Best-selling author Sharyn McCrumb will be coming to Rugby's Rebecca Johnson Theater on Sunday, April 22, at 3:00 p.m. McCrumb's accumulated works include the Elizabeth MacPherson novels, the St. Dale series that have a NASCAR theme, short stories, and my favorites, her ballad series. My wife and I have been big Sharyn McCrumb fans since first reading
She Walks These Hills, the novel that remains my favorite. I think I must have read it three or four times now. All of her ballad books have sat on our bookshelves, although we have a hard time keeping copies in stock. Over the years I think I must have bought a half dozen copies of
She Walks These Hills and we currently don't have one. We rave, people ask, we loan, and they're gone forever.
McCrumb is a native of Appalachia and in her ballad series writes about the people and places she knows best. Her love for the land, the people, history, and culture not only is felt by the reader, but rings true to those of us who share her love of place. She summed it up well herself: “
My books are like Appalachian quilts,” says Sharyn McCrumb. “
I take brightly colored scraps of legends, ballads, fragments of rural life, and local tragedy, and I piece them together into a complex whole that tells not only a story, but also a deeper truth about the culture of the mountain South.”
Please join us if you can. If you can't, read along with us in one of McCrumb's ballad books. You'll be glad you did!
This is the first book, "She Walks These Hills" that I have sought through the local library that is actually there. She must have quite the fan base here in Oklahoma also. I will read it.
ReplyDeleteI have read many of her books and liked each one. She does indeed tell a story about a "deeper truth about the culture of the mountain South." I would love hearing her in person.
ReplyDeleteSharyn is a terrific speaker -- and I have to say that SHE WALKS THESE HILLS remains my favorite of her books.
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