Introduction Recently I had the painful pleasure of reading two exceptionally fine novels that examine the effects of mentally unstable people on their families. In Jody Hesler’s Without You Here, a niece is haunted by her favorite aunt’s suicide, while Pat Spears’s Hotel Impala delivers a devastating portrait of two children confronting the chaos and […]
Florida Humanities Council to lead discussion of “Margaret: The Rose of Goodwood”
November 5, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Please join Donna Meredith and the Florida Humanities Council to discuss “Margaret: The Rose of Goodwood” Thursday, Nov. 7. Due to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, the Florida Humanities Council rescheduled the discussion of “Margaret: The Rose of Goodwood” by Southern Literary Review Editor Donna Meredith. The online book discussion will now be held Thursday, Nov. […]
Donna Meredith Interviews Betsy Reeder, author of “Broadus Unbound”
October 23, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Summary of Broadus Unbound Called by the famed Charles Spurgeon “the greatest of living preachers,” John A. Broadus left an indelible signature not only on the Baptist denomination but on a generation. Emerging from the US Civil War as a voice of reason and reconciliation, he traveled, wrote, and tirelessly trained clergy for the urgencies […]
Donna Meredith Interviews Rachel Hauck, author of Meet Me at the Starlight
September 17, 2024 by 1 Comment
Novel Summary: Meet Me at the Starlight (Bethany House Publishers 2024) spans three generations. In 1987, supermodel Harlow Hayes seeks solace in a quaint Florida beach town to heal from a heartbreak that shattered her entire world. To her surprise, she encounters Matt Knight—a Hollywood A-lister with a bad-boy reputation—who has returned to his hometown […]
“Ghostwriter: Shakespeare, Literary Landmines, and an Eccentric Patron’s Royal Obsession” by Lawrence Wells
September 10, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Lawrence Wells knows how to tell an entertaining story, and his latest, Ghostwriter: Shakespeare, Literary Landmines, and an Eccentric Patron’s Royal Obsession (University of Mississippi Press 2024), is a humdinger. The manuscript was awarded the 2014 Faulkner-Wisdom Prize for narrative nonfiction at the Words and Music Festival in New Orleans. Even readers who are not […]
Read of the Month: “Ditch Weed” by Rhett DeVane
September 4, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Rhett DeVane’s latest novel, Ditch Weed (Twisted Road 2024), sparkles with her trademark humor and Southernisms. Longtime fans of her Chattahoochee stories will recognize some of the background characters like town busybody Elvina Houston and gay florist Jake Witherspoon, but the novel is a stand-alone. Perched in its heart are the “Purty-much Ruined” runaway teen […]