Lady Banks' Commonplace Book

The Unchanging Summer Reading List

Dearest Readers,

The sun is beating down upon the back deck, the air conditioner is a constant hum in the background (singing, inexorably, to her ladyship of electricity bills), and the dogs have retired under the porch not to be seen again until it is time for their walk at dusk.  Summertime, in the South, is about curling up someplace quiet and cool and shaded. Preferably with a glass of sweet tea and a book.

It is interesting to note the books that make the bestseller list at this time of year, for aside from the usual new novels by the more popular writers, or the debuting novels by newly discovered authors, this is the time when certain classic books start their slow march up the lists: Lord of the Flies, Catcher in the Rye, The Great Gatsby and, of course, To Kill a Mockingbird.  The time of the school summer reading list has begun.

Her ladyship’s own summer reading list has been rather more eccentric, chosen largely from the books that were finalists for the SIBA Book Award . On July 7th the winners of the 2008 SIBA Book Award were announced:

Children’s: Deep in the Swamp by Donna M. Bateman
Cooking: A Love Affair with Southern Cooking by Jean Anderson
Fiction: Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen
Nonfiction: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
Poetry: The House on Boulevard Street by David Kirby

They represent, as the notices say, “the best in southern literature, as chosen by the people who would know…southern independent booksellers.

So while the children in her neighborhood are struggling through Catcher in the Rye (a daunting task which makes her ladyship feels quite sorry for them) or To Kill a Mockingbird (a book on the other hand, that unlike Salinger, her ladyship feels quite positive everyone should read at least once), her ladyship, the editor has been pleasantly occupied with the novels of Robert Olmstead and John Hart, the poetry of David Kirby and Kathryn Kirkpatrick, the writing of Robert Morgan and Barbara Kingsolver.

She has made all the sweet tea recipes to be found in each of the cooking finalist books. Can a cookbook, she wonders, even be considered "southern" if it does not include a recipe for sweet tea?

Nor has she neglected the books in the Children’s & Young Adult category! Middle school and high school teachers take note. Her ladyship would like to inform you of the very many and quite books written for our younger generation since Catcher in the Rye was first published in 1951. May her ladyship suggest:

Her ladyship, the editor

Authors 'Round the South

Authors Round the South is the home of one of the most extensive listings of literary events in the South, including author readings & appearances, book club meetings, book & literary festivals, open mics, poetry slams and writing groups. No matter what part of the South you live in, you can find a bookstore and author appearance near you!

Karen Abbott, author of Sin in the Second City at Bound to be Read in Atlanta, GA	Cherri Bingham, author of Reflections From the Heart at My Sister's Books, Inc. in Pawleys Island, SC	Stephanie Bond, author of Body Movers: 3 Men And A Body at Book Exchange in Marietta, GA	Delia Champion, author of The Flying Biscuit Cafe Cookbook at Wordsmiths Books in Decatur, GA
Mark de Castrique, author of Blackman's Coffin at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva, NC	John Dufresne, author of Requiem, Mass. at Windows a bookshop in Monroe, LA	Clyde Edgerton, author of The Bible Salesman at McIntyre's Fine Books in Pittsboro, NC	Mary Anna Evans, J.B. Stanley & Kathleen Jorgensen , author of Findings, Chili Con Corpses, A Cup of Comfort for at Creatures 'N Crooks Bookshoppe, LLC in Richmond, VA
Kate Clifford Larson, author of Assassin's Accomplice: Mary Surratt and the Plot to Kill Abraham Lincoln at Fountain Bookstore in Richmond, VA	Charles Martin, author of Where the River Ends at Litchfield Books in Pawleys Island, SC	Ian McNulty , author of Season of Night: New Orleans Life After Katrina at Square Books in Oxford, MS	Stephanie Meyer, author of Breaking Dawn at Little Professor Book Center in Homewood, AL
Gen. Harold Moore, author of We Are Soldiers Still: A Journey Back to the Battl at Alabama Booksmith in Birmingham, AL	T. Lynn Ocean, author of Southern Fatality at Pomegranate Books in Wilmington, NC	Julia Reed, author of The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story at Page & Palette in Fairhope, AL	Grady Thrasher, author of Tim and Sally' Beach Adventures at Horton's Books & Gifts in Carrollton, GA
Jeff Vandermeer, author of Best AMericna Fantasy 2007 at Malaprop's Bookstore & Café in Asheville, NC

Book Festivals & Special Events

The 2008 SIBA Book Awards at the Decatur Book Festival
August 28-30
If you want to count by “number of authors attending,” the Decatur Book Festival, which has over 200, is one of the largest in the country. And her ladyship, the editor, who will be in attendance, is not even counted among the number of luminaries since she is, after all, an editor, not an author.  Nevertheless you may meet her at the SIBA booth (#406)  at the festival on Saturday.

BOOKMARKS 2008
Winston-Salem, NC
September 13
Make plans to attend the FOURTH EDITION in Historic Bethabara Park on Saturday, September 13. Check out our list of authors to-date. Planning is underway so check back for ongoing updates. Learn how you can be involved in planning the book festival.

Fall for the Book Festival
Fairfax, VA
September 21 - 26

Charlotte Literary Festival
Charlotte, NC
September 6

Southern Festival of Books
Nashville, TN
October 10 - 12
The 20th annual Southern Festival of Books, October 10-12 in Nashville needs volunteers, Facebook Friends, and (of course) donations.

AUTHOR 2 AUTHOR:
Florida novelist Janis Owens sits down for a sisterly chat with award-winning memoirist and essayist, Karen Spears Zacharias, author of a provocative new book of essays just out from Zondervan, WHERE'S YOUR JESUS NOW? Janis and Karen both claim to be Christians, although, there are those who raise an eyebrow at the very idea that these two could squeeze between the gates of heaven. Pull up a chair and decide for yourself.

Q: Karen, Karen, Karen: you are a study in contradiction. You are a southern-born journalist who lives in the Pacific Northwest, who writes southern novels in your spare time. Before I get to your latest book, let me briefly address your schizophrenia: Do you find it difficult, starting out as a journalist and then writing novels? Any blurred lines, or difficulty jumping back and forth between the two forms? Which is easier - and if it is journalism, why and oh why torture yourself trying to write fiction?

A: Barry Hannah said it's the juxtapositions of our lives as southerners that make us such good storytellers. The black, the white. The rich, the poor. The journalist, the fiction writer, I reckon.

But to be clear, I have only written one novel, and it has yet to see print, so I'm not sure that qualifies me to answer your questions. But, then, ignorance has never been a deterrent for me.  It may be the very thing that compels me.

Asking me which is more difficult -- writing fiction, or doing the journalist  thing -- is like asking me which child was harder to raise -- my son, or my three girls. Each gender presented its own set of challenges and joys. I enjoyed both experiences but for different reasons.  

Q: You're southern by birth and rearing, but have lived much of your adult life in Oregon. Does the South seem more or less familiar to you when you return? What do you like most about your trips home, and what do you detest? Do you find that being a southerner stays with you, where ever you live? Do you suffer discrimination because of your accent and affection for butterbeans?

A: Good news is I’m baaaccckkk in the south now. In August, I’ll begin a job as editorial writer for the Fayetteville Observer in Fayetteville, N.C.

I went to Oregon as an 18-year old girl, never intending to stay there. I only went because my mama up and moved off, leaving me by my lonesome in Georgia. She was my sole-living parent and I missed her.

I didn’t realize when I married an Oregon man four years later that I might as well have taken a hammer and nailed my foot to the buckboard of wagon. We raised our four children in a home that literally sat on what once was part of the Oregon Trail.

I consider myself a displaced southern girl. I like sweet tea, squash casserole, collards, and mustard-based barbecue. I love lightening bugs, warm nights, and seeing everybody dressed up on Sundays.

The only thing that I really detest is the undercurrent of racism that continues to be tolerated by people who know better. The crude joke. The off-hand comment. And the suggestion that I simply don't, or can't, understand.

I detest that as much as I do the suggestion from the folks out West that I must be ignorant because I love Jesus, or I talk funny.

And, yes, I have suffered discrimination because of my southern ways, so maybe that's why I'm sensitive, maybe overly sensitive, to the plight of other groups of people who suffer such ill-conceived slights.

Q: You have more opinions per page than most writers, which is unusual in that you are a Southern born woman of my own generation. Were you born without that southern-female-pleaser gene, or have you been in therapy so long that it has erased your early teaching?

A: I spent six years in therapy but only three of it took. The first three years I was just saying whatever my therapist wanted to hear.

Trust me.  I have the female-pleaser gene in the worst way. It's even complicated by my middle-child pleaser nature. It's just that like my anorexia, I seem to have successfully overcome that particular neurosis.

Seriously, though, southern women are by their very nature opinionated. I was in the ladies bathroom at the athletic club the other day, cleaning sleep from the corners of my eyes and this lady I've never met walked by and said, "Honey, you need to splash your eyes with cold water."

"I do?" I asked.
"Yes,” she said. “I get that stuff all the time in my eyes. Cold water will do the trick."

Southern women give their unsolicited opinions on everything. From the best mayo to use in Deviled Eggs -- Best Foods, of course -- to the best way to treat an ant bite -- Dab it with vinegar.

Q: The subtitle of WHERE'S YOUR JESUS NOW is: How Fear Erodes Our Faith. Just curious: in post 9/11 America, and especially this year of tornados, floods and war, do you find yourself personally battling more fear? How do you over come it? (and quoting scripture can't be the only answer. You must elaborate.)  

A: I am so paranoid, I sent my shadow away when I noticed it kept following me around.

I'm the mother of four grown kids. Kids who can have sex, unprotected. Kids old enough to drink. And drive. Kids old enough to pick out a mate, without my help or my approval. Kids who sometimes choose not to go to church, even on the Sabbath.

Hell yeah, I'm scared. But I don't let my fears fence me, or my children, in, anymore. When I feel the fear rising, the way I do about 40 times an hour, I pause to pray. I pray things like, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief." Or, I pray "For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of love, power and of sound mind."

Q: You write of the demonization of Muslims in popular fiction. Do you object to this bias based on your Christian beliefs, or because you've lived in Oregon so long that you've become a closet liberal? We're all friends here. Pray be frank.

A: I’m not a closet anything. I wear my feelings like an 18-hour bra, straight-out. The bible is very clear that there is great power in the word. We ought to be more careful about the words we use and the labels we attach to people. Playing to people’s fears might be a great marketing tool, but sooner or later there’s going to be hell to pay for such carelessness and encouraging such biases. 

Q: As a follow-up question: do you get tired of narrow minded interviewers forever trying to pigeon-hole you with labels?

A: Is that a trick question? 

Q: Speaking of labels: you take a well-reasoned anti-war and pro-gay stance in the book, which separates you from mainstream American fundamentalism. Do you fear the televangelists are going to call you out? Do you get uninvited to church suppers? And by-the-way: how the hell did you get a book contract with a Christian publisher?

A: Mmm, I’m prickling at those labels. If being pro-gay means that I love people no matter what their sexual orientation, then yep, I’m guilty of that. And if anti-war means that I don’t want to see our military families exploited for political or even financial gain, then yes, I’m guilty of that as well.

Zondervan sought me out after Scot McKnight author of Jesus Creed introduced us. That they weren’t afraid of a woman with a messy life and rough edges is a testament to their commitment to living life honestly.

As far as the televangelists calling me out, I think the beauty of Truth is that it needs no defenders. It can stand alone. It is not made truer by the number of people who believe it or those who don’t. And I’m in no way suggesting I am the only one who knows the Truth. I’m just relating some of the lessons I learned while seeking Truth.

Q: OK, enough with my labels. Let's move to an easier, less controversial subject. I think it is safe to say that most Americans are tired of the war in Iraq. What's your plan for getting us out? In twenty words or less.

A: Pull them out the same way we put them there – one-by-one, right now. Because if Vietnam didn’t teach us anything else, surely it ought to have taught us that when freedom is forced upon a people, it is not truly freedom, is it?

Q: If you had one piece of sterling advice for the American church and the American people, what would it be?

A: Love one another as Christ has loved us.

Janis: Amen.

Southern Author Blogs

In May the inestimable Maggie of the Maggie Reads blog issued a Southern Reading Challenge to her fellow online scribes. (It is one of many reading challenges she has proclaimed. Maggie, it must be said, seems to enjoy a challenge).

The challenge has had quite interesting results. Among the Southern books that have been read and reviewed are Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (her ladyship had not realized that there might be people who had not yet read this book; She finds herself wondering if they have heard of The Da Vinci Code) and a personal favorite of her ladyship, The Watermelon King. One person read Coal Tattoo and wrote a lovely commentary upon the book which ended with lyrics from a Billy Wheeler song.

Perhaps the most unusual response were as series of haiku inspired by--dare she say?--To Kill a Mockingbird.

Apparently, summer is the time even for adults to revisit this classic. (Perhaps they are trying to convince their high-school aged children it is more worthy of their attention than the iPhone3?) Two writers have recently discussed their discovery (or rediscovery) of Scout, Atticus, and Boo: Ann Hite admits that upon re-reading this book she realized she had not read it before, because surely she would have remembered Maudie. Whereas a gentleman named "Shaft" (the ‘poker correspondent’ for the Baby Got Books Blog, which suggests to her ladyship that someone there is overly fond of the Daily Show) admits to having been one of the fifteen people left in America who has not read Harper Lee's masterpiece, and set about --most admirably-- to rectify the error. He has also, apparently, not seen the movie, which is a source of amazement to her ladyship. She believes she had to answer questions about the movie to get her driver's license when she first came south.

Literary Gossip & News

Her ladyship has read with interest that the Library of Congress is attempting to recreate the library of Thomas Jefferson, (and notes that a virtual exhibition of his catalog is already available).

There is news of a bookseller nature; OutLoud Bookstore in Nashville, TN is for sale; the Muse Book Shop in Deland, FL wants to turn their street into a Pink Light District; There are delays in the opening of Vlad Svekis's much awaited store in Boca Raton, FL, but a new store called Snow's Cut Bookshop has opened in Carolina Beach, NC; and Asheville, NC, it will surprise no one to hear, is a booklover's paradise.

In other news of a literary nature, Kevin McFadden has won the 2008 Fellowship of Southern Writers New Writing Award for Poetry for his book Hardscrabble. Robert Macomber is the winner of the WY Boy Award for excellence in military historical fiction for his Civil War maritime series. NC Bookwatch host D.G. Martin has published his summer reading list. Flannery O'Connor can be found on You Tube, (a thing she would not, perhaps, be very pleased to discover), and Bill Henderson meditates upon what Eudora Welty meant when she spoke about "the logic of the heart."

And finally, two items worthy of note. Senator Jesse Helms, a man who has had much influence upon the arts in the south (to the joy of some and the frustration of many) passed away on July 4th.

And the Nobel prize-winning author Toni Morrison visited Fort Moultrie on Sullivan's Island, SC to honor the memory of the slaves who arrived there with an installation of a "bench by the road."

Recommended by Your Neighborhood Southern Booksellers

Land of a Hundred Wonders: A Novel by Lesley Kagen
(NAL, $14 paper, 9780451224095 / 0451224094)

"Gibby is what her grandpa calls NQR (Not Quite Right). But she is an investigative reporter and is determined to solve the murder mystery of the future governor of Kentucky so that she can become Quite Right again. You get the privilege of discovering the truth right along with this wonderful heroine." --Michelle Burcky, Cover to Cover Bookstore, Arlington, TN

Waiter Rant: Thanks for the Tip -- Confessions of a Cynical Waiter by The Waiter (Ecco, $24.95, 9780061256684 / 0061256684)

"Reading this entertaining front-of-house answer to Kitchen Confidential reminded me of all the summers I spent waiting tables -- and reminded me to tip more generously." --Cheryl Patton, Eclipse Coffee & Books, Montevallo, AL

The Seamstress: A Novel by Frances De Pontes Peebles
(HarperCollins, $25.95, 9780060738877 / 0060738871)

"An epic saga from a talented new writer that will definitely keep you reading. Emilia and Luzia dos Santos are orphaned sisters who are separated by twists of fate, but throughout life they remain connected by heart and mind. This is a brilliant Brazilian 'western,' a great surprise, and, now, one of my all-time favorites." --Lillian Kinsey, Bohannons' Books With a Past, Georgetown, KY

Bookseller Blogs

Consuming Books: Around the World in Books

The King’s Last Song (Small Beer Press, 2008) takes place in Cambodia.  In 2004, an archeologist from the United Nations dig team discovers an ancient manuscript inscribed on gold leaves.  The writings record the life of an ancient king, Jayavarman VII, who ruled during the twelfth century.  The story encompasses both past and present and details the lives of Cambodians who have lived with war and atrocity for centuries. 

With the discovery of the gold leaves everyone wants a piece of the action.  But the King, the Army and the UN are all outflanked when the precious book is kidnapped, along with Professor Luc Andrade, who was accompanying it to the capital for restoration. Luckily for Luc his love and respect for Cambodia have won him many friends, including ex-Khmer Rouge cadre Map and the young moto-boy William. Both equally determined to rescue the man they consider their mentor and recover the golden book, they form an unlikely bond. . . .Read more

Little Shop of Stories: Book Groups for Guys

We're reading The Black Book of Secrets, by F.E. Higgins. I picked this book because of it's opening scene: Ludlow Fitch about to get his teeth pulled by a nasty tooth merchant who is aided by Ludlow's own parents! Ludlow escapes to a remote village where he hides out and starts a new life. . .but what he doesn’t know is that his dark past is coming, and his terrible secrets will affect everyone around him. I picked this book because the opening scene grabbed me in a way that few openings have, and I can’t wait to read the rest! . . .Read more

A Reading Life: If you could design it, Nicki, what would be the perfect online bookstore?

When I was asked this question during a discussion at Book Balloon, I was ready to respond immediately. I clicked in the little “post” box and started typing. And typed. And typed. And realized that I wasn’t typing a response, but more of a manifesto. So I got a grip on myself, took a deep breath, and copied everything into the file I reserve for working out thoughts about this column. . .But I can tell you what the perfect online bookstore is not. It is not Amazon. I want my perfect bookstore to treat books like books first, and product second. . . Read more

Page 854: The blog for Accent on Books

On things found behind the fireplace:
A demolition worker in the town of Poole in England seems to have struck literary gold. While taking apart the house that JRR Tolkien lived in until 1972 (when he moved to Oxford) Stephen Malton found a postcard behind the fireplace addressed to Tolkien and dating from 1968. The postcard has an Irish scene and is signed "Lin." Malton speculates that the sender might have been the writer Lin Carter, who at that point was working on a book about The Lord of the Rings (Carter's book was published in 1969). Malton says a collector in Belgium has offered him $500,000 for the fireplace and the postcard. Not a bad day's work in the demolition business, I imagine.

More on this story can be found here.

The Regulator & The Urban Think! Blogs both cited the same wonderful quote about the importance of the bookshop:

“Great bookshops are the heart of every literary culture, the chambers where life-giving material is exchanged and where writers and readers deposit and find their secrets. . . . The greatest bookshops set up a trade in books and passions, in the interplay of inquiring minds and the search for values. And so, the best bookshops in the world become centers of a way of life . . . because there is so little else around now that is like them. Independence is their creed but also their character: they seek to know what they are selling and to sell it with feeling.”–Andrew O’Hagan describing “the perfect bookshop” in the Guardian.

Wordsmiths Books Blog:I was first introduced (late in the game, I know) to the writings of Ron Rash last year, with his short story collection Chemistry. In it, I found gorgeously straight-forward, majestic writing that lives and breathes the South-that’s right, “South” with a definite capital “S”.

His new novel, Serena, to be published in September, recently crossed my desk. It’s a weighty tome of a book, at least in advance-copy form, but upon digging in a few days ago I found myself overtaken to the point of nearly reading the entire thing in one sitting. Finally closing the back cover only a day after first cracking the spine, I have no hesitation in saying Serena’s one of the best books I’ll read in 2008, and definitely the a masterwork of southern literature. . . Read more

Yikes and Away! The blog of A Sense of Humor Bookstore

The Importance of Sarcasm:  Neurophysiologist Katherine Rankin at the University of California, San Francisco, has also recently discovered that sarcasm, which is both positively funny and negatively nasty, plays an important part in human social interaction.
So what?

I mean really, who cares? Oh for God's sake. Don't you have anything better to do that read this column?. . .Read more

Lady Banks’ Commonplace Book

Opening Night at Soby’s Restaurant

“Wait a cotton-picking minute! Opening night wasn’t quite as celebratory as all that—at least not at first. Sure the hood was shiny and new and the fireplace was lit for the very first time. Servers’ uniforms were pressed and starched. Not a chip could be found on any of the plates. The kitchen was a blur of activity and aromas. Everything was as it should be. What could possibly go wrong?

Then it happened. One questions from a server brought the kitchen to a screeching halt. ‘Chef, what do you want us to serve butter for the bread on?’

Bread? Bread wasn’t on the construction punch list. Bread wasn’t on any of the order guides used to purchase ingredients. Bread wasn’t on the 200 menus re had proofread and printed. Bread? There was none anywhere in the restaurant. We had forgotten that, with anticipated waits of up to two hours for a seat (we didn’t take reservations when we opened), our guests might like to have some bread when they sat down.

Chef David roared into action. . .A little flour, a little shortening, a little of this and a little of that—and there they were—just like we had planned them all along: Soby’s Garlic and Cheddar Biscuits.”

--Rodney Freidank, Soby’s New South Cuisine (A 2008 SIBA Book Award Finalist)
                                Table 301

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