Briar Patch Books

Category: Southern Fiction

  • Watch out: Here comes Miss Julia

    Ann B. Ross of Hendersonville, N.C., is a delightful lady whom I’ve had the privilege of interviewing twice – once for the Winston-Salem Journal back in the 1980s when she published The Pilgrimage, a novel about two orphaned sisters traveling on the Oregon Trail, and then for Our State magazine when her 11th Miss Julia…

  • Michael Malone’s latest (I think), and editors or their lack

    Michael Malone, a North Carolina writer, is one of my favorite contemporary authors. He’s also one of the most frustrating. At times, he goes long stretches without publishing a novel. Somehow, when he does come out with a new novel, it takes me by surprise. Even though I’ve been a book-review editor for 25 years,…

  • I Still Dream About You

    Here’s a review of a new audio book. I love listening to books when I’m driving by myself.  As much as I love to read the old-fashioned way, I think some books are even better when heard. By Linda Brinson I STILL DREAM ABOUT YOU.  By Fannie Flagg. Random House Audio. (Also available from Random…

  • A Nose for Justice

    I count Rita Mae Brown as a Southern author because she lives in the Virginia hill country, and many of her books are set there. In the book I review here, however, Brown has gone to a very different part of the country for the setting of a new series. It’s the Nevada desert, where…

  • Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

    By Linda Brinson Here’s my first review for Briar Patch Books. It’s a fitting topic for the debut post. While my fellow reviewers and I will tackle a variety of books, I have a special interest in Southern fiction. Tom Franklin’s book is one of the best new Southern novels I’ve read in a long…