Old South

David Sedaris returns with his most deeply personal and darkly hilarious book. If you've ever laughed your way through David Sedaris's cheerfully misanthropic stories, you might think you know what you're getting with Calypso. You'd be wrong. When he buys a beach house on the Carolina coast...

Written in the form of a letter to her granddaughter, the author of this little book describes her plantation childhood, her marriage and parenthood, and her experiences during the Civil War and Reconstruction. In response to what she believed were misconceptions about antebellum Southern slavery, she argues that while some slaveholders were cruel, the majority were conscientious about the well-being of their servants and looked upon them as members of the household.

From a New York Times bestselling author ("One of our wisest storytellers"), a story collection that is funny and tragic in equal measure, about crimes large and small (Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers). Beloved author Jill McCorkle offers an intimate look at the moments when a...

They say history is written by the victors. In the case of the Civil War, that's largely true. But historian Samuel Mitcham brings the Southern point of view to life in Voices from the Confederacy. In it, you will learn about the heroic, the scoundrels, the clever, the vanquished, and the hungry. Rich or poor, black or white, Voices from the Confederacy shares hundreds of poignant and revealing moments during the war between the states.

She danced when the church said to stop, married a near stranger at 16, built a dairy from nothing, and raised six daughters. Now at eighty-seven, Emma Sullivan Sharpe faces her hardest opponent yet: her five remaining daughters. From her Louisiana duplex, Emma watches her girls circle like a well-meaning jury, each convinced she knows best and not one of them willing to hear no. As the pressure to move her to a nursing home reaches a fever pitch, Emma retreats to the only place they can't follow her: the past. This intimate Southern memoir weaves between Emma's stubborn standoff with her ...

Natchez, Mississippi. 1843... At the age of 22, Jenny has lived a lifetime of experiences. She was a child kidnapped into slavery, and then freed. She’s been married and widowed, and she’s become a mother. But when an ambitious sheriff comes after her for an old crime, she flees the safety of her home at the Natchez estate known as Carefree and plunges headlong into dangers greater than any she has faced before. At 34, Cornelius Carson is wealthy, an important man in Natchez. He has inherited Carefree, and he lives there with his wife Euphonia, his small son Thomas, and his ward, a ...

Novelist and poet Judy Goldman's inspiring account of the mishap that left her husband paralyzed, how it tested their marriage, and their struggle to regain their "normal" life. When Judy Goldman’s husband of almost four decades has a routine spinal injection to alleviate back pain, he is...

In this deeply researched and well-written study, Donald P. McNeilly examines how moderately wealthy planters and sons of planters immigrated into the virtually empty lands of Arkansas, seeking their fortune and to establish themselves as the leaders of a new planter aristocracy west of the Mississippi River. These men, sometimes alone, sometimes with family, and usually with slaves, sought the best land possible, cleared it, planted their crops, and erected crude houses and other buildings.

Madeline Brimley left small-town Georgia many years ago to go to college and pursue her dreams on the stage. Her dramatic escapades are many, but success has eluded her, leaving her at loose ends. But then she gets word that not only has her beloved, eccentric Aunt Rose passed, but she's left Madeline her equally eccentric bookstore housed in an old Victorian mansion in the small college town of Enigma. But when she arrives in her beat-up Fiat to claim The Old Juniper Bookstore—and restart her life—Madeline is faced with unexpected challenges.

When a brutal murder brings a century-old rumor of buried treasure to light on the quiet Southern plantation of Carrington Farms, Claire Carrington and Sheriff Beau Henderson must team up to piece together the clues and solve the murder. But as they dig deeper, they uncover secrets that could put their own lives in danger. Beau Henderson has never forgotten the one kiss he and Claire Carrington shared in high school. Now fifty years later, Claire has inherited the family farm and has come back home. As they share time together investigating the murder, he realizes his feelings for Claire ...

David Roberts describes the culture of the Anasazi - the name means "enemy ancestors" in Navajo - who once inhabited the Colorado Plateau and whose modern descendants are the Hopi Indians of Arizona. Archaeologists, Roberts writes, have been puzzling over the Anasazi for more than a century, trying to determine the environmental and cultural stresses that caused their society to collapse 700 years ago. He guides us through controversies in the historical record, among them the haunting question of whether the Anasazi committed acts of cannibalism.

The Pinesby Harper Stanwick, Sr. is a gripping mystery novel set in the eerie and atmospheric surroundings of 1920s Pine Cone, North Carolina. Janice Nicole, a young and desperate woman, accepts a position as a housekeeper at "The Pines," an old Southern mansion owned by Mrs. Anderson. Upon her arrival, Janice is struck by the eerie atmosphere of the mansion and the peculiar behavior of its inhabitants, including Mrs. Anderson and her frail son, Gorman. As Janice settles into her role, she becomes increasingly aware of strange occurrences within the house. Gorman, the young boy, is ...

Nature forgives. They don't. For the broke members of the progressive hard rock cover band, The Hanging Rock, that rhythm is a dying engine and a broken air conditioner in the ninety-five-degree South Carolina heat. Stuck in a dead-end town with big dreams of heading west to California, they are running entirely on empty. When a rumor circulates that an old swamp-dweller named Ezekiel "Zeke" Bishop is the biggest drug dealer in the state, a reckless plan is born.

Conjure, hoodoo, rootwork—these are all names for southern American folk magic. Conjure first emerged in the days of slavery and plantations and is widely considered among the most potent forms of magic. Its popularity continues to increase, both in the United States and worldwide. This book...

The sand hides everything. Eventually. Far from the city lights and paved roads, there are stretches of earth that belong only to the scavengers. This is where the desperate run, where the violent thrive, and where the unlucky simply disappear. From the merciless slaughter of territorial border massacres to the blood-stained dirt of isolated arroyos where legendary lawmen met unpunished ends, this collection strips away the frontier myths to reveal the brutal reality underneath. These are not neat, tidy mysteries wrapped up with a courtroom gavel. These are raw, unflinching accounts of ...

Tony award-winning actress Sutton Foster narrates the beloved story of a strong, spunky girl and her hilarious adventures in this new recording, celebrating the 80th anniversary of Pippi Longstocking! When Pippi’s father, the king, sends for her, she decides to take her best friends Tommy and...

In the small town of Taylorsburg, South Carolina, everyone has secrets—but some secrets are worth killing for. When church secretary Denise Snipes is found brutally murdered in the cemetery behind Taylorsburg Presbyterian Church, Detective Sherie Burton is called in from North Augusta to investigate. In a town of only 2,000 residents where everyone knows everyone, the local sheriff needs an outsider—someone with no ties to the community and no reason to protect its secrets. What Sherie uncovers is a web of lies, forbidden love, and deadly obsession. Denise was having an affair with the ...

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE SWEDISH BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD A profoundly moving debut novel that follows an elderly man’s attempts to mend his relationship with his son before it’s too late: an emotional story of love, friendship, fatherhood, dogs, and atonement that is...

She isn’t a stranger to survival. But can she persevere when the North invades her home and shatters their way of life? Florida, 1862. Mary Adeline Walker Andrews cannot falter. Worried about her husband and eldest son fighting in the Civil War, the strong-willed mother of eleven wields faith and resourcefulness to keep her household running and her family fed. And as the country’s conflict rages on, the level-headed matriarch fights to defend against deserters, raids, and the growing fear of loss. But she struggles to maintain her optimism when the Union seizes control of her town. ...

By day, 17-year-old Jo Kuan works as a lady's maid for the cruel daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Atlanta. But by night, Jo moonlights as the pseudonymous author of a newspaper advice column for the genteel Southern lady, "Dear Miss Sweetie". When her column becomes wildly popular, she uses the power of the pen to address some of society's ills, but she's not prepared for the backlash that follows when her column challenges fixed ideas about race and gender.