Top Five Lowcountry Novels

Five Lowcountry Books

Friday, June 1, 2007

It's June, which means it's time to get serious about that summer reading list. Speaking of lists, we asked Michelle List of All Books in Summerville to indulge her special talent: recommending books. The category: Books that feature the Lowcountry.

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We're Just Like You, Only Prettier: Confessions of a Tarnished Southern Belle

Celia Rivenbark, 2004

Rivenbark is a columnist for the Myrtle Beach Sun-News. We think that's the Grand Strand, not the Lowcountry, but List isn't one to quibble, and when she really likes a book, she doesn't let the finer points of geography sway her recommendations. "These essays are just hilarious. And they're short." Recommended for: "Moms who are going to the beach or the pool with other moms, because you can take turns reading while you keep your eyes on the kids in the water. I don't know if you've ever taken kids to the pool, but you can't take your eyes off your kids for a second near water."

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Rich in Love

Josephine Humphreys, 1987

Lucille Odom is a teenager from a funny but dysfunctional Mount Pleasant family. "There's just something about this book," List says. "Usually when people think of the Lowcountry, they think of Charleston or the beach. They don't think of Mount Pleasant. And Lucille is just trying to get through her adolescence." Recommended for: "This is probably going to appeal more to women than to men, but it will appeal to mature teen readers, too."

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The Beach House

Mary Alice Monroe, 2002

The novel that made local writer Monroe a star takes place on the Isle of Palms and features a mother, a daughter and loggerhead turtles. "It's a relationship book, and don't take from that that it's a love story," List says. "It's not." It's out in paperback, and the franchise continues this year with a sequel, "Swimming Lessons," and a children's companion book, "Turtle Summer." Recommended for: Women, basically. " ‘Beach House' and ‘Swimming Lessons' are more or less women's fiction, but they are not romance fiction. They're about healing and growing and the environment."

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The Boxcar Children No. 54: The Hurricane Mystery

Gertrude Chandler Warner and Charles Tang, 1996

"The Boxcar Children" series dates back to the 1940s, and this one brings them to Sullivan's Island (cover blurb: "Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny used to live alone in a boxcar. Now they have a home with their grandfather, and they're in South Carolina during hurricane season, looking for a pirate's gold!"). "I always keep this one on hand," List says. Recommended for: "It says ages 7-12, but I think the 7-year-old would need to be read to, and it's a little young for a 12-year-old. So maybe a 10-year-old for a read-alone." And relax, parents: FEMA doesn't make an appearance, so it doesn't qualify as a horror book.

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The Great Santini

Pat Conroy, 1976

I figured List would offer up "The Lords of Discipline" at some point, but instead she went with Conroy's coming-of-age-in-Beaufort novel. "I like ‘The Great Santini' because it's the father/son thing and you always have that great conflict, but I think he found a way in that book to find good in both sides." Recommended for: "That one is, I think, the most manly of his books. I also think it's a good book for a teenage boy." Honorable mention: "The Water is Wide," Conroy's first novel, which tells a story about his time spent teaching on Daufuskie Island.