The Southern Handbook

Whether you live below the Mason Dixon Line or just wish you did, The Southerner’s Handbook is your guide to living the good life. Curated by the editors of the award-winning Garden & Gun magazine, this compilation of more than 100 instructional and narrative essays offers a comprehensive tutorial to modern-day life in the South. From Food and Drink to Sporting & Adventure; Home & Garden to Style, Arts & Culture, you'll discover essential skills and unique insight from some of the South’s finest writers, chefs, and craftsmen—including the secret to perfect biscuits, how to wear seersucker, and to the right way to fall off of a horse. You'll also find: Roy Blount Jr. on telling a great story; Julia Reed on the secrets of throwing a great party; Jonathan Miles on drinking like a Southerner; Jack Hitt on the beauty of cooking a whole hog; John T Edge on why Southern food matters; and much more. As flavorful, authentic, and irresistible as the land and the people who inspire it, The Southerner's Handbook is the ultimate guide to being a Southerner (no matter where you live).

“This funny and fresh take on a classic tale manages to comment on gender roles, racial disparities, and white privilege all while creeping me all the way out. So good.”—Zakiya Dalila Harris, author of The Other Black Girl Steel Magnolias meets Dracula in this New York Times best-selling horror novel about a women's book club that must do battle with a mysterious newcomer to their small Southern town. Bonus features: • Reading group guide for book clubs • Hand-drawn map of Mt. Pleasant • Annotated true-crime reading list by Grady Hendrix • And more! 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.

Re-create wam and homey southern favorites! This how-to manuel explains the fundamentals of southern cooking and includes advice about kitchen equipment and choosing fresh produce, plus over 200 of the South's most treasured recipes. Especially nice for new cooks.

This book examines ‘Southern Gothic’ - a term that describes some of the finest works of the American Imagination. But what do ‘Southern’ and ‘Gothic’ mean, and how are they related? Traditionally seen as drawing on the tragedy of slavery and loss, ‘Southern Gothic’ is now a richer, more complex subject. Thirty-five distinguished scholars explore the Southern Gothic, under the categories of Poe and his Legacy; Space and Place; Race; Gender and Sexuality; and Monsters and Voodoo. The essays examine slavery and the laws that supported it, and stories of slaves who rebelled and those who escaped. Also present are the often-neglected issues of the Native American presence in the South, socioeconomic class, the distinctions among the several regions of the South, same-sex relationships, and norms of gendered behaviour. This handbook covers not only iconic figures of Southern literature but also other less well-known writers, and examines gothic imagery in film and in contemporary television programmes such as True Blood and True Detective.

From the New York Times bestselling authors at Garden & Gun comes a lively compendium of Southern tradition and contemporary culture. The American South is a diverse region with its own vocabulary, peculiarities, and complexities. Tennessee whiskey may technically be bourbon, but don’t let anyone in Kentucky hear you call it that. And while boiling blue crabs may be the norm across the Lowcountry in South Carolina and Georgia, try that in front of Marylanders and they’re likely to put you in the pot. Now, from the editors of Garden & Gun comes this illustrated encyclopedia covering age-old traditions and current culture. S Is for Southern contains nearly five hundred entries spanning every letter of the alphabet, with essays from notable Southern writers including: Roy Blount, Jr., on humidity Frances Mayes on the magnolia Jessica B. Harris on field peas Rick Bragg on Harper Lee Jon Meacham on the Civil War Allison Glock on Dolly Parton Randall Kenan on Edna Lewis The Lee Brothers on boiled peanuts Jonathan Miles on Larry Brown Julia Reed on the Delta

Gather around the table to celebrate the versatility of vegetables with Southern flair.

As more and more Americans turn to locally-sourced and home-grown ingredients to help create their meals, vegetables have returned to the center of the plate, and there are few people who appreciate vegetables the way that Southerners do. Whether it's the incomparable sweetness of corn fresh from the stalk, a tomato so ripe and ready that you can almost taste the sunshine, or the versatility of the sweet potato - the garden workhorse that can serve as main, side, or dessert - Southerners know the secrets to preparing their favorite vegetables in the most delicious ways.

Now, in The Southern Vegetable Book, the wisdom of years spent in the garden, in the fields, and finally in the kitchen are yours in an accessible cookbook highlighting the Southern ability to create satisfying flavors from the simplest, freshest ingredients. The classic vegetables that we all know and love are represented, but lesser-known but equally-celebrated ones, such as Jerusalem artichokes and ramps, also make an appearance. The recipes in the book pay homage to classic Southern dishes while offering modern interpretations for the home cook, whether you call the South home or not.

Divided by season, The Southern Vegetable Book features 30 types of vegetables along with recipes as diverse as Balsamic Corn Salad, Salmon Tostadas with Zucchini-Radish Slaw, a BLT Benedict with Avocado-Tomato Relish, or a new take on Sweet Potato Pie. This book will guide you on how to select the freshest vegetables at the grocery store or the farmers' market, tips on storage, special features, and tips and hints on extracting the best flavor from your produce.

Whether you're a Southerner born and bred, hail from parts unknown, or just appreciate that the South has a way with vegetables, The Southern Vegetable Book will become your go-to guide to make vegetables the star of the show.

From the award-winning Southern lifestyle magazine Garden & Gun comes this rich collection of some of the South’s most notable women. For too long, the Southern woman has been synonymous with the Southern belle, a “moonlight and magnolias” myth that gets nowhere close to describing the strong, richly diverse women who have thrived because of—and in some cases, despite of—the South. No more. Garden & Gun’s Southern Women: More than 100 Stories of Trail Blazers, Visionaries, and Icons obliterates that stereotype by sharing the stories of more than 100 of the region’s brilliant women, groundbreakers who have by turns embraced the South’s proud traditions and overcome its equally pervasive barriers and challenges. Through interviews, essays, photos, and illustrations these remarkable chefs, musicians, actors, writers, artists, entrepreneurs, designers, and public servants will offer a dynamic portrait of who the Southern woman is now. The voices of bona fide icons such as Sissy Spacek, Leah Chase, and Loretta Lynn join those whose stories for too long have been overlooked or underestimated, from the pioneering Texas rancher Minnie Lou Bradley to the Gee’s Bend, Alabama, quilter Mary Margaret Pettway—all visionaries who have left their indelible mark not just on Southern culture, but on America itself. By reading these stories of triumph, grit, and grace, the ties that bind the sisterhood of Southern women emerge: an unflinching resilience and resourcefulness, an inherent love of the land, a singular style and wit. And while the wisdom shared may be rooted in the Southern experience, the universal themes are sure to resonate beyond the Mason-Dixon.

Presents a guide to selecting trees, berries, perennials, and vines for the garden, and offers more than five thousand plant listings with information on varieties, cultivation, and maintenance.