The best books about the South (USA) 📚

This book grabbed my interest and never let go. A young boy, Pi Patel, survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger. Talk about an adventure! But as with the other adventure stories I have chosen, his outward adventure brings about inward transformation. Even before, the young Pi had an intense spiritual interest (a young boy who dared to be both Hindu and Christian!) But with his trek across a vast ocean, he even more intensely explores himself and the nature of his spirituality. Some find the book hard… show more.

I’ve read it twice, and I can only stand back in wonder at how a person could create such a magnificent work of art (his first novel) at age 26. For richness of character development, philosophical weight, and power of language, this is one for the ages. Though the subject matter is heavy, it’s not a difficult read. Yet there are passages where you’ll want to slow down and take in the music of the words.

This is a classic, pioneering study of the major elements of southern crime and punishment at a time that saw the formation of the fundamental patterns of class and race—and how they shaped the South’s criminal justice system.  Ayers studies the inner workings of the police, prison, and judicial systems, and the nature of crime, while at the same time adeptly linking the antebellum with the post-bellum criminal justice system.