Getting Away from It All One Book at a Time

No matter what some citizens of the world may think of the United States, it is still the last great hope for many people. There are large numbers of Mexicans, Carribbean Islanders, Eastern Europeans, Africans and others who move here to make a better life for themselves and their families. Many are escaping great hardship and injustices and others are looking for the security and comforts that American life may offer.

One of the groups of people who began moving to America in the 1980s is the Hmong, a racial minority, who have been living in Thailand and Laos after being forced out of China many centuries ago. The Vietnam War gave the mountain residing Hmongs the opportunity to collaborate with the U.S. Armed Forces, and, since the end of that War, they have been attacked and systematically removed from their homes by Laotian soldiers, killed or moved to settlement camps in Thailand.  

When I picked up the award winning book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman over 10 years ago, I knew next to nothing about this group of people. Fadiman explains what happened when sophisticated American doctors met an uneducated Non-English speaking immigrant Hmong family with a very seriously ill daughter. The clash of cultures and the inability to communicate produced a tragic chain of events and misunderstandings that jeopardized the quality of the child’s life.

 Not only was verbal communication very difficult, but the Hmong immigrants could not read or write. It has been widely reported that the Hmongs had been without a written language since it became eradicated over many centuries of persecution under Chinese rule. In the late 20th century, an attempt was made to reintroduce a Hmong written alphabet in a romanized form, but it met with limited success.  Fadiman details the difficulties the Hmong people faced with no written language and also gives insight into their history, background, and the unsettling events that led them to the United States. As the book unfolds, it is clear that the gulf between this family and the American medical system was both unbridgeable and unavoidable. I had virtually forgotten about the Hmongs until a new release, Latehomecomer: a Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang, leaped off the shelf and into my hands. At the present time most Americans still know little about the Hmong culture and those that do are mystified by their immigration to the U.S. The Hmongs now number over 180,000 and have settled mainly in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, all areas that completely foreign to their way of life in Laos. This beautifully wrought memoir traces Yang’s family history from the mountains of Laos where they had helped the Americans during the VIetnam War to their present day life in MInnesota. In the late 1970s, many Hmongs were rounded up and executed while others escaped and moved higher and higher up in the mountains.

Yang’s family was fortunate to flee to the Laotian mountains and jungles. And, as the Laotian soldiers closed in, they managed to elude capture and cross the treacherous Mekong River to find a semblance of freedom at a refugee camp in Thailand where the author was born. This horrific ordeal is narrated beautifully by Yang as she describes everyday life in the camp with her extended family and how they lived in crowded, poor conditions until they were sponsored and able to move to St. Paul, MInnesota.

The move was bittersweet because Yang’s beloved grandmother was separated from them as she went to live with another son who settled in California. Grandmother was the heart of their family and the conduit for all the Hmong history, culture and traditions that helped keep this small ethnic group alive over many difficult centuries.  Grandmother’s annual visits until her death ensured that their traditions survived and Yang’s family continues to honor this culture and folklore. The ability to hold onto these customs and their past also gave the Yang family the strength to survive life in America. Each family member, from adult to child, is invested in assisting the whole family achieve the American dream. Life has not been easy in the United States, but these proud people are committed to educating their children, working hard and becoming productive and valuable members of American society.

For two fascinating looks at this very small group of American immigrants, these two books will each move you and make you proud that America is home to so many diverse cultures.

How sinfully delicious it can be to read culinary memoirs. The stories are entertaining, often quite humorous and the descriptions of the food may be mouth watering but, luckily, not caloric. If you’ve never read a book in this particular genre before, prepare to be entertained.

 I suggest you start with one of my personal favorites, Ruth Reichl. Read Reichl at your own risk! You’ll most likely get hooked by the expressive, lyrical  and mouthwatering prose written by the former food critic for the New York Times and current Editor in Chief of Gourmet Magazine. Tender at the Bone is the first of her three memorable autobiographical books. This sometimes sad, often funny memoir comes complete with classic recipes she has collected since her childhood days. Recounting her life with her aloof book designer father and her bipolar mother, Reichl allows us a glimpse into her fascinating world as she travels and explores, taking the opportunity to turn each adventure into a gastronomic memory. From sampling fine French cuisine at her boarding schoolmate’s home in Montreal, eating couscous in Tunisia or living in a commune-like seventeen room mansion in Berkeley in the 1970s, each experience leads her closer and closer to her future careers in the food industry.

Comfort Me With Apples begins where Reichl left off in her first book and follows her through her career from chef to food writer as she deals with various personal crises along the way. Her trips to China, Thailand and other far flung locations will expose you to unusual foods as well as those countries’ cultures. Her use of food to punctuate various events of her life add to this delicious read as she captivates with the sensory descriptions she uses to describe even the most mundane meals.

And to save the best for last, Reichl’s Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of  a Critic in Disguise really ups the ante and provides another delectable reading experience. Reichl relates how she landed the job of New York Times Food Critic and reveals how the politics inside the newspaper and the pressure she was under to review certain restaurants were substantial. Somehow, she found a way to review those dining locations she was most interested in and never compromised her own principles as a critic. The lengths that she was willing to go to guarantee that she was treated as an average customer at the restaurants she was reviewing were truly ingenious. Through disguises, wigs, accents and other foils to trick the chefs, owners and maitre d’s she was able to dine incognito. In most cases, this gave her the opportunity to experience each location as any average diner might, the good, the bad and the ugly included. Her reviews from many of New York City’s storied restaurants that are added to the end of the chapters are a delight to read in their own right.

  Savor all three of these books from this talented writer.

 The  Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library has a local authors’ collection that is continually growing. Sometimes we stumble upon authors and find that they lived in or were associated with Cleveland Heights in ways that we never could have imagined.  Here are two examples of two very different authors with such an association.

Dare Wright was an accomplished photographer and Children’s author who wrote the very popular The Lonely Doll series in the 1950s and 1960s. After hearing Joan Nathan on NPR talk about the biography she had written called The Secret Life of the Lonely Doll, I decided to read this story of Dare Wright’s life. I was hooked from the beginning as memories of growing up with these books came flooding back. I had an immediate reaction to seeing pictures of the beautiful lonely doll Edith in her pink and gingham dress along with her constant faithful companion, Mr. Bear. Then I got to the part of the book where she moved to Cleveland with her mother and discovered that Dare Wright had been an elementary school student at Coventry School right here in Cleveland Heights and later attended another area school, The Laurel School for Girls! Since our local author collection is housed at our Coventry Library right next to the Coventry School building, this was a serendipitious moment. What I thought would be a trip down memory lane soon became an engrossing but somber read as I learned about Ms. Wright’s troubled childhood, adult life and the impact loneliness had on her literary creations. Through interviews, photos, notes and correspondence, Nathan pieces together the tapestry of Dare Wright, a beautiful blonde, who never recovered from the forced separation with her father when she was a young child. This sad and haunted figure is brought to life by Nathan as she explores Dare’s dysfunctional relationship with her loving but manipulative mother and reveals how her photography and writing brought some solace to an otherwise unfortunate existence.

The second author with a Cleveland Heights connection was even more unusual. As I was  researching the African American writer, Chester Himes, for inclusion in a Literary African American author list that we were compiling, I began reading a biographical Internet article about him. In November of 1928, he used a gun to rob an elderly couple in their Cleveland Heights house, took off with their Cadillac, money and jewelry and motored to Chicago. He was later apprehended there and returned to the Cleveland Heights Police Department.  Sentenced to a 20 year term in the Ohio State Penitentiary, he served seven and a half years, and during that time, he began to compose short stories that began his literary career. Hard times followed after his release, but he persevered with his writing while also scratching out a living working various jobs as a waiter, ditch digger and shipyard employee. Over the years he battled frustration and racism and by the time of his death in 1984 he had written 17 novels, more than 60 short stories and two autobiographical books.  His novel, If He Hollers Let Him Go, is an autobiographical story detailing the life of an African American shipyard worker who struggles with racism during WW II. But he may be best remembered for his Harlem Detective series featuring Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones which brings the city and streets of Harlem to life. One of the books in the series Cotton Comes to Harlem became a major motion picture in 1970. Himes was one of the first black mystery writers, starting a proud legacy followed many years later by Walter Mosley and his Easy Rawlins series. Though technically not a Cleveland Heights resident, since Himes’ last stop in Cleveland Heights eventually afforded him the free time during his incarceration to pursue his writing, I think we just might want to include him in our local authors’ list!

Galileo said that it is “sunlight, held together by water”, while Robert Louis Stevenson stated it was “bottled poetry” and Thomas Jefferson declared that it is “a necessity of life for me”.  For over 7,000 thousand years, man has delighted in the sensory comforts of wine. Vineyards all over the world are popular travel destinations for many oenophiles and other travelers. Here are three books to consider reading over that perfect glass of wine.

The Billionaire’s Vinegar:the Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine  by Benjamin Wallace is both entertaining and educational.  In 1985, Christie’s of London held a landmark auction and a 1787 bottle of Château Lafite Bordeaux, reportedly owned by Thomas Jefferson, was sold for $156,000, the highest price ever paid up to that point for a single bottle of wine. What follows is an engrossing story not only for wine connoisseurs, but also for collectors and lovers of history. Luckily, for the reader, it appears that the hobby of wine collecting is full of deceit, crooks, greed and dishonesty and this book highlights them all. “Let the buyer beware” will be the refrain readers think of when they learn how difficult it is to prove a wine’s provenance and to what lengths some have gone to cheat the customer. While this story had the potential of being as boring as an undeveloped wine, Wallace blends both wine history and mystery to introduce the reader to rival auction houses Sotheby’s and Christies and to some of the influential and unusual cast of characters in the wine collecting industry. He also includes fascinating biographical gems about Thomas Jefferson and his well documented trips through the vineyards of Europe. This fact filled page turning read is for anyone who loves a well told nonfiction story.

The Bordeaux Betrayal: A Wine Country Mystery  By Ellen Crosby is the third in her series featuring Lucie Montgomery and her Virginia Vineyard. A rare wine, purportedly from Jefferson’s collection and originally intended as a gift for George Washington, is donated to a charitable auction being held at the vineyard. The excitement surrounding this event is high until the owner suddenly withdraws the wine. Lucie tries to get him to change his mind but she is also occupied with other subplots  including the requisite murder of Valerie, an author and historian, who had just penned a historical book about wine, and is then found dead in a ditch near Lucie’s vineyard. Lucie’s French grandfather also comes to Virginia to visit and her new neighbors start an animal activist controversy when she allows her land to be used forthe traditional fox hunt that’s been going on in the county for a century. Everything gets tied up nicely in the end but some of the most interesting parts of the book are the tidbits about vinoculture and winemaking and the historical references to Thomas Jefferson and his wine collection.

A Tale of Two Valleys: Wine, Wealth, and the Battle for the Good Life in Napa and Sonoma By Alan Deutschman. This thought provoking book compares the Sonoma and Napa valleys in the California wine country. Sonoma is in a battle to keep it’s lower profile and less hectic lifestyle alive while trying to ward off the sprawling growth that has turned the rival Napa valley from a once quiet countryside into a tony, expensive  and bustling, crowded tourist destination. Deutschman spends a year living in Sonoma, meeting local restauranteurs, hippies and organic farmers, eavesdropping at parties and watching as differing factions fight for their ideal of the perfect place to live. The differences between the local shabby gentility and the newly arrived techie millionaires come to a head when local elections threaten to change life in Sonoma valley by forcing many natives into financial ruin since they may not be able to pay the escalating taxes or be able to afford to live in the area where their families have resided for generations.

Two movies featuring California vineyards to consider: Sideways featuring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church accompanies the two friends as they take a bachelor trip through the wine tasting areas of the Santa Barbara valley. This hilarious, quirky but sometimes disturbing comedy of errors makes the most of the beautiful landscape in the valley. If you like dramas (perhaps while enjoying a full bodied Cabernet) get A Walk in the Clouds starring Keanu Reeves, Aitana Sanchez Gijon and Anthony Quinn. This love story takes place right after World War II when Reeves, a traveling salesman, meets the beautiful daughter of a Napa Valley vineyard. He goes home with her to her family’s vineyard to help her solve a problem that is terrifying her. The chemistry between Reeves and Shanchez-Gijon and the breathtaking scenery make this movie worth watching.

 You’ll find these oldies but goodies on library shelves or in your bookstore. Dust them off and give one a try!

The Odd Sea by Frederick Reiken, a professor at Emerson College, won the Hackney Literary award for a first novel and was also a  Barnes & Noble Discover Award finalist. Not even the peaceful rolling countryside of Western Massachusetts, often thought to be a peaceful place to raise a family, can keep the Shumways safe from one of the most devastating events that can befall a family-the disappearance of their teenage son, Ethan. Told through the perspective of his younger brother, Phillip, this heartrending story follows the family through the years following Ethan’s disappearance. Phillip tries to make sense of his brother’s absence by observing how his siblings and parents cope with the loss of Ethan and by learning more about the people who were close to his brother. This is a powerful but sensitive story about loss, growing up and facing some of life’s unanswerable questions.

Egyptian Nobel Laureate Naguib Mahfouz wrote a highly acclaimed trilogy beginning with Palace Walk, which richly describes life in Cairo in the 1920s. Al-Sayyid Ahmad, a merchant and his family live in the British occupied city. Ahmad’s wife, Amina, is available for his every beck and call while cleaning, baking bread, running the household and raising  their children. Amina and her two daughters, beautiful Aisha and spirited but unattractive Khadiiya, are forbidden from leaving the house unless accompanied by Ahmad. They must remain veiled at all times so as not to show their faces to any man outside their immediate family. Younger brother Kamal attends school while older brother Fahmy becomes involved in student demonstrations against the British. Half-brother, Yasin, follows in their father’s footsteps, spending much time and energy chasing women and drink. This fascinating and eye opening book will appeal to anyone who wants to learn more about life in the Middle East including those who may be unaware that some of the religious and cultural traditions described in this book are still practiced today. By the end of this atmospheric story the reader will be eager to pick up Palace of Desire, the second book of the trilogy to discover the fate and destiny of this family and their country.

London Holiday  by Richard Peck Three middle aged women, friends since childhood, journey to London each trying to escape their insecure and generally unhappy lives. The Bed & Breakfast they stay in, filled with antiques collected by its owner, Mrs. Smith-Porter, is as interesting as she is. The descriptions of their travels throughout the city and the lush countryside give the reader a delightful window into places off the beaten path. When Mrs. Smith-Porter is injured, the three women take over the B & B while she recovers, causing them to delay their trips home and giving them time to reflect on their lives and futures. Peck does an admirable job of portraying each woman and her personality and will make the reader quickly forget that the author is a man.

An Isolated Incident by Susan R Sloan, though not as  literary as Snow Falling On Cedars, is a page turner, nonetheless, with a similar plot and setting. When a Jewish teacher on a Pacific coast island is accused of murdering the town’s wealthiest family’s teenage daughter, people immediately jump to conclusions. Though others should be considered suspects, the focus remains on the teacher and soon his past comes back to haunt him. Stereotyping, prejudice and mob mentality all come in to play as an innocent man is rushed to judgment. Or is he innocent after all?

How many times have you read about a new book in a newspaper or magazine, heard an author interviewed on the radio or watched a book discussion on the Web or TV and you just had to read that book? You run to the Library and find there is a long waiting list for this item  because everyone else is also trying to get this ‘next great book’. And, you just don’t want to cough up the $32.95 at the Bookstore. What do you do now? You ask your friendly Librarian for advice, of course. Hopefully, he or she will send you home with a book that will temporarily fill the void and lessen your disappointment.

If you haven’t read it, it’s new to you. There are so many wonderful books that pass through our lives, some are put on the back burner to read in the future and others are just plain forgotten. I’d like to recommend a few oldies but goodies that you may have missed over the years.  And, don’t worry. If none of these titles appeal to you there will be many more choices in the future!

The Giant’s House by Elizabeth McCracken is set in a small town on Cape Cod and features a spinster librarian who offers friendship, knowledge and eventually love to a young boy who suffers from a disease of stature known as giantism. Much to the shock and dismay of the town’s inhabitants, she becomes the young man’s close confidante as he continues to suffer from this ravaging disease that causes runaway physical growth. She offers him the opportunity to share in some of life’s most simple and intimate moments. This debut novel, picked as a National Book Award finalist, is an unusual and empathetic story that clearly and quietly shows the lasting  effects that love, understanding and compassion can have on the soul.

A Spanish Lover by Joanna Trollope. Tables turn for twin sisters when Lizzie, the sister with the perfect marriage, children and career suddenly sees her life collapsing around her while at the same time her long time single sister, Frances has her own love life recharged by a debonair but married Spanish gentleman. Each sister faces unpredictable changes in her own life while dealing with the reactions of her family. This is a quick read with vivid descriptions of Southern Spain interspersed throughout the action.

For readers who enjoyed Brad Meltzer’s The Tenth Justice, pick up The Numbered Account  by Christopher Reich. When Nicholas Neumann moves from New York to Zurich to work for the private United Swiss Bank, he is doing more than leaving his fiancee behind and furthering his career in the international banking industry. His primary goal is to discover who or what caused his Zurich banker father’s death seventeen years earlier. The action is fast paced as Neumann meets a slew of unsavory characters including a ruthless Middle East arms dealer, a beautiful, talented bank Vice-President and a variety of corrupt bankers(IMAGINE THAT!). Neumann’s U.S. Marine background comes in handy when he deals with an international crime syndicate. For those intrigued by the secrecy of the Swiss banking industry, where the adapted adage is ‘everything is legal until you get caught’, this is an entertaining read.

Marian Coe’s Appalachian setting in Eve’s Mountain  is heaven on earth to its inhabitants and that’s how they would like to keep it, free from the intrusion of the summer people and new construction. When the owner of the mountain suffers a stroke, his children gather around in hope of a recovery. Daughter Tory has her own agenda, however, and perhaps having Daddy get well isn’t part of it. Son Zack, a major disappointment to his father over the years, comes home to rediscover his roots while visiting Nurse Selena may be hiding from her Colorado past. Various mountain characters, a cool breezy mountain setting and enough subplots, mysteries and a possible murder make this a quick vacation read.

My husband says that I read everywhere, not that there’s anything wrong with that. I always have a book with me, just in case. So, say I’m in line at the dry cleaners or the grocery store on a busy Saturday morning-why waste time when I can get a few pages of reading in while waiting. When I’m driving,  I always have reading material. No, not WHEN I’m driving, but in  case of an emergency, when I’m stuck in traffic or at at a complete stand still. You get the idea. I can put off any task just to get some reading done. Some people say they don’t have time to read, but, the way I look at it, I don’t have time not to read!

So, I was presented the perfect opportunity when our power was off for 72 hours because of the vestiges of Hurricane Ike running up through the Midwest. For once, I had no reason to feel guilty because I was reading rather than doing laundry or vacuuming. This is what I read by candle light and lantern during that time:

Petite Anglaise  by Karen Sanderson.  Sanderson, a Brit living in Paris, is the author of a wildly popular blog of the same name. Sanderson fell in love with all things French at an early age.  One reviewer compared her to Peter Mayle so I imagined the book would be an homage to Paris but I was a bit disappointed. She moved to Paris, fell in love with Mr Frog and had a child, Tadpole, with him. While her love affair with Paris continued she began to drift apart from Mr Frog and here is where I had problems. Much of this book seemed like an attempt to explain, justify and excuse how she came to cheat on Mr. Frog with a fellow Brit she meets online at her blogsite. While her descriptions of Paris and Parisian life resonate  and her anecdotes are entertaining and often humorous  I was left with the impression that writing this book was her way of validating her cheating and moving on. 

Never Enough by Joe McGinniss(author of Fatal Vision) does it again in this page turning true crime book. On the surface, it appeared that Rob Kissel had it all-a beautiful wife and children, wealth beyond measure, a meteoric and fulfilling career and an upscale life in Hong Kong. So why was he murdered, rolled into a rug and dumped into a storage room? Read this chilling story of a life and a love gone terribly wrong which proves that truth is often stranger than fiction.

Bob Schieffer’s America  by Bob Schieffer. Schieffer has been the moderator of Face The Nation since the early 90s and his book is a compilation of some of the anecdotes and commentaries he has ended the show with, a’la Andy Rooney. I was pleasantly surprised that his writing did not have much of a political bent. Though the show is obviously political, Schieffer’s book attempts to stay above the fray of the left and right in an  admirable and  successful way. There’s enough here to make both sides of the aisle mad! He takes both political parties to task and holds them equally responsible for the unsuccessful way that Washington tries to get the people’s business done. It’s refreshing not to see blame pointed exclusively at one side or the other.

Let’s get real here! We all know that Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series is not serious literature. It probably won’t be required reading for your English class or be picked as your next book club read. The characters are quirky, peculiar, wacky and unrealistic. There are not enough adjectives to describe these zany people or the outlandish circumstances they end up in. The action takes place mainly around Trenton, New Jersey, not exactly known to be a ‘garden spot’ of the U.S.A. So, why, oh why, should you read this series?

Because of Ranger and Morelli, of course. In each of the books in the series, you never know what’s going to happen with Stephanie and her hunky Italian beau and police officer, Morelli, or with Stephanie and the enigmatic Ranger, the intriguing and sexy International business man who specializes in ’security’ issues. The sexual tension between Stephanie and each of her guys is funny, steamy and never ending. Who will she ultimately end up with? Will she stay with the safe Morelli or go over to the dark side and choose Ranger?

I’m unequivocally committed to the Ranger camp even though he may be too mysterious for Stephanie and has strayed to the other side of the law on occasion. But, he always seems to want to protect her. You can just about smell his Bulgari bodywash on each page and the way he calls her “Babe” is both charming and sexy.

My feelings about Morelli are more complicated. He may seem like the safe bet since he and Stephanie grew up in the ‘burb’ together, went to the same high school and appear to have more in common. But, picking him would just be too predictable. Plus, I can’t forgive him for what happened on Page 2 of One for the Money. I know, I know-Stephanie forgave him but I’m a Scorpio so I’m allowed to hold a grudge.

My coworkers and I have lengthy discussions about this very topic and we’ve divided into Ranger and Morelli camps. We also discuss which actors should play the other characters if Hollywood is ever smart enough to film the Plum series. Since voting is on everyone’s minds these days, why not join the fun and vote for Ranger or Morelli?  And, tell me who would you cast in a movie to play the parts of these characters we have come to love?

If enough people respond, I’ll tabulate the votes and post the results. Just as in the OTHER election, I know people will have varying and passionate opinions!

At first glance, the Jamaicans seemed to be some of the happiest people we’d ever met. They were all smiles as they sold those “Jamaica, No Problem” t-shirts to the tourists bustling around the harbor.  But when our tour bus took an unauthorized errant turn and ended up in the woods, our perceptions changed. Especially when a man walked out of those woods dressed in what I can only describe as a hippy Carib Indian outfit replete with herbs and dangling vines covering him from head to toe. He was introduced by the bus driver as a local herbalist and he proceeded to give us, his captive audience, a lecture on herbs and then offered us the opportunity to buy those herbs. The driver and Dr Herbalist were quite insistent and clearly unhappy when most of the tourists declined their offer.

So, if people living on a beautiful Caribbean island with mostly sunny days and warm breezes aren’t always happy, then, who is, you ask? This is the exact question that Eric Weiner, author of The Geography of Bliss has pondered and attempted to answer in an informative and entertaining book. Weiner is a self described pessimist and curmudgeon who hasn’t let that stop him from pondering why some people seem to be so much happier than others. This question led him on a series of trips to far flung places around the world to see if he, too, could uncover the reasons for other peoples’ happiness. He visited local people in a number of countries, ate and drank and danced with them and conferred with professors who actually study and measure a place’s happiness index. Yes, there are Happiness professors at many universities around the world. Who knew?

Some of the locations where the happiest people live are not surprising but others certainly are. I don’t want to spoil this trip around the globe for you by revealing the results so you will have to find out for yourself by reading this unusual and often funny book. And, when you’re done reading Weiner’s book, do try the following books about two of the country’s that Weiner visited, Bhutan and Moldova. This may give you more insight about where their citizens rank on the Happiness Index and why.

First, Jamie Zeppa’s Beyond the Sky and the Earth: a Journey Into Bhutan  will take you on a trip to this country at the top of the world as you experience it through the eyes of a Canadian teacher who moved there to teach English. My favorite quote from this book was a poem found on a road near Bhutan, “When the last tree is cut, when the last river is emptied, when the last fish is caught, only then will Man realize that he can’t eat money”.

In Playing the Moldovans at Tennis by Tony Hawks, British comedian, ex-Junior English tennis champion and quirky author(think Dave Barry) bets his friend that he can take on the Moldovan soccer team and beat them all at tennis. Read the book to see what he bet and why it’s important that he doesn’t lose that bet. This is a  witty laugh out loud book that will take you to an unusual destination that few Americans ever visit.  

I first encountered good ole Southern charm in middle school when Peyton, a teenage boy’s vision of a goddess, with long blonde hair and cornflower blue eyes appeared as a transfer student from Georgia. She was, unfortunately, a gifted athlete, beautiful, polite but reserved, smart and self confident-and to top it off she had the most musical Southern accent. All the girls were prepared to hate her (who ever heard of a girl named Peyton anyway?) but there was just something about her that was both mysterious and inviting.

That charm and the ability to arouse curiousity are also evident in many novels written by Southerners-not just the literary William Faulkners, Eudora Weltys or Robert Penn Warrens, but also more contemporary writers such as Pat Conroy and Anne Rivers Siddons. These writers depict the South so vividly that their images have a lasting effect on their readers.

If you want to spend some time in the Bayou, sit under a gnarled oak enjoying sweetened tea and pralines, yell from a mountain top or romp through coastal tides and windswept dunes, pick up a book set in the South. You may laugh, you may cry but you’ll certainly be moved! Here are a few titles you may have missed over the years.

Penumbra by Carolyn Haines
In a departure from her lighthearted Southern paranormal mystery series, Haines brings to life this 1950s Mississippi story that has it all-melodrama, race relations, sexual tension and forbidden love. The kidnapping of a young girl and the beating of her mother are only two of the disturbing elements in this story. Racial barriers were still in place and life was not always pleasant for the black and mixed race characters in this story filled with heat, humidity and a sultry atmosphere.

The Bridge by Doug Marlette
Rick Cantrell returns to the Piedmont area of North Carolina after being fired from his cartoonist job at a New York newspaper. There is a historical perspective to the story as it traverses back and forth from the 1930s to the present detailing Rick’s Grandmother Lucy’s involvement in the 1934 Great Textile Strike and it’s long reaching effect on the town and its citizens. Family relationships and slowly emerging, long buried family secrets add depth and texture to this finely written book. The talented Marlette’s life was cut short in a Mississippi car accident last year. At his funeral, his best friend and novelist ,Pat Conroy eulogized him with these words, “The first person to cry, when he heard of Doug’s death, was God”.

Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith
This coming of age (and then some) tale is written as an epistolary novel in which the letters chronicle the life of Ivy, a young girl, living in the Virginia Appalachia region. Although there is much to be depressed about-poverty, family tragedies and social injustices, Ivy’s spirit transcends it all. Her love of life and indomitable spirit help her through many of life’s inequities and her spunky spirit will not be easily forgotten by the reader.

She Flew the Coop: a Novel Concerning Life, Death, Sex and Recipes in Limoges, Louisiana by Michael Lee West
Living ain’t easy in this small Louisiana town. The gossip mill runs strong in the story as various residents weigh in on the plight of teenage Olive who is pregnant by the Baptist Minister and hospitalized when she attempts to take her life. Spousal abuse, infidelity and rape -all serious subjects-are thankfully tempered by Southern humor, quirky characters and great recipes.