Kicking Back: Further Dispatches from the South [signed] [first edition]

Why are Northerners offended when Southerners ask them where they go to church? Why are Southerners offended when Californians ask them what they do for exercise? Reed explores cultural differences between North and South, from manners to the treatment of pets. He bemoans the fact that today's Southerners can't make a mint julep, and he reports vigorous indigestion upon leaving his beloved South: "If you want to map the region, maybe you could just point us north and draw the Rolaid line." From a barbecue cook-off in Memphis to a stock-car race in Darlington, from a War Between the States reenactment in North Carolina to a tent meeting (of sorts) in Arkansas, Reed covers the Southern scene. He also rushes in where angels fear to tread, tackling such touchy subjects as date rape, Martin Luther King's plagiarism, the Confederate flag, and the Duke University boys choir. But Reed is no ideologue; his reflections on these and other issues are guaranteed to make everyone think. Often feisty, always frank, Kicking Back is vintage Reed. So kick back and prepare for a treat as the man the Kansas City Star called the "H. L. Mencken of Dixie" picks, provokes, pummels, and prods us to think and to laugh-- especially at ourselves.