Eat Drink Delta by Susan Puckett is a hungry traveler’s journey through the soul of the South.  According to Matt Lee and Ted Lee, authors of The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern Cookbook,  “Finally!  A book devoted entirely to the foodways of Mississippi’s Delta—cradle of the civil rights movement, birthplace of the blues, and a confounding culinary region where stuffed grape leaves cozy up to barbecue, tamales to fried green tomatoes, and kibbeh to lemon ice box pie.  Puckett makes sense of it all—town, by town, kitchen by kitchen, dish by dish—in an engaging travelogue that takes the reader to family-run roadhouses, seasonal tea rooms, postmodern bistros, and out-of-the-way juke joints.  In her sojourns, Puckett charmed the best recipes out of the region’s cooks, making this not only the best insider’s guide to the area but a superb Delta cookbook as well.”

     With colorful photos and interesting writing, this is a great book for an armchair traveler.  And since some of the places mentioned are relatively close, I’d have paper and pen handy to make a list so I can get out of that armchair and give them a try.  There is a chapter on Vicksburg covering the city’s favorites along with some recipes.  Alas, the recipe for the glazed carrots they make at Walnut Hills is not included.   Is your favorite listed?  Check it out and see.

A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty

Joshilyn Jackson has written another wonderful mother/ daughter drama in her new novel, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty.  The author of Gods in Alabama, the novel is both bittersweet and elegant as it explores the life of "Big," who had her daughter Liza when she was fifteen and Mosey, her granddaughter, who Liza had when she was fifteen.  They all live in a small town and are looked down upon because of their young births, and Big works hard to make a life for all of them.  Liza is a flirtatious play girl until she suddenly has a stroke and Big is forced to care for her as well as Mosey.  The book is a tense mystery, when a baby's bones are dug up from under the willow tree and the whole town begins guessing whose baby it was.  Mosey and her friends decide themselves to try to solve the mystery so they can figure out who their family members really are.  The book is told in alternate chapters by Mosey, Liza and Big and this makes an interesting read.  The challenging part is that Liza is unable to speak, so she is stuck trying to figure out how to communicate what she knows, to her mom and daughter.  It's a fascinating story and an example of great writing!  If you love Jodi Picoult, try also reading Joshilyn Jackson--you won't be disappointed!

Food Wars: North vs. South

I read the most entertaining book yesterday, Somebody Stole the Cornbread from My Dressing by Elizabeth Gourlay Heiskell and Susanne Young Reed. This book is a very humorous look at the comparisons and differences between the northern and southern parts of the United States by comparing each regions take on foods, social events and etiquette issues. The book is a series of essays followed by recipes (i. e., weddings) and each essay is a delight to read! Elizabeth and Susanne grew up in Rosedale, MS where Elizabeth met Luke Heiskell, married him and settled in Cleveland, MS where they raise three girls and she is an instructor at the Viking Cooking School in Greenwood, MS. Susanne (unfortunately) took a different route and after atteding Ole Miss and receiving her Ph. D. in Education, she fell in love with a Yankee named Charlie Reed, married him and moved to south-central Pennsylvania for his career and to raise their son Carter. This move gave Mrs. Reed a unique view on the differences between the North and South---she lives these differences everyday! My favorite story is about Susanne's first Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania, where she "saved up" her carbohydrate calories for her first taste of Thanksgiving dressing. She eyed the savory dish and closed her eyes for the first bite, but was stunned to find nothing but bread--where was the savory grittiness of the cornbread that she had been longing for? The story of the meal is hilarious and though Susanne has grudgingly come to appreciate bread dressing, her heart still belongs to the southern dressing she grew up loving. This is a cookbook as well as a story of southern culture, and something that should not be missed. If you like this book, try also reading Gayden Metcalfe's Being Dead is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral and Jill Conner Browne's The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love.

Try Grisham's Short Stories

John Grisham's Ford County is a warm, humorous and poignant collection of stories about the residents of Ford County, Mississippi. Although Ford County is a fictional place, the characters are very real and Grisham does an outstanding job at placing the reader exactly inside the minds of these folks. Each story invoves a different aspect of Ford County, from lawyers, to casinos, retirement home corruption, racial tension and family relationships. My favorite story in this collection is "Funny Boy," a sensitive story about a family who has ostracized and disowned their gay son and what happens when he contracts AIDS and moves home to die. These stories might make you laugh or cry, but they will definitely give you a snapshot of life in a small-town, gossipy Mississippi county. These short stories are a big departure from Grisham's usual legal thrillers, so be prepared for a different sort of story when you read Ford County!

Some Day You'll Thank Me For This!

Haven't most of us heard that title phrase again...and again...and again in our lives? We probably heard it from our own mother, too! I recently read Some Day You'll Thank Me For This: The Official Southern Ladies' Guide to Being a "Perfect" Mother by Gayden Metcalfe and Charlotte Hays and I have to tell you, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The book is a humorous guide to the "Southern Mother," and even if you are not a DSM (Daughter of a Southern Mother), you will still appreciate this book. Metcalfe and Hays state that since southern society is arranged along matriarchal lines, the Southern Mother is a much more formidable being than the Southern Father. Southern Mothers were put on the earth to create good manners in their children and instill the art of ancestor worship into the next generation. This book is a humorous tribute to the Daughters of Southern Mothers, and their finicky, demanding Southern Mothers, and includes appropriate recipes for specific life occasions. Gayden Metcalf and Charlotte Hays are also the authors of two other humorous books: Being Dead is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral and Somebody is Gonna Die if Lilly Beth Doesn't Catch That Bouqet: the Official Southen Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Wedding. If you have ever wondered why southern women act the way they do...this book is for you! If you enjoy these books, try reading Jill Connor Browne's The Sweet Potato Queens' Book of Love, another hilarious book about growing up as a woman in the south.

Drama at the Dairy Queen

I am blessed to live in a town where there is a Dairy Queen. Well, really, it's a mixed blessing because it is all too easy to jump in my car and drive to the Dairy Queen to satisfy my urge for a caramel sundae or a blizzard pretty much whenever I want to! If you are not one of those folks who have ever visited a Dairy Queen, I recommend you visit one whenever you can. There is just something about their creamy vanilla ice cream that is so wonderful. My mother told me not too long ago that her dad actually managed a Dairy Queen at one point in his life, so perhaps my affinity for their ice cream is not too far-fetched? The title of my latest find, Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen by Susan Gregg Gilmore really intrigued me when I first saw it. It immediately made me think of the times I have spent at Dairy Queen with my friends, eating tasty treats and talking about our lives--but I am not sure I could say that I have ever had an epiphany while sitting there! This is something that I do not share with Catherine Grace Cline, the heroine of this delightful story. Set in 1970's in the town of Ringgold, Georgia, Catherine Grace is the oldest daughter of Ringgold's third-generation Baptist preacher, who dreams of someday leaving her boring small town for a life in "the big city." Every Saturday afternoon she and her sister, Martha Ann, sit on the picnic bench at the Dairy Queen, eating Dilly Bars and plotting her escape to Atlanta when she turns eighteen. Catherine Grace dreams of a wonderful job in retail, as she and Martha Ann live their lives and long for their mom, who drowned when Catherine Grace was six. Catherine lives her dream until unexpected events occur that force her to return to Ringgold. This book truly charmed me! Catherine Grace is a smart girl trying to live a normal life as a "preacher's daughter" and her depth and knowlege of life is wonderful. The characters in this book are well developed and resemble folks in any small Southern town. If you like this book, try also reading Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe.

Southern Fried Christmas Stories

I often discover the best books while walking past our library’s holding shelves. Since they are located next to our staff work room, I peruse these shelves several times every day. Whether it is a cleverly-worded title or a splashy cover, the little gems that I find are always worth my time. Yesterday, a colorful Christmas book caught my eye. I was first attracted by the lovely illustration on the cover, but when I was close enough to read the title, I knew that I had to share this book with someone else! Titled The Official Guide to Christmas in the South Or, If You Can’t Fry It, Spraypaint It Gold and written by David C. Barnette, this book is a charming, hilarious guide to decorating your home for Christmas in the Southern style. The book teaches the reader how to avoid holiday pitfalls as well as how to navigate the “sometimes unspoken details of Southern etiquette.” Chapters such as “Christmas China and Therapy” and “The Divinity Code” offer tips on how to arrange your house for the holidays and create the perfect food for your large assortment of visitors during the holiday season. Although tongue-in-cheek, the book does offer some practical advice, such as which items you can safely “gild” (translation-spraypaint gold) and give as gifts as well as which presents you can safely “re-gift” and who you can give them to. Another humorous Christmas style guide is Ruby Ann Boxcar’s Move Over Santa—Ruby’s Doin’ Christmas! Ruby is a resident of the High Chaparral Trailer Park, whose book details how to prepare your trailer, inside and out, for the holiday season. The book is arranged by the days of Christmas (one through twelve) and includes recipes, crafts, and other facts about Christmas (did you know that in 1836 Alabama became the first state to declare Christmas a legal holiday?). If you are feeling overwhelmed by this holiday season, be sure and check-out these books yourself, for some laughter and great holiday stress-relief. I promise you won’t be disappointed!!

A Dog-Gone Great Mystery

I just finished reading Hounded to Death, a new mystery written by one of my favorite authors, Rita Mae Brown. A bonafide Southern writer (she resides in Afton, Virginia), Ms. Brown’s books truly reflect the social graces, culture and food that all Southerners know and love! Hounded to Death is the latest book in Rita Mae Brown’s foxhunting series starring Sister Jane Arnold, Master of Foxhounds. Sister Jane is a feisty widowed woman in her seventies who has done her share of living and is very respected by the members of her hunt club. When murders occur in her community, Sister Jane can not resist joining the investigations. As with the other books in this series, Ms. Brown gives wonderfully detailed descriptions of the day-to-day operations of a hunt club, including particulars about the foxes, hounds, horses, farm animals and the lives of the hunt club members. Readers can trust the accuracy of these details because Rita Mae Brown is also the Master of Foxhounds of a hunt club located in Afton. The animals in this series do take part in the narration; however, whenever any animal speaks, their narration is in italics and only other animals are able to understand their dialogue. The books in these series are cozies- the murders that occur are gruesome but not gory. Ms. Brown has written many stand-alone books as well as other series such as three novels about the Hunsenmeir sisters, Juts and Weezy, and the Mrs. Murphy mystery series (co-authored by her cat, Sneaky Pie Brown). If you have not read any of Ms. Brown’s books, you should definitely “treat” yourself to one of her mysteries!