Dangerous People
How Country Grew Up
‘When You’re Dead We’ll Cherish You Again’
Infinite Little Island
Blood Oranges
Chapter 16
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Inundated

Rhodes professor Jeffrey H. Jackson considers the Paris flood of 1910—and its eerie similarity to New Orleans after Katrina

By Fernanda Moore |

A century ago, the City of Light went dark as the river Seine overflowed its banks. Memphis professor Jeffrey H. Jackson describes the forgotten Parisian flood of 1910 and the massive human effort required to save the city. Jackson will read at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on January 19 at 6 p.m.; at Vanderbilt University on January 21 at 4 p.m.; and at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on January 21 at 7 p.m.

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Ancient Rememberings

Alan Lightman recalls the Memphis Cotton Carnival of 1955

By Alan Lightman |

Alan Lightman has explored the mysteries of both science and spirit in his fiction, taking readers from Einstein’s alternate worlds (Einstein’s Dreams) to a ghostly encounter in a mortuary (Ghost). In Screening Room (due from Pantheon in early 2011), Lightman will venture into his own childhood memories of Memphis during the tumultuous 1950s and 60s: “This book is about Memphis and the South in the 1950s and 1960s; my family and the family movie business; the music, food, and culture of Memphis; racism in Memphis and the South; Boss Crump, Elvis, Martin Luther King, etc.,” he writes. In this excerpt, the opening chapter of the fictionalized memoir, he provides a glimpse—though a child’s innocent eyes—of the old social order of a city poised on the brink of change.

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All The King's Women

Journalist Alanna Nash plays sex therapist in this often-disturbing look at Elvis’s most intimate relationships

By Paul V. Griffith |

He had everything—talent, adoring fans, firearms, cash, cars, and mansions—but most importantly, he had women. Lots of women. In Baby, Let’s Play House, music journalist Alanna Nash uses Elvis’s Bacchanalian appetites as the starting point for an exhaustive look at his psychology. Though not always clinically successful, Nash’s portrayal of the King as a doomed sexual superboy is an enthralling, if guilty, pleasure. Alanna Nash will read from and sign copies of Baby, Let’s Play House at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis in January 7 at 6 p.m.

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Looking Beyond the Confederate Dead

Allen Tate’s wife, Helen, remembers her late husband and discusses his role in the Fugitive Movement

By Clay Risen |

Poet, novelist, and essayist Allen Tate (1899-1979) was one of twentieth-century America’s most important literary voices. Born in Kentucky and a graduate of Vanderbilt, Tate was a central figure in the circle of Nashville writers who came to be known as the Fugitives—and later the Southern Agrarians—a group which included John Crowe Ransom, Robert Penn Warren, Donald Davidson, and Merrill Moore. After her husband’s death in 1979, Helen Tate settled in Nashville, where she continues to work and volunteer. As Tate’s widow, she is one of the few living links to a critical moment in American literary history and a reminder of Nashville’s central role in the emergence of modern poetry. She recently spoke with Chapter 16 about her husband and his literary legacy.

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With This King, I Thee Wed

George Klein gives the inside scoop on his best friend—and best man—Elvis Presley

By Paul V. Griffith |

In Elvis: My Best Man, George “GK” Klein details his long history with Elvis Presley, from their years together at North Memphis’s Hume High School through his acceptance, on behalf of Presley Enterprises, of Elvis’s 1986 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction. Though Klein’s account is not unbiased, it nonetheless provides fresh insight into one of the greatest careers in the history of show business. Klein will read from and sign copies of Elvis: My Best Man at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Memphis on January 13 at 6 p.m.

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A Real Fine Place to Start

With her new novel, country star Sara Evans tries her hand at collaborative fiction

By Faye Jones |

Sara Evans‘s debut novel, The Sweet By and By, written with Rachel Hauck, is a story of faith, forgiveness, and redemption. While inspirational, the novel is never preachy, and the characters, no matter their faults, are treated with sympathy and even-handedness. In an interview, Sara Evans talks with Chapter 16 about the book, the writing process, and the role faith plays in her own life. She will be performing and signing copies of The Sweet By and By at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on January 11 at 7 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

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