I second The Namesake & Interpreter of Maladies.

Living in the South, I'm very partial to Southern writers, but Pat Conroy's Beach Music is a work of art. The story bounces back and forth from SC to Italy, where Pat lived several years. PS to JAGIRL: My old copy of the Gleaner is a January '81 Tourist Guide, so I don't have headlines to share. Inside, the Hon. E.Anthony Abrahms was announced the new Minister of Tourism, I discovered that the Gleaner founder, Jacob DeCordova, drew the first map of Texas, and disco was advertized at the Pirates Perch with A popular Trinidadian , Lord Laro , as the featured entertainer. There was a large section in Deutsche., and several inserts of Jamaican proverbs.

I second the Don't Stop the Carnival recommendation. I may just have to pull that book out soon and read it again. I loved it that much.

twigs, where do you live? I'm a transplanted Mississippian myself and just *love* Southern writers. Who are you reading right now? I just got Tom Franklin's new novel in the mail a couple of days ago, so I suppose I'll start in on that soon.

I can second the Zadie Smith recommendation. I read White Teeth about 5 years ago, and read her latest, On Beauty, this past week on the beach in Akumal, Mexico. It was excellent.

I really like Anna Quindlen books. Brain candy books like The Devil Wears Prada and Candace Bushnell (author of Sex and the City) books are fun beach reads, too.

We live in the piedmont section of NC happily in between our mountains and beaches. Among the great Southern writers I would include Reynolds Price, and I've just begun The Robber Bridegroom by your fellow sister from Mississippi, Eudora Welty.

Just thought of one of the funniest, dearest writers...Robert Fulghum. I love From Beginning to End, The Rituals of Our Lives and It Was on Fire when I Lay Down on It. Full of short, tender, funny observations about every day life.

twigs, I am an ardent devotee of Eudora Welty. Such class, such a generous and gentle spirit, such talent.

"Wide Sargasso Sea" by Jean Rhys is a good Caribbean choice. It's a sort of prequel to "Jane Eyre" and covers the years of Rochester's first marriage in the West Indies (to the madwoman who ended up in the attic). Very atmospheric & lots of fun to read when you're actually down there.

Cross Current Christine Kling
Tropical Getaway Roxanne St. Clair

Anything by Tim Dorsey.