Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on
bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
A Coast for All Seasons: A Naturalist's Guide to the Coast of South Carolina
by Miles O. Hayes, Jacqueline Michel and Joseph M. Holmes
Technical but readable discussions of beach erosion and our dynamic coastline. Beautifully illustrated with photos, drawings, and satellite images, this book will delight geology buffs and others drawn to the Carolina coast.
The Prince of Tides
by Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy's novel captures the beauty of the lowcountry as it moves from present to past and back again. Made into a movie by the same title starring Barbra Streisand and Nick Nolte. Narrated by Tom Wingo, the novel explores the relationships between members of a dysfunctional family as it moves between the lowcountry to Manhattan. Shrimping, good description of salt marshes.
The Water is Wide
by Pat Conroy
Pat Conroy's memoir about teaching on Daufuskee Island in a one-room schoolhouse. The book was made into the movie Conrack, starring Jon Voight. Sense of place and people.
Product Description from publisher: The island is nearly deserted, haunting, beautiful. Across a slip of ocean lies South Carolina. But for the handful of families on Yamacraw island, America is a world away. For years the people here lived proudly from the sea, but now its waters are not safe. Waste from industry threatens their very existence--unless, somehow, they can learn a new life. But they will learn nothing without someone to teach them, and their school has no teacher.
Here is PAT CONROY'S extraordinary drama based on his own experience: the true story of a man who gave a year of his life to an island and the new life its people gave him.
Tideland Treasure
by Todd Balantine
Our naturalist Bill Hamel says this is "a bible around here." Hand-drawn illustrations enhance the explanations. Each page was once an article in the local paper. Written for regular folks, there's information to satisfy trained naturalists.
The Spirit of Sweetgrass
by Nicole Seitz
Seitz's main character is Essie Mae Laveau Jenkins, a Gullah sweetgrass basketmaker who weaves her magic on the roadside near Mt. Pleasant. With her special love baskets, she works to brings people together. Conflict ensues when her daughter wants her to go to a rest home, and the florist she's been trying to fix up turns out to be gay. Sweetgrass making, roadside basket sellers in the Charleston area, mystery, comedy, family relationships, friends.
"The Swamp Fox"
by Amy Crawford
Here's the link to this article about one of the most famous Revolutionary War heroes in SC, and one for whom counties and cities are named. Francis Marion used his knowledge of the swamps and woods of SC and his attention to details to outwit British troops and earn his nickname. A poor speller, he was nonetheless a great report-writer. www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/biography/fox.html
Looking for Longleaf: The Fall and Rise of an American Forest
by Lawrence S. Earley
Our naturalist Bill Hamel says this is the "best all around for naturalists and history lovers." Longleaf pine forests are a special ecosystem and home to the Red-Cockaded Woodpecker.
Nature Guide to the Carolina Coast: Common Birds, Crabs, Shells, Fish, and other Entities of the Coastal Environment (2n...
by Peter Meyer
General, practical, and short. Readable, entertaining guide recently expanded, updated, and revised.
South Carolina Naturalists: An Anthology, 1700-1860
by David Taylor and Rudy Mancke
Hardcover. "This volume illuminates the wealth and significance of antebellum natural history studies in South Carolina and the state's natural diversity," says the product description; our Bill Hamel notes that it's "great all around for naturalists and history lovers."
