Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
What we're reading

Find your new favourite book or recommend one on our Book forum.

Original poster

Place-based books, Deep South

54 replies

Wazzzzzuuuuuuup · 18/03/2024 21:31

I love to travel and love to make my travels really immersive with very personal planning (often over complicated itineraries!), making Playlists relevant to the countries/cities I'm visiting etc. I also like to read books written by authors from/about the places I'm visiting.

I'm taking a road trip in the USA with my husband. We're going from New Orleans through west Mississippi to Memphis, TN, then to Birmingham Alabama, then Nashville, TN. We then head out to Savannah GA for a few days and back to NOLA through the Florida panhandle.

Can anyone recommend any books by Southern authors or incorporating any of these cities?

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Original poster
Wazzzzzuuuuuuup · 02/04/2024 21:33

Thanks to @MrsHamlet and @Dustyblue for the recommendation for Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. I'm halfway through and can't describe how much I have been enjoying this delicious book

OP posts:
Deathraystare · 26/03/2024 16:36

Blue Highways: A Journey into America
Audible Audiobook – Unabridged
William Least Heat-Moon (Author), Joe Barrett (Narrator), Hachette Audio (Publisher)
4.5
4.5 out of 5 stars
1,709 ratings
See all formats and editions

Hailed as a masterpiece of American travel writing, Blue Highways is an unforgettable journey along our nation's backroads. William Least Heat-Moon set out with little more than the need to put home behind him and a sense of curiosity about "those little towns that get on the map-if they get on at all-only because some cartographer has a blank space to fill: Remote, Oregon; Simplicity, Virginia; New Freedom, Pennsylvania; New Hope, Tennessee; Why, Arizona; Whynot, Mississippi." His adventures, his discoveries, and his recollections of the extraordinary people he encountered along the way amount to a revelation of the true American experience.

Readingallthetime · 24/03/2024 21:11

You must get Nowhere is a Place by Bernice McFadden! It's sooooo underrated! Has a terrible boring cover that doesn't match the story at all. I loved the audiobook in particular, as the narrator was so good.

MsNeis · 22/03/2024 09:24

The Blackwater saga (by Michael McDowell)!!! I'm reading it right now and I'm addicted! It's a very easy to read and atmospheric series of novels, I hope you enjoy it!

TattiePants · 22/03/2024 08:24

wizzler · 22/03/2024 06:41

I think Carson McCullers wrote about the South .... you've prompted me to search through my bookshelf and re read

I started The Heart is a Lonely Hunter last night and it is set in (an unnamed so far) the South.

Moreveganice · 22/03/2024 06:49

And Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Thank you for the thread OP you’ve reminded me reread this amazing book (again!)

wizzler · 22/03/2024 06:41

I think Carson McCullers wrote about the South .... you've prompted me to search through my bookshelf and re read

Original poster
Wazzzzzuuuuuuup · 22/03/2024 06:28

Thanks again everyone

I visited the library yesterday and picked up 2 books by Alice Walker and Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. I'm just about finished the Tennessee Williams collection so have enough to be going on with for the next month or so.

I'll download some more of your fantastic suggestions to my Kindle before my travels.

OP posts:
shenandoahvalley · 21/03/2024 02:23

Brazenly placemarking!

Not. Book, but the Woody Harrelson/Matthew McConnaughy True Detective is very evocative indeed. The heat, humidity, sparseness, swampy landscape, grueling poverty in places. Also a very good thriller, but the cinematography is just excellent.

Needmorelego · 21/03/2024 02:10

A sequel to Fried Green Tomatoes called "The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop" was published a couple of years ago. Fried Green Tomatoes was one of the first "grown up" books I read. Love it. Fannie Flagg's other books are brilliant too.

deeplybaffled · 20/03/2024 23:52

Definitely Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. And seconding the Sookie Stackhouse books too for something lighter.

Original poster
Wazzzzzuuuuuuup · 20/03/2024 22:37

Thanks all. I've got Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and Intruder in the Dust downloaded to my Kindle and am doing a library trip tomorrow.

We are definitely booking to go to the Whitney Plantation. The name escaped me in my OP

OP posts:
Myopicglass · 20/03/2024 22:04

If you like Anne Rice try Poppy Z Brite- Lost Souls is great.

Strikeback · 20/03/2024 21:11

Carl Hiaasen. Black comedies set in Florida

AccidentallyFabulous · 20/03/2024 21:02

The Trees by Percival Everett.

Set in Mississippi; one of my favourite reads of the last few years.

MorrisZapp · 20/03/2024 21:01

The Tilted World by Tom Franklin. Bootleggers, an orphaned baby and a treacherously flooded levee.

MrsHamlet · 20/03/2024 20:49

The Axeman's Jazz

MorrisZapp · 20/03/2024 20:23

Deep South by Nevada Barr is crime fiction set on the Natchez Trace. It's about a blow-in park ranger who uncovers murkiness at every turn, all set in the lushest, alivest deep south climate and ever growing vegetation. I love it.

Holyguacbatman · 20/03/2024 20:16

Not a book recommendation sorry but if you are near New Orleans I would recommend the Whitney plantation. It's amazing, both informative and heartbreaking at the same time.

Justbecausethefirsttimewehadanenormouscrowd · 20/03/2024 19:48

Secret life of bees. By sue monk kidd. As per pp's. One of my all time favourite books

Iknowwhatitinvolves · 20/03/2024 19:40

Roll of thunder is a good one

How to be Lost by Amanda eyre ward is partly set in New Orleans

TattiePants · 20/03/2024 19:36

Take by Hand by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is set in Alabama
Memphis by Tara M Stringfellow
This Tender Land by William Kent Kruger is partly set in Mississippi
Mudbound by Hilary Jordan also set in Mississippi
The Color Purple by Alice Walker set in Georgia

AnotherDayOfSun · 20/03/2024 04:15

Dorothea Benton Frank has some books set in the Lowcountry. The main one I remember was Isle of Palms. It was an easy read and charming, from what I remember.

Fr7fr6 · 20/03/2024 02:41

Carson McCullers' novels are brilliant. Similar to Flannnery O'connor and Eudora Welty.

TheGander · 19/03/2024 21:45

I second Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. Very atmospheric and some good laughs too.