61 ratings | 7 reviews | avg rating:4.84

Rod’s Year In Books

Rod’s 2024 Year in Books

Take a look at Rod’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.

Go to Rod’s 2024 Year in Books

Rod Davis’s Followers (4)

Rod’s Bookshelves

to-read (7)
currently-reading (0)
read (61)
fiction (1)
recs (0)

Rod’s Friends (32)

Stephanie Barko

506 books | 3,462 friends

Marsha Canright

186 books | 43 friends

Mimi Swartz

83 books | 359 friends

Nancy Nichols

93 books | 206 friends

Valerie

2 books | 50 friends

Nan Cuba

160 books | 422 friends

Michael Corcoran

2 books | 534 friends

7 books | 114 friends

More friends…

Rod Davis

Goodreads Author

Born

The United States

Genre

Fiction, Nonfiction, Crime

Member Since

February 2012

edit data

Award-winning author Rod Davis’s latest novel, "The Life of Kim and the Behavior of Men: Human Bondage in the After-market of War" (Madville Publishing, 2024), has been described as “a rare find of a novel that reveals the truths of the lives of American soldiers stationed in Korea during the Vietnam War era with gritty realism, authenticity, and compassion.” And as “Thoughtful, with dark, more-than-entertaining humor and a good, sad ending. This is a better read than Catch-22.”
A Kirkus Featured Review describes it as “A moving and well-written war drama.” Davis was named as Winner, Contemporary Fiction, International Impact Award, June 2024, for the novel. He was also ranked as a Finalist military fiction, in the 7th annual American Fictio
Award-winning author Rod Davis’s latest novel, "The Life of Kim and the Behavior of Men: Human Bondage in the After-market of War" (Madville Publishing, 2024), has been described as “a rare find of a novel that reveals the truths of the lives of American soldiers stationed in Korea during the Vietnam War era with gritty realism, authenticity, and compassion.” And as “Thoughtful, with dark, more-than-entertaining humor and a good, sad ending. This is a better read than Catch-22.”
A Kirkus Featured Review describes it as “A moving and well-written war drama.” Davis was named as Winner, Contemporary Fiction, International Impact Award, June 2024, for the novel. He was also ranked as a Finalist military fiction, in the 7th annual American Fiction Awards, American Book Fest, 2024

Davis is the recipient of the Fiction Award in the Inaugural 2000-2005 PEN/Southwest Book Awards 2005 for "Corina’s Way" (NewSouth Books, 2003). Kirkus Reviews calls the debut novel “a spicy bouillabaisse, New Orleans-set, in the tradition of Flannery O’Connor or John Kennedy Toole: a welcome romp, told with traditional Southern charm.”
Davis’s second novel, "South, America" (NewSouth Books, 2014), received strong critical praise as “a triumph of Southern noir,” that “brings to mind the Dave Robicheaux novels of James Lee Burke” and “Southern history and its persistent burdens on the present.”
The sequel, "East of Texas, West of Hell" (NewSouth Books, 2020), is labeled by Publishers Weekly as a “crime powerhouse—a maelstrom of meth dealing, human trafficking, and white supremacy….The hardscrabble prose sets the perfect tone, and the characters are reliably complex. Davis is a great guide through gritty Southern territory.”

He also is author of "American Voudou: Journey into a Hidden World" (UNT Press, 1998; paperback, 2000), a study of West African religion in the United States. It was selected as one of the “Exceptional Books of 1998” by Bookman Book Review Syndicate.
A six-part series on the Texas-Mexico border, “A Rio Runs Through It,” appears in The Best American Travel Writing 2002, the annual anthology from Houghton-Mifflin. “Her Dark Places,” on the life and death of writer Kathryn Marshall, was included in Notable Essays and Literary Nonfiction of 2015 in The Best American Essays 2016. His PEN/Texas-award-winning essay, “The Fate of the Texas Writer,” is included in Fifty Years of the Texas Observer (Trinity University Press, 2004), and his Texas Monthly story, “Wal-Marts Across Texas,” is included in True Stories by David Byrne.

He served on the Board of Directors of the National Book Critics Circle, and is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters and of PEN America. National professional honors have included a fellowship at the Yaddo Colony, a Eugene V. Debs Award for investigative reporting, a Lowell Thomas Award (Bronze) for personal commentary on post-Katrina New Orleans, and Gold and Silver Awards for feature writing from the City/Regional Magazine Association.
His work has appeared in publications including Southern Magazine, Boston Globe Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Playboy, Men’s Journal, Texas Monthly, Destination Discovery, The Texas Observer, The Progressive, San Francisco Bay Guardian, Biography, Yankee, Coastal Living, Texas Parks & Wildlife, Old Farmer’s Almanac, Bon Appetit, and Salvation South.

Davis served as executive editor at Cooking Light, a Time, Inc. magazine, and is a former editor of the critically acclaimed The Texas Observer and also a former editor of American Way, the former magazine of American Airlines. He has been a senior editor at Houston City and D Magazine, a reporter for The Rocky Mountain News, and an editor at The Associated Press, as well as associate director of the Texas Film Commission and travel editor at the San Antonio Express-News. Formerly managing editor of the Teaching Tolerance project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, he launched and directed The Texas A&M University Syst ...more

Combine Editions
Rod Davis’s books

Average rating: 3.66 · 203 ratings · 24 reviews · 6 distinct works

	The Best American Travel Writing 2002 by Frances Mayes (Goodreads Author) (Editor), Adam Gopnik (Reading), Molly O'Neill (Reading) 3.69 avg rating — 164 ratings — published 2002 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	American Voudou: Journey into a Hidden World 3.73 avg rating — 44 ratings — published 1998 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	South, America 3.73 avg rating — 22 ratings — published 2013 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	East of Texas, West of Hell 3.59 avg rating — 17 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Corina's Way 2.75 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2003 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Life of Kim and the Behavior of Men: Human Bondage in the After-market of War it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 4 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Rod Davis…

rss
Rod’s Recent Updates

Rod rated a book really liked it East of Texas, West of Hell by Rod Davis (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 13, 2025 12:43PM · like
Rod rated a book it was amazing The Life of Kim and the Behavior of Men: Human Bondage in the After-market of War by Rod Davis (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 13, 2025 12:40PM · like
Rod rated a book it was amazing Make It New: Reshaping Jazz in the 21st Century by Bill Beuttler	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jazz, and the idea and identity of jazz, run through the music like an endless exploration of joy and sorrow. Full of heart but no true boundaries. Full of maps that never last, arguments that only lead to unity and independence. Jazz may stem from t ...more
Jun 10, 2025 01:32PM · like · see review
Rod made a comment in the group Goodreads Librarians Group — book not showing on author page topic " Sandra wrote: "Books moved to your profile. Always post in this folder when you need your books moved to your profile. Moving your other books to your p ...more "
Sep 14, 2024 08:57AM
Rod joined the group Goodreads Librarians Group
Sep 14, 2024 08:20AM · like
Rod has read The Life of Kim and the Behavior of Men: Human Bondage in the After-market of War by Rod Davis (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Aug 07, 2024 02:46PM · like
Rod rated a book it was amazing Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 22, 2024 08:07AM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

More of Rod's books…

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
What's the Name o...: Voodoo; author traveled across U.S. meeting with voodoo leaders. The most intriguing part of book was when he took part in a ceremony for himself	5	886	Dec 29, 2021 09:45PM