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88 reviews for:
Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South
Margaret Renkl
4.2 AVERAGE
88 reviews for:
Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache From the American South
Margaret Renkl
4.2 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
a fairly enjoyable read, but definitely written for a non-Southern audience. I like Renkl’s writing but she didn’t dig very deep on most of the topics covered in the book (to be fair, they are NYT columns). Mostly enjoyed learning more about Nashville!
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
reflective
slow-paced
I wanted a bit more from this book - I'm interested in learning more about the American South but did find that much of the book was heavily about Margaret Renkl, while some of the chapters about different movements/organisations etc in the South were a bit too brief for my liking. I did enjoy Margaret's writing though and found her appreciation and love of nature infectious.
I remember a chapter addressing queerphobia from people in the South (specifically Christians?) and Margaret, while clearly not agreeing with anti-LGBTQIA+ beliefs, concluded that setting aside sexuality/gender and instead simply caring for one another as humans would be a good place to start... which I didn't find too convincing and perhaps too simplistic. Maybe I misread...
A perfect book to read on a trip to the south driving through the bosky landscape of Georgia, Kentucky and Alabama and into Nashville, Renkl's home town. The first part about flora and fauna bored me a little as I can't get excited about flowers or birds (unless the book is by Helen MacDonald), but the other parts about politics, sociology and the environment were magnificent. Renkl's passion for this part of the country is palpable, and it saddened me that she has to apologize for living in Tennessee - note we only saw one Confederate flag driving from Atlanta, GA to Nashville, TN but one is enough to turn your stomach. As she points out though there is hope with Georgia turning blue, and she lists a raft of wonderful nonprofit organizations and media outlets that are trying to improve people's lives and address some of the south's more pressing issues around racism and the environment. We took the author's advice and visited the Civil Rights Room in the Public Library and the Tennessee's State Museum. This book is prominently displayed in one of the planet's best bookstore, Parnassus Books, and I love to imagine Renkl and Ann Patchett being friends and saving the world one book at a time.
challenging
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Since I am not a reader of The New York Times, I had the sheer joy of reading each of these essays for the first time as part of this beautiful collection. Though I purchased Graceland At Last as a treat to myself at the end of 2021, I didn’t pick up until this week. I’m always astonished of how the universe puts books in our hands exactly when we need them.
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
I didn't realize when I started this book that it was a collection of writings by the author that had been previously released. Generally I don't mind that type of book, but by about 70% of the way through I was really ready for the book to be done. I think if a few less articles had been included I wouldn't have reached that point. Perhaps I should've put the book down and come back to it in a bit.
Solid writing and would read more by this author again.
Solid writing and would read more by this author again.
The food, the music, the accent: the American South has more than its fair share of idiosyncrasies. By the way the region is often spoken about, the unfamiliar would be inclined to believe that “the South” is one big indistinct landmass defined by a love of guns and deeply red politics. But what if the stereotypes fell short of characterizing the dynamic, if undeniably flawed area? In “Graceland, At Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache from the American South,” author Margaret Renkl (“Late Migrations”) – who lives in Nashville but originally hails from Alabama - aims to give a well-rounded view of the part of the country she calls home in this collection of columns previously published in The New York Times.
Click here to read the rest of my review in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Click here to read the rest of my review in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
reflective