Southern Enchanted

Spanish villagers tell many folktales that describe in metaphorical language the struggles of young men and women as they emerge from their parental families and join in love. In this book James Taggart presents dozens of orally transmitted tales, including "Snow White," "Cinderella," "Beauty and the Beast," "Blancaflor," and dragonslayer stories, collected from seven villages in the region of CNBceres, and analyzes the differences in male and female approaches to telling them. His study shows how men and women use the tales to grapple with some of the contradictions found in gender relations in their culture, which conditions men to be sexually assertive and to marry virgins and which teaches women to fear the men who court them. Taggart interprets the male-female dialogue voiced through storytelling by linking the content of specific tales to the life experiences and gender of the storyteller. Men and women, he finds, carry out an exchange of ideas by retelling the same stories and altering the plots and characters to express their respective views of courtship. This indirect narrative dialogue conveys an understanding of the opposite sex and establishes a common model of marriage that permits men and women to overcome their fear of each other and bond in heterosexual love.

This collection of essays examines the contributions of some of the most notable interpreters of American southern history and culture. The volume includes 18 chapters on such notable historians as John Hope Franklin, Anne Firor Scott and W.J. Cash.

A selection of letters that sums up the life of a literary Southerner, who veered away from the commonly held views of his segregated town

The familiars Aldwyn the cat, Skyler the blue jay, and Gilbert the tree frog are off on an all-new adventure in the series that Michael Buckley, bestselling author of The Sisters Grimm and NERDS series, says "combines the magic of Harry Potter and the adventure of Warriors." With inventive magic, laugh-out-loud humor, and a mysterious conspiracy that will take all the familiars' wits to unravel, Palace of Dreams is the familiars' most extraordinary adventure yet. Peace has returned to the queendom of Vastia. Paksahara has been defeated, and the three familiars Aldwyn, Skyler, and Gilbert are the heroes to thank. But when a birthday celebration at the palace goes dreadfully wrong, and Queen Loranella falls victim to a curse, it seems the familiars are the prime suspects. After narrowly escaping the palace dungeons, they'll have to embark on a quest to clear their names—a quest that will lead them across Vastia and even into the magical land of dreams.

The animals in Familiar Place are gone. The windows are smashed to bits. Someone is out to destroy Pepper Reign's life--but who? Pepper enlists the help of her family in the search for her animals, but what they discover is terrifying. A creature is inhabiting the sewers and Pepper is convinced there is a sinister reason behind it. On top of that, one of her closest loved ones is acting strangely and she's sure that person has been replaced by someone else. Will Pepper get to the bottom of the mystery of what happened to her animals? Is the creature in the sewer related? And what's happened to her loved one? Will everything be revealed, or will her life go up in smoke? Find out now!

A Woman Rancher's Life Takes a Decided Turn When Her Fairy Godmother Visits—Love Soon Follows—in Southern Charms, an Enchanting Romance with a Touch of Paranormal From Trana Mae Simmons Northern Central Texas, Late 1800's At his mother's insistence, city-slicker Shane Morgan reluctantly leaves New York City for the wilds of Texas, searching for the daughter of his mother's best friend. A woman who, unbeknownst to her, is an heiress to a huge fortune. Ellie Parker is the unwanted stepchild doing all the ranch work, while her mother dotes on her real daughter. She drowns her sorrows by running the ranch she loves, enjoying the company of ranch hands, horses, and cattle. When a polished city slicker shows up and imposes himself upon her life, he refuses to be ignored. But when a lady of the evening, claiming to be Ellie's fairy godmother, along with her spoiled white cat, also intrudes at the same time the circus comes to town, it's all too much for Ellie. Amid an atmosphere of deception and disbelief, Ellie finds herself falling in love with the totally inappropriate Shane Morgan. But can love find its way through the morass of truths Shane is forced to shroud? About the Author: T. M. Simmons lives in a haunted house on the edge of the East Texas Piney Woods, which she and her husband share with various pets and paranormal residents. In between writing cozy mysteries and other stories, she delights in scaring herself silly during otherworldly encounters and visits haunted buildings and graveyards during dark and full moons. Her husband goes along sometimes to protect her from the bumps in the night, although he's been known to spy a ghost and retreat rather than confront it. She also pursues paranormal entities with her real-life Twila, Aunt Belle Brown, who are Lead Investigators of the Supernatural Researchers of Texas paranormal investigative team. SRT's motto is "Leave Peace Behind," and the team seeks to leave peace for the people who are dealing with troubled hauntings, as well as for the ghosts. Simmons is extremely willing to discuss her experiences with anyone she can corner.

Few if any are better endowed than George Garrett to comment on the general and the particular, the long and the short, of southern letters in our time. Garrett— a prolific and internationally renowned author of fiction, poetry, drama, and biography as well as a teacher, editor, critic, and frequent jurist for literary competitions—has been immersed in the writers and literature of his native region for almost a half century. Southern Excursions contains more than fifty of the best essays, reviews, and other short pieces of his career. For the connoisseur of good writing, this book is a depository, a treasure, a veritable time capsule of southern, literary, and American culture. Without sacrificing reverence for modern masters such as Faulkner, O’Connor, and Welty, Garrett has consistently embraced worthy new artists through the years, deftly and judiciously drawing the line between critical acclaim and popular success. Payton Davis, Shelby Foote, Walker Percy, William HoVman, Madison Jones, Reynolds Price, Robert Morgan, R. H. W. Dillard, Wendell Berry, Doris Betts, William Goyen, Mary Lee Settle, Randall Kenan, David Huddle, Allan Gurganus, Dorothy Allison—these are a few of the writers Garrett has championed. If some names sound less familiar, Garrett, in these pages, will inspire readers to swift investigation. The author’s charm, wit, and anecdotal style make reading Southern Excursions a delight, and yet there’s no mistaking his erudition. Wise like a prophet, with a talent scout’s enthusiasm, Garrett is not afraid to tell unwelcome truths, covering topics that include southern publishing houses and literary quarterlies, the alliance between writers and academia, the state of criticism and theory, and, most eloquently, the persistence of place, memory, and the Civil War as themes in southern letters. Southern Excursions is a book for the ages, stowing as it does the sage views of one as learned, respected— and modest—in his time as George Garrett. “My strong suggestion [to readers],” he states, “is to plunge in and fare forward. Experience the story before turning to or trusting the opinions and judgments of others, myself included.”

Owens provides a historical analysis of the ideological movements and reform efforts leading to the Common Core State Standards, beginning with conservative criticism of public schools in the 1930s and culminating in a convergence of the political right and left in efforts to systemically reform education based on free market principles.