Reading Southern

This past weekend I finished reading Joshilyn Jackson’s debut novel, gods in Alabama, a quirky bit of Southern lit and winner of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance 2005 Novel of the Year Award. Like good Southern lit, it has quirky characters, the road trip, Baptists, odd relatives, kudzu, home, a murdered high school jock, redemption, forgiveness, etc. A pretty good read, escapist fare, etc. I can see why it was a Booksense pick.

Jackson’s blog is kind of neat, too. OK, neat’s not the word I want. Interesting, maybe?

Quirky—ah, that’s the word!

Somehow, after reading gods in Alabama, I have an urge to reread Celia Rivenbark’s We’re Just Like You, Only Prettier—a collection of her newspaper columns and winner of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Nonfiction Book of the Year. (Can those Southern booksellers pick ’em or what?)

I must need a Southern fix or a down-home reading fix or something. Could be the quirkiness. Or maybe Rivenbark’s bio is something I can identify with.

Meanwhile, I’ve still got a big backload of books over-flowing a couple of shelves. Not all of them are Southern or down-home, but you'd be surprised how many are.

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