Reading about Georgia

Here are some recommendations:

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Island of Dreams by Patricia Potter

I didn't finish the book because I didn't like it... but Tom Wolfe's A Man in Full is set in Atlanta.

Once again, I'll recommend YA literature. Peaches is set in Georgia and a charming little read.

Here's a brief review from amazon:

During a summer at the Darlington Peach Orchard in Georgia, Murphy, Leeda, and Birdie discover the true meaning of friendship despite their differences. Murphy, a bright, sarcastic 16-year-old from the wrong side of town, is completing community service at the orchard. Wealthy Leeda lives in her perfect older sister's shadow. She decides to work at her uncle's orchard on a whim and then is too proud to change her mind. Birdie Darlington is trying to keep the farm running despite the fact that her mother has left and her father refuses to face the desperate straits that the business is in. As the summer progresses, the girls bond and realize that you cannot judge someone by her financial or family situation. The characters are realistic and the dialogue is fresh. Readers looking for light reading will not be disappointed.–

The March by E. L. Doctorow for historical fiction.

Just noticed that in the 1st message Island of Dreams has the wrong touchstone so I put the right one here.

There are a couple of mystery series set in Georgia - both in small towns. The Bloodhound series by Virginia Lanier and police/forensic works by Karin Slaughter. Very different but both quite good.

If you like Fanny Flagg, you'll love Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns. Has one of my all-time favorite heart-breakingly funny lines in it. Which, of course, I can't share without spoiling it for anyone who hasn't read it but means to.

Harry Crews wrote a lot about Georgia, making them out to be pretty bizarre people. His autobiography (A childhood: Biography of a Place )explains a lot about him, and is I think his best book.

I very much enjoyed Ferrol Sams' Porter Osborne series:Run with the Horsemen, The Whisper of the River, and When All the World Was Young. Sams is a Fayetteville, Georgia, doctor still practicing medicine in his 80's.

Non-fiction:

* Going to ground by Amy Blackmarr -- looking forward to reading this!

* Dahlonega Haunts: Ghostly Adventures in a Georgia Mountain Town by Amy Blackmar

* Ecology of a Cracker childhood by Janisse Ray

Stem of Jesse by Will D. Campbell, Jaclyn Weldon White, Deliverance, ...

Thriller / Horror:

Wings To the kingdom by cherie Priest - ghosts, thriller/horror

Novels:

* Truelove & Homegrown Tomatoes : a Novel by julie Cannon

* Mater Biscuit: A Homegrown Novel by julie Cannon

* harry Crews was already mentioned - you might check out A feast of snakes for a sardonic, weird, gen x read.

* Those pearly gates : A Homegrown Novel by julie Cannon

* Savannah blues by mary Kay Andrews

* Little Bitty Lies: A Novel by mary Kay Andrews

* Hissy fit by mary Kay Andrews

* Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson

I love the humor of Bailey White's stories, most notably, Mama Makes Up Her Mind: And Other Dangers of Southern Living and Sleeping at the Starlite Motel: and Other Adventures on the Way Back Home.

Here are a bunch of fiction and nonfiction options for Georgia...

http://avidreader25.blogspot.com/2012/03/reading-states-georgia.html

Looking for Salvation at the Dairy Queen is set in the (probably fictional) small town of Ringgold and in Atlanta.