In the fall of 2012, after working on a presidential campaign that suffered a devastating loss, Jackson, Miss. native, Stuart Stevens, having turned 60, realized that he and his 95-year-old father had spent little time together for decades. His solution: attend a season (2013) of Ole Miss football games together. Poignant and full of heart, but also irreverent and often hilarious, The Last Season, A Father, A Son and a Lifetime of College Football, (Knopf) is a powerful story of parents and children; sports, history and civil rights, and finding what truly counts in life.

Margaret Eby’s newest book is South Toward Home: Travels in Southern Literature (Norton) a chronicle of her travels through the South to visit the hometowns and stomping grounds of some of our most beloved authors. From Mississippi (William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Richard Wright, Larry Brown and Barry Hannah) to Alabama (Harper Lee, Truman Capote) to Georgia (Flannery O’Connor, Harry Crews) and beyond. Combining biographical detail with expert criticism, Eby delivers a rich and evocative tribute to the literary South. An Alabama native, Eby now lives in Brooklyn.

“Most of us grew up on our parent’s record collections, listening to classic soul and Motown,” says Ryan Harkrider, who founded The Nightowls in Austin, Texas. The band released their debut, Good as Gold, in 2014 to widespread critical acclaim. The Austin Chronicle named it one of the Top 10 of the year at the annual Austin Chronicle Music Awards. Texas Music Magazine called the album, “a smooth addictive blend of pop, R&B and funk that will delight the band’s dance-happy fans.” The band followed up that release with a four song EP, Good As Gold B-Sides’. Their latest release is Fame Sessions.

Libby Rae Watson, a native of Pascagoula, began playing music as a young child and fell in love with the blues at age 13. During the 1990’s, her band, The Liberaetors, released two CDs, Saltwater Blues and Spur of the Moment. “She’s a pioneer,” says fellow blues musician, Doc McLean. “She’s one of the only women to cross what were difficult racial and cultural boundaries. She’s a songster-storyteller in the delta tradition- part of an unbroken chain.”