Posts Tagged ‘Book Club’
An Appalachian Bookshelf
Featuring reviews of “Phenomenal” by Leigh Ann Henion, “Beautiful Land of the Sky” by Loren M. Wood, and “Real Goods Solar Living Sourcebook” by John Schaeffer
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The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature By David George Haskell In a circle of Cumberland Plateau old-growth forest roughly the size of a hula hoop, Haskell finds reasons for awe and wonder in the anatomy of a flower or the heartbeat of a chickadee. Inspired by both the place-based writings of Thoreau and…
Read MoreThe Evening Hour: Painting a Gripping Picture of a Gritty Place
Review by Paige Campbell Carter Sickels’ debut novel “The Evening Hour” is a study in contradictions, many rooted deeply in its Appalachian setting. The town of Dove Creek is a remote southern West Virginia community cloaked in the same desperate, static smallness that often characterizes the Appalachia of literature. At the same time, the setting…
Read MoreUnder The Same Sun: Pen Pals Introduce Young Readers To Social Justice
By Molly Moore While on a class field trip to a New York City supermarket, Meena Joshi spies a box of okra, one of her favorite foods in her native India. Emblazoned with the word “KENTUCKY,” the box displays mountains that remind her of her childhood home. When her teacher offers the class a list…
Read MoreBook Club Mini Review: “Kentucky Folktales: Revealing Stories, Truths, and Outright Lies”
By Brian Sewell Even before opening Mary Hamilton’s ode to storytelling, the rustcolored cover, adorned with a rocking chair and the kind of rustic text that might be carved in a tree, invites the reader into a world of oral traditions shared among Kentuckians for years before being captured on the page. Hamilton is a…
Read MoreCider Beans, Wild Greens and Dandelion Jelly
By Molly Moore After several decades living and eating in the hills of east Tennessee, California native Joan E. Aller proves her love for southern Appalachian cuisine in Cider Beans, Wild Greens and Dandelion Jelly. This is a serious cookbook, and Aller has her priorities straight. In it, food is given the respect true cooking…
Read MoreTwelve Ghost Story Books of Appalachia
Compiled by Sarah Vig Appalachia has a long and rich folklore tradition, and as anyone knows who has ever sat around a campfire at night, or held a flashlight under their chin, ghost stories are one of the most thrilling parts of oral tradition. As our issue is coming out so near to the time…
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