J.E.S. Hays lives in Upstate South Carolina, so here are five books set in the state for you to peruse:<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Delirious Summer<\/em> by Ray Blackston: To Neil Rucker, seven months, one week, and a day is too long to wait in between dates. But life as a Spanish language teacher to missionaries in Ecuador affords little opportunity for romance. When his worst student, Jay Jarvis, suggests a respite in Greenville, South Carolina, so begins Neil’s delirious summer. Neil sees his chance to meet a sweet succession of southern women, but little does he know that the girls of Greenville are now more elusive than a snowflake in the Ecuadorian jungle.<\/p>\n\n\n Bastard Out of Carolina<\/em> by Dorothy Allison: Greenville County, South Carolina, is a wild, lush place that is home to the Boatwright family\u2014a tight-knit clan of rough-hewn, hard-drinking men who shoot up each other’s trucks, and indomitable women who get married young and age too quickly. At the heart of this story is Ruth Anne Boatwright, known simply as Bone, a bastard child who observes the world around her with a mercilessly keen perspective.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Brown Girl Dreaming<\/em> by Jacqueline Woodson: Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.jeshays.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/blog_books_delirious.jpg\")
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