Our Virtual Bookshelf
With so many books on the bestsellers' lists, how can you decide which books would be good reads for your book club? If you are starting a book club or even if your book club has been around for a while, you will want to check out this reading list authored by South Carolinans or set in the South, all sure to promote lively discussions in your book club.
Fiction
The Inheritance of Beauty
By Nicole Seitz • Thomas Nelson Publishers Inc. • 320 pages, paperback, $14.99In 1929, the train brought strangers to small-town Levy, South Carolina. There was a struggle— and a fire— and the lives of four childhood friends would never be the same. Eighty years later, George and Magnolia Jacobs are living out their remaining days in Harmony House in Charleston when an anonymous portrait arrives of a younger Maggie. George realizes there are things he still doesn't know about his wife. And when an old stranger moves in just down the hall, their past seems to be coming full circle. Like it or not, George must now remember things from long ago in order to set himself, and all of the childhood friends, free from what happened in Levy.
The Inheritance of Beauty is an entrancing story about beauty and age, about the blessings and curses of each, and how the true beauty of a person, like true love, never fades.
Hurricanes in Paradise
By Denise Hildreth • Tyndale House Publishers • 384 pages, paperback, $13.99When Riley Sinclair stepped into her new job as director of guest relations at a posh resort on Paradise Island, she felt the final pieces of her once-broken life coming together. But the waters become choppy when Riley discovers that paralyzing secrets and overwhelming fears accompany some people who come to the Atlantis Hotel. Riley and three guests are in desperate but unknowing need of each other, eventually forging unlikely yet powerful friendships. With a hurricane headed straight for the island, together they embark on a journey of laughter, heartache and healing.
Denise Hildreth, a University of South Carolina graduate, sticks true to her Southern roots with this honest and inspirational novel that will truly stir your soul!
Scones & Bones
By Laura Childs • Berkley Prime Crime (Penguin Group), 320 pages, hardcover, $25.95
Indigo Tea Shop owner Theodosia Browning is lured into attending the Heritage Society's "Pirates and Plunder" soirée, where an antique diamond skull ring gets plundered by someone who also murders a college intern in the process. Theodosia knows she'll have to use her investigative skills to find the killer among a slew of suspects.
Scones & Bones is the newest installment in the Charleston Tea Shop mysteries, which include historical facts, tourist notes, delicious recipes and tea-making tips.
Sister Santee
By Ken Burger • Evening Post Publishing • 260 pages, hardcover, $26.9
Ken Burger's second novel creates a perfect storm where changing times and racial realities expose the Palmetto State's haunted history and some infamously flawed people. The narrative is set in Santee Cooper country and is full of good guys, interesting girls, an albino madman and greedy politicians.
Sister Santee is a thoroughly entertaining novel that is part mystery, part character study and all fun!
Mercy Creek
By Matt Matthews • Hub City Press • 240 pages, hardcover, $24.95
In this year after his mother's death, with girlfriend problems and his father's flirting with a new romance, 16-year-old Isaac faces not only the mysteries of his coming of age but also the mysteries of a twisted communal past. Isaac quickly discovers that small towns, where everybody knows everybody else's business, often hide the most vicious secrets.
This award-winning début novel is part mystery and part love story, a chronicle of loss and recovery, and an exploration of family and friendship.
Through the Pale Door
By Brian Ray • Hub City Writers Project • 216 pages, soft cover, $24.95
Sarah West takes a temporary job at her father's South Carolina steel mill the summer before college, hoping for relief from the chaos of her psychotic and often institutionalized mother. But from the first day of June to the waning days of August, relief is the last thing Sarah finds. Soon after she moves into her separated father's house—more like an industrial museum than a home—tragic news about her mother arrives. This is an unusual book about first love and teenagers finding themselves while living tormented lives.
This book was the winner of the inaugural South Carolina First Novel Prize, hosted by the South Carolina Arts Commission. The author earned his MFA in creative writing from the University of South Carolina and now teaches at UNC-Greensboro.
Southern Fate
By Brian Boger • CreateSpace • 360 pages, paperback, $15.0
Frank Rhodes, a not-so-successful young Southern lawyer, is unwillingly thrust onto the national stage in this quick moving murder mystery. He finds himself in the challenge of a lifetime when his wife leaves him the same day he wins a large courtroom victory. Within a few days of the victory, his life switches into high gear with a television offer and a personal tragedy that puts him on the path to find a serial killer.
Southern Fate moves easily from the capital of South Carolina to Charleston, New York, the Bahamas and Costa Rica. Brian Boger, a Columbia real estate developer and attorney, tells a good story with a cast of memorable characters that are both hilarious and entertaining. You will love this mixture of humor and mystery combined with a great legal thriller!
The Plunder Room
By John Jeter • Thomas Dunne Books • 304 pages, hardcover • $24.9
Available at www.sandlapper.org (member price $22.46)
Moments before Edward Duncan dies, the colorful World War II hero leaves a mandate for his grandson Randol— to safeguard the family's proud Southern legacy. Randol, a slacker blueblood paraplegic, buries his grandfather and learns that his father, a Vietnam veteran, is running an illicit empire with Randol's half-brother. Faced with the order his grandfather has left him— along with a key to the upstairs in the family's antebellum home— Randol soon discovers the secret that lies in The Plunder Room.
With a quirky narrator, lots of history and enough twists to keep the pages turning, this book is a perfect choice for lovers of the South or anybody who just wants a fun read.
Non-Fiction
'Behind God's Back'
By Herb Frazier • Evening Post Books • 286 pages, paperback, $22.9
When freedom came to the enslaved Africans who toiled on rice plantations in lower Berkeley County, many remained to farm the land and raise their families in settlements near the plantation gates. Four generations later, their descendants have shared for the first time the stories of family joys and sorrows. 'Behind God's Back' is a compilation of accounts of the experiences of Gullah people who struggled after Emancipation, through the Depression and into the middle of the 20th century to maintain their African-based lifestyles in rural communities near Charleston.
Faith, Valor, and Devotion, The Civil War Letters of William Porcher DuBose
Edited by W. Eric Emerson and Karen Stokes • USC Press • 392 pages, hardcover, $49.9
Brilliant and devout, young seminarian William Porcher DuBose considered himself a man of thought rather than of action. During the Civil War, he discovered that he was both, distinguishing himself as an able and courageous Confederate officer. Published for the first time, this wartime correspondence chronicles his Civil War actions with two celebrated South Carolina units and makes an important contribution to the literature and history of the war. DuBose's extraordinary documents illustrate the workings of a mind and heart devoted to his religion and dedicated to service in the Confederate ranks.
A History of Kershaw County South Carolina
By Joan A. Inabinet and L. Glen Inabinet • USC Press • 640 pages, hardcover, $49.95A History of Kershaw County is a much-anticipated, comprehensive narrative describing a South Carolina community rooted in strong local traditions. From prehistoric to present times, the history spans Native American dwellers, through the county's major roles in the American Revolution and Civil War, to the commercial and industrial innovations of the 20th and 21st centuries. Joan and Glen Inabinet share insightful tales to illustrate how the region is steeped in a rich history of more than two centuries of struggles and accomplishments in which preserving lessons of the past holds equal sway with welcoming opportunities for the future.
A Palmetto Boy, Civil War-Era Diaries and Letters of James Adams Tillman
Edited by Bobbie Swearingen Smith • USC Press • 200 pages, hardcover, $29.95The Tillman family of Edgefield, South Carolina, is forever linked to Palmetto State history, but not all of its members have yet had their stories told. James Adams Tillman never had the chance to become a Governor or U.S. Senator like his younger brother "Pitchfork" Ben or a U.S. Congressman like his older brother George. But, like his more famous siblings, James also dedicated his life to the service of his community and state— a dedication that led to his death at the young age of 24 from injuries sustained during the Civil War.
An insightful view of major Civil War battles from a representative of one of South Carolina's most influential families.
