Mississippi Books

CYCLING TO THE SOURCE OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER is as close to experiencing bicycling hundreds of miles as I could get--without actually doing it The Johnson's 4000-mile bicycle trip is s feat which ninety percent of us could not physically do. Or mentally.

To read about the author's visit to her grade school in St. Louis was amazing. What a memory she has--for the names of the six Bettys in her class, and to describe the beautiful kindergarten room with arched windows. Then the chapter, "The Benches of Beaumont High"! Read it, rejoice and rave--in all senses of the word.

This adventure of 2000 miles makes me think Johnson is an iron woman. I can hardly believe she is more than 60 years old! Her descriptions of biking against winds, crossing an old bridge, and climbing hills--all on a 100-mile day--show how energetic she is physically. Her writing shows her intellectual energy, too.

I suppose she was tired a little at the end, but satisfied to take a good rest. Her husband Ted sounded like the best companion for a trip like this.

Being from Greenvile, the heart of the Mississippi Delta, this book was such a pleasure to read. It was how I remember the Delta of my childhood. I knew some of these characters in real life. The story takes place in Port City, which is really Greenville. The levee, cotton, catfish, kudzu, the unique smell of the oil mill cooking cotton seeds, it was like being home again in the 40's.
Whoever said "you can't go home again" was wrong. If you are from the "Delta", all you have to do is read this book and you are home.

In her debut novel, Ms. Bolding has vividly captured the feel of the late 1940s in the Mississippi Delta. Her lens brings into focus not only the lives of her gripping characters, but also the Southern canvas on which she has beautifully painted them. For fans of Gone With the Wind and other Southern classics, The Cyclops Window is a must-read. Let this tale grow on you just like that reknowned Southern vine - kudzu.

The greatest poet, along with Rilke, of the twentieth century . This collection of interviews, almost exclusively since the Nobel Prize year, only demonstrates the generosity and elegance of the great master and , to my delight, the good man. Like Matisse, Milosz grows in our hearts as we find more about the artist. The great artists are differentiated by their scope, depth, and convivial openness to eternity, as it enlarges their vision, poem by poem, painting by painting, created in the blood of heartache and the courage of faith that goodness endures.

a must read, give yourself a gift, spend time with this book

I am indebted to Ms.Haven for bringing Dr. Milosz and his conversations to the world. A literary giant and genius,he was an unassuming and humble man . Such accomplishments,such trials and suffering and yet through his poetry and writing,he strove to make a better world for us all. He bled
for us all,still able to retain his faith. Superb.
M.Baker

Neil McMillen gives us a look at the real effects of Jim Crow in Dark Journey, the story of white supremacy in Mississippi in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. McMillen explores this society of racial apartheid from the vantage point of the oppressor and the oppressed, for as he states in his preface, "until historians adequately explored the exterior forces that operated on the black community there could be no truly adequate histories of the interior life of the people within that community." He includes many descriptions of Mississippi during this "race-haunted" time from blacks themselves, which adds significantly to the texture of McMillen's "bottom up" depiction of how truly repressive the white regime was. What quickly emerges from this straightforward study is a society dominated without question by whites, one in which whites sought to re-establish race relations as they existed prior to the Civil War. They largely succeeded.

What strikes the reader forcefully from the beginning of McMillen's book is how insidiously prevalent the system known as Jim Crow was in Mississippi, and how it affected every aspect of black life. Jim Crow did not mean that blacks were simply in effect denied the right to vote and had limited economic opportunities, though to be sure both of these hurdles existed. White supremacy, as McMillen deftly points out, meant far more than denied voting rights and low-rung jobs. It meant (either de facto or de jury) poor or no high schools, lynchings, outrageous jury verdicts and trials, harassment for succeeding in traditionally white professions, no libraries, etc. The sheer scope and overriding predominance of white supremacy in Mississippi is shocking, especially since whites really did not seek to hide it from prying Northerners. White supremacy transcended class lines for the most part, McMillen show us, and even acted as a greater force upon whites than economic self-interest. For example, every white owner of a store, restaurant, garage, theatre, etc., who refused to serve blacks was also losing the money blacks would have paid them.

McMillen concludes that from the 1890s to the middle of the 20th century very few blacks overcame the high political and economic barriers placed in their way by a Mississippi society bent on oppressing them. Blacks in that state, however, managed to create and maintain their own separate political, religious, educational and social institutions despite the odds against them. Those who could, moved away from Mississippi, much like the oppressed and degraded Irish left their native island to escape the shackles of British economic and sectarian control. Truly, Mississippi's society was born of hatred of blacks by whites, a situation not totally eradicated by the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

Dr. McMillen provides a rare insight into the world of Black Missippians during the 1920s, '30s & 40's. His writing style is a lovely complement to his ingenious insights. He is truly one of our greatest scholars & non-fiction writers. This book is a must-read for anyone even mildy interested in African-American or general Southern history. Black or White this book will help you understand this period in our history. I can't wait for his sequel.

This book is about the penal farm system in Mississippi commonly known as Parchman. This book is an excellent book from a writer and his outlook, or perspective, on the history of Parhman Farm. This book is written by a college professor from a Mississippi university, University of Sourthern Mississippi. Therefore the book is said by scholars and critics to be pro Mississippi or somewhat defend Mississippi penal policies of the early and mid 20th century. This book is extremely informative and easy to read. It details life on the Mississippi penal farm and how it was a self sfficient, thriving "mini-civilization". It also details how prisoners played large parts in the everyday running of the farm. The best thing I can tell you to do is to read this book along with David Oshinsky's "Worse Than Slavery", develop your own conclusions from booth books and decide for yourself whether Parchman Farm was a horrible place or a practical way of rehabilitation. Oshinsky's book has an opposite view of this book and the contrast will leave you with the ability to make your own conclusions. I would reccomend this book for anyone interested in Mississippi history, as well as any college student pursuing a degree in criminal justice, corrections, criminal psychology, or any related field.

This book is a wonderful experience from the reader's point of view. It goes in depth about life at Parchman Penitentiary from the guards and inmates viewpoint. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in criminology, prisons, and law.

This book is a great read. The format is set up in such a way that you can pick it up and read for 2 minutes or 2 hours. It plays no favorites, just gives brief recaps of the seasons each team were having, then the recap of the Egg Bowl. It is full of historical facts, good pictures, and funny little anecdotes.

When I was reading the about the early seasons and games, I felt like I was reading a list of Buildings and Streets from each campus. Many of these athletes went on to be coaches and administrators and later to have various campus landmarks named after them. It was also interesting reading some of the origins of mottos and traditions that have popped up over the years.

Hopefully there will be a revision, or a supplement that will chronicle the Egg Bowls that have and will occur after this book went to print. It would be interesting reading to have the yearly accounts of the State v. Ole Miss Basketball Rivalry. It's the oldest rivalry in the SEC.

Buy this book, it is worth the read.

Just got a copy today to give to my father as a gift. This is an instant classic with all the players and coaches we remember. Each year's meeting has a couple of pages devoted to it with game stats, a game picture or two, and even the weather conditions! Impressive stats, trivia, etc. in the appendix. The author clearly did his homework. (I noticed that he's an Ole Miss grad, but with a quick glance of the contents, I also noticed no bias -- and I'm a State alum). This will prove to be THE definitive Egg Bowl reference guide to settle disputes, wagers and possibly the occasional fist-fight. But before going to that extreme, just refer to the book, first. You'll probably find it in there! Rest assured, you'll enjoy reliving some special memories.

This is a great book. I enjoy hours of reading it. All of my childhood memories of growing up in Little Rock come back.

Being forced out of Arkansas to California to complete my education after Governor Faubus closed the schools, didn't dampen my view of the South.

I plan to buy all of the new subjects that have just been published by these publishers.

This book is a wonderful, interesting look of the south and it's history and cultures.

"Faulkner's County" was photographed by Martin Dain in 1961. He came by the Forest Service's office (which was the same up-stairs office as the Lawyer's office in the movie "Intruder in the Dust") and asked if any of the people working there would guide him around Lafayette County. The Government couldn't help, so Dain ended up following the Watkin's Products salesman on his rounds to kitchens flung far and near around the country side.

"Faulkner's County" went out of print, and, as I heard it, there were copyright problems with Dain's estate, so it was never republished. Fortunately, the University of Mississippi Press published many of these same photographs in a volume entitled "Faulkner's World" in 1997, for Faulkner's 100th birthday. The primary differences in the two books are: 1) "Faulkner's County" accompanies the photographs with quotations from Faulkner while "Faulkner's World" accompanies the photographs with identifications of the subject matter; 2) the dust jacket for "Faulkner's County" is a wide angle shot of the dismal looking Sardis Reservoir in winter, while the photograph for the jacket of "Faulkner's World" is the town square in Oxford; and 3) Faulkner's World contains photographs of Faulkner's funeral that Dain made on a second trip to Oxford in 1962.

As luck would have it, Martin Dain captured Oxford just as it was beginning to rennovate the store fronts, figure out a workable traffic pattern for the town square, and before all the roads in the county were paved (or even gravelled for some of them). Many of these photographs are, in a sense, historic, because some things Dain saw hadn't changed very much since the Civil War. In fact, it is hard to identify some of the places today because the University, the city and the county have changed so much since Dain was there.

In my opinion, these are excellent photographs, making effective use of high speed black and white film with a wide angle lens. The team of mules plowing towards the camera, while the rest of the scene converges into endless rows of plowed land in the distance; the barren feeling of the country school room, the grassless yards; and most of all, the faces, complement the photographic style very well.

There has been very few times in the past that I have ever considered buying a coffee table book, most in my opinion just collect dust.

This book however is a wonderful pictorial account of Oxford Mississippi during the time when Faulkner still walked our streets. What I think is amazing is that some of the people pictured in this book as children still live in Oxford and are still an active and beautiful part of our local history.

This is an ideal gift for friends or family that have attended the University of Mississippi and have learned to love the small town personality of Oxford.

This is one of my new favorite cookbooks, the recipes take some time to make but not so long you have to start a day in advance. I only wish there were more pictures for the recipes. Overall it is fantasic, a really great gift.

Fine Dining Mississippi Style: Signature Recipes From Mississippi's Restaurants And Bed & Breakfast Inns is a simply superb regional cookbook that would grace any kitchen cookbook collections. Showcasing more than 350 recipes that range from the quick & easy to the delightfully gourmet, John M. Bailey compiled and organized according to various regions of the state, these dishes that are the pride of 81 of the finest chefs working in the restaurants and inns for which Mississippi is so well known to their discerning clientele. From Country French Bread and Butter Pudding; Boneless Cajun Barbeque Ribs; Cane Syrup Vinaigrette; and Spanish Red Bean and Yuca Soup; to Shrimp and Artichoke Chimichanga with Goat Cheese Sauce; Scallops in Tequila, Citrus and Chile Dressing; Butternut Squash Cheesecake; and Smoked Portobello Salad with Mixed Greens and Balsamic Vinaigrette, Fine Dining Mississippi Style is one culinary compendium that fully lives up to the promise of fine dining!

This is a very sweet book. The author writes so you truly "feel" her words. The author's grandmother, Ociee, is a delight. I hope Milam Propst writes a sequel as I would enjoy reading more about Ociee in her later years. I have bought at least 6 copies for gifts for my friends.

If you want to read a nice book that gives you a warm, cozy feeling, this is for you..no violence, no bad words. The author's charachters come alive and by the end you feel you know the protagonist, Ociee, personally.

I am ordering additional copies for several friends and family members.

I hope Milam will come out with a sequel. I want to know more about Ociee.