Best of the Best from Mississippi Cookbook

Selected Recipes from Mississippi's Favorite Cookbooks

edited by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley

The first cookbook to be published in the Best of the Best State Cookbook Series of 35 cookbooks. This completely new edition contains over 400 down-home favorite recipes collected from ninety of our state’s leading cookbooks.

Gwen McKee is Director of Quail Ridge Press, a company which she and her husband founded in 1978. Barbara Moseley is Associate Editor.

6 x 9 in., 288 pages, illustrations and photos, index. Available from Quail Ridge Press.

Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of the Delta Blues

by Steve Cheseborough

A guide to all the hallowed grounds that nourished Mississippi's signature music. Steve Cheseborough is an independent scholar and performer of the blues. His work has been published in such periodicals as Living Blues, Blues Access, Mississippi, and the Southern Register. Steve lives in Oxford, Mississippi.

5 x 9 in., 264 pages (approx.), 50 B&W photos, 11 maps, discography, index. Available from University Press of Mississippi.

Canoeing Mississippi

by Ernest Herndon

The complete guidebook for paddling the rivers and streams of Mississippi. Offering lively currents, big woods, abundant wildlife, and plenty of solitude, the great number and variety of Mississippi's waterways debunk the stereotype of muddy, stagnant sloughs harboring clouds of mosquitoes and swarms of snakes.

Ernest Herndon is a staff writer and outdoors editor of the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He has written several books and has been published in such anthologies as The Magnolia Club: Fine Times with Nature's Finest and From Behind the Magnolia Curtain: Voices of Mississippi.

6 x 9 in., 264 pages, 26 B&W photos, 8 maps, appendix, bibliography, index. Available from University Press of Mississippi.

Civil War Mississippi: A Guide

by Michael B. Ballard

The first comprehensive coverage of the war in the state contains easy-to-follow maps and a wealth of historical material. This guide discusses the campaigns, the present-day battlefields, the battles, and the soldiers and generals who fought.

Michael Ballard is University Archivist and Coordinator of the Congressional Collection for Special Collections of the Mississippi State University Libraries. He has published A Long Shadow: Jefferson Davis and the Final Days of the Confederacy, and Pemberton: A Biography.

5 x 7 in., 112 pages (approx.), 23 B&W photos, 10 maps, bibliography, index. Available from University Press of Mississippi.

Hiking Mississippi

A Guide to Trails and Natural Areas

by Helen McGinnis

This guidebook to the state's trails and nature sites is a wonderful compilation of maps, descriptions, and histories about the wilder side of Mississippi. Covering both the large and small natural areas, this book is the perfect companion for your trekking.

Helen McGinnis is also the author of Carnegie's Dinosaurs, The Cranberry Backcountry and Dolly Sods.

6.25 x 9.5 in., 252 pages. Available from University Press of Mississippi.

Jackson Landmarks

compiled by The Junior League

Focusing on the Jackson area, this book serves as an insight into the architectural history of our capitol city from 1821 to 1982, when the book was published. The preface states the goal best, in asking the public to "reinvest in our past..."

Compiled by the Junior League of Jackson, all proceeds from the sale go towards support and operation of the Manship House Museum.

5.5 x 8.5 in., 207 pages (approx.), numerous B&W photos, index. Available from The Manship House Museum in Jackson, Mississippi.

Jackson's North State Street

by Todd Sanders

Since the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, Jackson, Mississippi's North State Street has been home to some of the capital city's major architectural landmarks. Beginning in the early years of the Great Depression, many of these stately homes and buildings were lost, replaced by apartments, parking lots, and commercial buildings. Revisit that lost era through the pages and photographs of Jackson's North State Street.

Todd Sanders, an architectural historian and native Mississippian, has worked for many years at the Historic Preservation Division of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

6.5 x 9.25 in., 128 pages, 1 map, 182 B&W photographs, bibliography. Available from Arcadia Publishing Company.

The Longleaf Trace Companion

by Anthony Mozingo

Learn more of the sights and history surrounding the Longleaf Trace with Anthony Mozingo's guidebook. Written from the perspective of a long-time cyclist and runner, it is filled with detailed maps of each of the Trace's 43 miles as well as stories of the development of the railroad route that the Trace replaced. The Longleaf Trace Companion will complement your enjoyment of the Trace whether you run, cycle, ride, or simply stroll.

Tony Mozingo, an attorney and judge in South Mississippi, is a long-time proponent of the Longleaf Trace. He regularly rides and runs the Trace, and has raised thosands of dollars for its benefit.

5.5 x 8.5 in., 152 pages, 41 maps, 53 B&W photographs, two mileage charts, 40 elevation profiles, bibliography. Available from Toot Toot Publishing Company.

Lost Landmarks of Mississippi

by Mary Carol Miller

A review of dozens of forgotten buildings, capturing their beauty in rare black-and-white photographs and telling the stories of their place in Mississippi history.

Mary Carol Miller is the author of Lost Mansions of Mississippi and Written in the Bricks. She lives in Tupelo, Mississippi.

7 x 10 in., 176 pages (approx.), 82 B&W photos, index. Available from University Press of Mississippi.

The Majesty of the Mississippi Delta

by Jim Fraiser with photographs by West Freeman

This book details the architectural features of homes, churches, and stores dating back as far as the early nineteenth century, from historic Port Gibson up the Delta toward Memphis.

Jim Fraiser is the author of Mississippi River Country Tales: A Celebration of 500 Years of Deep South History, and The French Quarter of New Orleans.

West Freeman is a native New Orleanian. His photographs are a part of the permanent collection at the New Orleans Museum of Art. He also collaborated with Jim on The French Quarter of New Orlean.

6 x 9 in., 96 pages, 109 color photos. Available from Pelican Publishing Company.

Mississippi Bird Watching: A Year-Round Guide

by Bill Thompson & the staff of Bird Watcher's Digest

The birds that frequent the backyards of Mississippi differ from the birds that frequent the backyards of Tennessee. In addition to unique descriptions, each bird profile includes a range map to identify each bird's North American distribution. One hundred birds are profiled, each with a color photograph, to ensure accurate identification. A seasonal section informs the reader of:

• Migrating birds that can be seen during that season
• The foods and plants that can attract those birds
• Where to go to view year-round and migrating birds

7 x 10 in., 176 pages, full-color photos and range maps. Available from Online Nature Mall.

Mississippi Off the Beaten Path

A Guide to Unique Places

by Marlo Carter Kirkpatrick

Now in its 6th edition, this guide to the state's most unusual attractions, events, restaurants, and accomodations is also packed with interesting trivia, traditions, myths, and legends.

Marlo Carter Kirkpatrick, also the author of Wilder Mississippi, is a freelance writer living in Madison, Mississippi.

6 x 9 in., 240 pages, w/ map. Available from Amazon Books or The Globe Pequot Press.

Read our review here.

The Natchez Trace

A Pictorial History

by James A. Crutchfield

Here for the first time is a contemporary, up-to-date account of the human and natural history of the Old Natchez Trace and the modern parkway. Available at last in an accurate  and authentic account of the entire span of 10,000 years of events, written in a popular, easy-to-read style.

8 x 10 in., 160 pages, photos, illustrations, and maps, index. Available from Thomas Nelson.

Only in Mississippi

by Lorraine Redd

A review of dozens of forgotten buildings, capturing their beauty in rare black-and-white photographs and telling the stories of their place in Mississippi history.

Lorraine Redd, who traveled over 13,000 miles of Mississippi backroads to compile the material for her travel guide, is a Laurel, Mississippi native, and a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi.

7 x 10 in., 176 pages (approx.), 82 B&W photos, index. Available from Quail Ridge Press.

Timber: A Photographic History of Mississippi Forestry

by James E. Ficklel

Photographs documenting the timber industry's destruction and restoration of Mississippi's great natural resource.

This collection of black-and-white images conveys the story of human impact on Mississippi's forests from the pioneer era to the present. Photographs gleaned from public and private archives tell a visual tale of the development of Mississippi's forest industries.

Timber includes images by such noteworthy photographers as Clifford H. Poland of Memphis and John N. Teneussin of New Orleans. The Poland photographs alone, many previously misidentified and now on display as Poland's work for the first time, offer a level of artistic achievement that parallels the industrial might of their subjects.

James E. Fickle, a professor of history at the University of Memphis, is author of the companion book Mississippi Forests and Forestry.

9 x 11.25 inches, 144 pages., 288 B&W photos. Available from University Press of Mississippi.

Touring Literary Mississippi

by Patti Carr Black & Marion Barnwell

With seven preplanned tours through the state, this book captures the phenomenal abundance and diversity of Mississippi literature. More than a guidebook, it includes biographies and gives explicit directions to writers' homes and other literary sites.

Marion Barnwell, a fiction writer and an assistant professor of English at Delta State University, compiled and edited A Place Called Mississippi.

Patti Carr Black, a past Director of the Museum of Mississippi History in Jackson, is the editor of Eudora Welty's World. She currently lives in Jackson, Mississippi.

5 x 9 inches, 272 pages (approx.), 100 B&W photos, 7 maps. Available from University Press of Mississippi.

Vicksburg and the War

by Gordon A. Cotton and Jeff T. Giambrone

Cotton and Giambrone thoroughly detail the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi and the military actions that occurred in 1861 and 1862, as well as the military occupation that began after the surrender, which has been overlooked and practically ignored by historians until now. Their historic volume examines this "most Southern of cities," whose legacy of heroism has not been forgotten.

Gordon Cotton has been the director/curator of the Old Court House Museum in Vicksburg since 1976. Jeff Giambrone has worked at the Old Court House Museum since 1995 and has written numerous articles on various Civil War topics.

11 x 8.5 in., 160 pages, 122 B&W photos, bibliography. Available from Pelican Publishing Company.

Wilder Mississippi photography by Stephen Kirkpatrick

text by Marlo Carter Kirkpatrick

Explore Mississippi's unspoiled wilderness and encounter its elusive wildlife captured in this book with stunning photos accompanied by moving passages describing the irresistible lure of the Mississippi wilderness.

Stephen Kirkpatrick is an internationally acclaimed wildlife photographer, whose two most recent books with his wife, Marlo, are Romancing the Rain: A Photographic Journey into the Heart of the Amazon and Extreme Exposure: The True Story of a Photo Expedition Lost in the Amazon.

Marlo Carter Kirkpatrick, the author of Mississippi Off the Beaten Path, is a freelance writer living in Madison, Mississippi.

10 x 11 in., 160 pages, 130 color photos. Available from Stephen Kirkpatrick Wildlife Photographer.