Chapter 16 - Part 355

Hidden Treasure, a Haunted House, and an Unlikely Trio of Detectives

In this debut novel, a boy braves bullies and worse to try to save his family home

By Tracy Barrett | April 13, 2015

April 13, 2015 In Matthew Baker’s debut middle-grade novel, If You Find This, eleven-year-old Nicholas breaks his grandfather out of a nursing home and enlists the aid of two unlikely allies to find the family heirlooms his grandfather insists he hid years earlier—all to keep his parents from having to sell their family home. Baker will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 17, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.; and again in Furman Hall, Room 114, at Vanderbilt University on April 20, 2015, at 7 p.m. Both events are free and open to the public.

L.A. Dark

In Sweet Nothing, mystery writer Richard Lange draws terse poetry from the lives of downtrodden Angelinos

By Ed Tarkington | April 10, 2015

April 10, 2015 Recovering drug addicts, compulsive gamblers, teenage mothers of teenage mothers, alcoholic philanderers—these are Richard Lange’s people. In his new collection, Sweet Nothing, Lange improbably draws elegant poetry and tragic, lingering beauty out of the thwarted, misbegotten denizens of twenty-first century Los Angeles. He will appear at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis at 6:30 p.m. on April 17, 2015.

Shake It Off

In So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed, Jon Ronson peers into the Internet abyss and challenges haters not to hate

By Steve Haruch | April 8, 2015

April 8, 2015Jon Ronson’s So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed examines the consequences—intended and otherwise—of public shaming via the Internet. The book features interviews with otherwise ordinary people made infamous by relatively harmless missteps gone viral. Ronson will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on April 14, 2015, at 6:30 p.m.

A Finely Drawn Character

Robert Gipe’s illustrated debut novel, Trampoline, introduces a troubled teen coming of age during an Appalachian coal war

By Michael Ray Taylor | April 7, 2015

April 7, 2015 It’s been a while since anyone produced a great American coming-of-age-novel, but Kingsport native Robert Gipe hits the mark with Trampoline, an inventive debut set in the coal country of Eastern Kentucky. Narrator Dawn Jewell, fifteen, is as smart as Scout Finch, more profane than Holden Caulfield, and as tough in a fight as Mattie Ross. Gipe tells her story not only in flawless prose but also with 220 comics-style drawings that keep the book grounded in the world of an Appalachian teenager.

Twice as Nice

East Tennessee poet Jesse Graves has won the prestigious Weatherford Award for the second time

By Mary Emily Vatt | April 1, 2015

April 1, 2015 The Weatherford Award is an honor bestowed by Berea College to highlight books that “best illuminate the challenges, personalities, and unique qualities of the Appalachian South.” Basin Ghosts by Johnson City poet Jesse Graves received the poetry prize again this year.

Strange Bedfellows

Pate McMichael talks with Chapter 16 about Klandestine, the story of an unlikely partnership that led to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

By Aram Goudsouzian | March 31, 2015

March 31, 2015 James Earl Ray did not, at first glance, seem like a foaming-at-the-mouth white supremacist, and conspiracy theories inevitably arose in the wake of his assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In his new book, Klandestine: How a Klan Lawyer and a Checkbook Journalist Helped James Earl Ray Cover Up His Crime, Pate McMichael combines rigorous archival research with a fast-paced narrative to explain how one of those conspiracies was created. McMichael will discuss the book at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on April 7, 2015, 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