Nationally syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson, winner of the Ernie Pyle Award for human interest reporting, turns her sharp eye on herself in this frank, exhilarating, wise, poignant, and brave memoir. Her territory ranges from childhood memories of ritual pre-interstate trips in the family station wagon to visit foot-washing Baptist relatives to young-girl fixations on the Barbie dolls of the title, from the simultaneous exuberance and proto-feminist doubts of young marriage to the aches of loves lost through divorce and death. Her memorable journalism career, which began on her college newspaper and rural weeklies and moved on to prestigious big-city dailies, was punctuated by her distinctive writing voice and an unerring knack for revealing her much-loved South through uncommon stories about its common people. This is a big-hearted book that will leave no reader unaffected.

Martha, Mary Magdalene, John the Baptist, Satan, and Jesus are key figures in this 1950s good-versus-evil suspense allegory of Christ's beginning ministry. Twists, turns, and suspense make a preacher's murder mystery chilling. A tantalizing murder mystery filled with chilling explorations of hypocrisy, true faith, and small-town secrets. It's about sin and redemption. It's about the search for truth, in both the physical and spiritual realms. And it's all wrapped up in a puzzle that keeps even skeptics on their toes. Underneath it all is an allegory of Christ's ministry. "I highly recommend The Parchman Preacher short in length, but deep in meaning, I could hardly put this book down." -Linda Lacour Hobar, author of The Mystery of History series. "Michael Thompson has brought to life the Mississippi of my youth, complete with small town scandals, murders, prison, and the powerful southern female. Sit back, put your feet up, and enjoy a glass of sweet tea and a romping good tale." -Carolyn Haines, author of the on-going Sarah Booth Delaney mystery series. "If you love southern gossips and party lines and communal mail, you'll feel right at home in Solo, Mississippi biblical in its proportions, with a revolving Episcopal pulpit, a moonshine-swilling postmaster and a murdering villain. Jesus, Martha, Mary, John the Baptist, Satan-what a place." -Rheta Grimsley Johnson, author of Enchanted Evening Barbie & the Second Coming, and other books. "In The Parchman Preacher, Michael Thompson has written a true southern story of tragedy, darkness, and destiny with unpredictable twists and turns and genuine characters that provide comic relief in the midst of malevolent schemes a page turner we loved it." -Janet and Reverend John Sartelle, author of What Christian Parents Should Know About Infant Baptism. "The Parchman Preacher penetrates the facades of southern cultural Christianity to take us to the true gospel There is no Savior but Jesus and no salvation from the judgment of God but faith in Christ alone." -Richard L. Pratt, Th.D. theologian, author of several books, including Designed For Dignity: What God Has Made It Possible For You To Be, and founder of Third Millennium Ministries, Orlando, FL. Clarion Review Twists, turns, and suspense make a preacher's murder mystery chilling. A tantalizing murder mystery filled with chilling explorations of hypocrisy, true faith, and small-town secrets. The Christian faith colors his work, which is an allegory inspired by the ministry of Christ. It's about sin and redemption. It's about the search for truth, in both the physical and spiritual realms. And it's all wrapped up in a puzzle that keeps even skeptics on their toes.(for the complete review, visit www.michaelthompsonauthor.com) Diane Gardner September 25, 2013 ForeWord Clarion Reviews

In 1992, A "no-shot" candidate runs for president in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary, while telling the story of how the United States evolved from 13 small, scattered, quarreling British colonies along the Atlantic Coast into the most powerful nation in history. With a definite, clear and unique message, the candidate and his handful of helpers, who include a recovering alcoholic who once worked for Jimmy Carter's campaign; a young waitress, who was a star basketball player in high school, but fell into a deep depression caused by an episode in her senior year; a retired New Hampshire newspaper publisher; plus some former employees from his years as a newspaper publisher, he manages to win the most votes on Primary night. He goes from New Hampshire, to win the Maine caucus, the Georgia Primary and following an assassination attempt which kills one of his associates, he wins Florida and comes close in New York, making him the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination. The candidate stresses that the strong U.S. central government is still the best one ever conceived and that it is "the answer, not the problem," and has been the essential factor in the nation's three great transformative crises: the American Revolution in which the colonies declared independence from England; The Civil War, which established that the states were indeed one nation, not just a collection of "un-united" states; and thirdly the New Deal, which rescued the U.S. from economic depression, prepared it to be the decisive power in winning World War II, and laid the foundation for the modern U.S. and, to a great extent, the modern world. The threat of a third-party effort by Ross Perot throwing the election to the House of Representative, persuades him to withdraw and support the better financed and organized Bill Clinton for the November election. This history is delivered in a dramatic fictional saga written in a newspaper style, which makes it easy to digest for the average reader. Its characters are well-defined, and its narrative plausible in the final analysis. It is anti-war, pro-democracy and advocates political campaigns without a lot of consultants and image-makers.

Circling Faith is a collection of essays by southern women that encompasses spirituality and the experience of winding through the religiously charged environment of the American South. Mary Karr, in “Facing Altars,” describes how the consolation she found in poetry directed her to a similar solace in prayer. In “Chiaroscuro: Shimmer and Shadow,” Susan Cushman recounts how her dissatisfaction with a Presbyterian upbringing led her to hold her own worship services at home and eventually to join the Eastern Orthodox Church. “Magic” by Amy Blackmarr depicts a religious practice that occurs wholly outside of any formal setting—she recognizes places, such as a fishing shack in south Georgia, and things, such as crystal Cherokee earrings, as reminders that God exists everywhere and that a Great Comforter is always present. In “The Only Jews in Town,” Stella Suberman gives her account of growing up as a religious minority in Tennessee, connecting her story to a larger narrative of Eastern European Jews who moved away from the Northeast, often to found and run “Jew stores” in midwestern and southern towns. Alice Walker, in an interview with Valerie Reiss titled “Alice Walker Calls God ‘Mama,’” relates her dynamic relationship with her God, which includes meditation and yoga, and explains how she views the role of faith in her work, including her novel The Color Purple. These essays showcase the large spectrum of spirituality that abides in the South, as well as the equally large spectrum of individual women who hold these faiths.

Nationally syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson’s Hank Hung the Moon is more of a musical memoir than a biography: the author’s evocative and personal stories of 1950s and ’60s musical staples—elementary school rhythm bands, British Invasion rock concerts and tear-jerker movie musicals. It was a simpler time when Hank roamed the Earth; the book celebrates a world of 78 rpm records and 5-cent Cokes, with Hank providing the soundtrack and wisdom. A Cajun girl learns to understand English by listening to Hank on the radio. A Hank impersonator works by day at a prison but, by night, makes good use of his college degree in country music. Hank’s lost daughter, Jett, devotes her life to embracing the father she never knew. Finally, stories you haven’t heard a thousand times before about people who love Hank, some famous, most not. This lively little book uses Hank as metaphor for life. You’ll tap your toe and demand an encore.