"Thomas presents us not with idealized heroes in glamorous locales but with the kind of people we know who live in places like Wetumpka. These windows into ordinary lives are rendered with extraordinary skill and pitch-perfect prose that would make Larry Brown raise his beer in tribute." Beth Ann Fennelly, author of The Irish Goodbye: Micro-Memoirs

"Place is a thing unto itself, and not only can you see it, you can also smell it and feel the texture of the air on your skin. Collectively, the stories have the sweep and unity of a novel. I loved every minute I spent reading these pages." Steve Yarbrough, author of The Unmade World

"Detour, night, unfamiliar road, varied porch lights shielding cryptic lives behind a patchwork of front doors. That image in James Ladd Thomas's story collection Something You Should Know About nails for me the impact of this keen insightful collection of lives: the hopeful, the disheartened, the unashamed melancholic, the idiot savant." Ron Harris, author of Mr. Boy: Tales of a Southern Gentleman 

“I was taken aback by the power in his fiction, how effortlessly he pulled me into his fictional world, all the effective and insightful nuances in characterization. I’ve seen an entire room mesmerized, people sitting up straight and leaning into his reading. James Ladd Thomas’ gifts as a storyteller are astonishing.” Barry Lopez, author of Arctic Dreams

“James Ladd Thomas’ stories are so warm and full of life, like a friend telling you about these people she knows, their funny absurdities and tangled messes. When you finish you find yourself connecting these characters to your own life, your own absurdities and messes. For me, that’s the aim of good fiction, helping the reader examine her own humanity.” Melissa Bank, author of The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing

“Lester Lies Down reminds me of why I started reading books in the first place—to be enchanted, to be carried away from my world and dropped into a world more vivid and incandescent.” John Dufresne, author of I Don’t Like Where This Is Going

“James Ladd Thomas is a hell of a novelist.” Tom Franklin, author of Hell at the Breech & Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter