Chapter 16 - Part 556

Saint Pioneer Feminist

Journalist Bill Briggs traces the canonization of an unlikely miracle worker

By Anne Delana Reeves | January 31, 2011

January 31, 2011 Former Nashville Banner reporter Bill Briggs, now a journalist with MSNBC.com, has written a masterful page-turner, a book that serves as a testament to tenacious research, graceful prose, and a true journalist’s skeptical nature. By following the beatification of Mother Théodore, a nineteenth-century American nun, The Third Miracle: An Ordinary Man, a Medical Mystery, and a Trial of Faith uncovers the secret saint-making practices of the Catholic Church. Ultimately, of course, it is a story about the age-old conflict between faith and science. Briggs will discuss the book at the offices of McNeely Piggott & Fox, in Nashville, on February 1 at 5:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Against Amazon

The Internet giant plans to build two distribution centers in Tennessee, and bookstore owners aren’t happy

By Margaret Renkl | January 29, 2011

January 29, 2011 If you buy your books from Amazon.com, you pay no sales tax; if you buy your books from your friendly neighborhood bookseller– or from the nearest mega-Walmart– you do. That’s because Amazon is a web-only retailer without a physical presence in the state. But if the Internet behemoth opens two massive distributions centers in East Tennessee as planned, it will have one. Nevertheless, Tennessee lawmakers have no plans to require Amazon, which will bring up to 2,000 much-needed jobs to the state, to charge sales tax on books ordered by Tennesseans.

No Delusion

Garrison Keillor reads a poem by Darnell Arnoult

By Margaret Renkl | January 29, 2011

January 29, 2011 For poets, the closest thing to winning the lottery has to be for Garrison Keillor to read their poems on his public radio program, The Writer’s Almanac. Today, Darnell Arnoult, Chapter 16 board member and Writer in Residence at Lincoln Memorial University, won the lottery for the third time when Keillor read her poem, “Psychology Today.” The poem begins,

Have you ever had
delusions of grandeur?

The Past at Present

Bestselling historical novelist Robert Hicks talks with Chapter 16 about historic preservation

By Paul McCoy | January 27, 2011

January 27, 2011 Novelist Robert Hicks was standing in the McGavock family parlor of Carnton Plantation, talking about Carnton Plantation: Where the Old South Died, when an antique clock struck. Hicks fell silent as three distinct metallic chimes drifted through the stately chambers of the home. “You see? Right there,” he said. “Imagine this parlor in November of 1864 and the hundreds of wounded lying here, in the halls, in the bedrooms. The sound of that clock. Every hour on the hour. That’s a sound they would have heard.”

"The Great Equalizer is Not Death but Stupidity"

By Amy Wright | January 26, 2011

January 26, 2011 Amy Wright is the author of two chapbooks, There Are No New Ways To Kill A Man, and Farm. Her work has also appeared in a number of journals or collections, including American Letters & Commentary, Quarterly West, and The Southern Poetry Anthology, Volume III: Southern Appalachia. She is the prose editor of Zone 3 Press and an assistant professor of creative writing at Austin Peay State University. She spends her time conducting interviews with various artists and writers. Examples are available at Zone 3. Amy Wright will read from Farm at the Montgomery County Public Library on January 27 at 5:30 p.m.

Fairy-Tale Frolic

Jennifer Trafton debuts with a charming tale for young readers

By Lyda Phillips | January 25, 2011

January 25, 2011 In The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic, Jennifer Trafton creates a delightful fairy-tale world. This beautifully illustrated novel introduces a land inhabited by very serious Leafeaters; overly hilarious Rumblebumps; a spoiled young king who loves pepper and is saved by the love of a cat; Worvil the Worrier, whose imagination paralyzes him; and especially Persimmony Smudge, an irrepressible and courageous heroine. The inhabitants call their home “The Island at the Center of Everything,” but as it turns out, it’s a sleeping giant who’s really at the center of everything. Trafton will read from and sign copies of The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic at Cover To Cover Bookstore in Arlington on Jan. 27 at 5 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