What are you reading right now?
Lorie Watkins, editor of A Literary History of Mississippi: “I
read several books at once. Right now, I’m re-reading William Faulkner’s The
Town—it’s my favorite Faulkner. I’m also reading the final book in
Greg Iles’s trilogy and A Man Called Ove before I watch the
movie.”
Carter Dalton Lyon, author of Sanctuaries of Segregation: The Story of the Jackson Church Visit Campaign: “Since I inhabit the
world of nonfiction so much during the school year, I tend to stick to fiction
in the summer. So, I've been reading a lot of Graham Greene and going through
Jack Kerouac’s canon.”
James F. Barnett Jr., author of The
Natchez Indians: A History to 1735, Mississippi’s American
Indians, and Beyond Control: The Mississippi River’s New Channel to
the Gulf of Mexico: “I’m reading two books published in the 1850s:
Charles Darwin’s The Origin of Species
and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. The
next book in my stack is Kafka by
Robert Crumb and David Zane Mairowitz.”
W. Ralph Eubanks, author
of The House at the End of the Road: The Story of Three Generations of an
Interracial Family in the American South: “My mother died last month, which has led me to read Edwidge
Danticat’s The Art of Death: Writing
the Final Story. This book has made me think about the ways writers deal
with death both in their work and from a personal perspective, since Danticat
writes movingly about the life and death of her mother. I’m also reading Renata
Adler’s Speedboat, which I
started in my twenties but never finished. I’m loving reading its stream of
consciousness first-person narrative, plus it has led me back to one of my
favorite 1980s albums, Rattlesnakes
by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. There is a song on the album
called ‘Speedboat’ that I now realize is based on a scene from
Adler’s novel.”
Susan Cushman, editor of the
forthcoming Southern Writers on Writing:
“A Piece of the World by Christina
Baker Kline and The Pen and the Brush:
How Passion for Art Shaped Nineteenth-Century French Novels by Anka
Muhlstein (I usually read more than one book at a time). Next up in the queue: The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson
and Thelonius Rising by Judith
Richards. And you didn’t ask, but I just finished a wonderful book: Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate.”
Charline R. McCord, coeditor of A Year in
Mississippi, Coming Home to Mississippi, Christmas Memories
from Mississippi, Growing Up in Mississippi, and Christmas
Stories from Mississippi: “I just finished Friends, Lovers, Chocolate by Alexander McCall Smith and Camino Island by John Grisham. Just
started The Angel Answer Book by
Robert J. Morgan.”
Leif Anderson, author of Dancing with my Father: “Having just
finished Edna Ferber’s engrossing novel, So
Big, I have turned to lighter fare: British mystery writer Patricia
Wentworth’s The Ivory Dagger.”
James G. Thomas, Jr., associate editor
of The Mississippi Encyclopedia and coeditor of Conversations with Barry Hannah, Faulkner and History, Faulkner and Print Culture, and Faulkner and the Black Literatures of the
Americas: “Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage
the Bones and Eric Bleam’s The Last
Season, a nonfiction book about a backcountry park ranger who goes missing
in the High Sierra in California. Two very different books.”
Carolyn J. Brown, author of A
Daring Life: A Biography of Eudora Welty, Song of My Life: A Biography
of Margaret Walker, and The Artist’s Sketch: A Biography of Painter
Kate Freeman Clark: “I just finished the two ‘hot’ summer books: John
Grisham’s Camino Island and J.D.
Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy.”
Curtis Wilkie, author of Assassins,
Eccentrics, Politicians, and Other Persons of Interest: Fifty Pieces from the
Road: “Hue by Mark
Bowden and Miss Jane by Brad Watson”
Panny Mayfield, author of Live from the Mississippi Delta: “The
tall bookshelf in my 1894-era house with 15-foot ceilings needs organization.
It includes Gabriel Garcia Marquez to James Lee Burke and Tony Hillerman.
Currently, I am reading Daniel Silva's latest book, House of Spies.”
William R. Ferris, author of Mule Trader: Ray Lum's Tales of Horses, Mules, and Men, editor of Afro-American Folk Art and
Crafts, and coeditor of Folk Music and Modern Sound:
“Life Below Sea Level by Alice Owens
Johnson”
Odie Lindsey, associate editor
of The Mississippi Encyclopedia: “Immigrant Model by Mihaela Moscaliuc and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. I’m also re-reading Brad
Watson’s extraordinary Miss Jane.”
How do you organize your bookshelf?
Lorie Watkins: “I don’t have
one. I lost my entire library in the January tornado that hit the campus of
William Carey in Hattiesburg. It was organized
alphabetically by author and title once, and I’m hopeful that it will be
again.”
James F. Barnett Jr.: “My
bookshelves are not organized. I have a lot of books and somehow manage to find
what I’m looking for.”
Norma Watkins: “I began
organizing my bookshelves with alphabetization by author, but books overwhelmed
their shelves, and my present system can best be described as stacks.”
W. Ralph Eubanks: “I
generally organize my bookshelf by genre, but as an itinerant professor these
days—I’ll be teaching at Ole Miss this fall and spring—the books I have with me
are either related to my classes or my writing, so there is no real
organization to the books I keep with me while I am in Mississippi.”
Susan Cushman: “I have many
bookshelves. The two largest ones, with four shelves, each, are organized by
genre: spirituality, poetry, memoir, fiction, art, books on the craft of
writing, self-help, etc. The others throughout our house are not organized. At.
All. So many books, so little room!”
Charline R. McCord:
“Bookshelf? Do closets also count? I organize alphabetically by author last
name. Signed books have their very own closet space.”
Leif Anderson: “Minimally. .
. . Art books are mostly together, as are books on writing and on dance. Books
on France or novels taking place in France are together. The others are rather
scattered about, but I can usually find what I want.”
James G. Thomas, Jr.: “I
don’t. To me, it’s more fun to peruse my library that way. I never know what
I’ll end up reading next.”
Carolyn J. Brown: “I wish my
books were better organized. Hardbacks are in the living room, and paperbacks
are in my bedroom. Nothing is alphabetized. I would love to alphabetize and put
first editions and signed books all together, but my collection is large and
the task overwhelms me!”
Curtis Wilkie: “My bookshelves
are disorganized.”
William R. Ferris: “By
author”
Odie Lindsey: “I place books
beside each other until the shelf is full, then stack the rest on top.”
What
book should be required reading for everyone in the state of Mississippi?
Lorie Watkins: “Well, my A Literary History of Mississippi,
of course, haha! The Mississippi books that changed my life were
Faulkner’s works and Richard Wright’s Black Boy. I also recently read
and really connected to J.D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy—even though it’s
not about the state, it resonated. Finally, I think every Mississippian
should read Natasha Trethewey’s poetry. Native
Guard changed my life.”
Carter Dalton Lyon: “I've
been assigning Anne Moody's Coming of Age in Mississippi to my students
in Memphis for years, and I certainly think it's worthy of being on any
required reading list for Mississippians. It's eye-opening, it's heartbreaking,
and it's timely.”
James F. Barnett Jr.: “A Mission from God: A Memoir and Challenge
for America by James Meredith and William Doyle”
W. Ralph Eubanks: “That’s a
tough one. I’m not sure there is one book, but I do think that every
Mississippian should read the work of Richard Wright. While some may think his
brand of social realism is dated, after teaching Black Boy and Native Son
I still find real power in his work, particularly today.”
Susan Cushman: “This is a
difficult one. There are books of significant historical importance (and
popularity) like To Kill a Mockingbird,
of course. And, more contemporary but equally important ones like A Time to Kill. These are both important
for their impact on our continuing struggle with racial equality. More
currently, my first cousin (aren’t we all related here in Mississippi?) John
Jones edited a wonderful book (published by University Press of Mississippi)
about the fallout following the forced integration in the Jackson public
schools in 1970, called Lines Were Drawn. This
happened to the classes immediately following mine (Murrah High School class of
1969), and the results changed the landscape of public education in Jackson
forever. Jones and others who worked with him on the book interviewed many
students and a few teachers about what happened and their response to it. I
think it’s an important read.”
Charline R. McCord: “Willie
Morris’s very eloquent North Toward Home,
and after that anything else by Morris. He is our finest nonfiction writer to
date.”
Leif Anderson: “What came
instantly to mind was Maya Angelou’s I
Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. Perhaps this is somewhat unrealistic.
Everyone? So I think I will put my mother’s book here as well: Approaching the Magic Hour.”
James G. Thomas, Jr.: “Why, The Mississippi Encyclopedia, of course.”
Carolyn J. Brown: “Great
question! I cannot pick just one, but if forced I would say Eudora Welty’s
first collection of short stories, A
Curtain of Green.”
Curtis Wilkie: “Mississippi: The Closed Society, James
Silver’s timeless account of how bad we were and political forces we still
should fear.”
Panny Mayfield: “Every
Mississippian should read the plays of Tennessee Williams. They are still being
performed globally. Hundreds of Mississippi high school students are familiar with
his works via the festival’s elite acting competition, where they perform
monologues and entire scenes from his plays, and winners earn cash prizes for
their school drama departments.”
William R. Ferris: “Black Boy by Richard Wright”
Odie Lindsey: “The Mississippi Encyclopedia,
of course!”
Comments