Background image from John Cofield's
Oxford, Mississippi: The Cofield Collection
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Signed copies of What Can I Bring? by Elizabeth Heiskell available.
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Our holiday catalog arrived in stores last week. Browse it online or grab a copy at one of the stores
for handpicked
gift ideas.
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We have signed copies of
The Rooster Bar
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Dear Reader Signed Firsts Staff Picks Gift Cards
160 Courthouse Square Oxford, MS 38655
662-236-2262
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OPEN DAILY
Square Books, Jr.:
M-Sat 9am-7pm;
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MISSISSIPPI MATH*
Spend $50 with a local indie and keep
$22.50 in Mississippi
Spend $50 at a national chain and keep
$6.50 in Mississippi
Spend $50 online to a remote vendor and keep
not one red cent in Mississippi.
*source:
The Economist,
7/30/2009
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Unless otherwise indicated, author events usually begin with an informal reception at 5 pm, followed by the author's presentation at 5:30, with book signing both before and after the reading/talk.
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Monday, November 13th at 5pm
At eighteen, suffocating in her sister's shadow, Lovey turned down a marriage proposal and fled to Arizona. Free from Bitsy's vicious lies, she became a successful advertising executive and a weekend yoga instructor, carving a satisfying life for herself. But at forty-five, Lovey is feeling more alone than ever and questioning the choices that led her here.
When her father calls insisting she come home three weeks early for her parents' 50th anniversary, Lovey is at her wits' end. She's about to close the biggest contract of her career, and there's a lot on the line. But despite the risks, her father's words, "Family First," draw her back to the red-dirt roads of Mississippi.
Lovey is drawn in to a secret project--a memory garden her father has planned as an anniversary surprise. As she helps create this sacred space, Lovey begins to rediscover her roots, learning how to live perennially in spite of life's many trials and tragedies.
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Tuesday, November 14th at 5pm
(University of North Carolina Press, $26.00)
In 1932, the city of Natchez, Mississippi, reckoned with an unexpected influx of journalists and tourists as the lurid story of a local murder was splashed across headlines nationwide. Two eccentrics, Richard Dana and Octavia Dockery-known in the press as the "Wild Man" and the "Goat Woman"-enlisted an African American man named George Pearls to rob their reclusive neighbor, Jennie Merrill, at her estate. During the attempted robbery, Merrill was shot and killed. The crime drew national coverage when it came to light that Dana and Dockery, the alleged murderers, shared their huge, decaying antebellum mansion with their goats and other livestock, which prompted journalists to call the estate "Goat Castle." Pearls was killed by an Arkansas policeman in an unrelated incident before he could face trial. However, as was all too typical in the Jim Crow South, the white community demanded "justice," and an innocent black woman named Emily Burns was ultimately sent to prison for the murder of Merrill. Dana and Dockery not only avoided punishment but also lived to profit from the notoriety of the murder.
In telling this strange, fascinating story, historian Karen Cox highlights the larger ideas that made the tale so irresistible to the popular press and provides a unique lens through which to view the transformation of the plantation South into the fallen, gothic South.
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Wednesday, November 15th at 5pm
Dave DiBenedetto, Donna Levine, Ace Atkins, John Currence, John T. Edge, and Vanessa Gregory
From the editors of
Garden & Gun
comes a lively compendium of Southern tradition and contemporary culture.
The American South is a multifaceted region with its own vocabulary, peculiarities, and cultural touchstones. Even for those born in the South, the unspoken rules--layered in local nuances and complexities--can sometimes be confounding. Tennessee whiskey may technically be bourbon, but don't let anyone in Kentucky hear you call it that.
Join us for a panel with contributors Dave DiBenedetto, Donna Levine, Ace Atkins, John Currence, John T. Edge, and Vanessa Gregory.
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Thacker Mountain Radio Show
Thursday, November 16th at 6pm
at The Lyric
We hope you'll join us at The Lyric for the last Thacker Mountain Radio Show of the season, featuring debut novelist Simeon Marsalis.
David is a freshman at the University of Vermont who is struggling to define himself against the white backdrop of his school. He is also mourning the loss of his New York girlfriend, whose grandfather's alma mater he has chosen to attend. When David met Melody, he lied to her about who he was and where he lived, creating a more intriguing story than his own. This lie haunts and almost unhinges him as he attempts to find his true voice and identity.
In New York, the previous year, Melody confides a shocking secret about her grandfather's student days at the University of Vermont. When she and her father collude with the intent to meet David's mother in Harlem--craving what they consider an authentic experience of the black world--their plan ends explosively. The title of this impressive and emotionally powerful novel is inspired by Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem "We Wear the Mask" (1896): "We wear the mask that grins and lies . . ."
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SAVE THE DATE
for upcoming events:
Click
here
for a full listing of scheduled events.
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Events are always free and wheelchair accessible.
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PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
2013 BOOKSTORE OF THE YEAR
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