On the Southern Literary Trail discussion

Greetings all!
The Southern Literary Trail is now accepting nominations for books that the group will be reading in December, 2021.

We will consider books with a southern literary theme that have not been read by the group in the last 24 months. As always, there are two categories, books originally published in or before 1980 or those published after 1980. You may make one nomination in each category. Authors may not nominate their own works. Please post your nominations below and specify which category you are nominating it for.

Nominations are now closed. Voting will take place in the first ten days of next month.

The eligible nominations received will be listed below:

Books originally published in or before 1980
1. Home from the Hill, by William Humphrey
2. Flags in the Dust, by William Faulkner
3. The Gift of the Magi and Other Short Stories, by O. Henry
4. Giant, by Edna Ferber
5. Delta Wedding, by Eudora Welty
6. Pop. 1280, by Jim Thompson
Books originally published after 1980 CLOSED
1. Saints at the River, by Ron Rash
2. Last Ragged Breath, by Julia Keller
3. Four Spirits, by Sena Jeter Naslund
4. The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had, by Kristin Levine
5. Forget the Alamo: The True Story of the Myth That Made Texas, by Bryan Burrough
6. The Last Resort: Taking the Mississippi Cure, by Norma Watkins
nominations are now closed for the Post-1980 group.

For pre-1980, I will nominate Home from the Hill by William Humphrey. Although it was made into a fairly well known movie with Robert Mitchum, the book is kind of obscure. It's readily available as an eBook, though.

For post-1980, I will nominate Saints at the River by Ron Rash. I think this one was nominated a couple of years back and came pretty close to winning, so I'll nominate it again.

both sound good. Thank you.

For Post-1980 book, I would like to nominate:

Last Ragged Breath by Julia Keller.

For Pre-1980:
Flags in the Dust by William Faulkner

For Post-1980
Four Spirits by Sena Jeter Naslund

For Pre 1980: The Gift of the Magi and Other Short Stories by O. Henry
under 100 pages and 16 stories

Post 1980: The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had

Pre1980. Not southern author but Texas setting

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Based on Howard's review of this new book, I want to nominate Forget the Alamo: The True Story of the Myth That Made Texas for post-1980 selection. The lieutenant governor 's barring of a presentation by the book's authors at the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum smacks of book banning which automatically puts it on my tbr list.

Here's Howard's review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I had an English professor from Texas who once said, 'When it comes to the Alamo, we Texans like to mix facts and mythology so you can't tell them apart.'
The book definitely goes on my to-read list.

Tom wrote: "Based on Howard's review of this new book, I want to nominate Forget the Alamo: The True Story of the Myth That Made Texas for post-1980 selection. The lieutenant governor 's barrin..."

Howard tends to make my tbr list go up in numbers. He’s spot on and a reliable source.

My Nominations:

After 1980: The Secret to Hummingbird Cake
by Celeste Fletcher McHale (Set in the South, Author from Central Louisiana)

Before 1980: The Last Resort-Taking the Mississippi Cure by Norma Watkins (Mississippi Author)

Thank you for this opportunity!

T Rose I think the Last resort is after 1980, 2017

But it is a great memoir endorsed by Lee smith.

Oops! Sorry! I must have put it on my list wrong... !!! ;-)

I will choose for my After 1980: The Last Resort-Taking the Mississippi Cure by Norma Watkins (Mississippi Author)

Before 1980: Delta Wedding by Eudora Welty - or - The Hamlet by William Faulkner (whichever has not been read by this group).

I am a relatively newbie to this group, so I could not remember this book being a choice.

Laura wrote: "T Rose I think the Last resort is after 1980"

That looks like an excellent choice. I have added it as a Post-1980 nomination which means that nominations are now closed for the Post-1980 group.

T. Rose, Delta Wedding was read by us in November of 2015. The Hamlet has been read twice by the group, the last time in July of 2018. So both of these qualify to be nominated.

Diane wrote: "T. Rose, Delta Wedding was read by us in November of 2015. The Hamlet has been read twice by the group, the last time in July of 2018. So both of these qualify to be nominated."

I put Delta Wedding on the list. Is that your first preference of the two you mentioned?

I would be happy with whatever fits well for us. Someone above had already mentioned those issues before, and I was just throwing out ideas for books we might be able to read. Thanks for letting me know. I have lists of books and sometimes I have them under the wrong date lists. I will be more careful to check for sure next time. Hope to finish Midnight in the Garden... sometime next year. LOL! Been too busy lately. HUGS to the moderators and others for helping me out on choices!

T. Rose wrote: "HUGS to the moderators and others for helping me out on choices!.."

Back atcha T.

pre 1980
A Texas Trilogy by Preston Jones

saw a production that was outstanding of Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander, one of the three plays in the trilogy.

Hi Steve. I'm not sure if this is readily available. I checked on Amazon and it only had a couple copies for sale. Do you know where it can be found? I'll scout around later to see what I can find when I get on my computer but I may have to reject this if group members can't get copies.

Only a few reasonable copies on Abe Books, not at my library, hoopla or audible. It’s tough sometimes finding books when we have great nominations for pre-1980.

If we just need one more nomination, I'll nominate Pop. 1280 by Jim Thompson.

I think we'll go with that. Pop. 1280 is an excellent choice and I don't think this group has read any Jim Thompson before.

And with that, our nominations are now closed.

Polls

The polls for the December selections are open. Thanks to all of you who nominated and to all of you who participate. There are some excellent nominations on the ballot.

For the Pre-1980 nominations, Vote here!

For the Post-1980 poll, Vote here!

The polls will remain open for ten days and the winners will be announced mid-month.