Rheta Grimsley Johnson

The dark story of America's Pulitzer Prize winning hillbilly singer has been told often and well, but always with sad country fiddles wailing. This latest Hank Williams paean will make readers laugh as well as cry. Hank Hung the Moon and left his fans behind to admire it. He transformed the musical landscape, as well as the heavens, with his genius. And that's a good thing.

More a musical memoir than a biography, Hank Hung the Moon is the author's evocative personal stories of '50s and '60s musical staples elementary-school rhythm bands, British Invasion rock concerts, and tearjerker movie musicals. It was a simpler time when Hank roamed the earth. The book celebrates a world of 78 rpm records and five-cent Cokes. Hank provides the soundtrack and wisdom for this Last Picture Show of a book.

*JOHNSON WILL BE A GUEST ON THACKER MOUNTAIN RADIO

Location: Street: 160 Courthouse Sq City: Oxford, Province: Mississippi Postal Code: 38655-3914 Country: United States (added from IndieBound)… (more)

Rheta Grimsley Johnson discusses Hank Hung the Moon.

Page and Palette is excited to host a Read It & Eat luncheon event with Rheta Grimsley Johnson as she signs and discusses Hank Hung the Moon, the evocative and personal tale of 1950s and ‘60s musical staples, all viewed through the life story of Hank Williams and the people he influenced, Friday, May 18, 12:00-1:00 p.m. at The Fairhope Inn. Tickets are $15 and include lunch and $5 off the purchase of the book. Following lunch at The Fairhope Inn, she will sign copies of Hank Hung the Moon at the bookstore. (1morechapter)… (more)

Rheta Grimsley Johnson discusses Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming.

Nationally syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson, winner of the Ernie Pyle Award for human interest reporting, turns her sharp eye on herself in this frank, exhilarating, wise, poignant, and brave memoir in Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming, named a 2010 Spring Okra Pick by the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance. Her territory ranges from childhood memories of ritual pre-interstate trips in the family station wagon to visit foot-washing Baptist relatives to young-girl fixations on the Barbie dolls of the title, from the simultaneous exuberance and proto-feminist doubts of young marriage to the aches of loves lost through divorce and death. Johnson also tells of her memorable journalism career, which began on her college newspaper and rural weeklies and moved on to prestigious big-city dailies, and was punctuated by her distinctive writing voice and an unerring knack for revealing her much-loved South through uncommon stories about its common people. Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming is a big-hearted book that will leave no reader unaffected. If you cannot attend the reading, but would like a signed copy of Enchanted Evening Barbie and the Second Coming, you may reserve it at http://acappellabooks.com/ev_grimsleyjohnson.asp. (jasbro)… (more)

Rheta Grimsley Johnson , Poor Man's Provence: Finding Myself in Cajun Louisiana.

We hope you can join us as Rheta Gimsley Johnson reads from and signs here recent book, Poor Man’s Provence: Finding Myself in Cajun Louisiana.

For over a decade, syndicated columnist Rheta Grimsley Johnson has been spending several months a year deep in the heart of Cajun Louisiana. Unlike many other writers who have parachuted into the swampy paradise for a few days or weeks, Rheta fell in love with the place, bought a second home and set in planting doomed azaleas and deep roots. She has found an assortment of beautiful people in the homely little town of Henderson, right on the edge of the Atchafalaya basin. (booksense)… (more)