylor | April 7, 2011

April 7, 2011 Cities of the future will be built from the airport outward, suggest John D. Karsada, a city planner and business professor, and Greg Lindsay, a journalist, in their new book, Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next. Greg Lindsay recently answered questions from Chapter 16 via email about the book and its vision of the future. He will discuss and sign copies of Aerotropolis: The Way We’ll Live Next on April 11 at 6 p.m. at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis.

Dating the Big Bang

David A. Weintraub explains the age of the universe—and the ways scientists have confirmed it

By Michael Ray Taylor | March 3, 2011

March 3, 2011 In How Old is the Universe?, David A. Weintraub, a professor of astronomy at Vanderbilt, gives a very readable history of astronomy, explaining how each milestone discovery—starting with those of the ancient Greeks—placed mankind closer to fixing the moment it all began. Weintraub will discuss How Old is the Universe? at the Vanderbilt Dyer Observatory on March 8 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 each or $10 per family.

First Blood

Holly Tucker talks with Chapter 16 about the macabre history of blood transfusion

By Michael Ray Taylor | March 1, 2011

March 1, 2011 Holly Tucker will discuss and sign copies of Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution on March 2 at 11:30 a.m. in the main Nashville Public Library. The event is part of the Thinking Out of the (Lunch) Box series, a joint venture of Vanderbilt University and the Nashville Public Library. At 11:30 a.m., lunch is served. At noon, the program begins. The event is free and open to the public.

The Rise and Fall of Treason in English History

By Allen Boyer and Mark Nicholls
Routledge
340 pages
$180

The book “explores the reasons why treason coalesced around specific offences agreed by both the monarch and the wider political nation, why it became an essential instrument of enforcement in high politics, and why, over the past three hundred years, it has gradually fallen into disuse while remaining on the statute book.”

~the publisher