Travelers in Search of Vacancy: Short Stories of the South

by Karen Clark Rasberry, Erin Rasberry Napier (Cover Design), Phyllis Clark Holder (Contributor)

Travelers in Search of Vacancy is a nostalgic, often hilarious, sometimes poignant picnic table set with life experiences and discovery while family, home and friends serve as the centerpiece. The book gains its title from the author's account of vacationing with her extended family in 1960's Florida and is one of 50 favorite columns formerly featured in The ReView, an award-winning weekly newspaper based in the quaintly sophisticated city of Laurel, Mississippi. If you are a son or a daughter of the South or a Baby Boomer who longs to be transported to a simpler time and place, Travelers will resonate and carry you on a sentimental journey down the back roads of your memory. With her southern voice and brilliant descriptions, the author has an artist's gift of painting pictures with words that convey the spirit of an inimitable era, the eternal value of family ties and the unique traditions and shared recollections of growing up southern in the '60s.

Genres: Nonfiction

222 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2009

Reviews

[Kristi]

I absolutely adored this book! My great grandmother lived in a small town in Mississippi (tiny enough that calling anyone local on the phone could be dialed using only 3 numbers) and visiting her was one of my childhood joys. Reading these short stories brought me back to some of those days spent shelling peas together in the garden, searching for treasures in Grandma's button jar, sharing a pitcher of lemonade on a muggy summer evening on the front porch, and the delightful quirkiness that comprised that hamlet and its residents. These days this girl has had to leave the South, but reading Mrs. Rasberry's book reminded me that the South has never and will never leave this (slightly older) girl. This one is a keeper!!

[Alex]

I bought this book on a trip to Laurel. I love the TV show Hometown and heard Erin mention her mom’s book. This book is not very politically correct, and extremely cringe worthy. Some of the stories were fine, but not worth the time or money.

[Kyrie]

I picked up this book because I was in Laurel, I love Ben and Erin Napier's show, and I forgot how different mothers and daughters can be.

It's hard to read tone of voice in text, so it's possible much of the very unpolitically correct things are meant to be tongue in cheek humor. The first three sections of the book are kind of like listening to a relative that you love, but that you also hope won't let loose on certain topics. The last three sections are funnier, funny being a very relative term.

Finally, it just aggravates the snot out of me that a Southerner, working for a newspaper, can't spell "y'all" correctly.

[Ellen Day]

I read Karen's book, A Southern Most Journey, and couldn't wait to get my hands on Travelers in Search of Vacancy's. Karen's heart is deeply rooted in the southern traditions she was raised in... her hometown of Laurel, MS. She has drawn me in and I really want to visit Laurel, get to know her neighbors and be a part of the town. Karen has the gift of comedy. Her writing is good, clean fun! I would love to read more works by Ms. Rasberry.

[Carol]

For anyone who loves books about the South, this is a good read. The author has put in book form newspaper articles written for her hometown paper. A lot of the stories will take you back to a nostalgic time in the 1960s when life was simpler. Anyone who grew up during that time can relate to just about every story.

The author is Mama to Erin Napier on the HGTV show, Home Town.

[Cece]

A great southern read that takes you back to the good old days of the south. A southern girl myself((Alabama), many of these felt straight out of my childhood especially with the front porch, shelling peas and grandmas button jar.