Seeking the Brown Mountain Lights


C.C. Tillery - 2017
    Her only wish is to go home, but in order to do so, she has to find the one light on Brown Mountain that transported her back in time from 1969 to 1859. When Lizzie’s one opportunity is thwarted, she remains trapped in the antebellum South, a time she’s come to loathe, but that’s not the only reason she’s anxious to return home. The Civil War looms ever closer and she is frantic to leave before the deadliest and bloodiest conflict in American history descends on Brown Mountain. Lizzie spends her days helping the Collins sisters doctor the people on Brown Mountain and in the little town of Morganton, North Carolina. While learning about the natural healing methods the sisters’ use, she teaches them the more modern medicine she learned in medical school. But it’s the nights that keep Lizzie going, searching the mountain with her best friend Abbie to find the one light that can take her home and engaging in secret meetings with Josh Hampton, a plantation owner’s son, risking her life as she helps him lead slaves to freedom. As time goes by, Lizzie begins to care deeply for Josh, enough that she questions what she will do if the opportunity to go back to her time ever presents itself. Will she step into the light or will she choose to stay with Josh? She fears that when the time comes, she will only have a split second to make that decision and can only pray it will be the right one.

What Happened to Mary Faye Hunter?: A Novel Based on a True Story


Brad Golson Glenda Yarbrough - 2019
    

Bear: The Hard Life and Good Times of Alabama's Coach Bryant


Paul W. Bryant - 1975
    Bear's personal off the field and his accomplishments on the field have contributed equally to his ever-growing status as an American icon.

Dorothea Benton Frank Collection: Sullivan's Island \ Plantation \ Isle of Palms \ Shem Creek


Dorothea Benton Frank - 2005
    Contents:Sullivan's IslandPlantationIsle of Palms

Chinaberry


James Still - 2011
    The author of the classics River of Earth (1940) and The Wolfpen Poems (1986), Still is known for his careful prose construction and for the poetry of his meticulous, rhythmic style. Upon his death, however, one manuscript remained unpublished. Still's friends, family, and fellow writer Silas House will now deliver this story to readers, having assembled and refined the manuscript to prepare it for publication. Chinaberry, named for the ranch that serves as the centerpiece of the story, is Still's last and perhaps greatest contribution to American literature.Chinaberry follows the adventures of a young boy as he travels to Texas from Alabama in search of work on a cotton farm. Upon arriving, he discovers the ranch of Anson and Lurie Winters, a young couple whose lives are defined by hard work, family, and a tragedy that haunts their past. Still's entrancing narrative centers on the boy's experience at the ranch under Anson's watchful eye and Lurie's doting care, highlighting the importance of home, whether it is defined by people or a place.In this celebration of the art of storytelling, Still captures a time and place that are gone forever and introduces the reader to an unforgettable cast of characters, illustrating the impact that one person can have on another. A combination of memoir and imagination, truth and fiction, Chinaberry is a work of art that leaves the reader in awe of Still's mastery of language and thankful for the lifetime of wisdom that manifests itself in his work.

The Headmaster's Darlings


Katherine Clark - 2015
    A natural wonder from blue-collar Alabama, Laney has barged into the exclusive world of Mountain Brook on the strength of his sensational figure and its several-hundred-pound commitment to art and culture. His mission is to defeat "the barbarians," introduce true civilization in place of its thin veneer, and change his Southern world for the better. Although Laney is adored by his students (his "darlings") and by the society ladies (also his "darlings") who rely on him to be the life of their parties and the leader of their book clubs, there are others who think he is a larger-than-life menace to the comfortable status quo of Mountain Brook society and must be banished.When Laney is summoned to the principal's office one day in November 1984, he expects to be congratulated for a recent public-relations triumph he engineered on behalf of the school. Instead his letter of resignation is demanded with no explanation given. Faced with an ultimatum and his imminent dismissal, Laney must outflank the principal at his own underhanded game, find out who said what about him and why, and launch his current crop of Alabama students into the wider world—or at least into Ivy League colleges.In her debut novel, Katherine Clark casts a comical eye on Southern society and celebrates the power of great teachers and schools to transform the lives of young people and lift up their communities. Surrounded by a colorful cast of his colleagues, his young protégés and Mountain Brook's upper echelon, Laney emerges as a heroically idiosyncratic character with Falstaffian appetites, an inimitable wit and intellect, and a boundless generosity toward his students that reshapes their lives in profound, unexpected ways.New York Times best-selling writer and Story River Books editor at large Pat Conroy provides a foreword to the novel.

A Lone Palm Stands


H.A. Olsen - 2009
    With the help of an eccentric aunt, Angela begins a new life, and embarks on a remarkable journey of self-discovery that takes her from the rural South to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. But her promising future as a pop star is threatened by the jealously and betrayal of her friends-and the shocking secret that is about to be revealed by the ghost of a mysterious little girl. Haunting and thought-provoking, A Lone Palm Stands is more than just the story of one life: it's a unique commentary on love, family, and our spiritual nature It's also a testimony to the resiliency of the people of South Carolina and their proven ability to survive 'come hell or highwater.'

She: The Old Woman Who Took Over My Life


Kathryn Tucker Windham - 2011
    In She, which Windham was putting the finishing touches on when she died in June 2011, the author describes how she woke up one day to find that she had an unwanted houseguest, an old woman who had suddenly moved into her home and was taking over her life. Windham referred to this interloper simply as She, and here the reader has been invited into the lively colloquy between the author--whose spirit has not changed--and her alter ego, who moves haltingly toward her earthly end. She will leave you laughing and crying, but also grateful and hopeful.

V for Victor


Mark Childress - 1988
    The war is everywhere, but Victor--a sixteen-year old boy sent by his father to care for his dying grandmother on a lonely island in Mobile Bay--can only dream of it. Then he wakes one amazing night to a thunderous roar from the Bay, and watches as a thug burns his boat. He also discovers a decomposing corpse, witnesses a near-seduction . . . and sees the ominous shadow of an enemy submarine surfacing at night.Suddenly Victor is playing unforeseen roles--now hostage, now pursuer--in the perilous war at home. . . .

Sean of the South: Volume 1


Sean Dietrich - 2015
    His humor and short fiction appear in various publications throughout the Southeast.

Home Fires Burning


Robert Inman - 1987
    The time: December 1944. Although the fields of battle are far away, World War II has shaken the very bedrock of this close-knit community. Jake Tibbetts, editor of the local newspaper and the town's self-proclaimed conscience--who has been entrusted with the care of his young grandson while the boy's father serves on the front lines--is struggling to come to terms with the way "everything" seems to be changing, and the entire town finds itself uncomfortably straddling the threshold of a new era.

The River Is Home


Patrick D. Smith - 2012
    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.

The Miracle of Mercy Land


River Jordan - 2010
    If you had the power to amend choices you made in the past, would you--even if it changed everything? Mercy Land has made some unexpected choices for a young woman in the 1930s. The sheltered daughter of a traveling preacher, she chooses to leave her rural community to move to nearby Bay City on the warm, gulf-waters of southern Alabama. There she finds a job at the local paper and spends seven years making herself indispensible to old Doc Philips, the publisher and editor. Then she gets a frantic call at dawn--it's the biggest news story of her life, and she can't print a word of it.Doc has come into possession of a curious book that maps the lives of everyone in Bay City--decisions they've made in the past, and how those choices affect the future. Mercy and Doc are consumed by the mystery locked between the pages--Doc because he hopes to right a very old wrong, and Mercy because she wants to fulfill the book's strange purpose. But when a mystery from Mercy's past arrives by train, she begins to understand that she will have to make choices that will deeply affect everyone she loves--forever."A tremendously well-written tale. River Jordan is a truly gifted author. Highly recommended." - Davis Bunn, best-selling author

Freaky Tales: Erotic Shorts


Sabrina B. Scales - 2019
    Orgasms? Yeah, I give those. Fairytales? Never wanted to live those Because I'm simply not that chick Hearts? Yeah, I broke some Love? These niggas can't get none Commitment? I'm probably the wrong one But you can stop by and lick this clit If a freak is what you're looking for Be prepared when you step through my door On the bed, couch, or kitchen floor I can give you what you need I prefer my kisses down low We can do this fast or we can take it slow Either way, I think it's best I let you know When it's over, please, get up and leave My name is Melody Bledsoe and I got some freaky things to tell you. You ready? Probably not!

Why We Are Here: Mobile and the Spirit of a Southern City


Edward O. Wilson - 2012
    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.