SLEEPING AT THE STARLIGHT MOTEL AND OTHER...

SLEEPING AT THE STARLIGHT MOTEL AND OTHER ADVENTURES ON THE WAY BACK HOME by Bailey White (Vintage: $12; 238 pp.). In this collection of pieces from NPR’s “All Things Considered,” White chronicles a fading Southern way of life, punctuated by cups of tea and glasses of lemonade. Her descriptions of her South Georgia friends and relations recall the early stories of Truman Capote; a sly good humor creeps into her accounts of a nouveau riche cousin’s efforts to acquire the family set of 18th century Chippendale chairs and the discovery of a trove of Civil War memorabilia in the crumbling home of a great-aunt. White’s listeners will savor these genteel reminiscences.