The Country Bookshop has partnered with E.T.C. (Eloise Trading Company and The Pilot Newspaper to bring Raleigh native and daughter of long time N&O columnist A.C. Snow, author Katherine Snow Smith to Pinehurst for a socially distanced gathering.

Southern women are inundated with rules starting early--from always wearing sensible shoes to never talking about death to the dying, and certainly not relying on song lyrics for marriage therapy.Nevertheless, Katherine Snow Smith keeps doing things like gaining dubious status as the middle school "lice mom," and finding confirmation in the lyrics of Miranda Lambert after her twenty-four-year marriage ends. Somehow, despite never meaning to defy Southern expectations for parenting, marriage, work, and friendship, Smith has found herself doing just that for over four decades.

We are so excited to welcome author Katherine Snow Smith for a socially distanced conversation about all of her rule breaking over the years!

We have great plans to comply with social distancing. Upon arrival you will receive a goodie bag that includes your autographed copy of RULES FOR THE SOUTHERN RULEBREAKER, a mini bottle of wine, individualized snacks and a treat from E.T.C. The event will be held around the pool to further encourage social distancing, with chairs placed at appropriate distancing spacing. After arrival Katherine Snow Smith will speak about the book. 

We will email you more details closer to the event including the address of Adair and David Wonornoffs beautiful home.

Tampa Bay Times--first covering business, and then, after having a baby, creating a parenting column, Rookie Mom, for the paper. Now--three kids, two careers, and one divorce later--she's embracing the fact that life has many chapters.  

Without meaning to defy society's guidelines for parenting, marriage, work and friendship, Katherine Snow Smith continually finds herself off the expected path--whether that means falling on President Barack Obama, camped with her teenage daughter at a raucous music festival, or ending a twenty-four-year marriage because she simply can't "muddle through." Here, she shines a spotlight on the humor and humanity that come with sometimes breaking the rules. 

Luckily for everyone, the outcome of these "broken rules" is this collection of refreshing stories, filled with vulnerability, humor, and insight, sharing how she received lifelong advice from a sixth-grade correspondence with an Oscar-winning actress, convinced a terminally ill friend to write good-bye letters, and won the mother of all "don't give up" lectures by finishing a road race last (as the pizza boxes were thrown away).Rules for the Southern Rule Breaker will resonate with every woman, southern or not, who has a tendency to wander down the hazy side roads and realizes the rewards that come from listening to the pull in one's heart over the voice in one's head.  

 "Katherine Snow Smith's sure voice, deft pen, hilarious sense of humor and always original slant on things offer the reader much to enjoy in these delightful essays--and also much to identify with, especially for another Southern girl. Her delightful, humorous accounts always convey a deeper truth--about self-image, especially for women; about raising children; about an early death in the family and the later loss of a friend; about politics and belief--about life itself. Snow Smith's own lifetime of writing and observant living is distilled in this kind, original, and compulsively readable book."

--Lee Smith, author of Fair and Tender Ladies and winner of the Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction and the Southern Book Critics Circle Award

"Katherine Snow Smith's sure voice, deft pen, hilarious sense of humor and always original slant on things offer the reader much to enjoy in these delightful essays--and also much to identify with, especially for another Southern girl. Her delightful, humorous accounts always convey a deeper truth--about self-image, especially for women; about raising children; about an early death in the family and the later loss of a friend; about politics and belief--about life itself. Snow Smith's own lifetime of writing and observant living is distilled in this kind, original, and compulsively readable book."

--Lee Smith, author of Fair and Tender Ladies and winner of the Robert Penn Warren Award for Fiction and the Southern Book Critics Circle Award

"Katherine's ability to observe her life from the balcony while it plays out on stage is a gift to her readers. Her keen perspective--which is unapologetically southern and chock-full of grit, forgiveness, and humor--reminds us that we all aspire to love well and to laugh until our face hurts."

--Charla Muller, author of Pretty Takes Practice: A Southern Woman's Search for the Real Meaning of Beauty 

"Rules for the Southern Rulebreaker is a warm, genuine memoir about living fully beyond the bounds of others' expectations."

-- Foreword Reviews

"Smith writes of going her own way with humor and honesty, encouraging readers not to take themselves too seriously and find value in friends and family. Readers of essays from Sloane Crosley, Samantha Irby, or Bailey White will laugh out loud."

-- Booklist