" My Top Ten Favorite Reads "

Yesterday I got a e-mail from a lady in Mobile, Ala named Twila. She ask me if I would tell her my all time favorite top 10 books.......

For someone who has read thousands of books over the last half century,( I started reading at 7 years old) that is not an easy thing to do! So I walked around "the porch" and gazed at my hundreds of books. I was a hundred pages shy of finishing one of the best books I've ever read, so I'm really glad she didn't pose this question to me last week. I thought long and hard about it and unless my memory is in serious trouble and I've forgotten one, here goes Twila...............





1. Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell. I was 22 when I read it the first time. I was 24 when I saw the movie and decided if I ever had a daughter she would be named Melanie after the sweet, compassionate and loving Melanie Hamilton Wilkes. I have read the book I believe 4 times!



2. The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Released in March 2009 this book has been on the NY Times best-seller list for 45 weeks and has for the last 3 weeks occupied the No.1 spot.



3. Heaven-high Hell-deep by Peggy Poe Stern. I just discovered this awesome NC author recently and bought five of her 17 books. This is the first book she wrote, I finished it yesterday and I'm 100 pages into the sequel, Above All.
THIS BOOK is awesome and should have been a number 1 best-seller years ago!



4. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I have read this book 8 times and it just gets better!



5. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. I first read this book in 1994. I have purchased 4 copies of this book over the years. I loaned out 2 that I never got back, which broke me from loaning my books. I currently have the 3rd and I ordered one for my daughter, it is her all time favorite book! This is a christian romance set in the California Gold Rush days based on the biblical story of when God told Hosea to marry a prostitute. This book is an unforgettable read for anyone!

6. Alex Stewart by John Rice Irwin. This is the non-fiction story of an incredible man. Alex Stewart lived on the Tennessee-Kentucky line in Appalachia in a county(Hawkins) that Irwin describes as 100 years behind times when he met him in the early 1970s. Irwin visited and tape recorded their conversations for 20 years.This book reads like a well written novel and you will cry when it ends and never forget Alex Stewart!

7. Christy by Catherine Marshall. Another book I've read several times. Set in Del Rio, Tennessee on the NC line, this is another unforgettable book about old Appalachia.

8. The Ballad of Frankie Silver by Sharyn McCrumb. Set in Appalachia the story is based on the first woman hanged in the state of North Carolina! An awesome read!

9. The Truest Pleasure by Robert Morgan. Another Appalachian story of the hard fought survival of a mountain woman...........

10. Forty Acres and No Mule by Janice Holt Giles is the personal account of the authors move from the city to the Kentucky backwoods of the Appalachian Mountains in the late 1940s. It too reads like a wonderful novel! I have read this book more than once and love it more each time.

So, there is my top ten favorites. It would take me days to list all the books I consider 5 star reads and all the authors I think are amazing writers. We live in a time when great writers and great books are everywhere!! Just look at a portion of my TBR stack, everyday it seems I hear about another book that I want to add to it! My greatest fear is not living long enough to read ALL the books I WANT to read!

So lets see.... 9 out of 10 are Southern writers, 6 out of 10 are Appalachian Writers , 6 out of 10 are Appalachian Mountain settings. We may not have won the Civil War but the South is the winner hands down when it comes to the Literary War in this readers opinion! :0)

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE and READ A GOOD BOOK !!!

The Interview

http://www.hyggedigter.blogspot.com/

My friend Kat at Poetikat's Invisible Keepsakes was recently
interviewed by Willow of Willow Manor and we learned some interesting things about her.
Kat in turn expressed a desire to interview me..I accepted! She sent me these questions and
after careful thought...here are my answers. If you in turn would like to be interviewed by me,
please leave a comment at the end and I will send you 5 questions of my choosing.

1. Kat.........You have indicated a real affinity for the South and Southern Authors. How has this affected your own wonderful writing?

Carol.........I am truly partial to both the South and Southern Authors. Mississippi alone has produced some truly awesome Authors. William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Shelby Foote, Larry Brown, Carolyn Haines, Melinda Haynes, Patrick Smith,Willie Morris and let's not forget John Grisham and my very favorite, Greg Iles. The South with it's laid back lifestyle, traditions that are both wonderful and in some cases atrocious and it's hard fought ability to let go and move forward provide a wealth of material for it's present day writers. My writing is greatly affected by having grown up in a time and place that was a hotbed of the Civil Rights Movement, a place whose identity was destroyed by losing the Civil War, which in my opinion only furthered the racism.I think sometimes that I and other southern writers feel the need to "right the wrongs" and it shows up in our writing. I always been told that to be a successful writer, you MUST write what you know.........I know the South.

2. Kat..........If you could invite anyone to dinner( alive or dead) who would it be and why?

Carol.........It would be Jesus without a doubt! Why? I would like nothing better than to get his opinion on several matters of interest to me? An interview of Jesus would be awesome! I'd ask questions such as; How do you think your message of love, forgiveness and compassion got so messed up by organized religion? Why is it so hard for humans to look past a persons skin color and see the person? What really does happen when our body dies...is our spirit really gone or are we still around our loved ones in a "ghost"form? If I could have a dinner party? My guest list would include along with Jesus, Mother Theresa, Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell, Abe Lincoln, Dolly Parton, Oprah, Maya Angelou, Steve McNair( Former Titans QB) and all my blogger friends. Wouldn't we have a good time?

3. Kat............Your profile says your an NFL Fan. Have you ever been to a game? What in your opinion is the best game you've ever seen? (live or on TV)

Carol...............When the Houston Oilers became the Tennessee Titans in 1998 and moved to Nashville, I attended the first game in the new stadium. It was a pre -season game against the Atlanta Falcons. Tennessee won the game. I had never experienced such an electric atmosphere, I was hooked! I thought watching #9 Steve "AIR" McNair play the QB position was the greatest thing since indoor plumbing! A football freak was born! I lived and breathed Titans football! Now that has to be my best live game! I have been many times since but that was the best! On TV......it has to be SuperBowl 2000 when Tennessee came from behind to lose it by " 1" yard !! ONE stinking yard! I had to go to bed afterward !! However all was forgiven in September when I received a signed official Titans football for my birthday from my man, Steve McNair. I also attended his MVP party in Nashville along with Brett Favre and Allen Jackson! Be still my heart!

4. Kat.................... What is your favorite all-time film and why?"

Carol...............Gone With The Wind". Because I am Margaret Mitchell reincarnated? I wish! I really don't know why. It just makes me wish I had lived in that era and been a real Southern Belle! I loved Melanie Wilkes so much I named my only daughter that in hopes she would be just like her. She is defiantly Scarlett but my heart anyway!

5. Kat.................What is your fondest memory of your Mother?

Carol......After we moved to Nashville we returned to Mississippi every Christmas. Either my mother or my Mother-in-law would go home with us for a couple of weeks. One year my Mother went. It snowed about seven inches. Mom and my two sons Todd and Marty(7 and 3 at the time) went outside for a snowball fight. My Mom made a huge snowball and hurled it at Todd, striking his chest, knocking him down! He jumped up and said; Dang Grammaw.....I didn't know you played baseball!

And so.................the interview ends. Thank you Kat for this opportunity, I enjoyed it !

If you would like for me to interview you, leave a comment and I'll fire you off some questions!

Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee

I started this blog in December just about the time things got crazy around here.

I have gotten several e-mails asking if I planned to blog again? I answered yes,
when things go back to normal.We had a wonderful Holiday Season, lots of parties, food and visits with friends then went to Tennessee to celebrate with the children and grandchildren! Came back and the NFL Playoffs began! This year my Tennessee Titans have the best record in the NFL and hopefully will make it tthe SuperBowl!

Reading...........my favorite thing in the world! I have managed to read two books in the past seven days.

The first was.........' My Old True Love' by Sheila Kay Adams.(Hardcover 289 p)
Shiela is a North Carolina writer. As you know, I am very parcial to NC writers or I should say Appalachian writers in general. I LOVED THIS BOOK !
What a wonderful storyteller Sheila is. She takes you back in time through the gentle voice of Arty Norton. Arty is a mountain woman born in a era and place
where heartbreak and joy change places as fast as people in an old fashioned cake walk.
If you love an Appalachian setting, down to earth mountain people, the Civil War and a good love story told by a master storyteller...........this is the read for you!

Second.........Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee (Hardcover 285 pages)
By Charles J. Sheilds.

Nelle Harper Lee the Author of 'To Kill A Mockingbird', is perhaps one of the most fascinating people of the 20th century. Why? Because after writing her Pulitzer Prize winning debut novel she practically disappeared from the scene. Most people think she died years ago when in fact she is still alive and well in Monroeville,Alabama.She was born April 28, 1926, making her 82 at present.
She lives a quiet,reclusive life and refuses to discuss anything to do with the "book" or writing.

I have always been fascinated by both Harper Lee and Margaret Mitchell because these two women wrote what is considered to be the greatest novels
of the20th century and never wrote another published book.Years ago I read
'Tara Road' the biography of Margaret Mitchell and learned that she had expressed often that she wished she had never let 'Gone With The Wind' be
be published, 'It ruined my life' she said.

After reading 'Mockingbird', I learned that though she never expressed the same exact sentiment, Harper Lee may have felt the same about her book. When questioned as to 'Why' she never wrote another book,she would say;
"I said what I had to say in the first one".She also expressed to a close friend,
"when you start at the top,there is nowhere to go". Since this applies to both of these women's first and only books, I believe it answers the question of 'Why' in both cases.

"Mockingbird" is a well written and wonderful glance into the world of Harper Lee. Charles Shields has done an excellent job considering that his research
was hindered greatly by those close to Miss Lee in an attempt to keep her private life just that!