Arepas and Gravy

Welcome to Part 5 of the Atlanta Local Gift Guide! This one is all about my favorite past time – reading.

5.) A Book by a Local Author – Now that more and more people are self-publishing, authors are becoming their own marketers and sellers. Even major publishing houses are slashing marketing budgets, meaning that there may be some great books by local authors that you’ve never heard of. It doesn’t help that newspapers are firing their book reviewers and small, local bookstores are going out of business. To find local authors, visit bookstores and ask for the “Local Author” section, visit book festivals or street festivals, or attend readings at indie bookstores. In my state, we have the Georgia Author of the Year Awards where many local authors are honored. Your state may very well have something similar. Sites like GoodReads.com and BookArmy.com also commonly have forums dedicated to local and regional authors.

Here are my recommendations, but don’t take my word for it. Use the resources listed above to find your own hidden gems.

The Front Porch Prophet by Raymond Atkins – Winner of this Year’s Georgia Author of the Year Award in (I believe) the Novel category, this quirky look at the South is well… I’ll let the jacket explain:

What do a trigger-happy bootlegger with pancreatic cancer, an alcoholic helicopter pilot who is afraid to fly, and a dead guy with his feet in a camp stove have in common? What are the similarities between a fire department that cannot put out fires, a policeman who has a historic cabin fall on him from out of the sky, and an entire family dedicated to a variety of deceased authors? Where can you find a war hero named Termite with a long knife stuck in his liver, a cook named Hoghead who makes the world’s worst coffee, and a supervisor named Pillsbury who nearly gets hung by his employees? Sequoyah, Georgia is the answer to all three questions.

Falling by Kathi Harper Hill — A Christian romance by an author from Ellijay who also happens to be a family member of mine. This one has rave reviews from people I trust, including the most discerning book critic I know – my mom.

Baby Proof by Emily Giffin — Chick lit with a fun voice.

As a successful editor at a Manhattan publishing house, Claudia Parr counts herself fortunate to meet and marry Ben, a man who claims to be a nonbreeding career-firster like she is. The couple’s early married years go smoothly, but then Ben’s biological clock starts to tick. A baby’s a deal breaker for Claudia, so she moves out and bunks with her college roommate Jess (a 35-year-old blonde goddess stuck in a series of dead-end relationships) while the wheels of divorce crank into action. Even after the divorce is finalized and Claudia embarks on a steamy love affair with her colleague Richard, she begins to doubt her decision when she suspects Ben has found a smart, young and beautiful woman willing to bear his children.

Enjoy Your Money!: How to Make It, Save It, Invest It and Give It by J. Steve Miller –
A smart pick for those of you looking to go the non-fiction route, this book is an overall guide to handling your money. Heaven knows I need something like this.

Some Personal Papers by Joallan Bradham — Recommended by friend of the blog and author of Princess Palace Cheryl Anderson Brown. Sounds right up my alley – dark and well written.

Some Personal Papers is the story of Miss Genie and her beautiful/terrible garden. Like all good literature, JoAllen Bradham’s novel takes us where we haven’t been. “Take” is too mild a verb; Miss Genie’s voice doesn’t take us–it yanks us into the world of public housing, caseworkers, and dysfunctional parents. The reader is challenged, faced with deciding if Miss Genie, respected director of children’s services in a large Georgia city, is a clear-minded benefactor or a madwoman and victim of her own circumstances, or some of each.

Miss Genie’s garden forces us to consider the way we as a society handle the children of disaster. Are we acting sensibly in our attempts to deal with the problems of Americas underclass? On a broader scale, what about euthanasia and suicide as logical responses to insurmountable handicaps? Some Personal Papers deserves one of the best compliments a book can be given: It makes the reader think.

Next up, Atlanta Local Gift Guide #6 – Music by a Local Artist. (Or, at the rate I’m writing this, maybe the actual holiday will be next up. Oops. Will start earlier next year, all right?) And, as always, feel free to add your own recommendations in the comments. I’m always looking for a few good books.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 21st, 2009 at 1:39 pm and is filed under Holidays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.