" In The Company of Masters" Part TWO.............RICK BRAGG

As I continue with my story of an afternoon spent learning
from two Masters of the written word, I must say that these
two authors are as different as a day and night. Having read
and enjoyed works by both, I already knew this. Both of the
books I'd read by Rick Bragg, "All Over But The Shout'n"
and " Ava's Man" were chock full of humor. The storyteller
in the flesh was hilarious! This guy was born to tell a story!



During the introduction of Rick Bragg we learned that he
is the 2009 recipient of "Alabama's Harper Lee Award for
Literary Excellence"! Now that is impressive !!



A born storyteller? I had not thought about this before his
class, but how many people can take their family story, an
everyday story of a" hard row to hoe" and turn it into a series
of three bestselling books? He did, and he did so because he
knows how to tell a story so that the reader is engaged from
the first word to the last.

His first book " All Over But The Shout'n" is his Mother's story

of falling in love with "the bad boy" and the hard struggle of

having to raise her three little boys alone because of it. An

absolute wonderful read!

" Ava's Man", the second book in the series is about his maternal

Grandfather, the man he felt was the greatest man he ever knew!

You will understand why after you read it!

His latest book" The Prince of Frogtown" is the third and final

of the series detailing the life of the bad boy father he never got

to know. I have not read this one but could tell by the questions

from others in the class about this book, that is will be a great read.

I did purchase it and he signed it!

I have to say this was a wonderful 90 minutes! He is truly

a joy to listen to and such an humble, intelligent guy! I would

never hesitate to sit through another class with the Master

Of non-fiction storytelling, Rick Bragg ! A true Southern Writer!