Alabama Bound Authors

by Mary Anne Ellis, Birmingham Public Library, Southern History Department

Daniel Musgrove is an Indiana teenager whose family must relocate to Mississippi. What ensues is an eye-opening experience of culture shock as Daniel adjusts to his new home, struggles with a school bully, and deals with the fallout from an accident involving his new friend Tim Cousins and the prom queen Arnita Beecham. Daniel and Tim attempt to place the blame for the accident on the football star who has been bullying them, but their deception gradually unravels as Arnita slowly recovers from the accident that has left her an amnesiac. With more twists and turns than the Mississippi River, One Mississippi will be warmly welcomed by fans of Mark Childress.

The Princeton Murders by Ann Waldron

This is the first installment of Waldron's `"Princeton Murders" series. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist McLeod Dulaney of Tallahassee, Florida is invited to Princeton to teach a semester of literature. Dulaney accepts the assignment, but practically from the moment she arrives in New Jersey the bodies start falling like snowflakes in a Trenton blizzard. Dulaney is certainly an accomplished journalist, but how will she fare as a detective? Can she find the killer and prevent further murders---including her own? This novel gives a whole new meaning to the idea of the "cutthroat" academic world.

Southern Homecoming Traditions: Recipes and Remembrances by Carolyn Quick Tillery

Lost your appetite? You'll find it again in no time just by browsing through Recipes and Remembrances. Combined with Tillery's reflections on African-American institutions of higher education and their distinguished graduates is a long string of recipes that could awaken the appetite of a dead man. Recipes for Sweet Potato Chips, Blazing Jalapeno and Turkey Greens, Sweet Auburn Street Wings, and Peanut Butter Cake with Chocolate Amaretto Frosting will send readers scrambling for the kitchen to create and sample these dishes and many others as quickly as possible. Southern Homecoming Traditions would be an excellent gift for the cook or cookbook collector in the family.

Birmingham Broadcasting by Tim Hollis

Do you remember Cousin Cliff and Ser^geant Jack? Flow about WAPI 1070 on Your Radio Dial? Does your weather forecast seem lacking somehow if it's not delivered by Pat Gray? Do you recall when Fannie Flagg was a local television personality and not yet a famous novelist? If these memories bring a smile to your face, try Birmingham Broadcasting. Local author Tim Hollis has compiled a fun-filled account of the history of Birmingham radio and television, complete with a series of photographs that will have readers exclaiming "Do you remember?" over and over. And for those who do not remember. Birmingham Broadcasting is the perfect introduction to this fascinating aspect of the city's history.

Elvis Religion: The Cult of the King by Gregory L. Reece

"My first national memory, my first memory of a world-significant event, is my memory of the death of Elvis." Such is Gregory Reece's explanation for how he came to be fascinated with the "cult" of Elvis Presley. The word is carefully chosen: Reece specifically examines the quasi-religious aspects of the fans' devotion to the legendary performer, complete with an account of a woman in a hospital waiting room who told him that it comforted her to know "her loved ones would go to he with him when they died." This is definitely a book to raise a few eyebrows among readers who wonder what all the fuss is about with Elvis, but for fans of the more bizarre aspects of American pop culture, Elvis Religion will be an entertaining and thought-provoking read.