Just as summer brings out lots of fun, frothy novels of romance and intrigue for poolside reading, fall delivers weightier books more suitable to the cooler, hearth-bound months. With no lawn to tend or vacations to plan, what’s left to do but ride out the cold weather and stall the holiday madness with a few thought-provoking books? Here are nine Southern titles we recommend.
‘Thirteen Days in September’
Lawrence Wright, the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for The New Yorker, pens an engrossing, day-by-day account of events leading up to the 1978 Camp David Peace Accord. Despite recent conflicts, many of the tenets that made up the first modern-day Middle East peace treaty — orchestrated by President Jimmy Carter between Egypt's Anwar Sadat and Israel's Menachem Begin — remain in place today. All three men are vividly drawn characters, as is first lady Rosalynn Carter, who also plays a significant role. Wright appears at the Carter Center Sept. 22. (Knopf, September)
‘Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story’
Pioneer rock 'n' roller Jerry Lee Lewis and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Rick Bragg both grew up dirt poor in small Southern towns, and neither is a stranger to scandal — Lewis most notably for marrying his 13-year-old cousin, and Bragg for not crediting a writer who contributed to his New York Times story. It's not hard to imagine the two of them discovering some commonalities as they spent two years working together on this 512-page account of the musician's colorful, up-and-down life and career. (HarperCollins, October)
‘Fire Shut Up in My Bones’
In his revelatory memoir, New York Times columnist and frequent CNN and MSNBC commentator Charles M. Blow shares his life story, starting with his childhood in small-town Louisiana where his mother worked plucking chickens in a poultry plant and an older cousin sexually abused him. He goes on to endure a violent hazing at Grambling State University and struggles with his own violent impulses. A father of three, Blow also discusses his bisexuality and his conflicted feelings over that label. Publisher's Weekly calls it "brave and powerful." (Houghton Mifflin, September)
‘Sister Golden Hair’
Set in 1972, this coming-of-age novel by Darcy Steinke is told in the riveting, authentic voice of an inquisitive 12-year-old girl named Jesse, who struggles to make sense of an adult world that's come off its axis — in her own family and in society at large. After three moves in three years, Jesse's father — a defrocked pastor — settles the family in a suburb in Roanoke, Va., where he pieces together a living and dabbles in the era's spiritual trends. Meanwhile Jesse's mother grows increasingly more glum. Sexual curiosity and a fascination with death and Cher provide some relief to Jesse's adolescent restlessness. (Tin House Books, October)
‘Internal Medicine’
Before he became an internist specializing in geriatrics in Chapel Hill, N.C., Terrence Holt was Junot Diaz's writing professor at Rutgers University. At Diaz's urging, Holt returned to writing in his spare time, resulting first in the critically acclaimed short story collection, "In the Valley of the Kings," and now in this collection of nine deeply human true stories about life and death, based on his experiences as a doctor. On hospital duty the last night of Mrs. B's slipping-away life in "A Sign of Weakness," Holt writes: "The eye held my gaze for a long moment, the dim gleam of the nightlight streaking across the cornea. A hand made a brief sweeping gesture, fell. Away." (W.W. Norton, September)
‘The Wild Truth’
In his book "Into the Wild," Jon Krakauer made famous the true story of Chris McCandless, the freshly minted Emory graduate from an affluent family who gave away all his possessions and hitchhiked to Alaska where he planned to live off the land but instead starved to death. Sean Penn later made it into a movie. In this memoir, Chris' sister, Carine McCandless, offers insight into her brother's motivations by recounting their family's tumultuous dynamics. (HarperCollins, November)
‘The Wonder of All Things’
Before it was even published, debut novel "The Returned" – about dead people coming back to life — made a big splash when it was optioned by Brad Pitt's production company and turned into the ABC-TV series "Resurrection." North Carolina author Jason Mott's follow-up novel also delves into the supernatural. Here, a 9-year-old girl survives an air show crash to discover she has healing powers. Lionsgate has already optioned the film rights. (Harlequin, October)
‘Good Dog’
From the editors at Garden & Gun magazine comes this anthology of true stories about canines of all breeds and temperaments, from Allison Glock's "Sadie, the White Devil" to Clyde Edgerton's "Chicken Dog." Among the writers opining on their favorite mutts are Rick Bass, Roy Blount Jr., Ace Atkins and Jill McCorkle. But perhaps nobody rhapsodizes on the soul of a dog better than Daniel Wallace in his essay, "How to Name a Dog." Of his pup Rudy, he writes: "His big red eyes were so needy, so pitiful, and when he looked at you, it was not love you saw but the last hopeless look of a man falling off a cliff." (HarperCollins, November)
‘The Wilds’
Furtive smoke breaks, inflamed zits and honeysuckle vines are recurring images in this dark, lush collection of short stories by Pushcart Prize-winner Julia Elliott, an English and gender studies professor at the University of South Carolina. Whimsy bumps up against ugly often in these alternately gothic and surreal tales of desire, anxiety and wonder. In the title story, Elliott describes Mrs. Wild as having "a pouf of hair as golden and crunchy as a pork rind." About Mr. Wild, she writes: "Children whispered that he was too smart to talk, that nothing he said made sense, that he had false teeth and a robot eye and a creepy vampire accent." But it's the Wild boys who most vex the young, female narrator. (Tin House Books, October)
