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October 1996

Note: Prices listed below reflect the publisher's suggested list price. They are subject to change without notice.

The Acolyte

A Novel by David Compton

Simon & Schuster ($23.00, ISBN: 0684804301)

Publication date: October 1996

Description:

“There are stars in the making and David Compton is one,” promises The Wall Street Journal. With foreign rights widely sold and a major movie deal signed, the fanfare continues to build for this thriller about an innocent man trapped by his own zeal and ambition in a deadly CIA conspiracy.

Charles Sumner

A Biography by David Herbert Donald

Da Capo Press ($24.95, ISBN: 0306807203)

Publication date: October 1996

The Civil Rights Movement: A Photographic History, 1954-68

Text by Steven Kasher, Foreward by Myrlie Evers-Williams

Abbeville Press ($35.00, ISBN: 0789201232)

Publication date: October 1996

Description:

This evocative book is among the first to tell the story of the civil rights movement through the inspiring photographs that recorded, promoted, and protected it. With a striking selection of images and a lively, cogent text, Steven Kasher captures the danger, drama, and bravery of the civil rights movement. 150 duotone illustrations.

The Courts of Love

A Novella and Stories by Ellen Gilchrist

Little, Brown & Co. ($23.95, ISBN: 0316314781)

Publication date: October 1996

Brief Review:

The short stories in the first half of this collection feature Nora Jane Whittington, one of Ellen Gilchrist's familiar characters, and through her and her family and friends Gilchrist explores the complex balancing of relationships. The stories in the second half have many varying points of view—including a non-human one, that of a bear cub. These thoughtful tales, alive with vivid description, revolve around the tensions between the mind and the body, and between what is desired and what is achievable.

Distant Friends and Intimate Strangers

Stories by Charles East

University of Illinois Press ($14.95, ISBN: 0252065794)

Publication date: October 1996

Brief Review:

Charles East is unafraid to tackle locales that already have long and rich literary traditions; many of his stories are set in places like Memphis and New Orleans, which figure heavily in classic Southern fiction. Now it’s the 1990s, however, and the distinctiveness of many Southern places has rubbed off. East writes of people regretting their past and groping their way toward a suitable, if not actually happy, future. Usually, marriage and romance are the paths on which these characters grope, such as the cop musing over his ex-wife’s infidelities while he flies over New Orleans in a helicopter.

Everywhere in Mississippi

A Children's Book by Laurie Parker

Quail Ridge Press ($15.95, ISBN: 0937552712)

Publication date: October 1996

High Lonesome

Stories by Barry Hannah

Atlantic Monthly Press ($22.00, ISBN: 0871136686)

Publication date: October 1996

Brief Review:

Barry Hannah writes like a barroom raconteur talks: unevenly, wildly, with a superabundance of vivid images, sometimes improbable plotlines, and a wicked, comic appreciation for human failings. In this collection he takes on middle-aged heroes who’ve lived through bad marriages and are now suffering the ravages of alcohol and sexual craving—in other words, men not unlike Hannah himself. Hannah's turns of phrase can shoot off the page to stab the reader in the heart; even the weakest stories in this book contain a great line or two.

Home Fires Burning

Fiction by Penelope J. Stokes

Faith on the Home Front Series, Vol. 1

Tynedale House Publishers ($8.99, ISBN: 0842308512)

Publication date: October 1996

Mississippi

Juvenile Nonfiction by Kathleen Thompson

Portrait of America Series

Raintree/Steck Vaughn ($5.95, ISBN: 0811474496)

Publication date: October 1996

Silver Rights

Nonfiction by Constance Curry; Introduction by Marian Wright Edelman

Harcourt Brace ($13.00, ISBN: 0156004798)

Publication date: October 1996

Description:

Silver Rights is the true story of clear-eyed determination, down-home grit, and sweet triumph. It is the tale of the Carter family’s brave decision to send their children to an all-white school in Mississippi in 1965. Constance Curry was a field representative for the American Friends Service Committee in Mississippi, helping to aid desegregation efforts.

A Time Not Here: The Mississippi Delta

Nonfiction by Norman Mauskopf

Twin Palms ($50.00, ISBN: 0944092438)

Publication date: October 1996

Long Distance: Poems

By Aleda Shirley

Miami University Press (Hardcover, $19.95, ISBN: 1881163164; Paperback, $11.95, ISBN: 1881163172)

Publication date: October 1996

The Julius House

By Charlaine Harris

Harlequin (Paperback, ISBN: 0373262175)

Publication date: October 1996

Description:

Learning that the new home she is to share with her future husband was owned by a family that disappeared six years earlier, Roe Teagarden becomes suspicious about a pair of tenants living in the garage apartment.

A Problem of Evidence: How the Prosecution Freed O. J. Simpson

By Joseph Bosco

William Morrow (Hardcover, ISBN: 0688144136)

Publication date: October 1996

Description:

A freelance journalist who covered the infamous trial shows how the evidence from the scene of the crime was used and misused in court and tells why neither side mentioned the dramatic ride in the white Bronco.