Books Every Georgian Should Read

This past week, the Georgia Center for the Book announced their annual list, "25 Books All Georgians Should Read". To qualify for the list, which is intended to promote an appreciation for Georgia's literary traditions, the book must be set in Georgia or written by a resident of former resident of the state.

Four of the twenty-five books this year are available from the University of Georgia Press:

A CRY OF ANGELS
Jeff Fields
A novel the Washington Post called "thoroughly delightful and the best pure fun a novel has given me for some time," set in Quarrytown, a fictional stand-in for Elberton, where Fields attended high school.

HOW FAR SHE WENT
Winner of the Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award
Mary Hood
Intriguing stories set in rural north Georgia, from a deft storyteller whose second collection, AND VENUS IS BLUE, won the Lillian Smith Award.

HEART OF A DISTANT FOREST
Philip Lee Williams
A novel about a man who returns to his home place in central Georgia in preparation for death, described by Booklist as "an elegantly moving portrait of life's dignity." Williams was recently inducted into the Georgia Writers Hall of Fame.

WINTER SKY: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS, 1968-2008
Coleman Barks
Poet Coleman Barks is internationally known for his translations of the mystic poet Rumi, but this collection showcases his talent as a poet in his own right, bringing his expansive sensibilities to an observation of Southern landscapes and life.