Southern author Jack Kerley explains his sense of place with, "I’m a native
of Newport, Kentucky, and live here today. Newport sits on a big swooping bend of the Ohio River, and is where Dixie meets the Midwest, and both meet Appalachia. When I was a kid, Newport was called the “Sin City of the South.” It’s nice to live in a town with a colorful past, like having a stripper aunt who went straight, but tells wild stories of the day.
I also spend a good deal of time in Fairhope, Alabama, on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay. When first in the area, a decade or so back, I knew it would be a helluva place to set a story. There’s water in every direction, and my stories grow best in heat and humidity. When not writing, I fish. My idea of Heaven is waltzing into the Tennessee/North Carolina highlands with a pack on my back and a fly rod in my hand."
Friday, April 20, 2007
Crappie? Catfish? No Trout!
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Reader Suggest Southern Book
TXMommy over at Too Many to Count said, "Our book club read Cane River by Lalita Tademy this last month. It's the story of a Southern family, focusing on the women in the family. They were slaves and became progressively "whiter" as the generations past. It is historical fiction based on the author's family. You might want to add it to your list of suggestions."
Jenclair of A Garden Carried in the Pocket adds, "I read this 5 or 6 years ago and enjoyed it. Here is a link to some information about the community, which is right outside of Natchitoches, LA. And another link to a blogger who writes about it."
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Read Any Walker Percy?
The Moviegoer (1961)The Last Gentleman (1966)
Love in the Ruins (1971)
Lancelot (1977)
The Second Coming (1980)
Pigeons (copy)
The book claims either you love them or you hate them. I would have to say, before my Italian trip, I was indifferent. It took a couple of days in San Marco Square to knock me off the fence. After watching them huddle around diners and rush anyone chewing, I quickly surmised they were icky. Pigeons otherwise known as rats with feathers made my skin crawl.
This weekend my whole attitude changed after reading Pigeons by Andrew D. Blechman. He has written a fascinating, I kid you not, book about these common birds. His tone is light and humorous with interesting stories to lure the reader. The introduction leads with an anonymous quote, “Some days you’re the pigeon. Some days you’re the statue.” Amen.
My heart was won after reading the story of the “Lost Battalion” of World War One. Apparently the 77th Division of the U.S. Army was trapped behind German lines in the Argonne Forest. Overnight, their division numbers dwindled to 200, and as the day began they were bombarded with friendly fire from 25 miles away.
Faced with sure death and no way to communicate with friendly forces, they brought out their rock doves. This battalion, such as the habit of Army foot soldiers, carried baskets of rock doves into battle with them. The first two feathered scouts were shot down by the Germans before ever orienting to their home base.
The third, Cher Ami, carried a desperate plea, “Our artillery is dropping a barrage on us. For Heaven’s sake, stop it!” Vulnerable to the rifle shots as the first two birds, Cher Ami headed back down to earth, but before impact he pushed out his wings and caught a gust of air. He climbed, then climbed some more, and to the amazement of the soldiers he flew out of rifle range.
Twenty minutes later, a blood covered Cher Ami lay on his back at headquarters. “One eye and part of the cranium had been blown away, and its breast had been ripped open.” He lived another year and was awarded the French Croix de Guerre for his “courageous persistence.” (His mangled-stuffed body can be seen at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.)
Yes, you may not think this is a potboiler and you may think I’m a crackpot for suggesting it, but I do hope you give it a try. Oh, and if you don’t fall in love with these fine-feathered friends, Blechman includes a Pigeon Pot Pie recipe.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Southern Rock is Rockin'
I had a reference question that made me feel old, yet cool, at the same time Friday. A kid, all of 22-years, asked me if I could help him find a book.
“Sure, what ya lookin’ for?”
“You spell it L-Y-N-Y”
“Do you mean Lynyrd Skynyrd?”
“Yeah!”
“I found this book, which I can’t believe y’all got, and it’s not on the shelf.”
“Mmm, let me look at the record. Oh, it’s checked out. Would you like to try some other Southern Rock?”
“You know what Southern Rock is?”
“I think we have some Allman Brothers.”
“YOU know who the Allman Brothers are?”
This is when I say, "don't judge a book by the cover."
Now, who’s your blues, rockin' mama?
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Southerner Wins EB White Award!
Exert
For as long as ten-year-old Moon can remember, he has lived out in the forest in a shelter with his father. They keep to themselves, their only contact with other human beings an occasional trip to the nearest general store. When Moon’s father dies, Moon follows his father’s last instructions: to travel to Alaska to find others like themselves. But Moon is soon caught and entangled in a world he doesn’t know or understand, apparent property of the government he has been avoiding all his life. As the spirited and resourceful Moon encounters
constables, jails, institutions, lawyers, true friends, and true enemies, he adapts his wilderness survival skills and learns to survive in the outside world, and even, perhaps, make his home there.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus (copy)
After reading a tough, thought-provoking book, such as The Road by Cormac McCarthy, it is hard to pick up another book to read. For one thing, one compares everything read after with so called uber-book. Can you imagine? I’ve picked up a total of seven books this week and none appeal to my mood. I would read two chapters and go, “Ugh!” Not because the books were bad reads; rather, they didn’t measure up to McCarthy’s style.
Does one need to follow a depressing book with another? Is this a vicious cycle that cannot be broken? Maybe this is the reason most of Oprah’s book-club selections are slightly depressing. Is one drawn into a pattern of reading from whence there is no escape?
I found one way to snap out of the cycle. Read something that is on the opposite spectrum from said book. In this case I need to fight depressing with rib-tickling humor.
It may be only 32 pages and contain 164 words, but it is so silly my next read did the trick. 
Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems was a 2004 Caldecott Honor book. The word honor is designated for those books which do not win the award, but are considered “worthy of attention.” The actual award that year went to a book which displayed the Twin Towers as a background.
Pigeon represents the little kid in all of us, whom dies to do something, only because he is instructed not to do it. We meet the bus driver only for a brief second, but in that time frame he reminds us not to let the pigeon drive the bus. Oh, and now the pigeon really wants to drive the bus.
He begs, he pleads, he hops on one foot, but we must resist his charm. He demonstrates his capable ability, he relates how his cousin drove a bus once, and still we must say no. Yes, the pigeon has many tricks and we as readers must be the bad guys and not let him have his way. Any five-year-old can relate to this universal human trait.
This is a perfect read-aloud to any child or grand-child under the age of seven. It is so easy even an eight year old could read it to their younger siblings. All an adult needs to do is drive 10 to 20 minutes to a library. Spend five minutes hunting down the book. Spend another five minutes finding the required library card; then return home where uncontrollable giggles will spout. Timeless.
Sharyn McCrumb on the South
I find that the more I write, the more fascinated I become with the idea of the land as an intricate element in the lives of the mountain people, and of the past as prologue for any contemporary narrative. This connection to the land is personal as well as thematic.
1. Sick of Shadows (1984)2. Lovely in Her Bones (1985)
3. Highland Laddie Gone (1986)
4. Paying the Piper (1988)
5. The Windsor Knot (1990)
6. Missing Susan (1991)
7. Macpherson's Lament (1992)
8. If I'd Killed Him When I Met Him... (1995)
9. The PMS Outlaws (2000)
Bimbos of the Death Sun Series
1. Bimbos of the Death Sun (1987)
2. Zombies of the Gene Pool (1992)
Bimbos and Zombies (omnibus) (1998)
Ballad Series
1. If Ever I Return, Pretty Peggy-O (1990)
2. The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter (1992)
3. She Walks These Hills (1994)
4. The Rosewood Casket (1996)
5. The Ballad of Frankie Silver (1998)
6. The Song Catcher (2000)
7. Ghost Riders (2003)
8. St. Dale (2005)
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
South Carolina Writers
Dorothy Allison (1949- )
Raised in Greenville, SC 
Bastard Out of Carolina (1992)
Ruthie Bolton (1961- ) Memoirist
Born and raised in Charleston, SC
Gal: A True Life (1994)
Pat Conroy (1945- )
Lives on Fripp Island, SC
The Great Santini (1976)
The Lords of Discipline (1980)
The Prince of Tides (1986)
Beach Music (1995)
My Losing Season (2002)
John Dunning (1942- )
Raised in Charleston, SC
Bookman Series staring Clifford "Cliff" Janeway
Percival Everett (1956- )
Professor of English at the U of SC
Sorry, Western writer!
Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830/1886) Poet
Born and raised in Charleston, SC
DuBose Heyward (1885/1940)
Born and raised in Charleston, SC
Porgy (1924).
Josephine Humphries (1945- )
Born and raised in Charleston, SC
PEN/Hemingway award for Dreams of Sleep (1985)
Sue Monk Kidd (1948- )
Writer in Residence in Charleston.
The Secret Life of Bees (2002)
The Mermaid Chair (2005) 
Cassandra King (1944- )
Lives on Fripp Island, SC
The Sunday Wife (2002)
The Same Sweet Girls (2005)
Queen of Broken Hearts (2007)
Brad Land (???) Memoirist
Currently lives in SC
Goat (2004)
Ed Madden (? - Alive-n-kickin’) Poet
Artist-in-Residence for the SC State Parks
Carrie Allen McCray (???)
Freedom's Child:
Life of a Confederate General's Black Daughter (1998)
Julia Peterkin (1880-1961)
Born in Laurens County, SC
Black April (1927)
Scarlet Sister Mary (1928)
Bright Skin (1932)
Roll, Jordan, Roll (1933)
A Plantation Christmas (1934)
Sheri Reynolds (???)
Born and raised in rural SC
The Rapture of Canaan (1997)
Firefly Cloak (2006)
Dori Sanders (1934- )
Born and Raised Filbert, SC
Clover (1990)
Her Own Place (1993)
Anne Rivers Siddons (1936- )
Lives in Charleston SC
Heartbreak Hotel (1976)
Peachtree Road (1988)
Kings Oak (1990)
Outer Banks (1991)
Up Island (1997)
Low Country (1998)
Islands (2004)
Sweetwater Creek (2005)
William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870)
Born, raised and died in Charleston, SC
The Yemassee (1835)
The Lily and the Totem (1850)
Vasconselos (1853)
The Cassique of Kiawah (1859).
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Dueling Southern Authors
Among the classic Southern authors, who is the Southernest?
I’ll write their names alphabetically so as not to show my prejudices.
1. Erskine Caldwell
2. William Faulkner
3. Zora Neale Hurston
4. Harper Lee
5. Carson McCullers
6. Margaret Mitchell
7. Flannery O'Connor
8. Mark Twain
9. Alice Walker
10. Robert Penn Warren
11. Eudora Welty
12. Tennessee Williams
13. _______________
Please, leave a post so we may disagree! :D
Monday, April 09, 2007
Popular Culture's South
Ah, it is so good to see y’all getting excited about reading Southern books! 
*jumping for joy*
I’m going off on a limb by making this next statement. (Please, argue with me on my third choice, but don’t go there with the first and second.)
In today’s popular culture, when people think about Southern books, they think…
1. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
An epic Civil War tale in which the foolish/young, main character, Scarlett O’Hara, becomes a strong, independent woman through her struggles to survive. Yeah, yeah you’ve seen the movie already. Well, in the words of a highly successful reviewer i.e. me, the book is way better!
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Do I need to say anything here? Okay, possibly one thing. If you have not read this book, you MUST walk right out the front door, and cut yourself a switch! Ew, and switches are good and green this time of the year! Seriously, if you haven't read this, you don't know Boo!
3. Deliverance by James Dickey
Why? Well, I have never heard a joke so beaten to death than the “dueling banjos, squeal like a pig” joke from this book/film. For instance, I just reread Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods where he refers to this book/joke three times. Not to say Bryson is a broke record, but he also envisions another scenario in his book, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, involving a State Trooper and himself. For more info, see Jay Busbee's entry.
Agree or disagree?
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Southern Region Defined!
Summer Reading Challenge Info...
I believe one of the major reasons we have a whole genre named after our region is because "sense of place" or the setting becomes a character in most Southern books. I want to bring this to your challenge experience!
First and foremost, I will draw weekly from participants' names, and the winner will receive a Southern (Mississippi) made product. Secondly, I set up a separate blog so we can discuss our shared experiences within our readings. How? Well, I will take your post (reviews and/or notes) and copy them onto the blog and leave comments open for participation. (You will get credit w/ a link back to your original entry!) Thirdly, I will try to enhance your entries by taking pictures around my community and adding them to your posts.
Okay, I looked around at the time period for other challenges and I would like to set this challenge during the months of June, July, and August. Our most hot and humid time, dare I say, our most Southern time.
For this challenge you will need to read 3 Southern books. Having read The Road will not qualify you for the challenge. (Yes, Cormac McCarthy is a Southern author and the father/son travel to the south, but the setting is post-apocalyptic. Can you imagine me running around trying to get a picture of ashen destruction?) The books must contain a Southern setting by a Southern author!
Saturday, April 07, 2007
The Captain's Wife (notes)
"...letters are nonetheless peculiar historical documents that must also be 
read for what is evaded or unspoken. People's lives, and the ways in which they remember and record those lives, can never be perfect reflections of one another. The act of recounting always involves the selection of observations, the editing of emotions, even omission of entire experiences. By choosing which episodes to dwell upon and which sentiments to impart..." p28-29
Did we start this evasion of truth at our first summer camp? Our letters filled with flowing "Great Times!" and "Having so much FUN!" Really, all we wanted was our own bed and neighborhood friends.
You Love Me! You Really Love Me!
Amy at The Sleepy Reader nominated me for the Thinking Blogger Award. Man, the pressure is on to actually think; add more critical analysis less book eye-candy. Thanks Amy. I'm honored! :)
1. Rick at Ricklibrarian
2. NonAnon at Nonfiction Readers Anonymous
3. Amanda at Amanda's Weekly Zen
4. Leslie at A Life in Books
5. Tiffany at Neurotic Fiction Mom
Friday, April 06, 2007
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Come Sail Away...
One of the many boats my husband builds in the winter. All thanks to my Christmas shopping through Wooden Boat Magazine. My dream gift for him would be a week or two at the Wooden Boat School in Maine
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
The Road (copy)
Oprah’s book club is back! Her first contemporary fiction since 2002, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, is unlike any previous club selection. The only other Oprah selection I can vaguely compare it with is She’s Come Undone by Wally Lamb. Like author Lamb, who deprives his main character, Dolores Price, of any joy until the very last pages, McCarthy is stingy with the hope.
The Road is a bleak, post-apocalyptic quest for basic survival. The plot is simple; a father and son must journey from the cold north into the warmer south before winter. They set out on foot with a grocery cart full of canned foods, a revolver holding two bullets, a lighter, some blankets, and sturdy shoes. By the mother’s choice, she and the third bullet will not make the journey.
The reader is not privy to the apocalypse. McCarthy doesn’t add that to the story. On some arbitrary date, at 1:17 p.m., the clocks stop and the world enshrouds in a nuclear winter. The father’s memory is even less detailed with his cryptic, “dull rose glow in the windowglass.” He also briefly mentions the hoards of refugees begging along the roadside, long dead now.
Just what is a nuclear winter? The American Meteorology Society defines it as, “surface cooling that might result from the emission of extensive clouds of smoke (from burning cities, fuel sites, and forests) following the detonation of hundreds of warheads in a nuclear exchange.” In praise of McCarthy’s style, the reader will experience this gritty, wind-blown world and feel weighed down by the ash.
The Road is no Sunday cruise. The man and boy, remaining nameless throughout the book, must avoid all “bad guys.” The reader will find McCarthy’s world full of them. The “bad guys,” and this is disturbing on so many levels, are people who eat other people.
Okay, stop right there. I’m not reading any depressing book where people are eating people! What is Oprah thinking?
Please, don’t let that discourage you. McCarthy is a master and this may be his finest work. As a reader, come prepared for the desolation and inhumanity, but also be ready to join in their plight. By page 50, one will realize they have projected their own hope onto the travelers.
