Book excerpt: The people who live in towns and cities along the Mississippi River in the southern United States are a special breed, steeped in 500 years of history as rich as the coffee they drink, or the soil where once the river ran. Mississippi River Country Tales is a fast-paced, easy to read history that covers everything from the early conquistadors and the first Mardi Gras to Fannie Lou Hamer and Archie Manning, and covers the geographic region from Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, and Louisiana. The book has received hearty praise from reviewers across the South: "[Mississippi River Country Tales] contains an incredible cast of real-life characters that would defy any writer of fiction to create lest they be perceived as too unbelievable. The book can do nothing but add to Jim Fraiser's growing reputation as another young Mississippi writer who knows how to tell stories about the places and people he knows best." --Biloxi Sun-Herald