Chapter 16 - Part 8

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.

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.

Runoff

The water had a place to get to, and it was in a hurry

By Lyda Phillips | May 7, 2010

May 7, 2010 People emerged in ones and twos and threes, with dogs and without, all looking pale and both shell-shocked and excited. The river now covered the ball field. A dead woodchuck floated belly-up among the bobbing plastic bottles. Canada geese swam through the debris, unperturbed.

Delightfully Dysfunctional

With The Spellmans Strike Again Lisa Lutz brings a quirky mystery series to a captivating close

By Lyda Phillips | March 14, 2010

Lisa Lutz brings her four-novel mystery series to a close with The Spellmans Strike Again, another outing with this delightfully dysfunctional family of detectives. The family saga is narrated by Isabel “Izzy” Spellman, whose life has been a series of bad choices, poor judgment, bone-headedness, and other deep character flaws. Fortunately for Izzy, her mother, father, uncle, sister, brother, and assorted friends and lovers are equally eccentric—and equally annoying and lovable. Described by People magazine as “the love child of Dirty Harry and Harriet the Spy,” the Spellman books offer an addictive romp from the first page of the book to the last, including all the footnotes and appendices. Lutz will appear at Davis-Kidd Booksellers in Nashville on March 22 at 7 p.m.

Danger, Demolition, and Desire

Jennie Bentley talks about her third Do-It-Yourself mystery, Plaster and Poison, as well as the lure of “a hot guy with power tools”

By Lyda Phillips | March 3, 2010

As both a licensed real estate agent and someone who has ripped out drywall herself, Jennie Bentley writes about what she knows, decorating it in a palate of romantic colors with just enough dark accents to provide tension. She spoke with Chapter 16 about her third romantic Do-It-Yourself mystery, Plaster and Poison, as well as her upcoming real-estate mystery series set in Nashville, before launching a multi-stop book tour around the state.

Debunking Revolutionary War Myths

Gary Paulsen, the wildly popular and prolific children’s author, talks with Chapter 16 about his latest novel, Woods Runner

By Lyda Phillips | February 23, 2010

In Woods Runner, Gary Paulsen creates a tale that returns to the wilderness of his beloved Hatchet but takes it back in time to the Revolutionary War. “I wanted to dispute the mythic, clean, even antiseptic qualities in many histories, because war is never, not ever, clean,” he writes. He will read at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville on March 2. Prior to the visit, he took some time to correspond by email with Chapter 16.

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