Hi, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. I think it's pretty widely understood

that when you love someone, you love all of them, right? The good stuff and their faults and their

hurtful behaviors, whatever stuff they had go on in their past that they're still dealing with,

and that annoying thing they do on long car rides. It's a package deal, and we understand that with people.

I think it's a little harder to do with places.

But that's exactly what Imani Perry takes on in her book, South to America,

a journey below the Mason Dixon to understand the soul of a nation.

Perry's from Alabama, a place that has a long,

dark, but also beautiful history. And she talked to NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about shedding

romanticism in favor of something a little more complicated, understanding. A lot of short

daily news podcasts focus on just one story.

But right now, you probably need more.

On Up First from NPR, we bring you three of the world's top headlines every day in under 15 minutes.

Because no one's story can capture all that's happening in this big, crazy world of ours on any given morning.

Listen now to the Up First podcast from NPR. I say the South, and you think what? Positive connotation, negative?

Did your mind's eye flit to the bustle of Atlanta, the pooling currents of the Mississippi,

maybe your own grandparents, front porch,

pitcher a sweet tea? Or did you think of the violent history of slavery, Confederate flags,

the fight for civil rights? For every southerner, and I am one of them, there is a South.

A new book considers what that looks like for the many black Americans who call

the South home and what the South can teach us about America as a whole. The book is titled

South to America, a journey below the Mason Dixon to understand the soul of a nation. The author

...