Chapter 16 - Part 9

Proud to Represent Team Ill-Fitting Burlap Sack

Tracy Moore’s new pregnancy guide is an irreverent, hilarious look at modern parenthood

By Susannah Felts | November 20, 2013

November 20, 2013 With chapter headings like “If Your Friends and Family Start Acting Like Dramatic Weirdos” and “How to Eat All the Stuff You Aren’t Supposed To,” there’s no mistaking Tracy Moore’s Oops! How to Rock the Mother of All Surprises for a garden-variety pregnancy guide. Instead it’s an irreverent, hilarious look at modern breeding from the perspective of a work-hard-party-harder writer who had no plans to get pregnant—and then did.

A Twin, Untwinned

Jody Casella’s debut novel is a convincing portrayal of a young man’s staggering loss—of both sibling and self

By Susannah Felts | October 21, 2013

October 21, 2013 Just two months have passed since Marsh Windsor’s identical twin, Austin, was killed in a car wreck, with Marsh at the wheel. But what nobody imagines is the real reason behind the teen’s odd behavior. He’s seeking a “thin space,” a passage through which it’s possible to slip into the afterlife. Jody Casella will read from her debut novel, Thin Space, at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on October 26, 2013, at 2 p.m.

Where the Plots Are

Acclaimed novelist Maile Meloy talks with Chapter 16 about why she turned to fiction for children

By Susannah Felts | October 2, 2013

October 2, 2013 When Maile Meloy—the author of two novels and two short-story collections for adults—tried her hand at writing for children, the result was The Apothecary. Intelligent, deftly plotted, magical and historical in equal measure, the novel might easily win a kid over to books for a lifetime—that is, if her parents don’t swipe it from her first. Meloy will visit Nashville’s Parnassus Books on October 3, 2013, at 6:30 p.m. to read from The Apprentices, her newly released sequel to The Apothecary.

Against the Appalachian Minstrel Show

Scott McClanahan’s Crapalachia is not like any other mountain memoir you’ve read

By Susannah Felts | September 24, 2013

September 24, 2013 Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place by Scott McClanahan is a surprisingly poignant work that manages to borrow from the Appalachian storytelling tradition as it confronts, even dismisses, its tropes and trappings. On the one hand, it’s an homage to the people McClanahan has known and loved; on the other, it’s a commentary on the fictive quality of all such biographical projects. McClanahan will discuss Crapalachia at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13. All festival events are free and open to the public.

An Island of Rich Girls

The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, Anton DiSclafanii’s debut novel, captures the swirl of impulses in a 1930s teenager at odds with her age

By Susannah Felts | August 22, 2013

August 22, 2013 In her debut novel, The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls, Anton DiSclafani offers an elegantly written, reflective journey of a protagonist who begins to confront her own fearlessness and desire, both of which put her at odds with the cultural expectations for women of her time. DiSclafani will discuss The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls at the twenty-fifth annual Southern Festival of Books, held in Nashville October 11-13. All festival events are free and open to the public.

Small Batch, Big Taste

Kevin West talks with Chapter 16 about the pleasures of home preserving

By Susannah Felts | July 17, 2013

July 17, 2013 Kevin West’s Saving the Season is an extraordinary achievement, a gorgeous and thorough compendium on the subject of canning, pickling, and preserving all manner of fruits and vegetables. And if you’re less an aspiring chef than someone who likes to devour good writing about food, there are bountiful literary treats tucked into these pages, too. West will appear at Parnassus Books in Nashville on July 24, 2013, at 6:30 p.m.

Distant Sons

Tim Johnston
Algonquin Books
400 pages
$29

“Tim Johnston has once again raised the bar for the literary thriller. Distant Sons is elegant and edgy, refined and complex. It excavates the truth from the darkest recesses of the past and shines a light towards the possibility of a redemptive future.”

~ Ivy Pochoda, author of These Women and Sing Her Down