Museums not only preserve history--their mere presence shows what a community values and celebrates. And from the incredible variety of museums that dot the Mississippi landscape, it's abundantly clear that Mississippians celebrate everything from the quirky to the grand. From the Mississippi Museum of Art in Jackson to the Grammy Museum in Cleveland, the state boasts museums celebrating aprons, motorcycles, the game of bridge and the fight against the yellow fever epidemic. Join authors D...

The Artful Evolution of Hal & Mal's is a collaboration between artist Ginger Williams Cook and author Malcolm White about the people, the place, and the history of Hal & Mal's, an iconic institution in downtown Jackson, Mississippi.Featuring beautiful watercolor paintings, the book brings together thirty years of family history, live music performances, and cafe society through graphic designs of old photographs, original illustrations, Hal's legendary recipe cards, and th...

With contributions by Walter Biggins, Patti Carr Black, Lottie Brent Boggan, Donald H. Butts, Bob Carskadon, Rebecca Lauck Cleary, David Creel, Sylvia Nettles Dickson, Pat Flynn, Chris Gilmer, Peggy Gilmer-Piasecki, Carolyn Haines, Ann Tyrone Hebert, C. C. Henley, Alice Jackson, Donald M. Kartiganer, Janice Marie Kraft, Francis X. Kuhn, Bill Luckett, Johnnie Mae Maberry, Debbie Campbell Matthews, Charline R. McCord, Jo McDivitt, Cheri Thornton McHugh, Thomas McIntyre, Margaret McMullan, Wi...

**“The one food book you must read this year."*—Southern LivingOne of Christopher Kimball’s Six Favorite Books About Food*A people’s history that reveals how Southerners shaped American culinary identity and how race relations impacted Southern food culture over six revolutionary decades**Like great provincial dishes around the world, potlikker is a salvage food. During the antebellum era, slave owners ate the greens from the pot and set aside the leftover po...

“Betcha I can tell ya / Where ya / Got them shoooes. / Betchadollar, / Betchadollar, / Where ya / Got them shoooes. / Got your shoes on your feet, / Got your feet on the street, / And the street’s in Noo / Awlins, Loo- / Eez-ee-anna. Where I, for my part, first ate a live oyster and first saw a naked woman with the lights on. . . . Every time I go to New Orleans I am startled by something.”So writes Roy Blount Jr. in this exuberant, character-filled saunter through a place he has l...

Open a copy of the Information Please Almanac and turn to the chapter on famous people. 4000 names and you won't know hardly any. But what about names everyone knows? Pillsbury, Maytag, Kellogg. Nowhere to be found. How many names are more famous than Howard Johnson or Oscar Mayer? But who were these folks? Let's look at the men behind the names where we pull off the road to eat.

Finding my father was a wonderful feeling; forgiving him was even better. I have been set free, and now I can look at all the houses he built and the St. Louis arch in four states: South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, and Missouri.

Join author and historian Terry Ruscin as he reveals Henderson County's forgotten yet colorful history complete with its own cast of characters and historic landmarks. Who composed a blockbuster opera a few miles from downtown Hendersonville? Who were the record-setting McCrary twins, and why were they famous? These questions and many more are answered in this exciting volume of obscured history. From James Brown's 1950s performance on Hendersonville's Main Street to the rumors of illegal ...

This collection uncovers the fascinating past of Tennessee's legendary Music City from true tall tales to larger than life characters and much more.Perched on the banks of the Cumberland River, Nashville is best known for its role in the civil rights movement, world-class education and, of course, country music. In this unique collection of columns written for The Tennessean, journalist and longtime Tennessee native George Zepp illuminates a less familiar ...

A presidential portraitist, a two-headed calf and a national landmark that inspires creativity--extraordinary tales abound in Connecticut from Hartford to Bethlehem, from New Haven to Bristol and all points in between. Learn about "The Age of Reptiles"--a 110-foot-long, 16-foot-high mural skillfully crafted by painter Rudolph Zallinger at the Peabody Museum in New Haven. Visit the Goodspeed Opera House built along the Connecticut River in 1876. Restored in 1963, this small theater continue...

Nothing but clear, 100-proof American history.Hooch. White lightning. White whiskey. Mountain dew. Moonshine goes by many names. So what is it, really? Technically speaking, “moonshine” refers to untaxed liquor made in an unlicensed still. In the United States, it’s typically corn that’s used to make the clear, unaged beverage, and it’s the mountain people of the American South who are most closely associated with the image of making and selling backwoods booze at ...

Route 66 goes through the heart of Illinois: between the great cities of Chicago and St. Louis, there are 300 miles of adventure, history, culinary delights, and quirky attractions. This is the "Land of Lincoln" and roadside giants. There are cozy motels, cozy diners, and Cozy Dogs. Interstate 55 will speed travelers to their destination, but Route 66 offers something more. It goes through the hearts of the towns, wandering onto old brick pavement far from the roar of the interstate. Histo...