The best books to read if you love Southern fiction

This is the book that, quite literally, launched my career as a novelist. I’ve always been an avid reader, and like many readers, I’m always on the hunt for the next “can’t put down” book. I read historical, horror, suspense, romance, autobiographies, non-fiction, you name it, I read it. It was only after reading Ellen Foster I discovered the sub-genre known as Southern fiction. I realized there were writers out there who were telling stories about my “world,” stories where people talked the way I did, appreciated and loved the things I did, had similar cultural experiences I had. Once I made this discovery, I wanted only to read Southern fiction, and my passion eventually extended into writing it.

This story takes place during the Civil War, a complex time, which makes this a complex story. It’s a beautifully written novel, and Jiles’ experience as a poet serves her well. I love nothing more than beautiful sentences, and add to that a likeable main character such as Adair Colley, and those two combinations equal win/win. While Adair is reminiscent of Scarlett O’Hara, her background is quite the opposite. What made the story also stand out for me was each chapter began with actual correspondences, diary entries, and accounts taken during this timeframe. It enhanced my reading in that I was able to realize how realistic events were—particularly when it came to how individuals treated one another during a time of immense conflict.

Bastard Out of Carolina is the story of Ruth Anne Boatwright, known as “Bone.” This coming-of-age story about poor whites in rural South Carolina centers on the Boatwright family, clannish with loyalty, and who tolerate no unkindness to one of their own. When Bone becomes the target of her mother’s new boyfriend, a man she calls “Daddy Glenn” a whiny, mealy-mouthed man with the compulsive behaviors of an abuser, the family loyalties are tested, particularly between Bone and her mother.

Both heart-wrenching and gut-wrenching, this is another one of those books that leaves you reeling after you read it.

Rick Bragg heard of his grandfather all his life, a man of the Great Depression with seven children, and a knack for beating bad luck time and time again. Ava’s Man chronicles his mother’s upbringing by a father who struggled with alcohol, a man despite his faults, who took care of his own, a time when having something meant that you ate that day. 

Rick Bragg excels at narrative non-fiction, and with his incredible sense of place, understanding of the culture and of the people, he shows those unfamiliar with the area what it means to be Southern. While his stories can often be sad, and tragic, he never fails to interject humor, wisdom, and understanding of those who live in this region.

Betty is a fictionalized account of Tiffany McDaniel’s mother’s upbringing in the foothills of the Appalachians. It is a stark rendering of how family secrets, hidden by the previous generations, often inadvertently spill into the future and affect other family members. 

McDaniel’s hard-hitting story is filled with abuse of all kinds. It is a tale of struggle, hardship, and determination, as her mother, Betty Carpenter, learns of her own mother’s past and copes with a Cherokee heritage from her father. This novel is sure to leave an indelible mark on any reader, but it also shines a light of hope and reveals the perseverance of the human spirit.