Same with me. Instead, for George Weinstein, for his Hardscrabble Road, I have six words: This is a damn good book.”– Sonny Brewer, author of The Poet of Tolstoy ParkThe entire MacLeod clan is haunted by secrets—and young Roger “Bud” MacLeod doesn’t realize he carries the biggest secret of all. Growing up poor in Depression-era South Georgia is hard enough, but Bud is also cursed with a stutter and a birthmark that disfigures his face. His hateful father and amoral mother make life worse still, despite his brothers’ efforts to shield him.To survive in body and soul, Bud must discover his strengths and confront the sins of his parents. First, though, he’ll need to grasp his own truth: that he can’t embrace his future until he comes to terms with his past.“Reading Hardscrabble Road is like discovering To Kill a Mockingbird when no one else knew about it. It has that kind of impact. But then this novel has such fascinating characters, such vivid descriptions of South Georgia during the Depression, and such an uplifting storyline, that one day it may also be considered a classic.”– Jackie K Cooper, author of Memory’s Mist, and critic for The Huffington Post"George Weinstein's authentic voice brings Bud MacLeod to life, a vivid character drawing me into his tough and tender Southern world. Bud fights to save his own soul with determination and heart. Hardscrabble Road is a bittersweet and gripping story that will steal your heart." – Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author“George Weinstein's Hardscrabble Road cinematically brings the Deep South of the 1930s and 1940s to life. You'll never forget Roger ‘Bud’ MacLeod.”– Jessica Handler, author of Invisible Sisters: A Memoir“This profoundly told and splendidly written story of Bud MacLeod in his growing up days of the Depression in South Georgia, is one of the most engaging novels I’ve read in years. Rich in character—from Bud’s parents and siblings to his half-Japanese friend, Ry—Hardscrabble Road does what fine literature has always done: it reveals the tragedy and the tender hope of humanity. This is an effort to be celebrated.”– Terry Kay, author of To Dance with the White Dog and The Book of Marie

    The neighborhood children call him the Pee-can Man; their mothers call them inside whenever he appears. When the police chief's son is found stabbed to death near his camp, the man Ora knows as Eddie is arrested and charged with murder. Twenty-five years later, Ora sets out to tell the truth about the Pecan Man. In narrating her story, Ora discovers more truth about herself than she could ever have imagined. This novel has been described as To Kill a Mockingbird meets The Help.

    But when her mother dies, leaving her to live alone in the house she grew up in, to work the farm she was raised to take care of, she finds herself lost in a kind of loneliness she hadn't expected. After years of rebuffing the advances of imperfect, yet eligible bachelors from her small town, Ivorie is without companionship with more love in her heart and time on her hands than she knows what to do with. But her life soon changes when a feral, dirty-faced boy who has been sneaking onto her land to steal from her garden comes into her life. Even though he runs back into the hills as quickly as he arrives, she's determined to find out who he is because something about the young boy haunts her. What would make him desperate enough to steal and eat from her garden? But what she can't imagine is what the boy faces, each day and night, in the filthy lean-to hut miles up in the hills. Who is he? How did he come to live in the hills? Where did he come from? And, more importantly, can she save him? As Ivorie steps out of her comfort zone to uncover the answers, she unleashes a firestorm in the town-a community that would rather let secrets stay that way.This pitch perfect story of redemption and the true meaning of familial love is Donna VanLiere at her very best.

    While her mother hardens in her grief, Wildflower and her three sisters must cope with their loss themselves, as well as with the demands of daily survival. Despite these hardships, Wildflower has a resilience that is forged with humor, a love of the land, and an endless supply of questions to God. When Johnny Monroe, the town's teenage ne'er-do-well, sets his sights on Wildflower, she must draw on the strength of her relations, both living and dead, to deal with his threat. With prose as lush and colorful as the American South, The Secret Sense of Wildflower is powerful and poignant, brimming with energy and angst, humor and hope.

    Embittered and distrusting, Vida is harassed by Delphi's racist sheriff and haunted by the son she lost to the world. Hazel, too, has lost a son and can't keep a grip on her fractured life. After drunkenly crashing her car into a manger scene while gunning for the baby Jesus, Hazel is sedated and bed-ridden. Hazel s husband hires Vida to keep tabs on his unpredictable wife and to care for his sole surviving son. Forced to spend time together with no one else to rely on, the two women find they have more in common than they thought, and together they turn the town on its head. It is the story of a town, a people, and a culture on the verge of a great change that begins with small things, like unexpected friendship."

    Troubled by his wife’s disturbing mental state and concerned about a mysterious plague sweeping through his slave population, Master Satterfield purchases Polly Shine, a slave reputed to be a healer. But Polly’s sharp tongue and troubling predictions cause unrest across the plantation. Complicating matters further, Polly recognizes “the gift” in Granada, the mistress’s pet, and a domestic battle of wills ensues.   Seventy-five years later, Granada, now known as Gran Gran, is still living on the plantation and must revive the buried memories of her past in order to heal a young girl abandoned to her care. Together they learn the power of story to heal the body, the spirit and the soul.  Rich in mood and atmosphere, The Healing is the kind of novel readers can’t put down—and can’t wait to recommend once they’ve finished.This download includes a 30-minute bonus feature.

    She carries her Sig 9 in her Kate Spade handbag, and her golden retriever, Rhett, rides shotgun in her hybrid Escape. When her grandmother is murdered, Liz high-tails it back to her South Carolina island home to find the killer. But when her police-chief brother shuts her out of the investigation, she opens her own. Then her long-dead best friend pops in and things really get complicated. As more folks turn up dead, Liz must use more than just her wits and charm to keep her family safe, chase down clues from the hereafter, and catch a psychopath before he catches her.

    Wilson 's mesmerizing evocation of his Southern childhood in The Naturalist and Anthill, Alex Harris approached the scientist about collaborating on a book about Wilson 's native world of Mobile, Alabama. Perceiving that Mobile was a city small enough to be captured through a lens yet old enough to have experienced a full epic cycle of tragedy and rebirth, the photographer and the naturalist joined forces to capture the rhythms of this storied Alabama Gulf region through a swirling tango of lyrical words and breathtaking images. With Wilson tracing his family 's history from the Civil War through the Depression when mule-driven wagons still clogged the roads to Mobile 's racial and environmental struggles to its cultural triumphs today, and with Harris stunningly capturing the mood of a radically transformed city that has adapted to the twenty-first century, the book becomes a universal story, one that tells us where we all come from and why we are here.

    Money is personified in this haunting story, which chronicles its troubled history following the arrival of the Hilson and Bryant families.Tass Hilson and Emmett Till were young and in love when Emmett was brutally murdered in 1955. Anxious to escape the town, Tass marries Maximillian May and relocates to Detroit.Forty years later, after the death of her husband, Tass returns to Money and fantasy takes flesh when Emmett Till's spirit is finally released from the dank, dark waters of the Tallahatchie River. The two lovers are reunited, bringing the story to an enchanting and profound conclusion.Gathering of Waters mines the truth about Money, Mississippi, as well as the town's families, and threads their history over decades. The bare-bones realism--both disturbing and riveting--combined with a magical realm in which ghosts have the final say, is reminiscent of Toni Morrison's Beloved.

    But will introducing her mixed-race daughter to her independent-minded grandmother bring solace or sorrow? Will confronting her class-conscious mother allow for new beginnings or confirm old resentments? And how can she ask forgiveness of her youthful lover who has been denied his child all these years? As the summer progresses, Avery's return provokes shocking discoveries--of choices made, and secrets kept--and of deceptions that lie closer than she suspects.

    Deany Brady tells the story of her colorful childhood in the 1930s and 40s with freshness, humor, wit, and intelligence. She is a master storyteller, following in the vigorous oral tradition of her parents and her grandmother, who told vivid family stories all through her childhood. Following the arc of her young life, Brady beautifully captures her own growth from a daydreaming child, creating mansions out of moss and sticks, and gazing at the famous people in the newspapers covering the walls, to a girl in love with language and writing, whose greatest happiness is to read all of Gone with the Wind to her mother by the wash stream one magical summer. Unusual in her Appalachian community, the young Deany yearns not only to complete her high school education but to find a way to better her own life and that of her family’s, by moving to the big city of Atlanta and hoping to gain a college education. Even as Deany’s life grows more intricate and challenging, and even as she makes her own mistakes in her urge to escape the constraints of Appalachia, she holds onto her dream of a life filled with knowledge, happiness and beauty.An Appalachian Childhood is the first half of a two-part memoir. It covers Deany Brady’s first twenty-two years. The second half, Higher than Yonder Mountain, is forthcoming. This second volume follows her grown-up life’s arc from Georgia to Miami Beach, to Park Avenue in New York, and ultimately to her life as a writer in California.

    From literary legends to emerging voices, the acclaimed writers featured in this collection view their hardscrabble South without romanticism or false nostalgia, not through moonlight and magnolia but moonshine and Marlboros. This is the dirty South as captured by those rooted in its land yet able to share its stories with candor and courage. Grit Lit guides readers through tales both tall and true, intoxicating stories of loss, violence, failure, feuds, family, and--above all--survival against the odds. Raw and raucous, Grit Lit gathers some of the most provocative writing to come out of the South in the last thirty years. With a preface by Edgar Award-winning author Tom Franklin and Brian Carpenter's introduction to the genre's origins and influences, this bold anthology lays bare the Rough South in all its battered glory and dares readers not to stare in awe.

    At the time, Wright spent his evenings waiting tables for Whites at a local restaurant and his mornings running his own business. The ripple effect from his remarks would cement Booker as a civil rights icon because he did the unthinkable: before a national audience, Wright described what life truly was like for the Black people of Greenwood, Mississippi.Four decades later, Yvette Johnson, Wright’s granddaughter, found footage of the controversial documentary. No one in her family knew of his television appearance. Even more curious for Johnson was that for most of her life she’d barely heard mention of her grandfather’s name. Born a year after Wright’s death and raised in a wealthy San Diego neighborhood, Johnson admits she never had to confront race the way Southern Blacks did in the 1960s. Compelled to learn more about her roots, she travels to Greenwood, Mississippi, a beautiful Delta town steeped in secrets and a scarred past, to interview family members and townsfolk about the real Booker Wright. As she uncovers her grandfather’s compelling story and gets closer to the truth behind his murder, she also confronts her own conflicted feelings surrounding race, family, and forgiveness.Told with powerful insights and harrowing details of civil rights–era Mississippi, The Song and the Silence is an astonishing chronicle of one woman’s passionate pursuit of her own family’s past. In the stories of those who came before, she finds not only a new understanding of herself, but a hopeful vision of the future for all of us.

    Emerson covers all aspects of the tragedies that, as Keats believed, contribute to our human collective of Soul-making, in which each death accrues into an immortal web of ongoing love and meaning for the living. Emerson's unwavering gaze shows that loss cannot be eluded, but can be embraced in elegies as devastating as they are beautiful.The macabre title poem refers to the old custom of making daguerreotypes, primitive photographs, of deceased loved ones. Other striking poems describe animal deaths -- mysterious calf killings, a hog slaughter, the burial of a dead jay, identifiable / but light, dry, its eyes vacant orbits. Death, as the speaker's heart and mind instruct her, exists in a shadow world. When the body disappears, the shadow also flees. By securing the shadow, the poet finds a representation of the dead's soul, a soul always linked to the body. Hence, Emerson's attention to the minute details of the body's repose -- reflected in the long, related sequence of refrained poems -- never allows its memory to fade.

    Alice Cummings, raised by an abusive, alcoholic father, longs to leave her home and have a real family of her own, a desire that contributes to an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. But when she returns home with her baby, her father makes good on an earlier threat and sells the infant boy. Driven to find her son, she sets out to leave, find the baby, and start a new life together. Her plans go awry from the start when she witnesses a murder outside her home, and injures herself as she attempts to retrieve her suitcase from the shed. She escapes with the help of a neighbor, and circumstances force her to move on, unaware that his kindness will bring retribution by her father and the murderer. Myra Mitchell is the mega-bestselling author known as the “Diva of Disaster.” Yet, calamity is about to befall her this time, as her hard-partying lifestyle catches up with her. After passing out, she wakes up in the hospital ICU to learn she has little time left, unless she gets a liver transplant. The Catch-22: she must remain alcohol-free for six months to qualify, but she might not live that long. It’s a race against time to write her last book. With an assistant imposed upon her by her agent, she sets her sights on the story of her favorite cartoonist, Betsy Weston. Betsy appeared out of nowhere in Asheville, North Carolina in 1969, arose to develop the wildly popular cartoon strip – “Sweetie … and George,” made millions, and at the summit of her success, disappeared from the face of the earth. Myra puts everything on the line to uncover the rest of that story.

     Terror reigns over the North Florida National Forest, the coastal town of Bayshore, and the barrier island of Pine Key—a fiery terror whose flame threatens to consume the whole world. An exacting and methodical killer whose weapon is fire is working on his masterpiece, and only a wounded and scarred FDLE agent and a retired ritual crimes expert hiding from the world in a cabin in the woods have any hope of stopping him. Rich and textured, yet fast-paced and pulse-pounding, BURNT OFFERINGS will leave you breathless right up until its heart-stopping conclusion.

    The Crossing is right outside of Beaufort and the turmoil of the Civil Rights movement will forever leave its scars on the young and impressionable girl. As Sassy stands before the imposing white farmhouse for the first time, with no knowledge of her history but that the McLaughlin's are her kin, Sassy begins a journey that will tear her apart before it heals her. Growing up among secrets that will forever damage her relationship with her mother, she attempts to make sense of her past. But will her passion for art and her love for Thomas Tierney be enough to sustain her future? Will the puzzles she must solve to discover who she is be worth the journey?

    While Colonel Tom physically and emotionally batters his family, Ma’am escapes the turmoil with alcohol. Their children, Percy, Sis and Oops, with no adult guidance, learn to sidestep their family minefields alone. Percy longs for a loving relationship with his father but is unwilling to compromise his aspirations of owning a motorcycle repair shop to win his father’s love. Sis wants a strong mother who will stand up to her abusive husband but finds herself in an abusive marriage, as well. Baby Oops escapes the chaos by teaching herself to read at three and retreating to her own world where abuse and parental neglect can’t reach her. Siblings Percy and Sis forge a loving bond that will sustain them through the most poignant and tragic of circumstances. Whether it’s eating an entire chocolate cake in one sitting, playing Cuss Scrabble, double dating to the drive-in movie, or stealing their father’s car to hotrod in the wee hours, the brother and sister find unbridled joy in their friendship, despite the dysfunction swirling around them. Told with captivating grit, humor, and insight, this tale of family discord carries the Albemarles through decades of turbulence until tragedy teaches them to forgive and understand by GETTING THE IMPORTANT THINGS RIGHT.

    It details pivotal moments in Mrs. Roberts' intriguing life, revealing how faith in God has given her strength and hope. Good Morning America viewers have come to know and love Lucimarian Tolliver Roberts. For many, the heartfelt connection began the day after Hurricane Katrina blew through the Gulf Coast. They watched as Robin stood among the remnants of her hometown and talked about her desperate search for her elderly mother, who had ridden out the storm in her Mississippi home.Robin writes, "Folks are drawn to Mom's humility, wisdom, and spirituality." Reflections from Robin on her mother's life and faith cap each chapter."God has brought the most wonderful and sometimes the most unlikely people, of all ages and races, into my life to encourage and guide me on this spiritual journey of life," Mrs. Roberts says with bright eyes.

    It is the story of Skeeter, a young boy growing up in a family poor in material goods but rich in the appreciation of their natural surroundings. The river they live on is the source of life—and death.

    An anthology of Southern myths and beliefs that ends the book with a short story based on Voodoo, which is called MAGIC UNDER THE WILLOW TREE. Welcome to the world of Boojums, Clurichauns, and Whispering Willows. Read about man-eating monsters, witches, and mysterious lights that cannot be explained by the scientific community. We dare you to enter into this mystical realm, that is, if you are brave enough.

    They've been divorced for four years, she's engaged to a terrific new guy, and she's ready to leave the small North Carolina town where she and Mason had so much history. She is so over Mason that she has absolutely no problem attending his wedding. But when fate intervenes and the wedding is called to a halt as the bride is walking down the aisle, Annajane begins to realize that maybe this happened for a reason. And maybe, just maybe, she wants Mason back...Second chances But there are secrets afoot in this small Southern town, and soon Annajane discovers that change can bring out the worst in people-even her own friends and neighbors-and uncover family scandals. Happiness could be hers for the taking...and the life she once had with Mason could be in her future. But first Annajane must find out what she's really made of, and what really matters most."A winsome love story and compelling family drama; an idyllic small-town setting and surprising twists and turns."-Booklist

    Percy’s whiskey making days are turned upside down by the sudden appearance of a giant naked man, an unsavory job offer from a drug dealer, and a sultry local girl hell-bent on making it as difficult as possible for him to keep his vows to his wife. He wants nothing more than to sell his illegal wares and be left alone. Unfortunately, the whiskey man is about to come to terms with the only way for that to happen: the bad way out.

    In the small town of Clayfield, Kentucky, survivors attempt to carve out new lives for themselves. There is hope that eventually Clayfield can be secured, but first the undead must be eliminated and law and order must be restored. Unfortunately, the survivors might not ever get to implement their plan. Gangs of looters continue to strike the town and news filters in that something worse could be coming.

    One bolts. The other freezes and winds up with a choice: join the man about to die, or begin hustling black support the judge needs to advance in politics. In trade, he will enjoy a life of power and comfort. Decades later, Big Ike is about to become the state's first black congressman since Reconstruction. Instead, he finds himself in the same forest, a long rope in his fist, muttering the hated nickname again and again: Bootlicker.

    Hoping for Sweet Glory, she cuts her hair and disguises herself as a young cavalryman, eager to fight the Rebels, aided by Leanne Perham, another girl from town who has donned the Union blues. Disguised as Johnnie and Leander, Jana and Leanne form a close connection with other misfits in their unit, twelve-year-old Charlie, who’s hidden his age to provide for his ma, and Irishman Keeley, who inspires men to abandon their inner conflicts and band together. Jana comes to greatly admire Keeley, who frequently needles Johnnie about the occasional appearance of feminine attributes.While Jana enjoys the camaraderie within her unit, soldiering and nursing severely test her notions of glory in war. And the possibility of dying as a man hits home when she witnesses a man and his disguised bride die hand in hand on the battlefield. Jana determines to find a way home, with the blossoming incentive of renewing a relationship with Keeley once she is again living as a woman. But this possibility seems even more unlikely when Keeley is captured and Jana is hit by a bullet. Will she be able to rescue him from the Confederates’ clutches? And will Keeley love her for her true self?Lisa Potocar masterfully interweaves a moving love story with a sweeping portrayal of the heartache of the Civil War and the courage of key figures in history.

    Pass the Hot StuffBlythe Townsend is a belle who is in desperate need of having her chimes rung. But the man she is dating would have to get his head out of his briefs - his legal briefs - long enough to notice. She is a frustrated romantic obsessed with Turner Classic Movies. She lives in the French Quarter with her dog, Lady Marmalade, and is determined not to go sour on love even though she has dated every nutcase along the Mississippi Delta. Now, she is trying her best to make it work with her deadly dull boyfriend.Blythe accepts him - boring business dinners and all. There's always steak, but never any sizzle. There's only so much a libido can take; and when she repeatedly spots a man around town she christens Tall, Dark and Eye Candy, she starts to feel what she's been missing.So, what's stopping her from tasting something a little ... sweeter? She refuses to be hurt again, and this sexy New Orleans guy has all of the trappings to do just that. Blythe will have to find her inner big-shouldered broad to deal with the craziness in her life; and she has a group of hilarious, mouthy women helping her sort through the crazy.Their story is a sultry dance to Delta blues and soulful jazz that drifts the reader into the romance of New Orleans. So, sit down at the kitchen table and pour yourself a drink - we're gonna pass the hot stuff.

    He writes with restraint and sureness. Sometimes he writes with poetry as in this sentence: -There was a strange odor hanging in the air, however, like old books in a trunk – the scent of something very old but very important. I love Hall's ghost stories and his Southern sensibilities. He is a writer to watch."-Billie Sue Mosiman, author of Wireman and Widow"Crate Northgate is that throwback loner I grew up reading and watching on TV. He feels like an old friend come back, only he's a bit... darker, like he's seen way too much."- Armand Rosamilia, author of Dying Days and Death Metal Creighton Northgate is a man shrouded in mystery and on the run from a past he doesn't even fully understand. Blurring the lines between vagabond, enigma, drunkard, and savior, he spends his days staring into the southern legends and paranormal events that most only speak of in hushed, half-believing whispers. In the midst of a sweltering southern day, he attempts to help a homeless man who seems to share his curse; a man haunted by a silent figure from beyond this world who pursues his every step. By the end of the day, Crate discovers that some things are best left alone; some truths best left in the dark. This novelette serves as an introduction to the Southern Hauntings Saga and its central character Crate Northgate, a man whose shadowy past is slowly catching up to him. The first novella in the series will be released late summer 2012.

    They fly just above the treetops over Oxford, over the Ole Miss campus, and over the surrounding countryside, giving the young boy a wondrous view of the world laid out before him.In the years that followed, Faulkner taught Bobby not only how to fly the plane, but perhaps more importantly, how to view the world in a unique way.The William Faulkner that Bobby Little came to know and love through the years is quite a different character than the one put forth in academic manuals about the author's life. ABOVE THE TREETOPS presents the real William Faulkner - the flesh and blood character who, despite all his eccentricities and weaknesses, was a kind, caring, and adventurous soul, especially as seen through the eyes of an admiring child.Award-winning author Jack Sacco interviewed Dr. Bobby Little (now a retired ophthalmologist, age 82, living in Gulfport, Mississippi) at length to gather the facts as he remembered them and to gain never-before-revealed insights into the true world of William Faulkner.This is not another tired treatise on Faulkner's work as interpreted by those who never met the man. It is, instead, a true and magical story set in the deep South, revolving around one of the world's most famous and yet most private people.

    Nate Randolph and his five unique daughters wrestle to survive after the death of Callie (his wife and their mother) as well as to maintain their farm, forests, family, and faith against an evil lumber company manager seeking to clear-cut their virgin woodland. A cast of delightful characters, including gypsy siblings, Cherokee Indians, a granny midwife, a world-famous writer, and even a flesh-and-blood Haint, join our heroine, sixteen-year-old Abbie Randolph, in her life-and-death struggle. Abbie falls in love for the first time, helps run the farm, and mothers her independent sisters while battling to preserve her faith when senseless murders threaten to destroy her family and way of life. Will the Randolph family survive intact? Will the farm be saved? Only a miracle could make it happen. With the march of the industrial age, especially industrial lumbering, the roaring twenties, Prohibition, the increasing momentum for a national park, and the onslaught of a modern world, trains, and radio communication, the traditional life and ways of our Southern Highlanders were about to change forever.

    In 1985, he is well into an unexamined existence with a devil-may-care lifestyle. Suddenly, Ron is blindsided by being diagnosed as H.I.V.-positive and given 30 days to live. Yet he will not, and does not, accept a death sentence.His crash course of research reveals a lack of approved treatments and medications in the U.S., so Ron crosses the border into Mexico. There, he learns about alternative treatments and begins smuggling them into the U.S., challenging the medical and scientific community including his concerned physician, Dr. Eve Saks.An outsider to the gay community, Ron finds an unlikely ally in fellow AIDS patient Rayon, a transsexual who shares Rons lust for life. Rayon also shares Rons entrepreneurial spirit: seeking to avoid government sanctions against selling non-approved medicines and supplements, they establish a buyers club, where H.I.V.-positive people pay monthly dues for access to the newly acquired supplies. Deep in the heart of Texas, Rons pioneering underground collective beats loud and strong. With a growing community of friends and clients, Ron fights for dignity, education, and acceptance. In the years following his diagnosis, the embattled Lone Star loner lives life to the fullest like never before.

    Volume 2 of this definitive collection of Harington’s novels includes a new foreword by Ron Rash, the author of The Cove, and an Introduction by Peter Straub, the bestselling author of many books, including Ghost Story and Shadowland. As Ron Rash writes in his Foreword, “No oeuvre in American literature, past or present, can equal the combination of joy, humor, and wonder contained in Donald Harington’s fifteen novels. He is America’s Chaucer.” This collection offers readers the opportunity to discover the fictional town of Stay More in the Arkansas Ozarks, the setting of most of Harington’s books, and enjoy an underappreciated treasure of American literature. The Nearly Complete Works of Donald Harington includes five complete novels: (1) Ekaterina; (2) Butterfly Weed; (3) When Angels Rest; (4) Thirteen Albatrosses (or, Falling off the Mountain); (5) With.

    When Nashville, Tennessee, becomes host to the Kurdish-American Conference, the affable city discovers that the arriving dignitaries are not the only visitors with their sights on making this gathering a momentous international event. Radical factions are equally prepared. Two days before the launch of the conference, Homicide Detective Mike Neal is assigned the gruesome murder of a young Kurdish man who, only eight hours earlier, was sworn in as one of America's newest citizens. Brutal murder provides ample incentive to arouse this detective's instincts. But, factor in a band of homegrown white supremacists with a closed-border agenda, along with a deadly chemical weapon strapped to an Arab terrorist, and Detective Neal, along with the citizens of his serene hometown, discover they are in the midst of a Music City meltdown.

    

    Lomax’s camera was a constant companion, and his images of both legendary and anonymous folk musicians complement his famous field recordings.These photographs—largely unpublished—show musicians making music with family and friends at home, with fellow worshippers at church, and alongside workers and prisoners in the fields. Discussions of Lomax’s life and career by his disciple and lauded folklorist William Ferris, and a lyrical look at Lomax’s photographs by novelist and Grammy Award-winning music writer Tom Piazza, enrich this valuable collection.

    The Quarter is a place like no other, and with the publication of In Exile, there's now a book about its history like no other.”—Rick R. Reed, award-winning author of Caregiver“A true look into New Orleans Gay History and Café Lafitte’s role in it.” —Ken GranPré, General Manger Wood Enterprises, Café Lafitte “Even further back than the oldest gay publication in the South, an exciting read...” —Ambush Magazine In Exile: The History and Lore Surrounding New Orleans Gay Culture and Its Oldest Gay Bar is the first comprehensive treatment of the history of gay New Orleans drawn primarily on the recollections of dozens of gay men and women and providing a fascinating narrative of how gay New Orleans evolved throughout the twentieth century. Showing the incredible and previously unrecognized contributions gay people have made to New Orleans culture, In Exile illuminates the darkness where gay people lived secret double-lives for decades and chronicles the social forces that enabled gay New Orleanians to live openly and honestly. Learn how homophobia led to the founding of the nation’s oldest gay bar, the origins of gay Carnival culture, and how Southern Decadence, one of the largest gay festivals in the world, began as an impromptu house party by a handful of bored college students. Written with graceful insight and thoughtful perception, In Exile is not only a captivating history book, it is a beautiful meditation on the intersection of place and identity.About the AuthorsFrank Perez grew up in Louisiana and now lives in the French Quarter where he is a barfly at The Café: Lafitte in Exile. Jeffrey Palmquist grew up in South Dakota and now lives in the French Quarter where he is a bartender at The Café: Lafitte in Exile.

    Life for Gus Ambrose in the small community of River Falls, Georgia, is a constant struggle to seek wild adventure, understand the mystery of love and escape the pervasive boredom of high school. On the surface, River Falls is a peaceful and perfect world - a mix of quaint southern charm, happiness and safety. But the scars of the past have a way of working their way to the surface and slamming headlong into the present, shattering innocence and revealing the worst humanity has to offer. Set in the 1980s, segregation in America had been legally abolished for a generation, but many still struggled with how black and white fit together and existed - integrated in word, but still segregated by old habits and underlying emotion. Young Men Shall See follows Gus and his friends as they navigate this new world, and learn the hard way that actions have consequences, and real justice can mean going against everything you once believed to be true. As the friends grapple with the ideas of love and prejudice, they each cling to their sense of right and wrong. But when one of the friends is unexpectedly killed, anger and frustration swell and push the group to take action. In the face of unimaginable corruption by the local authorities, the friends are galvanized into a force capable of rescue, grief, and even murder. This Southern Gothic coming of age story shows the ugly underbelly of evil that exists even in the most tranquil of towns and how events and raw emotion can push each of us past the point of no return.

    The town of Sewardville, Kentucky teeters on the edge of a violent abyss, overrun with methamphetamine and prescription drug abuse. The Slone family controls everything. Patriarch Walt Slone is the town’s mayor and head of one of the largest crime syndicates in the eastern United States. His son metes out justice from behind his sheriff’s badge, while his daughter handles all the numbers for the family business. Business for the Slones is good, too – at least until Walt orders his son-in-law Boone to kill his own brother. That becomes the first link in a chain of events that threatens not just the livelihood of all involved, but their lives as well. While the Slones move to strengthen their empire, Boone moves to break free and take his little daughter with him. Will he escape from one of America’s most heartbroken regions, or will his dark past bury him forever in the place they call Sewerville?

    “If I said, ‘Let’s go swimming!’ they fled down the hall to pull on their swimsuits, shedding their clothes along the way. If I said, ‘So sorry, the mall is closed today,’ they didn’t doubt my pronouncement for a moment—even if the parking lot was crammed.”And now that her kids are mostly grown?“I was good with babies. Teenagers—not so much,” Thompson admits. “I don’t get many hugs anymore. Any I do get are inevitably instigated by me while they stand there like martyrs tied to a stake. Recently, when I was the rare recipient of a spontaneous hug from my seventeen-year-old, I got so excited I dropped the basket of chocolate-chip muffins in my hands. I was anxious to hug back while it was still on offer. It was totally worth the muffin loss.”Thompson’s three teenagers bury her under an Everest of laundry. They send her for groceries so often that she once heard a store employee cry, “Incoming!” They leave such a quantity of half-eaten sandwiches around their rooms as to provide a buffet for roaches. They complain for hours about 10-minute chores. They spend their parents’ money like it magically regenerates and hoard their own like it’s the last dose of the elixir of life.To put it another way, they’re typical teens.In her inimitable style, Thompson makes I’ve Had It Up to Here with Teenagers both a humorous rant against teens and a celebration of seeing them rise from the ashes of battle to become well-adjusted, responsible humans. “Parental love is fierce and illogical,” she writes. “I think it is the strongest force on earth. It trumps everything, thank God: sleepless nights, hard stadium seats, endless recitals, broken hearts, losing seasons, throw-up viruses, bad grades, poor choices, and everything else life throws at teenagers and their parents.”

    Could these feelings of déjà-vu have anything to do with the new acquisition in the store back in Texas - and the strange vibes that come from it? Why does she constantly feel she is being followed? And what of her haunting visions of the past? During her stay, Emma learns of events that make her re-evaluate her life... and her floundering relationship with her partner.

    Personal essays put you at the table with notable Southerners-including HGTV Design Star judge Vern Yip, novelist Cassandra King, and Zac Brown, frontman of the two-time Grammy Award-winning Zac Brown Band.

    In Reading for the Body, he calls for the field to be rematerialized and grounded in an awareness of the human body as the site where ideas, including ideas about the U.S. South itself, ultimately happen.Employing theoretical approaches to the body developed by thinkers such as Karl Marx, Colette Guillaumin, Elaine Scarry, and Friedrich Kittler, Watson also draws on histories of bodily representation to mine a century of southern fiction for its insights into problems that have preoccupied the region and nation alike: slavery, Jim Crow, and white supremacy; the marginalization of women; the impact of modernization; the issue of cultural authority and leadership; and the legacy of the Vietnam War. He focuses on the specific bodily attributes of hand, voice, and blood and the deeply embodied experiences of pain, illness, pregnancy, and war to offer new readings of a distinguished group of literary artists who turned their attention to the South: Mark Twain, Jean Toomer, Zora Neale Hurston, William Faulkner, Richard Wright, Katherine Anne Porter, Bobbie Ann Mason, and Walker Percy.In producing an intensely embodied U.S. literature these writers, Watson argues, were by turns extending and interrogating a centuries-old tradition in U.S. print culture, in which the recalcitrant materiality of the body serves as a trope for the regional alterity of the South. Reading for the Body makes a powerful case for the body as an important methodological resource for a new southern studies.