Chapter 16 - Part 8

The Party Primer

A Chapter 16 writer takes Martina McBride’s new cookbook for a spin

By Susannah Felts | October 13, 2014

October 13, 2014 Dinner-party mavens and newbie entertainers alike will find bright ideas in Martina McBride’s debut cookbook, Around the Table, which offers four seasons’ worth of themed gatherings. With recipes, decorating ideas, shortcuts, and even music playlists, each chapter guides the host through all the paces of pulling off a terrific, memorable party. McBride will discuss the book at the Harpeth Hall School in Nashville on October 13, 2014, and at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on October 14, 2014.

Peering Backward

Antonya Nelson’s characters see cause and effect in their own lives—too late to change the outcome

By Susannah Felts | September 3, 2014

September 3, 2014 Antonya Nelson has often been praised as one of the great contemporary writers of the short story. With Funny Once, her newest collection, she more than delivers on that reputation with nine stories and a novella that are object lessons in exquisitely crafted literary fiction. Antonya Nelson will appear at the Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 10-12, 2014. All festival events are free and open to the public.

An Elegant Rebellion Against the Newsstand

Home & Hill, a new quarterly, tells Tennessee’s story in its own inimitable way

By Susannah Felts | June 26, 2014

June 26, 2014 Ad-free and distinctive in design, Home & Hill: A Quarterly Magazine in the Tennessee Tradition aims to showcase the character of the state, from its magnificent natural settings to its historic monuments and hidden landmarks, to its makers and purveyors and artists and chefs.

Start You a Tab

Singer-songwriter Todd Snider, known for his hilarious concert tales, has finally written a memoir

By Susannah Felts | April 29, 2014

April 29, 2014 During two decades of touring, record-cutting, and inciting off-the-rails incidents, acclaimed singer-songwriter Todd Snider has become known for spinning wild true-life yarns at his live performances. Many of those stories are gathered into Snider’s funny and frank new memoir, I Never Met a Story I Didn’t Like, a sort of freewheeling Künstlerroman of the musical set.

Take it From Mama Rena

When it comes to comfort food, Pat and Gina Neely are onto something

By Susannah Felts | April 14, 2014

April 14, 2014 With their third cookbook, Memphis restaurateurs and Food Network celebrities Pat and Gina Neely offer a charming celebration of handed-down traditions, memories preserved through meals. The Neelys will discuss Back Home with the Neelys at the Nashville Public Library on April 17, 2014, at 6:15 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Beautifully, Flawlessly, Carefully

A new story collection by Lorrie Moore, who recently moved to Nashville, is always a Big Event in literary fiction

By Susannah Felts | February 27, 2014

February 27, 2014 In her previous story collection, Birds of America, Lorrie Moore toed the line between tragic and comic with a grace few writers manage. Stories with heartbreaking premises, delivered with a heaping spoonful of wry wit: this is Moore’s brand of genius, and it is again revealed in Bark, a volume of eight stories whose arrival is a bona fide Big Event in the world of literary fiction—and not just in Moore’s new hometown of Nashville.

Driving the Tide (The After Dunkirk Series, Book 6)

By Lee Jackson
Severn River Publishing
444 pages
$19.99

“Driving the Tide is the riveting sixth installment in the After Dunkirk family saga, bringing to life the darkest pages of World War II―and the unflinching bravery of regular people who rose to the challenges of their times.”

~ the publisher