On the Southern Literary Trail discussion
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General Bookishness
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Retired: What are you reading?
Finished and reviewed Nitro Mountain: A novel
by Lee Clay JohnsonMy review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Brina wrote: "I haven't heard of Valente or Vine. I'm going to look them up. Thanks Tom."Oh my! May I recommend Vendela Vida's novel entitled The Diver's Clothes Lie Empty? Its format is quirky - she uses second person format for the entire book... "when you wake up and realize there's no coffee, your mild hangover takes on epic proportions. You go to check your travel case only to remember, foggily, that you have no travel case. Your luggage and wallet are gone, stolen by that guy that snuck up behind you at the check-in desk" (this is not a quote from the book, just silly me showing how she used second person).
Okay, the use of "you" was too much for some readers, but I totally rolled with it. It is incredibly clever, not just a gimmick, because in the story, the woman who has lost her passport to a thief ends up snagging another passport from essentially a LOST AND FOUND bin at the police station. The woman (whose name is never revealed - just like in Invisible Man )switches identity, and using the "you" makes her climb in and sort of become you, the reader, too.
Loved it.
I finished Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan. It's the first book of a new epic fantasy series.https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Glory Over Everything by Kathleen Grissom – 3*** Grissom’s debut - The Kitchen House - became a best seller; this book follows one of the characters in the first book over several decades. There is a good story idea here, a runaway slave who passes for white and builds a successful life. There are a number of twists and turn in the plot and I was caught up in the story and wanted to know how the characters would fare. However, Grissom uses multiple narrators and the result is that there is less cohesion in the story-telling. In summary, it’s a good story and kept me turning pages, but the writing fell short.
Full Review HERE
Book, did you read The Kitchen House first?
Kim wrote: "Book, did you read The Kitchen House first?"Yes, I did ... helped with the back story, but I think people could easily read & enjoy GOE without reading TKH first.
Finished The Summer Guest. 4+ stars . My review : https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... A beautifully written story that makes me want to read Chekhov.
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My review is here.
I just finished The Innocents by Ace Atkins. My review is here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
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Sounds interesting, Tom. Had to write an essay on Absalom, Absalom for my Hemingway/Faulkner honors seminar, it was an amazing book. I fell in love with Faulkner that semester, a life long relationship.
You guys are rip roaring through some great reads! Lots of events, distractions, and end of school year parties have cut into my reading time. I did just finish rereading The Clearing by Tim Gautreaux. Being that this is a Louisiana book and set in the cypress forest and swamps of the 1920s, one of my two book clubs took a full moon canoe trip down one of the local bayous with guides. It was a beautiful way to celebrate this novel. Most of you here have read it, but for those who have not it is at its essence a story of two adult brothers, One damaged and the younger trying to save him. It reminds me a bit of the movie A River Runs Through It. You would probably call this a guy book but the love that younger brother has is as tender as anything I've ever read. Finally, Im starting Albert!
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Yay!
Finished the Great Gatsby. Starting The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, to be followed by The Hummingbird's Daughter by Luis Alberto Urrea.
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I just finished listening to The Custom of the Country by Edith Wharton and both the book and the narrator were wonderful. My review is here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Tom, I know what you mean about Gatsby. I simply did not like it when I had to read it in HS, and then when I came to it again in my 30s when I was teaching it @ NAPS, it was an absolute revelation. It captured the American character, the belief in shedding the past and recreating ourselves, so well. When I finished, it seemed to me to be as perfect a novel as could be written by a person, capturing it's time and space with clarity and conveying the inherent tragedy of trying to be something we are not to impress someone we love.
Kim and Tom, I also had to read Gatsby when I was 15. Either it was over my head or I couldn't relate to the characters, I just didn't like it. Reading it now, I still had little sympathy for the characters, but I could see why others love it as the great American novel. Sherman Alexie- recommended to me by both my parents. Rarely do they agree on books, so I decided to start with this one.
Hummingbird's Daughter- May read in another group, I'd like to finish by the end of the long weekend. I recently read another of Urrea's books, and he is a gifted author. Parts of his books take place in the southwest, mainly Mexico, so on a technicality, you can label his works southern.
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Out of curiosity, what group?
It's in the Historical Ficcionistas group.
Brina , I'm one of those who love The Great Gatsby . It's my favorite all time book . But I can understand that not everyone will relate or love it like I do . I have read it multiple times over the years . I've never written a review but maybe one day I'll try to verbalize by thoughts .
I read Brown Bottle; are the Appalachians part of the south? Now I'm finally reading Carrying Albert Home--so far I like it!
Gatsby is fantastic, but I do think it is a novel that may be wasted on most high school audiences. I did see the recent movie adaptation with Leonardo DiCaprio and thought it was done very well.
Love Gatsby as well. One of only three books I have read more than once.Finished Truly Madly Guilty
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Little Women and Gone with the Wind.
Ah , Gone with the Wind -nobody eats in my house when I m reading this
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Leanne I will look into the Gatsby movie thanks. Diane I am starting Gone With the Wind for the first time next month. Looking very forward now.
Brina, DiCaprio shows nice range in the movie, coming across as an insecure show-off who tries too hard and then letting his vulnerability show through. I have vague recollections of Robert Redford playing Gatsby many years ago, but he was so incredibly handsome back then that he only came across as suave. I really liked this version!
The new version captures the 20s atmosphere better
LeAnne, I thought DiCaprio was a better Gatsby too and I so agree about how he portrayed Gatsby's vulnerability which I thought was reflected in the novel. The one thing I didn't like in this version was how they changed the story a bit by having Nick at that place trying to recover from alcoholism. There certainly was a lot of drinking going on , and these "careless " people may have driven me to drink as well - lol. But it bugs me when a movie changes or adds something that wasn't in the book .
Thank you all, I look forward to watching the film.
Just finished Notes from an Exhibition: A Novel. 4 stars . My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show.... My first book by Patrick Gale but not my last .
One of my favorite books! I have not seen the new version of the movie but I liked the version with Robert Redford so much I think I will pass on the new.
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Me too. The way we were was my favorite.Finished People Who Knew Me
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I just finished a WWII novel that is being re-released in ebook format, so I had it as an ARC...Gone to Soldiers. This is a novel told through characters in multiple settings: among them French Jewish resistance fighters; members of the intelligence community in Washington DC and London; a writer of fiction who moves into journalism; laborers in Detroit, along with their families; women entering the work force; and all the characters being faced with the changing mores of wartime when no one knows what the future will bring or if they will have a future. So society changes. There are also subtle threads of relationships between some of the characters running through the book. It's quite a book.
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Sue , thanks. Sounds like one is like .
Brown Bottle by Sheldon Lee Compton – 2.5** Compton writes a gritty, no-holds-barred tale of a man struggling to do what is right. Best known for his short stories, this is Compton’s first full-length novel. His ability with the short-story format shows. There are several vignettes that would make great short stories, but he fails to adequately weave them together.
Full Review HERE
Jane wrote: "Yes looks good !"Diane wrote: "I have this one too, Sue, but haven't got to it yet. I'm glad to know you liked it, as that is a pretty good indicator that I will as well."
Angela M wrote: "Sue , thanks. Sounds like one is like ."
Diane, Angela and Jane, it is long but worth the investment of time. There is a major focus on women and the changing roles they face in the world too.
Sue , I've added it . I think I'll have to be in the right frame of mind to face an 800 page book but it is on my list .
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On the Southern Literary Trail
Books mentioned in this topic
Happy Land (other topics)Take My Hand (other topics)
Happy Land (other topics)
Happy Land (other topics)
Somewhere Toward Freedom: Sherman's March and the Story of America's Largest Emancipation (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Bennett Parten (other topics)Wes Browne (other topics)
Hubert Skidmore (other topics)
Mark Twain (other topics)
Delia Owens (other topics)
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Barbara Vine was a Pen Name that Ruth Rendell used when writing her darker novels. I have always wanted to read A Dark-Adapted Eye. Valente wrote In the Night Garden, a very interesting collection of interrelated stories. She also writes the The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland series.