All Over but the Shoutin'

The book, THIS LAND: TRAVELS WITH BARACK OBAMA IN THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY , is a strange title in that it doesn't inform the reader about the book. The author, Rick Bragg, grew up dirt-poor in northeastern Alabama and became a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The New York Times . It is the story of Braggs father, a hard-drinking man with a murderous temper and the habit of running out on the people who needed him most. But at the center of this soaring memoir is Braggs mother, who went eighteen years without a new dress so that her sons could have school clothes and picked other people's cotton so that her children wouldn't have to live on welfare alone. Evoking these lives--and the country that shaped and nourished them -- with artistry, honesty, and compassion , Rick Bragg brings home the love and suffering that lie at the heart of every family . The result is unforgettable.