You HAVE to read this

It’s not often that we here at GGHQ go apey over a new author. And it’s even rarer still when we fall head over heels in love.

So, with that in mind, STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING AND GO GET THIS BOOK:

Surviving Nashville by Stacy Barton

Stacy’s slim volume is a collection of Southern-accented short stories that are at once elegant, heartbreaking, witty and deeply, profoundly faithful.

As we read Surviving Nashville, which, at 105 pages, we were tempted to gobble down in one big mouthful, instead we found ourselves savoring Stacy’s virtuoso turns of phrase, mulling them over in our minds and even saying them out loud.

We don’t want to spoil anything for you, but here are a few of our favorite lines:

From the chapter, “In My Defense“:
“Well, I guess I just didn’t like the way he smelled.”
And later in that same chapter, “[I]shot the man in the balls, right through my Sunday calico.”

From the chapter, “Hail Mary“:
“… wished I had been born a red-headed Catholic to a family that was going to hell for whiskey and prayers.”

And from the eponymous chapter, “Surviving Nashville“:
“What he didn’t tell me was that the little girl I used to be might show up beside me in the Wal-Mart checkout line. He didn’t tell me she might suddenly burst into tears at the site of a refrigerator magnet. Or that she would start telling my stories.”

It’s a beautiful book and Stacy Barton is a gloriously talented writer.
Here’s hoping she publishes again soon so we can bask in the loveliness a little longer.