What do you think of when you think of Southern literature? Genteel eccentrics? Colorful language? A love of the land? Football? The Civil War? All of these tropes and more are touched on in the books we’re giving away in this week’s contest.
Faith Bass Darling’s Last Garage Sale by Lynda Rutledge (Amy Einhorn Books)
A Land More Kind than Home by Wiley Cash (Morrow)
The Rebel Wife by Taylor M. Polites (S&S)
The Lost Saints of Tennessee by Amy Franklin-Willis (Atlantic Monthly)
TO ENTER: Comment on this post with the name of your favorite Southern author or book.
CONTEST DETAILS: One winners will be chosen by random.org from among entries received by 5 pm CST on Friday, April 27. The winners will each receive copies of the four books listed above. Prize must be shipped to a North American address, and Rhode Island residents are not eligible. (Full contest rules here.) Good luck!
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ETA: Congratulations to our winner, Stacey! Her favorite Southern book is Beach Music by Pat Controy.
Thank you to all who entered! Contest is now closed.
I’m still a big fan of Gone with the Wind!
William Faulkner, all day every day.
If I must choose… I love The Prince of Tides.
My favorite southern book is Cold Sassy Tree
“Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe” by Fannie Flagg, “The Widow of the South” by Robert Hicks, and “The Lucky One” by Nicholas Sparks.
My favorite Southern author and book is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
Gone with the wind
Gone with the Wind will always have special place in my book world!
Hands down my favorite Southern author and book is Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird. Timeless classic!
Thanks for the opportunity!
Salvage the Bones – Jesmyn Ward
Tough choice. Today I’d have to say To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill A Mockingbird – Harper Lee, not just my favourite southern novel, but probably my favourite book ever.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
As a true Georgia southerner, I love all of the southern classics. However, my true favorite is Mary Kay Andrews who is also from Georgia! Her heroines are classic but contemporary southern belles who find themselves in sticky situations. It is wonderful fun reading to see how these ladies get out of jams! Mrs. Andrews is a must for anyone wanting a great southern read ya’ll!
Wiley Cash is my favourite Southern author. Love all the covers of the books, they all look very intriguing and inviting. And of course, fav book has to be only Gone With The Wind, my name is Melanie, dog’s name is Scarlett. What else could it be? (She’s the b*tch)
I love me some Pat Conroy, Fannie Flagg & Dorthea Benton Frank. This gal from the Pacific Northwest loves the Southern Lit!
To Kill a Mockingbird, absolutely.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” is my favorite novel, hands down. But as far as my favorite Southern author (other than Miss Lee), it would have to be Flannery O’Connor.
Thanks so much — these books sound great!
I enjoy reading Iris Johansen. She lives in Georgia and writes about the area in many of her books.
Sharyn McCrumb and Joshilyn Jackson are two of my favorite southern authors.
Anything by Faulkner, hands down – quintessential southern literature.
Fried Green Tomatoes by Fannie Flagg is one I have shared with many friends over the years. Love the southern humour and attitude. Of course, Ms Harper Lee is my all time favorite soutern author as “To Kill A Mockingbird” is my all time book. The characters are so vividly described I feel as if they were my own neighbours.
No question…”To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. However, based on the review though in “BookPage” I have already read “The Lost Saints of Tennessee” by Amy Franklin-Willis and enjoyed it immensely.
Gone With the Wind!
Beach Music-Pat Conroy
I love Southern lit! Harper Lee definitely holds title for favorite book in “To Kill a Mockingbird,” but I alsohave a fondness for Kate Chopin, Thomas Wolfe, Eudora Welty, Fannie Flagg, and Tennessee Williams.
My new favorite southern writer is Sarah Addison Allen. I was enraptured by “Garden Spells” and “The Sugar Queen.”
Gone with the Wind!
I’m a big fan of Dorothea Benton Frank.
I love Faulkner and Gone With the Wind!
I’m joining the To Kill a Mockingbird fan group.
Toss-up between To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Bastard Out of Carolina by Dorothy Allison.
My favorite Southern author would have to be Thomas Wolfe. I have always been an avid reader. When I get the chance to travel I try to research the local authors. For three years during high school I lived in Asheville, NC. It was during that time that I came to know Wolfe’s work.
To Kill a Mockingbird was my first Southern Novel. I read it when i was in school. It made a huge impression on me; I can still remember the way I felt as I read it.
So many good authors to chose from. If I must pick one, it would have to be Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird which was my introduction to Southern literature. This book started a love affair with Southern writers which has lasted a life time.
Pat Conroy, Dorthea Benton Frank and Sharon Mc
Crumb. I love the Carolina literature from the Mountains to the Sea.
It is a toss-up between Anne Rivers Siddons , Dorathea Benton Frank and Charlaine Harris.
I love Southern books for thier quircky characters. A couple contemporary authors I enjoy are Mark Childress and Joshilyn Jackson.
My favorite book is Gone With the Wind as well as the series if it could be considered Southern Literature, is Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.
Cold Mountain, by Charles Frazier
Faulkner…without a doubt.
My favorite is the new author Anna Jean Mayhew.
It’s a toss-up, between Fannie Flagg and Pat Conroy, for me. Both authors have the power to pull me into the story, and lose all track of time.
I would have to pick gone with the wind. I also really like little house on the prairie
my favorite “Southern” book would have to be Mudbound by Hillary Jordan. My favorite “Southern” author is Carolyn Haines.
My favorite is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
I also love Dorothea Benton Frank, Pat Conroy, Sarah Addison Allen, Karen White, Denise Hildreth, Mary Kay Andrews, and Beth Hart.
Pat Conroy is my favorite Southern Author.
definitely To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee…such a classic
Love love love Pat Conroy!
To hard to pin ONE among writers Charles Frazier, Bailey White, Harper Lee, Roy Blount — and so many more. My favorite book on South, though, would be John Berendt’s “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” as we had family living in Savannah when the murder trials were going on and, yes, the residents and locations are just as he writes.
Harper Lee
Bailey White’s Mama Makes Up Her Mind
I enjoyed reading all of the comments with the names of “favorite” southern authors and I’d like to add two that I didn’t see mentioned…Sue Monk Kidd and Lewis Grizzard.
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, anything by Pat Conroy and Sarah Addison Allen.
My favorite Southern author is Dorothea Benton Frank.
Love it, one of my favorites is Joshilyn Jackson
My favorite Southern author is Ann George. I love the inter play between the sisters she wrote about, as I have 3 sisters of my own. I was saddened to learn of her passing.
Clare Hallahan Farragher n
Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of my favorites.
The first book that came to mind is The Help – I love that book. But after reading this list there are so many that I love also. GWTW, To Kill a Mockingbird, on and on and on and some great authors too. What a great list!
Gone With The Wind – all time favorite classic
There are a number of Southern authors I enjoy, but my favorite is Pat Conroy.
I want to add John Hart to the list of favorite southen authors. Has anyone mentioned John Grisham or David Baldacci? Oh, I almost forgot Adrianna Trigiani.
Flannery O’Connor
Beth Hoffman – Saving CeeCee Honeycutt,
Harper Lee
Pat Conroy
Iris Johansen is my all time favorite author, I cannot put her books down. Also, Fannie Flagg, Harper Lee & Margaret Mitchell.
FYI–Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the wind was her only book she ever wrote!! What an accomplishment.
Favorite Southern writer: Pat Conroy. All time favorite novel of his: Beach Music.
Gone With The Wind is still my favorite Southern classic. Lots of great authors already mentioned above that I read. Met some new authors this past weekend at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest & am looking forward to reading their books.
I think one of my top favorite southern books is, “The Secret Life of Bees,” by Sue Monk Kidd.
I loved the Secret life of Bees ( both the novel and movie!)
I’ve read better Southern books than Gone With the Wind, but I have to include it because I’m named for the plantation in it!
Harper Lee, of course. Love To Kill a Mockingbird.
I’m a big fan of The Optimist’s Daughter by Eudora Welty.
To Kill a Mockingbird. Hands down.
Difficult to name just one favorite Southern author or book, but I return most often to Thomas Wolfe’s “Of Time and the River” and Flannery O’Connor’s stories and “Wise Blood.”
All of the above are great Southern writers, but Anne Rivers Siddons had me ever since “John Chancellor Makes Me Cry”.
Fave is William Faulkner.
Thanks.
My favorite southern book is Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. The city of Savannah, GA is a character in her own right.
Hands down: Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”
I’m going to say Charles Frazier for Cold Mountain and Beth Hoffman for Saving CeeCee Honeycutt.
I’m from the South, so read most everything Southern. My most recent favorite HELP. But my all-time favorite is to Kill a Mockingbird.
I’ve always liked Anne Rivers Siddons books.
Dorthea Benton Frank & Anne Rivers Siddons !
A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor. Well, any of her collections of short stories.
It’s so hard to choose, but I’d have to say “Cold Sassy Tree.”
I hate to see that evening sun go down By the late William Gay.
Since I’m from the deep south ,I love all our authors,but my favorite authors are Pat Conroy,he is a very southern man,and catches all that is southern,and Nicholas Sparks has a heart for it..these are probably true characters of the south in most their books,as I know them …,I say thanks to anyone who says you’re from the south,aren’t you????
My fav is GONE with the WIND. Such a classic and truly Southern book.
I have so many favorites. One of them is The Secret Life of Bees. Also, anything by Nanci Kincaid.
Nothing beats Gone With the Wind.
One of my favorite Southern books is naturally: Gone with the Wind.
The Help, is so much a story of my life with the maid my family had who was more a mom to me than the mom I had!!!
Loved Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman and anything by Mary Kay Andrews, and so many others!!
Joshilyn Jackson! I love all of her books but I think BACKSEAT SAINTS is my favorite.
I’m a long time fan of Pat Conroy, but I’m very interested in learning more about Wiley Cash. I read a recent article by him and was very impressed. So far I’ve only heard good things about his book.
Gone With The Wind!
Pat Conroy!
Ya ya sisterhood…
Anne Rice
Walker Percy / The Moviegoer
The Sound and the Fury
I’ll second Prince of Tides… but so love To Kill a Mockingbird – the choice is a hard one!
The Help by Stockett comes to mind right away because I just read it!
I have to choose Gone With the Wind. It’s been my favorite Southern literature since I first read it when I was 12 and I truly believe it will always be my favorite piece of Southern Literature. Can’t think of one thing not to love about this book.
One of my all time favorites is “Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood” by Rebecca Wells.
Of course, I love To Kill a Mockingbird too… classic!!
I read Southern authors almost exclusively. My favorite of all time is Sharyn McCrumb, but I read many others, like Mary Kay Andrews, Jefferson Bass, Linda Barry, Phillip DePoy, Fanny Flagg, Anne George, Lewis Grizzard, Patti Callahan Henry, Cathy Holton, Joshilyn Jackson, Jan Karon, Tori Kelner, Vicki Lane, Billie Letts, Kathryn Magendie, Margaret Maron, Cathy Pickens, Ann B. Ross, Haywood Smith, Lee Smith, Patricia Sprinkle, Elizabeth Daniels Squire, Leann Sweeney, and Karen White, to name a few. And lets not forget Karen Slaughter , Kathy Reichs and Patricia Cornwell!
Wow! That is quite a list! We’re impressed.
Hmmm, I have so many. I love Joshilyn Jackson and Mary Kay Andrews.
Ron Rash, “Saints at the River”
Pat Conroy, especialy “South of Broad”
My favorite southern writer is Pat Conroy. The Prince of Tides is one of my all time favorites.
I love Southern authors, but my most favorite has to be Harper Lee, “To Kill a Mockingbird”.
Mark Kay Andrews is wonderful! I love To Kill A Mockingbird of course! My favorite!
My favorite southern authors would have to be Gwen Bristow and Margaret Mitchell!
The Help….. Language, culture,
Lee Smith is still my favorite southern woman writer. I love Fair and Tender Ladies and Charms for an Easy Life. I started reading her when I was in graduate school in Arkansas (one of my teachers, Skip Hays, said I’d like her), and so I started with one book and just kept reading.
Gotta go with Saving CeeCee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman.
Jan Karon’s Mitford series is such fun!!
I thought I knew who my favorite was … until I read this list and said, “OH YEAH! HER/HIM, TOO!” So I can’t list a favorite. But I’ve read two of these four books already anyway, and they are MARVELOUS, and own a third and hope to dig in soon! I’ll need to find The Rebel Wife, the one I hadn’t heard of yet. Such great picks, Bookpage!
Let us know what you think of Wife when you get it! Hope you like it as much of the others. We think you have good taste too.
I think all the named above are my favorites…But I’ll go with Gone With The Wind(Margaret Mitchell)..and To Kill A Mockingbird(Harper Lee)To write a book on par to these would be hard..but Loved all named,a couple I hadn’t read so I wrote them down..Thanks all…
Walker Percy’s Moviegoer and Peter Talyor’s The Old Forest both capture the good old boy’s thoughts with a grain of salt.
I remember “Huckleberry Finn” as my first southern novel, of course Mark Twain, I live near his historical house here on the east coast and I am going to visit it.
My favorite Southern author is Joshilyn Jackson.
Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady by Florence King
So many good titles and authors to chose from, but I still have to go with the classic Gone With The Wind…
Anything by Fannie Flagg
I have to say Pat Conroy. Who doesn’t love The Price of Tides? But then again, newcomer Kimberly Brock might move up on that list… or Lynda Rutledge! What a fabulous giveaway!
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird will always be one of my favorite books. However, Wiley Cash is my favorite southern author. He is a wonderful person, a dear friend and an incredible storyteller. It’s been a week since I read his debut novel and I cannot stop thinking about A Land More Kind Than Home.
I recently read The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate by Jacqueline Kelly and I loved it!
Favorite author – Flannery O’Connor — love her short stories.
Favorite Southern novel: Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns.
LOVEEEEE To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. And The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Getting into Sarah Addison Allen (most recently The Peach Keeper).
My all time favorite author and book is definitely Harper Lee – To Kill A Mockingbird. I first read it as a Junior in high school back in 1962, and I still have the original paperback copy sitting on my bookshelf. It has been read many times.
It’s not just my favorite Southern book, but my all time favorite book — TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.
Too many to name, including GWTW, To Kill A Mockingbird, Mary Kay Andrews, Anne Rivers Siddons, Jan Karon, and on an on. Southern lit is some of my favorite! Perhaps because I am not from the South, have no family from the South, and it holds a sort of mystique in my imagination.
Flannery’s short stories, all the way.
To Kill a Mockingbird tops the list, but Faulkner, Conroy, and Mitchell rate highly, too. And let’s not forget Jubilee, by Margaret Walker.
A Good Hard Look is one of my favorites. I also loved Joshilyn Jackson’s Backseat Saints. And The Poet of Tolstoy Park by Sonny Brewer. So many favorites!
My favorite Southern writer is Josephine Humphries and book is Rich inLove. Thanks for the great contest!
Anne Rivers Siddons & Dorothea Benton Frank are 2 of my favorite southern writers.
Fave southern book/author is Prince of Tides by Pat Conroy. But, then, there is the late Doris Betts, Kaye Gibbons, Reynolds Price, Sue Monk Kidd, and on and on.
Carson McCullers – The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
I’ll say Ann Patchett’s Bel Canto
Favs: Gone with the Wind, Cataloochee, and Cold Mountain.
I have to go with John Hart!
Just finished reading Dark River Road by Virginia Brown, took place in norten Mississippi. Other authors are John Hart, Harper Lee and Pat Conroy just to name a few.
Pat Conroy. Anything he writes!
Found an early Joshilyn Jackson at a booksale (Gods in Alabama) and have been looking forward to her books ever since.
Loved Gone With the Wind!
It’s difficult to pick a favorite! I love Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner Carson McCullers and Pat Conroy. I also loved In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
Thank you for this wonderful giveaway!
Aimala127(at)gmail(dot)com
Wow, no Eudora Welty fans here? Or did I skim the list too fast? Of course Flannery O’Connor’s great too & Sue Monk Kidd. And GWTW. Who can choose?
Anything by John Grisham or Fanny Flagg! But really, there are just too many great Southern authors to mention!
Greg Isles
Enjoyed reading “The Help” and learned so much from it.
My all time favorite is “Gone With the Wind”.
Cane River by Talilta Tademy