On the Southern Literary Trail discussion

Good afternoon all,

What would you like reading in April? I'm now accepting nominations for our group reads. Please send them in.

Happy reading,

Mike
AKA "Lawyer Stevens "

Via goodreads email, John writes:

Lawyer,

John has sent you a message on Goodreads!

Via goodreads email--

John said,

I would like to recommend for the post-1980 read: Gods of Howl Mountain by Taylor Brown.

Bootlegger Rory Docherty has returned home to the fabled mountain of his childhood - a misty wilderness that holds its secrets close and keeps the outside world at gunpoint. Slowed by a wooden leg and haunted by memories of the Korean War, Rory runs bootleg whiskey for a powerful mountain clan in a retro-fitted '40 Ford coupe. Between deliveries to roadhouses, brothels, and private clients, he lives with his formidable grandmother, evades federal agents, and stokes the wrath of a rival runner.

In the mill town at the foot of the mountains - a hotbed of violence, moonshine, and the burgeoning sport of stock-car racing - Rory is bewitched by the mysterious daughter of a snake-handling preacher. His grandmother, Maybelline “Granny May” Docherty, opposes this match for her own reasons, believing that "some things are best left buried." A folk healer whose powers are rumored to rival those of a wood witch, she concocts potions and cures for the people of the mountains while harboring an explosive secret about Rory’s mother - the truth behind her long confinement in a mental hospital, during which time she has not spoken one word. When Rory's life is threatened, Granny must decide whether to reveal what she knows...or protect her only grandson from the past.

With gritty and atmospheric prose, Taylor Brown brings to life a perilous mountain and the family who rules it.

John, it's nominated Post-1980. Thank you.

Post 1980:

Promise
In the aftermath of a devastating tornado that rips through the town of Tupelo, Mississippi, at the height of the Great Depression, two women worlds apart—one black, one white; one a great-grandmother, the other a teenager—fight for their families’ survival in this lyrical and powerful novel

“Gwin’s gift shines in the complexity of her characters and their fraught relationships with each other, their capacity for courage and hope, coupled with their passion for justice.” -- Jonis Agee, bestselling author of The River Wife

A few minutes after 9 p.m. on Palm Sunday, April 5, 1936, a massive funnel cloud flashing a giant fireball and roaring like a runaway train careened into the thriving cotton-mill town of Tupelo, Mississippi, killing more than 200 people, not counting an unknown number of black citizens, one-third of Tupelo’s population, who were not included in the official casualty figures.

When the tornado hits, Dovey, a local laundress, is flung by the terrifying winds into a nearby lake. Bruised and nearly drowned, she makes her way across Tupelo to find her small family—her hardworking husband, Virgil, her clever sixteen-year-old granddaughter, Dreama, and Promise, Dreama’s beautiful light-skinned three-month-old son.

Slowly navigating the broken streets of Tupelo, Dovey stops at the house of the despised McNabb family. Inside, she discovers that the tornado has spared no one, including Jo, the McNabbs’ dutiful teenage daughter, who has suffered a terrible head wound. When Jo later discovers a baby in the wreckage, she is certain that she’s found her baby brother, Tommy, and vows to protect him.

During the harrowing hours and days of the chaos that follows, Jo and Dovey will struggle to navigate a landscape of disaster and to battle both the demons and the history that link and haunt them. Drawing on historical events, Minrose Gwin beautifully imagines natural and human destruction in the deep South of the 1930s through the experiences of two remarkable women whose lives are indelibly connected by forces beyond their control. A story of loss, hope, despair, grit, courage, and race, Promise reminds us of the transformative power and promise that come from confronting our most troubled relations with one another.

I would like to nominate Geronimo Rex by Barry Hannah for the April pre-1980 group read.
I would like to nominate Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis for the April post-1980 read.

Thanks.

Pre 1980:
Band of Angels
Amantha Starr, born and raised by a doting father on a Kentucky plantation in the years before the Civil War, is the heroine of this powerfully dramatic novel. At her father's death Amantha learns that her mother was a slave and that she, too, is to be sold into servitude. What follows is a vast panorama of one of the most turbulent periods of American history as seen through the eyes of this star-crossed young woman. Amantha soon finds herself in New Orleans, where she spends the war years with Hamish Bond, a slave trader. At war's end, she marries Tobias Sears, a Union officer and Emersonian idealist. Despite sporadic periods of contentment; Amantha finds life with Tobias trying, and she is haunted still by her tangled past. Oh, who am I? she asks at the beginning of the novel. Only after many years, after achieving a hard-won wisdom and maturity, does she begin to understand the answer to that question. Band of Angels puts on ready display Robert Penn Warren's prodigious gifts. First published in 1955, it is one of the most searing and vivid fictional accounts of the Civil War era ever written. (less)

Good grief! Has goodreads changed its app? I'm receiving a string of comments to which I cannot post a reply as I normally do. Not can I post the html book title of author.

Tina nominated "Promise"Post-1980. Done.

Judi nominated Geronimo Rex by Barry Hannah Pre-1980. Done.

Tina nominated Band of Angels Pre-1980. Done.

Pre: Barren Ground

Post: Saints at the River

For post-1980, I would like to nominate Forever Across The Marsh by Jeff Pearson. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

Life is crazy. A sense of humor helps us get through it. This novel explores the humor and meaning of some of life’s struggles—both big and small. Melvin Scott is a family man, determined to become rich. Without a plan, he leaves the military and moves to a small town near Savannah to make it on his own. In his new home, Mel encounters nonstop chaos. Finally, his opportunity to get rich arrives but a bully from his childhood gets in the way. Outside of Savannah rests a never-ending stretch of pristine marsh that has not yet been spoiled by mankind. Mel learns that there are unseen reasons why it has remained untouched. It is all part of a beautiful curse. Join Mel in his adventures—both serious and hilarious.

Diane wrote: "Pre: Barren Ground

Post: Saints at the River"

Thanks, Diane. Barren Ground by Ellen Glasgow is nominated Pre-1980.

And Saints at the River by Trail favorite Ron Rash is nominated Post-1980.

Judi wrote: "I would like to nominate Geronimo Rex by Barry Hannah for the April pre-1980 group read.
I would like to nominate Walking with the Wind: A Memoir of the Movement by John Lewis for the April post-19..."

I've had a copy of this on my shelf for a while. Nominated Post-1980.

Celia wrote: "For post-1980, I would like to nominate Forever Across The Marsh by Jeff Pearson. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

Life is crazy. A sense of humor helps us get through it. This novel ..."

This one is new to me. Looks interesting, Celia. It's nominated Post-1980.

I would like to nominate for April in the pre-1980 category Jubilee by Margaret Walker. The little blurb from Amazon doesn't really do the novel justice and I would give too much away if I describe it. But here you go:
"Jubilee tells the true story of Vyry, the child of a white plantation owner and one of his black slaves. Vyry bears witness to the South’s antebellum opulence and to its brutality, its wartime ruin, and the promises of Reconstruction. Weaving her own family’s oral history with thirty years of research, Margaret Walker’s novel brings the everyday experiences of slaves to light. Jubilee churns with the hunger, the hymns, the struggles, and the very breath of American history."


The next book I would like to nominate for post 1980 is Freeman by Leonard Pitts Jr.

Freeman, the new novel by Leonard Pitts, Jr., takes place in the first few months following the Confederate surrender and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Upon learning of Lee's surrender, Sam--a runaway slave who once worked for the Union Army--decides to leave his safe haven in Philadelphia and set out on foot to return to the war-torn South. What compels him on this almost-suicidal course is the desire to find his wife, the mother of his only child, whom he and their son left behind 15 years earlier on the Mississippi farm to which they all "belonged."

At the same time, Sam's wife, Tilda, is being forced to walk at gunpoint with her owner and two of his other slaves from the charred remains of his Mississippi farm into Arkansas, in search of an undefined place that would still respect his entitlements as slaveowner and Confederate officer.

The book's third main character, Prudence, is a fearless, headstrong white woman of means who leaves her Boston home for Buford, Mississippi, to start a school for the former bondsmen, and thus honor her father’s dying wish.

At bottom, Freeman is a love story--sweeping, generous, brutal, compassionate, patient--about the feelings people were determined to honor, despite the enormous constraints of the times. It is this aspect of the book that should ensure it a strong, vocal, core audience of African-American women, who will help propel its likely critical acclaim to a wider audience. At the same time, this book addresses several themes that are still hotly debated today, some 145 years after the official end of the Civil War. Like Cold Mountain, Freeman illuminates the times and places it describes from a fresh perspective, with stunning results. It has the potential to become a classic addition to the literature dealing with this period. Few other novels so powerfully capture the pathos and possibility of the era particularly as it reflects the ordeal of the black slaves grappling with the promise--and the terror--of their new status as free men and women.

Katrina wrote: "I would like to nominate for April in the pre-1980 category Jubilee by Margaret Walker. The little blurb from Amazon doesn't really do the novel justice and I would give too much away if I describe..."

Thank you Katrina,

Jubilee by Margaret Walker is nominated Pre-1980.

Freeman by Leonard Pitts Jr. is nominated Post-1980.

I nominate “The Last Ballad” by Wiley Cash

Phyllis wrote: "I nominate “The Last Ballad” by Wiley Cash"

The Last Ballad was read by the group last summer so is therefore not yet eligible for a reread.

How about Dirty Work by Larry Brown

Grace wrote: "How about Dirty Work by Larry Brown"

That was last read in April 2017 which would be exactly two years ago which puts t right on the cusp. I'm not sure whether the policy is that it must be at least or more than two years. It may come down to how may post-1980 books have already been nominated.

Grace, Dirty Work by Larry Brown is nominated Post-1980.

For post-1980, I will nominate “Run With the Horsemen” by Ferrol Sams.

Warren wrote: "For post-1980, I will nominate “Run With the Horsemen” by Ferrol Sams."

I'm sorry Warren. The nominations are now closed. Please consider nominating it again next month.

The nominations are now closed and the polls are open. The poll for Post-1980 can be found here:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...
The poll for Pre-1980 can be found here:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

The polls are closed and the selections for April are:

Pre-1980: Geronimo Rex, by Barry Hannah

Post-1980: Dirty Work, by Larry Brown

Moderators' Choice: Jordan County, by Shelby Foote.