Place-based books, Deep South

[Wazzzzzuuuuuuup]

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?

Michael Farris Smith has written some thrillers set in Mississippi.

Mudbound by Hillary Jordan - not cheerful but a great read. Set in post WW2 Mississippi.

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe

The Little Friend

The Secret Life of Bees

To Kill a Mockingbird

Richard grant writes amazing travel stories as a Brit in the US

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

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

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.

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

Roll of thunder is a good one

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

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

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.

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.

The Axeman's Jazz

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

The Trees by Percival Everett.

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

Carl Hiaasen. Black comedies set in Florida

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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!)

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