Sunday, May 13, 2007

Honor thy Southern Moms w/ Books!

Rick at RickLibrarian suggest, Mama Makes Up Her Mind by Bailey White.

Northwest Regional Library System says, "Bailey White writes about her tiny home town, a Georgia hamlet full of fascinating neighbors, overstuffed homes, and an unusual number of swans. In the tradition of such authors as Garrison Keillor and Fannie Flagg, she tells warm and funny stories--about what happens when her Mama decides to train a taxidermist to cook, about teaching school with the help of the Titanic and a one-eared intellectual, about the challenge of gardening in Georgia, where 'vegetation does not know its place.'"


Sage got me thinking about Southern mothers with his comment on the Faulkner quote post: "Roy Blount, a southern writer in exile, has written a humorous book about his relationship with his mother (and about southern mothers in general). [The book is Be Sweet: A Conditional Love Story] In it, he says something like, `My mother loved me to pieces. I've spent my entire adult life trying to put those pieces back together again!’"


I read Rick Bragg’s All Over but the Shoutin’ last fall and shed some tears for his mother’s sacrifices. You may know Bragg from his newspaper work, having won the Pulitzer and all, but did you know he was born and raised in north Alabama?

Can y’all think of other southern memoirs honoring mothers?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That comment about "loving someone to pieces" was really funny....and there is a slightly true ring to that, huh? :)

sage said...

although I loved Blount's book, I thought it was a bit drawn out (but I've also felt that was true for the other couple of books I've read by him.) In thinking about Southern books and mothers--I find myself thinking about books where the grandmother plays the strong role as opposed to the mother.

~Becky said...

I read Bragg's book a year or two ago. I remember feeling very bad for his mother, but now I can't remember the details.
~rebecca

maggie moran said...

It is so true Kelly. :)

I'm surprised Halmark hasn't pushed the grandparent day more, Sage. So what have you come up with?

Fond of Books there is a part in there when she takes a beatin' from her no good husband and Ricky recalls her asking him not to hit her in the mouth. Something like, "Watch my teeth!" I don't have a copy here or I'd quote ya, sorry.

ricklibrarian said...

How about Mama Makes Up Her Mind by Bailey White?