Fiction
The Half-Mammals of Dixie - George
Singleton (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)
This collection of stories shows Singleton's talent for combining
the poignant with the hilariously absurd. They take place in the
fictional Forty-Five, South Carolina, a town so tiny it missed the
map. Tony Earley describes him as "a big-hearted evil genius
who writes as if he were the love child of Alice Munro and Strom
Thurmond". His stories nag at the corners of your mind long
after you've read them and inspire sudden smirks as well as thoughtful
sighs.
Heaven of Mercury - Brad Watson
(W. W. Norton)
The mysticism Brad Watson weaves into his story-telling blends with
his singular ability of describing detail to such an extent that
Heaven of Mercury has been compared to the works of Faulkner and
Marquez. I find it one of the most refreshing books I've ever read.
The Last Girls by Lee Smith (Algonquin
Books of Chapel Hill)
On a June day in 1965, a dozen girls-classmates at a picturesque
Blue Ridge women's college-launched their homemade raft (inspired
by Huck Finn's) on a trip down the Mississippi. Thirty-five years
later, four of those "girls" reunite to cruise the river
again. This time it's on the luxury steamboat, The Belle of Natchez.
This time, when they reach New Orleans, they'll give the river the
ashes of a fifth rafter-beautiful Margaret ("Baby") Ballou.
Revered for her powerful female characters, Smith tells a brilliant
story of how college pals who grew up in an era when they were still
called "girls" have negotiated life as "women."
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
(Knopf)
In a small Mississippi town, Harriet Cleve Dusfresnes grows up haunted
by the murder of her brother, who was found hanging from a tree
in their yard when she was just a baby. Robin's killer was never
identified, nor has the family recovered. With her father having
absented himself and her mother incapacitated by grief, Harriet
lives largely in the world of her own imagination, alone even in
the company of her teenage sister (destined never to recall whatever
she saw that terrible day) and elderly relatives (for whom this
tragedy was a culminating blow). For Harriet, though, Robin is a
link to the happier past she knows about from stories and photographs;
and so she decides, in the summer of her 12th year, to find his
murderer and exact her revenge.
A Parchment of Leaves: A Novel
- Silas House (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill)
This is the story of Vine, a Cherokee-born woman who marries an
Irishman and moves to his family's land in the early 1900s. The
story is a meditation on the nature of the connections the author's
characters have to heritage and the Appalachian Kentucky landscape
they inhabit. It is a novel where the characters and the land speak
with equal force and the surprising turns in the story mimic the
sometimes gentle, sometimes terrifying winding of country roads.
Nonfiction
Can’t Be Satisfied by Robert Gordon (Little Brown
& Co.)
Muddy Waters is an iconic figure in American music. He invented
electric blues and created the foundation for rock and roll. Leaving
behind the cotton fields of rural Mississippi, he moved to Chicago,
plugged in an electric guitar, and changed the world. In "Can't
Be Satisfied," Robert Gordon gives us Muddy's epic, rollicking,
up and down life as we've never read it before. Combining the most
extensive research and interviews ever done on Muddy with a writing
style as rich, poetic, and powerful as the music he writes about,.
"Can't Be Satisfied" is a brilliant work of musical archaeology.
My Father’s People by Louis
Rubin, Jr. (Louisiana University Press)
Louis Rubin's people on his father's side were odd, inscrutable,
and remarkable. In contrast to his mother's family, who were "normal,
good people devoid of mystery," the ways of the Rubins both
puzzled and attracted him. In MY FATHER'S PEOPLE, Rubin tells "as
best I can about them all--my father, his three brothers, and his
three sisters." It is a searching, sensitive story of Americanization,
assimilation, and the displacement--and survival--of a religious
heritage. Told with Louis Rubin's signature eloquence and wit, MY
FATHER'S PEOPLE is a testimony to the courage of immigrant southern
Jews and their gifts to their chosen country.
No Heroes by Chris Offutt (Simon
& Schuster)
This book is both a memoir of Offutt's fortieth year and an exploration
of the idea of home -- and what happens when that place disappears.
With the whole county carefully watching, Offutt returns after a
twenty-year absence to teach at his alma mater, the only four-year
school in the Kentucky hills. With the humblest of intentions, he
expects to give back to his community, to accomplish great things,
to become, quietly, a hero of sorts. Yet present-day reality collides
painfully with memory, leaving Offutt in the midst of an adventure
he never imagined: searching for a place that may no longer exist.
Children's
Epossumondus by Colleen Salley,
illustrated by Janet Stevens (Harcourt)
This picturebook is a classic deep South "noodlehead"
tale, lovingly adapted by storyteller Colleen Salley. Epossumondus
is a possum who is his mama's and auntie's "sweet little patootie",
he's also silly, lovable, and muddleheaded. He has a knack for following
instructions exactly as they are given with hilarious results. All
the animals in the story, from Epossumondus to the gator to the
nutria, are charmingly rendered in watercolor and colored pencil.
The illustrator's colorful model for both mama and auntie was the
author herself.
This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen (Viking Books)
Remy always knows the perfect time to give a boyfriend "The
Speech" telling him it's over-after the initial romantic whirl,
but before the reality of an actual relationship hits. She's a girl
who knows just how to avoid any messy emotional entanglement. After
all, she's had the example of her five-times-married mother to show
her what not to do. So what, then, is it about Dexter that makes
it so hard for her to follow her own rules? He's everything she
hates: messy, disorganized, much too vulnerable, impulsive, and
worst of all, a musician like her father: the father Remy never
knew, the father who wrote a famous song for her, the father who
disappeared from her life. Sarah Dessen's most captivating novel
yet introduces readers to a girl who believes her heart is made
of stone-and the boy who proves her wrong.
Turtle Saver by Laurie Parker
(Quail Ridge Press)
A man driving along in his truck sees a turtle in the middle of
the road. Being good-hearted, the man stops and moves the turtle
to safety.... "And this simple act that was mighty kind-hearted
is how several things that took place all got started...."
Thus begins the charming tale of an uncanny chain
of events in The Turtle Saver. The lyrical rhymes are a joy to read,
and people of all ages will be amused by the fun situations that
arise, as in this excerpt, which describes how a man's case of poison
oak leads to good things: Readers will enjoy following this account
of the far-reaching effects of one good deed—all the way to
the surprising and heartwarming end!
Cooking/Lifestyle
I'm Just Here for the Food: Food + Heat
= Cooking by Alton Brown, (Stewart, Tabori, & Chang)
The theme of the Food Network's Good Eats Host Alton Brown's first
cookbook is the application of heat during cooking. A unique approach
to cooking, the chapters are divided by method (frying, roasting,
and, the author's favorite, grilling), each illustrated by entertaining
and enlightening text and drawings. Brown is a native of Atlanta
where he resides to this day. His Southern roots show in his charming
storytelling asides in the sidebars and introductions to recipes.
His devotion to Southern food is evident in several dishes from
Fried Green Tomatoes to Alabama Alchemy (great collard greens) to
a Chip Chop (a dish for one that involves a pork chop and a bag
of salt-and-vinegar potato chips).
Lady and Sons Just Desserts by
Paula Deen (Simon & Schuster)
Ideal for sweet tooths everywhere, The Lady & Sons Just Desserts
features one hundred classic and contemporary Southern desserts
created by a woman who knows how to please a hungry crowd. As in
The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook and The Lady &
Sons, Too!, Paula Deen captures the flavor of the South in recipes
that home cooks everywhere can enjoy
Poetry
Bellocq’s Ophelia by Natasha
Trethewey (Graywolf)
In the early 1900s, E.J. Bellocq photographed prostitutes, which
were first collected and published as Storyville Portraits. In Natasha
Trethewey's stunning second collection, she creates the life of
Ophelia in the image of one of Bellocq's subjects. Through Ophelia,
a very white-skinned black woman living in a brothel, a sad and
poignant story is told with beautiful precision and depth.
The Ectasy of Regret by Dannye
Romine Powell (University of Arkansas Press)
Dannye Romine Powell writes of marriage, parenthood, and temptation
-- of love in its many forms. Her lyrical, imagistic poems bring
into sudden focus the subtle shifts of understanding and emotion
within intimacy. In her reworking of the primal story of Eve and
Adam and throughout all the poems, she elucidates how everyday life
can sustain a family or sunder it. With clarity and care, she illuminates
the world.
Quartet for Three Voices by James
Applewhite (Louisiana University Press)
James Applewhite integrates personal experience with his wide historical,
literary, and scientific knowledge to trace the transformation from
an older South to a new; from the segregated, small-town world of
his grandparents' chickenyard and garden to the contemporary reality
of Stealth technology and the Oklahoma City bombing. Applewhite
meditates on three interrelated themes: the World War II -- era
absent father; the legacy of racism; and the shift from an agrarian
society to a technological one.
Song and Dance by Alan Shapiro
(Houghton Mifflin Co.)
In 1998, Alan Shapiro's brother, David, was diagnosed with an incurable
form of brain cancer -- just three years after their sister died
of breast cancer. David Shapiro was an actor on Broadway whose career
embodied the joys of life -- he was a song-and-dance man. Shapiro's
new poem cycle recounts his emotional journey through the last months
of his brother's life, exploring art as a woefully inadequate yet
necessary source of comfort.
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Fiction
A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House, Algonquin Books
A Place Called Wiregrass by Michael Morris, River Oak Press
Bear Me Safely Over by Sheri Joseph, Atlantic Monthly Press
Captain Saturday by Robert Inman, Little Brown
Cut to the Heart by Ava Dianne Day, Doubleday
Death of Sweet Mister by Daniel Woodrell
Deep in the Shade of Paradise by John Dufresne, WW Norton
The Half-Mammals of Dixie by George Singleton, Algonquin Books
Heaven of Mercury by Brad Watson, Norton
Island Murders by Wanda Canada
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff by Christopher Moore
The Last Noel by Michael Malone, Sourcebooks
The Last Girls by Lee Smith, Algonquin Books
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt, Knopf
Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall
Moon Women by Pamela Duncan
One Foot in Eden by Ron Rash, Novello
Ruby River by Lynn Pruett, Grove/Atlantic
Salt by Isabel Zuber
The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, Penguin Putnam
The Solace of Leaving Early by Haven Kimmel
The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake by Breece D’J Pancake
The Sunday Wife by Cassandra King, Hyperion
Swan by Frances Mayes, Broadway Books
The Worst Day of My Life So Far by M. A. Harper, Harcourt
Yonder Stands Your Orphan by Barry Hannah
Cookbook
Beer Can Cooking by Stephen Raichlen
Fix – It & Forget It Cookbook by Dawn Ranck
Foster’s Market Cookbook by Sara Foster, Random House
A Gracious Plenty by John T. Edge, UNC Press
I’m Just Here for the Food by Alton Brown, Stewart, Tabori
& Chang
Lady and Sons Just Desserts by Paula Deen, Simon & Schuster
The Morrocan Collection, by Hilarie Walden
Process This! By Jean Anderson, HarperCollins
Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread and Scuppernong Wine by Joseph E. Dabney
Nonfiction
American Places by William E. Leuchtenburg
Can’t be Satisfied: The Life & Times of Muddy Waters-Robert
Gordon, Little Brown
Dear Brother-Letters of William Clark to Jonathan Clark Edited by
James J. Holmberg
First to Fly: North Carolina and the Beginnings of Aviation by Thomas
Parramore, UNC Press
A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel
John Adams by David McCollough
Last Train to Paradise by Les Standiford, Crown
My Losing Season by Pat Conroy, Doubleday
No Heroes by Chris Offutt, Simon & Schuster
Raising the Hunley by Brian Hicks
Searching For Virginia Dare by Marjorie, Coastal Carolina
Sacred Selfishness by Bud Harris
Sowon Laund Album by Rob Amberg, UNG
The Victorian Visitors: Culture Shock in Nineteenth
Century Britian by Rupert Christiansen
When Katie Wakes by Connie May Fowler
Poetry
A Horse at the Hirshhorn by Eric Weil
Bellocq’s Ophelia by Natasha Trethewey, Graywolf
Catching Light: Poems by Kathryn Stripling Byer, LSU Press
Ice Tea/ Lemonade by Fred Thompson, Harvard Common Press
Poets for Peace by Timothy Crowley, Chapel Hill Press
Quarlet for Three Verses by James Applewhite
Sailing Around the Room by Billy Collins
Song and Dance by Alan Shapiro, Houghton Mifflin
The Ectasy of Regret by Dannye Romine Powell, Univ of AK Press
The Gift, by Hafiz
Children’s
Boat n Wind by Steve Tiller, Michaelsmind
Born to Fly by Steve Tiller, Michaelsmind
Epossumondas by Colleen Salley, Harcourt
Falcon and Charles Street Witch by Luli Gray, Houghton Mifflin
Hoot by Carl Hiaasen, Random House Children’s Books
More How Stuff Works by Marshall Brain, Wiley
Rainbow’s Landing by Steve Tiller, Michaelsmind
The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen, Viking Books
To Every Thing There is a Season, by Leo and Diane Dillon
Turtle Saver by Laurie Parker, Quail Ridge Press
Turtle Tracks by Sally Harman Plowden, Palmetto Conservation Foundation
Waiting for Christopher by Lousie Hawes, Candlewick Press
Wake Up Big Barn by Suzanne Tanner Chitwood
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