Chapter 16 - Part 577

Kindle v. Paper

For this lifelong reader, it’s a false debate

By Serenity Gerbman | August 18, 2010

August 18, 2010 I am a reader, and this fact is as much a part of my self-image as being a mother, or a Southerner, or one who tans easily. It’s a proud kind of condition, that of the chronic reader, whose boasting that she can’t live without books is much like the lament of the genetically blessed that she can’t gain weight no matter what she eats. But I am a reader and not a collector, and that is an important distinction.

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.

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