Darby and I are both reading autographed copies of books by Lowcountry authors.

I’m reading The Water Is Wide by Pat Conroy. It’s an autobiographical novel about Conroy’s year teaching on a remote coastal island he calls Yamacraw. In real life it’s Daufuskie Island, reachable only by boat to this day, but no longer the sleepy backwater Conroy depicts. Despite Conroy’s considerable fame as a writer, I’ve never read anything by him. After only two chapters, I must say I’m impressed.

Darby’s reading Behind The Moss Curtain by Murray Mendel Silver, Jr., a fifth generation Savannahian. It’s a collection of Savannah stories that exposes the history and bevy of wayward characters native to this fascinating American city.