Reported by Garry
Mama Makes Up Her Mind: And Other Dangers of Southern Living by Bailey White is the hilarious and heartfelt collection of essays based on the author’s life in the South along with her eccentric relatives. First published in 1993, this memoir is a series of fifty short anecdotes about White’s experiences being a first-grade teacher (in the school she went to as a child), and living with her elderly mother in rural Georgia. This delightful book comes recommended by no less than three of our Nevermore readers, who agree that it is a lovely, easy, feel good book. KN
The Water is
Wide by Pat Conroy is another
memoir set in the South. In this 1972 book, Conroy recalls his time as a
teacher on the extremely poor and isolated Daufuskie Island (called Yamacraw in
his writing) on the coast of South Carolina. The island was economically
depressed and lacked much of what we take for granted as modern infrastructure
– there are no bridges. Conroy found that many of his early-teen students were
illiterate and innumerate, some not even knowing what country they lived in. Facing
multiple hurdles, Conroy (or “Conrack” as his students called him) clashed with
the authoritarian school board and utilized unconventional ways of teaching.
Our reader says that while idealistic, Conroy has an honest voice in this book
and that the resulting book is very authentic and moving. PP
We Have Always
Lived in the Castle is the
classic psychological horror story by Shirley Jackson. Narrated by Merricat
(Mary Katherine) Blackwood, this slim novel follows the remains of the
Blackwood family, living in their immense estate after the deaths of several
family members. The arrival of a far-flung relative sets in motion an explosive
and harrowing series of events in this claustrophobic (and highly recommended) tale
of family, murder and isolation. CD
Real Queer
America: LGBT Stories from the Red States by Samantha Allen is a combination of memoir and reportage.
Allen, a former Mormon missionary and now a transgender reporter on LGBT
issues, has traveled the country stretching from Provo, Utah to the Rio Grande
Valley and even to Bristol! Traveling
through many “Red” states, Allen found that queer people are everywhere and are
actively creating change and lives for themselves even in those states often
dismissed as “obviously unsafe” for the queer community. Our reader comments
that this book is “quite uplifting” and highly recommends it for showing that
America is a more accepting place than we are led to believe. KM
The Thread
Collectors by Shaunna J. Edwards
and Alyson Richman
Riverman: An
American Odyssey by Ben
McGrath
The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Red Cotton
Fields by Michael
Strickland
The Jackaby Series
by William Ritter
What If? 2:
Additional Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe
By Hands Now
Known: Jim Crow’s Legal Executioners by Margaret A. Burnham
The Hurting Kind by Ada
Limón
Queen of Our
Times: The Life of Queen Elizabeth II
by Robert Hardman
Broken News: Why
the Media Rage Machine Divides America and How to Fight Back by Chris Stirewalt
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