New York Times best-selling author Nevada Barr comes to Square Books to read and discuss her newest novel Burn.

Fans of National Park Ranger Anna
Pigeon will be glad to know she’s back
in action, though still dealing with
post-traumatic stress brought on by
near-death experiences in the previous
two Pigeon books. In Burn, she shares
the sleuthing with another character—unusual, but maybe this is a new trend, considering Anna’s
healing process. While visiting a friend who works at the New
Orleans Jazz National Historic Park, Anna explores the urban
wilderness of New Orleans, encountering beasts far more savage
than any four-legged creature found in a national park--the
kind who prey on the innocent and enrage Anna.
Anna gets bold when she’s angry. We might roll our eyes at the
chances she takes, but we’re glad she’s such a gutsy gal and gets
rid of the bad guys. And we hope she does it again. SLM

Kathleen Koch will be at Off Square Books to read and sign copies of her new book Rising from Katrina.

Bay St. Louis was the former home of
CNN correspondent Kathleen Koch. From
her initial Katrina assignment in Alabama,
Koch headed west in the storm’s aftermath.
The closer she got to her community, the
more personal the story became. Rising from Katrina is a story of
the kindness of strangers, of minor miracles and, above all, how
despite bureaucratic snarls and insurance battles a region rolled up
its sleeves and rebuilt. It is also the story of a veteran reporter who,
struggling to maintain her objectivity amid loss, traveled her own
personal path from devastation to recovery.

Kathryn Erskine will sign Mockingbird at Square Books, Jr. at 4:30.

The Wimpy Kid Ice Cream Truck will be pulling in the parking lot at Square Books, Jr. at 2:30 p.m. on Monday, August 23.

Be sure to check out The Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series, including the latest The Ugly Truth. 

Deborah Wiles will sign Countdown Monday, August 23 at 4:30P.M.

Countdown features a captivating story interspersed with footage from 1962. Deborah Wiles has created a documentary novel that will put you right alongside Franny as she navigates a dangerous time in both her history and our history. It is an experience you will never forget.

Look for JFK and Khrushchev to leap off the page, along with Sandy Koufax, Pete Seeger, Fannie Lou Hamer, Cassius Marcellus Clay, James Bond, and more. Photographs, song lyrics, advertisements, news clippings, and television snippets populate the pages of this story about the sixteen days when the world came as close as it has ever come to nuclear annihilation.

Ken Murphy and Scott Baretta will be on hand at Square Books to talk about and sign copies of Mississippi: Blues.

"I BELIEVED AND BREATHED EVERY SINGLE WORD."

John Claude Bemis will be signing the sequel to his book The Nine Pound Hammer, The Wolf Tree, at Square Books, Jr. on Tuesday, September 7 at 5 p.m.

Look no further for the perfect book for boys and girls who love fantasy, adventure, and white-knuckle action!

"Can you imagine eternal Darkness, sir?"

So asks the sickly stranger who staggers into Peg Leg Nel's birthday party. Before the man dies, he tells Ray and his friends of a Darkness spreading like wildfire across Kansas, turning good people bad and poisoning anyone who tries to escape. It's clear that though the evil Gog is dead, his devilish machine has survived and is growing stronger.

Susan Gregg Gilmore will be on Thacker Mountain Radio to read The Improper Life of Bezelia Grove. 

Edwin C. Bearss will also be on Thacker Mountain Radio reading Receding Tide: Vicksburg and Gettysburg- The Campaigns That Changed the Civil War.

Grace Pundyk will sign The Honey Trail at Off Square Books at 2 p.m. on Saturday, September 11.

From Dear Reader:  

A unique look at the history, culture, tradition, and environmental impact of honey. The Honey Trail not only questions the state of our environment and the impact it is having on bees and honey, it also takes readers across Yemeni deserts and Borneo jungles, through the Mississippi Delta and Tasmania’s rainforests, over frozen Siberian snowscapes and ancient Turkish villages, all in search of the liquid gold known as honey. “Jam packed with little known facts, readers will be captivated by Pundyk’s marvelous stories and the glories of indulging in some of the world’s finest honeys at their source….” -C. Marina Marchese, author of Honeybee: Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper

Eugene Marten will be at Off Square Books to read and sign copies of Firework. Alejandro Escovedo will give a brief performance before the reading at 5 p.m. at Off Square Books. 

Michael's review from Dear Reader: 

Scott McKenzie visits Off Square Books to read and sign copies of The Man Behind the Nose.

If a man whose life was threatened by assassination -- twice -- as he ran for president; a man who flew into the jungles of New
Guinea just to see if he could survive a tribe of cannibals; and a man almost swallowed by a giant python in Thailand, but was
saved by his size 83 shoes -- if that man sounds like he might be a clown, then that would be right, as all those things about
Larry Harmon, aka BOZO, are true. Another clown feat performed by Larry Harmon was his death, at age 83, before finishing
this book. So it is appropriately clownish, at least to us, that this book was written by a former bookseller at Square Books, Scott
McKenzie, who will be here Sept. 15th to tell us about the life of Larry Harmon, and have a good laugh with those of us there to
see him. RH

Mona Simpson will be reading live on Thacker Mountain Radio broadcast from Off Square Books.

Hollywood. Sunshine, palm trees, cool cars, movie stars. About Hollywood many movies have been made, and books written. The Hollywood of My Hollywood is a different kind of place, as it belongs to the two narrators of Mona Simpson's fifth novel, Claire and Lola. Claire is a concert cellist and composer whose transition into motherhood pushes her professional life aside, as her husband puts in long hours every day in his not terribly secure job as a television writer. Lola is Claire's Filipina nanny, sending her money each week back home to her own five children. The story develops in alternating chapters told in the voices of Claire and Lola. Revealed from two very different perspectives, their Hollywood is the realistic, close-to-the-heart domestic life that takes place a world apart from tinsel town. Lola becomes a marvelous, unforgettable character in this novel that Joseph O'Neill called "a darkly beautiful atlas of the American promised land, and a definitive novel of modern domesticity." RH

Melissa Francis will be at Square Books, Jr. on Tuesday, September 14 to sign copies of Love Sucks at 5 p.m.

Matt Dellinger will be at Off Square Books to read Interstate 69.

The books we have seen on great highways have always been about who and what is on the road. Interstate 69 is one of a kind -- the highway isn't yet built, and the story is about the building of it, or the possibility it will not be built. As most around here know, the road is to be a 1,400 mile extension south from Indianapolis that will connect Canada to Mexico -- the "NAFTA" highway -- with a portion of it running through the Mississippi Delta. Written by a young but veteran New Yorker reporter, Matt Dellinger, Ken Auletta said that the author, "From the first page... draws a compellingly written narrative that is not only hard to put down but is sweeping in its context." On this trip, the reader discovers much about what has gone into the planning -- and fussing, fighting and deal-making -- of Interstate - 69, and the great book that Ian Frazier called "an affectionate, hard-won, and skillfully-made book, filled with the pleasures of original discovery." Don't miss the chance to hear Dellinger speak and answer questions about Interstate 69 on September 21. Reception beginning at 5, talk at 5:30 p.m. RH

Bruce Machart will be at Off Square Books to talk about The Wake of Forgiveness.

Lyn's review from Dear Reader:

Jewell Parker Rhodes signs Ninth Ward.

Twelve-year-old Lanesha lives in a tight-knit community in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward. She doesn’t have a fancy house like her uptown family or lots of friends like the other kids on her street. But what she does have is Mama Ya-Ya, her fiercely loving caretaker, wise in the ways of the world and able to predict the future. So when Mama Ya-Ya’s visions show a powerful hurricane—Katrina—fast approaching, it’s up to Lanesha to call upon the hope and strength Mama Ya-Ya has given her to help them both survive the storm.

Joshua Ferris reads The Unnamed live on Thacker Mountain Radio.

Review of the book: 

He was going to lose the house and everything in it.

The rare pleasure of a bath, the copper pots hanging above the kitchen island, his family-again he would "lose
his family. He stood inside the house and took stock. Everything in it
had been taken for granted. How had that happened again? He had promised
himself not to take anything for granted and now he couldn't recall the
moment that promise had given way to the everyday."

Tim
Farnsworth is a handsome, healthy man, aging with the grace of a matinee
idol. His wife Jane still loves him, and for all its quiet trials,
their marriage is still stronger than most. Despite long hours at the
office, he remains passionate about his work, and his partnership at a
prestigious Manhattan law firm means that the work he does is important.
And, even as his daughter Becka retreats behind her guitar, her
dreadlocks and her puppy fat, he offers her every one of a father's
honest lies about her being the most beautiful girl in the world.

Jay Jennings will be signing copies of Carry the Rock at Off Square Books on October 13 at 5 p.m.

Review from Dear Reader: 

The bravery of the Little Rock Nine, as they became known, captured the country’s imagination and made history but created deep scars in the community. Jennings, a veteran sportswriter and native son of Little Rock, shares a compelling story in the school’s football team, where black and white students came together under longtime coach Bernie Cox. 

Tom Franklin will be at Off Square Books to read Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter. Joining him will be Laura Lippman reading from I'd Know You Anywhere.

Richard's review from the Dear Reader: 

Dave Isay will be on Thacker Mountain Radio reading from his book Listening is an Act of Love.

Antonya Nelson will be on Thacker Mountian radio reading her latest novel Bound.

This is the tenth book of fiction by Nelson, an acclaimed and award-winning writer whose stories are regularly  published in magazines like the New Yorker, Esquire, Harper's and Redbook. In Bound, with a sharply meticulous hand, she sketches a small domestic story that grows larger, more complex, and more intimate with each page and as each new twist is exposed. Catherine, the seemingly complacent younger wife of Oliver, a love-junky thrilled by his newest affair, is distracted from her marital disillusionment by the death of a nearly-forgotten, but once-close high school friend who has bequeathed her an enormous gift. Or is it a terrible burden? As Catherine and Oliver orbit around one another and Catherine tries to deal with her past and her legacy, a serial killer lurks in the town, adding suspense and heightening the emotions of all the characters in this absorbing , deftly crafted novel.  We're looking forward to Antonya Nelson's visit in October. LH

As part of the Grisham Visiting Writers program poets Robert Hass and Brenda Hillman will be at Square Books on Sunday, October 10. 

 For more info on the Grisham Visiting Writers program please go here. 

Christy Jordan will be at Off Square Books to discuss her wonderful cookbook Southern Plate.

"I could practically smell the blackberry cobbler baking in the kitchen while thumbing through the pages," says bestselling author Joshilyn Jackson about a new cookbook from an up and coming southern star. Known to thousands on the web from her website and blog, Alabama native Christy Jordan will hit the ground running this fall when William Morrow releases her debut, SOUTHERN PLATE: Classic Comfort Food That Makes Everyone Feel Like Family (William Morrow; October 5, 2010; 27.50).

Aunt Sue's Poundcake, a tall glass of fresh lemonade, a porch swing, and the comforting sounds of home and family are all a part of SOUTHERN PLATE and the foundations of the life Christy Jordan knows best. A graduate of The University of North Alabama with a degree in Home Economics; a marriage of twelve years; two young children; and a family history strongly rooted in Huntsville, Alabama have all given Christy everything that matters. In her words "money doesn't make you rich. I come from a long line of people who were financially poor, but richer than Midas in every way that mattered." When she first started her website, Christy never imagined that she would have thousands of followers and fans, and that a book would be forthcoming. But none of these successes have changed her style of cooking, or her attitude about good southern food-it's simple, inexpensive, and wonderful to eat!

Christy shares her cooking and her family on Southerplate.com, which gives visitors a sense of actually joining together at the table. To see Christy in action, there are video cooking demonstrations, and shout outs to fans that are just for fun. She also participates in promotions and sponsorships with Kraft, Goodbite.com, and others.

T.R. Pearson and photographer, Langdon Clay, will be on Thacker Mountain Radio October 14th in support of their book, The Year of Our Lord: Faith, Hope, and Harmony in the Mississippi Delta (Mockingbird Publishe, hd. 19.95). 

Lisa's review from Dear Reader: 

Barry Gifford will be signing and reading from his latest work, Sad Stories of the Death of Kings at Off Square Books.

Michael's review from Dear Reader: 

Roy is a lover of adventure movies, a budding writer, and a young man slowly coming of age without a father. Surrounding him is the adult world of postwar Chicago, a city haunted by violence and poverty. Charlatans, operators, alien abductees, schoolyard nudists, and fast girls with only months to live people the streets. At the center of it all is a boy learning to navigate the compromises of living. Mixing memoir and invention, the forty-one short stories in Barry Gifford’s Sad Stories of the Death of Kings brings a boy’s growing consciousness to vivid, unflinching life. MJ

Darlin' Neal visits Square Books to sign copies of her new collection of short stories, Rattlesnakes & the Moon.

“These are haunting stories of people bearing the burdens of ordinary life a lot more completely than most of us ever do. Wives and mothers of inmates, sisters of sisters killed in motorcycle accidents, that wonderful-but-dreary Louisiana swampishness pervasive in these eloquent and exquisitely rendered tales of hardship. These are dark stories lit by headlights and lightning, fluorescent signs and tall highway lights, tough stories so real that they have the scent of the lived-through about them, which is testament to Darlin’ Neal’s extraordinary gift for prose and story.” – Frederick Barthelme, editor of Mississippi Review and author of Waveland.

Curtis Wilkie visits Square Books to read and discuss his latest work The Fall of the House of Zeus.

"Addictive reading for anyone interested in greed, outrageous behavior, epic bad planning and character, lousy luck, and worst of all, comically bad manners. Wilkie knows precisely where the skeletons, the cash boxes and the daggers are buried along the Mississippi backroads. And he knows, ruefully — which is why this book demands a wide audience — that the south, no matter its looney sense of exceptionalism, is pretty much just like the rest of the planet."
— Richard Ford

Laurel Snyder signs Penny Dreadful.

Mary Carol Miller will be signing volume two of Lost Mansions of Mississippi on October 25 at 5 p.m. at Off Square Books.

After lecturing at the Ole Miss Law School, Gordon Martin will stop by Square Books to sign copies of Count Them One by One. This event is at 5:30.

Chadd Gibbs will be signing God and Football.

Review from Dear Reader:

What happens when Chad Gibbs, a renowned comedy editor and die-hard football fan, travels to the twelve Southeastern conference schools during game-day weekend in order to discover if football fanaticism in the South qualifies as idol worship? You get God & Football, an illuminating, laugh-out-loud look at the place where fanaticism, faith, and football meet. 

Following her lecture at the Overby Center Claudia Dreifus will sign copies of Higher Education at Off Square Books at 5:30 p.m.

Richard's review from Dear Reader: 

As American universities have blossomed into major research facilities and dominant economic engines of their regions, developed from once faculty-dominated institutions into bureaucratic corporations with enormous staffs, paying six-figure salaries to attract name figures who have little to no contact with the undergraduate students that these schools were created to serve, the system rightly has come under criticism.  In Higher Education? How Our Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids—And What We Can Do About It, Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus launch a bold indictment and lay out compelling arguments for reform. It is their closing chapter, however, that has created the most attention here in Oxford.  The authors, one a New York Times science writer and the other a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, point out “Schools We Like—Our Top Ten List,” and who is number one?  The University of Mississippi—for good reasons.  RH

Mississippians is a coffee-table book featuring the most famous and notable individuals from the state of Mississippi. The book will profile more than 300 Mississippians, featuring work from Mississippi’s top writers and photographers.

Pat Conroy returns to Oxford to sign his latest book, My Reading Life.

Richard's review from Dear Reader: 

Marshall Chapman will be reading from They Came to Nashville live on Thacker Mountain Radio.

Slade's review from Dear Reader: 

Ken Murphy & Scott Barretta will be signing copies of Mississippi: State of Blues.

“This book’s subtitle is intentionally, in blues fashion, a double entendre. On the one hand, it offers an assessment of the contemporary Mississippi blues scene—its musicians, festivals, venues, fans, and holy sites—in both image and prose.  And on the other hand, it alludes to the fact that over one hundred years after its emergence, the blues remains inextricably connected in the public mind with Mississippi.” -from Scott Barretta’s essay featured in Mississippi: State of Blues.  

Call 1-800-648-4001 to order a copy.

Lee Sandlin visits Square Books to sign copies of Wicked River.

Review from Dear Reader: 

Wicked River is a look at one of the most colorful, dangerous, and peculiar places in America’s historical landscape: the Mississippi River of the 19th century. Beginning in the early 1800s and climaxing with the siege of Vicksburg, Wicked River takes us back to a time before the Mississippi was dredged into a shipping channel, and before Mark Twain romanticized it into myth. Drawing on an array of first-hand accounts, this is an account of Natchez being flattened by a tornado; the harbor in St. Louis crushed by a massive ice floe; hidden, nefarious celebrations of Mardi Gras; the sinking of the Sultana, the worst naval disaster in American history. And here is the Mississippi itself, perilous, unpredictable and unstoppable, lifeblood to the communities that rose and fell along its banks.

Ian Frazier will be signing and reading from his latest book, Travels in Siberia, on Thacker Mountain Radio.

Here's a review from Dear Reader: 

Lee Gutkind will be reading from Forever Fat: Essays by the Godfather live on Thacker Mountain Radio.

Review from Dear Reader: 

Dubbed the “godfather behind creative nonfiction” by Vanity Fair, Lee Gutkind takes the rich material of his own life to define, defend, and further expand the genre he has done so much to shape. The result is a hilarious memoir of Gutkind’s colorful life as a motorcyclist, a medical insider, a sailor, a college professor, an overaged insecure father, and a literary whipping boy. In Forever Fat Gutkind battles his weight, his ex-wives, his father, his rabbi, his psychiatrist, and his critics in a lifelong cross-country, cross-cultural search for stability and identity. The reader benefits from Gutkind’s battles, being treated to a story of the awakening of a man and his mission.

Shirley Perry visits Square Books to read and sign copies of her new book, After Many Days: My Secret Life as a Spy.

Review from Dear Reader: 

After Many Days tells the story of Shirley Perry from her days as a CIA operative during the Cold War in Vienna to her life of intrigue behind the Iron Curtain, and details of her Halliburton-inspired travels around the Middle East to later founding of the American School of Luxembourg in Luxembourg City, Germany.

Robert Goolrich will sign copies of A Reliable Wife and do a Q&A session. This event is part of the Creative Nonfiction Conference hosted by Neil White.

Rob Magnuson Smith will be at Square Books to read and sign copies of Gravedigger.

Joseph Ellis visits Square Books to read and sign copies of First Family: Abigail & John Adams.

Review from Dear Reader: 

The author of Founding Brothers and American Sphinx brings America’s preeminent first couple to life in an illuminating narrative that sweeps through the American Revolution and the Republic’s tenuous early years. Joseph J. Ellis gives us a story that is equal parts biography, political history, and love story. John and Abigail strategized over civic and foreign affairs as often as they discussed their children and Abigail’s loneliness during John’s extended absences required by his work. Their remarkable connection is epitomized in words he wrote to her after his election to the presidency: “I can do nothing without you.” 

Warren Steel will sign copies of The Makers of the Sacred Harp at Off Square Books. Following the signing there will be a sacred harp vocal performance.

The Makers of the Sacred Harp is a comprehensive guide to the texts and tunes of the deeply influential and long-lived southern tradition of shape-note singing. University of Mississippi associate professor David Warren Steel and Richard H. Hulan, a scholar of American hymnody, concentrate on the regional culture that produced the Sacred Harp in the nineteenth century and delve into history of its authors and composers. Drawing on census reports, local histories, family Bibles and other records, rich oral interviews with descendants, and Sacred Harp Publishing Company records, this volume reveals new details and insights about the history of this enduring, beautiful American musical tradition.

James Cobb will be at Square Books to read and sign copies of The South & America Since WWII.

Richard's review from Dear Reader: 

Robert Dalby visits Square Books to read and sign copies of his new book, A Piggly Wiggly Christmas.

Lauren Kate signs Torment.