Mississippi Books

Have you ever wanted to put a face on those whacking Flannery O'Connor characters or be able to paint what Faulkner wrote? If so, then this is your book.

I worked for photographer Birney Imes for one year in Columbus, Mississippi. I was a reporter for his family newspaper. I got a chance to live in the area where Whispering Pines is located and get a feel for Imes's hometown, which is the basis for nearly all of his photographs.

I've driven by the old Whispering Pines building many times, but you wouldn't look twice at the broken down place. What makes Imes a great photographer is that he stops, gets out, and meets the people behind the place. Since he's a hometown boy, the people in the area warm to him and don't mind the intrusion of his camera.

Imes's photos of the haunting owner of Whispering Pines and his surroundings are vintage South -- what you never see from the road. He uses bright lighting in full-bled color to depict a place that now is crubbling in grey dust.

This book comes in a close second to Imes's Juke Joint, a collection of photographs of various southern juke joints in Mississippi. But if you want a mystical vision -- a southern mirage, try Whispering Pines.

A wonderful collection of short stories about hunting and the outdoor world. Hearkening back to the stories of the likes of Gene Hill, Dobie is a fine writer who will give you peace of mind when deer season has not yet started. For those who enjoy hunting, the fiction in magazines like FIELD AND STREAM, and stories set in our natural environment, then this book is for you.

Exile As Found

Ollie Harrington's life and career intersected with notable as well as infamous African-Americans of his generation, among them Langston Hughes, Paul Robeson, Richard Wright, Walter White, Adam Clayton Powell, Beauford Delaney, Howard Cousins, Chester Himes, and James Baldwin. Variously described as a raconteur par excellence, acerbic critic of U.S. domestic and international policy, a man gifted with extraordinary wit, insight, and the genius with which to represent them through his art, Harrington's own life and career has yet to be adequately explored and interpreted. M. Thomas Inge's compilation of nine of Harrington's essays is a cautious step in that direction. Published one year after "Dark Laughter: The Satiric Art of Oliver W. Harrington," Inge as editor of both volumes fails to fully flesh out the complex man behind both art and words.

Fortunately, this is of little consequence. Harrington's essays speak eloquently enough for themselves. Additionally, both the first of these essays, "The Last Days of Richard Wright," as well as the profound friendship Harrington and Richard Wright shared are sensitively contextualized and elucidated in a perceptive "Introduction" by Julia Wright, Richard Wright's eldest daughter. Harrington's controversial essay, first published in Ebony magazine in 1961, continues to raise questions surrounding the peculiar circumstances of Richard Wright's death. Through it, we are brought into the frighteningly dangerous, alienated, oftentimes paranoid world of the expatriate-- a world further problematized by the politics of race, both American and international, and the personal and professional rivalries within the Parisian Black expatriate community that continuously threatened its fragile makeup. Overall, Harrington's essays are mimetic, faithfully, yet ironically recording a world both treacherous and absurd; where perfidy poignantly gives way to satire and laughter; where ultimately, one is left to muse what it means to be "Black," as well as an "American" without a country-- in fact, an exile, twice over.

One senses that Harrington's narration and dramatization of the verisimilitudes of historical events, from topical pieces such as the birth of his best-known character, "Brother Bootsie," ruminations on his career in the U.S. and Europe, to personal reflections on his relationships with luminaries Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, and Paul Robeson, come from a deep sense of moral outrage over how much the United States lost and continues to loose given what W.E.B. du Bois defined as the central problem of the twentieth century. It is high time that Harrington, a major political wit and witness of the last century receives the attention that eluded him during his own lifetime.

Wild Bill Sullivan is probably the most colorful character that South Mississippi has ever produced. Born in mid-18th century, he was the King of Sullivan's Hollow and was accused of 50 killings. He was also the center of numerous pranks and jokes. Because she was a college history professor, the author skillfully weaves the sometimes far-fetched tales into an account of an atypical frontier culture. The narrative also includes pictures and a description of one of the oldest homes in South Mississippi, the Sullivan Home, now on the National Register of Homes. At the beginning of this small but fascinating book, Ms. Hammons, the great-granddaughter of Wild Bill, traces the Sullivans' Irish Roots back to the 1750's. Thomas Sullivan, founder of the Mississippi branch of the clan, had 22 children, 11 by his white legal wife and 11 by his common-law Indian wife. A genealogy of the family is located in the appendix of the book. The latter section of the book centers around the years 1900-1980 and concentrates on other Smith County stories. The book is well-researched with footnotes and bibliograhpy. Here's an example of one of the humorous tales in the book: Outsiders in the late 1800's feared stopping over in the Hollow because of Wild Bill's reputed antipathy towards strangers. One traveler got caught at dark and stopped at the edge of the Hollow. He was cordially greeted, fed, given a bed by the fire, and served a plentiful country breakfast. His host refused any pay for these services. The traveler thanked his host and expressed his relief that he had met such a nice family and had avoided Wild Bill. In reality, Wild Bill had been his host, but he sent the man on his way without revealing his identity. The book also includes a graphic account, in Wild Bill's own words (in 1929 to his grandson-in-law) of the Battle of Shiloh Church, a battle in which several of the Sullivans were killed. After a later incident, Wild Bill and his son Neece had to hide out in the woods for 2 years. However, Bill was only indicted for one killing--of his own brother Wilson!

I only recently discovered Stephen Kirkpatrick's work at his Wilder Mississippi exibit at the Natural Science Museum in Jackson, MS. The exibit was breathtaking! Stephen Kirkpatrick has spent hours in the wilderness, swamps, creeks, woods of Mississippi capturing wildlife up close and in a way that I have never been able to experience in all my 36 years in the Mississippi outdoors. This book is bound to become a classic coffee table book for ALL nature enthusiast, not just Mississippians. Breathtaking photography!

I have really enjoyed this little book. I find myself reading it over and over and it is now has all the signs of a well used resource: it is dog-eared here and there and there are notes and underlinings throughout. If you appreciate birds, butterflies, and other wildlife, and are interested in attracting them, this is an excellent resource. The book very accurately describes various familiar southern habitats (such as "live oak riverfront forest" or "slash pine savannah") and then steers the reader to plants that will both thrive in their region and also be beneficial to wildlife. It also includes a long chapter on trees, shrubs, and vines that goes into more detail about recommended plants. There is much, much more information packed in here and, if you love gardening and live in the deep south, this is a "must have" book.

My stepfather asked me to purchase this book for him since he did not have a computer. He read the first 400 pages within 3 days. He called me to tell me that he totally enjoyed this book and he asked me to order the book for another person(he raved so much to this person about the book). He's leaving the book to the family (once he passes on) to let each
member to read and learn about Afro American History.

It was a very informative book that I purchased for my father before he got to take a trip down the Alaskan Highway!

Wyatt Water's collection of watercolors are vibrant representations of nostalgic city scapes in Jackson. His rainbow pallete is painted on location, giving each work a caught-in-time feel. A breif history of the subject is given for each picture. This book is a pleasure to open over and over again.

Gwen Hailey calls her husband Carl Lee at work, tells him their daughter, ten-year-old Tonya is missing. Carl Lee isn't all that worried though, because his wife tends to be, well a little protective. However when he gets home he's met with the news that Tonya has been raped by a pair of redneck types named Billy Ray Cobb and Pete Willard. Tonya had been left for dead and Carl Lee is seeing red. He's African American and does not believe the rapists are going to get what they deserve. Though they're arrested, Carl Lee knows how it goes in the South, so he goes to the courthouse and blows away those young good old boys, then he gets himself a lawyer.

Attorney Jake Brigance takes the case, which gets plenty of media attention right from the get go. It also draws the attention of the Clan, who do their best to intimidate both Jake (they burn a cross on his yard) and the jurors. Carl Lee is looking at the gas chamber if he's convicted and many want it so, however, there are many who believe Carl Lee had been justified. Tension is running high in the Mississippi town of Clanton. Jake's wife is afraid for their daughter Hannah. His secretary is afraid, too. The town doesn't need this, but it's got it.

And you may not need the tension in this book, nor the graphic scene detailing what happened to Tonya, but you should read this book. This is John Grisham's best work, it's his first novel, too. Everything John Grisham writes tops the bestseller lists and they should, but this book, well they need a whole new list for this book. John Grisham puts you in the South at a tense time and paints a picture so true it'll make your eyes bleed as you pour through the pages. He's written a book about a time in the South that the South would love to forget about. We were a different people then, thank the Lord we're changing. We're not their yet, but we're getting there.

Reviewed by Vesta Irene

A Time to Kill is not for those with weak stomachs. In his first novel, John Grisham holds nothing back in describing man's inhumanity to man. If you like reading about violence that would make those with weak stomachs miss a meal, this is your book.

The premise of the book is a thought-provoking one: How would a Southern small town treat a crime by an African-American perpetrated with malice aforethought that it would have permitted a white southerner to get away with?

The book's best qualities are exploring the roots of racial prejudice.

For those who like legal thrillers where there's some action, this is far more than your usual courtroom drama. It comes closer to the kind of taut threat that permeated To Kill a Mockingbird. The only difference is that Grisham conjures up an intersection in time between the old and new South that never happened.

I found that the book was predictable in its over-the-top treatment of what would have made for good drama. But the extreme situations weakened the plot by making it seem unlikely. I suspect it was a writing method used to be sure that those who didn't know about the old South would appreciate the delicate nature of the emotions involved.

If you want to get a sense of how far Grisham has come, read this book and then The Client. Fortunately, Grisham learned how to back off from writing over the top and has become an excellent novelist.

You'll keep turning the pages of this book. I doubt if very many people put it down unfinished.

John Grisham has established himself as one of the premier American writers in the recent past. Almost everything he writes is gobbled up devoured by his fans and rightfully so. He has a great knack for drawing you in to the characters and then like a punch in the nose..he hits you with the hook. Time to kill already is a classic and will remain on the reading list for high schooler and collegiates for quite a while.

I find John Grissom to be an excelloent writter.

I find it hard to put down.

This book is author John Grisham's first novel. It is also, naturally enough, his personal favorite.

"A Time to Kill" had an indifferent reception from publishers. It was subsequently given a more prestigious release after the best selling success of "The Firm" and "The Pelican Brief."

I would probably rate "A Time to Kill" with three and a half stars, if that option were available to me on this web site. It is not a bad book, but it is awfully derivative. If you have previously read Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird," much of the material in "A Time to Kill" is going to seem familiar to you. The time frame, the specific crime and the location have changed, but otherwise it is a short drive from a courtroom in segregated Alabama to a racist courtroom in Mississippi.

To put it another way, would you prefer watching the motion picture "In the Heat of the Night" with Rod Steiger or the weekly television series with Carroll O'Connor?