LITMIR.BIZ

In Man and Mission: E. B. Gaston and the Origins of the Fairhope Single Tax Colony, historian Paul Gaston relates his grandfather's 1864 founding of the utopian community of Fairhope, Alabama. The twenty-eight “Fairhopers” hoped to realize an “equality of opportunity, the full reward of individual efforts, and the benefits of co-operation in matters of general concern,” at a time when the economic system of the United State was ravaged by monopoly capitalism. Using family and public records, Man and Mission gives an intimate view of a vibrant moment in the history of Gilded Age America.

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In It’s Good Weather for Fudge: Conversing with Carson McCullers, Sue Walker imagines a friendship and conversation with McCullers as they share memories of two women growing up in the Deep South, McCullers in Georgia and Walker in Alabama. The past becomes the present in this poem that ranges from love and war to sickness and health, fudge and friendship. Its many allusions to the life and works of Carson McCullers make it a kind of poetic biography.

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Author Renee Simmons Raney believes that every child deserves his or her own personal landscape in which to seek adventure and unleash creativity. Through this charming storybook, Renee weaves fairy stories, enhancing the natural world with supernatural creatures, and connecting children to diverse habitats, creatures, seasons, and holidays while inspiring a sense of place, a land conservation ethic, and a comfortable fearlessness for outdoor exploration. Hairy, Scary, but Mostly Merry Fairies! also includes activities that encourage families and school classes to explore their natural surroundings and to engage in imaginative play. It offers a multi-generational remedy for curing nature deficiency.

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A delightful new book from Tom Brandon, «2013 Steve Harvey Bus Driver of the Year,» reminds us of the wisdom of children and their uncanny ability to teach adults a thing or two. Mr. Brandon's School Bus, published by NewSouth Books, collects in one volume the insightful and often humorous conversations children have had while riding on Brandon's big yellow school bus over the years. You know the things your child hears at home that you don't want repeated elsewhere? Tom Brandon says you can count on them to be told with gusto on the way to school. So climb on board and, as «Mr. Mucus» would say, «Sit back and enjoy the ride.» Hey, there are some things you just can't make up. Of author Tom Brandon, Larry Lee, Alabama's foremost education blogger, says, «Each school bus is a little magic kingdom where fantasies come alive and the sweet innocence of childhood sometimes meets reality. With the keen eye and ear of a good storyteller, Tom Brandon has chronicled the great adventures of his riders with a talent that makes you see the smile and hear the giggles. Thanks to him for doing so.»

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In April 1912 in Hampton, Virginia, white eighteen-year-old reporter Charles Mears covers his first murder case, a trial that roiled racial tensions. An uneducated African American girl, Virginia Christian, was tried for killing her white employer. «Virgie» died in the electric chair one day after her seventeenth birthday, the only female juvenile executed in Virginia history. Charlie tells the story of the trial and its aftermath. Woven into his narrative are actual court records, letters, newspaper stories, and personal accounts, reflecting the arc of history in characters large and small, in events local and global. Charlie falls in love with Harriet, a girl orphaned by the murder; meets Virgie's blind attorney George Fields, a former slave; and encounters physician Walter Plecker, a state official who pursues racial purity laws later emulated in Nazi Germany. There is much to admire in the pages of Forsaken, especially the vivid sense of time and place, Hampton Roads after the Civil War and Reconstruction. The novel's premise is ambitious, its events striking and tragic, and fiction and nonfiction are deftly blended in this powerful read on the themes of injustice, corruption, and racial conflict set in the poisonous epoch known as Jim Crow.

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When 14-year-old Jason Caldwell goes camping with his scientist parents, all he expects is peace and quiet. But before they arrive, Jason has already been the witness to a crime, and soon he’ll find himself lost among the very longleaf pines that his parents hoped to study. Now Jason—and his new forest-smart friend Leah—will have to use all their knowledge of the outdoors to outwit a trio of villains and make it home safe. Set in the real-life Conecuh National Forest, Longleaf is a thrilling adventure for boys and girls—and an excellent introduction to the plants and animals of the Conecuh region, written by Discovering Alabama producer Roger Reid.

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Donald Youngblood is a rich, bored ex-Wall Street whiz kid that returns to his East Tennessee hometown and on a whim gets a Private Investigator's license. Billy Two Feathers is a full-blooded Cherokee Indian, ex-convict and Don's best friend. Together they open Cherokee Investigations and for a few years just hang out. Then Don is summoned by the rich and powerful Joseph Fleet to find his missing daughter and son-in-law. All is not as it seems as Don and Billy go through the motions of investigating the disappearance, and soon a mysterious and sinister plot unfolds. Making matters even more complicated for Don is an unhappy girl friend, a beautiful blond police officer, a New York mob boss, Joseph Fleet's bodyguard and one very mean southern white trash scum hell bent on killing Don's new love. From the backwoods of East Tennessee to the coast of Florida to the streets of New York and half way around the world, Donald Youngblood, with the help of some well connected friends and a nose for trouble, chases an elusive and deadly foe to extract the ultimate revenge and realizes the chase has changed his life forever.

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In Chili Dawgs Always Bark at Night, Lewis Grizzard once again confirms his reputation as the «William Faulkner of just plain folks» using colorful storytelling to tackle such Grizzardian subjects as: Fashion: «Don't wear anything that features a picture of a pelican, a pink flamingo, or a beer can.» The Future: «I'm predicting the world isn't going to come to an end anytime soon. There's too much unresolved, like whether or not Elvis is still alive, Jimmy Swaggart can stay on television, and if there will be another Rambo sequel.» Dating: «Any single white female who has to resort to taking out an ad to find a boyfriend would take a SWM who's into yodeling, Hustler magazine, Ripple, and robbing convenience stores.» People Who Cheat in the 12-Items-or-Less Lane: «Previously, I have dog-cussed these people and put curses on them, like, 'May your children grow up to be liberal Democrats.' I'm not going to be that mean-spirited anymore. What I'm going to do is go to the vegetable bin, grab a large cucumber, and beat them about the head and shoulders with it.» Lewis Grizzard offers his views on everything from politics, religion, sex, and golf to the largest condom heist in history, wittier and more outrageous than ever. Chili Dawgs Always Bark at Night shows why the South's most popular humorist continues to be America's most popular funny man.

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In the best Southern literary tradition, A Yellow Watermelon explores poverty and racial segregation through the eyes of an innocent boy. In rural south Alabama in 1948, whites picked on one side of the cotton field and blacks on the other. Where the fields meet, twelve-year-old Ted meets Poudlum, a black boy his own age, who teaches him how to endure the hard work while they bond and go on to integrate the field. Through Poudlum and Jake, an escaped black convict, Ted learns of evil forces gathering to deprive Poudlum’s family of their property and livelihood. The white boy and the black boy encounter danger and suspense while executing a plan to save Poudlum’s family, set Jake onto a river of freedom, and discover a great, yet simple secret of enlightenment.

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In Ted Dunagan's The Salvation of Miss Lucretia, young friends Ted and Poudlum continue their friendship despite the racial divide in the rural segregated South of the 1940s. On a trip to the forest where they plan to train their dogs, they stumble upon Miss Lucretia, the last of the voodoo queens. The boys fear, but later befriend Miss Lucretia, who teaches them secrets such as how to walk on fire. She also reveals that she was the granddaughter of the last slave born in Africa and brought to the United States illegally. Ted and Poudlum decide to bring Miss Lucretia out of the forest, until the arrival of Miss Lucretia's nephew, Cudjo Lewis III, who has his own selfish reasons for keeping his aunt hidden. Through a series of adventures, Ted and Poudlum resolve to follow their own unique moral compasses and do what's right despite the pressures of the time in which they live.

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