Staff Picks
Set in SC
- Morgan R.
- Thursday, May 21, 2020
Collection
Sometimes it's nice to read something and know exactly where the author is taking you, whether its your favorite restaurant in Charleston, or a dusty road in Six Mile. Try one of these new(ish) titles that take place in South Carolina.
Tell Me a Story My Life with Pat Conroy
Published in 2019
Bestselling author Cassandra King Conroy considers her life and the man she shared it with, paying tribute to her husband, Pat Conroy, the legendary figure of modern Southern literature. Cassandra King was leading a quiet life as a professor, divorced “Sunday wife” of a preacher, and debut novelist when she met Pat Conroy. Their friendship bloomed into a tentative, long-distance relationship. Pat and Cassandra ultimately married, ending Pat's long commutes from coastal South Carolina to her native Alabama. It was a union that would last eighteen years, until the beloved literary icon’s death from pancreatic cancer in 2016.In this poignant, intimate memoir, the woman he called King Ray looks back at her love affair with a natural-born storyteller whose lust for life was fueled by a passion for literature, food, and the Carolina Lowcountry that was his home. As she reflects on their relationship and the eighteen years they spent together, cut short by Pat’s passing at seventy, Cassandra reveals how the marshlands of the South Carolina Lowcountry ultimately cast their spell on her, too, and how she came to understand the convivial, generous, funny, and wounded flesh-and-blood man beneath the legend—her husband, the original Prince of Tides.
Before She Was Helen
Published in 2020
Her life didn't turn out the way she expected—so she made herself a new one When Clemmie goes next door to check on her difficult and unlikeable neighbor Dom, he isn't there. But something else is. Something stunning, beautiful and inexplicable. Clemmie photographs the wondrous object on her cell phone and makes the irrevocable error of forwarding it. As the picture swirls over the internet, Clemmie tries desperately to keep a grip on her own personal network of secrets. Can fifty years of careful hiding under names not her own be ruined by one careless picture? And although what Clemmie finds is a work of art, what the police find is a body. . . in a place where Clemmie wasn't supposed to be, and where she left her fingerprints. Suddenly, the bland, quiet life Clemmie has built for herself in her sleepy South Carolina retirement community comes crashing down as her dark past surges into the present. From international bestselling author of The Face on the Milk Carton Caroline B. Cooney comes Before She Was Helen, an absorbing mystery that brings decades-old secrets to life and explores what happens when the lie you've been living falls apart and you're forced to confront the truth.
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires
Published in 2020
Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this '90s-set horror novel about a women's book club that must do battle with a mysterious newcomer to their small Southern town, perfect for murderinos and fans of Stephen King. Patricia Campbell's life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she's always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they're as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families. One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor's handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn't felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind—and Patricia has already invited him in. Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia's life and try to take everything she took for granted—including the book club—but she won't surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.
Sunset Lodge in Georgetown
The Story of a Madam
Published in 2019
Hazel Weisse moved to Georgetown in 1936 and opened a brothel three miles south of Front Street. Despite being illegal, the business remined open for thirty-three years until Weisse's retirement in 1969. She was well known, shopping every week on Front Street and appearing in the newspaper as a donor to charitable causes. She sent her "sporting ladies" to town for their weekly doctor visits, banking deposits and shopping trips. Weisse was also aware of the community around her business. She did not allow her employees free access to Georgetown. She approved their choices of clothes to wear to Front Street, warned them not to look at men on the sidewalk and forbade soliciting. Author David Gregg Hodges reveals the history and stores behind the Sunset Lodge.
On Ocean Boulevard
Published in 2020
The New York Times bestselling author of The Summer Guests returns at long last to her beloved Beach House series in this breathtaking novel about one family's summer of forging new beginnings against the enduring beauty and resilience of the natural world. It's been sixteen years since Caretta "Cara" Rutledge has returned home to the beautiful shores of Charleston, South Carolina. Over those years, she has weathered the tides of deaths and births, struggles and joys. And now, as Cara prepares for her second wedding, her life is about to change yet again. Meanwhile, the rest of the storied Rutledge family is also in flux. Cara's niece Linnea returns to Sullivan's Island to begin a new career and an unexpected relationship. Linnea's parents, having survived bankruptcy, pin their hopes and futures on the construction of a new home on Ocean Boulevard. But as excitement over the house and wedding builds, a devastating illness strikes the family and brings plans to a screeching halt. It is under these trying circumstances that the Rutledge family must come together yet again to discover the enduring strength in love, tradition, and legacy from mother to daughter to granddaughter. Like the sea turtles that come ashore annually on these windswept islands, three generations of the Rutledge family experience a season of return, rebirth, and growth. "Authentic, generous, and heartfelt" (Mary Kay Andrews, New York Times bestselling author), On Ocean Boulevard is Mary Alice Monroe at her very best.
My Vanishing Country
Published in 2020
What J. D. Vance did for Appalachia with Hillbilly Elegy, CNN analyst and one of the youngest state representatives in South Carolina history Bakari Sellers does for the rural South, in this important book that illuminates the lives of America's forgotten black working-class men and women. Part memoir, part historical and cultural analysis, My Vanishing Country is an eye-opening journey through the South's past, present, and future. Anchored in in Bakari Seller's hometown of Denmark, South Carolina, Country illuminates the pride and pain that continues to fertilize the soil of one of the poorest states in the nation. He traces his father's rise to become, friend of Stokely Carmichael and Martin Luther King, a civil rights hero, and member of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) , to explore the plight of the South's dwindling rural, black working class—many of whom can trace their ancestry back for seven generations. In his poetic personal history, we are awakened to the crisis affecting the other "Forgotten Men & Women," who the media seldom acknowledges. For Sellers, these are his family members, neighbors, and friends. He humanizes the struggles that shape their lives: to gain access to healthcare as rural hospitals disappear; to make ends meet as the factories they have relied on shut down and move overseas; to hold on to precious traditions as their towns erode; to forge a path forward without succumbing to despair. My Vanishing Country is also a love letter to fatherhood—to Sellers' father, his lodestar, whose life lessons have shaped him, and to his newborn twins, who he hopes will embrace the Sellers family name and honor its legacy.
Call Your Daughter Home
Published in 2019
A stunning tour de force following three fierce, unforgettable Southern women in the years leading up to the Great Depression It's 1924 South Carolina and the region is still recovering from the infamous boll weevil infestation that devastated the land and the economy. Gertrude, a mother of four, must make an unconscionable decision to save her daughters from starvation or die at the hands of an abusive husband. Retta is navigating a harsh world as a first-generation freed slave, still employed by the Coles, influential plantation proprietors who once owned her family. Annie is the matriarch of the Coles family and must come to terms with the terrible truth that has ripped her family apart. These three women seemingly have nothing in common, yet as they unite to stand up to the terrible injustices that have long plagued the small town, they find strength in the bond that ties women together. Told in the pitch-perfect voices of Gertrude, Retta and Annie, Call Your Daughter Home is an audacious, timeless story about the power of family, deep-buried secrets and the ferocity of motherhood.
Exit Fee
A Pike Logan Novella
Published in 2019
Pike Logan tracks down a human trafficking ring on his home turf in the latest novella from New York Times bestselling author and former Special Forces Officer Brad Taylor, featuring an excerpt from his electrifying new novel, Hunter Killer. Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill are no strangers to international conflict, but this time the threat they're facing lies closer to home. Amena, the young Syrian refugee they have taken into their care, is having trouble settling into her new life in Charleston, SC. Unfamiliar with the city and unsure how much she can trust Pike and Jennifer, she befriends a girl and her Serbian guardian on the streets of Charleston, a relationship that causes an argument with Pike. Angered at his rebuke and believing he's insincere, she runs away from her new home. Pike, wild with worry over Amena's disappearance, makes it his mission to bring her home safely. In the process, he discovers the staggering truth about Amena's Serbian friend: he is a human trafficker, and Amena is in much more danger than she realizes. To make matters worse, classified nuclear information may also be on the line. While Pike is on the warpath, Amena learns of the Serbian's true nature, and the terrible 'exit fee' he exacts from the girls who don't play by his rules. Still unsure whom she can trust, Amena believes she can help her friend and save herself all on her own. But the risk-and the cost-will be much higher than she imagines. Includes a preview of Brad Taylor's new Pike Logan thriller, Hunter Killer!
The Coyotes of Carthage
A Novel
Published in 2020
A blistering and thrilling debut-a biting exploration of American politics, set in a small South Carolina town, about a political operative running a dark money campaign for his corporate clients Dre Ross has one more shot. Despite being a successful political consultant, his aggressive tactics have put him on thin ice with his boss, Mrs. Fitz, who plucked him from juvenile incarceration and mentored his career. She exiles him to the backwoods of South Carolina with $250,000 of dark money to introduce a ballot initiative on behalf of a mining company. The goal: to manipulate the locals into voting to sell their pristine public land to the highest bidder. Dre arrives in God-fearing, flag-waving Carthage County, with only Mrs. Fitz's well-meaning yet naïve grandson Brendan as his team. Dre, an African-American outsider, can't be the one to collect the signatures needed to get on the ballot. So he hires a blue-collar couple, Tyler Lee and his pious wife, Chalene, to act as the initiative's public face. Under Dre's cynical direction, a land grab is disguised as a righteous fight for faith and liberty. As lines are crossed and lives ruined, Dre's increasingly cutthroat campaign threatens the very soul of Carthage County and perhaps the last remnants of his own humanity. A piercing portrait of our fragile democracy and one man's unraveling, The Coyotes of Carthage paints a disturbingly real portrait of the American experiment in action.