Home: >Book Info

Mississippi Books and Writers

September 1997

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

Father and Son

A Novel by Larry Brown

Henry Holt (Reprint Edition; Paperback, $13.00, ISBN: 0805053034)

Publication date: September 1997

Description:

Larry Brown is the master of the raw and the sparse and of bringing Mississippi to the world in a language that is as stripped down and bare as Faulkner’s is dense. Brown is at his best when he writes of the tensions between one screwed-up man and another, in this case a father and son. One has just been let out of prison, and he shouldn’t have been. The other is drunk and disabled and intends on staying that way. To make things worse, there is a conflict with the sheriff, who is good and righteous but who tried to put the moves on the parolee’s woman while he was in prison. To tell more would be to violate Brown’s mastery of dialogue and of that which goes unspoken in this sly story of father, son, and misery.

Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner: Centenary Edition

By William Faulkner

Edited by Joseph Blotner

Vintage (Paperback; $19.00; ISBN: 0375701095)

Publication date: September 1997

Description:

Despite the self-contradictory title, this collection first published in 1979 features both published stories, several of which Faulkner later revised and incorporated into his novels, and previously unpublished stories.

Readings on William Faulkner

Edited by Clarice Swisher

The Greenhaven Press Literary Companion to American Authors

Greenhaven Press (Library Binding, ISBN: 1565106415; Paperback, ISBN: 1565106407)

Publication date: September 1997

The Book of Yaak

Nonfiction by Rick Bass

Houghton Mifflin (Paperback, $12.00, ISBN: 0395877466 )

Publication date: September 1997

Description:

Rick Bass, a prolific writer of considerable merit, has crafted an elegant plea to save the ecosystem of the Yaak Valley in northwestern Montana. Bass argues that the Yaak deserves to be saved, both for its beauty and for its role in a biological system that stretches through much of North America. To enamor readers with the Yaak he describes it with reverence, and in doing so makes us care. “We are all complicit,” he says.

In the Loyal Mountains

Fiction by Rick Bass

Houghton Mifflin (Paperback, $12.00, ISBN: 0395877474 )

Publication date: September 1997

Description:

In this luminous collection, Rick Bass firmly establishes himself as a master of the short story, with tales that embrace vibrant images and ordinary human life and exuberant descriptions of the natural world. “Impelled by a profound love of the land, the ten stories of In the Loyal Mountains are a reminder that American literature draws its unique strength from a powerful sense of place.” —Los Angeles Times

Winter: Notes from Montana

Nonfiction by Rick Bass

Houghton Mifflin (Paperback, $12.00, ISBN: 0395611504)

Publication date: September 1997

Description:

In a celebration of winter in the last valley of Montana without electricity, Bass describes the wildness and freedom of valley people, the slow-motion quality of life, and the physical dangers of wilderness life. He also describes the anguish and pitfalls of being a writer and the living and dead writers with whom he feels a kinship.

The Courts of Love

Stories by Ellen Gilchrist

Little, Brown (Paperback; $12.95; ISBN: 0316317713)

Publication date: September 1997

Description:

This celebrated collection opens with “Nora Jane and Company,” featuring one of the most popular characters in the Gilchrist galaxy. The nine stories that follow explore the hazards of recapturing and reviving old affairs. Featuring both new and familiar Gilchrist characters, all of these stories shed brilliant new light on the oldest emotion.

Sarah Conley: A Novel Sarah Conley

A Novel by Ellen Gilchrist

Little, Brown (Hardcover; $23.95; ISBN: 0316314773)

Publication date: September 1997

Description:

Long ago in Kentucky, Sarah Conley fell in love with a young man but wound up marrying his brother—a tangled melodrama of missteps and mistaken intentions that led to bad feelings and burned bridges. Sarah divorced and decamped to New York, became a celebrated novelist and magazine editor, and never looked back—until she got a call from the woman who used to be her best friend.

The Sharpshooter Blues

A Novel by Lewis Nordan

Algonquin (Paperback; $11.95; ISBN: 1565121821)

Publication date: September 1997

Description:

This heartbreaking novel from award-winning Mississippi writer Lewis Nordan is a meditation upon guns and love. One fateful day in the Delta town of Arrow Catcher, the sweet, simple hero of the book, Hydro Raney, tries his hand with sharpshooting and reveals a deadeye aim. Later in the day, he blows away a brother and sister who are committing a robbery at a country store. “What Nordan alone brings to the page is the courage to use nothing less than black powder prose to blast some sense into us no matter where we’ve come to ground.” —The Miami Herald

Eight Habits of the Heart: The Timeless Values That Build Strong Communities

By Clifton L. Taulbert

Viking (Hardcover; $16.95; ISBN: 0670875457)

Publication date: September 1997

From the Mississippi Delta: A Memoir

By Endesha Ida Mae Holland

Simon & Schuster (Hardcover; $23.00; ISBN: 0684810115)

Publication date: September 1997

Description:

Holland went from poverty and prostitution to acclaim and self-respect as a professor and a playwright. Now, in a memoir that is by turns funny and angry, this remarkable African-American woman candidly recounts the story of her fascinating life. Includes photos.

A Time to Heal: John Perkins, Community Development, and Racial Reconciliation

By Stephen E. Berk and John Perkins

Baker Book House (Hardcover; $17.99; ISBN: 0801057566)

Publication date: September 1997

Over the Top

By Zig Ziglar

Revised Edition

Thomas Nelson (Hardcover; ISBN: 0785271198)

Publication date: September 1997

Zig Ziglar’s Little Instruction Book; Inspiration and Wisdom from America’s Top Motivator

By Zig Ziglar

Honor Books (Paperback; $6.99, ISBN: 1562923641 )