15 Alabama books to take to the beach this summer
By Michelle Matthews | mmatthews@al.com |
On this list, you'll find writers who were born in Alabama, writers who write in Alabama and writers who write about Alabama. Their books range from fiction to true crime, history to mystery, cookbooks to memoirs. In other words, there's something for everyone in these recent releases.
Facebook photo by Tammy Domingue
That could be you, on the white sandy beaches of Alabama, reading a book with an Alabama connection.
"Once You Know This" by Emily Blejwas
This debut novel by Emily Blejwas, who's originally from Minnesota but now lives in Mobile, is intended for middle grade readers ages 8 to 12, but readers of all ages will relate to and pull for the 11-year-old protagonist, Brittany, who wishes for a better life for herself and her family.
Read more about Blejwas here.
"The Best Cook in the World: Tales from My Momma's Table" by Rick Bragg
Part cookbook and part memoir, this book is Rick Bragg's tribute to his mother Margaret Bragg's culinary skills. It includes recipes for some of his favorite Southern dishes she made for him as he grew up in Calhoun County: chicken and dressing, mashed potatoes, corn pudding, biscuits and more. Bragg lives in Fairhope and teaches at the University of Alabama.
Read more about Bragg here.
"My Exaggerated Life" by Pat Conroy as told to Katherine Clark
Before he died in 2016, the great American author Pat Conroy entrusted his friend, Birmingham native Katherine Clark, with his oral biography. In it, he speaks in his own blunt, candid voice about surviving childhood abuse, depression and alcoholism, as well as the forces that saved his life from ruin.
Read more about Clark here.
"Hurricane Season" by Lauren Denton
Her 2017 USA Today bestselling debut novel "The Hideaway" was set on the Gulf Coast. Now Lauren Denton, a Mobile native who lives in Birmingham, has followed it up with "Hurricane Season," a tale of two sisters set in southern Alabama as a hurricane approaches.
Read more about Denton here.
"The Infamous Birmingham Axe Murders: Prohibition Gangsters and Vigilante Justice" by Jeremy Gray
Journalist Jeremy Gray of al.com takes readers back to 1920s Birmingham, when criminals with small axes attacked immigrant merchants and interracial couples, leaving dozens dead or injured over four years. Police were desperate to solve the case, one of the most curious and violent in Magic City history.
"Charmed Bones: A Sarah Booth Delaney Story" by Carolyn Haines
Detective Sarah Booth Delaney is back in the latest mystery by Mobile's prolific author Carolyn Haines (this is the 18th book in the series). Set in the fictional Zinnia, Miss., in this book three sister witches are accused of a teenager's disappearance. Are the sisters criminals, or victims?
"Not Quite Right: Mostly True Tales of a Weird News Reporter" by Kelly Kazek
Columnist and funny lady Kelly Kazek of al.com has filled her latest book, a memoir, with hilarious tales from her "weird news reporter" gig and from her stranger-than-fiction life with her hubby, Sweetums, a 6-foot-7 Bigfoot enthusiast. To order your own signed copy, email kellykazek@kellykazek.com.
"Barracoon" by Zora Neale Hurston
The author of the classic "Their Eyes Were Watching God," Zora Neale Hurston interviewed Cudjo Lewis, then 86 years old, in Plateau, or Africatown, just north of Mobile, in 1927, and again in 1931. Lewis was the last living person who had sailed from Africa to America aboard the Clotilda, the last known slave ship, 50 years after the Atlantic slave trade was outlawed. This book tells his incredible story in his own vernacular.
Read the latest on the search for the Clotilda here.
"Murder on Shades Mountain: The Legal Lynching of Willie Peterson and the Struggle for Justice in Jim Crow Birmingham" by Melanie S. Morrison
Social justice educator, author and activist Melanie S. Morrison tells the true tale of a tragic event in Birmingham -- the brutal 1931 attack on three young white women in Birmingham that led to a reign of terror on the black community -- and its aftermath. Morrison first heard the story from her father, who dated the younger sister of the sole survivor of the attack.
"Fierce Kingdom" by Gin Phillips
Gin Phillips, a native of Montgomery who now lives in Birmingham, set this thriller in a fictionalized version of Birmingham Zoo, where a young mother and her four-year-old son find themselves trapped for three hours. The New York Times Book Review named it "A Best Crime Novel of 2017."
Read more about Phillips here.
"Deserving It" by Angela Quarles
Looking for a steamy romantic comedy? Angela Quarles is the pen name of Angela Trigg, who lives in Mobile, where she's opening a bookstore in October. The third book in her "Stolen Moments" series, this one is set in Atlanta, where a hurricane has stranded tough girl Claire with Irish hottie Conor.
Read more about Trigg here.
"The Marriage Pact" by Michelle Richmond
Fans of "Gone Girl" will enjoy New York Times bestselling author Michelle Richmond's latest, which Dean Koontz calls "a tense, twisting, quirky novel of growing dread." In it, a newlywed couple join a mysterious group called The Pact, which is supposed to keep their marriage intact. Hmm. Richmond, a Mobile native, lives in northern California.
Read more about Richmond here.
"These Rugged Days: Alabama in the Civil War" by John Sledge
A senior architectural historian for the Mobile Historic Development Commission and a member of the National Book Critics Circle, John Sledge, who lives in Fairhope, details Alabama's contributions to the Civil War in his latest book. On its back cover, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns is quoted as saying, "I couldn't stop reading it!"
"The Majorettes are Back in Town, and Other Things to Love About the South" by Leslie Anne Tarabella
Leslie Anne Tarabella, who lives in Fairhope and whose columns appear on al.com, focuses on Southern values in this compilation of her most popular musings on majorettes, motherhood, manners and more.
"Extraordinary Adventures" by Daniel Wallace
A review in The New York Times said that Daniel Wallace's "Extraordinary Adventures" is "as refreshing and original as his earlier books," which include "Big Fish" and "Ray in Reverse." Wallace sets the story in his hometown of Birmingham, where painfully shy Edsel Bronfman has 79 days to find a date to accompany him to a beach vacation he won.