When traveling to the southern United States (especially the southeast/deep south) for the first time, I’d recommend doing some reading first to get a taste of the culture. Below is my list of the best books about the south that everyone should read before visiting.
These aren’t just books set in the South; these books are shaped by the south. the south oozes from every page.
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Not everyone is polished and gentle, though some certainly are.
Some of these books may even make you angry or cry, but all of them will give you a deeper understanding of southern culture past and present before you even take a trip there.
let’s dive in!
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to kill a mockingbird by harper lee
To Kill a Mockingbird is considered one of the best Southern novels for a reason. Harper’s classic novel reads about one man’s search for personal integrity as he wrestles with his conscience under enormous pressure to bend to social norms in the 1930s. Alabama won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961.
If you like to kill a mockingbird and you’re also a bit of a nerd about writing and publishing, you might also be interested in choosing a vigilante. this first draft of mockingbird was published in 2015.
It is often referred to as a sequel as it is set 20 years after the main events of mockingbird, but was written long before mockingbird was published.
The film adaptation with Gregory Peck is excellent, but the book should be required reading for everyone on the planet.
gone with the wind by margaret mitchell
scarlet o’hara and rhett butler. big balls of fire!
You know the exercise.
Along with To Kill a Mockingbird, I’d say Gone with the Wind is a must-read among books about the Deep South.
In addition to the sweeping story of one woman’s journey from pre-war Georgian privilege to war and poverty, it also offers a glimpse into the thinking of how Georgians in the 1930s looked back on the war.
It is the only book that Atlanta native Margaret Mitchell published during her lifetime. also like harper reads now that i think about it. Gone with the Wind won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
If you’ve only seen the movie, do yourself a favor and read Gone with the Wind.
mark twain’s huckleberry finn adventures
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the great American novel. fight me
Huck’s adventures begin in a fictional town in Missouri, when he decides to fake his own death and embarks on a raft down the Mississippi with a runaway slave named Jim.
Their journey takes them through Illinois, Kentucky and Arkansas. Through it all, Huck finds himself constantly struggling with the values of the society he grew up in as they don’t square with his personal feelings and his friendship with Jim, a black man.
Note that because twain made extensive use of vernacular English in this book, he includes repeated use of the “n” word.
don’t waste your time with any movie adaptation of this book.
uncle tom’s cabin by harriet beecher stowe
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The abolitionist novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, set primarily in Kentucky and Louisiana, has to be considered one of the best books about the South.
This is not a “snuggle up with a cup of hot chocolate” book. it is difficult to read.
I’ve read it twice and cried both times.
If you’ve seen the king and me, you’re at least familiar with the part of the story where a young slave girl named eliza runs away to find freedom with her young son.
Unfortunately, the name of the title character, Uncle Tom, has come to be used against blacks who are considered to have “sold out” to whites. he’d be willing to bet that none of the people who use “uncle tom” in that way have read this novel.
It’s hard to overestimate the impact Uncle Tom’s Cabin had on American literary culture. Only the Bible outsold Uncle Tom in the 19th century.
and according to legend, president abraham lincoln met harriet beecher stowe sometime during the civil war and told her, “so this is the little lady who started this great war.”
jojo moyes star giver
Jojo Moyes’s
The Giver of Stars follows the story of Alice, a newlywed Englishwoman with the son of a coal mine owner in rural Depression-era Kentucky. Looking for a way to expand her horizons, Alice signs up to join the Works Progress Management workhorse library project.
The packhorse librarians delivered books to remote parts of Appalachia during the height of the Great Depression. the project provided employment for some 200 women and reading material for those who did not have access to public libraries.
Alice has to learn to navigate the rugged terrain of Eastern Kentucky and deal with some of the townspeople who aren’t too happy with the library project and the women it employs.
the known world by edward p. jones
winner of the 2004 pulitzer prize for fiction, the known world is set in antebellum virginia.
Like Uncle Tom’s Cabin, it explores slavery from many angles, but also includes the little-explored historical theme of black slave ownership.
When black plantation owner henry townsend dies, the order he created begins to unravel. the race-based corruption of slavery infects everyone around them, both slave and free, black and white.
the novel is meticulously constructed and beautifully written, deep and dense… but only in a good way. definitely not in a “hard to read” sense. in the sense that the completely fictional world that jones created feels real and true. he allegedly claimed that he did little or no research before writing, basing his story entirely on recollections of stories and his own imagination.
richard wright’s black boy
black boy is one of the few books that I can honestly say I could hardly put down.
Unlike most of the other books on this list, Black Boy is not a novel but a memoir. Published in 1945, it tells the story of the early life of writer Richard Wright.
wright spent his early years in mississippi, alabama and tennessee before moving to chicago. black boy is an important book about southern life at the time and includes forceful depictions of his childhood in poverty and constant hunger as well as the (of course) overt racism he experienced.
narrative of the life of frederick douglas
frederick douglas fled slavery in maryland to become one of the key figures in the abolitionist movement.
seven years after gaining his freedom, he wrote his story and published it in 1845. keep in mind that it was illegal for slaves to learn to read or write in many states… it is easier to keep them enslaved without education or literacy necessary to prosper socially, economically or politically.
Douglas’s narrative still stands today as one of the most important pieces of American literature and a pillar of the slave narrative genre.
christy by catherine marshall
Set in a fictional Appalachian town deep in rural Tennessee, Christy was based on the work of writer Catherine Marshall’s mother among impoverished Appalachian children a beginning of the 20th century.
This is one of the classic books on southern culture and a highly influential work of Christian fiction.
young christy huddleston leaves her comfortable life in asheville, north carolina, to work as a teacher in remote smoky mountain tennessee. Throughout the story, she faces incredible challenges between the families in her new home and her poor living conditions.
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There’s also a bit of romance for those who like that sort of thing.
If you enjoyed the sadly short-lived TV show of the same name, you definitely need to try the book.
where the locusts sing by delia owens
delia owens first novel, where the lobsters sing, is a beautifully written coming-of-age story about a girl who essentially raises herself in the marshes of coastal carolina from North.
kya knows the swamps around her house inside and out. she lives so intimately with the land that she becomes an expert on the local flora and fauna.
She also lives such an isolated life that few people from the nearby town know her. But when one of the young men she spent time with turns up dead, Kya becomes the prime suspect in her murder.
as he lay dying by william faulkner
You can’t explore Southern literature without taking a trip to William Faulkner’s Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi.
As I Die follows the journey of the Bundren family to bury the wife and mother of the family in their hometown. sometimes it’s touching, sometimes quite dark and gloomy.
This is the quintessential Faulkner and essential reading for anyone who wants to understand 20th-century South American literature. It consistently appears on lists of the most important works of American literature and the best novels of the 20th century.
In addition to winning two Pulitzer Prizes (not for while he was dying), Faulkner also won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1940.
the secret life of bees by sue monk kidd
When white teen lily owens runs away from home with her black “mother surrogate”, she is taken in by three black sisters in south carolina, the boat builders.
Set in 1964 against the backdrop of the civil rights movement, young Lily tries to negotiate through her confusing memories surrounding her mother’s death. and she learns something about the importance of female company in the absence of her mother.
Sue Monk Kidd’s debut, The Secret Life of Bees, remained on the New York Times bestseller list for two and a half years. It has been adapted for both film and theater.
thunder roll hear my cry for mildred d. taylor
Roll of Thunder, Listen My Cry won the 1977 Newberry Medal and is the only book for young readers on this list.
Like To Kill a Mockingbird, this story is told from the point of view of a young girl who wakes up to “the way things are in the South.”
young cassie logan is growing up in southern mississippi during the height of the great depression. his family owns their own land, which gives them some independence despite the racism they face every day.
colson whitehead underground railway
Winning the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award, The Underground Railroad is a gripping story of a young woman’s journey from slavery to freedom.
Encouraged by queues for the Underground Railroad, Cora and Caesar plan to flee the Georgia cotton plantation where they have been enslaved. But there’s an unusual twist to Whitehead’s novel… the Underground Railroad is literally a secret railroad that runs underground.
Your escape is nearly thwarted not far from the plantation. They manage to escape her only when Cora kills a young white man trying to capture her. now there is no going back.
Cora’s journey takes her from Georgia to South Carolina, Tennessee and beyond. and at each place she stops, she encounters a different world and traverses unique dangers known to black men and women in the antebellum south.
the help of kathryn stockett
kathryn stockett’s fugitive bestseller explores the plight of black women working as maids in the civil rights era of the deep south.
With the help of a young white writer, two black women will undertake a secret and anonymous project that will shake their community to its foundations.
The film adaptation of the help is also excellent and well worth seeing, although I recommend reading the book first. is better.
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