• How We Came to Be By Johnnie Bernhard

This novel features a 50-year woman and her adopted daughter, who are inspired by strangers and second chances. Readers will enjoy this fresh fiction by a Mississippi author, which was a finalist in the 2017 Faulkner-Wisdom Competition

• The Inspiring Life of Eudora Welty By Richelle Putnam

Before she won a Pulitzer Prize, Eudora Welty made her own books and won national poetry prizes as a young girl. Young readers learn about the remarkable life of one of Mississippi’s literary treasures in this YA feature.

• Baby By Vikki Grodner

When a young child asserts her independence, she declares she’s nobody’s “baby.” Ultimately, family ties help her realize – and relish – the fact that she is forever someone’s “baby.” Baby is a timeless tale for children and parents everywhere.

• Realizing Our Place By Catherine Egley Waggoner and Laura Egley Taylor

Two sisters who grew up in the Mississippi Delta interviewed dozens of women to explore what it means to be from somewhere. How does place seep into your sense of self? Blending colorful stories of Delta women with striking photography, they provide an insightful peek into the lives of real southern women in a deeply mythologized land.

• Vicksburg: The Bloody Siege that Turned the Tide of the Civil War

By Samuel W. Mitcham Jr.

It was one of the toughest sieges of the war, and Union commander Ulysses S. Grant learned hard lessons assaulting Vicksburg, “the Confederate Gibraltar.” In the end, General John C. Pemberton’s army was left without reinforcements after an incredible siege of 40 days that brought out extraordinary heroism along with extraordinary suffering.