On the Southern Literary Trail discussion

The Southern Literary Trail is now accepting nominations for books that the group will be reading in January 2023.

Nominations are now closed. Polls will be set up at the beginning of December.
We will consider books with a southern literary theme that have not been read by the group in the last 24 months. Per our recently revised criteria, the two categories are books originally published in or before 1990 or those published after 1990. 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 will stay open for one week or until we receive six nominations in each category. 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 1990
1. Journey for Joedel, by Guy Owen
2. The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor
3. Black Mountain Breakdown, by Lee Smith
4. Pop. 1280, by Jim Thompson
5. The Robber Bridegroom, by Eudora Welty
6. Can't Quit You, Baby, by Ellen Douglas
Books originally published after 1990
1. Dark Fire, by Bernadette Rule
2. The Past Is Never, by Tiffany Quay Tyson
3. The Ballad of Perilous Graves, by The Ballad of Perilous Graves, by Alex Jennings
4. Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
5. All the Forgivenesses, by Elizabeth Hardinger
6. Shifty’s Boys, by Chris Offutt

FYI: For the January Moderator’s Choice, I have decided to read Cormac McCarthy’s new book, The Passenger. This is McCarthy’s first book in ten years so I’m very excited to ge to it. It is on my Christmas list.

Pre 1990 I'd like to nominate: Journey for Joedel by Guy Owen, post 1990 Dark Fire by Bernadette Rule.

For the Pre-1990 book, I would like to nominate The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor. (According to my research, it has been six years since it was last read as a group.)

For the Post-1990 book, I would like to recommend The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings.

For post 1990 I nominate
The Past Is Never by Tiffany Quay Tyson
and I second Dave's nomination for pre 😉

After 1990 I nominate Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Pre 1990 I nominate Black Mountain Breakdown by Lee Smith first published in 1980

Pre1990

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

I'm going to hold back on re-nominating Blues for Mr. Charlie, and save that for February or March. Pre-1990 I nominate The Robber Bridegroom. I believe the group read it in Nov. 2018 (hey look, I'm learning how to use Goodreads! hahaha). It's a shorter read and very well-reviewed. Comments from Lawyer Stevenson and others on the 2018 thread would be really cool to look into.

Laura wrote: "Pre1990

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

Pop. 1280 is one of my all-time favorite noir books.

Pre 1990 Can't Quit You, Baby by Ellen Douglas

Post 1990 All the Forgivenesses by Elizabeth Hardinger

Nominations for the Pre-1990 category are now closed. We have one more slot for Post-1990.

Pre-1990:
Bloodline Five Stories

Post-1990:
Shifty’s Boys

Oops, just saw that Pre-1990 is full. I’ll withdraw that nomination.

Wyndy wrote: "Pre-1990:
Bloodline Five Stories

Post-1990:
Shifty’s Boys"

Both are excellent choices. Unfortunately, the nominations for the pre-1990 category are full so, as much as Ernest J. Gaines deserves a nomination, it will have to wait. Please nominate it again next month.

And with that, nominations are now closed.

Here are the books we will be reading in January. There are some great selections.

For the Pre-1990 selection:, we will be reading Black Mountain Breakdown, by Lee Smith. Roy Blount Jr. once said that "The closest thing to reading this would be reading Madame Bovary while listening to Loretta Lynn."

For the Post-1990 selection we will be reading Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver. Inspired by David Copperfield, this is the story of a boy born in the mountains of southern Appalachiato a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. Relayed in his own unsparing voice, Demon braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

For the January Moderator’s Choice selection, I have decided to do something that I haven’t been able to do in over 15 years, to read a new novel by Cormac McCarthy. He has recently released The Passenger, his first novel since the release of The Road in 2006.

Discussion boards will be set up for each book soon.