Books by Local Authors

The Cracker Kitchen by Janis Owens
($25, Scribner)
Southern novelist Pat Conroy wrote the introduction for this cookbook, which combines downhome stories and recipes for real Southern comfort food. More than 150 recipes plus family remembrances and cultural history make up this irresistible salute to Cracker heritage. Crackers, rednecks, hillbillies and country boys have long been the brunt of many jokes, yet this old southern culture is a rich and vibrant part of American history. In The Cracker Kitchen, novelist Janis Owens traces the root of the word Cracker back to its origins and through its proliferation in America to offer an anthropological exploration of this group of proud, fiercely independent Americans who have a deep love of their families, country, stories and food. Owens presents a hilarious and heartwarming celebration of Cracker culture sure to entertain anyone with a taste for fried chicken and fish frys, a passion for hunting season, and a secret love of NASCAR.

The Newcomers Guide to Georgia by Don O'Briant
($18.95, Lorimer Press)
Since the year 2000, over a million people have moved into the state of Georgia. The time seems right for a single source of essential information to aid these newcomers. Newcomer's Guide to Georgia not only tells you about the taxes you'll have to pay, it tells you how to register your vehicles and how to obtain a license. It describes how the state government is set up and provides background about Georgia's colorful political history. The book tells about the state's tourist attractions, historic sites, natural wonders, sports, mysteries, haunted places, and arts and food festivals. It also relates stories about Georgia's favorite sons such as R.E.M, Ray Charles, and Martin Luther King, Jr., and favorite daughters such as Margaret Mitchell, Flannery O'Connor, and Alice Walker. O'Briant is a former writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and an occasional contributor to Atlanta INtown.

Cradle Song: Poems byb Stacey Lynn Brown
($14.95, C&R Press)
Former Atlantan's debut collection of poetry. Noted poet Major Jackson has this to say about the collection: "At the center of Stacey Lynn Brown's collection of poetry Cradle Song is Gaither, a hard-drinking, blade-wielding, quick-tempered, sometimes reckless black woman who served as the speaker's nanny. The complicated inheritances of race relations, Southern identity, white superiority, and unheralded bonds between black and white folk are explored in this brutally candid sequence of poems that unflinchingly elevates and portraits Gaither's humanity, pain and struggle into the realm of folklore. One can only admire such honesty and realize such struggles of consciousness represent the blues idiom that is 21st century America finding shape in elegant language that advances momentous understandings of our complex history."