audiobooks

Rick Bragg is one of my favorite authors; if you read this book, you'll understand why. It's the story of a man he never met, his maternal grandfather, Charlie Bundrum, who died a year before Bragg was born. The story is told through the masterful sewing together of snippets of memories of his relatives, achieving the status of near folk history as Bragg creates a whole quilt from a pile of scraps.
Beautiful writing about a man all of us would have been privileged to know, an illiterate man, a wonderful father, a 'pretty good husband,' a God-fearing man who never set foot in a church, a man some would dismiss as an Alabama hillbilly - but never would they say that, having once read this book.
More than having written just a memoir of a memorable man, Rick Bragg celebrates an entire family, a class of people, a region of our country, and the generations of those whose lives spanned both sides of the Depression.
Read it. You're gonna love it.

What a beautiful story! Not often does one have the opportunity to read a book that captures the essence of a man and a time and place gone forever.

Even though the lifestyle he describes is foreign to most readers, Rick Bragg has the ability to introduce you to his grandfather, spin stories about his life, and make you cry at his death.

Even though the culture of the Old South as lived by the poor, hard-working and hard-living white folk from Alabama and Georgia of the 20's, 30's, and 40's is lost forever, Bragg has the ability to insert you in the midst of that time and feel the kinship and love of family, the hard-living and hard-dying.

Rick Bragg never personally knew his grandfather. After hearing the stories of his life from the many old friends and relatives he got to know Charlie Bundrum well. Fortunately, through Bragg's talent, he has written a beautiful story and I have had the pleasure to know Charlie too. I would have liked him and I think you will too.

I was born and raised in the very woods and mountains Ricky Bragg writes of, and he makes them seem new and magical even though I've seen them every day of my life.
I worked in a Textile Plant fresh out of high school and didn't make much, but once a month I went to Salvation Army to buy 25 cent books, and I found "All Over but The Shoutin" and knew I'd never find a author so close to home.
Ava's Man, made me cry and curse and run to my Daddy when I needed to know which river or road Ricky was talking about, and my Daddy would alwasy swell up and explain to me where it was and add a short story about it.
This book isn't a fancy story about huge white houses and sprawling orchards, its a simple book about a simple man that would other wise be forgotten.
Charlie reminds me of my Daddy, and my Paw Paw and his Daddy before.
A dying breed of men with strong work ethics and big hearts, and a taste for the likker.
My Daddys eyes are bad and he cant read, but he enjoyed the pages I read to him, and my family would ask me to copy pages and we would all sit around and agree with Bragg on holidays.
Maybe it sounds lame, but this book brought my family together.
With his Cracklin bread and c'modity cheese. The likker and catfish, and of course the small strong women with hands as rough as a man and a tongue twice as sharp.
If you want to know the ways of Alabama, and the culture we pass down, read this book, slide into the slang and enjoy yourself...I know I did.