Chapter 16 - Part 34

Can You See Me Now?

With her fifth and most ambitious novel, novelist Jeanne Ray has written a marvelous meditation on middle-aged obscurity

By Tina LoTufo | May 24, 2012

May 24, 2012 Any woman of a certain age who has ever walked through a busy high-school hallway without a plate of cupcakes in her hands knows what it feels like to be completely invisible. Jeanne Ray’s new novel, Calling Invisible Women, is a modern fable about showing up—literally and metaphorically—for your own life, even under the pressure of other people’s incessant expectations. Ray, who is the mother of novelist Ann Patchett, will read from her new novel at Parnassus Books in Nashville on May 31 at 6:30 p.m.

A Recipe for Disaster

Michael Lee West whips up a suspenseful soufflé of subterfuge and skullduggery

By Tina LoTufo | April 27, 2012

April 27, 2012 Teeny Templeton is back in the soup, and it’s not one of her own quirky recipes, like I’m-Scared-to-Try-New-Things Tilapia with Orange-You-Glad-You-Took-a-Risk Marinade. Teeny has witnessed a murder—or at least thinks she has—and now must solve the crime before the police pin it on her, again. A Teeny Bit of Trouble follows Michael Lee West’s hapless heroine from Charleston, South Carolina, to Bonaventure, Georgia, in search of the truth—and the perfect peach pie (recipe included). West will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on May 5 at 6 p.m.

The Hunger in Our Souls

Award-winning children’s author Bill Myers talks with Chapter 16 about what’s popular with YA readers today and laments the darkness he finds there

By Tina LoTufo | April 26, 2012

April 26, 2012 Speculative fiction is an umbrella term that includes fantasy, science fiction, horror, and other highly imaginative genres, often incorporating a supernatural bent. Christian writer Bill Myers is a bestselling, award-winning, and highly prolific author of such stories for young adults. Along with Heather Burch, author of Halflings, and Jill Williamson, author of Replication: The Jason Experiment, Myers will make three stops in Middle Tennessee next week: on April 27, he will appear at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Brentwood at 6 p.m.; on April 28, they will be at Lifeway Christian Store in Murfreesboro at noon, and at Parnassus Books in Nashville at 4 p.m. These events, designed especially for teen readers, will include interaction with the authors, scavenger hunts, and the chance to win a Nook or Kindle e-reader.

Setting Out for the Promised Land

Marching to the Mountaintop, Ann Bausum’s overview of civil-rights history for young readers, begins in Memphis

By Tina LoTufo | April 3, 2012

April 3, 2012 On February 1, 1968, Echol Cole and Robert Walker were crushed to death when a loose shovel fell into the mechanism of the garbage truck in which they were riding. Eleven days later, nearly one thousand sanitation, sewer, and roadway workers in Memphis began a city-wide strike for safer and more humane working conditions, higher and more consistent wages, and the right to have a voice in their own treatment. Two months after that, Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated on a motel balcony. Marching to the Mountaintop, Ann Bausum’s careful and thorough portrayal of this pivotal period, shows young readers how one event can set in motion forces powerful enough to change a city, a state, a nation—and maybe even the history of the world. Bausum will appear in Memphis at The Booksellers at Laurelwood on April 5 at 6 p.m.

Twenty Million and Counting

Karen Kingsbury talks with Chapter 16 about Loving, the concluding novel in her wildly popular Bailey Flanigan series

By Tina LoTufo | March 30, 2012

March 30, 2012 Nashville novelist Karen Kingsbury has more than twenty million books in print and boasts a quarter of a million Facebook fans who look forward to the latest installment in her series fiction, stand-alone titles, and children’s books. Kingsbury’s newest offering, Loving, is the fourth and final book in the Bailey Flanigan series. She recently answered questions from Chapter 16 via email.

Showing Up for Life

In a new memoir, Margaret Overton describes her journey from divorce and disease to clarity and compassion

By Tina LoTufo | March 28, 2012

March 28, 2012 “On Memorial Day 2002 I woke up and decided to leave my husband,” begins Margaret Overton’s memoir, Good in a Crisis. Her husband of twenty years, a surgeon, does not object to the divorce as it gives him more time to spend with his young girlfriend. As if this situation were not stressful enough, Overton, a Chicago anesthesiologist with two teenaged daughters, suffers a brain aneurysm a few months later. Good in a Crisis is the story of how she survives the dissolution of her marriage and a life-threatening illness at the same time—with the help of her family and friends and a healthy sense of humor—and all the lessons she learns (mostly the hard way) in the process. Margaret Overton will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 4 at 6:30 p.m.

Camilla and the Caterpillars

By Frances Figart, illustrated by Matt Brass
Smokies Life
68 pages
$14.95

A young girl’s encounter with an extraordinary caterpillar in the Great Smoky Mountains leads her and her family on a quest to plant a national park right in their own backyard.

This environmentally themed chapter book for ages 6 through 11 introduces young readers to important ecological concepts including habitat loss and the interdependence of native species and offers a compelling grassroots solution through native-plant gardening that invites anyone to take part in addressing the growing biodiversity crisis.

~the publisher