Posts filed under 'Book Reviews'
Urgo, Joseph R. and Ann J. Abadie (eds.). Faulkner and Material Culture: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha, 2004.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.
155 pp. $50.00 (hardback)
Faulkner and Material Culture is a compilation of eight papers originally presented at the thirty-first Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in 2004. The uniting theme is the intersection of the real world of Oxford in Lafayette County, Mississippi, and Faulkner’s imaginary world of Jefferson in Yoknapatawpha County. However, the reader will find a good bit of variety here.
Charles S. Aiken discusses the author’s treatment of five types of New South buildings. Jay Watson focuses on Light in August and the parallels to be found there between the timber/furniture industry and social dynamics. Patricia Yeager examines the role of trash, bodily waste, and decay in early twentieth century aesthetics in general and Faulkner’s work in particular. Kevin Railey points out that Flags in the Dust (criticized as disjointed) is more coherent when the material objects within it are viewed as symbolic of economic and social status. D. Matthew Ramsey discusses Faulkner’s work on Hollywood movies and its effect on female characters in his later work. Miles Orvell focuses on local community and its place in the larger world, with particular attention to confederate soldier monuments as agents of memory in a time of great change. Katherine R. Henninger takes photographic metaphors as the subject of her paper, and T. J. Jackson Lears contrasts Faulkner’s treatment of mass consumable goods with that of more carefully crafted objects.
This collection of articles emphasizes how the societal changes Faulkner experienced in the early twentieth century, and the dichotomy of holding onto the old while embracing (or at least accepting) the new, were preserved through the representation of material culture in his fiction.
While some of the writers stray a little far a field in trying to prove their points, Faulkner and Material Culture is, on the whole, a fine compilation of scholarly works. The book is most relevant for Faulkner scholars, but it also has broader implications for the study of the interaction between societal conditions and artistic expression. It is recommended for all academic libraries.
Diane DeCesare Ross
Curator of Manuscripts, Archives, and Digital Collections
University of Southern Mississippi
Posted: January 5th, 2009
Giddings, Paula. Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching.
New York: Amistead, 2008.
800 pp. $35.00 (hardcover)
Born in 1862 to slave parents in Holly Springs, Mississippi, Ida B. Wells-Barnett lived up to the subtitle of Paula Giddings’ detailed biography, a paraphrase from Psalm 57 (“My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire … and their tongue a sharp sword.”). Giddings uses Wells-Barnett’s diary, autobiography, and other publications, as well as extensive quotes from memoirs of her contemporaries and newspaper accounts, to trace her remarkable career as an activist, from her lawsuit against segregated railway cars in Memphis - a suit she lost, but which set a precedent for many legal actions to follow – through her years of passionate protest against the atrocities of lynching, her involvement with the women’s suffrage movement, and her unsuccessful campaign for a U.S. Senate seat from Illinois shortly before her death in 1931. Wells-Barnett was seldom idle, continuing her advocacy during her marriage to attorney and fellow activist Ferdinand Barnett and the rearing of their four children.
In her exhaustive mining of contemporary sources, Giddings also shows the devastating impact of Jim Crow laws on African American southerners – an impact all the more cruel following blacks’ progress during Reconstruction – and the way in which, as blacks left the South for other parts of the country, incidents of prejudice and violence increased in those areas as well. Wells-Barnett found herself investigating riots and lynchings in the Midwest as well as in southern states, and carrying her quest for allies into northeastern cities and across the Atlantic to Britain.
Giddings reveals a recurring pattern in Wells-Barnett’s career: pioneering efforts on her part were repeatedly followed by others’ taking over her ideas and presenting them in formats thought to be more palatable to white social reformers. At the same time, Wells-Barnett was marginalized in organizations she had helped to create, such as African American women’s associations and the NAACP. This pattern was partly a result of her confrontational nature and strong demands for change at a time when women were expected to be demure and retiring, but even more significant was the divergence of Wells-Barnett’s views on racial progress from those of powerful African American leaders such as Booker T. Washington. Washington advocated industrial education (as in the model of his Tuskegee Institute) and economic success as the best way for blacks to advance and felt demands for social and political equality would be too threatening to the white majority. Wells-Barnett believed that a liberal arts education was also important, that “separate but equal” was an oxymoron, and that black economic progress was also threatening and enraging to whites. She felt federal intervention was required to protect African Americans from violence and discrimination. Wells-Barnett also took on the explosive issue of interracial sexual relations and the myth that any black man who was lynched was a rapist. While her controversial stances resulted in a lack of credit for her work during her lifetime, she lived to see anti-lynching legislation passed in a number of states, and her courageous persistence laid the groundwork for many later advances in civil rights.
Giddings provides extensive annotated references and a bibliography. Ida: A Sword Among Lions is highly recommended for public and academic libraries.
(Note: this review is based on an uncorrected proof; the published work contains illustrations not seen by the reviewer.)
Kathleen L. Wells
Senior Catalog Librarian
University of Southern Mississippi
Posted: January 5th, 2009
Frascogna, Xavier M., Jr., Xavier M. Frascogna, III, and Martin F. Frascogna.
Y’all Vs Us, Thrilling Tales of Mississippi’s Hottest High School Football Rivalries.
Jackson: Mississippi Sports Council, 2008.
391 pp. $34.95 (hardcover)
In this second book about Mississippi football, the authors present the story of fifteen intense rivalries found in Mississippi and provide excellent representation of the impact these rivalries have on the people and the communities. Players and coaches also are noted, along with many other details that allow the reader to gain an increased insight and understanding into the particular role of rivalry in Mississippi football.
For example, the authors provide quotes from other participants, such as radio announcers, to help the reader understand what these football games mean to everyone. A quote from a principal notes the pride felt by the community: “Those are our kids…those kids on the field are a representation of the community and what it stands for” (14). Still another quote from a mayor and county resident states, “Nothing has galvanized this community like Wayne County football…”(42). Even families of the football players are united by the games, as is evidenced by a quote from one player: “I remember seeing my dad. He’s not a very emotional guy…I will never forget the smile on his face after the game. He came up and gave me the biggest hug” (198).
The book presents views from the perspectives of football players, which are likely to be biased. However, it is important to understand what this game means to people from all perspectives, including the perspective of the players. One quote from a Biloxi football player helps the reader understand this game goes to the heart of everyone of all ages and genders: “My grandmother doesn’t know anything about Biloxi football, but she knows when we are going to play Gulfport” (377).
This book is a valuable source for sports players, coaches, and the public. Community leaders would benefit from understanding the assistance a rivalry football game would provide in uniting the community, as it has done in Mississippi.
Weaknesses of the book are few, but include the need for more information to set the scenes portrayed, as the continuity at times jumps from one paragraph to another. This book provides more than just a portrayal of the game of football.
This book is recommended for academic and public libraries since it contributes to the body of literature related to an understanding of human nature.
William L. Bahr
Assistant Director
Pike-Amite-Walthall Library System
Posted: January 5th, 2009
Frascogna, Xavier M., Jr., Xavier M. Frascogna, III, and Martin F. Frascogna.
Gridiron Gold: Inspiring Stories of Legendary Mississippi High School Coaches, Guardians of the Greatest Football Talent in America.
Jackson: Mississippi Sports Council, 2007.
294 pp. $31.95 (hardcover)
Gridiron Gold is the first book by the authors, who each played high school and college football, and played for well-respected Mississippi coaches. The authors present a discussion of the coaches who have helped Mississippi’s high school football teams. Coaches are an important part of the game and contribute to the morale and development of the team and the community. To this end, the experiences of working with Mississippi high school coaches to develop not only team spirit and skills, but also emotional bonds that last a lifetime are presented.
Numerous quotes from different coaches are presented, which help to paint the picture that is prominent in the communities they are a part of – that throughout Mississippi each community works hard to promote the development of their children, who are considered the most valuable resource of the state. These quotes, and other details, help the reader understand what it is like to be a high school football player in these communities. Indeed, the authors themselves are from this community and their experience has inspired them to tell this story.
Some of the quotes from the coaches point out this group helped keep young teenagers out of trouble both on and off the team. For example, Coach Larry Cole (p. 113) stated, “I’ve had players that I threw off the team….He might have been caught with alcohol or some other infraction.” Coach Paul Pounds pointed out, “During the ‘60s and ‘70s if something happened in a class, the teacher or principal would always come to a coach and ask, ‘Coach, can you come over here and take care of the problem’” (p. 114).
Thus, the coaches were respected by the students, by the football team, by the teachers, and by school administrators.
The coaches themselves expressed the joy they experienced in their work. For example, Coach Bobby Posey, who had the opportunity to see three boys from high school football teams he had coached make it on a Memphis State team, noted “it was just an indescribable moment…it’s the legacy…of Mississippi high school football” (p. 166).
While the book presented the views of three ex-football players, which may have led to a discussion of their biased views, even this provides insight into the inspiration these authors felt from working with the coaches. This book is a valuable source for sports players, coaches, community leaders, and the public. While the book can be criticized for its possible bias, the book provides insight for all to understand the value of coaches in football. This book is recommended for academic and public libraries.
William L. Bahr
Assistant Director
Pike-Amite-Walthall Library System
Posted: January 5th, 2009
Fennelly, Beth Ann. Unmentionables.
New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2008.
126 pp. $23.95 (hardback)
Fennelly’s work is a breath of fresh air.
The author of Tender Hooks and Great with Child: Letters to a Young Mother has again made an impression with her descriptive book of free verse poems. Her individual insight into common occurrences and human nature unfold beautifully in her poetry written more like a diary, naturally expressing her innermost thoughts.
Fennelly consistently engages the reader throughout the work with her own simple yet complex descriptions of her surroundings. The section entitled “Kudzu Chronicles” combines an inside look at this ever-persistent plant with truths, stories, and native opinions. Fennelly herself is an outsider who has made her home in Oxford, Mississippi. Her poetry, like kudzu, wraps around “unmentionable” subjects as well as the more inviting ones.
Her childhood reflections and family tributes are also easily relatable. Through effective breaks in her writing style mixed with everyday language - sometimes raw - Fennelly connects her world to our own.
She also has the ability to read other greats of our time. “Bertha Morisot: A Retrospective” is dedicated to disclosing the “what might have been” thoughts of the famous painter.
Whether unveiling the fibers of other beings or her own, Fennelly uses her words to speak the truth that sometimes goes unheard. It is our Mississippi to which she speaks, and she is a superb storyteller. Unmentionables is 126 pages of mind-reading wonder. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.
Melissa Dennis
Outreach/Reference Librarian
University of Mississippi Libraries
Posted: January 5th, 2009
North, Darden. House Call.
Jackson, MS: Ponder House Press, 2007.
344 pp. $9.99 (paperback)
Darden North, a medical doctor, has written an interesting first novel. It is a mystery revolving around a private practice and a hospital in a northern Mississippi community. The evolving murder investigation progresses while Dr. North provides the reader insight into the business side of the medical profession.
The reader is introduced to the daily stress in a labor and delivery department that is short-staffed by hospital administrators attempting to cut costs, the machinations of hospital administrators courting a buyout from a healthcare corporation, and the financially driven business operations of a major private practice. The main focus of this novel appears to be more toward the operations and manipulations of the five physicians associated with the Montclair Center for Women’s Medical and Surgical Services than toward the actual murder of labor and delivery department nurse Taylor Richards.
The emphasis of the novel revolves around Dr. Cullen Gwinn and his wife Madelyn. Dr. Gwinn, the original physician who established the center, is depicted as a workaholic while his wife’s secret is her addiction to depression medication that causes weight loss. A second physician associated with the Montclair Center for Women’s Medical and Surgical Services, Dr. Knox Chamblee, is the newest physician added to the center’s roster. He experiences harassment from Dr. Elizabeth Aslyn Hawes, who believes a female physician should have been given that job.
Dr. Hawes blocks patient scheduling to the new physician and constantly argues with the board to terminate him because his patient load does not generate enough dollars for the center.
The actual crime itself against Taylor Richards is finally resolved in the last chapter of the novel, almost as an afterthought.
While this first novel for Dr. North is an interesting read, I would have liked more development of his characters. There is little depth to the people moving through this book. In addition, some of the chapters are not tightly integrated into the novel itself. Better transition from one chapter to the next would have enhanced the reading experience. I would recommend this title to public libraries with audiences for medical fiction.
Elizabeth M. Doolittle
Public Services Librarian
University of Southern Mississippi, Gulf Park
Posted: January 5th, 2009
Karon, Jan. Home to Holly Springs.
New York: Viking Penguin, 2007.
355 pp. $26.95 (hardcover)
Home to Holly Springs returns Father Tim Kavanagh to his childhood home of Holly Springs, Mississippi. After more than thirty-eight years of absence, he seeks answers to unsolved mysteries, as well as the disappearances of those who most affected his childhood development.
Inspirational fiction readers will recognize Father Tim Kavanagh who is the main character in Jan Karon’s Mitford Series. In the Mitford series he has solved many domestic mysteries in his parish of Mitford, but in Home to Holly Springs Father Tim faces his own mysterious past in a personal and painful journey as he untangles the memories he has held so closely. In this first of the Father Tim novels Karon takes him home.
While Karon introduces a real-life Southern town in present day Holly Springs, Mississippi, her treatment of a small Mississippi town of forty years prior portrays honesty with kindness. Her character development introduces three dimensional, enjoyable, realistic souls as
her storyline leads a heart-rending search for truths.
This book is highly recommended for all libraries, but especially for those with a patronage who enjoy good inspirational fiction.
Donna P. Fite
Purvis Branch Manager
Lamar County Library System
Posted: January 5th, 2009
York, Joe. With Signs Following: Photographs from the Southern Religious Roadside.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.
67 pp. $25.00 (hardcover)
Signs of a religious nature are familiar to anyone living in the South, and flipping through this book will garner smiles of recognition. Reading the accompanying introductions by Charles Reagan Wilson and photographer Joe York, though, will make you turn a fresh eye on the photographs featured here, as well as the roadsides you travel.
What began as a search for biscuits resulted in the revelation that one’s expression of religious belief in the South deserved more exploration, particularly evangelical Protestantism’s “Great Commission” to bring people to God. The contention here is that the advertising methods generally used for any of the innumerable products of modern living have been intentionally adapted for use in the marketing of salvation. It is a persuasive claim, one that is hard to deny once you have read the text, perused York’s spare black and white photographs, and hit the road yourself.
Wilson and York frame the photographs with compelling discussions of the connection between the road and religion in the South, along with interviews of people connected with the signs in the book. The photographs themselves depict wide-ranging religious expression, from simple graffiti to slick marquees and neon. York’s aesthetic sensibility and appreciation of visual wit come through in the juxtaposition of simple religious expressions with blatantly commercial objects and his judicious use of perspective, angle, and repeating patterns in composing his photographs.
With Signs Following is a thought-provoking book that could provide a jumping-off point for further study of the subject. It is recommended for all academic and public libraries.
Diane DeCesare Ross
Curator of Manuscripts, Archives, and Digital Collections
University of Southern Mississippi
Posted: October 1st, 2008
Urgo, Joseph R. and Ann J. Abadie, eds. Faulkner’s Inheritance: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha, 2005.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.
178 pp. $50.00 (hardcover)
This book is a collection of nine essays presented by William Faulkner scholars at the Thirty-second Annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference in 2005. Editor Joseph Urgo, former English department chair at the University of Mississippi, in his introduction defines the inheritance theme. He reminds readers that Faulkner inherited little financially, but much from his Mississippi culture. He took this inheritance and, with his genius, gave it voice for successive generations to analyze, criticize, and contemplate. Some of his bequest is examined in this collection by looking at the influences on his fiction. These influences are family history, Jim Crow laws, contemporary fashion, popular culture, and literature.
These essays are written in a scholarly style, and sometimes the reading is tedious. However, serious students of Faulkner’s fiction may discover new insight into Brother Bill’s world. Biographical information, such as the importance of his relationship with his alcoholic wife Estelle and with his religious caretaker Mammy Callie, is absorbing. An outstanding essay “Faulkner’s Blues Understanding” contains biographical information as well as Faulkner’s understanding of the blues as the medium of communication between blacks and whites.
Race and its power of alienation resulting in violence is a familiar Faulkner subject. In several essays, this theme is analyzed through the character Joe Christmas from Light in August. By examining this disinherited man caught between the black and white worlds, these essays evoke feel- ings of compassion, confusion, and anger. This power of race segregation, described as the “Veil” in W.E.B. Dubois’s The Souls of Black Folks, is suggested as an influence on how Faulkner created Joe Christmas.
In the concluding essay, Faulkner biographer Jay Parini encourages the fascinated reader who often struggles with the novelist’s fiction. He writes, “Faulkner had a great tolerance for inconsistency, and it has driven many a scholar to his or her grave – those scholars who wish for an ideal order that is.” This view, also shared by contributor Noel Polk, author of Reading Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury, makes reading this collection worthwhile for the layman. Illustrations, photographs, and an index also render this collection more readable. I highly recommend Faulkner’s Inheritance for academic libraries and public libraries with a strong Faulkner collection.
Diane Moore Elliott
Librarian (retired)
Cleveland High School
Posted: October 1st, 2008
Tucker, Judy H. and Charline R. McCord, eds. Growing Up in Mississippi.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008.
203 pp. $25.00 (hardcover)
Before their collaboration on Growing Up in Mississippi, Tucker and McCord met in 1996 at a Eudora Welty festival. Their collaboration previously resulted in the publications Christmas Stories from Mississippiand several editions of Christmas Stories from the South, which also focus on Mississippi life and southern culture.
In Growing Up in Mississippi, Tucker and McCord provide thirty essays by notable, still living Mississippians, such as former Governor William Winter, blues great B.B. King, NFL great Jerry Rice, and former Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Fred Banks, that highlight small-town Mississippi life and other aspects of childhood in the South that influenced the development of the successful authors. For instance, Banks describes how his education in Canton influenced his development in a positive manner. Gov. Winter talks about the pets he had and how they shaped his development, while news anchor Maggie Wade Dixon explains how children’s play and parenting has changed since she grew up in Mississippi. The shared stories also reveal the unique nature of southern life for African Americans during the era. King talks of how his Uncle Jack was always singing to ease the burden of hard labor and stress.
Some of the essays are original to the collection, while others are reprinted or excerpted from previously published works. All of the essays, however, offer insight into the unique experiences of the thirty successful adults while they lived in small towns and communities in Mississippi.
Children in contemporary society may not experience the small-town or rural Mississippi existence of their predecessors, but this book offers young people and adults a chance to explore the past and how upbringing and small-town southern life influenced the development of a number of successful adults. The book is also a great option for those whose roots are in the South and who can relate to a former time and way of life. Thus, the book potentially provides an opportunity to educate and teach young adults about southern life and culture in a different era, and provides a chance for adults to relive a former time whose values and influences they may relate to. As such, public libraries, high school libraries, and college libraries should consider purchasing the book.
William L. Bahr
Assistant Director
Pike-Amite-Walthall Library System
Posted: October 1st, 2008
Kellum, Jo. Southern Sun: A Plant Selection Guide.
Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008.
141 pp. $25.00 (paperback)
Many Southerners who have dabbled in gardening know firsthand that choosing plants hardy enough to withstand long hours of harsh summer sun can be difficult. In Southern Sun: A Plant Selection Guide, author Jo Kellum provides a straightforward guide to help readers select plants that thrive in the South’s hot summer sun. Kellum, a landscape architect who has written about garden design for Southern Living magazine, draws from her extensive knowledge and experience to create an easy-to-follow book that includes many recognizable plants, as well as some surprises that may not be as commonly known.
Kellum selects plants that are low-maintenance and she emphasizes the distinction between morning sun and afternoon sun because certain plants may thrive in one setting but not the other. The presentation of Southern Sun is easy to follow and the details about each plant are helpful without being overwhelming.
The book is organized into chapters on bedding plants, shrubs, trees, ground covers, and vines to help readers easily locate plants and plan their gardens. Within each chapter, Kellum devotes several pages to each plant and includes excellent photos and a list of basic growing information, such as size, growth rate, water needs, and growing zones. She also includes a detailed narrative about how to grow the plant with important tips on maintenance.
Southern Sun is appropriate for gardeners of all experience levels, but it will be especially helpful for those contemplating their first landscaping project or those who are new to the South. Kellum’s presentation is clean and straightforward, so it will not overwhelm beginners, but she provides enough description about each plant to appeal to experienced gardeners. This book is highly recommended for public libraries.
Laura Capell
Digitization Librarian
University of Southern Mississippi
Posted: October 1st, 2008
Helferich, Gerard. High Cotton: Four Seasons in the Mississippi Delta.
New York: Counterpoint, 2007.
308 pp. $25.00 (hardcover)
Through Gerard Helferich’s writing, one follows a modern day cotton planter for a full year. His subject, Zack Killebrew, first cousin to Helferich’s wife, Teresa, farms 1,700 acres outside the small town of Tchula within the Mississippi Delta. One-thousand acres are for cotton, the rest set aside for soybeans and corn. Some of the acreage is prime two-inch-deep soil known locally as ice cream.
The book’s format is fresh and alternates between present, work-a-day Killebrew and historically knowledgeable Helferich. Readers join Killebrew and his trusty lab Duke in his white pickup as he plants genetically modified seeds, fends off weeds and insects, deals with field hands, and harvests hurricane beaten cotton. Then Helferich shifts into four-wheel drive and goes off road to introduce topics such as slavery, the 1927 flood, sharecropping, the Civil Rights Movement, and Southern politics. After the historical perspective, it is back in the cab with Killebrew at the wheel as he frequently stops to fix irrigation pivots, replace tractor tires, check insect traps, and extinguish module fires.
Two major concerns all planters face are crop prices and weather. As of the printing of this book, government subsidies offset any low prices for American cotton; unfortunately, one cannot control weather. During Killebrew’s 2005 season, his cotton is pummeled by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The resulting damage is substantial with arrested development and defoliation during the first storm and wet and dirty cotton after the second. All is not dire, for Killebrew blows off steam with various southern activities. Not only is the reader treated to two seasonal hunts, deer and dove, but a whole lesson in the art of catfish hand-grabbing, or noodling.
Guest critic for The New York Times Book Review, Dale Maharidge, wanted to hear more about Killebrew’s employees and pending divorce. Helferich faces the social and economic problems of the South with honesty and directness through examples of both disgruntled employees Ben and Charlie and a contented Willie Waters. As for the divorce, it involves two people growing apart and not cotton growing in between. This reviewer feels these topics are adequately covered.
From the moment the soil is broken until the last fiber is woven into jeans, this book is a comprehensive look at cotton through a family owned and operated business. It is highly recommended for all types of Mississippi libraries.
Maggie Moran
Public Service and Reference Librarian
Northwest Mississippi Community College
Posted: October 1st, 2008
Ford, Jennifer W., ed. The Hour of Our Nation’s Agony: The Civil War Letters of Lt. William Cowper Nelson of Mississippi.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2007.
336 pp. $48.50 (hardcover)
In The Hour of Our Nation’s Agony: The Civil War Letters of Lt. William Cowper Nelson of Mississippi, Jennifer Ford, head of archives and special collections and assistant professor at University of Mississippi’s J.D. Williams Library, showcases a collection of documents and letters between William Cowper Nelson and family members. The result is a highly readable book that not only highlights this recent donation of Civil War era primary sources to the Williams Library, but also puts flesh on one’s view of the War Between the States. This book is part of The Voices of the Civil War series from the University of Tennessee Press, a series of more than thirty volumes that publishes primary source documents from servicemen and civilians from both sides of the Civil War.
Focusing on the antebellum and war period letters of the collection, the book presents the letters chronologically, leaving punctuation, capitalization, and spelling as it was found in the originals. Ford divides these letters into five chapters, and her commentary introduces each chapter, helping the reader to understand the context of these letters within Civil War events and Nelson’s maturity as a human being. Nearly every letter contains several endnotes that explain the individuals mentioned or the context of the situation discussed. A narrative epilogue sums up Nelson’s post-war life. Also included are a number of relevant photographs and drawings, an extensive bibliography, and an index of names, terms, places, and battles mentioned in the letters and endnotes.
The commentaries trace Nelson’s transition from a sheltered youth who believed in the glory of war to a battle-weary soldier who had seen enough of war and death. While Nelson apparently lived somewhat better than many soldiers, he also witnessed many significant battles, including Antietam/Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, and the siege of Petersburg, among others, and had “slept on battlefields…with dead and dying Yankees.” Nelson had feelings both of hatred toward the Northern soldiers invading his hometown of Holly Springs and compassion toward the Northern wounded, for whom he filled canteens with water after the Seven Days Battle. The editor concludes that Nelson was a complex individual, who neither fits fully into the notion of an alienated, disillusioned, battle-weary soldier, nor into that of a soldier whose ideals remained intact despite many a bloody battle. A person with a limited background in Civil War history should have no problem reading and understanding this well-researched work, and it is recommended for academic and large public libraries.
Rick Torgerson
Cataloger
Delta State University
Posted: October 1st, 2008
Asch, Christopher Myers. The Senator and the Sharecropper: The Freedom Struggles of James O. Eastland and Fannie Lou Hamer.
New York: New Press, 2008.
368 pp. $27.95 (hardcover)
It is clear from Asch’s introduction that this book was written to provide a contrast between the life experiences of an affluent, powerful, white Southern male (Senator James O. Eastland) and a poor, barely educated, female, civil rights activist (Fannie Lou Hamer) who was his neighbor in Sunflower County, Mississippi.
As Asch points out, it would be difficult to find a pair of Mississippians more diametrically opposed to one another. Whereas Eastland, as a long time member of the U.S. Senate and a devout white supremacist, resisted all efforts to end segregation, Hamer was equally active in the struggle to bring about true equality for all Americans. Asch traces the lives of these two individuals using flashback techniques and interviews to describe the critical differences between Eastland’s world and that of Hamer. The contrast between these two well-known Mississippi residents is used by Asch to depict a polarized society led by a small handful of elites who used money, power, law, and tradition to ensure the continued oppression of black Americans.
This is an interesting book, which can inform contemporary readers about the challenges that were overcome in the Deep South as a consequence of the work of people like Hamer and despite the opposition of men like Eastland. It is an extremely well researched and documented text. This is also one of its slight drawbacks, because at times it reads more like the doctoral dissertation it once was than a work of historical commentary. Asch is, at times, didactic and uses his text to make an argument against the kind of social system that created Eastland and Hamer. His political convictions shine through this book. The book ends with Hamer’s death in 1977 and Eastland’s in 1986. It covers almost three quarters of a century of Mississippi history during a period when great social change was occurring. Eastland fought desperately against that change and, for a time, succeeded in preventing it from occurring. However, it is Hamer as depicted by Asch who emerges as the true heroic center of this era. This title is recommended for public and academic libraries.
William Bahr
Assistant Director
Pike-Amite-Walthall Library System
Posted: October 1st, 2008
Johnson, Deborah. The Air Between
Us. New York: Amistad, 2008.
321 pp. $23.95 (hardcover)
This book presents a story about race relations in Mississippi during the 1960s. While many writers have covered this time, Johnson adds some new details by blending a murder that involves a small town’s doctors, an interracial relationship, and school integration.
There is a great deal of character development of the two doctors. Dr. Reese Jackson is an educated, white-collar, African American doctor. He does not have any social equals, which puts him in an odd place and makes him somewhat bitter. His counterpart, Dr. Cooper Connelly, while not facing any social restraints, is also at odds with the country club set. He does not agree with the opinions held by most of the Caucasians in town, including his father Jack Rand Connelly, who is a very powerful politician.
Johnson uses some simple details to remind the reader of years past. Madame Melba, the town’s fortune teller, describes the “clean, fresh” smell of Cooper Connelly as he sits at her house. This detail brought to my mind the difference in the end-of-the-day smells of my white-collar father and my blue-collar grandfathers.
This book is enjoyable, but the ending is somewhat contrived. Johnson brings her characters to life, so that a reader feels as if he knows these people. This book would fit into a popular reading section at a public library.
Jodi Kuehl
Account Services Manager
EBSCO Information Services
Posted: October 1st, 2008
Cook, Thomas H. Master of the Delta.
Orlando, FL: Harcourt Books, 2008.
367 pp. $24.00 (hardcover)
The time is the mid-1950s in the Mississippi Delta where old plantation homes and cotton fields haunt the landscape. Jack Branch, a history teacher and son of an old plantation family, has returned to Lake- land to teach in the local high school as his father did before him. In addition to his history classes, Jack teaches a special course on historical evil to senior high students from poor working class families from the community. When the class is assigned to write a paper about an evil character, one student asks to write about his father, a confessed murderer. Eddie Miller, the son of the Coed Killer, as he was known, is a quiet young man who lives with the cloud of his father’s misdeed hanging over his head. Eddie’s early success interviewing people who knew his father gives him the confidence to interview members of the old plantation class – including Jack’s own ailing father, master of Great Oaks.
As the research paper takes form, the interviews, clippings, and photographs also reveal facts that disturb Jack Branch and the security he has assumed as his birthright as the son of Great Oaks. The story is narrated by Jack in that slow, polite manner of the Delta, as he looks back to his own past to make sense of the events of the present as they unfold; as he reads passages from Eddie’s research paper and recalls excerpts from the trial, the reader is forewarned of an unhappy ending that keeps the story engaging.
Thomas H. Cook, born in Alabama and living in New York, has written numerous mystery novels, is an award-winning author, and has been an editor of Best American Crime Writing since 2000. This most recent novel of suspense would be an excellent addition to public libraries, particularly those with readers familiar with the Delta landscapes and the people that live there.
Ann Branton
Head, Bibliographic Services
University of Southern Mississippi
Posted: October 1st, 2008
Tingle, Tim. Crossing Bok Chitto: A Choctaw Tale of Friendship & Freedom.
El Paso, TX: Cinco Puntos Press, 2006.
39 pp. (unnumbered). $17.95 (hardback)
Set in Mississippi, this story is about a small tribe of Choctaw Indians who help a family of runaway slaves escape to freedom. The courage and kindness of the main character, Martha Tom, gives hope to those in need and allows the family to attempt the impossible. Although fictional, this story illustrates that many slaves did not rely only on themselves and the kindness of a few white families to help them to freedom, but also on the help of many Native Americans. The author spent much time with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and their tribal elder, Archie Mingo, to better understand the history of the Choctaws and how important oral tradition is to them. The illustrations, created by Cherokee artist Jeanne Rorex Bridges, are comprised of full-page landscapes and prominent portraits. Through her illustrations, she was able to make this story come alive. The author’s skill as a storyteller and the illustrator’s talent of portraying Native Americans in their cultural life created a wonderful story based on history and stories of old. I thoroughly enjoyed this story and found myself wanting to know more about the lives of the characters. This would be a good book to read before a history lesson dealing with this time period. I recommend this book for all Mississippi libraries. Not only is it a well written and illustrated picture book, but it also highlights an important aspect of both Choctaw and Mississippi history.
Justine B. Willey
Library Media Specialist
Moss Point High School
Posted: June 26th, 2008
Sugg, Nan. Erin and Katrina. Illustrated by Becca Huber and Lauren Pope.
Jackson, MS: Acorn Hill Press, 2006.
29 pp. $19.90 (hardback)
Many young children around the country heard adults discussing the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and children can read worry and fear in adults’ faces and voices. Even children who did not live in the areas hardest hit by the storm felt its effects. Erin and Katrina tells about one little girl living in an area far enough from the Gulf Coast that she didn’t lose her home, but close enough to the mammoth storm to be made afraid by the howling winds, the horizontal rain, the downed power lines, the temporary loss of electricity, and some downed trees. But Erin is safe with her parents, in a snug house, with food and water and emergency supplies. She goes to sleep that night in her own bed and wakes up in that bed the next morning to sunshine, neighborhood picnics while the power is out, and enough power tools among the neighbors to clean up the downed trees. Her main concern is for the birds and squirrels that have been displaced from their homes in the trees. Her parents gently guide her concern to the humans who also have been displaced, and involve her in gathering supplies to take to a shelter for storm refugees opened in their church building. She faces some hard sharing choices, but grows in making those choices. This book makes no age-inappropriate references to the horrendous death and destruction wrought by Katrina, but does introduce, at a young child’s level, some concept of the loss involved for those on the Gulf Coast. The emphasis is on sharing what one has with those who have less and on acting to do what one can in an emergency.
I recommend Erin and Katrina for addition to public libraries serving a population that includes families with children aged four to eight. The tone and style of the story will not appeal to all readers, but for families who rely on their religious faith in times of stress, it will be a good addition to a read-aloud collection. Only very proficient beginning readers could manage it alone, but it would provide good discussion ideas for parent-and-child, or teacher-and-small-group sharing. Some of the illustrations are a bit cartoonish, but those that zoom in on the wildlife and the power of the storm are very effective. All illustrations are bright and colorful and would probably capture the attention of young children.
Diane Schule
Director
Marshall County Library System
Posted: June 26th, 2008
Rodman, Mary Ann. My Best Friend. Illustrated by E. B. Lewis.
New York: Viking/Penguin Group, 2007.
32pp. $15.99 (hardback)
Wednesday is playgroup day at the pool and Lily, a typical six-year-old, is there with her mom. Lily chooses Tamika to be her best friend, but Tamika, who is seven, has other plans. Tamika already has a best friend, Shanice, who is also seven. Lily does what she can to make Tamika her best friend, but things just don’t work out. There is, however, another six-year-old at the pool, Keesha. It seems Keesha has chosen Lily to be her best friend, despite Lily being smitten with Tamika. The story progresses and eventually Keesha and Lily become friends. We’ve all seen it and/or lived it. The younger kid tries to impress the older kid into friendship. Younger children do and say all types of things to try to win over older children. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. This is a cute story filled with beautiful illustrations to describe each scene. It will generate much needed discussions about what constitutes friendship. Recommended for libraries with juvenile collections.
Crystal Giles
Technical Services Librarian
Northwest MS Community College
Posted: June 26th, 2008
McMullan, Margaret. When I Crossed No-Bob.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007.
209 pp. $16.00 (hardcover)
This story is set ten years after the Civil War, with Mississippi in the throes of Reconstruction. A new identity is being shaped in a union that no longer supports an economy fueled by the enslavement of humans. Addy is a young, white girl who only knows life within the bounds of her small community in Smith County, Mississippi. This hand-to-mouth existence and Addy’s attempts to make a name for her self outside the confines of her infamous family parallel Mississippi’s struggles. McMullan’s descriptions are vivid and easily bring to mind images of the reality of life in this era, which is too often neglected in fiction. Addy’s struggles with morality delve deeply. They take on not only the awareness of what is right and what is wrong, but the whys of things, and at times have a marked spiritual bent. A deep love of Mississippi is apparent in descriptions of its people and environment, but this doesn’t keep McMullan from exploring tough issues. Incidents dealing with racism and accepted norms of the day may be difficult for some to comprehend. Programming developed around this
time period would enhance children’s understanding of the material. Some of the historical references have a strained tone, but as a whole, children will learn Mississippi history without even realizing it. Reading about the Cherokee’s Kwanokasha was especially enjoyable. Recommended for mature middle school and young adult collections.
Elisabeth Scott
Reference Librarian
Mississippi Library Commission
Posted: June 26th, 2008
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