Chapter 16 - Part 414

A Confluence of Greatness

Bill Bryson talks with Chapter 16 about Charles Lindbergh, Babe Ruth, and other historical figures great and small

By Michael Ray Taylor | October 9, 2013

October 9, 2013 Nonfiction author Bill Bryson may be best known for his witty travel writing, but he also has a gift for converting large swaths of history into readable narratives. His new book, One Summer: America, 1927, covers a small swath of history, but with novelistic grace and style. He recently talked with Chapter 16 prior to his appearance at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Of Flight and Flappers

Bill Bryson’s One Summer: America, 1927 chronicles five eventful months of popular history

By Michael Ray Taylor | October 9, 2013

October 9, 2013 Nonfiction author Bill Bryson is legendary for his ability to mine a readable story from a vast subject. In a twist, Bryson’s new book, One Summer: America, 1927, takes a deceptively narrow focus, describing events that occurred over a five-month period in Jazz Age America—but what a summer 1927 proved to be. Bryson will appear at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Reckoning with Mystery

Ayana Mathis discusses the mysteries of human experience, including her novel’s elusive protagonist

By Emily Choate | October 8, 2013

October 8, 2013 Hattie Shepherd, the woman at the center of Ayana Mathis’s debut novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie—made famous as the first selection of Oprah’s Book Club 2.0—has survived the Jim Crow South, a decades-long struggle with poverty, and life as the mother of eleven children. Today Mathis talks with Chapter 16 about Hattie’s complicated character. Mathis will appear at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Brat Out of Hell

With Doomed, cult hero Chuck Palahniuk brings Madison Spencer up from the depths of Perdition into Purgatory—AKA Los Angeles

By Ed Tarkington | October 7, 2013

October 7, 2013 With Doomed—the sequel to 2011’s Damned—Chuck Palahniuk brings Madison Spencer back from hell to roam the earth as a specter, haunting the ex-schoolmates who once tormented her and the insufferable parents who ignored her, ultimately finding herself at the center of yet another diabolical plot by the Evil One. Chuck Palahniuk will discuss Doomed at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Making the Ancient World Fresh and Relevant

Percy Jackson is back as Rick Riordan releases another long-awaited installment of his Heroes of Olympus series

By Tina LoTufo | October 4, 2013

October 4, 2013 Rick Riordan continues his popular Heroes of Olympus series with the fourth installment, The House of Hades, in which Percy Jackson and his friends head to the very gates of Hell. Today Riordan talks with Chapter 16 prior to his appearance at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Life Among the Fallen

Allan Gurganus takes a darkly comic look at small-town life in Local Souls

By Maria Browning | October 3, 2013

October 3, 2013 In Local Souls, Allan Gurganus offers up a trio of comic novellas set in fictional Falls, North Carolina, a twenty-first-century village where the insular coziness of small-town life is being diminished by newcomers, digital communication, and natural calamity. Gurganus will appear at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13, 2013.

I Gotta Sing!

By Alice Faye Duncan
WaterBrook
40 pages
$14.99

“A whole barnyard makes noise ‘in the Spirit of joy’ throughout this raucous picture book, a sweetly heartwarming sing-along by Duncan. Kellam conveys comfort and happiness as the loved ones reflect sunny enthusiasm in this gladdening rendition of the Black American religious folk song ‘I’m Goin’a Sing When the Spirit Says Sing.’”

~Publishers Weekly