Home > Pulpwood Queen Blog > Archives > 2007 > May > 15 > Entry
We Caught the Best Kind of RASH!
Every month I select a book, an author, whose work I find outstanding. They must be well written, give a new voice to literature, and be willing to venture to our neck of the woods. They also must be an author who is yet undiscovered in a big way. Author, Ron Rash was our special guest this month of May! I assure you, he will be famous soon. He is a writer to watch.
Ron is a poet who teaches creative writing and Appalachia studies at a southern university. He has never roamed to far from thearea in which he has been raised other than book tours. The first time Iand the Pulpwood Queens heard Ron read aloud to our book club we were hooked. If there has ever been an author who gave voice to literature, it is Ron Rash. That southern inflection and knowing just when to pauseand continue makes him a master at storytelling in its finest. The Pulpwood Queens voted Ron Rash our favorite read aloud author and I could not wait to have him back. I selected The World Made Straight as our Pulpwood Queen Book Club Selection and this was no easy read. This book addressed what happens when you take away rural peoples livelihood of being farmers that also happen to lack in education. We have ageneration of young people growing up trying to figure out what to do with too much time and no means of support. They turn to other cash crops which aren’t so legal.
I wanted to address the ever-growing population of our country, the rural south, that are at poverty level and no means of support. We havea generation of youth turning to drugs as a means of escape and support. Here in East Texas and my Marion County, we have a 39% of adult illiteracy. Most of these people live in the rural areas of the county with no means of transportation. These folks have children and have no skills to teach their children to do better. Education and literacy is the key to abject poverty, but how do we reach these people. Ron’s book raised questions of basically good people growing upand making bad choices. Our conversation was very lively and thought provoking.
There is no longer a black and white world just like their is no longer black and white television. We live in a world that is all shades of grey. Just this week a major story hit the front page of The DallasMorning News and my community. Crystal meth is now being made to flavor strawberry called sometimes Strawberry Quick to entice children in to anasty and horrendous drug habit. Made to look like the popular children’s candy Pop Rocks. Scary as I came from the generation of penny candy and getting your ten cents worth at the local candy counterat the grocery store. Candy that can now kill and ruin the lives of children. Books can enlighten and educate as well as entertain. Though Ron wrote a tough book, at least we are now all on the same page as what we can do as a book club to be aware of the dangers for our future generations.
Ron also wrote Chemistry and other Stories, a short story collection that I chose as our Bonus Book Club Selection published by Picador. I have to thank this publishing house for sending Ron to us yet again as you see he is a two time Pulpwood Queen Book Club Selection author. I would like to think I personally discovered Ron Rash but this is one Rash I wish to share with all of you. You would be doing yourself agreat disservice by not reading his wonderful books. In fact, Iencouraged the Queens to read his entire body of work as this author is amazing. Poetry, short stories, novels, he has something for everybodyand the best part is every book is a treasure.
We will have up on our website shortly at www.beautyandthebook.com the video interview I did with Ron Rash at my Beauty and the Book. And I must encourage you as a reader if he is in your neighborhood to go hearRon read in person. I know it was one of my most treasured authorminutes, listening to Ron Rash READ!
Next up, Kathy L. Patrick as a mom, what motherhood means to me and end of the school adventures with my two children, no make that my blossoming young women. With Mother’s Day just behind me, I think I now know what love is.
Tiara wearing and Book sharing,
Kathy L. Patrick
Founder of the Pulpwood Queens Book Club
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