Lemuria Bookstore Blog

Here is another group of  books that would be fun to give and receive for Christmas gifts.  The coolest thing about these books is that they are all about or set in Mississippi and written by your friends and neighbors!!  Take a look…

Ole Miss and Oxford :A Part of our Heart and Soul  by William H. Morris ( yes, this is the Bill Morris that you know and love!!)

The Grove. The Square. Hotty Toddy. Taylor Grocery. Red and Blue. Square Books.

These are words that are evocative of a specific place and feeling—Ole Miss at Oxford. And in this new book by William H. Morris, Jr., we have photographs that will stir memories of lazy afternoons in the Grove or strolling in the Square and will stimulate the senses with the action of the football games played in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and the bustling Oxford milieu.  Ole Miss and Oxford is a collection of approximately 300 beautiful photographs spanning more than twenty years of life at Ole Miss and in Oxford. Through this book, Bill takes us on a wonderful meandering path through the graceful town of Oxford, home to many true literary greats, one of the oldest department stores in the U.S., and one of the nation’s greatest bookstores. We journey to the Grove for gatherings of food, fun, and fellowship before the big game, and they are all big games. The excitement is almost tangible as the players burst onto the field before crowds of enthusiastic fans ready to see the Rebels perform amazing football feats. Then, it’s back to the Grove for celebrations that are heightened or commiserations that are lessened by the sharing of them with family and friends. We travel back to town and encounter parades, festivals, and nightlife. These photographs become a record and provide a means for us to see people and places that are no longer, because Bill Morris took the time to see and to photograph.

Bill Morris has captured the essence of this very special place in the spectacular photographs included in this book to be shared by all. This book is a true “Welcome to Ole Miss and Oxford,” as a banner over Neilson’s reads in a photograph early in the book.  Buy the book to begin your journey.

Mississippi: The WPA Guide to the Magnolia State by Works Progress Administration Introduction by Robert S. McElvaine

Mississippi: The WPA Guide to the Magnolia State, was part of a nationwide series of guides in the 1930s that created work during the Depression for artists, writers, teachers, librarians, and other professionals. This classic book is a lively collaborative project that covers a distinct era in Mississippi from the hills to the Delta to the Gulf Coast. Even today this guide is an engaging look at the Magnolia State and includes driving tours featuring many of the state’s treasures.Along these old roads, the heart of Mississippi comes to life. The guide explores Deep South folkways, frontier hamlets, vanishing homesteads, burgeoning communities, and the local points of pride. In a way that perhaps may never be duplicated, these authors capture state heritage, portray the trying economic systems and challenges Mississippi faced, and hint of a revolution in roadways and in mobility for its citizens. An introduction by Robert S. McElvaine places this historic volume in a modern context.

Give My Poor Heart Ease: Voices of the Mississippi Blues by William Ferris

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, folklorist William Ferris toured his home state of Mississippi, documenting the voices of African Americans as they spoke about and performed the diverse musical traditions that form the authentic roots of the blues. Now, Give My Poor Heart Ease puts front and center a searing selection of the artistically and emotionally rich voices from this invaluable documentary record. Illustrated with Ferris’s photographs of the speakers and their communities and including a dual CD/DVD that presents his original field recordings and films, the book features more than twenty musicians who relate frank, dramatic, and engaging narratives about black life and blues music in the heart of the American South.

Here are the stories of artists who have long memories and speak eloquently about their lives, blues musicians who represent a wide range of musical traditions–from one-strand instruments, bottle-blowing, and banjo to spirituals, hymns, and prison work chants. From celebrities such as B. B. King and Willie Dixon to artists known best in their neighborhoods, they express the full range of human experience–joyful and gritty, raw and painful.

In an autobiographical introduction, Ferris reflects on how he fell in love with the vibrant musical culture that was all around him but was considered off limits to a white Mississippian during a troubled era. This magnificent volume illuminates blues music, the broader African American experience, and indeed the history and culture of America itself.

The Bluffs of Devil’s Swamp by Mack Cameron

In the last week of Feb. 1924, handsome Nick Gable arrives in Bay St. Louis, Miss., and meets with local lawyer, Dudley Marquette, concerning the purchase of eighteen thousand acres of land in Devil’s Swamp. On a trip out to the property, Nick encounters Claude, a descendant of the swamp people whose pirate ancestors helped Gen. Andrew Jackson win the Battle of New Orleans near the end of the War of 1812. While at a roaring twenties party held at a hotel, Nick slips away from the crowd and has a clandestine meeting with three men. Under their leader’s direction, Nick is setting up a major illegal booze shipping operation between Cuba and Bay St. Louis. The Internal Revenue Service and its rogue agents begin to use brutal tactics to get information about the shipments. Undercover agents from New Orleans disappear while investigating Nick’s operations. Eventually, ambulance drivers, black funeral home owners, and even the sheriff and his deputies become involved in shipment activities.

If By Whiskey by Quentin Whitwell

Learning how to cope in the New South, which does not always seem so new, is a tall order, especially if you are Anna Neimus, an aspiring college journalist who just can’t seem to catch a break. A Northerner, sometimes Anna wonders if her liberal, feminist leanings are out of place at the Tri Delta sorority house in University, Mississippi. Her roommate, a quintessential southern girl, is always putting ideas in Anna’s head which, in turn, translate into controversial articles. Each one ignites the letters to the editor in full force and lands Anna in the center of the blast zone. But this time she has really blown it. She has struck a nerve on campus and is in a real pinch. In her article on Barack Obama’s appearance at Ole Miss, she declares the debate a historic bore. There is only one way to fix her problem – use her wits. With the help of her sorority sisters, fraternity boyfriends, and her best friend, a fellow student and African-American conservative, Anna plows head-on into the fray, leaving a path of destruction that makes Animal House look tame. In the shadow of the racial tensions her University has survived in the past, now it is Anna’s turn to make a difference. Seeking the editor’s post at the campus newspaper, Anna must decide if running a newspaper or running for a student government position is the way to prove she is a leader. If By Whiskey is an irreverent, lighthearted look at the life of a Maryland woman living in Mississippi, with a message of tolerance and friendship that is a testament to the changing times.

Dream Room: Tales of the Dixie Mafia by Chet Nicholson

Dream Room: Tales of the Dixie Mafia, Chet Nicholson’s breakout true-crime book is a thrilling tale that takes the reader inside the infamous Dixie Mafia. The band of loosely organized criminals operated throughout the states of the old Confederacy. The more violent of their number robbed, burgled, extorted and murdered throughout the South; while the kinder and gentler wing of the gang preferred gambling, liquor and prostitution.