Books All Georgians Should Read 2010
Snakeskin Road
James Braziel
A Cry of Angels
Jeff Fields
The Confederate General Rides North
Amanda Gable
Bombingham
Anthony Grooms
Luminous Mysteries: A Novel
John Holman
How Far She Went
Mary Hood
The Girl Who Stopped Swimming
Joshilyn Jackson
Hue and Cry: Stories
James Alan McPherson
When the Finch Rises
Jack Riggs
Nothing With Strings:
NPR’s Beloved Holiday Stories
Bailey White
The Heart of a Distant Forest
Philip Lee Williams
Winter Sky: New and Selected Poems,
1968-2008
Coleman Barks
New and Selected Poems of Thomas Lux, 1975-1995
Thomas Lux
The Watchers
Memye Curtis Tucker
Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II
Douglas A. Blackmon
Long Time Leaving:
Dispatches from Up South
Roy Blount, Jr.
At Canaan’s Edge:
America in the King Years, 1965-68
Taylor Branch
Heart of a Patriot:
How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed, and Karl Rove
Max Cleland
Invisible Sisters
Jessica Handler
The Cracker Queen:
A Memoir of a Jagged, Joyful Life
Lauretta Hannon
Lovesick Blues:
The Life of Hank Williams
Paul Hemphill
Under the Tuscan Sun:
At Home in Italy
Frances Mayes
The Ballad of Blind Tom
Deirdre O’Connell
An Altar in the World:
A Geography of Faith
Barbara Brown Taylor
Bon Appetit Ya’ll: Recipes and Stories
from Three Generations of Southern Cooking
Virginia Willis
April 30th, 2010 at 6:10 pm
[...] REALLY wanted to feel like this yesterday, because yesterday, The Georgia Center for the Book told me my third novel, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming had made this year’s 25 books every [...]
April 30th, 2010 at 9:31 pm
Barbara Knott, Host, Grapevine Art & Soul Salon, says:
What a wonderful selection! I know and love the work of Jeff Fields, Amanda Gable, Joshilyn Jackson, and Coleman Barks, as well as Mary Hood and Roy Blount, Jr. There are other names I recognize and a surprising number of new works to read and authors to become acquainted with. Thank you for this significant community service.
May 1st, 2010 at 12:31 pm
Janisse Ray’s Ecology of a Cracker Childhood should be #1 on this list. An eloquent memoir of life growing up in south Georgia, this is one of the best books I’ve read.
May 5th, 2010 at 9:00 pm
Jeff Fields put a curse on me.
I happened upon his book, A Cry of Angels, many moons ago. Jeff, and his magical, miraculous book, changed my life in the worst way.
Jeff made me want to look at my world as he saw his, full of sun and smoke, laughter and love. Jeff made me want to write, which is one of the worst things to wish upon a person.
You see, his book is up there with Harper Lee and Mark Twain. It gets under your skin. Every time I step in mud, I think of Jeff’s description of “work-stained men in clay-crusted brogans.”
It’s a blessing — and a curse — to breathe in this book and roll along with Earl, Tio, Em Jojohn, Jayell and that feisty Southern Venus named Phaedra Boggs. You want to climb into an inner tube on the river and hold on and never let go.
When you do let go and return to dry land, you feel your life is enriched. The last line of Jeff’s book still pierces my heart.
That’s the way it is with a curse. It sticks with you all your life, and just sometimes you’re a better man for it. I became a writer, and Jeff’s book is always here.
I’m thinking that this curse may be a blessing, after all.
May 7th, 2010 at 6:25 pm
I really think Janisse Ray’s memoir Ecology of a Cracker Childhood should be on this list.
May 11th, 2010 at 1:53 am
I am so glad Joshilyn Jackson’s The Girl Who Stopped Swimming is on the list–but I hope everyone will venture into bookstores to read her two previous novels which are both a treat (Think Chocolate Chex Mix)!
May 13th, 2010 at 11:27 pm
im so sorry i missed it im new to ga. but i recently published a book “big lynn your blood will b my tears” and i would have loved to attend your affair.
June 23rd, 2010 at 9:06 pm
To those who would see Janisse Ray’s “Ecology of a Cracker Childhood” on this list, I salute you. Please note, however, that the very first (of FOUR!) such lists that GCB issued in 2002 proudly proclaims Ms. Ray’s classic to be among the very best. You can find the complete list at http://www.georgiacenterforthebook.org/Read-Georgia-Books/index.php; get to reading!
December 26th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
My 2011 will be greater being aware of that!