Reading about Tennessee

I'm (presumptively) restarting this topic. With Tennessee spelled correctly :)

I live in Tennessee, and feel a bit at of a loss. I'm actually hoping to get some good ideas from this thread!

The two fiction books that come to mind are Taft by Ann Patchett, which evokes both the nightlife of Memphis and the lonely battlefield at Shiloh, and Peter Taylor's A Summons to Memphis, which really brings home the 30's dreaminess of life among the wealthy on Lookout Mountain.

Of course, I recommend anything by Ann Patchett. I've given away more of her books than I currently own.

There are also the mystery novels of Steven Womack, set in Nashville, which I've heard of but haven't read.

Repeating from the other thread: My mother used to read the books of Alfred Leland Crabb such as Dinner at Belmont and loved them for the Tennessee history. That particular one takes place in and around Nashville I believe.

Since I was half asleep I didn't even notice the mistake in the spelling. Thanks for correcting it.

Anyone know of any good books about early Tennessee history? My maternal gr-gr-gr-grandparents left eastern Tennessee for the Ozarks in the mid-1850s and I'm researching the life they left (for a novel). Thanks for any help.

Another query: Cormac McCarthy grew up in Knoxville (according to wikipedia, he was actually born in Rhode Island). I haven't read him. Any Tennessee recommendation from his books?

The best I can offer in this category are two books from the Time-Life Civil War series (published in the late 1980's) The Struggle for Tennessee and The Fight for Chattanooga. I really feel like I'm forgetting something in the fiction category, but it's not clicking.
All the Cormac McCarthy books I've read are set in the western U.S.--can't recall a Tennessee connection, although I do know he was at UT briefly, because my daughter is there now.

EDIT: Ashamed of myself for not knowing, I did some research. Cormac McCarthy's first book, The Orchard Keeper is set in rural Tennessee. So is Suttree. I have not read either one. But I will.

And what I was trying to remember in the original post was Shelby Foote's Shiloh. An excellent Civil War novel, and of course the battle took place in Tennessee, but it's more about the battlte than it is about the state, if you know what I mean.

In the nonfiction category My Own Country: A Doctor's Story by Abraham Verghese tells of his work in rural Tennessee at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic.

He is a compassionate caring writer and paints a sensitive portrait of his life among the people there.

I just read Carved in Bone, and it is set in Tennessee ... at the Univ of Tennessee and Cooke County. I'm not from there, so I don't know how accurately it captures the area.

All of McCarthy's novels up to Blood Meridian are set in Tennessee; and The Road begins in Tennessee. Suttree is set in Knoxville and is great. The Orchard Keeper; Child of God; and Outer Dark are set mostly in the countryside. They are all worthwhile.

I started reading McCarthy with All the Pretty Horses. I did read Child of God a while back, but it was before I had any personal connection to Tennessee, and I had forgotten that it took place there. Now that I have actually BEEN to Sevier County I reckon I ought to read it again.

Have you read Shiloh yet!

An Abundance of Katherines is set in TN! Also there are some great authors who live there, like Ann Patchett ...

http://avidreader25.blogspot.com/2012/10/reading-states-tennessee.html