“Twenty-seven and counting,” says Bonnie Johnson, manager of The Country Bookshop on Broad Street in downtown Southern Pines.

“We’ve got 27 authors already booked for our Spring Meet the Author Series, and we have more who have yet to be scheduled. Not only is this the most authors we’ve ever had in any one season, but they offer the greatest variety we’ve ever had.

“A number of them have written historical, modern and romance novels; but we have even more whose work covers a breadth of nonfiction topics, including biography, history, cooking, food, gardening and travel, so there will be something for everyone!

“In response to the many requests to have our events in the evening, we’ve changed the time for most of our authors from late afternoon to 7 p.m.,” Johnson adds. “This will give people coming from a distance, people who work during the day and families with children a chance to join us. We even have some events scheduled on weekends. There are a lot of great restaurants here in Southern Pines where people could have dinner first and then come to the bookshop to hear an author. What a wonderful evening out — feed the body and the mind!”

The Country Bookshop’s Spring Meet the Author series begins on Monday, Feb. 21, at 7 p.m. with the rescheduled event with Jim Hunt, North Carolina’s longest-serving governor, and journalist Gary Pearce, chief speechwriter and political and policy adviser for Hunt, who will discuss Pearce’s book, “Jim Hunt: A Biography.” Reservations are required by calling The Country Bookshop at (910) 692-3211.

Oscar “Andy” Hammerstein III, grandson of the legendary lyricist of “Oklahoma!” and “South Pacific,” among others, will share his book, “The Hammersteins: A Musical Theatre Family,” on Tuesday, Feb. 22, at 5:30 p.m. at Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities (555 E. Connecticut Ave, Southern Pines). Reservations are required by calling The Country Bookshop at (910) 692-3211.

On Thursday, Feb. 24, at 4 p.m., Patti Digh, author of “Life Is A Verb: 37 Days to Wake Up, Be Mindful and Live Intentionally,” “Four Word Self-Help” and “Creative Is A Verb,” will share ways to live a deeper, more meaningful life each and every day.

In March the series begins on Wednesday, March 9, at 7 p.m. with Appalachian State assistant professor of history Dr. Judkin Browning, author of “The Southern Mind Under Union Rule,” who will discuss his new book, “Shifting Loyalties.” Focusing on the Union occupation of Carteret and Craven counties in coastal North Carolina, Browning offers new insights into the effects of war on Southerners and the nature of civil-military relations under long-term occupation.

Arlis Ryan answers the question: What if Anne Hathaway Shakespeare had been Shakespeare’s silent writing partner? in her “what-if” novel of Tudor England, “The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare,” on Thursday, March 10, at 7 p.m.

North Carolina author Abigail DeWitt, presents “Dogs” on Friday, March 18, at 4 p.m., her novel of love and desire, guilt and accountability about a young woman who must face the hard truths of her parents’ lives and her own.

On Tuesday, March 29, at 7 p.m., Jennifer Bean Bower will share “Animal Adventures in North Carolina,” her new guidebook filled with weekend and day trips to destinations across the state where armadillos, ligers, New Guinea singing dogs, llamas and Siberian chipmunks await eager visitors.

In April, acclaimed North Carolina writer Angela Davis-Gardner returns to The Country Bookshop on Monday, April 4, at 4 p.m. with “Butterfly’s Child,” her new novel set in late 19th-century America that begins where Puccini’s opera “Madame Butterfly” ends.

On Wednesday, April 13, at 7 p.m., garden expert Toby Bost, consulting horticulturalist and field faculty emeritus of N.C. State’s Cooperative Extension and co-author of “The Carolina Gardener’s Guide,” ushers in the spring planting season with his new book, “The Successful Gardener Guide,” written with Leah Chester-Davis.

Andrea Reusing, the award-winning chef/owner of the legendary Chapel Hill restaurant Lantern, will inspire cooks to embrace the flavors and bounty of each season with recipes from her new cookbook, “Cooking in the Moment,” on Tuesday, April 19, at 7 p.m.

West Virginia nurse-midwife Patricia Harman returns on Wednesday, April 20, at 7 p.m., with “Arms Wide Open” (the prequel to her acclaimed memoir, “The Blue Cotton Gown”), her account of living a communal life in the wilds of Minnesota during the 1960s and 1970s, where she formed alliances with the eco-minded and anti-war counterculture that was both loved and reviled in those days, and where she became an idealistic home-birth midwife.

On Thursday, April 21, at 7 p.m., North Carolina’s beloved storyteller Donald Davis, the father of family tales, shares recollections of growing up in the southern Appalachians in his book “Tales From a Free-Range Childhood.”

Nature photographer and forest ecologist David Blevins and ecologist Michael Schafale celebrate the beauty, diversity and significance of North Carolina’s natural landscapes on Tuesday, April 26, at 7 p.m., when they present their book “Wild North Carolina: Discovering the Wonders of Our State’s Natural Communities.”

Robin Oliveira presents her novel, “My Name Is Mary Sutter,” on Thursday, April 28, at 7 p.m., the story of a brilliant young midwife struggling to become a surgeon who heads to Washington, D.C., to tend the legions of Civil War wounded.

On Friday, April 29, at 4 p.m., Durham-based journalist and travel writer Diane Daniel will share the fruits of her “coast-to-mountains” exploration of the best farms, produce stands, farmers markets, wineries, orchards and more, in her book “Farm Fresh North Carolina,” the first statewide guidebook of its kind.

The last event in April will be on Saturday, April 30, at 2 p.m., at Penick North Auditorium (Penick Village, 100 East Rhode Island Avenue Extention, Southern Pines), when historian Nathaniel Philbrick, National Book Award-nominee for “In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex,” and finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for “Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War, will present his book, “The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Bighorn.” Reservations are required by calling The Country Bookshop at (910) 692-3211.

May begins with Bland Simpson on Tuesday, May 3, at 7 p.m., when he offers a portrait of North Carolina’s oceanfront, sound country and interior shores behind the barrier islands in his beautifully illustrated book “The Coasts of Carolina: Seaside to Sound Country.”

On Thursday, May 5, at 7 p.m. Karen White, author of “On Folly Beach” returns with her new novel, “The Beach Trees,” about a woman haunted by the disappearance of her little sister decades before, who begins a long and painful healing process with the help of a struggling artist.

Therese Fowler, author of the novels “Souvenir” and “Reunion,” presents “Exposure” on Tuesday, May 10, at 7 p.m., her novel about a teen couple whose passionate relationship becomes fodder for a zealous prosecutor anxious to turn the case into a public crusade against “sexting.”

On Thursday, May 12, at 7 p.m., Diane Chamberlain, award-winning author of “The Shadow Wife,” shares her latest novel, “The Midwife’s Confession,” about a young couple who learn a terrible secret in the suicide letter written by the midwife who delivered their children.

Popular and entertaining speaker Dr. Mardy Grothe, author of “Never Let a Fool Kiss You or A Kiss Fool You” and “I Never Metaphor I Didn’t Like,” returns on Tuesday, May 17, at 7 p.m. with his new book “Neverisms: A Quotation Lover’s Guide to Things You Should Never Do, Never Say, or Never Forget.”

On Wednesday, May 18, at 7 p.m., Minrose Gwin presents the Indiebound Notable Book, “The Queen of Palmyra,” her debut novel about a young girl in civil rights-era Mississippi and the horrors she witnesses one hot summer.

UNC-Charlotte history professor David Goldfield offers a major new interpretation of the Civil War era on Thursday, May 19, at 7 p.m. when he discusses “America Aflame: How the Civil War Created a Nation,” his provocative take on the causes of America’s greatest tragedy.

On Sunday, May 22, at 2 p.m., Sara Foster, owner of Foster’s Market, the acclaimed gourmet take-out store/cafes in Durham and Chapel Hill, and author of “The Foster’s Market Cookbook,” shares contemporary interpretations of classic Southern dishes in her new cookbook, “Sara Foster’s Southern Kitchen.”

On Tuesday, May 24, at 7 p.m., Karen Cox, UNC-Charlotte associate professor of history and director, Center for the Study of the New South, examines how Southerners embraced the imaginary romance of the region’s past, constructed to capitalize on popular perceptions of the Old South, until news coverage of the civil rights movement brought images of violent conflict in the South into people’s living rooms in her book, “Dreaming of Dixie: How the South Was Created in American Popular Culture.”

On Thursday, May 26, at 7 p.m., Craig Nova, professor in humanities at UNC-Greensboro and award-winning author of 12 novels, explores the interconnections between his work as a writer, his personal life and his passion for fly-fishing in his memoir, “Brook Trout and the Writing Life.”

The author series in June begins on Thursday, June 9, at 4 p.m., when North Carolina’s beloved Lee Smith, recipient of the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the N.C. Award for Literature, Southern Book Critics Circle Award, and inductee in the N.C. Literary Hall of Fame, presents her latest collection of stories, “Mrs. Darcy and the Blue-Eyed Stranger,” and the newly reissued novel “The Devil’s Dream,” set in 1833 Cold Spring Holler.

On Saturday, June 11, at 2 p.m. food writer and cooking teacher Sheri Castle will celebrate the pleasures of fresh, local, seasonal food when she discusses her book, “The New Southern Garden Cookbook: Enjoying the Best from Homegrown Gardens, Farmers Markets, Roadside Stands and CSA Farm Boxes.”

And finally, on Thursday, June 16, at 7 p.m., Bruce Sorrie, botanist for the North Carolina Natural Heritage Program, will present “A Field Guide to Wildflowers of the Sandhills Region: North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.

For information about The Country Bookshop’s Spring Meet the Author series, call the shop at (910) 692-3211 or go to www.thecountrybookshop.biz.