Welcome to Paul Ruffin's world, where you will learn more about bottled water and
fire ants than you ever would have imagined, where your will be taught how to crash
a family reunion.
* * *
Find out how Walmart parking lots will save us from a future energy crisis; sit on
the edge of Grady Johnson's boat and discover what happens when Walmart insults him.
* * *
Follow the chronicle of the hours leading up to the execution of pick-axe murderer
Karla Faye Tucker.
* * *
Visit with the Pates in Segovia, Texas, for a dose of folksy wisdom; take in Buford's
House of Liver and Gertrude's House of Gizzards in Jackson County, Mississippi.
* * *
Take a trip to the elegant Spa at the Waterway (former Urban Retreat of the Woodlands)
in Houston, Texas, where you will experience the Texas Two-Step Massage; then venture
over to Rural Retreat in Houston, Mississippi, where you will have a different kind
of experience.
* * *
Go on the tabloid beat with Paul Ruffin and learn the rest of the news.
"Novelist, short-story writer, poet, essayist, newspaper columnist, university-press
director, journal editor, Distinguished Professor of English—Paul Ruffin is all these,
and much, much more. He is a carpenter, plumber, electrician, mechanic, hunter, fisherman,
and sharpshooter. Most important, he is a keen observer of humankind, and he has
a grand ability to turn his observations into the most invigorating prose you are
likely to find. In this, his third collection of essays, Ruffin demonstrates once
again his amazing ability to bring his world to life with humor and pathos and passion.
He is one of the finest writers the South and this nation have ever produced."
