If You Like Clyde Edgerton...

You may also like these other stories featuring down-home humor and compassion.

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns
When Grandpa Rucker suddenly marries his store's young milliner barely three weeks after his wife's death, 14-year-old Will Tweddy watches as his small, turn-of-the-century Georgia town is set on its ear. Also try the sequel: Leaving Cold Sassy.

The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas
For Queenie Bean, a young farmwife, the highlight of each week in Depression-era Kansas is the gathering of the Persian Pickle Club, a group of local ladies dedicated to improving their minds, exchanging gossip, and putting their well-honed quilting skills to use. Also try Alice’s Tulips and Buster Midnight's Café.

Jim the Boy by Tony Earley
It's 1934, and Jim Glass is just turning 10. Aliceville, North Carolina, where Jim lives with his mother and three uncles, doesn't seem too affected by the Great Depression. But it might just be that life in this little southern town has always been hard. This is a deceptively gentle, nostalgic look at childhood during an era when life was by turns harsh and hopeful.

What the Deaf-Mute Heard by G.D. Gearino
This entertaining tale by a local author tells of a deaf-mute who sees and "hears" everything in his small Southern town – and spends a lifetime guarding a shocking, dark secret. Also try Counting Coup.

Old Dogs and Children by Robert Inman
Making use of artfully constructed flashbacks, Inman allows readers to live alongside protagonist Bright Birdsong during her 68 years in a small Southern town. Her story reminds us that mistakes are a part of life, correcting them both an obligation and an opportunity. Also try Captain Saturday and Dairy Queen Days.

Lake Wobegon Days by Garrison Keillor
Garrison Keillor's fictional Midwestern town, Lake Wobegon, has long since passed into literary legend. His first unforgettable portrait of life in the American small town named after an Indian word meaning 'Here we are!' or 'We sat all day in the rain waiting for you,' is a modern classic of warmth, humor and tenderness that introduces the reader to 'a cast of characters to rival Mark Twain.' Also try Lake Wobegon: Summer 1956 and Leaving Home.

The Bachelor Brothers’ Bed and Breakfast by Bill Richardson
A pair of endearingly eccentric bachelors – in their fifties, and fraternal twins – own and operate a bed and breakfast establishment where people like them, the "gentle and bookish and ever so slightly confused," can feel at home. The lively cast includes Waffle the cat and the Scripture-quoting parrot, Mrs. Rochester, as well as the ever-present warm memory of Mother. Also try The Bachelor Brothers’ Bed and Breakfast Pillow Book.

Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind by Ann B. Ross
Miss Julia, a recently bereaved and newly wealthy widow, is only slightly bemused when one Hazel Marie Puckett appears at her door with a youngster in tow and announces that the child is the bastard son of Miss Julia's late husband. Suddenly, this longtime church member and pillar of her small Southern community finds herself in the center of an unseemly scandal – and the guardian of a wan nine-year-old whose mere presence turns her life upside down. Also try the rest of the Miss Julia series.

Run With the Horsemen by Ferrol Sams
A boy's account of growing up in the South during the depression era. Both a rare first novel and a new American classic, Sams’ novel has been compared to Tom Sawyer and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
Filled with big-time eccentrics and small-town shenanigans, Big Stone Gap is a jewel box of original characters, including sexpot Bookmobile librarian Iva Lou Wade; Fleeta Mullins, the chain-smoking pharmacy cashier with a penchant for professional wrestling; the dashing visionary Theodore Tipton; Elmo Gaspar, the snake-handling preacher; Jack MacChesney, a coal-mining bachelor looking for true love; and Pearl Grimes, a shy mountain girl on the verge of a miraculous transformation. Also try the next novels in this series: Big Cherry Holler and Milk Glass Moon.

The Watermelon King by Daniel Wallace
An endearing, often outrageous blend of fable, tall tale and page-turner, this story brings readers to Ashland, Alabama, whose reputation is based on the long-ago abundance of watermelons. Thomas Rider knows almost nothing about his parents, and he travels there in search of his past, learning of the town's bizarre history. Comic, poignant and wholly original, The Watermelon King is a magical novel steeped in the power of identity, myth and good, old-fashioned Southern storytelling. Also try Big Fish.

Quite a Year for Plums by Bailey White
Interconnected stories of the peculiar yet lovable inhabitants of a small town in south Georgia. Also try Mama Makes Up Her Mind and Sleeping at the Starlite Hotel (both Nonfiction).