Chapter 16 - Part 470

Inside the Nightmare

Novelist Sarah McCoy kneads together one family’s Third-Reich past and another’s Texas-border present

By Lyda Phillips | July 24, 2012

July 24, 2012 In The Baker’s Daughter Sarah McCoy delivers an intimate and nuanced view of people trapped in the nightmare culture of Aryan supremacy and draws an intriguing parallel to the current debate over immigration. McCoy will discuss The Baker’s Daughter at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

Exquisite Intricacy

Bobbie Ann Mason talks to Chapter 16 about drawing art out of life

By Ed Tarkington | July 23, 2012

July 23, 2012 Since her first published story, “Offerings,” was plucked from the slush pile in 1980 by New Yorker fiction editor Roger Angell, Bobbie Ann Mason has fashioned a career that is far more unique and distinct than its association with literary movements such as the “Dirty Realism” or “Minimalist” style might imply. Mason’s stories and novels are at heart studies in intimacy: the private, painstaking, sometimes brutally honest examination of interior lives, written in a style that suggests a private, unspoken confidence between reader and author. Bobbie Ann Mason will discuss The Girl in the Blue Beret at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

History Begins at Home

In The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation, John F. Baker Jr. uncovers the story of his own family—and the entire American experiment

By Todd Dills | July 20, 2012

July 20, 2012 When Joel F. Baker Jr. launched into what became a three-and-some-decades-long research project on the history of his family on his mother’s side, writing a book was most certainly the farthest thing from his thoughts. He was in the seventh grade, after all. But he was driven by a curiosity that never waned in subsequent years—a curiosity that girds the upbeat spirit of The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation, a rare hybrid of oral history, traditional chronicle, and memoir. In it Baker brings alive both antebellum and post-bellum life on a quintessentially Middle Tennessee plantation, tightly weaving throughout the quality of urgency that has characterized his life’s pursuit. Baker will discuss The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14 at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

The Old Grief of Blood

Tom Franklin’s new whodunit is a searing meditation on the nature of friendship and loss

By Ed Tarkington | July 19, 2012

July 19, 2012 In Tom Franklin’s latest novel, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter—the novel’s title is derived from an old method for teaching elementary school students how to spell Mississippi—simultaneously paradisiacal and perilous forests form the thematic center of a compelling literary thriller that skillfully blends the conventions of crime fiction with sensitive examinations of Faulkner Country’s inescapable concerns: race, love, family secrets, and the twin demons of longing and regret. Franklin will discuss Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter at the twenty-fourth annual Southern Festival of Books, held October 12-14, 2012, at Legislative Plaza in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

Up Close and Personal

Just in time for the London Summer Olympics, Chris Cleave—author of the international bestseller Little Bee—delivers a poignant and suspenseful tale about the interior lives of elite track cyclists

By Ed Tarkington | July 18, 2012

July 18, 2012 Chris Cleave’s second novel, Little Bee enjoyed enormous critical and popular success. A devastatingly emotional but immensely readable tale about a young Nigerian refugee and a suburban London woman whose lives are drawn together by happenstance, Little Bee became a surprise hit, largely due to word of mouth. The novel has over two million copies in print and is being developed into a film by Nicole Kidman. Now, with Gold, his sweeping new novel about an intense competition between two Olympic cyclists, Cleave is poised to repeat that success. He will discuss and sign copies of Gold on July 24 at 6:15 p.m. as part of the Salon@615 series at the Nashville Public Library. The event is free and open to the public.

Rules to a Popular Book

Alice Randall’s new novel draws attention and debate among readers

By Tom Markham | July 18, 2012

July 18, 2012 Alice Randall’s new book Ada’s Rules, part novel, part autobiography, and part self-help book, continues to generate new discussion and appeal as the summer goes on. Ada’s Rules is the fourth novel from the songwriter and writer-in-residence at Vanderbilt University, and it has been met with an enthusiastic reception among readers and critics alike.

Tias and Primas: On Knowing and Loving the Women Who Raise Us

By Prisca Dorcas Mojica Rodríguez, illustrated by Josie Del Castillo
Seal Press
304 pages
$30

“Within these pages, I found my abuela, my tías and my primas — laughing, crying, and nodding alongside me. This book is a gift of understanding, and loving one’s family, even when our families are complicated and painful. It’s a beautiful reminder of the power of storytelling and the profound connection of kinship.”

~ Paola Mendoza, author, organizer and filmmaker