Where I Come From: Stories from the Deep South

Writers with a southern bent have a unique ability to grab you take you along on long past journeys and make you long to visit. This book contains many thrilling columns written by Rick Bragg.

I was familiar with Rick from his stories in the magazine Garden and Gun but this is the first book I have bought and I am not disappointed. He is a Southern writer for sure and his stories can be humorous, or serious but are always sincere. A great read and I highly recommend.

This book was hard to put down. I found myself wanting to continue it because it was so exciting and so mysterious. The characters were vividly painted, and you wanted to know what happened to each of them.

Great memoir

Rick Bragg delivers with every book and this is no exception. Enjoy every word he writes. Best southern storyteller ever. He speaks the truth. Regardless of where you live, you will feel the heartbeat of the South he loves. I laughed and smiled, and put it down several times, just cause I didn’t want it to end. It’s that good.

I love Rick Bragg's writing, and this was just the icing on the cake for me! I met him several years ago at a Southern Writer's Festival, and found him to be humble, genial and kind-hardly what I was expecting for a writer of his acclaim and talent. Reading his work is like removing your shoes at the end of a long day, and feeling finally comfortable and at home. He makes one think, laugh and cry-sometimes within the same sentence! He is truly a Southern treasure of note. Oh, and he reveres his wonderful mother-one could ask for nothing more. Read and enjoy!

I've been reading Rick Bragg since I was a teenager, and I still look forward to every new release now at 30. His early works always reminded me of a mix between Ecology of a Cracker Childhood and Angela's Ashes- they were written in the same spirit, anyhow. This particular book will be familiar to you if you read the back pages of Southern Living, but it also has some new (to me, anyway) musings and I personally like having a collection of his short stories. Who wants to keep a stack of magazines? I have to admit, he's the only reason I have the subscription, and the same holds true with Garden & Gun's Roy Blount Jr. (Check him out if you like Rick Bragg, too.) Bragg stands out in the world of Southern writing, as he comes the people I relate to- the ones with the drawl, not the accent. The ones who have worn the clay as a uniform and have cookouts and picnics with paper plates, not dinner parties under magnolias with serviceware from Crate and Barrel. If you ever lingered in a Waffle House late at night because the truck driver at the counter reeled you in with his stories, then this is the story teller for you. And when it comes to whether or not Rick Bragg will ever retire from writing in his lifetime, I stand by what one of those Waffle House truckers had to say when asked if he was going to make it after a coughing fit: "God, I hope not."

I love the way Rick Bragg writes and I often laugh out loud. I am from the Pacific Northwest but I have lived in the South for over 25 years, long enough to appreciate what he captures in these short stories. I haven't finished the book yet because I want to savor each story slowly... I'll be sad to come to the end.