20181221_212811.jpgHappy Thursday!  Welcome to my stop on the Our Prince of Scribes blog tour sponsored by Suzy Approved Book Tours. It’s my joy and pleasure to share this tribute to an author beloved by millions of readers around the world, Pat Conroy.

My Thoughts:

Pat Conroy is a favorite author of mine. I haven’t read all his books, but each I have has been one I’ve savored. He was bold and upfront about his challenging childhood, and his writing was influenced by that.

If I had to pick a favorite book, it would be Beach Music. I bought it for my dad as a gift because he grew up on beach music (and I did, too, thanks to him). My dad is (and was at the time) a pretty strict western reader, and within that genre has one or two authors he prefers. That said, he enjoyed Beach Music, so much so, that the copy is well-worn. After he read it, I picked it up, and I think I liked it even more than he did. The storytelling was like no other. I was whisked away to a different time and place.

Conroy mentored many other authors, even starting his own publishing imprint. The list is endless, and you can read in the synopsis just how many friends in and outside of the writing community he had. Everyone who wrote about him had a different anecdote to share, a different piece or side of him they saw. The love for him by these individuals is palpable on the pages. One could only hope to have 1/10th the impact on those around you.

Pat Conroy was known for his storytelling. He made it all seem natural and easy to leave pieces of your heart on pieces of paper. This book is a tribute to a well-loved and well-respected author. Our Prince of Scribes is beautifully written, engaging, and from the heart. I’m sure Pat Conroy would approve. This book would make an excellent gift for any fan of Conroy, fans of southern fiction, impeccable storytelling, teachers, and just about anyone. I know I’ll treasure my copy.

Thank you to Suzy Approved Book Tours for the invitation and to the editors for my copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis:

New York Times best-selling writer Pat Conroy (1945-2016) inspired a worldwide legion of devoted fans numbering in the millions, but none are more loyal to him and more committed to sustaining his literary legacy than the many writers he nurtured over the course of his fifty-year writing life. In sharing their stories of Conroy, his fellow writers honor his memory and advance our shared understanding of his lasting impact on twentieth- and twenty-first-century literary life in and well beyond the American South.

Conroy’s was a messy fellowship of people from all walks of life. His relationships were complicated, and people and places he thought he’d left behind often circled back to him at crucial moments. The pantheon of contributors includes Pulitzer Prize winners Rick Bragg and Kathleen Parker; Grammy winners Barbra Streisand and Janis Ian; Lillian Smith Award winners Anthony Grooms and Mary Hood; National Book Award winner Nikky Finney; James Beard Foundation Award winners Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart; a corps of New York Times best-selling authors, including Ron Rash, Sandra Brown, and Mary Alice Monroe; Conroy biographers Katherine Clark and Catherine Seltzer; longtime Conroy friends Bernie Schein, Cliff Graubart, John Warley, and Walter Edgar; Pat’s students Sallie Ann Robinson and Valerie Sayers; members of the Conroy family; and many more.

Each author in this collection shares a slightly different view of Conroy. Through their voices, a vibrant, multifaceted portrait of him comes to life and sheds new light on the writer and the man. Loosely following Conroy’s own chronology, the essays in Our Prince of Scribes wind through his river of a story, stopping at important ports of call. Cities he called home and longed to visit, along with each book he birthed, become characters that are as equally important as the people he touched and loved along the way.

Have you read Our Prince of Scribes, or is it on your TBR? Do you have a favorite Pat Conroy novel? Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR