11 Books that Explain the South

Several newspapers picked up an Associated Press report that provided Richard Howorth’s suggestions for 11 books that explain the South and all it’s complexity. Howorth is the owner of Square Books and a past president of the American Booksellers Association. His list is interesting and challenging. Certainly, you’ll have books you think he left out. But still, this is a pretty damn good place to start. Check out this Lexington Herald-Leader post of the article with Howorth’s explanation of his choices.

Here are the titles he chose:
—All God’s Dangers: The Life of Nate Shaw by Theodore Rosengarten
—Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner
—The Collected Works of Flannery O’Connor by Flannery O’Connor
—The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
—Black Boy by Richard Wright
—A Childhood: The Biography of a Place by Harry Crews
—All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren
—The Moviegoer by Walker Percy
—To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
—Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
—Elegy for a Southern Drawl by Rodney Jones