News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Life
Culture & Art
Hobbies
News
Entertainment
Science & Technology
Culture & Art
Hobbies
Ann Abadie, 1939 - 2024 | Square Books
Ann Abadie, 1939 -2024 Image As many of you know, Ann Abadie passed away on July 30 following a brief illness. As Ann was such a thoughtful and generous soul, she touched the lives of many people in various ways, including a great number in Oxford and those of us at Square Books, where she was a customer, of course, but a partner in many cultural endeavors and activities on campus and in town, and thus a dear friend to this bookstore. Ann was a South Carolina native and graduate of Wake Forest University who came to Oxford in pursuit of a PhD in literature. She taught in the English Department -- her husband, Dale, was a history professor -- and Ann was instrumental in forming, fifty years ago, the first Faulkner Conference, and the Eudora Welty Symposium at UM in 1977. She also would be a guiding force in the Blues Symposium and the formation of the Southern Foodways Alliance. Most significantly, she was on a committee that determined the formation of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, then began working there as assistant director to Bill Ferris -- then with Charles Wilson, Ted Ownby, and Katie McKee. Ann edited more thanx fifty books, including many in the series that emerged from the annual Faulkner Conferences, such as Faulkner and the Natural World and The South and Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha, as well as Eudora Welty: A Form of Thanks; the significant publication of the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture; The Beautiful Mysterious: The Extraordinary Gaze of William Eggleston; The Mississippi Encyclopedia; and, in 2023, American Landscapes: Meditations on Art and Literature in a Changing World. Having witnessed how the Faulkner Conference had been a great success, I contacted Ann -- a longtime Howorth family friend -- and wondered aloud to Ann whether it might be possible to stage a literary conference which might acknowledge writers other than "merely" Faulkner. She replied, "Let me think about this." A few weeks later she returned my call and said, basically, "I think we can do this, but give me a few years." She needed time to clear the decks of the many other things she had going then. Surely enough, that first book conference was in 1994, and Ann was the person who enlisted numerous partners, including Square Books, in this annual event that within its first few years would draw William Styron, Willie Morris, Beverly Lowry, poet Charles Simic, editor Nan Talese, Ann Patchett, Pat Conroy, and longtime owner of The Tattered Cover in Denver, the late Joyce Meskis. Ann, with her husband, history professor Dale Abadie, raised three lovely children -- Elaine, Leslie and John -- also was well known for her talent in the kitchen, as she baked (and delivered) cakes (including her famous poundcake) -- and various goodies to those who might need gladdening, or perhaps were having out-of-town guests. She was always thinking of others, trying to help others, and shunned any praise directed her way. Lyn Roberts reminded me today that Ann was "a person you absolutely could not say no to." This was not simply because Ann was very persuasive (and she was certainly that), but because you -- for all of us who knew her -- were forever in her debt because she had already done more for you than you could ever do to repay her. – Richard Howorth Image caption: Ann Abadie with Richard Howorth at Square Books -- signing for Etheridge Knight, December, 1979. Photo courtesy Bill Ferris.
Read the first chapter of John Grisham's Sparring Partners | Square Books
(1) It was one of those raw, windy, dreary Monday afternoons in February when gloom settled over the land and seasonal depression was rampant. Court was not in session. The phone wasn’t ringing. Petty criminals and other potential clients were busy elsewhere with no thoughts whatsoever of hiring lawyers. The occasional caller was more likely to be a man or woman still reeling from holiday overspending and seeking advice about unpaid credit card accounts. Those were quickly sent next door, or across the square, or anywhere. Jake was at his desk upstairs, making little progress with the stack of paperwork he’d been neglecting for weeks, even months. With no court or hearings scheduled for days, it should have been a good time to catch up with the old stuff—the fish files that every lawyer had for some reason said yes to a year ago and now just wanted to go away. The upside of a small-town law practice, especially in your hometown, was that everyone knew your name, and that was what you wanted. It was important to be well thought of and well liked, with a good reputation. When your neighbors got in trouble, you wanted to be the man they called. The downside was that their cases were always mundane and rarely profitable. But, you couldn’t say no. The gossip was fierce and unrelenting, and a lawyer who turned his back on his friends would not last long. His funk was interrupted when Alicia, his current part-time secretary, chimed in through his desk phone. “Jake, there’s a couple here to see you.” A couple. Married but wanting to get unmarried. Another cheap divorce. He glanced at his daily planner though he knew there was nothing. “Do they have an appointment?” he asked, but only to remind Alicia that she shouldn’t be bothering him with the foot traffic. “No. But they’re very nice and they say it’s really urgent. They’re not going away, said it wouldn’t take but a few minutes.” Jake loathed being bullied in his own office. On a busier day he would take a stand and get rid of them. “Do they appear to have any money?” The answer was always no. “Well, they do seem rather affluent.” Affluent? In Ford County. Somewhat intriguing. Alicia continued, “They’re from Memphis and just passing through, but, again, they say it’s very important.” “Any idea what it is?” “No.” Well, it wouldn’t be a divorce if they lived in Memphis. He ran through a list of possibilities—Grandma’s will, some old family land, maybe a kid busted for drugs over at Ole Miss. Since he was bored and mildly curious and needed an excuse to avoid the paperwork, he asked, “Did you tell them that I’m tied up in a settlement conference call with a dozen lawyers?” “No.” “Did you tell them I’m due in federal court over in Oxford and can only spare a moment or two?” “No.” “Did you tell them that I’m slammed with other appointments?” “No. It’s pretty obvious the place is empty and the phone isn’t ringing.” “Where are you?” “I’m in the kitchen, so I can talk.” “Okay, okay. Make some fresh coffee and put ’em in the conference room. I’ll be down in ten minutes.” (2) The first thing Jake noticed was their tans. They had obviously been somewhere in the sun. No one else in Clanton had a tan in February. The second thing he noticed was the woman’s smart short haircut, with a touch of gray, stylish and obviously expensive. He noticed the handsome sports coat on the gentleman. Both were well dressed and nicely groomed, a departure from the usual walk-ins. He shook their hands as he got their names. Gene and Kathy Roupp, from Memphis. Late fifties, quite pleasant, with confident smiles showing rows of well-maintained teeth. Jake could easily picture them on a Florida golf course living the good life behind gates and guards. “What can I do for you folks?” Jake asked. Gene flashed a smile and went first. “Well, sad to say, but we’re not here as potential clients.” Jake kept it loose with a fake smile and an aw-shucks shrug, as if to say, What the hell? What lawyer needs to get paid for his time? He’d give them about ten more minutes and one cup before showing them the door. “We just got back from a month in Costa Rica, one of our favorites. Ever been to Costa Rica?” “No. I hear it’s great.” He’d heard nothing of the sort but what else could he say? He would never admit that he had left the United States exactly once in his thirty-eight years. Foreign travel was only a dream. “We love it down there, a real paradise. Beautiful beaches, mountains, rain forests, great food. We have some friends who own houses—real estate is pretty cheap. The people are delightful, educated, almost all speak English.” Jake loathed the game of travel trivia because he’d never been anywhere. The local doctors were the worst—always bragging about the hottest new resorts. Kathy was itching to move along the narrative and chimed in with “The golf is incredible, so many fabulous courses.” Jake didn’t play golf because he was not a member of the Clanton Country Club. Its membership included too many doctors and climbers and families with old money. He smiled and nodded at her and waited for one of them to continue. From a bag he couldn’t see she whipped out a pound of coffee in a shiny can and said, “Here’s a little gift, San Pedro Select, our favorite. Incredible. We haul it back by the case.” Jake took it to be polite. In lieu of cash fees, he had been paid with watermelons, fresh venison, firewood, repairs to his cars, and more bartered goods and services than he cared to remember. His best lawyer buddy, Harry Rex Vonner, had once taken a John Deere mower as a fee, though it soon broke down. Another lawyer, one who was no longer practicing, had taken sexual favors from a divorce client. When he lost the case, she filed an ethics complaint alleging “substandard performance.” Anyway, Jake admired the can and tried to read the Spanish. He noticed they had not touched their coffee, and he was suddenly worried that perhaps they were connoisseurs and his office brew wasn’t quite up to their standards. Gene resumed with “So, two weeks ago we were at one of our favorite eco-lodges, high in the mountains, deep in the rain forest, a small place with only thirty rooms, incredible views.” How many times might they use the word “incredible”? “And we were having breakfast outdoors, watching the spider monkeys and parakeets, when a waiter stopped by our table to pour some more coffee. He was very friendly—” “People are so friendly down there and they love Americans,” Kathy interjected. How could they not? Gene nodded at the interruption and continued, “We chatted him up for a spell, said his name was Jason and that he was from Florida, been living down there for twenty years. We saw him again at lunch and talked to him some more. We saw him around after that and always enjoyed a friendly chat. The day before we were to check out, he asked us to join him for a glass of champagne in a little tree-house bar. He was off-duty and said the drinks were on him. The sunsets over the mountains are incredible, and we were having a good time, when all of a sudden he got serious.” Gene paused and looked at Kathy, who was ready to pounce with “He said he had something to tell us, something very confidential. Said his name was not really Jason and he wasn’t from Florida. He apologized for not being truthful. Said his name was really Mack Stafford, and that he was from Clanton, Mississippi.” Jake tried to remain nonchalant but it was impossible. His mouth dropped open and his eyes widened. The Roupps were watching closely for his reaction. Gene said, “I take it you know Mack Stafford.” Jake exhaled and wasn’t sure what to say. “Well, I’ll be damned.” “He said you guys were old friends,” Gene added. Stunned, Jake was still grasping for words. “I’m just glad he’s alive.” “So you know him well?” “Oh yes, quite well.”
Square Books Top 100 of 2020 | Square Books
To understate it—2020 was not Square Books' best year. Like everyone, we struggled—but we are grateful to remain in business, and that all the booksellers here are healthy. When Covid19 arrived, our foot-traffic fell precipitously, and sales with it—2020 second-quarter sales were down 52% from those of the same period in 2019. But our many loyal customers adjusted along with us as we reopened operations when we were more confident of doing business safely. The sales trend improved in the third quarter, and November/December were only slightly down compared to those two months last year. We are immensely grateful to those of you who ordered online or by phone, allowing us to ship, deliver, or hold for curbside pickup, or who waited outside our doors to enter once our visitor count was at capacity. It is only through your abiding support that Square Books remains in business, ending the year down 30% and solid footing to face the continuing challenge of Covid in 2021. And there were some very good books published, of which one hundred bestsellers we'll mention now. (By the way, we still have signed copies of many of these books; enquire accordingly.) Many books appear on this list every year—old favorites, if you will, including three William Faulkner books: Selected Short Stories (37th on our list) which we often recommend to WF novices, The Sound and the Fury (59), and As I Lay Dying (56), as well as a notably good new biography of Faulkner by Michael Gorra, The Saddest Words: William Faulkner’s Civil War (61). To Kill a Mockingbird still knows how to fly (94), and some other old friends we might mention are Robert Khayat’s The Education of a Lifetime (96); Curtis Wilkie’s The Fall of the House of Zeus (97); Wyatt Waters’ Oxford Sketchbook (29); Tom Franklin, Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter (86); Larry Brown, Tiny Love (57); Ed Croom, The Land of Rowan Oak (81); and John Cofield, Oxford, Mississippi (30). Richard Ford’s books may be found on many of our lists over the years, and Sorry for Your Trouble (27) is there this year and last, as well; and Ron Rash, who has visited us many times, zoomed this year with his excellent In the Valley (46). In Square Books’ earliest years, our annual bestseller list had maybe two or three local authors. You guessed it—Willie Morris, Barry Hannah, and William Faulkner. This year, no less than one third of the 100 bestsellers are by writers who live or have lived in Oxford, including all but three of our top fifteen bestsellers. One of those is by Richard Grant (who lived in the Delta), whose The Deepest South of All (9) is about Natchez; another is by Alabamian Rick Bragg, Where I Come From (8); and the third is by a very good writer who is not from the South, but happens to be a former U.S. President—Barack Obama, A Promised Land (12). The rest of the top fifteen—all of which were signed by their respective authors—include Larry Wells’ fine memoir, In Faulkner’s Shadow (15); Ace Atkins’ The Revelators (13); John Grisham, with two—Camino Winds (5) and A Time for Mercy (2), both NY Times #1 sellers ; Kiese Laymon’s revised How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America (11); Jerry Mitchell’s important exhumation of unresolved Mississippi Civil Rights cases, Race Against Time (10); Oxford’s literary chef-in-chief John Currence’s Tailgreat (4); Lee Durkee’s very winning The Last Taxi Driver (7); Lee Harper’s gift of a precious Tiny Oxford (6); the dazzling World of Wonders (3), presently #5 on the NY Times list, given to us by Aimee Nezhukumatathil, whose signature is as lovely as her name is long; Blackwood (14) by Michael Farris Smith, whose just-published Nick is the first book we are willing to bet will finish in the top 15 of 2021; and, at number one, Wright Thompson’s spirited Pappyland (1), which reached as high as #8 on the NY Times list). Congrats, all. Following the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Black Lives Matter manifested its urgency in many ways, including matters literary, with a doubling of our inventory in related books and a universal surge in popularity of books both old and new on that topic and/or by Black writers, including the haunting memoir Memorial Drive (16), by U.S. Poet Laureate and Mississippian Natasha Trethewey; Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste (42); Black Bottom Saints (100) by Alice Randall; Bryan Stevenson’s Just Mercy (53); this year’s John Grisham Visiting Writer, Maurice Carlos Ruffin’s We Cast a Shadow (52); Jon Meacham’s biography of John Lewis, His Truth Is Marching On (89); both Sing, Unburied, Sing (45) and Salvage the Bones (82), paperback favorites by Jesmyn Ward; The New Jim Crow (63) by Michelle Alexander; White Fragility (33) by Robin DiAngelo; How to Be an Antiracist (20) by Ibram X. Kendi; and pride of Moss Point, Mississippi, and favorite occasional morning TV guest and Princeton professor, Eddie Glaude, author of the brilliant take on James Baldwin, Begin Again (55). Regionalism aside, bestselling books across the world found ways to our list, too. New in hardcover, we recently discovered Katherine May’s timely Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times (85); Such a Fun Age (47) by Kiley Reid; Transcendent Kingdom (50) by Yaa Gyasi, who mentioned Megha Majumbar’s A Burning (67) as “a stunning debut”; What the Eyes Don’t See (74) by Mona Hanna-Attisha; The Guest List (69) by Lucy Foley; Lily King’s excellent Writers and Lovers (58); Ready Player Two (65) by Ernest Cline, which stormed the bestseller lists only weeks ago; screen idol Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights (36); The Splendid and the Vile (17) by Erik Larson. The one that just won’t go away is perhaps how rival publishers think of Delia Owens’ Where the Crawdads Sing (18), which is fine by us, and there are Jeanine Cummins’ much-discussed American Dirt (19); a couple of fine bird books—David Sibley’s What It’s Like to Be a Bird (24), followed closely by Jennifer Ackerman’s enlightening and entertaining The Bird Way (38); Hidden Valley Road (93) by Robert Kolker; Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half (22); Untamed (35) by Glennon Doyle; Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet (87); and, had we been able to keep it in stock it, would be much higher—Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse (23); and, for the second year, Tara Westover’s Educated (48). Many books on the list last year or the year before now appear on our list in paperback editions. Superlative as a literary work as well as in popularity is The Overstory (27) by Richard Powers, which settled in on the list before it won the Pulitzer Prize nearly two years ago. Other paperback favorites include Yuval Noah Harari’s Sapiens (90); Circe (54) by Madeline Miller; The Glass Hotel (39) by Emily St. John Mandel; The Nightingale (92) by Kristin Hannah; The Tattooist of Auschwitz (40) by Heather Morris; Little Fires Everywhere (34) by Celeste Ng; The Woman in the Window (66) by “A.J. Finn”; All the Light We Cannot See (43) by Anthony Doerr; Sally Rooney’s Normal People (49); Frank Herbert’s classic, Dune (75); and—who could resist it?—The Liberal Redneck Manifesto (51), by Trae Crowder n’them. Back to Oxford, and to Mississippi—where we’re crazy for William Boyle and his books, this year it’s City of Margins (41); Wright Thompson’s Pappyland gave quite a boost to an earlier work in paperback, The Cost of These Dreams (25); old times here are recalled by Donald Miller’s great Civil War account of Vicksburg (62), as well as in Allie Stuart Povall’s Rebels in Repose (60); Nico Walker, who’s in the territory, along with the staying power of his Cherry (83); Greg Iles’s Cemetery Road (79); Lisa Howorth and Summerlings (99); and John T. Edge’s paperback of The Potlikker Papers (78). 2020 was nothing if not a year for political books, though one imagines they didn’t do so well sales-wise as a ratio of sheer tonnage; still, these made the list: a bio from Jenna Bush Hager, who generously signed some of our copies of Everything Beautiful in Its Time (84); Bob Woodward’s Trump smack-down, Rage (77); and John Bolton, who was in The Room Where It Happened (73). There is plenty of Mississippian Stuart Stevens’ wisdom in It Was All a Lie (44); and Mary Trump was totally in the room, with Too Much and Never Enough (31). There are Don Winslow’s Broken (80); Private Cathedral (32) by a Square Books friend, James Lee Burke; Squeeze Me (88) by Carl Hiassen; and another from John Grisham, Camino Island (98); David Sedaris gave us The Best of Me (64) and David Hill, The Vapors; no one knows the Southern Lady Code (68) like Helen Ellis… Off Square contributed much to this list, some previously mentioned as well as Elizabeth Heiskell’s What Can I Bring? (26); Modern Comfort Food (70) by Ina Garten; and The Art of the Host (71) by Alex Hitz. A delightful surprise for us arrived late this year in the person of Professor Richard S. Balkin, Assistant Chair in Leadership and Counselor Education at the University of Mississippi, with his book from Oxford University Press, Practicing Forgiveness (76), which has had a very nice reception from colleagues, students and acquaintances, and is finding new readers here every day, for who can claim to be above such wise counsel? Finally, two books we report here with sadness for the loss of their respective authors: My Own Words (91) by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who gave our nation immense wisdom during a time when it was much needed; and Julia Reed’s New Orleans (72), by Mississippian Julia Reed, a dear friend who gave us many books over the years that brought forth her great spirit, spunk, sass, sense of style, and exactly what was on her mind. We’ll miss these two great women, both of whom wrote—and lived—so very well. Thank you, again, and here’s to ’21!—from all the Gang at Square Books. – Richard Howorth
Square Books Top 100 of 2022 | Square Books
In Square Books' early childhood, there were just a handful of writers around town -- Barry Hannah, Willie Morris, Ellen Douglas, and a couple more. Today, our 2022 bestseller list is full of writers who live in Oxford and/or are connected to the University of Mississippi. Curtis Wilkie put two books on this year's list -- his classic The Fall of the House of Zeus (52) and the more recent When Evil Lived in Laurel (49). An interesting appearance this year is the Wildsam Guide to Oxford (17), which includes short pieces from a number of Oxford writers. Jackie Mayfield's Oxford & Ole Miss is on the list every year (72), as is Wyatt Waters' Oxford Sketchbook (16), and John Currence's Big Bad Breakfast (51), as was John Cofield's first volume of Oxford, Mississippi (35), which was outdistanced easily, of course, by the new 2022 second volume (6). Wright Thompson's Pappyland remains highly relevant (8), as do David Magee's Dear William (14), Robert Khayat's 60 (29), Aimee Nezhukumatatil's World of Wonders (36), Lee Harper's Tiny Oxford (96), David Crews' Mississippi Quotations (81), Neil White's In the Sanctuary Of Outcasts (44), and the astonishingly durable Square Table (39), the book of Oxford recipes that, in 2022, we witnessed Square Books' ten thousandth copy sold. Imperishable is our main man, William Faulkner, with six titles on our list: the paperback and Modern Library editions of both The Sound and the Fury (61 & 87) and As I Lay Dying (71 & 84), the Selected Stories (30), and a small edition of The Bear (19), which is short and inexpensive enough for some to dare to read. Other books on the list with a local connection include Shifty's Boys by Chris Offutt (82), a compelling noir effort, as is the case with local rock legend Tyler Keith and his first book, The Mark of Cain (65). Ralph Eubanks' excellent gift of a book, A Place Like Mississippi (23) tells it like it is, and the novel that is an adventurous car ride around Oxford, The Last Taxi Driver (83) by Lee Durkee, is now in paperback. Current Grisham writer-in-residence Deesha Philyaw arrived here just in time for us to help celebrate The Secret Lives of Church Ladies (88), a finalist for the National Book Award and winner of The Story Prize; Jake Keiser took time out to write Daffodil Hill (20); Julie Mabus made a splash with Confessions of a Southern Beauty Queen (26); we miss Julia Reed but she still had a hit in Dispatches from The Gilded Age (62), not too far from Dispatches from Pluto (21) by Richard Grant, who fled the territory, leaving behind this Natchez book, The Deepest South of All (32). It turns out that Snackbar's Vishwesh Bhatt writes as well as he creates culinary delights, with his I Am From Here perched at number 5. What could top that, you ask? Only John Grisham -- The Boys from Biloxi (1) and Sparring Partners (2) -- and the Ole Miss baseball team: from Neil White and Nautilus Press, the lavishly pictorial Ole Miss 2022 Baseball National Champions (3) and Chase Parham's narrative version of the same event, Resilient Rebels (4). And this Colleen Hoover person you may have heard about, where does she fit in at Square Books? Turns out, just about anywhere her readers want, with eight different titles among our top 100, as high as # 9 (It Ends with Us) down to # 79 (Down to Us), and four of her novels in the top twenty. John Grisham had two additional books in the upper reaches of our list -- The Judge's List (7) and Sooley (a kind of personal favorite - 13). Delia Owens' Where the Crawdads Sing doesn't rest (11); ditto, Lisa Patton and Rush (40); and Taylor Jenkins Reid, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (12) and Malibu Rising (92). Emily Henry put two on our list -- Book Lovers (29) and Beach Read (59), as did Amor Towles -- The Lincoln Highway (75) and A Gentleman in Moscow (100). Familiar friends remained faithful -- Madeline Miller's Circe (43) and The Song of Achilles (33), not to mention The Liberal Redneck Manifesto (68), by Trae Crowder ‘n them. We were much abetted by author visits, according to the numbers: Beverly Lowry and her exceptional true crime tale set around Leland, Mississippi, Deer Creek (22); good friend Berkley Hudson with his fascinating book of Columbus, Mississippi, photography from O. N. Pruitt, Possum Town; Rinker Buck's excellent read on Life on the Mississippi (38); Jon Meacham -- always good -- with his book on Lincoln, And There Was Light (70); Robert St. John and his Walter Anderson (24); You Are My Sunshine (93), by Sean Dietrich, who killed it on Thacker; likewise, at his reading, Bud Smith, with Teenager (94); Jay Wellons and All That Moves Us (56); Imani Perry, whose South to America (34) would go on to win the National Book Award for Nonfiction; Wyatt Waters and Watercolor Road (28); the reliably readable Rick Bragg, author of Speckled Beauty (41) and Where I Come From (69); and from our favorite writer couple -- Casey Cep and Kathryn Schulz, with, respectively, Furious Hours (66) and Lost & Found (85). We also managed to get a fair supply of signed copies of Patti Smith's visually contemplative Book of Days (78). Likely on a number of lists as well as our own were Run Rose Run by Dolly Parton (64); Matthew McConaughey's Greenlights (67), and another Hollywood memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died (58) by Jennette McCurdy: Geraldine Brooks' novel, Horse (96); The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse by Charley Mackesy (92); Midnight Library (86) by Matthew Haig; Candice Millard's, book on the Nile, River of the Gods (90); The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk (98); and The Paris Apartment (73), by Lucy Foley. Cormac McCarthy's long-awaited novel, The Passenger, arrived late in the year but staked a claim on #37. Tynan Kogane's book of Cat Poems howled its way to #79, while that funny Field Guide to Dumb Birds by Matt Kracht was smart enough to get to #95, and, a certain favorite here, The Rodent Not Taken and Other Poems by Cats, clawed its way to #25. Thanks to all you readers and writers for making all these dreams, and so many more, come true. RH
Book Post Fireside Reading Virtual Book Club | Square Books
JUST ANNOUNCED! Join us Sunday, March 10th for a free, virtual event with Chris Benfey and Willa Cather biographer Ben Taylor for a lively discussion of My Ántonia. Learn more here. -- SQUARE BOOKS is delighted and honored to be the Winter 2023–24 partner of Book Post, a book-reviewing newsletter. When you make a purchase of $100 or more in store, online, or over the phone, Square Books readers can enjoy a free one-month subscription! Just send your receipt to info@bookpostusa.com to gain access to the newsletter. But wait! There's more! To help us while away the dark and lonely months, Chris Benfey will join Book Post in February to read Willa Cather’s My Ántonia. Interested readers can save 15% on My Ántonia here (discount applied automatically in cart). From Book Post: Chris has written for Book Post on subjects as eclectic as hunting, kites, Whitman, election days of yore, and the Austrian fabulist Adalbert Stifter. He’s a for-real scholar with books on Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Stephen Crane, and Kipling in America, as well as a poet who’s written a family memoir about pottery, bohemia, and American wandering (plus the Gilded Age’s infatuation with Old Japan and introductions to books on tea and Lafcadio Hearne). He thought My Ántonia would be just the right book for us to get us through February, and indeed in our book group poll last summer you all opted for a novel out of our literary past, plus, it’s way shorter than Middlemarch, for those who were too busy last time for such a big bite. SUBSCRIBE TO LEARN MORE. bookpostusa.com @bookpostusa Book Post is a by-subscription book review delivery service, bringing snack-sized book reviews by distinguished and engaging writers direct to subscribers’ in-boxes, as well as occasional free posts to those who follow us. We aspire to grow a shared reading life in a divided world. Please subscribe and support our work. Become a paying subscriber to receive our straight-to-you book reviews.
Read the first chapter of John Grisham's Boys From Biloxi (out 10/18) | Square Books
Chapter 1 A hundred years ago, Biloxi was a bustling resort and fishing community on the Gulf Coast. Some of its 12,000 people worked in shipbuilding, some in the hotels and restaurants, but for the majority their livelihoods came from the ocean and its bountiful supply of seafood. The workers were immigrants from Eastern Europe, most from Croatia where their ancestors had fished for centuries in the Adriatic Sea. The men worked the schooners and trawlers harvesting seafood in the Gulf while the women and children shucked oysters and packed shrimp for ten cents an hour. There were forty canneries side by side in an area known as the Back Bay. In 1925, Biloxi shipped twenty million tons of seafood to the rest of the country. Demand was so great, and the supply so plentiful, that by then the city could boast of being the “Seafood Capital of the World.” The immigrants lived in either barracks or shotgun houses on Point Cadet, a peninsula on the eastern edge of Biloxi, around the corner from the beaches of the Gulf. Their parents and grandparents were Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, as well as Croatians, and they had been quick to assimilate into the ways of their new country. The children learned English, taught it to their parents, and rarely spoke the mother tongues at home. Most of their surnames had been unpronounceable to customs officials and had been modified and Americanized at the Port of New Orleans and Ellis Island. In Biloxi cemeteries, there were tombstones with names like Jurkovich, Horvat, Conovich, Kasich, Rodak, Babbich, and Peranich. They were scattered about and mixed with those of Smith, Brown, O’Keefe, Mattina, and Bellande. The immigrants were naturally clannish and self-protective, but by the second generation they were intermarrying with the early French families and all manner of Anglos. Prohibition was still the law, and throughout the Deep South most Baptists and Methodists righteously pursued the dry life. Along the Coast, though, those of European descent and Catholic persuasion took a dimmer view of abstinence. In fact, Biloxi was never dry, regardless of the Eighteenth Amendment. When Prohibition swept the country in 1920 Biloxi hardly noticed. Its bars, dives, honky-tonks, neighborhood pubs, and upscale clubs not only remained open but thrived. Speakeasies were not necessary because booze was so prevalent and no one, especially the police, cared. Biloxi became a popular destination for parched Southerners. Add the allure of the beaches, delicious seafood, a temperate climate, and nice hotels, and tourism flourished. A hundred years ago the Gulf Coast became known as “the poor man’s Riviera.” As always, unchecked vice proved contagious. Gambling joined drinking as the more popular illegal activities. Makeshift casinos sprang up in bars and clubs. Poker, blackjack, and dice games were in plain view and could be found everywhere. In the lobbies of the fashionable hotels there were rows of slot machines operating in blatant disregard for the law. Brothels had been around forever but kept undercover. Not so in Biloxi. They were plentiful and serviced not only their faithful johns but police and politicians as well. Many were in the same buildings as bars and gambling tables so that a young man looking for pleasure need only one stop. Though not flaunted as widely as sex and booze, drugs like marijuana and heroin were easy to find, especially in the music halls and lounges. Journalists often found it difficult to believe that such illegal activity was so openly accepted in a state so religiously conservative. They wrote articles about the wild and freewheeling ways in Biloxi, but nothing changed. No one with authority seemed to care. The prevailing mood was simply: “That’s just the Biloxi.” Crusading politicians railed against the crime and preachers thundered from the pulpits, but there was never a serious effort to “clean up the Coast.” The biggest obstacle facing any attempts at reform was the longtime corruption of the police and elected officials. The cops and deputies worked for meager salaries and were more than willing to take the cash and look the other way. The local politicians were easily bought off and prospered nicely. Everyone was making money, everyone was having fun, why ruin a good thing? No one forced the drinkers and gamblers to venture into Biloxi. If they didn’t like the vice there, they could stay home or go to New Orleans. But if they chose to spend their money in Biloxi, they knew they would not be bothered by the police. Criminal activity got a major boost in 1941 when the military built a large training base on land that was once the Biloxi Country Club. It was named Keesler Army Airfield, after a World War I hero from Mississippi, and the name soon became synonymous with bad behavior from tens of thousands of soldiers getting ready for war. The number of bars, casinos, brothels, and striptease joints increased dramatically. As did crime. The police were flooded with complaints from soldiers: rigged slots, floating roulette, cheating dealers, spiked drinks, and sticky-fingered prostitutes. Since the owners were making money they complained little, but there were plenty of fights, assaults on their girls, and broken windows and whiskey bottles. As always, the police protected the ones who paid them, and the jailhouse doors revolved with GIs. Over half a million of them passed through Keesler on their way to Europe and Japan, and later Korea and Vietnam. Biloxi vice was so profitable that it naturally attracted the usual assortment of characters from the underworld: career criminals, outlaws, bootleggers, smugglers, rumrunners, con men, hit men, pimps, leg-breakers, and a more ambitious class of crime lords. In the late 1950s, a branch of a loose-knit gang of violent thugs nicknamed the Dixie Mafia settled in Biloxi with plans to establish their turf and take over a share of the vice. Before the Dixie Mafia, there had always been jealousy among the club owners, but they were making money and life was good. There was a killing every now and then and the usual intimidation, but no serious efforts by one group to take over. Other than ambition and violence, the Dixie Mafia had little in common with the real Cosa Nostra. It was not a family, thus there was little loyalty. Its members—and the FBI was never certain who was a member, who was not, and how many claimed to be—were a loose assortment of bad boys and misfits who preferred crime over honest work. There was no established organization or hierarchy. No don at the top and leg-breakers at the bottom, with mid-level thugs in between. With time, one club owner managed to consolidate his holdings and assume more influence. He became “the Boss.” What the Dixie Mafia had was a propensity for violence that often stunned the FBI. Through its history, as it evolved and made its way south to the Coast, it left behind an astonishing number of dead bodies, and virtually none of the murders were ever solved. It operated with only one rule, one hard-and-fast, cast-in-stone blood oath: “Thou shalt not snitch to the cops.” Those who did were either found in ditches or not found at all. Certain shrimp boats were rumored to unload weighted corpses twenty miles from shore, into the deep, warm waters of the Mississippi Sound. In spite of its reputation for lawlessness, crime in Biloxi was kept under control by the owners and watched closely by the police. With time, the vice became roughly concentrated into one principal section of town, a one-mile stretch of Highway 90, along the beach. “The Strip” was lined with casinos, bars, and brothels, and was easily ignored by the law-abiding citizens. Life away from it was normal and safe. If one wanted trouble, it was easy to find. Otherwise, it was easy to avoid. Biloxi prospered because of seafood, shipbuilding, tourism, construction, and a formidable work ethic fueled by immigrants and their dreams of a better life. The city built schools, hospitals, churches, highways, bridges, seawalls, parks, recreational facilities, and anything else it needed to improve the lives of its people.
Welcome Back Students! | Square Books
What Square Books Can Do for You QUICK & EASY SHOPPING Students in Mississippi can get their required school reading tax free. You can place your order in store, over the phone, or here on our website.orders for in-stock titles are often ready for pickup in less than a day. Some tips: Look for the listing On Our Shelves Now for most in-stock titles. If we do not have a title, we will do our best to get it for you as quickly as possible -- as soon as overnight, in some cases. Search for your books by ISBN-13 (the numbers near the barcode) to be sure you're getting the correct edition. We are a trade bookstore so we won't be able to provide textbooks but we have access to just about every novel, essay collection, etc. currently in print. You'll need to have your class number handy (ie ENG 101) for tax-free checkout. More questions? Each order is hand processed by a Square Bookseller (no robots). Give us a call, email, or leave any concerns in the order comments and we'll be sure to answer before capturing payment. OPEN-TO-ALL EVENTS We welcome authors from across the country to share their books with our community. The vast majority of our events are free to attend and take place at Off Square Books (where you can shop lifestyle and bargain books during the day). Sign up for our newsletter to stay up to date! FREE LOYALTY REWARDS Every Square Books shopper is invited to become a Constant Reader. Each item purchased earns a credit. After 20 purchases, Constant Readers receive a coupon totaling the average of those credits. There is no cost to join. FUEL & FOCUS Visit our cafe for affordable, locally roasted coffee and study with friends on the Square Books' balcony. SQUARE WARES Pick up a roomy tote bag to schelp around campus, a sweatshirt for chilly lecture halls, or an author coffee mug to inspire you during late night study sessions. Find even more Square Books merch here. University students are an invaluable part of our community. Thank you for supporting Oxford by choosing to shop local. We wish you a happy and successful semester and look forward to seeing you in store and at our events!
2023's Top 100 | Square Books
In analyzing our annual round-up of the year’s best sellers, we find a couple of things that are striking. One phenomenon some of you have noticed the past couple of years, especially once we recently expanded with new shelf space for them: romance novels. These are not your mama’s Harlequin bodice rippers. Many take on more contemporary themes and attitudes, e.g. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (#9) and Daisy Jones and the Six (#35) by Taylor Jenkins Reid; The Court of Thorns & Roses (#16) and The Court of Mist and Fury (58) by Sarah Maas; Colleen Hoover’s It Ends with Us (19), It Starts with Us (40), Verity (53), and Ugly Love (86); Happy Place (20) by Emily Henry; Lucy’s Score’s Things We Never Got Over (49), Things We Hide from the Light (74); and Lucy Foley's The Paris Apartment (54). Another noticeable fact: at least thirty of the authors of these 100 books either now live in Oxford or have in the past, and twenty-five more are writers who appeared at our store to present or read from their books. John Grisham had several books on the list, beginning with our number 1 – The Exchange, of course, which, due to the novel’s connection to The Firm, moved out of Square Books at a faster rate than any book in recent memory. The Boys from Biloxi (#2) was still going strong, however, when The Exchange was released. Sparring Partners (29) and Sooley (62) also showed up. Not to be outdone, William Faulkner’s paperback and Modern Library editions scatter the list, including The Sound and the Fury (47), the Selected Stories (22), The Bear (6), As I Lay Dying (48), and the fairly recently reissued corrected edition of Faulkner’s mystery stories, Knight’s Gambit (52). Two Oxford, Mississippi volumes from John Cofield made the list – Vol. 2 at #12 and this year’s Vol. 3 #11. Treasured Mississippians are here: Richard Ford and his excellent and perhaps last Bascombe novel, Be Mine (42) (on the SB YouTube channel, his event in Oxford); Eudora Welty’s Delta Wedding (92); Deer Creek Drive, by Beverly Lowry (33), and Jesmyn Ward’s knock-out Let Us Descend (4): (revisit her reading at the Powerhouse here). A parade of Oxford writers follows: Curtis Wilkie and his eternal The Fall of the House of Zeus (76), Vishwesh Bhatt and I Am From Here (8), Michael Farris Smith’s Salvage This World (27); A Place Like Mississippi (28), by Ralph Eubanks; John Currence’s Big Bad Breakfast (71) and John T. Edge’s Potlikker Papers (96); Wright Thompson, with Pappyland (hardcover edition #25 and paperback #39) and The Cost of These Dreams (78); Daffodil Hill (85) by Jake Keiser; Lee Durkee’s splendid Stalking Shakespeare (41); another year on the list for World of Wonders (43) by the indomitable Aimee Nezhukumatatil; a nice surprise from John Hunter, his Maps and Legends: The Story of R.E.M. (64); ditto Tyler Keith’s bit of noir, The Mark of Cain (88), and a distant reminder of Richard Grant due to The Deepest South of All (37). In our record book for numerous years on this list are Wyatt Waters’ An Oxford Sketchbook (31) and the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council’s Square Table (44), now being stalked by Ed Croom’s lovely treatment of Faulkner’s grounds, The Land of Rowan Oak (31). Ann Abadie’s marvelous American Landscapes (93) arrived only in November and quickly scrambled onto this list, while Charles Wilson’s The Southern Way of Life (15) was available all year. Many of the writers put books on this list by virtue of a visit or event here. Ann Patchett could not do a reading but did zip by one day to sign enough copies to have her Tom Lake be our #7. Jesmyn Ward helped her cause in a sold-out event at the Powerhouse, as mentioned, and Cody managed to persuade Chuck Palahniuk to come here with Not Forever, but for Now (10), an event in which apparently no one got hurt. We will long remember a special visit from Laura Dern with her co-author mother, Diane Ladd, which launched their Honey, Baby, Mine to our #13 spot – thanks, y’all. Luke Russert made an impressive showing on Thacker Mountain with his Look for Me There (99), while Charles Frazier returned to SB with his The Trackers (34) and another long-time favorite here, Ron Rash, came to us with The Caretaker (79). Daniel Mason’s appearance on behalf of a personal favorite novel, North Woods (45), was memorable. Harrison Scott Key killed it here with How to Stay Married (56) and Jeanette Walls impressed with Hang the Moon (63). Two excellent noir writers brought out crowds – S. A. Cosby and Eli Cranor, with All the Sinners Bleed and Ozark Dogs (#80 and 82, respectively). A lovely and inspirational little book, Quotations of Martin Luther King (30) returned, about whom this fall Jonathan Eig spoke eloquently about in King (89), only to be matched by Margaret Renkl with The Comfort of Crows (83) and Grace Elizabeth Hale, author of In the Pines (95). Trae Crowder ‘n them’s classic Liberal Redneck Manifesto (77) continues to resonate from their previous appearance; ditto for two favorites now in paperback: Kathryn Schulz’ Lost & Found (90) and Casey Cep’s Furious Hours (73). Books that have appeared on most of the nation’s bestseller lists often climb onto ours, too, of course, including Walter Isaacson’s Elon Musk (72), The Woman in Me (86) by Britney Spears, The Dictionary of Lost Words (#84, with help from Jude), Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See (67), Midnight Library (81) by Matt Haig, Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club (75), A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara (91), Alex Michaelides’ The Silent Patient (24), Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow (68) by Gabrielle Zevin, Trust by Hernan Diaz (69), The Covenant of Water (46) by Abraham Verghese, and, in spite of its title, I’m Glad My Mom Died (100), by Jennette McCurdy. Also listed are Make Your Bed (66) by retired Admiral William H. McCraven, and The Fourth Wing (38) and Iron Flame (51) by Rebecca Yarros, both of which would have fared far better had the publisher’s supply kept up with demand here. There was also Prince Harry’s Spare (59), and although he -- Prince Henry Charles Albert David, Duke of Sussex, Earl of Dumbarton, Baron Kilkeel – did not come here, his ghostwriter was once here; some of you will remember this author of a fine book, The Tender Bar: J. R. Moehringer. David Gran made a double play -- The Wager (36) and Killers of the Flower Moon (32) -- and there were very strong performances by Bonnie Garmus’ Lessons in Chemistry (17) and Barbara Kingsolver’s Pulitzer-winning Demon Copperhead (18). The world of sports gave us our #3 bestseller, from the great sportswriter Rick Cleveland, with Neil White -- The Mississippi Football Book; Ole Miss 2022 Baseball National Champions continued to sell at #23, Michael Oher’s When Your Back’s Against the Wall (5) and Resilient Rebels by Chase Parham (#14), while from the kitchen beckoned Elizabeth Heiskell with Come on Over (21) and Robert St. John and his breakfast recipes in Mississippi Mornings (26). We are grateful to a number of publishers for supplying us with stock signed by the author, which no doubt helped some titles make the list: Don’t Tell Anybody the Secrets I Told You by Lucinda Williams (94), The Creative Act by Rick Rubin (65), The Making of Another Major Motion Picture by Tom Hanks (70), James Lee Burke’s Flags on the Bayou (87), The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride (97), The Vaster Wilds by Lauren Groff (98), and Only the Dead (55) by Jack Carr – greatly abetted by the author’s having shot a bullet hole through one of the book’s pages. In every copy. For real. 2023 was a great year for books and we appreciate our partnerships and support from writers, publishers and their reps. Square Books had an exceptionally strong year in 2022 and managed in ’23 to squeak beyond that; so, most of all this report is to you and for you, Constant Reader and Square Books friend, and we thank you for making it all possible. Sincerely, Richard, Lisa, Cody, and Lyn P.S. Look for similar news from Paul at SB Jr – and Happy New Year!
Wish Lists | Square Books
Did you know? You can create a wish list on our website! It's as simple as clicking on the item you want then clicking "Add to Wish List." Cormac McCarthy's new book, anyone? Or how about the latest John Grisham thriller? Did you see Deesha Philyaw at Thacker Mountain and now you need to read her book? Put it on your wish list! Having a tough time making a decision? You can even add gift cards! This is a great tool for your holiday wish lists, birthday lists, even wedding and baby registries! Items can be shipped directly to you or picked up in store. Have questions? Give us a call at 662-236-2262.
Ann Abadie, 1939 -2024 | SQUARE BOOKS
Ann Abadie, 1939 - 2024 As many of you know, Ann Abadie passed away on July 30 following a brief illness. As Ann was such a thoughtful and generous soul, she touched the lives of many people in various ways, including a great number in Oxford and those of us at Square Books, where she was a customer, of course, but a partner in many cultural endeavors and activities on
Book Post Fireside Reading Virtual Book Club | SQUARE BOOKS
SQUARE BOOKS is delighted and honored to be the Winter 2023–24 partner of Book Post, a book-reviewing newsletter. When you make a purchase of $100 or more in store, online, or over the phone, Square Books readers can enjoy a free one-month subscription! Just send your receipt to info@bookpostusa.com to gain access to the newsletter. But wait! There's more! To help us while
Welcome Back Students! | SQUARE BOOKS
What Square Books Can Do for You QUICK & EASY SHOPPING Students in Mississippi can get their required school reading tax free. You can place your order in store, over the phone, or here on our website.orders for in-stock titles are often ready for pickup in less than a day. Some tips: Look for the listing On Our Shelves Now for most in-stock titles. If we do not have a title,
George Floyd | SQUARE BOOKS
It hardly needs to be said that the murder of George Floyd has utterly changed the dynamic of the dialogue and, one hopes, the behavior, as well, about race in America. Only a few years ago, I had a sense of optimism about some progress in this regard, as well as a renewed spirit to compel further progress, and expressed that here. Square Books’ lifelong support for and
Wish Lists | SQUARE BOOKS
Did you know? You can create a wish list on our website! It's as simple as clicking on the item you want then clicking "Add to Wish List." Cormac McCarthy's new book, anyone? Or how about the latest John Grisham thriller? Did you see Deesha Philyaw at Thacker Mountain and now you need to read her book? Put it on your wish list! Having a tough time making a decision? You can
Bookseller Essays: Dani | SQUARE BOOKS
While we wait out the current health crisis, Richard encouraged us to think about the power of books in difficult times. Today, bookseller Dani writes about finding solace in reading. In the darkest moments of my life books have saved me over and over again. Now in the midst of a global health crisis when I began to feel powerless and confused and overwhelmed with anxiety, the
Read the first chapter of John Grisham's Boys From Biloxi (out 10/18) | SQUARE BOOKS
Chapter 1 A hundred years ago, Biloxi was a bustling resort and fishing community on the Gulf Coast. Some of its 12,000 people worked in shipbuilding, some in the hotels and restaurants, but for the majority their livelihoods came from the ocean and its bountiful supply of seafood. The workers were immigrants from Eastern Europe, most from Croatia where their ancestors had
Square Books Top 100 of 2020 | SQUARE BOOKS
01/11/2021To understate it—2020 was not Square Books' best year. Like everyone, we struggled—but we are grateful to remain in business, and that all the booksellers here are healthy. When Covid19 arrived, our foot-traffic fell precipitously, and sales with it—2020 second-quarter sales were down 52%
In Memoriam Brad Watson 1955-2020 | SQUARE BOOKS
If you know of Brad Watson -- the great fiction writer born in Meridian, Mississippi -- then you almost surely know by now he died this past Wednesday, July 8, of a sudden heart attack. He was 64 and in what he had planned to be his last year of teaching in the University of Wyoming MFA program.