(Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme brought to you by The Broke and the Bookish.)
I’ve always been more interested in characters than setting, but the truth is that a good setting becomes a character. Here’s some settings I hope to enjoy more of this year.
The Deep South
Texas is just about as geographically far south as you can get in the US, but the state has more of the feeling of the wild west than the south. The Deep South really refers—in my mind, anyway—to places like Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, and the Carolinas.
These are mysterious places where trees breathe, magic lurks, and great and terrible things happen. Books like Shadowed Summer, Chime, The River Witch, and Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle-Stop Cafe turn the Deep South into a character all its own, and I love it.
19th/20th century England
Because clearly I haven’t read enough of it.
Fantasy worlds
This is a big category, but it’s one of my favorites. What makes the fantasy genre so incredible is that anything can happen. Dragons? Check. Powerful Graces? Done. Witches and spells? Got it.
The real world (fiction and non-fiction alike) is interesting enough, but I prefer a great fantasy setting any day!
Old Chicago and New York
Whether it’s Sin in the Second City, The Girl is Murder (Kathryn Miller Haines), or Island of Vice: Theodore Roosevelt’s Doomed Quest to Clean Up Sin-Loving New York (Richard Zacks), I’m all over Chicago and New York.
What book settings do you really love (or hate)? Let’s discuss in the comments!
I found a really good TV series (though much too short-lived) on Hulu.com called Single-Handed. It is set on the west coast of Ireland not too far from Galway in Connemara. Much of it is filmed in Tully Cross. The setting, as you say, is also a character in this series, and I was completely captivated by it. So much so, that I’ve taken several tours around the place via Google Earth (one of the best inventions ever).
The place has an “other worldly” look to it. Alien yet at the same time compelling .
Now I think I’d like to find some books set in this area. Any suggestions?
~gloria
currently reading: That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo, and listening to Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling.
Hmm, Ireland. I haven’t read much set there. I did enjoy Gabaldon’s Outlander series, although it’s set in Scotland. A lot of Irish literature tends to be more depressing than I like.
Many moons ago I read Alexandra Ripley’s Scarlett, her (unauthorized) sequel to Gone with the Wind. I remember enjoying it in the same one one would enjoy any book of which they don’t, in the end, think too much. 🙂
If you want southern, and I am a southerner, you might want to try Eudora Welty or Capote. Ooh and a great read is almost anything by Pat Conroy. I loved his The Water Is Wide, talk about setting being a character.
Or maybe Fred Chappell (beautiful prose) or Clyde Edgerton (loved his Walking Across Egypt).
Rick Bragg, John Ehle, Roy Blount Jr., Lee Smith, Ernest Gaines.
Ok, that’s enough. Maybe you guessed I love southern writers.
~gloria
I really liked Capote’s In Cold Blood. Been awhile since I read it; I need to cycle back again.
I’ve heard a couple of these names. I’ll be sure to check them out. Thanks, Gloria!
Oh, I am WITH YOU on the deep south! What a great place to set a story – all that thick air and smiles on secrets…
The stories just write themselves, don’t they? All that superstition and voodoo and heat. 🙂
I definitely agree with Fantasy Worlds, though I would love one in particular (Hogwarts, anyone?)!
Totally! I don’t necessarily want to read more about Harry (I really think that story arc is done), but another TTT list this week mentioned she’d love a story around the Aurors. I’d love it if Rowling would continue writing within the HP world.
Old time Chicago and New York is such a great choice. It makes me think of gangsters, cigars and pin striped suits. I love it.
The exact same thing I think of, Ashley. Perhaps a bit stereotypical, but they make for such good stories. Both cities are amazing, and reading more about their history would be fun.
Wow, you know what I never thought of it that way but you’re right, a setting does become a character on its own. Plus, a fantasy setting is so cool and it’d be awesome to read books set in Old Chicago and New York or a future one at that. Great list!
Here’s my Top Ten Tuesday post!
Sana @ artsy musings of a bibliophile
Setting can be such a big character that it detracts from the others! I love it when that happens. 🙂
I’m not able to comment on your blog, but thank you so much for stopping by! I love the imagery you use in your post, and I totally agree with “Terrace” and “Cobblestone streets.” Very classic European.