10 classic novels by NC authors

Welcome to our new blog: Bookin’, presented by Quail Ridge Books and WRAL.com!

At least twice weekly, we will be bringing you the best reading lists, book reviews, book news and author interviews in North Carolina. Each Monday, we will release a new episode of our podcast, which features an interview with a local, national, or international best-selling or award-winning author.

Today, we have a list of ten classic novels by North Carolina authors. Later in the week, we will be listing ten future classics by newer North Carolina authors. Next week, we will feature some of our favorite North Carolina poets.

North Carolina is the writingest state (thank you to the North Carolina Writers Network for the slogan). Outside of New York or Northern California, we have the highest concentration of fantastic literary authors of anywhere in the country. We are proud to have hosted all of these authors, many of whom consider Quail Ridge Books to be “their” bookstore. Ten of our favorite classic novels by North Carolina authors are as follows:

A gigantic debut novel by one of Raleigh’s best authors, "Emma Who Saved My Life" is a coming of age tale about moving to the big city. Laura Lippman recently cited this novel as one of her all-time favorites in Entertainment Weekly. For further reading, see Barnhardt’s "Lookaway, Lookaway," a scandalous novel about Charlotte high-society.

A New York Times bestseller and the winner of the National Book Award, "Cold Mountain" is the tale of a confederate soldier who decides to leave the army and return home to North Carolina. Charles Frazier has become an ambassador for southern literature, as he recently began the Charles Frazier Cold Mountain Series with Hub City Press, which will showcase debut novels by authors from the south.

A Dickensian tale told by an 11-year old orphan who was abused by her alcoholic father after her mother committed suicide, "Ellen Foster" is in turns both heartbreaking and humorous. This novel won the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation’s Citation for Fiction. Also, see "A Virtuous Woman," which was an Oprah Book Club pick.

"Let the Dead Bury Their Dead" is a fantastic collection of short stories set in the small town of Tims Creek, North Carolina. The collection touches on folklore, oral histories, ghost stories, murder, seduction, and so much more. The collection was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, and it won the Lambda Award.

"Pride and Prometheus" is an expansion of a novella that won both a Nebula Award and the Shirley Jackson Award. The novel meets at the intersection of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and it proceeds to spin a web that only a literary master is capable of weaving. This novel was one of our great discoveries of the past year.

Jill McCorkle is a North Carolina treasure, and her most recent novel "Life After Life" is one of her best. The novel is set in a retirement community in a small North Carolina town, and it tells the stories of its many residents, staff and visitors. This is one of those novels that runs you through a gamut of emotions and leaves you viewing life anew when you come out of the other end. For further reading, check out McCorkle’s "Ferris Beach" and "The Cheer Leader."

One of the best books I have read this year by a North Carolina institution. Michael Parker, a longtime member of the Creative Writing faculty at UNC-G, spins a masterful tale about sisterhood, family ties, the love of language and the value of education. This epic family tale takes place in both North Carolina and Oklahoma in the early 1900s. Prairie Fever is a novel you do not want to overlook.

This novel and author were favorites of Quail Ridge Books’ founder Nancy Olsen. In "Serena," Ron Rash gives us the tale of two newlyweds who travel from Boston to North Carolina, where they intend to enter the timber business. A tale of love, murder, business prowess and betrayal, "Serena" is a classic of North Carolina literature.

When one thinks of North Carolina literature, one thinks of Lee Smith, and "Guests on Earth" is one of her greatest novels. It is the tale of an orphaned 13-year-old who, upon her mother’s death, is sent to a mental hospital in Asheville, where she is taken under the wing of Zelda Fitzgerald. "Guests on Earth" is a fantastic historical novel that is an equally fantastic takedown of early 20th century attitudes towards mental health. Also, see "The Last Girls."

UNC’s Daniel Wallace is one of my favorite writers in North Carolina (he and John Kessel are the only two authors who have appeared at every North Carolina Book Festival, which I am the co-owner and Co-Director of). "Big Fish" is about Edward Bloom, who is dying, and his son William, who wants to know which parts of his father’s fantastical tales are true before he passes. A classic tale of fatherhood, family and the consequences of mythologizing, "Big Fish" is a hall-of-fame novel by one of our favorite North Carolinians.