On the Southern Literary Trail discussion
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General Bookishness
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Retired: What are you reading?
I just finished another book from my classics reading list, Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, after reading Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell. I really enjoyed the setting and how straightforward the storyline was. Could anyone recommend anofhed of Woodrell's novels?
Astrid, Tomato Red was really really good, but dark like Winter's Bone (I loved it). The Maid's Version was just so-so to me.
I second Tomato Red as a good choice. One of my favorites by Woodrell.
Thank you both, LeAnne and Kirk! The dark quality of Winter's Bone was one of my favorite aspects about it. Tomato Red goes on my to-read list!
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Astrid, as others have said, Tomato Red is great. I'd also highly recommend The Death of Sweet Mister. Finally, The Maid's Version. This last novel is a new direction for Woodrell. It is based on the factual explosion of a dance hall in a small Missouri town. The maid of the story, whose sister was killed in the explosion, offers her theories on the cause of the explosion. Completely different in many ways from his "Country Noir" works, it is an intriguing read. I enjoy all of Woodrell's work.
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I really love Daniel Woodrell, Mike, I thought Winter's Bone was exquisitely written. I've read most of his books, as have my son and husband. I've also seen the film of Winter's Bone, in which a young, unknown Jennifer Lawrence was excellent, and the film version of Woe to Live On.
Kim , here's to s healthy new year and a great reading year .
Mike, thank you too for your input! The Maid's Version sounds interesting...You guys are the best :) This is exactly why the Trail is my favorite GR group!
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I read The Death of Sweet Mister a while back. It was good, but also pretty depressing.
I agree, Diane! Just seeing Donald Trump's hair is enough to send me into a downward spiral, and all the shootings and such make my heart ache for all the families dealing with loss. Thank you for the doses of Miss Eudora, she puts me in a better frame of mind, like a tonic. Hope you are having lovely holiday week, we are. I know some people are enjoying being home from work so they can read, but my family being home from work is interrupting my reading. I love spending time with them, but am missing my quiet hours. However, I've awakened 2 nights in a row--cat seeking warmth by getting on me and making my bad leg ache--and have used my Kindle to read myself back to sleep. Read an entire book of poetry 2 nights ago, and finished a book group book last night. Boy howdy, aging, illness, and accidents are not for sissies, to paraphrase the divine Miss Bette Davis. I've always had to tough situations out, raising kids, moving, serving in the Navy, dealing with family members in bad situations, etc--but this year has required finding depths of toughness I did not know existed. Just being able to talk about books has been a blessing.
Thanks, Diane and Angela M for your good wishes. I am hoping for an exceedingly dull, uninteresting year on the personal front this year. The stuff that has made like "interesting" has been nothing I would like to experience again.
Kim, hope this year will be a stellar year for you, full of good health and good books.Finished The Drunken Spelunker's Guide to Plato
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
That's an interesting title. I would think being a drunken spelunker could be very dangerous. ;-)
Tom, thanks for the link for the Longmire story. I am so glad Netflix did another season of it. Appointment television when it was on basic cable at our house, now we can binge if we like on Netflix. Am sending my husband on a quest in one of my book storage areas for The Orchard Keeper, I cannot navigate in my wheel chair or on my crutches. I bought all the early Cormac McCarthy when he hit big. His style has really evolved from his earlier books through No Country for Old Men and The Road. He is paring his sentences down to the bone, but packs a wallop with a few words. Even having read the book, NCFOM made me jump when I saw the film. My poor daughter was jumping out of her skin as she was the only one in our family group who had not read the book before hand. Same thing happened with an ensign with whom I worked, we did a girls' night out and went to see The Silence of the Lambs. All of us except for her had read the book at least once, someone in our crowd had assured her "it was not all that scary". Suffice to say, she was a bit of a wreck after the movie.
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That's a brilliant idea, Tom. I shall have to ponder this one...
Tom, excellent idea. I just watched Auntie Mame on TV - Rosalind Russell version and the only version as far as I'm concerned. Can't think of a Southern equivalent at the moment, but I'll think on it.
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Tom, try Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady by Florence King. Not fiction, but still reminiscent of the whole Jeeves and Bertie relationship with her grandmother trying futilely to turn her into a lady.
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Tom, that's a tall order. However, check out the works of Michael Malone. Check out Foolscap: Or, the Stages of Love about a North Carolina Professor of English who connects with one of the greatest living playwrights. A hoot and a half.
Then there's a rather madcap murder mystery Uncivil Seasons: A Justin & Cuddy Novel set in the fictional town of Hillston, NC. The case is investigated by Justin Seville, a sophisticated black sheep of his family. They founded the town. Seville's sidekick is Cuddy Mangum, blue collar, Seville's opposite. Murder just shouldn't be that funny. There are two additional Justin and Cuddy's. I've read them all. Highly recommended.
Finally, take a look at Lookaway, Lookaway by Wilton Barnhardt. Outstanding.
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This sounds great! How could it fail with lines like "no matter which sex I went to bed with, I never smoked on the street"?
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Both of these look good! Thanks!
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Good. I hope you enjoy them. I sure did.
I stumbled across this book in an old pile of paperbacks at my parents that my great aunt had owned. I had never heard of the author, Stephen Becker, or any of his books. A Covenant With Death, published in 1964, is really good and the writing is solid. Here is the Goodreads synopsis of A Covenant With Death by an author that has been long forgotten and is worthy of being found again.Set in 1923 in the American southwest, a young judge has an enormous responsibility to make in a capital case where a man is charged with murdering his beautiful wife. The parallel plot is his inability to handle life, love, success.
A Covenant With Death
Tom wrote: "Question: Are there any southern writers whose work would appeal to someone who loves the work of P.G. Wodehouse or Patrick Dennis? I would love to read a southerner's..."Does Texas fall within TheTrail's realm?
If so, check out Apologizing to Dogs and The Loop by Joe Coomer. Comic, yet poignant. I especially enjoyed The Loop, but Apologizing falls more strongly on the comic side.
Another great comic/poignant writer is James Wilcox. Modern Baptists is his most well-known, but he's written an entire series around it.
I really need to get with the program and start reading the same books as everyone else in this group. It's a New Year's resolution, honest. I did get "Welcome to Braggsville," which I must confess has puzzled me a bit so far.However, I'm curious as to whether anyone else has read -- or even heard of -- some of the books I've enjoyed lately:
"The Tiger," by John Valliant (about a man-eater in, of all places, Siberia); "The Wave," by Susan Casey (freakishly large "rogue waves" and the scientists and surfers who seek them, out); "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk," by Ben Fountain (a novel about a young, naive small-town Texan who collides with the stark reality of the Iraq War), "Vanishing Acts," (a novel by Jodi Piccoult, one of my favorite authors) and "Devil in the Grove," by Gilbert King (a riveting biography of Thurgood Marshall).
So many books, so little time! Hope everyone had a great holiday.
Darryl, I adored Billy Lynn & The Tiger, both! Im actually about to re-read The Tiger with our 12-year-old and hoping it isnt too dark for him. As for Vanishing Acts, I may have read it, but all those Picoult books swirl together in my memory. One of my resolutions is to write a review for every new book that I read. I have been doing that lately but rarely summarize the plot in "book report" fashion. The downside of that is obvious - I do you not remember what all my books or about!
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Doug, Texas definitely falls within Southern lit, although a lot of Texans would debate that. Laughing.
Question. How do y'all get these ARCs? Michael Farris Smith has a new book called Desperation Road that Id love to read & give input for (if that is what the quid pro quo is). I find typos/misspellings, timeline booboos, and accidentally switched character names all the time and would be happy to offer feedback to publishers. Ive published scientific papers and in-house petroleum geology journals/theses projects before (as LA Cantrell) and am thus neurotic about accuracy. So jealous of you folks with advanced reader copies!
LeAnne wrote: "Question. How do y'all get these ARCs? ..."The major source is netgalley.com. Check it out. It's easy to do. Just set up a little bio saying you like to write reviews on Goodreads and that you regularly recommend books to others. You don't need to have a blog or write long-winded reviews or anything like that. I thInk they're mostly looking for reviews, not editorial corrections of typos and such.
Have read, Vanishing Act, also read and enjoyed The Wave. The Thurgood Marshall book sounds good too. Own Billy Half time walk but have not read it yet.
LeAnne , like Doug , I get most of my advance copies through NetGalley and also through Edelweiss. As he said you set up a profile and request book . I don't have a blog and don't get approved for everything but I do get a fair number .
Doug and Angela, thank you! I will get set up for the new year and am glad to hear that long, laborious reviews aren't required.I do tend to blather when excited over a great read, but as Doug calls them, "book report" style reviews aren't my thing. I do not care for reviews that spoon feed me the entire plot - what can I say? I never peek at Christmas gifts until after the fat man has descended and think readers deserve every surprise that an author can give. Hoping for new reads in this new year!
Mod
Auggie Wren's Christmas Story just love this story at Christmas time but there s no such thing as a free lunch
For some reason I'm not consistently receiving these messages. Perhaps since I'm adding a message myself I will.I just reviewed the latest, third, book in a Canadian mystery series, Tumbled Graves, that I received through NetGalley. I definitely recommend both the book and series for those who like police stories that are more about character and plot than procedure per se. There are personal and professional twists that keep the story moving. The book is not actually published until
February though it's available at NetGalley for request by members.
LeAnne wrote: "Doug and Angela, thank you! I will get set up for the new year and am glad to hear that long, laborious reviews aren't required.I do tend to blather when excited over a great read, but as Doug ca..."
WARNING: Can be addictive. LOL
Sue wrote: "For some reason I'm not consistently receiving these messages. Perhaps since I'm adding a message myself I will.I just reviewed the latest, third, book in a Canadian mystery series, Tumbled..."</i>
Sue,
I enjoy reading mystery series. I had not heard of this series so thanks for mentioning this book. I usually like to collect series in either hardcover or softcover but just downloaded the first in this series ([book:Cold Mourning)on Kindle at a good price.
Looking forward to reading it
Thanks again
Beverly
Mod
My review is here.
Background to Danger
Beverly wrote: "Sue wrote: "For some reason I'm not consistently receiving these messages. Perhaps since I'm adding a message myself I will.I just reviewed the latest, third, book in a Canadian mystery series, [..."
Beverly, please let me know what you think. I really do enjoy this series.
what are we reading for jan. I have not been on for a while.
I just saw the film for the help and it was so good and it made it want to put the book up to vote.
I just saw the film for the help and it was so good and it made it want to put the book up to vote.
Mod
This month we are reading:
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
The Pecan Man
and for my first selection as moderator,
The Orchard Keeper which I have been reading and find very atmospheric. I love it!
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On the Southern Literary Trail
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Best wishes for your liberation from being house bound in 2016. I began College with the intention of being a history teacher. Ended up with a major in Psychology and a double minor in English and Latin. A swerve into the Law, where I remained for many years. I, too, cut great swathes through authors from the ancients to the moderns. Of course, my love is Southern Literature, though I read across many genres. My current reading covers the spectrum of light and dark. It's always my hope you'll find a balanced mix here on the Trail.