Southern Society

Ruthie Flores is running out of time. Assembling a team who can discreetly breach the walls is a last-ditch effort to find out if her estranged daughter is in danger and to make up for what she’s done before it’s too late—literally. The old woman is in hospice care and she isn’t expected to live long enough to see the seasons change. Meredith Flores Montgomery keeps a safe distance from her mother. The pair hasn’t spoken in years, and Meredith has no plans for that to change. She isn't sure she can forgive Ruthie for the careless decisions that altered the trajectory of their ...

Blanche White is a plump, feisty, middle-aged African-American housekeeper working for the genteel rich in North Carolina. But when an employer stiffs her, and her checks bounce, she goes on the lam, hiding out as a maid for a wealthy family at their summer home. That plan goes awry when there's a murder and Blanche becomes the prime suspect. So she's forced to use her savvy, her sharp wit, and her old-girl network of domestic workers to discover the truth and save her own skin.

Ladies of the Canyons is the true story of remarkable women who left the security and comforts of genteel Victorian society and journeyed to the American Southwest in search of a wider view of themselves and their world....

Natchez, 1841. As a slave girl, Jenny has always yearned for freedom, but when her master Cornelius Carson abruptly sets her free and hands her a steamboat ticket to free soil in Ohio, she is completely alone. She knows she faces a future filled with dangers. Then an old acquaintance, Walker Jackson, persuades her to return with him to Carefree, the abandoned Natchez estate of her childhood. Only one person still lives there: Esther, a slave woman. When Cornelius unexpectedly inherits the estate, Jenny finds that her life, like the estate, is taking some unexpected turns. The lives of ...

It begins quietly on a balmy Southern night as some locals gather at Bo Peep’s, one of the town’s favorite watering holes. Within an hour, however, a man will be murdered and his companion will be “disappeared.” An unlikely detective, Morgana Musgrove, doyenne of Savannah society, is called upon to unravel the mystery of these crimes. Morgana is an imperious, demanding, and conniving woman, whose four grown children are weary of her schemes. But one by one she inveigles them into helping with her investigation, and soon the family uncovers some terrifying truths.

Celeste McKnight seems to have everything mapped out for her—high society life, law school on the horizon, and a picture-perfect relationship with Luke, a promising medical student. But beneath the polished debutante exterior, she’s harboring a passion her parents can’t understand: dressage. With her beloved Andalusian gelding, Prince Charming, by her side, Celeste dreams of mastering the art of classical riding under the guidance of her unconventional trainer, Kitty. As the pressure to conform mounts, Celeste finds herself torn between the life she’s been groomed for and the one ...

Welcome to the journey of a lifetime through the Discovering the Southern Riches eBook! Explore the vibrant and storied history of America's beloved South, from the origins of Southern cuisine to the colorful world of Southern festivals and traditions. This truly comprehensive guide offers a unique perspective on the rich and diverse culture of the Southern United States. With 32 captivating chapters, Discovering the Southern Riches provides a deep dive into the history, traditions, and culture of this unique region. Take a step back in time to Antebellum society and the birth of Southern ...

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.

A romantic adventure book set in the South Pacific during the late 19th century. Following a shipwreck, Mabel Miller, a disillusioned socialite from San Francisco, finds herself on the vibrant yet dangerous island of Kaahlanai with a small band of survivors, including Captain Gray and the Gray family. Initially seeking a break from her monotonous lifestyle, Mabel embarks on a journey that takes her far beyond her wildest dreams. Upon their ship's destruction by fire and subsequent arduous days at sea, the survivors finally land on Kaahlanai. They initially face both the harsh realities of ...

Sixteen historians, all members of the Society of Independent Southern Historians, have come together to write this truthful history of America specifically for home-schooled students. Herein is a history that is truthful, concise, yet comprehensive, written especially for students of middle school and high school age and for the parents who provide guidance through the home school educational approach. The 40 student lessons in this book present 278 years of our history.

The past is not past. We may think something ancient history, or something that doesn’t affect our present day, but we would be wrong. Those Who Saw the Sun is a collection of oral histories told by Black people who grew up in the South during the time of Jim Crow. Jaha Nailah Avery is a lawyer, scholar, and reporter whose family has roots in North Carolina stretching back over 300 years. These interviews have been a personal passion project for years as she’s traveled across the South meeting with elders and hearing their stories.

Annie can hardly believe it: The police say her husband, Max, sits behind bars. They speak of him with a beautiful blonde. By the time Annie bails Max out, the blonde has disappeared and Max is the prime suspect in a crime. The baffling, bloodstained trail leads to the home of the Tarrants, a venerable Southern family with a violent history dating back to the Revolution - and ghosts of a more recent vintage. Infighting and mayhem reign in the family, and a killer wants hide the secrets that haunt the Tarrants.

While Americans have been deeply absorbed with the topic of immigration for generations, emigration from the United States has been almost entirely ignored. Following the US Civil War, an estimated 10,000 Confederates left the US South, most of them moving to Brazil, where they became known as Confederados, Portuguese for “Confederates”. These Southerners were the largest organized group of White Americans to ever voluntarily emigrate from the United States.

Sarah Walters is a less-than-perfect debutante. She tries hard to follow the time-honored customs of the Charleston Camellia Society, as her mother and grandmother did, standing up straight in cotillion class and attending lectures about all the things that Camellias don't do. (Like ride with boys in pickup trucks).But Sarah can't quite ignore the barbarism just beneath all that propriety, and as soon as she can she decamps South Carolina for a life in New York City.

Born in 1946 in Mansfield, Louisiana, Wade Hudson came of age against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement. From their home on Mary Street, his close-knit family watched as the country grappled with desegregation, as the Klan targeted the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and as systemic racism struck across the nation and in their hometown.

Lee Smith, author of the acclaimed The Last Girls, delights with a tale of dry wit. Smith has won many prizes, including the Southern Book Critics Circle Award and the Academy Award in Literature.

Southern Justice is a work of fiction about a horrendous murder in a small town. A stranger will unravel many dark secrets while trying to get to the truth about the murder of an elderly couple.

Journey without End chronicles the years-long journey of "extracontinentales"—African and South Asian migrants moving through Latin America, toward the United States. Based on five years of collaborative research between a journalist and an anthropologist, this book makes a narrative-driven critique of how state-level immigration policy fails extracontinental migrants.

Kat James enjoys a successful criminal defense practice in a small city in the South. Her Yankee upbringing is undeniable as she shares a frank, and sometimes humorous, perspective on lawyering. After she accepts a judge’s request to represent a young, black boy charged as an adult with the robbery and murder of a local state trooper’s wife in an outlying, rural jurisdiction, the trial unfolds with gripping suspense and gritty realism.

Born into the household of a wealthy slave owner in Cuba in 1797, Juan Francisco Manzano spent his early years by the side of a woman who made him call her Mama, even though he had a mama of his own. Denied an education, young Juan still showed an exceptional talent for poetry. His verses reflect the beauty of his world, but they also expose its hideous cruelty.