Mississippi Books

The short stories are linked by their connection to humans at the core of their being in critical times: death of loved ones, death of relationships, and death of self. But in those moments we also see rebirth and the strength people contain. Hawes shows people at their most vulnerable, and at their strongest, all with a delicate humor. These stories have male and female protagonists of all ages facing a range of crisis, and yet, the reader is effortlessly, and irresistibly, drawn into their inner world. "Anteaters Don't Dream" connects us to each other by allowing us access to the fundamental human experiences of loss, love and laughter all at once.

"Anteaters Don't Dream" is a quirky and surprising collection of short stories, with the emphasis on story! It would be easy to heap on adjectives of praise for Hawes' prose--bright, fresh, vigorous, inventive--but it's the stories themselves, infused with humor, intelligence, and warmth that held me spellbound. In "Dawson's Folly," a father builds an elaborate tree house for his son, an enterprise wrought with unexpected and troubling consequences, and in "Mr. Mix-Up," an almost shamanic birthday party clown becomes more than mere entertainment. All the stories in this collection breathe, bleed and pulse with characters I cared about, and themes that reverberated long after the final punctuation. Hawes didn't just me draw maps to destinations...she took me places I've never been and brought me back again and again, reflective, affected and amazed!

This full size book is yet another wonderful addition to the growing body of literature on this naturalist and classically-trained artist from the Gulf Coast. The large size allows nice display of many of his paintings, drawings, and other pieces. The essays are a good introduction to his life and contributions. Those who love nature and are fascinated by the relationship of people and wild things will treasure Anderson. If this is your first contact, your next stop will be the Anderson Museum in Ocean Springs, MS -- and bring your camping gear and binocs because you're going to want to go to Horn Island (now part of Gulf Islands National Seashore) and see it for yourself.

I purchased this book in 2004 after the big Anderson exhibit came through Memphis. As a sometime Mississippian, I gave his alphabet block prints to my wedding attendants and my child had a Walter Anderson nursery. Now, in 2007, I am especially glad to have this since Hurricane Katrina devastated Ocean Springs and the Anderson family's repository of his work. The New Orleans Museum of Art, Mississippi Museum of Art, and collectors still have many of the pieces, but for me, this book is a record of many pieces that I'll never be able to see again.

Bartleby of the Mighty Mississippi was a great book. The characters such as Mother Wak and Bartleby were perfect for the mood of the story and were well described. It was exciting from start to finish and is a great story for anyone of any age. The characters ranges from extremly funny (like the peeper Zip who alway speaks in ryhme) to really creapy (like the alagator Seezer), and at times and Bartleby's wit and quick thinking save him or his friends. I loved it! I have read almost all of Phyllis Shalant's books and this one by far is the best. For those who have read the other books by her this one is a must anf for those who are new to the author will love to start with the one. The suspense can almost kill you sometimes and force you to keep on turing page after page. You'll never want to put this book down! Read this book now!!

I really enjoyed reading this book because it was funny and had lots of rhymes. The characters were interesting and it was amazing to see a turtle survive when he had been living as a pet and travels with an alligator. The descriptions of the places Bartleby sees is very imaginative . I especially enjoyed the part when he was trying to save the duck eggs and when they hatched they thought Bartleby was a duck also. I was glad that it ended happy but it leaves you wondering about the rest of the journey. Perhaps there can be a sequel here?

This is an intriguing, stimulating, accessible, and lively text that follows the path of the Beatles in America and their evolving image, from lovable Liverpudlian, working class "moptops" to their ascendancy to the forefront of the youth countercultural movement. In the words of Frontani, this is a "thorough time capsule" that explores how the Beatles' image was carefully promoted by their manager Brian Epstein, and as the turbulent events of the `60s unfolded, how that initial image gave way to one more authentic, more in tune with the hopes, aspirations, and frustrations of the time, and one more consonant with the group members' self-perceptions and self-understandings. Anyone who has an appreciation for the Beatles will find much that is satisfying in this text. But just as the Beatles were so much more than the music (as great as that music is), so this book examines the various social and institutional forces that shaped our understanding of the Fab Four. Towards this end, Frontani introduces critical theories (the Frankfurt School, star theory, hegemony) that illuminate the contested social terrain where image is forged. As a book that follows the Beatles' journey through America, Frontani has much to say about American society and who we are as a culture and a people. This book, therefore, has appeal to readers interested not just in music, but also for those who appreciate history, culture, power, media, and politics. Still, the centerpiece of the book is the magic that was the Beatles. As Frontani writes, many artists have obtained great success in America, but "with the Beatles, there is something extra." It is this "extra" that Frontani skillfully explains.

Robert Hislope

Dr. Michael R. Frontani's book: "The Beatles: Image and the Media" provides a brilliant insight into the Sixities co-energizing forces through which the Beatles shaped the American popular culture, and the way the latter transformed the Beatles into a universal phenomenon. In the best tradition of Erik Barnouw's "Tube of Plenty," Frontani brings to light the political context and the role the media played as they first challenged, and later celebrated, the revolutionary and creative soul of the Beatles. The book, furthermore, is not merely an historical account of the engagement between the Beatles and the American media, but also an inspiring demonstration of the creative power contained within the original tradition of the American intellectual life. Through their engagement with America's open-ended universe in which, as Emerson observed, "the only sin is limitation," the Beatles were transformed from a local European sensation into universal prophets of the new age. Frontani is correct in describing this engagement as "the Twentieth Century's Greatest Romance." The book is well researched, creatively written, and destined to become a milestone in the ongoing scholarship and inquiry into America's contemporary popular culture. The book's well painted picture of this unique and dynamic period should be of great interest to all serious scholars of music history, media studies, American popular culture, and for all serious students of the Beatles's music and creative imagination. In particular, Frontani's book must be essential to anyone who wishes to understand the political and social upheaval of the Sixties in America, the role the Beatles played in the anti-war movement, and the profound consequences which still shape our contemporary experience. Together with the poet we still hope for "Strawberry Fields Forever."

Yoram Lubling

I met Ross Phelps in Prague in 1990. This is an amazing true story of personal strenght, will and courage. The book is definitely worth of buying it. Martin Kostal, Prague - Czech Republic

Knowing this family as I do and playing a peripheral role in their experience to support the patient, Ross Phelps, I can strongly recommend Elaine Phelps' narrative account of her son's determination to survive - in fact, thrive - in the face of a killer cancer. Ross' ongoing, 15-year battle with a pediatric bone cancer, osteosarcoma, is an inspiring story of personal will. This book will be a source of comfort and hope to cancer patients, their caregivers, their families and friends.

This is a beautiful book which focuses on the birds that Walter Anderson painted and drew.
Anderson is pure magic when it comes to showing us animals within their habitats and as the beautifully designed creatures that they are.

While all of Walter Anderson's works are wonderful, there's just something special about his Birds. These full-color pages are a stunning visual feast of all kinds of birds. The watercolors are amazing. Anyone interested in birds or art should see this collection and spend a long time slowly relishing it. If you're familiar with Anderson's works, it's a must-have. If you're not, it's a wonderful collection of some of his best work.

This collection of eleven stories is Jere Hoar's showcase of award winners. All laurels are well deserved by this author. "The Snopes Who Saved Huckaby" was selected by Allan Gurganus as co-winner of the Pirate's Alley William Faulkner Prize for Fiction. That story, in a manuscript with its complement, "How Wevel Went," was chosen by Earnest J. Gaines winner of the Deep South Writing Conference Competition. And with most of the stories in Body Parts included in Hoar's manuscript that was a finalist for the Flannery O'Connor Award, well, it's not difficult to understand the trend. Hoar's fiction captures what's best in the tradition of Southern humor ranging from the raucous and violent satires and raunchy tall tales of the Old Southwest to the documentaries of time and place in his sexual coming of age stories to the myth-weaving magical realism and eclectic style peculiar to selections in the second half of the volume like "Half Ass" and "Dark Heart." Like the two faces of a coin, the two parts of the collection are disparate in tone and personality. Part one contains five stories, including the title story "Body Parts:A Memory of 1944," a post-war narrative of adolescent discovery in which the narrator struggles with understanding change in a changing world, the mysteries of women, the unexplored territory of his sexuality, and the amputation of one of his arms after being caught in the gears of the printing press where he works. Part two is composed of six stories which are more eclectic, eccentric, and if possible, more sophisticated than those of part one. The stories of the second half of the collection are sandwiched between "The Snopes Who Saved Huckaby" and "How Wevel Went." Yet, even in stories from the first part of the collection like "Body Parts:A Memory of 1944" or ones less graphic about the fascination like "Tell Me It Hasn't Come to This" or "My Father's Voice, Lifting," it would be a misrepresentation to avoid what seems to be lurking close to the heart of these stories: a smouldering sexual tension which erupts in the hysterical antics of fornicating preachers like Brother Wevel Snopes, who is struck by lightening while in the coital embrace of a 15-year-old school girl, and A.P. Gooch, who calls his penis "the wonder," a tension which surfaces again in the plagues and plights of a May-December marriage in "The Incredible Little Louisiana Chicken Killer" and in the sexual quests of adolescent boys who wish that "the Boy Scout Handbook gave instructions about how to use rubbers" and who struggle to hide erections while ogling bikini-clad girls at the public swimming pool. In stories like "The Last Feminine Woman in the World," sexual fascination is not subtle or coincidental, but it defines the obsession of a former cafeteria worker who murders and preserves his ex-lover in a freezer and grinds her boyfriend up like hamburger to feed to the human scavengers at a dump site. Body Parts is a fascinating book for its range of styles and subjects, its complexity, and wit. There's not a dull moment it this one, folks, and that's a promise. It's no wonder to me that The New York Times Book Review, Library Booknotes, and Bookman News all chose Body Parts a "notable book of the year."

A collection out of the Deep South, Jere Hoar's BODY PARTS straddles a range that would give most writers hamstring tears. Impressive as that stretch is, it makes it difficult to describe the collection as a whole. Some of the stories swerve toward fable and the prose strikes with the swift, haphazard accuracy of lightning ("Dark Heart," "The Snopes Who Saved Huckaby," "The Incredible Little Louisiana Chicken Killer"). Others seem composed of the hard, straight lines of a woodcut ("My Father's Voice, Lifting," "Tell Me It Hasn't Come to This") while still others inhabit a hazy indefinable zone somewhere between the fabulous and the reaslistic ("A Brave Damn-Near Perfect Thing," "Body Parts--A Memory of 1944"). What is true throughout is that one would be hard-pressed to find a disposable sentence or even a wasted word. This is not to say we're dealing with some wizard of minimalism--hardly. What I mean is that the sentences are lovely enough, in and of themselves, to keep you reading. Hoar as a gift for the short, sweet simile, as when a "voice soared like a leaf in an updraft." Of a man's roving gaze he writes, "These eyes is like having twin boys in a candy store, and no big sister to hold they hands." Or again, "Brother Wevel gave her a rammish look and she flinched like a well-broke mule hearing the whispered intention of whip." There are so many of these lines in every story one wonders if Hoar has any saved up for another book. Also fairly omnipresent in the collection is a sense of humor that is something akin to a mustache that unexpectedly falls off during a serious conversation--it might not have bumped you past a smile into laughter if only you'd seen it coming. Some of the stories, in fact, are howlingly funny. In particular, "The Snopes Who Saved Huckaby," the story of a preacher who, desperate for a job, finds himself teaching in a girl's finishing school. Brother Wevel knows full well he does not belong among a bevy of girls blooming into womanhood: "[God] sets meat before us we can't pass up, then punishes us without mercy if we eat." And sure enough, Brother Wevel invites trouble aplenty. Unlike the average short story collection, which has one or two ringers among seven or eight shimmerless pieces that are mainly filler, there simply are no clunkers in the 11 tales hoarded bewteeen the covers of BODY PARTS. It's no accident this one was chosen as a New York Times Notable Book of the Year for 1998 and no true fan of the short story should be without it.

Bret Harte: Prince & Pauper is the first scholarly biography of the author to appear in nearly seventy years, and provides a new assessment of the life and achievements of the writer. New sources provide additional insights into Harte's life and times, bringing to life new truths about his finances and separation from family. An intriguing, moving study.

Give this book as a gift to anyone interested in American literature or American-European cultural exchange in the latter half of the nineteenth century, and treat yourself to a copy, too. It's an innovative biography, bringing characters to life in novelistic scenes, yet maintaining its scholarly authority. Nissen has deliberately chosen a style that a wide audience can enjoy. But he has also done his homework. Manuscripts related to Bret Harte are scattered throughout U.S. and European libraries, and Nissen has performed the laborious task of piecing them together--including many sources previously unknown to Harte scholarship. Through the new research, BRET HARTE: PRINCE AND PAUPER offers, for instance, the most probing anaysis yet of Harte's close relationships with other men. In sum, the book is an illuminating, authoritative, moving portrait of a writer who once enjoyed the acclaim of both popular audiences and the literary establishment. See the author's comments linked to this site. Then read the book.

I guess if your only complaint about a book is that it's too short, that's not so bad.

I love this book. The pictures are terrific. I even used it to make a doll-sized Mardi Gras outfit. Definitely recommended.

I PERSONALLY KNOW JUST ABOUT EVERYONE MENTIONED IN THIS BOOK. CAROLYN DID A WONDERFUL JOB IN RELAYING OUR CULTURE INTO A BOOK. I REMEMBER WHEN SHE WAS INTERVIEWING SUSAN LAUNEY FOR THIS BOOK I ABSOLUTELY FELL IN LOVE WITH CAROLYN'S WORK. I JUST RESENTLY SEEN CAROLYN WARE AT A FESTIVAL IN MONROE, LA AND SHE IS STILL WORKING HARDER THAN EVER TO PROMOTE CAJUN HISTORY. IF YOU KNOW ANYONE WHO IS INTERESTED IN OUR MARDI GRAS PLEASE RECOMEND THIS PARTICULAR BOOK. IT DESCRIBES OUR TRADITION (WHICH HAPPENS TO BE THE FIRST AND ORIGINAL MARDI GRAS) TO THE TEE. I APPLAUDE YOU CAROLYN WARE FOR YOUR MAGNIFISENT JOB ON THIS AND ALL OF YOUR WORK. I DO HAVE TO SAY THAT THIS IS MY FAVORITE BOOK ON CAJUN CULTURE BECAUSE I HAD TAKEN PART IN THIS ACTUAL BOOK. I LEARNED FROM MY FRIEND SUSAN LAUNEY HOW TO MAKE THE MASK IN THIS BOOK AND IT IS A REALLY NEAT AND INTERESTING ACTIVITY FOR ADULTS AND KIDS TO TAKE PART IN. THANK YOU CAROLYN FOR YOUR HARD WORK AND INTEREST IN OUR CULTURE. SEE YOU AT JAZZ FEST 2000 SINCERELY, RYAN FONTENOT

Liz Petry does a masterful job of combining history as we learned it with history in the words of those who were actually there. Finding and sharing letters from her ancestors and presenting them in the context of the world as they knew it is an incredible gift to our generation. This gem of a book gives a clear look at the everyday lives, the education and ambition of people who overcame the rigors and abuses of slavery and took their rightful places in post Civil War society. I found it enlightening and fascinating that it took only one generation to progress from slavery to college degrees. These wonderful people then passed their legacy of education and achievement to their progeny. In my opinion, this book should be required reading in every American History class in every high school and every college.

I was so taken by this brilliant composition, that I recommended it to a cousin working on a thesis concerning northern desegregation between 1954-1980 in the hope that such wonderful, first-hand, historical information would be helpful. He was thrilled.

Congratulations, Liz. Your work is superb, and I look forward to your next book, "At Home Inside: A Daughter's Tribute to Ann Petry."

M. E. McMillan
Author of "Rebirth of the Oracle - Tarot for the Modern World," and as Elizabeth Blackstone, author of "Virtual Strangers, A Woman's Guide to Love and Sex on the Internet" and "The Commoner's Guide to Dog Breeding."

I'm not a history buff per se but I found the James family collection of letters fascinating because it tells the story of an African-American family that was solidly middle class in the late 1800s at a time in America's history when most people were poor or struggling. Though historically rich, the book is told through the original voices of family members through their letters to one another so the reading is engaging and fast-paced. I wish I had read more like it when I was in school.