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King of Ashes by S.A. Cosby

June 26, 2025

king of ashes

I’ve been an S.A. Cosby fan since his debut, Blacktop Wasteland so was eager to read his newest novel, King of Ashes. Once again, Cosby settles in the small-town South, this time with a prodigal son forced to return home after his father is in an accident that leaves him in a coma. Roman Carruthers is adept with numbers, specifically money, and he makes lots of it for his ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: mystery, Southern life, thriller

The Reformatory by Tananarive Due

February 20, 2024

reformatory

Siblings Gloria and Robert live on their own in a small Florida town after their father was run out of town for trying to get the local mill workers to unionize. Their position is precarious because it’s the 1950s and Jim Crow, the KKK, and racism are still strong in Florida. So, when 12-year-old Robert kicks a white teenage football player in the leg for making advances on ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, historical, horror, racism, Southern life

Those We Thought We Knew

December 15, 2023

those we thought

The residents of Jackson, a quiet county in the North Carolina mountains, are happy believing racism is largely in their past. Until that is, reality intervenes in David Joy’s new novel, Those We Thought We Knew. Joy uses the perspectives of three local characters: two white law enforcement officers and one Black woman to strip the veneer from a place and people who thought ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, literary, racism, Southern life

All the Sinners Bleed

June 5, 2023

sinners

  It occurred to him no place was more confused by its past or more terrified of the future than The South. It's always gratifying to watch a new author come into their own. I’ve been reading S.A. Cosby since his debut Blacktop Wasteland and have found his writing getting stronger with each of his novels. His latest, All the Sinners Bleed, is a taut, propulsive thriller ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: mystery, racism, social issues, Southern life, thriller

The Trees by Percival Everett

April 24, 2023

trees

Percival Everett’s novel The Trees is a dark and darkly humorous look deep into the foul, blood-clogged engine of racism. Set in a small Mississippi town locked in the 1950s, the death of two good ole boys has left residents stunned. Not because they were particularly liked (they were not), but because the crimes are so gruesome, specifically the removal of certain body parts ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: contemporary life, literary, racism, satire, Southern life

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

November 14, 2022

demon

Barbara Kingsolver is back with Demon Copperhead, a serpentine tour-de-force set in the southern Appalachian Mountains. A modern-day David Copperfield, the novel follows Damon Fields from his ignominious birth in a trailer to a single, teenage mother doped out of her mind, all the way through his teens. It’s not a journey for the faint of heart, but the world Kingsolver builds ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, literary, retellings, social issues, Southern life

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