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    My Southern Journey
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    My Southern Journey
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    My Southern Journey
    Audiobook8 hours

    My Southern Journey

    Published by Blackstone Audio

    4.5/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From Southern Living comes a poignant and wryly funny collection of essays on life in the South by New York Times bestselling author Rick Bragg.

    For the first time, prizewinning author Rick Bragg’s most poignant portraits of the uniquely American experience of Southern life are combined into one volume. Along with many new essays, My Southern Journey delves into regional obsessions from college football and fishing to mayonnaise, spoon bread, and the beauty of a fish on the hook.

    With his insightful and deadpan sense of humor, Bragg explores enduring Southern verities and the regions’ varied geographies, including his native Alabama, Cajun country, and the Gulf Coast. The perfect gift, this book is an entertaining and engaging listen—especially for Southerners and fans of Southern culture.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBlackstone Audio
    Release dateSep 15, 2015
    ISBN9781504632003
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for My Southern Journey

    4.5/5

    66 ratings11 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I am a huge fan of Rick Bragg and thoroughly enjoyed My Southern Journey. It's a compilation of various essays he has written through the years for various publications, i.e., magazines Southern Living, Sports Illustrated, GQ, ESPN The Magazine, Best Life, Long Leaf Style, Garden & Gun, Smithsonian, Louisiana Kitchen, and Bon Appetit. Some of the essays had no byline so I assume they were written for this book.If you are not familiar with Rich Bragg, he was born and raised in Alabama. He lovingly writes about all aspects of being a Southerner not only in this collection, but in his novels as well. I must mention his sense of humor since I often laugh out loud. He also writes with emotion when it comes to his beloved family. Small-town life is the basis for much of his writing but in this book he travels around various parts of the South, i.e., Cajun country, the Gulf Coast, and his native Alabama . The book is divided into five subjects: Home, Table, Place, Craft and Spirit.The college football essays lost me in parts but college football is a "religion" in the South so, of course, a couple of essays on it had to be included. I thoroughly enjoyed his candor about community, food, fishing, holiday traditions, feeling like an outsider while teaching in the North, romance and break-ups. If reading these essays doesn't give you a connection with the South, nothing will.
    • 5/5
      If you are from the south, it's stories you relate to in your bones. Wonderful.
    • 5/5
      I like Rick Bragg’s writing style. He says what he has to say without putting a lot of flowery pose in every sentence…but what he does put in is a lot of heart. My 95 year old mother loved him. She read every book he’d ever written plus every article that appeared in the back of Southern Living magazine…and believe me it was more than just a one time read.. I lost this precious person in July. She had a wonderful life and few regrets but her biggest regret the last three months of her life was that she couldn’t read this book as it NEVER appeared in Large Print format and ebooks for her were better than any sleeping pill on the market anywhere in the world. I was going to read it to her but time just slipped away from us and then she was gone…so I am reading it in her memory. My Mom was the product of an Scottish father and an Irish mother having arrived in America at the age of 3. She spent her entire life until 2004 in Hillsborough County, Florida, so even though Celtic blood flowed through her veins…Southern soil lived in her heart and soul. She said she could relate to every word Rick Bragg wrote. [My Southern Journey] is a testament to Rick Bragg’s mother…to his upbringing, and to the southern way of life. While reading it I thought to myself that my Mom was right in what she taught me, and what Rick Bragg’s Mom must have surely taught him also. Be proud… no matter where your people came from…what your religious affiliations are…or your political views… it’s what is in your heart that defines what and who you are. The stories here are short but the book is long on character.
    • 5/5
      Tales of being "Southern", very amusing.
    • 4/5
      Okay, I am one of those “Yankees” that Rick Bragg lightly condemns in his Southern Journey. I listened to over 7 hours of Rick Bragg reading his book of his Alabama beginnings and travels throughout the South. The first aspect is that the reader hears the “true” Southern accent and is lured into the soft-spoken language of the South with Rick’s reading. Bragg embellishes his journals with the stories of the South, as told by someone who loves all the food, family, and quirks of the Southern life. A story is not merely told, but enriched with descriptive language. Of course, Bragg covers the bad and the good, the sad and the funny. One of my favorite stories is the one of Pretty Girl, the mangy dog, that adopted Rick’s family. I also enjoyed his journey with his brother to buy clothes and the frenzy of the Southern children when snow fell. Talk of food and the preparation of fried chicken in the skillet and the endless glasses of sweet ice tea emerge constantly. Life is rich in family and tradition and almost void of electronic devices.
    • 5/5

      My Southern Journey by Rick Bragg is a very highly recommended collection of 72 essays on life in the South.

      I'll admit I fell a little bit in love with Bragg and the South while reading these stories. They are comfortable, pull-up-a-chair-to-the-kitchen-table-and-let's-just-chat-and-tell-stories-for-awhile selections. And it needs to be in or near the kitchen because there will be eating, and talking about eating and good food with no apologies over calorie content. As he notes, "But grease is good. It has shortened many lives, probably my own, but is a life of rice cakes really life, or just passing time?" Bragg is a master at telling stories and I was totally entranced through every one (except, begging your forgiveness, the football stories.)

      In the introduction Bragg write: "I hope you enjoy these stories, but more than that I hope you see value in the people whose lives are pressed between these pages. I have been told, a thousand times or more by kind people, that it can be like looking in a mirror, looking at people, places, and things that are more than familiar, and at feelings that seem lifted from their own hope chests, sock drawers, recipe books, and family secrets. Maybe that is what writers mean, when they talk about a sense of place."

      He really does succeed in creating a sense of place and describing his southern journey with humor, charm, and reflection. Bragg also notes in the introduction: "It suits me, here. My people tell their stories of vast red fields and bitter turnip greens and harsh white whiskey like they are rocking in some invisible chair, smooth and easy even in the terrible parts, because the past has already done its worst. The joys of this Southern life, we polish like old silver. We are good at stories. We hoard them, like an old woman in a room full of boxes, but now and then we pull out our best, and spread them out like dinner on the ground. We talk of the bad year the cotton didn’t open, and the day my cousin Wanda was Washed in the Blood. We cherish the past. We buff our beloved ancestors till they are smooth of sin, and give our scoundrels a hard shake, though sometimes we cannot remember exactly which is who."

      How can you not appreciate the flow of descriptive phrases there and hear the Southern accents gently visiting and sharing the many stories collected over a lifetime. There were so many descriptions I took note of or laughed at, or agreed with the sentiment. How about driving on a long road trip "with two states behind me and a thousand miles to go, scanning a radio thick with yammering bullies whose mamas did not love them enough." I am putting everyone on notice. I am going to use that turn of phrase, "yammering bullies whose mamas did not love them enough."

      And I am in the Amen section concerning allowing kids to play in a good mud hole. "The children start school now in August. They say it has to do with air-conditioning, but I know sadism when I see it. I think a bunch of people who were not allowed to stomp in a mud hole when they were young - who were never allowed to hold translucent tadpoles in their hands and watch their hearts move - decided to make sure that no child would ever have the necessary time to contemplate a grand mud hole ever again." My own children did not have the good red dirt, but they did have mud holes over several years and states they could lay claim to. As for my childhood, my mother was also known for her use of bleach.

      While laughing I also completely understood the sentiment when Bragg commented that "I knew, the day I saw my first pair of skinny jeans on a man, that I no longer have any place in this world, and should probably just go live by myself in a hole in the ground." "But there is no designer on this planet who has ever fashioned a garment with me in mind... and the camo rack at the Walmart does not count."

      As a final note Bragg contemplates Southern literature: "Scholars have long debated the defining element of great Southern literature. Is it a sense of place? Fealty to lost causes? A struggle to transcend the boundaries of class and race? No. According to the experts, it’s all about a mule. And not just any old mule - only the dead ones count. Ask the experts."

      Disclosure: My Kindle edition was courtesy of Oxmoor House for review purposes.
    • 4/5
      4.5 starsMY SOUTHERN JOURNEY is a collection of articles and essays on a cornucopia of subjects particular to the South. As anyone who’s blessed enough to be from or live in the South can tell you it’s much more than a geographic area; it’s a way of life, a mindset you take with you even if you’re living in the frozen tundra. As Mr. Bragg says in his Afterword, MY SOUTHERN JOURNEY is a love song to our unique, colorful, beloved South. As a Georgian living in Michigan I find myself drawn to books by Southern writers and or set in the South. It’s soothing and eases the bouts of homesickness that hit outta the blue.I savored MY SOUTHERN JOURNEY like I would one of Ma’s biscuits. What I wouldn’t give if I could only have one again. The world around me may have been whizzing by but I was moseying on dirt back roads, fishing, wading in a creek, and enjoying fish fries, BBQ, and food like you can’t get anywhere else. In my head the dulcet drawl of the words, along with the images and memories they conjured, were comfort food for my mind and soul.MY SOUTHERN JOURNEY is told with love, humor, and a “warts and all” honesty by a man who truly loves and understands the South. I highly recommend it for displaced (often misunderstood) Southerners, anyone who loves the South, and those still there. A keeper. Reviewed for Miss Ivy's Book Nook Take II & Novels Alive TV
    • 4/5
      3.5 Bragg's love of the South, his heritage, customs and quirks definitely shines through in his writing. Many, if not all of these articles are repeats that have been published previously in Southern Living. Many of these I loved, the old dog, his mother as the cat lady, moonshine as a toddy and others. But, there were many that I think would be better understood if one was raised or living in the South, to be honest some left little or no impression on me at all. A few made me shudder. But, as always his writing is stellar, interesting and at times quite poignant. So all in all a good read, and I am sure to Southerners a great one.Arc from Netgalley.
    • 4/5
      I have a love/hate relationship with the Southern United States, so not surprisingly, I have a love/hate opinion of this book of short stories, mostly very short stories, most if not all previously published. One of my very favorite is the author's introduction, a love song to the South. Many of these stories, true stories with maybe just a touch of exaggeration here and there, are relaxing and casual and as comforting as an old pair of shoes.Having said that, there was too much repetition, too much sameness to too many of the stories. If I had to read about cracklin's one more time, I would have wanted to do someone bodily harm. (Figure of speech – I am not out to harm anyone, cracklin's or not.)Some of the stories were saccharin sweet, too sentimental for my tastes. The stories were not usually serious, but there was one about the BP oil spill that was dead serious, and oh so sad.The author and his family is white, and the stories were about mostly white people - there is very little here about racial conflicts or . Well, except for one story that was about football. Too much football for me.The ones that caused me the hate part of my opinion had to do with casual cruelty. I hated some of the fishing stories, I hated that telling me about ripping the lips off a red snapper is supposed to be entertainment for me. I didn't think that going into “the defining element of great Southern literature,” the dead mule, was entertaining. And I hated the expression, “enough money to burn a wet dog,” even if it was just used as an expression.So, while some of these snippets of life in the South were wonderful, there were some that I would have preferred skipping.I was given an ebook copy of this book for review. I believe it is an advance reader's copy, but I can't find that notation on it, so the quotes may have changed in the published edition.
    • 5/5
      This is a collection of Rick Bragg’s nostalgic articles about the South of his youth. This is not a Confederate apologia, but a celebration of family and place. Certainly not s guidebook, it might be enlightening for Yankee travelers.
    • 5/5
      A friend of mine describes Rick Bragg as a ‘national treasure’. Even if that assessment is a tad overstated it can be safely applied to his relationship with the American South. From his touching memoir of his mother, ‘All Over But the Shoutin’’ to his recent biography of Jerry Lee Lewis, his works have beautifully expressed his undying love affair with the land of his birth. ‘My Southern Journey’ continues this love affair with a series of short articles, many reprinted from magazines, that describes, in his unique style, what makes ‘The South’ special. From its food to its music, from the back-country religions to the way neighbors pitched in and helped each other in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Bragg describes them all and does in that passionately biased way that he has that imbues even the most mundane aspects of life with a vibrancy that those of us who spring from Puritan stock seldom appreciate.As an unrepentant Yankee, I particularly enjoyed his descriptions of how the English language is spoken in the South differs from the rest of the country. Speaking of Thanksgiving, Bragg said ‘When I mentioned that we were having turkey and dressing at my house, my Yankee friends looked confused. You mean, they asked, the stuff you put on salads? It is a miracle we only fought one war.’Perhaps my favorite line from the book is when he describes his attitude towards drinking in general and drinking bourbon in particular. ‘I am not a big drinker, but there has always been something comforting about brown liquor. After one, I always felt like I was covered in a warm quilt. The secret, across my life and my ancestor’s lives, was not to drink seven more, turn the drink into a parachute, and jump off something tall.’ Speaking of moderation, I wouldn’t describe the book as ‘sweet’ but after reading it I can almost hear some woman’s voice saying ‘Ain’t that sweet!’ As with most things that are sweet, it’s not always wise to take too much at one sitting. I found that I enjoyed the stories the most when I limited my reading to two or three stories at a time. ****Quotations are cited from an advanced reading copy and may not be the same as appears in the final published edition. The review book was based on an advanced reading copy obtained at no cost from the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review. While this does take any ‘not worth what I paid for it’ statements out of my review, it otherwise has no impact on the content of my review.FYI: On a 5-point scale I assign stars based on my assessment of what the book needs in the way of improvements:•5 Stars – Nothing at all. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.•4 Stars – It could stand for a few tweaks here and there but it’s pretty good as it is.•3 Stars – A solid C grade. Some serious rewriting would be needed in order for this book to be considered good or memorable.•2 Stars – This book needs a lot of work. A good start would be to change the plot, the character development, the writing style and the ending. •1 Star - The only thing that would improve this book is a good bonfire.