Chapter 16 - Part 565

Ode to the Oyster

Roy Blount Jr. explains why “eating a raw oyster is like exchanging a soul kiss with the sea.”

By Margaret Renkl | November 5, 2010

November 5, 2010 In a long essay for The Huffington Post, Roy Blount Jr. considers this humble mollusk, a delectable morsel that is, for Blount, what madeleines were to Proust. “They make me think of my photographer friend, Slick Lawson, who lived in Nashville but hailed from Louisiana and loved New Orleans–maybe even more than I do, because he could stay up longer,” Blount writes.

Still Proud to Be a Coal Miner's Daughter

Loretta Lynn talks with Chapter 16 about the reissue of her bestselling memoir fifty years after her first single hit the charts

By Margaret Renkl | November 4, 2010

November 4, 2010 Loretta Lynn was born in a coal-mining community so far from the rhinestones of Nashville there wasn’t so much as a dirt road for getting down the mountain. People entered Butcher Holler, Kentucky, by way of a footpath, and they almost never left. Loretta did, of course, and fifty years after cutting her first single, she has piled up an Appalachian mountain’s worth of milestones and honors. She recently spoke with Chapter 16 about the re-release of her bestselling memoir, Coal Miner’s Daughter, and about a new tribute CD due to hit stores next week.

A Last Hurrah

Carpe Librum to close after the holidays

By Serenity Gerbman | November 3, 2010

November 4, 2010 Sad news from Knoxville today, as Carpe Librum Booksellers in the Bearden neighborhood announced it will close after this holiday season.

Beyond Halloween

With The Immortals J.T. Ellison takes her detective on a thrill ride into the world of teenage witchcraft

By Lyda Phillips | November 3, 2010

November 3, 2010 J.T. Ellison delivers her trademark blend of police procedural doused in the macabre with The Immortals, the fifth in her Nashville-based Taylor Jackson series. When the ritualistic murder of eight teenagers on Halloween shocks an upper-middle-class neighborhood that prides itself on its normality, homicide lieutenant Jackson and her team are plunged into a dark world of teenage Goths and black magic. Ellison will discuss The Immortals at Sherlock’s Books in Nashville on November 6 at 7 p.m.

Family Pride

Condoleezza Rice owes it all—her determination, her success, her quiet dignity—to her parents

By Anne Delana Reeves | November 2, 2010

November 2, 2010 John and Angelina Rice groomed their only child for an exceptional life. Condoleezza Rice’s new memoir, Extraordinary, Ordinary People, lovingly dedicated to her parents and her grandparents, is the former secretary of state’s testament to their strong values, “hard work, perfectly spoken English,” and, most importantly, their unrelenting focus on education. Her college-educated parents, Rice asserts, “were convinced that education was a kind of armor shielding me against everything—even the deep racism in Birmingham and across America.” Rice will discussExtraordinary, Ordinary People at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on November 3 at 6 p.m.

Building Stories

Robin Hood and James A. Crutchfield take readers on an architectural tour of Tennessee history

By Joe Nolan | November 1, 2010

November 1, 2010 It’s no mistake that the word history holds the word “story” within it. A new kind of history recorded by a pair of accomplished Middle Tennesseans— Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Robin Hood and James A. Crutchfield, author of fifty books—isn’t a dreary textbook full of forgettable facts, and it doesn’t feature the ponderous tones of an overbearing expert guiding you through predictable, well-worn paths of the Volunteer State’s bygone days. The pair recently spoke with Chapter 16 about their new book, Historic Nashville, which benefits the Tennessee Preservation Trust.

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