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?

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!

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.

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
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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.

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