September 14

All Over But the Shoutin' (1997)
By Rick Bragg

Pulitzer prize winning journalist Bragg shares his upbringing in the hardscrabble south "in the most beautiful place on earth, in the foothills of the Appalachians along the Alabama-Georgia line".  Abandoned by his alcoholic father, Rick and his two brothers are raised by a devoted, hard-working mother who often pretends to be "not hungry" so her sons will have enough to eat.  Loving aunts and uncles help compensate for a deadbeat dad, including Margaret's family for meals, the uncles wrestling with the boys and helping them find work.

Rick discovers his love for writing as a high school newspaper columnist, and his first jobs are as a sportswriter for a local paper, then the big time at the St Petersburg Times.  He was encouraged to apply for a prestigious Nieman Fellowship at Harvard, competing with those who'd earned not only BAs but also postgraduate degrees.  The experience at Harvard gives Rick the impetus to apply to the NYT, where he gets his dream job, eventually winning the Pulitzer.  Through it all, he retains his poor-boy perspective - including the chip on his shoulder - and the book ends with the Pulitzer Prize ceremony in New York, where Rick's mother, who has just taken her first-ever airplane ride, is the toast of the crowd.