Chapter 16 - Part 558

Beneath All the Sex and Violence

Eric Jerome Dickey talks with Chapter 16 about the hard work that goes into his stylish thrillers

By Maria Browning | August 17, 2010

August 17, 2010 Memphis native Eric Jerome Dickey has been turning out fast-paced, sexy, wildly popular novels since 1996. His latest, Tempted by Trouble, puts a timely twist on the thriller genre with a protagonist driven to crime by the economic downturn. Prior to his book signings this month in Memphis and Nashville, Dickey answered questions from Chapter 16 about the work that goes into his remarkably successful books, and about the mysterious appeal of his violent, morally compromised characters.

Talk Radio

Stephen Usery chats with Chapter 16 about Book Talk, his weekly author-interview program on WYPL

By Paul V. Griffith | August 16, 2010

August 16, 2010 In 2002 Stephen Usery began working as one of a rotating corps of interviewers on Book Talk, a long-running radio show that features local and touring authors. Originally a segment of the Memphis Public Library’s radio-reading program, Book Talk, has become a vital part of the Bluff City’s literary life. From Madison Smartt Bell to Mary Higgins Clark, Usery’s calm demeanor and innovative questions have kept a remarkably broad selection of authors on their toes. Book Talk is broadcast Saturday nights from 6 to 7 p.m. on WYPL FM98.3.

Beyond Buy Buy Baby

A new mother considers the hard-earned lessons of the NICU

By Beth Waltemath | August 13, 2010

August 13, 2010 Last weekend I stopped by the local baby superstore and was struck by how much our newborn’s story has diverged from the dream the store is peddling. Margaret Grace’s metal hospital crib is a far cry from the nursery suites of Buy Buy Baby.

Spreading the Wealth

Rebecca Skloot’s foundation provides its first scholarships to the descendants of Henrietta Lacks

By Margaret Renkl | August 13, 2010

August 13, 2010 In 1951, a medical researcher at Johns Hopkins took cells from the cervix of Henrietta Lacks, an impoverished Baltimore woman who subsequently died of cancer. It was an age that predated any notion of informed consent, and neither Henrietta nor any member of her family gave permission for doctors to perform research on her tissue sample, which ultimately yielded the first immortal cell line in human history and became the basis for a multibillion-dollar research industry.

Short-Listed

Adam Ross is nominated for the 2010 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize

By Margaret Renkl | August 12, 2010

August 12, 2010 When a debut novel gets this much media attention and inspires this kind of intense, high-level conversation among reviewers like Slate’s Hanna Rosin and The New Yorker’s Margaret Talbot, it was bound to happen: Adam Ross’s Mr. Peanut has made the short list for The Center for Fiction’s 2010 Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize.

The Neglected Survivors

Kathleen Koch writes a hopeful account of Hurricane Katrina’s impact on the Mississippi coast

By Maria Browning | August 12, 2010

August 12, 2010The relentless news coverage of New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina obscured the fact that the Mississippi Gulf coast was just as devastated by the storm. In Rising from Katrina, former CNN reporter Kathleen Koch, a one-time resident of the Mississippi coastal town of Bay St. Louis, writes about the destruction there and the residents’ heroic struggle to rebuild. Koch will discuss her book at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on August 12 at 6 p.m.

Isabel and the Invisible World

By Alan Lightman, illustrated by Ramona Kaulitzki
MIT Kids Press
40 pages
$18.99

“In simple, engaging language, complemented by luminous artwork from best-selling illustrator Ramona Kaulitzki, author and physicist Alan Lightman unveils the hidden world of light waves—the ones you can see and the ones you can’t.”

~ the publisher