South Toward Home: Adventures and Misadventures in my Native Land

A wry andhumorous take on life and culture in the American South.

In thinking about her native land, Julia Reed quotes another Southern writer, Willie Morris, who said, “It’s the juxtapositions that get you down here.” These juxtapositions are, for Julia, the soul of the South and in her warmhearted and funny new book, South Toward Home, she chronicles her adventures through the highs and the lows of Southern life—the Delta hot tamale festival, a masked ball, a rollicking party in a boat on a sand bar, scary Christian billboards, and the southern affection for the lowly possum. She writes about the southern penchant for making their own fun in every venue from a high-toned New Orleans dinner party to cocktail crawls on the streets of the French Quarter where to-go cups are de rigeur.

And with as much hilarity as possible, Julia shines her light on the South’s more embarrassing tendencies like dry counties and the politics of lust. As she puts it, “My fellow Southerners have brought me the greatest joy—on the page, over the airwaves, around the dinner table, at the bar or, hell, in the checkout line.” South Towards Home, with a foreword by Jon Meacham, is Julia Reed’s valentine to the place she loves best.