Deep Fried Kudzu

Since indie bookshops are one of those things we automatically search out when traveling, I was thinking of specifically author-owned bookshops. I mentioned a little bit about Ann Patchett’s Parnassus Books in Nashville:

and I was in Key West two or three years ago, but I just never made it over to Judy Blume’s Books & Books.

Here’s a list of some others:

Louise Erdrich, Birchbark Books in Minneapolis, a Native‑focused independent bookstore and cultural space.

Larry McMurtry owned Booked Up in Archer City, Texas, and it’s online-only now

Jeff Kinney owns An Unlikely Story in Plainville, Massachusetts

Emma Straub = Books Are Magic in Brooklyn

Wendell Berry co‑founded The Berry Center Bookstore in New Castle, Kentucky (and it looks fabulous)

…and that’s not all; looking these up, I came across a Mental Floss list with some others. Enjoyyyy.

I’ve been enamored with the Mooresville, Alabama post office for a while now — it’s the oldest in the state, opened in 1840 and that actually means it’s one of the oldest in the nation, too. The hours are short, only something like 8-10a M-Sat (but absolutely double-check before you run over). I like to buy stamps there just as an excuse to go inside. Pics from a couple of different visits:

The 1839 Brick Church in Mooresville, Alabama

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It’s been a few years since I’ve been to Port Gibson, Mississippi, but that’s where First Presbyterian‘s church steeple also has a hand atop the steeple:

I stayed at the Bernheimer House B&B there when Lorne and Nancy Ouart owned/ran it, and Loren had a telescope where you could see the long pins sticking out of the hand so that birds wouldn’t roost there.

Visit to Amish community
Ethridge TN, 2026

Visit to the Huntsville Museum of Art in Huntsville, Alabama:

David Parrish’s The Duke and the King — he was born in Birmingham, then moved to Huntsville to work as a technical illustrator for Marshall Space Flight Center and Hayes International. In 1971 he left to become a full-time artist and was internationally known for his pop-culture photorealistic paintings (lots of motorcycles plus glossy images of people like Elvis and Marilyn Monroe).

In 1987, he was represented by Louis K. Meisel Gallery, the gallery of the dealer who coined “Photorealism”.

The Anila Quayyum Agha exhibit is on now through August 23.

Gajin Fujita, Hood Rats

Frank Stella’s Sinjerli Variations IIa

Tom Wesselmann, The Smoker

Ginny Ruffner chandelier, Bringing Art to Light and Light to Art

John James Audubon

Rocio Rodriguez, Flight

Head Hunter Beauty Salon
Tuscumbia AL, 2024.