On the Southern Literary Trail discussion

Nominations are now closed.
The Southern Literary Trail is now accepting nominations for books that the group will be reading in July 2025.

We will consider books with a southern literary theme that have not been read by the group in the last 24 months. The two categories are books originally published in or before 1990 or those published after 1990. In the latter case, we will no longer consider nominations for new books unless they have been available for at least four months prior to the date we begin reading the book. 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 them 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. The Voice at the Back Door, by Elizabeth Spencer
2. Spencer's Mountain, by Earl Hamner Jr.
3. The Land Breakers,by John Ehle
4. The Man Who Rode Midnight, by Elmer Kelton
5. Goodbye to a River: A Narrative, by John Graves
6. A Gathering of Old Men, by Ernest J. Gaines

Books originally published after 1990
1. Books, by Larry McMurtry
2. Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter, by Tom Franklin
3. My Name Is Yip, by Paddy Crewe
4. Mud Creek Medicine: The Life of Eula Hall and the Fight for Appalachia, by Kiran Bhatraju
5. The Light Pirate, by Lily Brooks-Dalton
6. Where the Line Bleeds, by Jesmyn Ward

Pre 1990: The Land Breakers by John Ehle, 1964, 356 pages.

Post 1990: Charms for the Easy Life

Excellent choices Diane and Terry!

Pre 1990 The Voice at the Back Door by Elizabeth Spencer
Post 1990 Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

Post 1990: Where The Line Bleeds by Jesmyn Ward

For anyone wanting to read The Land Breakers, it's $1.99 today on Kindle.

Not sure why nominations are so slow this month. Surely some of you have ideas!

Maybe a revisit to our Texas author Elmer Kelton for bf 1990.

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

If there’s an Elmer Kelton that’s easier to find, I am open to a switch. This one was available on audible and my library. The hanging judge is on hoopla if that’s more accessible.

Post 1990 My Name is Yip by Paddy Crew

Pre 1990 Spencer's Mountain Earl Hamner Jr.

Post 1990 Mud Creek Medicine: The Life of Eula Hall and the Fight for Appalachia Kiran Bhatraju

I would like to nominate one more time for the Post-1990 read:

The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton.

All excellent nominations. By my count, we still need 1⃣ more for post and 2 more for pre.

That was wrong. I just recounted and there are 6 nominations already for post, so we only need 2 more for pre.

Pre: Goodbye to a River: A Narrative 1959
Post: Books 2008

Thanks Balin. We have the quota for Post 1990 so maybe you could nominate that next month.
That leaves just one nomination left for pre 1990.

Ok I’ll nominate A Gathering of Old Men by Ernest J. Gaines for the last pre 90 spot.

Thanks Lori, that closes out the nominations for July.

I will be glad to pull my nomination of Charms For The Easy Life so that Balin may include his post-1990 nomination of Books.

That should do it, then. Polls will be posted on June 1.