|
Chapter 16's founding editor, Margaret Renkl, probably wouldn't want us linking to her New York Times column two weeks in a row, but we can't resist sharing "The Joy of Finding People Who Love the Same Books You Do" — and not just because of the shout-out to the Southern Festival of Books or the touching reference to Queen Elizabeth's corgis. It's her celebration of the shared joy of reading that gets us, her recognition that, though reading is solitary, "to read something you love is to become ... a missionary. You shove that book into a beloved’s hands. You harangue your book club to choose it though it isn’t your turn to choose. You are desperate for somebody to talk with about it." Ain't it the truth?
Chapter 16 is all about that bookish conversation — and Sara Beth West is starting us off at the site today with her review of The Village Idiot, a new novel by Steve Stern. Last week, Jane Marcellus talked with Becca Andrews about her book No Choice, which looks at the issue of abortion access; Jacqueline Zeisloft reviewed Margo Price's memoir, Maybe We'll Make It; Jim Patterson interviewed Richard Manning about If It Sounds Good, It Is Good, his new book on the eternal allure of music; and Margaret A. Burnham answered questions from Aram Goudsouzian about By Hands Now Known, a study of racial violence in the Jim Crow South.
| 
