A Very Mississippi Fourth

Elisabeth Scott

Reference and Social Media Librarian

When talking about William Faulkner and Willie Morris in his book A Place Like Mississippi, W. Ralph Eubanks says, "If you can find where the past and the present intersect within Mississippi, you can indeed understand the world." I have lived in other states and other countries, but I keep coming home to Mississippi. It is a place that is uniquely itself and yet, somehow, the essence of life in the United States. When our nation got its start 247 years ago, Mississippi wasn't even a territory. We have grown together with our sister states as America has grown, year by year, century by century. Mississippi is a microcosm of the United States: a distillation of all that is good and bad about the land we all love. This Fourth of July, let's celebrate with some books from MLC's collection that showcase the food, fun, and music of the Magnolia State that are reflected in our nation's culture as a whole.

• Tailgreat: How to Crush it at Tailgating
  John Currence
  Tailgating recipes from the head chef and owner of Oxford's City Grocery
• Getting Something to Eat in Jackson: Race, Class, and Food in the American South
  Joseph C. Ewoodzie
  An examination of food that delves into race and class in Jackson and beyond
  
• Being Dead is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral
  Gayden C. Metcalf
  You don't have to be dead to enjoy these Southern staples
• Mississippi Vegan: Recipes and Stories from a Southern Boy's Heart, a Cookbook
  Timothy Pakron
  Southern-style food with vegan flair 
  

• Panther Tract: Wild Boar Hunting in the Mississippi Delta
  Melody Golding
  Photographs of dogs and hunting in the Delta
  
• One Writer's Garden: Eudora Welty's Home Place
  Susan Haltom and Jane Roy Brown
  Welty's garden and how it influenced her writing
• Never Die Easy: The Autobiography of Walter Payton
  Walter Payton with Don Yaeger
  The life of the Sweetness, in his own words
  
• Exploring Coastal Mississippi: A Guide to the Marine Waters
  Scott B. Williams
  Travel Mississippi's beautiful barrier islands
  

• The Last Soul Company: The Malaco Records Story
  Rob Bowman
  The story of the great Mississippi recording studio
• Being Elvis: A Lonely Life
  Ray Connolly
  What reading list about Mississippi (and American) music would be complete without Elvis?
  
• Po' Monkey's: Portrait of a Juke Joint
  Will H. Jacks
  Photographs of an iconic dive in Merigold
  
• Let the World Listen Right: The Mississippi Delta Hip-Hop Story
  Ali Collen Neff
  How the influence of the blues, soul, and gospel gives hip-hop in our state its own special sound
  

Happy Fourth, and happy reading!