Wright Thompson discusses PAPPYLAND.

The story of how Julian Van Winkle III, the caretaker of the most coveted Kentucky Bourbon whiskey in the world, fought to protect his family's heritage, in a world where authenticity, like his product, is in very short supply. Julian Van Winkle, the third-generation head of the Pappy Van Winkle distillery, now is thought of as something like the Buddha of Bourbon. His grandfather presided...

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Carolyn J. Brown and Carla S. Wall discuss, TO DANCE, TO LIVE.

A moving biography of a dancer, teacher, and arts patron recognized internationally for her efforts in dance education and for bringing world-class ballet to Mississippi. Thalia Mara’s story spans the history of dance in the twentieth century and the rise of the arts in her adopted city of Jackson, Mississippi. As an adolescent Mara (1911–2003) studied with renowned Russian teacher Adolph Bolm, who recommended she go at age sixteen to Paris for further study...

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James H. Herring signs, THE SWITCHER.

The son of passionate conservative Democrats, Jim Herring ultimately became the only state chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party to serve previously on the Mississippi Democratic Party Executive Committee. Given his family’s deep Democratic roots, this proved quite a journey! Jim’s father was a Mississippi state senator. His father-in-law’s college roommate was a future U.S. senator, Jim Eastland, and the two men were best friends for life....

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Neilson Hubbard signs, THE AMERICAN SOUTH.

The American South is a collection of over 80 photographs, taken across the southern United States. A powerful story is shown through the faces and characters of the area....

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Patrick Dean and Jeff Good discuss, NATURE'S MESSENGER.

A dynamic and fresh exploration of the naturalist Mark Catesby—who predated John James Audubon by nearly a century— and his influence on how we understand American wildlife. In 1722, Mark Catesby stepped ashore in Charles Town in the Carolina colony. Over the next four years, this young naturalist made history as he explored deep into America’s natural wonders, collecting and drawing plants and animals which had never been seen back in the Old World...

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Harrison Scott Key signs, HOW TO STAY MARRIED.



From Harrison Scott Key, winner of the Thurber Prize for American Humor, How to Stay Married tells the hilarious, shocking, and spiritually profound story of one man’s journey through hell and back when infidelity threatens his marriage. One gorgeous autumn day, Harrison discovers that his wife—the sweet, funny, loving mother of their three daughters, a woman “who’s spent just about every Sunday of her life in a church”—is having an affair with a family friend. This revelation propels the hysterical, heartbreaking action of How to Stay Married, casting our narrator onto “the factory floor of hell,” ...

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Susan Cushman and contributors
Christa Allan, Averyell Kessler, and
Nancy Dorman-Hickson discuss ALL NIGHT, ALL DAY.

There is something mystical about holding the hand of a person who is “crossing over.” It can be heartbreaking, of course, but also very holy and beautiful. Some of the pieces in this collection share the experience of personal loss when a loved one dies. Often the presence of an angel or another mystical experience is shared. But not only in death—there are also stories here of the way the mystical world interacts with us in daily life. And not only angels, but also mothers, fathers, sisters...

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C.E. O'Banion signs, CHINESE NEW YEAR.

In the twilight of the twenty-first century, Alton B. Tapscott battles hurricanes, his children, the trappings of polite society, organized religion, and the inescapable control of technology - his only weapons being his cat, a pair of prescription arthritic socks, and his new WiFi-enabled hearing aide. With humor and heart, Chinese New Year details the life of an average American Hero of a certain age as he catches an Uber, enters an assisted living facility, sees a baseball...

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Elizabeth Boyd signs, SOUTHERN BEAUTY.

Southern Beauty explains a curiosity: why a feminine ideal rooted in the nineteenth century continues to enjoy currency well into the twenty-first. Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd examines how the continuation of certain gender rituals in the American South has served to perpetuate racism, sexism, and classism. In a trio of popular gender rituals—sorority rush, beauty pageants, and the Confederate Pageant of the Natchez (Mississippi) Pilgrimage—young white southern women have readily ditched contemporary modes of dress and comportment for ...

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Derrion Arrington signs, STANDING FIRM IN THE DIXIE.

In this comprehensive study, Derrion Arrington chronicles Laurel, Mississippi's rise into national notoriety, fall from grace, and reemergence into the national spotlight. On the back of its Freedom Movement, Laurel survived the onslaught of the early cold war years and persisted during even the darkest days of Jim Crow Mississippi. The Laurel story is a triumphant narrative of change and presents a history of a struggle that molded a city into form...

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J. Stephen Beam signs, THE DEATH LETTER.

A humble, unassuming war hero from a tiny town in northeast Mississippi, Jesse Travis has dealt with a lot in his short life, including the untimely death of his beloved parents in a fatal automobile crash. What has Jesse perplexed is that no one even talks any more about his wife, Mary, who went missing more than a year ago. Once Jesse himself was cleared of the crime by state investigators and the local sheriff, it’s as if Mary never existed...

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Michael Oher signs, When Your Back's Against the Wall.

The NFL champion whose life inspired the hit movie The Blind Side is back with an inspiring and motivating book on overcoming any obstacle, no matter how tough the odds. Millions of people became part of Michael Oher’s story when they watched a version of him on the big screen; read his memoir, I Beat the Odds; or cheered him on from the stands. After speaking to so many of them over the years, Oher knows that more than anything, people want to believe great things can happen...

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