Book picks similar to
Trailer Trash by Rick Johnson


contemporary-fiction
dark-humor
kalli-sisk
southern

Room to Breathe


Liz Talley - 2019
    Her dialogue is crisp and smart, her characters are vivid and real, her stories are unputdownable.” —Robyn Carr, New York Times bestselling author For a good part of Daphne Witt’s life, she was a supportive wife and dutiful mother. Now that she’s divorced and her daughter, Ellery, is all grown up, Daphne’s celebrating the best part of her life, a successful career, and a flirtation with an attentive hunk fifteen years her junior…who happens to be her daughter’s ex-boyfriend.Ellery is starting over, too. She’s fresh out of college. Her job prospects are dim. And to support her fiancé in med school, she’s returned home as her mother’s new assistant. Ellery never expected her own life plan to take such a detour. With no outlet for her frustration, she lets an online flirtation go a little too far, especially considering her pen pal thinks he’s corresponding with her mother.As love lives tangle, secrets spill, and indiscretions are betrayed, mother and daughter will have a lot to learn—not only about the mistakes they’ve made but also about the men in their lives and the women they are each hoping to become.

The Reverend's Other Son


Anne Padgett - 2020
    As the elder son of a respected Illinois family at the turn of the century, Christian dutifully sets aside his own creative talents and dreams to take his place in the family business. His younger, prodigal brother Harry, however, always gets what he wants and doesn’t mind letting others—especially his awkward brother—pay the cost. But when Harry thinks he’s found his soul mate in the wealthy socialite Anna Clark, Christian fears his future sister-in-law really has gotten away with murder. In order to protect his brother from his beguiling prize, Christian must challenge his family’s wishes, stand up to Harry and uncover Anna’s dark secrets before someone else is destroyed. All this while another more lethal danger threatens them all. November 1918 would be the deadliest month in US History as the Spanish Influenza epidemic swept through America, killing more civilians at home than in all the battles of the Great War in Europe. Amidst this sudden struggle to survive, all three young people will be forced to reveal their true colors.The Reverend's Other Son is a fiction novel set at the end of the First World War and features romantic and inspirational plotlines interwoven with captivating and accurate historical detail. Approximately 75,000 words, intended for young adult and adult readers. DLR Designs created the original cover art.

Celebration


Harry Crews - 1998
    The newest black comedy from Harry Crews is a biting, brilliant commentary set in a Florida rest-home gulag where the over-sixty-five set checks its dignity, self-esteem, and social security numbers at the door. Forever and Forever is the aptly named retreat, populated by a motley crew of forgotten wives and ruined men who are waiting for death while working on their tans. The leader of this group is Stump, whose lost arm paid for Forever and Forever, and who believes the silent desperation that infuses the trailer park masks the fact that Forever and Forever is truly a small piece of hell on earth. This ironic silence is shattered by the entrance of a beautiful young bombshell. Too Much is her name, and that is exactly what she is. This walking bonfire awakens long dead appetites in the inhabitants of Forever and Forever, reminding them of what they once were and can be again—alive.

The River Is Home


Patrick D. Smith - 2012
    It is the story of Skeeter, a young boy growing up in a family poor in material goods but rich in the appreciation of their natural surroundings. The river they live on is the source of life—and death.

A Woman of Means: A Novel


Peter Taylor - 1950
    Louis, living the quintessential bachelor life with his young son, Quint. He is also a man who aspires beyond his means and class. When Gerald meets the wealthy divorcée Ann Lauterbach and the two marry, life changes irrevocably for Quint. He enters a social world of private schools and debutante balls known to him only through his father's longings. As Quint's attachment to his stepmother and her "means" grows, her marriage to his father begins to crumble in small, subtle ways, which ultimately leads to larger, more devastating consequences.

Little Sacrifices


Jamie Scott - 2012
    But they’re Yankees and worse, they’re civil rights advocates almost a decade too early.At first May can pretend they’re the same as everyone else. It means keeping quiet when she knows she should speak up, but it’s worth the sacrifice to win friends. Unfortunately her parents are soon putting their beliefs into action. And when they wake to find that they’re the only family on the block with a Ku Klux Klan cross blazing on their front lawn, the time comes for them to finally decide between what’s easy and what’s right.

Dead Above Ground


Jervey Tervalon - 2000
    Ever loyal to her mother, and adoring of her beautiful, restless, married sister Adele, Lita works hard to keep the family together as she attempts to establish her own life. But when Adele falls in love with Lucien Faure -- a smooth operator with "the devil's good looks" and a decades-old score to settle with Helen -- Lita unveils her mother's mysterious past to confront the Du Champs' long-buried secrets. Now, Lita finds she has one last and desperate chance to save the future of those she loves. Award-winning author Jervey Tervalon draws from his own heritage -- and the twisting family story that has lived and breathed inside him his whole life -- to create a spellbindingly luminous novel of passion, murder, and vengeance.

Taft


Ann Patchett - 1994
    But when his son is taken away from him, he's left with nothing but the Memphis bar he manages. Then he hires Fay, a young white waitress, who has a volatile brother named Carl in tow. Nickel finds himself consumed with the idea of Taft -- Fay and Carl's dead father -- and begins to reconstruct the life of a man he never met. But his sympathies for these lost souls soon take him down a twisting path into the lives of strangers...

The Deep End


Denver Murphy - 2019
     It is DC Ruby Knight’s first day in CID and she is called upon to investigate a vicious assault. A man has been doused with acid on his doorstep. Having returned to Hertfordshire after working as a beat bobby in London, Knight is relieved she has been given a serious case. But she has also been partnered with DI Steve Jenkins, a dishevelled detective who looks like he’s almost given up the ghost. Despite Knight’s enthusiasm, she struggles to find a motive for the crime, which has left the victim fighting for his life. And she becomes increasing frustrated with her partner’s lacklustre approach to policing. But when another attack occurs the case is blown wide open. Knight’s fears that working in a backwater will be boring, prove quite unfounded. Indeed, she even begins to appreciate her partner’s discreet ways of getting information, and gradually grows fond of him. But what was a difficult, emotional case will soon become a murder investigation and it will take all of Knight’s intelligence and energy to bring the killers to justice.

Everything I do..


Suvika - 2015
    A boy. A heir. To carry the family name and the company forward into the future. Instead I got you! Two daughters. Fit for nothing except to marry someone and walk away.”Kajal Rathore had walked out of her home and her father after that confrontation, making a life and living it on her own terms. Away from the archaic chauvinism that made her father reject her because she was not the son he wanted. Now her father’s flailing health has brought her back to her home. And to the company that had been in her family for generations. Once Kajal had had a dream of becoming a part of that company and now fates were handing over that dream. But to claim it, she will have to confront the father who denies her, the mother who never stood up for her, the sister who needs her and the man who wants her. “I want you to marry Kajal. I don’t..I can’t trust her with Rathore Industries. But I don’t have a choice. But if you are beside her, I would never have to worry. Marry her and the company would be yours.”Arjun Shekhawat was deeply indebted to his boss. The man who had been his godfather and his mentor. Refusing him was not on cards. Even when it was something as personal as marriage. After all, it was a win-win situation. But keeping the promise meant getting close to his boss’s daughter. Close enough to win her trust, to appreciate the person that she was and the secrets that surrounded her. Close enough to fall in love with her. And to realize that he had unwittingly agreed to become the weapon that would one day be used against her.

Freaky Tales: Erotic Shorts


Sabrina B. Scales - 2019
    Orgasms? Yeah, I give those. Fairytales? Never wanted to live those Because I'm simply not that chick Hearts? Yeah, I broke some Love? These niggas can't get none Commitment? I'm probably the wrong one But you can stop by and lick this clit If a freak is what you're looking for Be prepared when you step through my door On the bed, couch, or kitchen floor I can give you what you need I prefer my kisses down low We can do this fast or we can take it slow Either way, I think it's best I let you know When it's over, please, get up and leave My name is Melody Bledsoe and I got some freaky things to tell you. You ready? Probably not!

Say Never


Janis Thomas - 2014
    But when her brother calls to ask for Meg’s help with his three kids, she is forced to do the unimaginable: go home and step into the dreaded role of ‘parent.’ With no maternal skills whatsoever, Meg is thrust into a world of diapers, tantrums, and projectile vomit, and her decision not to procreate is stunningly validated—she could never be a mom. But as the days go by, and she starts to connect with her nieces and nephew, Meg discovers that her family is not the nemesis she feared, and she might not be the person she always thought she was. Sassy, sexy, and poignant, Say Never is a hilarious roller coaster ride of self-discovery that will keep you laughing long after you put the book down.

A Hundred Years of Happiness


Nicole Seitz - 2009
    An American soldier. A war-torn country. Nearly forty years of silence.Now, two daughters search for the truth they hope will set them free and the elusive peace their parents have never found.In the South Carolina Lowcountry, a young mother named Katherine Ann is struggling to help her tempestuous father by plunging into a world of secrets he never talks about. A fry cook named Lisa is trying desperately to reach her grieving Vietnamese mother who has never fully adjusted to life in the States. And somewhere far away, a lost soul named Ernest is drifting, treading water, searching for what he lost on a long-ago mountain.They're all yearning for connection. For the war that touched them to finally end. For their hundred years of happiness at long last to begin.From the beloved author of The Spirit of Sweetgrass  and Trouble the Water comes this generous story of family, war, loss, and longing . . . of the ways we hide from those we love, and the ways that love finds us anyway.

Unexpected Second Chances


K.C. Mills - 2020
    Those who truly want and deserve to have their hearts protected always seem to come up short. That has been Simira’s experience and for that reason her focus is on the only person who has ever loved her unconditionally, her son.Ebo and Simira have given up all hope but that is when things begin to turn in their favor. When you stop looking for and expecting love, it occasionally finds its way to you.

A Yankee Girl's Guide to the South


Jillian Perry - 2014
    With a conked out ’72 Beetle, and a newly broken heart courtesy of her cheating ex-fiancée, Libby Green finds herself fleeing to tiny Spoonbend, Georgia to claim a cottage willed to her family years ago. Libby must learn the ins and outs of life in the small town south—where the iced tea is sweet, the drawl is slow, the men are sexy, and southern belles aren’t always charming. After embarrassing herself in hopes of assimilating (who knew people actually still called northerners Yankees?) and catching the eye of more than one gallant good ol’ boy, Libby inadvertently uncovers a dark secret that will challenge the very fabric of Spoonbend society.