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A Year of Alabama Books - Expanded List for Adults and Older Teens

A Year of Alabama Books

Expanded List for Adults and Older Teens

January

  • Save Me The Waltz, Zelda Fitzgerald (New Year parties)
  • Why We Can't Wait, Martin Luther King, Jr. (Martin Luther King, Jr., Day)

Other Suggestions for January

  • Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williams, Paul Hemphill (New Year's Day, anniversary of Hank Williams' death)

February

  • Train Whistle Guitar, Albert Murray (Black History Month)
  • Queen of Broken Hearts, Cassandra King (Valentine's Day)

Other Suggestions for February

  • Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison (Black History Month)

March

  • The Story of My Life, Helen Keller (Women's History Month)
  • Back Home: Journeys Through Mobile, Roy Hoffman (Mardi Gras in Mobile)

Other Suggestions for March

  • Milking the Moon, Eugene Walter (Mardi Gras in Mobile)

April

  • Native Guard, Natasha Trethewey (National Poetry Month)
  • Naturalist, Edward O. Wilson (Earth Day)

Other Suggestions for April

  • Chicken Dreaming Corn, Roy Hoffman (Passover)
  • He Slew the Dreamer: My Search for the Truth about James Earl Ray and the Murder of Martin Luther King, William Bradford Huie (anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination)

May

  • Mother Was a Rebel, Helen F. Blackshear (Mother's Day)
  • With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa, E. B. Sledge (Memorial Day)

Other Suggestions for May

  • All Over But the Shoutin', Rick Bragg (Mother's Day)
  • Mother & Me: An Intimate Memoir of Her Last Years, Virginia Pounds Brown (Mother's Day)
  • A Mother and Two Daughters, Gail Godwin (Mother's Day)
  • Company K, William March (Memorial Day)
  • The Short-Timers, Gustav Hasford (Memorial Day)

June

  • Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston (summer/weddings)
  • Big Fish, Daniel Wallace (summer/fishing)

Other Suggestions for June

  • The Prince of Frogtown, Rick Bragg (Father's Day)
  • In My Father's House: Tales of an Unconformable Man, Nancy Huddleston Packer (Father's Day)
  • Jubilee, Margaret Walker (Juneteenth)

July

  • Long Gone, Paul Hemphill (summer/baseball)
  • A Salty Piece of Land, Jimmy Buffett (summer/beach)

Other Suggestions for July

  • An Abundance of Katherines, John Green (summer/road trips)

August

  • Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Fannie Flagg(summer/barbeque)
  • Alabama, One Big Front Porch, Kathryn Tucker Windham (summer/porches)

Other Suggestions for August

  • Last Days of the Dog-Men: Stories, Brad Watson (summer/"dog days")

September

  • One More River to Cross, John Beecher (Labor Day)
  • Old School, Tobias Wolff (back to school)

Other Suggestions for September

  • Ava's Man, Rick Bragg (National Grandparents Day)

October

  • Rocket Boys, Homer Hickam (anniversary of Sputnik launch)
  • Speaks the Nightbird, Robert McCammon (Halloween)

Other Suggestions for October

  • Hauntings: And Other Tales of Danger, Love, and Sometimes Loss, Betsy Hearne (Halloween)

November

  • Rammer Jammer Yellow Hammer, Warren St. John (fall/football)
  • Company K, William March (Armistice Day)

Other Suggestions for November

  • Unsung Valor: A GI's Story of World War II, A. Cleveland Harrison (Veterans Day)
  • Stateside Soldier: Life in the Women's Army Corps, 1944-1945, Aileen Kilgore Henderson (Veterans Day)
  • In Pharaoh's Army: Memories of the Lost War, Tobias Wolff (Veterans Day)
  • The Thanksgiving Visitor, Truman Capote (Thanksgiving)

December

  • Stars Fell on Alabama, Carl Carmer (anniversary of Alabama statehood)
  • In Cold Blood, Truman Capote (winter)

Other Suggestions for December

  • It's Christmas!, Kathryn Tucker Windham (Christmas)
  • A Christmas Memory, Truman Capote (Chistmas)

Last updated on 2008-09-04.

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