Fiction | Chapter 16

Desperate Times, Desperate Measures

Andrew Gross’s latest thriller captures the moral dilemmas that arise during calamity

By Chris Scott | April 22, 2014

April 22, 2014 In Andrew Gross’s Everything to Lose, Hilary Cantor makes one wrong decision that turns her financially desperate life into a fight for survival. A New York City cop whose life is equally upside down joins her in a battle through a landscape still struggling to recover from the twin disasters of the Great Recession and Superstorm Sandy. Andrew Gross will discuss Everything to Lose at Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Cool Springs on April 28, 2014, at 7 p.m.

Rounding Up the Strays

Chapter 16 talks with George Singleton about the lost dogs—and humans—in his hilarious new story collection

By Michael Ray Taylor | April 21, 2014

April 21, 2014 With Stray Decorum, his fourth short-story collection, George Singleton has cemented his reputation as one of the country’s finest—and funniest—masters of the short story. Singleton will give a free public reading at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville on April 21, 2014. The event will take place in the Dead Poets Society Room of Lowry Hall at 5 p.m.

Everyone Wanting Only the Best

In The Vacationers, Emma Straub’s characters head to Mallorca amid simmering conflict

By Ed Tarkington | April 15, 2014

April 14, 2014 Just as Jim and Franny Post prepare to embark on a two-week jaunt to Mallorca—a final family trip before their youngest child leaves for college—their perfect life falls apart. Emma Straub will discuss The Vacationers on April 17, 2014, at 7 p.m. in Buttrick Hall, Room 102, on the Vanderbilt University campus in Nashville. The event is free and open to the public.

Highway to Hell

Sallie Bissell is back with another Mary Crow thriller in which death and disappearance are frequent travelers on an infamous North Carolina roadway

By Liz Garrigan | April 9, 2014

April 9, 2014 Two gay men near Asheville, North Carolina, are brutally murdered, possibly in connection with a backwater preacher’s shocking anti-gay bombast on YouTube, and North Carolina Governor Ann Chandler is worried. Clearly, this is a case for special prosecutor Mary Crow. Sallie Bissell will discuss Deadliest of Sins, her sixth Mary Crow mystery, on April 12, 2014, at Mysteries & More in Nashville at 2 p.m.

A Darkly Funny Dystopia

Margaret Atwood brings her apocalyptic trilogy to a close with MaddAddam

By Maria Browning | April 8, 2014

April 8, 2014 With MaddAddam, the final book in Margaret Atwood’s trilogy about a bioengineered apocalypse, the story takes a turn toward the comic, transforming a dystopian vision into a darkly funny fairy tale for grown-ups. Atwood will discuss MaddAddam at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville on April 11, 2014, at 8 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

Making Over Miss Julia

Ann B. Ross contemplates the joys and challenges of a literary franchise that’s going strong after fifteen installments

By Amaryllis Lyle | April 4, 2014

April 4, 2014 Ann B. Ross, already beloved for her Miss Julia cozy mysteries, will surely keep fans happy with the fifteenth installment of the series, Miss Julia’s Marvelous Makeover. Ross will appear at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on April 9, 2014, at 6 p.m.

Camilla and the Caterpillars

By Frances Figart, illustrated by Matt Brass
Smokies Life
68 pages
$14.95

A young girl’s encounter with an extraordinary caterpillar in the Great Smoky Mountains leads her and her family on a quest to plant a national park right in their own backyard.

This environmentally themed chapter book for ages 6 through 11 introduces young readers to important ecological concepts including habitat loss and the interdependence of native species and offers a compelling grassroots solution through native-plant gardening that invites anyone to take part in addressing the growing biodiversity crisis.

~the publisher