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books tagged “South”
books tagged “South”
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Alex Haley's Queen: The Story of an American Familyby David Stevens, Alex HaleyISBN 0380702754 (0-380-70275-4)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Alex Haley's Queen: The Story of an American Family'Book summary:Once in every generation, there is a landmark book that adds a new richness to all our lives. For millions of people of all colors, that book was Alex Haley's Roots. Roots was an instant success, winning a Pulitzer Prize and spawning the most-watched miniseries in television history. Alex Haley's legacy has had as great an impact on American families as any story in the twentieth century. Now, from the author of Roots, comes Alex Haley's Queen - the saga of his father's family. Lovers of sweeping generational epics will find much to rejoice in here. Once again, this is a personal saga, but one played out against the broad canvas of American history. The story begins in Ireland, where Haley's white great-great-grandfather, James Jackson, Sr., is born. From there we travel with Jackson to Nashville, where he meets Andrew Jackson, the future president of the United States. The two men become business partners, and James Jackson makes his fortune. He establishes his grand plantation, The Forks of Cypress, in Alabama, while Andrew ascends to the White House, and the rumblings that will explode into the Civil War gather force. James's son Jass Jackson inherits the plantation just as the genteel, well-ordered antebellum world begins to crumble. His adolescent attraction to the beautiful and strongwilled slave named Easter blossoms into a powerful and lasting love, and from their passionate union comes Queen - the heroine of the tale, Alex Haley's grandmother. This is history at its most compelling - from the Irish sod to the settlement of the South; from the Trail of Tears to the battlefield at Manassas; from the agonies of slavery to the tribulations of freedom - all rendered with the eye fortelling detail and the sense of historical significance that readers have come to expect of Haley. In this, his final book, Alex Haley has created a truly multicultural family saga, the capstone to one of the great, classic American stories. The television miniseries of Alex Hal [via]
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The Alibiby Sandra BrownISBN 0375727922 (0-375-72792-2)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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The Bartered Brideby Cheryl ReavisISBN 0373289197 (0-373-28919-7)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
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Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coastby Mike TidwellISBN 0375725172 (0-375-72517-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast'Book summary:Mike Tidwell knew nothing of the disappearing bayou country when he first visited the Cajun coast of Louisiana, but the evidence was all around him: the skeletons of oak trees killed by the salinity of the groundwater, whole cemeteries sinking into swampland and out of sight, telephone poles in deep, standing water. Thanks to human hands, the storied Louisiana coast was eroding, subsiding, and joining the Gulf of Mexico-making it the fastest disappearing landmass on Earth. Yet no one seemed to know how to talk about the problem. Tidwell, a celebrated travel and environmental writer, decided to begin the much-needed conversation, and this vivid, elegiac book is the result.
Tidwell introduces us to the surprisingly varied population of the area: the Cajun men and women who work the seasonal shrimp harvest, the Vietnamese fishermen, the Houma Indians driven to the farthest ends of the bayou by the first European settlers. He describes the food, the music, the culture, and the life of all those who live along the bayous. And under his keenly observant eye, the bayou itself becomes a compelling character-reminding us of how much we stand to lose if we fail to address the problems facing this most vibrant of places.
Part travelogue, part environmental exposé, Bayou Farewell is the richly evocative chronicle of the author's travels through a place and a way of life that are vanishing virtually before our eyes. [via]More editions of Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast:
Beauty Before Comfort : A Memoirby Allison GlockISBN 0375401210 (0-375-40121-0)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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Been Here and Goneby David DaltonISBN 0380976765 (0-380-97676-5)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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Beloved Enemyby Mary SchallerISBN 0373293011 (0-373-29301-1)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
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Best Loved Songs of the American Peopleby Denes AgayISBN 0385140061 (0-385-14006-1)
Softcover, Broadway Books
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Beulah Landby Lonnie ColemanISBN 0385062443 (0-385-06244-3)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Bluest Eyeby Toni MorrisonISBN 0375411550 (0-375-41155-0)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bluest Eye'Book summary:Oprah Book Club® Selection, April 2000: Originally published in 1970, The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's first novel. In an afterword written more than two decades later, the author expressed her dissatisfaction with the book's language and structure: "It required a sophistication unavailable to me." Perhaps we can chalk up this verdict to modesty, or to the Nobel laureate's impossibly high standards of quality control. In any case, her debut is nothing if not sophisticated, in terms of both narrative ingenuity and rhetorical sweep. It also shows the young author drawing a bead on the subjects that would dominate much of her career: racial hatred, historical memory, and the dazzling or degrading power of language itself.
Set in Lorain, Ohio, in 1941, The Bluest Eye is something of an ensemble piece. The point of view is passed like a baton from one character to the next, with Morrison's own voice functioning as a kind of gold standard throughout. The focus, though, is on an 11-year-old black girl named Pecola Breedlove, whose entire family has been given a cosmetic cross to bear:
You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question.... And they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with it.
There are far uglier things in the world than, well, ugliness, and poor Pecola is subjected to most of them. She's spat upon, ridiculed, and ultimately raped and impregnated by her own father. No wonder she yearns to be the very opposite of what she is--yearns, in other words, to be a white child, possessed of the blondest hair and the bluest eye.This vein of self-hatred is exactly what keeps Morrison's novel from devolving into a cut-and-dried scenario of victimization. She may in fact pin too much of the blame on the beauty myth: "Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another--physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion." Yet the destructive power of these ideas is essentially colorblind, which gives The Bluest Eye the sort of universal reach that Morrison's imitators can only dream of. And that, combined with the novel's modulated pathos and musical, fine-grained language, makes for not merely a sophisticated debut but a permanent one. --James Marcus [via]
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The Bride Fairby Cheryl ReavisISBN 0373292031 (0-373-29203-1)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
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Charms for the Easy Lifeby Kaye GibbonsISBN 0380722704 (0-380-72270-4)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Charms for the Easy Life'Book summary:In the verdant backwoods of North Carolina, in a sad and singular era, the Birches are unique among women of their time-living gloriously rich it decidedly offbeat lives in a private world ahandoned by men. And though misery often heats a path to their door, headstrong Sophia and her y, brilliant daughter Margaret possess charms to ward off loneliness and despair-thanks to the uncompromising strength, uncommon wisdom, and muscular love of a remarkable matriarch and self-taught healer who calls herself Charlie Kate.
In Charms for the Easy Life, Kaye Gibbons has created a luminous, truthtelling novel that gives life to her most passionate and toughminded women yet.
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The Clientby John GrishamISBN 037543349X (0-375-43349-X)
Hardcover, Random House Large Print
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Client'Book summary:With her sparkling voice and superb acting ability, Blair Brown gives an impressive reading of this John Grisham blockbuster. The story hinges on a young boy who gets an unwanted earful of murder, politics--and dangerous secrets about both--from a conscience-stricken mob lawyer bent on suicide. "I can tell you where the body is... the most notorious undiscovered corpse of our time." Just the kind of information most children don't need, especially when the snakeskin-wearing hit man finds out what he knows. Aside from musical cues scattered as superfluously as laugh tracks on a sitcom, the production quality is stellar, preserving the crispness of Blair's voice and the nuances of her excellent interpretation. (Running time: 6 hours, 4 cassettes) --George Laney [via]
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A Common Life : The Wedding Storyby Jan KaronISBN 0375431047 (0-375-43104-7)
Hardcover, Random House Large Print
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A Corner of Heavenby Theresa MichaelsISBN 0373287046 (0-373-28704-6)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
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The Cottonmouth Clubby Lance MarcumISBN 0374315620 (0-374-31562-0)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Crossed Bonesby Carolyn HainesISBN 0375432493 (0-375-43249-3)
Hardcover, Random House Large Print
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The Democratic Forestby William EgglestonISBN 0385266510 (0-385-26651-0)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Dragons in the Watersby Madeleine L'EngleISBN 0374318689 (0-374-31868-9)
Hardcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Dragons in the Waters'Book summary:A thirteen-year-old boy's trip to Venezuela with his cousin culminates in murder and the discovery of an unexpected bond with an Indian tribe, dating from the days of Simâon Bolâivar. [via]
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Due South: Dispatches from down Homeby R. Scott BrunnerISBN 0375757678 (0-375-75767-8)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Forrest Gumpby Winston GroomISBN 0385231342 (0-385-23134-2)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Forrest Gump'Book summary:Six foot six, 242 pounds, and possessed of a scant IQ of 70, Forrest Gump is the lovable, surprisingly savvy hero of this classic comic tale. His early life may seem inauspicious, but when the University of Alabamas football team drafts Forrest and makes him a star, it sets him on an unbelievable path that will transform him from Vietnam hero to world-class Ping-Pong player, from wrestler to entrepreneur. With a voice all his own, Forrest is telling all in a madcap romp through three decades of American history. [via]
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Foxfire 2: Ghost Stories, Spring Wild Plant Foods, Spinning and Weaving, Midwifing, Burial Customs, Corn Shuckin'S, Wagon Making and More Affairs ofby Eliot WiggintonISBN 0385022670 (0-385-02267-0)
Softcover, Doubleday
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Foxfire 2: Ghost Stories, Spring Wild Plant Foods, Spinning and Weaving, Midwifing, Burial Customs, Corn Shuckin'S, Wagon Making and More Affairs of'Book summary:This second Foxfire volume includes topics such as ghost stories, spinning and weaving, wagon making, midwifing, corn shuckin', and more.
From the Trade Paperback edition. [via]More editions of Foxfire 2: Ghost Stories, Spring Wild Plant Foods, Spinning and Weaving, Midwifing, Burial Customs, Corn Shuckin'S, Wagon Making and More Affairs of:
Foxfire 4: Fiddle Making, Springouses, Horse Trading, Sassafras Tea, Berry Buckets, Gardening, and Further Affairs of Plain Livingby Eliot WiggingtonISBN 0385120877 (0-385-12087-7)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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Foxfire 4: Water Systems, Fiddle Making, Logging, Gardening, Sassafras Tea, Wood Carving, and Further Affairs of Plain Livingby Eliot WiggintonISBN 0385120869 (0-385-12086-9)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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The Habit of Being: Lettersby Flannery O'Connor, Sally FitzgeraldISBN 0374167699 (0-374-16769-9)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connorby Sally FitzgeraldISBN 0374521042 (0-374-52104-2)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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Harrigan's Brideby Cheryl ReavisISBN 037329039X (0-373-29039-X)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
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The House on Coliseum Streetby Shirley GrauISBN 0380899396 (0-380-89939-6)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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In My Placeby Charlayne Hunter-GaultISBN 0374175632 (0-374-17563-2)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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In the Country of Countryby Nicholas DawidoffISBN 037570082X (0-375-70082-X)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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In This Mountainby Jan KaronISBN 0375431667 (0-375-43166-7)
Hardcover, Ballantine Books
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The Invisible Manby Ralph EllisonISBN 0375507914 (0-375-50791-4)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Invisible Man'Book summary:We rely, in this world, on the visual aspects of humanity as a means of learning who we are. This, Ralph Ellison argues convincingly, is a dangerous habit. A classic from the moment it first appeared in 1952, Invisible Man chronicles the travels of its narrator, a young, nameless black man, as he moves through the hellish levels of American intolerance and cultural blindness. Searching for a context in which to know himself, he exists in a very peculiar state. "I am an invisible man," he says in his prologue. "When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves, or figments of their imagination--indeed, everything and anything except me." But this is hard-won self-knowledge, earned over the course of many years.
As the book gets started, the narrator is expelled from his Southern Negro college for inadvertently showing a white trustee the reality of black life in the south, including an incestuous farmer and a rural whorehouse. The college director chastises him: "Why, the dumbest black bastard in the cotton patch knows that the only way to please a white man is to tell him a lie! What kind of an education are you getting around here?" Mystified, the narrator moves north to New York City, where the truth, at least as he perceives it, is dealt another blow when he learns that his former headmaster's recommendation letters are, in fact, letters of condemnation.
What ensues is a search for what truth actually is, which proves to be supremely elusive. The narrator becomes a spokesman for a mixed-race band of social activists called "The Brotherhood" and believes he is fighting for equality. Once again, he realizes he's been duped into believing what he thought was the truth, when in fact it is only another variation. Of the Brothers, he eventually discerns: "They were blind, bat blind, moving only by the echoed sounds of their voices. And because they were blind they would destroy themselves.... Here I thought they accepted me because they felt that color made no difference, when in reality it made no difference because they didn't see either color or men."
Invisible Man is certainly a book about race in America, and sadly enough, few of the problems it chronicles have disappeared even now. But Ellison's first novel transcends such a narrow definition. It's also a book about the human race stumbling down the path to identity, challenged and successful to varying degrees. None of us can ever be sure of the truth beyond ourselves, and possibly not even there. The world is a tricky place, and no one knows this better than the invisible man, who leaves us with these chilling, provocative words: "And it is this which frightens me: Who knows but that, on the lower frequencies, I speak for you?" --Melanie Rehak [via]
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Jefferson Davis, Americanby William J. CooperISBN 0375725423 (0-375-72542-3)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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John Chancellor Makes Me Cryby Anne Rivers SiddonsISBN 0385001126 (0-385-00112-6)
Hardcover, Doubleday
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Kindredby Octavia E. ButlerISBN 0385150598 (0-385-15059-8)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Kindred'Book summary:FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. An African American woman from 1976 Southern California is transported back to the 19th-century and the violent days of slavery before the Civil War. [via]
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The Last Gentlemanby Walker PercyISBN 0380377969 (0-380-37796-9)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Last Gentleman'Book summary:Fictional Novel, Literary Fiction [via]
The Last Jurorby John GrishamISBN 0375728295 (0-375-72829-5)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Last Juror'Book summary:In 1970, small town newspaper The Clanton Times went belly up. With financial assistance from a rich relative, it's purchased by 23-year-old Willie Traynor, formerly the paper's cub reporter. Soon afterward, his new business receives the readership boost it needs thanks to his editorial efforts and coverage of a particularly brutal rape and murder committed by the scion of the town's reclusive bootlegger family. Rather than shy from reporting on the subsequent open-and-shut trial (those who oppose the Padgitt family tend to turn up dead in the area's swampland), Traynor launches a crusade to ensure the unrepentant murderer is brought to justice. When a guilty verdict is returned, the town is relieved to find the Padgitt family's grip on the town did not sway the jury, though Danny Padgitt is sentenced to life in prison rather than death. But, when Padgitt is released after serving less than a decade in jail and members of the jury are murdered, Clanton once again finds itself at the mercy of its renegade family.
When it comes, the dénouement is no surprise; The Last Juror is less a story of suspense than a study of the often idyllic southern town of Clanton, Mississippi (the setting for Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill). Throughout the nine years between Padgitt's trial and release, Traynor finds acceptance in Clanton, where the people "don't really trust you unless they trusted your grandfather." He grows from a long-haired idealist into another of the town's colorful characters--renovating an old house, sporting a bowtie, beloved on both sides of the color line, and the only person to have attended each of the town's 88 churches at least once. The Last Juror returns Grisham to the courtroom where he made his name, but those who enjoyed the warm sentiment of his recent novels (Bleachers, A Painted House) will still find much to love here. --Benjamin Reese [via]
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Life on the Mississippiby Mark Twain, James Danly, Bill McKibbenISBN 0375759379 (0-375-75937-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Life on the Mississippi'Book summary:Fashioned from the same experiences that would inspire the masterpiece Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi is Mark Twains most brilliant and most personal nonfiction work. It is at once an affectionate evocation of the vital river life in the steamboat era and a melancholy reminiscence of its passing after the Civil War, a priceless collection of humorous anecdotes and folktales, and a unique glimpse into Twains life before he began to write.
Written in a prose style that has been hailed as among the greatest in English literature, Life on the Mississippi established Twain as not only the most popular humorist of his time but also Americas most profound chronicler of the human comedy. [via]More editions of Life on the Mississippi:
The Lightkeeper's Womanby Mary BurtonISBN 0373292937 (0-373-29293-7)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
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Love and Hate in Jamestown : John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Heart of a New Nationby David PriceISBN 0375415416 (0-375-41541-6)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Love and Hate in Jamestown : John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Heart of a New Nation'Book summary:A gripping narrative of one of the great survival stories of American history: the opening of the first permanent English settlement in the New World. Drawing on period letters and chronicles, and on the papers of the Virginia Companywhich financed the settlement of JamestownDavid Price tells a tale of cowardice and courage, stupidity and brilliance, tragedy and costly triumph. He takes us into the day-to-day existence of the English men and women whose charge was to find gold and a route to the Orient, and who found, instead, hardship and wretched misery. Death, in fact, became the settlers most faithful companion, and their infighting was ceaseless.
Price offers a rare balanced view of the relationship between the settlers and the natives. He unravels the crucial role of Pocahontas, a young woman whose reality has been obscured by centuries of legend and misinformation (and, more recently, animation). He paints indelible portraits of Chief Powhatan, the aged monarch who came close to ending the colonys existence, and Captain John Smith, the former mercenary and slave, whose disdain for class distinctions infuriated many around himeven as his resourcefulness made him essential to the colonys success.
Love and Hate in Jamestown is a superb work of popular history, reminding us of the horrors and heroism that marked the dawning of our nation. [via]More editions of Love and Hate in Jamestown : John Smith, Pocahontas, and the Heart of a New Nation:
Midnight in Ruby Bayouby Elizabeth LowellISBN 0380789892 (0-380-78989-2)
Softcover, Avon Books
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Milk Glass Moon : A Big Stone Gap Novelby Adriana TrigianiISBN 0375506187 (0-375-50618-7)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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Murder in the Charleston Mannerby Patricia H. SprinkleISBN 0373261195 (0-373-26119-5)
Softcover, Atlantic Books, Limited
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Murder on a Girls' Night Outby Anne GeorgeISBN 0380780860 (0-380-78086-0)
Softcover, Avon Books
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Murder on Peachtree Streetby Patricia H. SprinkleISBN 0373261314 (0-373-26131-4)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
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Mystery and Manners: Occasional Proseby Flannery O'Connor, Sally Fitzgerald, Robert FitzgeraldISBN 0374508046 (0-374-50804-6)
Softcover, Noonday Pr
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Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglassby Frederick DouglassISBN 0385007051 (0-385-00705-1)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass'Book summary:This dramatic autobiography of the early life of an American slave was first published in 1845, when its young author had just achieved his freedom. Douglass' eloquence gives a clear indication of the powerful principles that led him to become the first great African-American leader in the United States. [via]
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North Toward Homeby Willie MorrisISBN 0375724605 (0-375-72460-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'North Toward Home'Book summary:With his signature style and grace, Willie Morris, arguably one of this country's finest Southern writers, presents us with an unparalleled memoir of a country in transition and a boy coming of age in a period of tumultuous cultural, social, and political change.
In North Toward Home, Morris vividly recalls the South of his childhood with all of its cruelty, grace, and foibles intact. He chronicles desegregation and the rise of Lyndon Johnson in Texas in the 50s and 60s, and New York in the 1960s, where he became the controversial editor of Harper's magazine. North Toward Home is the perceptive story of the education of an observant and intelligent young man, and a gifted writer's keen observations of a country in transition. It is, as Walker Percy wrote, "a touching, deeply felt and memorable account of one man's pilgrimage." [via]More editions of North Toward Home:
On Leaving Charlestonby Alexandra RipleyISBN 038517456X (0-385-17456-X)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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The Optimist's Daughterby Eudora WeltyISBN 037550835X (0-375-50835-X)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Optimist's Daughter'Book summary:The Optimist's Daughter is a compact and inward-looking little novel, a Pulitzer Prize winner that's slight of page yet big of heart. The optimist in question is 71-year-old Judge McKelva, who has come to a New Orleans hospital from Mount Salus, Mississippi, complaining of a "disturbance" in his vision. To his daughter, Laurel, it's as rare for him to admit "self-concern" as it is for him to be sick, and she immediately flies down from Chicago to be by his side. The subsequent operation on the judge's eye goes well, but the recovery does not. He lies still with both eyes heavily bandaged, growing ever more passive until finally--with some help from the shockingly vulgar Fay, his wife of two years--he simply dies. Together Fay and Laurel travel to Mount Salus to bury him, and the novel begins the inward spiral that leads Laurel to the moment when "all she had found had found her," when the "deepest spring in her heart had uncovered itself" and begins to flow again.
Not much actually happens in the rest of the book--Fay's low-rent relatives arrive for the funeral, a bird flies down the chimney and is trapped in the hall--and yet Welty manages to compress the richness of an entire life within its pages. This is a world, after all, in which a set of complex relationships can be conveyed by the phrase "I know his whole family" or by the criticism "When he brought her here to your house, she had very little idea of how to separate an egg." Does such a place exist anymore? It is vanishing even from this novel, and the personification of its vanishing is none other than Fay--petulant, graceless, childish, with neither the passion nor the imagination to love. Welty expends a lot of vindictive energy on Fay and her kin, who must be the most small-minded, mean-mouthed clan since the Snopeses hit Frenchman's Bend. There's more than just class snobbery at work here (though that surely comes into it too). As Welty sees it, they are a special historical tribe who exult in grieving because they have come to be good at it, and who seethe with resentment from the day they are born. They have come "out of all times of trouble, past or future--the great, interrelated family of those who never know the meaning of what has happened to them."
Fay belongs to the future, as she makes clear; it's Laurel who belongs to the past--Welty's own chosen territory. In her fine memoir, One Writer's Beginnings, Welty described the way art could shine a light back "as when your train makes a curve, showing that there has been a mountain of meaning rising behind you on the way you've come." Here, in one of her most autobiographical works, the past joins seamlessly with the present in a masterful evocation of grief, memory, loss, and love. Beautifully written, moving but never mawkish, The Optimist's Daughter is Eudora Welty's greatest achievement--which is high praise indeed. --Mary Park [via]
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The Partnerby John GrishamISBN 0375433546 (0-375-43354-6)
Hardcover, Random House Large Print
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The People Could Fly: The Picture Bookby Virginia Hamilton, Leo Dillon, Diane DillonISBN 0375824057 (0-375-82405-7)
Hardcover, Random House Childrens Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The People Could Fly: The Picture Book'Book summary:THE PEOPLE COULD FLY, the title story in Virginia Hamiltons prize-winning American Black folktale collection, is a fantasy tale of the slaves who possessed the ancient magic words that enabled them to literally fly away to freedom. And it is a moving tale of those who did not have the opportunity to fly away, who remained slaves with only their imaginations to set them free as they told and retold this tale.
Leo and Diane Dillon have created powerful new illustrations in full color for every page of this picture book presentation of Virginia Hamiltons most beloved tale. The authors original historical note as well as her previously unpublished notes are included.
Awards for The People Could Fly collection:
A Coretta Scott King Award
A Booklist Childrens Editors Choice
A School Library Journal Best Books of the Year
A Horn Book Fanfare
An ALA Notable Book
An NCTE Teachers Choice
A New York Times Best Illustrated Childrens Books of the Year
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Poppy Done to Deathby Charlaine HarrisISBN 0373265042 (0-373-26504-2)
Softcover, Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
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The Practical Heartby Allan GurganusISBN 0375727639 (0-375-72763-9)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Rafferty's Brideby Mary BurtonISBN 0373292325 (0-373-29232-5)
Softcover, Harlequin Enterprises, Limited
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A Redbird Christmas : A Novelby Fannie FlaggISBN 0375433899 (0-375-43389-9)
Hardcover, Random House Large Print
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Redbird Christmas : A Novel'Book summary:With the same incomparable style and warm, inviting voice that have made her beloved by millions of readers far and wide, New York Times bestselling author Fannie Flagg has written an enchanting Christmas story of faith and hope for all ages that is sure to become a classic.
Deep in the southernmost part of Alabama, along the banks of a lazy winding river, lies the sleepy little community known as Lost River, a place that time itself seems to have forgotten. After a startling diagnosis from his doctor, Oswald T. Campbell leaves behind the cold and damp of the oncoming Chicago winter to spend what he believes will be his last Christmas in the warm and welcoming town of Lost River. There he meets the postman who delivers mail by boat, the store owner who nurses a broken heart, the ladies of the Mystic Order of the Royal Polka Dots Secret Society, who do clandestine good works. And he meets a little redbird named Jack, who is at the center of this tale of a magical Christmas when something so amazing happened that those who witnessed it have never forgotten it. Once you experience the wonder, you too will never forget A Redbird Christmas. [via]More editions of A Redbird Christmas : A Novel:
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Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil Warby Nicholas LemannISBN 0374248559 (0-374-24855-9)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War'Book summary:[via]A century after Appomattox, the civil rights movement won full citizenship for black Americans in the South. It should not have been necessary: by 1870 those rights were set in the Constitution. This is the story of the terrorist campaign that took them away.Nicholas Lemann opens his extraordinary new book with a riveting account of the horrific events of Easter 1873 in Colfax, Louisiana, where a white militia of Confederate veterans-turned-vigilantes attacked the black community there and massacred hundreds of people in a gruesome killing spree. This was the start of an insurgency that changed the course of American history: for the next few years white Southern Democrats waged a campaign of political terrorism aiming to overturn the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments and challenge President Grantssupport for the emergent structures of black political power. The remorseless strategy of well-financed White Line organizations was to create chaos and keep blacks from voting out of fear for their lives and livelihoods. Redemption is the first book to describe in uncompromising detail this organized racial violence, which reached its apogee in Mississippi in 1875.
Lemann bases his devastating account on a wealth of military records, congressional investigations, memoirs, press reports, and the invaluable papers of Adelbert Ames, the war hero from Maine who was Mississippis governor at the time. When Ames pleaded with Grant for federal troops who could thwart the white terrorists violently disrupting Republican political activities, Grant wavered, and the result was a bloody, corrupt election in which Mississippi wasredeemed that is, returned to white control.Redemption makes clear that this is what led to the death of Reconstructionand of the rights encoded in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments. We are still living with the consequences.More editions of Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War:
She's Gone Country: Dispatches from a Lost Soul in the Heart of Dixieby Kyle SpencerISBN 0375709045 (0-375-70904-5)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Shiloh and Other Storiesby Bobbie Ann MasonISBN 0375758437 (0-375-75843-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bushby Molly Ivins, Lou DuboseISBN 0375757147 (0-375-75714-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush'Book summary:"Youthful political reporters are always told there are three ways to judge a politician," write Molly Ivins and Lou Dubose in Shrub. "The first is to look at the record. The second is to look at the record. And third, look at the record." The record under scrutiny in this brief, informative book belongs to one George W. Bush--dubbed "Shrub" by Ivins--governor of Texas and 2000 presidential hopeful. These two veteran journalists know how politics are played in Texas and they've done their homework, writing a comprehensive examination of Bush's professional and political life that's a lively read, to boot. And if the title alone doesn't convey their particular slant, perhaps the following caveat from the introduction will: "If, at the end of this short book, you find W. Bush's political résumé a little light, don't blame us. There's really not much there. We have been looking for six years."
Beginning with his admission to the Texas National Guard during the Vietnam War (where he bypassed a waiting list of about 100,000), the authors go on to deconstruct his losing congressional bid, his failed career as an oil executive, and his role as managing partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, revealing how he was helped every step of the way by wealthy and influential friends of the family. Ever popular, Dubya has always been good at rounding up powerful players to bankroll a variety of ventures, including political campaigns. For this reason, explain the authors, along with his lineage and social status, Bush's primary allegiance is to the business community. While his speeches may deal with the "entertainment issues" of "God, guns, and gays," Bush is a "wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America," they write. They further point out that Texas ranks near the bottom of the nation in terms of a number of social categories, such as poverty, health insurance for children, and pollution, spearing the governor for his less-than-compassionate conservatism.
Shrub is not a complete Bush whacking, though. The authors laud the governor's record on education, in which he has managed to raise standards, push local control of schools, and launch a successful reading campaign. They also cite his wooing of the Hispanic vote and his ability to bridge the gap between the Christian right and the economic conservatives within the Republican party as evidence of true political acumen, though they maintain he lacks a penchant for actual governing: "From the record, it appears that he doesn't know much, doesn't do much and doesn't care much about governing." Bush has admitted that he dislikes reading, particularly about policy issues, and that he hates meetings and briefings, causing the authors to wonder, "The puzzle of Bush is why someone with so little interest in or attention for policy, for making government work, would want the job of president, or even governor."
Love him or leave him, Shrub leaves much to consider about the man who would be president. And it can be read in about a day. --Shawn Carkonen [via]
More editions of Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush:
- Shrub : The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush: ISBN 0375503994 (0-375-50399-4)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group - Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush: ISBN 0375504664 (0-375-50466-4)
Hardcover, Random House Inc - Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush: ISBN 0375757147 (0-375-75714-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc
- Shrub : The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush: ISBN 0375503994 (0-375-50399-4)
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Signposts in a Strange Landby Walker Percy, Patrick H. SamwayISBN 0374523452 (0-374-52345-2)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Signposts in a Strange Land'Book summary:At his death in 1990, Walker Percy left a considerable legacy of uncollected nonfiction. Assembled in Signposts in a Strange Land, these essays on language, literature, philosophy, religion, psychiatry, morality, and life and letters in the South display the imaginative versatility of an author considered by many to be one the greatest modern American writers.[via]More editions of Signposts in a Strange Land:
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Simple Justice : The History of Brown vs Board of Education and Black America's Struggle For Equalityby Richard KlugerISBN 0375414770 (0-375-41477-0)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Simple Justice : The History of Brown vs Board of Education and Black America's Struggle For Equality'Book summary:The Supreme Court decision of Brown vs. Board of Education that outlawed school segregation and culminated a century long social and legal struggle to establish black equality in the U.S.
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Somebody's Dead in Snellvilleby Patricia Houck SprinkleISBN 0373261497 (0-373-26149-7)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
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Sons of Mississippi: A Story of Race and Its Legacyby Paul HendricksonISBN 0375704256 (0-375-70425-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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Southern Exposureby Linda Lightsey RiceISBN 0385265107 (0-385-26510-7)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
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A Southern Familyby Gail GodwinISBN 0380729873 (0-380-72987-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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The Southern Living Garden BookISBN 0376039108 (0-376-03910-8)
Softcover, Leisure Arts
Find This BookBook summary:When it first hit the shelves in 1998, it took the South by storm. After all, it was the first major, comprehensive gardening encyclopedia solely dedicated to the South. Now theres a new reason to celebrate. The 2004 edition is bigger, brighter, and bolder than ever, with more luscious photography, updated plant listings, and a special focus on native and heritage plants. Find the right plant for every place with Plant Selection Guides and 7,000 plant listings keyed to the Southern Living climate maps. With hundreds of practical hints and tipsplus some garden gospel from Southern Livings resident expertsthis is the single most authoritative source for gardening in the South.
Key Features:
-New American Horticultural Society Heat Zone Map and plant ratings
-2,000 new plant entries
-More than 1,200 all-new, full-color plant illustrations
-More than 1,300 color photographs
-New Practical Guide to Gardening,
-70-page section of tips and techniques
-Updated list of mail-order nurseries and Southern public gardens [via]
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Speaking Out: The Autobiography of Lester Garfield Maddoxby Lester MaddoxISBN 0385089562 (0-385-08956-2)
Hardcover, Doubleday
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The Struggle for Black Equality 1954-1992by Eric Foner, Harvard SitkoffISBN 0374523568 (0-374-52356-8)
Softcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Struggle for Black Equality 1954-1992'Book summary:The Struggle for Black Equality is an arresting history of the civil-rights movement--from the pathbreaking Supreme Court decision of 1954, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, through the growth of strife and conflict in the 1960s to the major issues of the 1990s. Harvard Sitkoff offers not only a brilliant interpretation of the personalities and dynamics of the civil rights organization--SNCC, CORE, NAACP, SCLC, and others--but a superb study of the continuing problems plaguing the African-American population: the future that in 1980 seemed to hold much promise for a better way of life has by the early1990s hardly lived up to expectations. Jim Crow has gone, but, forty years after Brown, poverty, big-city slums, white backlash, politically and socially conservative policies, and prolonged recession have made economic progress for the vast majority of blacks an elusive, perhaps ever more distant goal.
All Americans who strove and suffered to make democracy real come vividly to life in these compelling pages.
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The Sugarmanby Mary McBrideISBN 0373288379 (0-373-28837-9)
Softcover, Harlequin Books
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The Summonsby John GrishamISBN 0375431977 (0-375-43197-7)
Softcover, Random House Large Print
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Summons'Book summary:An intelligent, low-key thriller, The Summons continues John Grisham's exploration of the common decencies of a strain of American commercial story-telling in literature and film that we often link to the work of Frank Capra or O Henry. He is not afraid of parable or of setting up situations that are at once archetypal and attractively specific. This is a tale of two brothers--one is righteous, more or less, and one is not--and a question of their inheritance. Ancient Mississippi judge Atlee summons his two sons to his deathbed, but dies before he can explain himself, leaving Ray, who arrives on time unlike his drunkard brother Forest with the difficult problem of the three million dollars in used notes which are lying around the house in shoe-boxes. Ray worries about his father's posthumous reputation, about the Inland Revenue Service and about how quickly Forrest could drink himself to death with unlimited funds.
Grisham is very acute indeed on how the best of intentions lead Ray not to any significant crime or atrocity but to quietly unconscionable behaviour. And then he realises he is being followed... Grisham can build suspense out of remarkably little and has a real gift for understanding the quiet anxieties of an ordinary man. --Roz Kaveney [via]
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The Thanatos Syndromeby Walker PercyISBN 0374273545 (0-374-27354-5)
Hardcover, Farrar Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Thanatos Syndrome'Book summary:The 1990s. Euthanasia and quarantines for AIDS have become the norm. But can even this world sanction a substance that "improves" people's behavior and so reduces crime, unemployment and teen pregnancy? A riveting bestseller by the author of The Moviegoer. [via]
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Trouble in Mind: Black Southerners in the Age of Jim Crowby Leon F. LitwackISBN 0375702636 (0-375-70263-6)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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The Tummy Trilogy: American Fried/Alice, Let's Eat/Third Helpingsby Calvin TrillinISBN 0374524173 (0-374-52417-3)
Softcover, Noonday Pr
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The Violent Bear It Awayby Flannery O'ConnorISBN 0374505241 (0-374-50524-1)
Softcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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A Virtuous Womanby Kaye GibbonsISBN 0375703063 (0-375-70306-3)
Softcover, Random House Inc
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The Voice at the Back Doorby Elizabeth SpencerISBN 0380701049 (0-380-70104-9)
Softcover, Harpercollins
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A Walk in the Woods : Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trailby Bill Bryson, Philip KerrISBN 0385257155 (0-385-25715-5)
Hardcover, Doubleday Canada, Limited
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Walk in the Woods : Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail'Book summary:Your initial reaction to Bill Bryson's reading of A Walk in the Woods may well be "Egads! What a bore!" But by sentence three or four, his clearly articulated, slightly adenoidal, British/American-accented speech pattern begins to grow on you and becomes quite engaging. You immediately get a hint of the humor that lies ahead, such as one of the innumerable reasons he longed to walk as many of the 2,100 miles of the Appalachian Trail as he could. "It would get me fit after years of waddlesome sloth" is delivered with glorious deadpan flair. By the time our storyteller recounts his trip to the Dartmouth Co-op, suffering serious sticker shock over equipment prices, you'll be hooked.
When Bryson speaks for the many Americans he encounters along the way--in various shops, restaurants, airports, and along the trail--he launches into his American accent, which is whiny and full of hard r's. And his southern intonations are a hoot. He's even got a special voice used exclusively when speaking for his somewhat surprising trail partner, Katz. In the 25 years since their school days together, Katz has put on quite a bit of weight. In fact, "he brought to mind Orson Welles after a very bad night. He was limping a little and breathing harder than one ought to after a walk of 20 yards." Katz often speaks in monosyllables, and Bryson brings his limited vocabulary humorously to life. One of Katz's more memorable utterings is "flung," as in flung most of his provisions over the cliff because they were too heavy to carry any farther.
The author has thoroughly researched the history and the making of the Appalachian Trail. Bryson describes the destruction of many parts of the forest and warns of the continuing perils (both natural and man-made) the Trail faces. He speaks of the natural beauty and splendor as he and Katz pass through, and he recalls clearly the serious dangers the two face during their time together on the trail. So, A Walk in the Woods is not simply an out-of-shape, middle-aged man's desire to prove that he can still accomplish a major physical task; it's also a plea for the conservation of America's last wilderness. Bryson's telling is a knee-slapping, laugh-out-loud funny trek through the woods, with a touch of science and history thrown in for good measure. (Running time: 360 minutes, four cassettes) --Colleen Preston [via]
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Where the Red Fern Growsby Wilson RawlsISBN 0375806814 (0-375-80681-4)
Softcover, Random House Children's Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Where the Red Fern Grows'Book summary:Author Wilson Rawls spent his boyhood much like the character of this book, Billy Colman, roaming the Ozarks of northeastern Oklahoma with his bluetick hound. A straightforward, shoot-from-the-hip storyteller with a searingly honest voice, Rawls is well-loved for this powerful 1961 classic and the award-winning novel Summer of the Monkeys. In Where the Red Fern Grows, Billy and his precious coonhound pups romp relentlessly through the Ozarks, trying to "tree" the elusive raccoon. In time, the inseparable trio wins the coveted gold cup in the annual coon-hunt contest, captures the wily ghost coon, and bravely fights with a mountain lion. When the victory over the mountain lion turns to tragedy, Billy grieves, but learns the beautiful old Native American legend of the sacred red fern that grows over the graves of his dogs. This unforgettable classic belongs on every child's bookshelf. (Ages 9 and up) [via]
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Which Way Freedomby Joyce HansenISBN 0380714086 (0-380-71408-6)
Softcover, Camelot
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White Peopleby Allan GurganusISBN 0375704272 (0-375-70427-2)
Softcover, Vintage Books
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Wise Bloodby Flannery O'ConnorISBN 0374505845 (0-374-50584-5)
Softcover, Farrar, Straus & Giroux
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wise Blood'Book summary:Wise Blood is a comedy with a fierce, Old Testament soul. Flannery O'Connor has no truck with such newfangled notions as psychology. Driven by forces outside their control, her characters are as one-dimensional--and mysterious--as figures on a frieze. Hazel Motes, for instance, has the temperament of a martyr, even though he spends most of the book trying to get God to go away. As a child he's convinced that "the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin." When that doesn't work, and when he returns from Korea determined "to be converted to nothing instead of evil," he still can't go anywhere without being mistaken for a preacher. (Not that the hat and shiny glare-blue suit help.) No matter what Hazel does, Jesus moves "from tree to tree in the back of his mind, a wild ragged figure motioning him to turn around and come off into the dark..."
Adrift after four years in the service, Hazel takes a train to the city of Taulkinham, buys himself a "rat-colored car," and sets about preaching on street corners for the Church Without Christ, "where the blind don't see and the lame don't walk and what's dead stays that way." Along the way he meets Enoch Emery, who's only 18 years old but already works for the city, as well the blind preacher Asa Hawks and his illegitimate daughter, Sabbath Lily. (Her letter to an advice column: "Dear Mary, I am a bastard and a bastard shall not enter the kingdom of heaven as we all know, but I have this personality that makes boys follow me. Do you think I should neck or not?") Subsequent events involve a desiccated, centuries-old dwarf--Gonga the Giant Jungle Monarch--and Hazel's nemesis, Hoover Shoats, who starts the rival Church of Christ Without Christ. If you think these events don't end happily, you might be right.
Wise Blood is a savage satire of America's secular, commercial culture, as well as the humanism it holds so dear ("Dear Sabbath," Mary Brittle writes back, "Light necking is acceptable, but I think your real problem is one of adjustment to the modern world. Perhaps you ought to re-examine your religious values to see if they meet your needs in Life.") But the book's ultimate purpose is Religious, with a capital R--no metaphors, no allusions, just the thing itself in all its fierce glory. When Hazel whispers "I'm not clean," for instance, O'Connor thinks he is perfectly right. For readers unaccustomed to holding low comedy and high seriousness in their heads at the same time, all this can come as something of a shock. Who else could offer an allegory about free will, redemption, and original sin right alongside the more elemental pleasure of witnessing Enoch Emery dress up in a gorilla suit? Nobody else, that's who. And that's OK. More than one Flannery O'Connor in this world might show us more truth than we could bear. --Mary Park [via]
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The Dollmakerby Harriette Louisa Simpson ArnowISBN 0380009471 (0-380-00947-1)
Softcover, HarperCollins Publishers
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