Queen of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena collects a bevy of wise, witty, often hilarious essays by the inimitably charming, staunchly Southern Julia Reed. In classic Dixie storytelling fashion, Reed wends her way through the South—from politics, religion, and women to weather, pestilence, guns, and what she calls “drinking and other Southern pursuits”—with a rare blend of literary elegance and plainspoken humor. To hear Reed tell it, the South is another country. She builds an entertaining and persuasive case, using as examples everything from its unfathomable codes of conduct to its disciplined fashion sense. When a bemused Reed once commented on the cross-dressing get-ups of an upstanding community member, her austere grandfather said, “He’s been wearing them lately. Now come on.” A friend of her aunt’s merely said, “I wonder where he gets his shoes. I can’t ever ?nd good-looking shoes in Nashville.” Southern food, of course, is an entire world apart: gumbo, grits, greens, okra, chess pie, Lady Baltimore cake, and Frito chili pie make memorable appearances in Reed’s stories, which will amuse, delight, and even explain a thing or two to baffed Yankees everywhere. For a region that lives and dies by its time-honored, if tawdry, traditions and is known for its colorful, if not controversial, characters, the South has some explaining to do for its excessive eccentricities. And there is no one more capable than Reed, a Mississippi native and part-time resident of New Orleans and New York whose foot in both Dixie and Yankee camps gives her a unique, biregional vantage point from which to observe her homeland. Taking on such sacrosanct southern staples as cuisine, couture, and crime, Reed blends the factual with the fanciful to examine the ways in which southerners differ from their neighbors to the north. Going beyond the biscuits-versus-bagels bread brouhaha, Reed explores southern standards of beauty and exposes southern double standards of justice. She recounts the South's penchant for pageants and fondness for football, shares its secret recipes, and skewers its salacious stereotypes in a playful collection of essays that humorously and humbly celebrates the quirkiness that lies deep in the heart of Dixie. Carol Haggas Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved "Julia Reed is right on target about the South-its food, its hair, its guns, its pests, even the tendency of southern women to kill their husbands and get away with it. She's clear-eyed, raucously funny, and a natural story teller, which makes her something of a southern phenomenon herself." -John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil “Julia Reed’s affectionate and hilarious observations of the Deep South and Southerners past and present are a delight to read.” –Fannie Flagg, author of Standing in the Rainbow “Julia Reed is a Southern original. Her writing is funny and addictive, blending the street smarts of Greenville, Mississippi, where 'girls are taught to drink Scotch and smoke cigarettes and drive a car by the time they are twelve,' with the sophistication of a globe-trotting journalist. Julia's favorite subjects are Southern--fashion, politics, and above all food, which she describes with irresistable affection, knowledge and delight. If you've ever doubted that Southern food is our greatest gastronomic treasure, be prepared to learn the truth." -Jeffrey Steingarten, author of It Must Have Been Something I Ate " Queen of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena will be a delight for all Southern readers (all about our favorite subject–us) and an educational tome for Unfortunate Others. It helps explain that We are, after all, just like Them–only funnier and better-looking." -Jill Conner Browne, The Sweet Potato Queens' Big-Ass Cookbook (and Financial Planner) "I had some crab dip that Julia Reed made once that I would have eaten all of in one sitting, if I had been sitting, and if the other party guests hadn't dragged me off of it. This book is that good." -Roy Blount Jr ., author of Crackers and If Only You Knew How Much I Smell You “Not since Eudora Welty has anybody captured in such sophisticated, often mordant prose the brave, gracious, perverse, reckless, God-fearing Southern soul like Julia reed. Whether she’s holding forth on fried chicken and catfish, guns, booze, cockfights, pestilence, or Southern womanhood, Reed loads both barrels and never misses the target. As a Carolina Tarheel, I rejoiced, cringed, marveled, and laughed myself sick at Reed’s outrageous tales and savvy insights, and I defy anybody–Southerner and Yankee alike–to come up for are after reading the first chapter.” -James Villas, author of Between Bites and My Mother's Southern Kitchen “This is a wise and tender book. Julia Reed is a loving defender of the South. Long may she live and write. She understands the deep seriousness that underlies our Scotch-Irish, English, and