Thunder and White Lightning — Grace Hawthorne

The Scots-Irish who settled in the North Georgia mountains were--as Margaret Mitchell would say--people with gumption. In Thunder and White Lightning readers meet two families and a host of real-life characters who face the world head-on with a quirky sense of humor and a hankering for adventure.

They find that red clay is only good for two things: corn, which they turn into moonshine to support their families and pay their taxes and dirt tracks, which are perfect for racing hopped-up whiskey cars, stock cars and eventually, for NASCAR.

The characters--real and fictional--are independent, patriotic, fractious, funny and unpredictable, but they are never boring. They outrun revenuers, go to jail, build new stills, laugh and fall in love, fight in WWII, learn that prosperity isn't always easy, bet their future on a second-hand Plymouth and finally take the checkered flag with red dust flying. In other words, it's the Downton Abbey of North Georgia.