Author: Cassie Chambers
Genre: Memoir
Publisher: Random House Publishing, 2020
Pages: 304
Rating: Highly Recommend
Synopsis: Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains, Owsley County is one of the poorest counties in both Kentucky and the country. Buildings are crumbling and fields sit vacant, as tobacco farming and coal mining decline. But strong women are finding creative ways to subsist in their hollers in the hills.
Cassie Chambers grew up in these hollers and, through the women who raised her, she traces her own path out and bacak into the Kentucky mountains. Chambers' Granny was a child bride who rose before dawn every morning to raise seven children. Despite her poverty, she wouldn't hesitate to give the last bite of pie or vegetables from her garden to a struggling neighbor. Her two daughters took very different paths: strong-will Ruth - the hardest-working tobacco farmer in the county - stayed on the family farm, while Wilma - the sixth child - became the first in the family to graduate from high school, then moved an hour away to college. Married at nineteen and pregnant with Cassie a few months later, Wilma beat the odds to finish school. She raised her daughter to think she could move mountains, like the ones that kept her safe but also isolated her from the larger world.
Cassie would spend much of her childhood with Granny and Ruth in the hills of Owsley County, both while Wilma was off at college and after. With her "hill women" values guiding her, Cassie went on to graduate from Harvard Law. But while the Ivy League gave her knowledge and opportunities its privileged world felt far from her reality, and she moved back home to help her fellow rural Kentucky women by providing free legal services.
Appalachian women face issues that are all too common: domestic violence, the opiod crisis, a world that seems more divided by the day. But they are also community leaders, keeping their towns together in the face of a system that continually fails them. With nuance and heart, Chambers uses these women's stories paired with her own journey to break down the myth of the hillbilly and illuminate a region whose poor communities, especially women, can lead it into the future.
Review: From the outset, this book reminded me of Hillbilly Elegy. These are important stories. Already I know this will be a contender for the "best book of 2020" for me. I put a quick post on Facebook thanking the author for telling her story, and got a <3 in return. Love.
Chambers does a great job of bridging two worlds, and explaining the complexities of Appalachia. Really in awe of this book.
Author: Meg Mitchell Moore
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2019
Pages: 432
Rating: Highly Recommend
Synopsis: Anthony Puckett was a rising literary star. The son of an uber-famous thriller writer, Anthony's debut novel spent two year on the bestseller list and won the adoration of critics. But something went very wrong with his second work. Now Anthony's borrowing an old college friend's crumbling beach house on Block Island in the hopes that solitude will help him get back to the person he used to be.
Joy Sousa owns and runs Block-Islands's beloved whoopie pie cafe. She came to this quiet space eleven years ago, newly divorced and with a young daughter, and built a life for them here. To her customers and friends, Joy is a model of independent, hard-working and happy. And mostly she is. But this summer she's thrown off balance. A food truck from a famous New York City brand is roving around the island selling goodies-and threatening her business.
Lu Trusdale is spending the summer on her in-laws' dime, living on Block Island her with her two young sons while her surgeon husband commutes to the mainland hospital. When Lu's second son was born, she and her husband made a deal: he'd work and she'd quit her corporate law job to stay home with the boys. But a few years ago, Lu quietly began working on a private project that has become increasingly demanding of her time. Torn between work and home, she's beginning to question the deal she made.
Over the twelve short weeks of summer, these three strangers will meet and grow close, will share secrets, and bury lies. And as the promise of June turns into the chilly night of August, the truth will come out, forcing each of them to decide what they value most, and what they are willing to give up to keep it.
Review: This novel was a slow-starter, but I hung in there because it's Block Island. My husband and visited Block Island with his Massachusetts relatives when we were dating. In fact, it was my first introduction to his aunt and uncle. They had friends with a boat docked on "The Block," as it's known locally. One of my favorite pictures of our entire relationship was taken by his aunt on the ferry.
Anyway, back to the book. It's a fun, beach-read, with a bit of substance. The characters touched on a lot of topics or experienced issues to which I could relate. I even found them living in my head. In an attempt to not spend so much time in a fictional world between the pages, I am not spending every free second reading this year (I cut my reading challenge in half - 105 books in 2019, just 51 for 2020). It's kind of fun to set the book down, and let my imagination wander with what the characters are doing or where they're going in their journeys.
If you like Elin Hilderbrand or Susan Mallery, this is probably another good author to try. Their styles are similar, but distinct enough you would never confuse one for the other.
Good reading for January since there's a lot of "summer talk" (sunshine, warm temps, the beach, shorts and sandals).
Author: Karen Cleveland
Genre: Thriller
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group, 2019
Pages: 352, 10 CDs
Rating: Highly Recommend
Synopsis: Stephanie Maddox works her dream job policing power and exposing corruption within the FBI. Getting here has taken her nearly two decades of hard work, laser focus, and personal sacrifices - the most important, she fears, being a close relationship with her son, Zachary. A single parent, Steph's missed a lot school events, birthdays, and vacations with her boy - but the truth is, she would move heaven and earth for him, including protecting him from an explosive secret in her past. It just never occurred to her that Zachary would keep secrets of his own.
One day while straightening her son's room, Steph is shaken to discover a gun hidden in his closet. A loaded gun. Then comes a hock at her door - a colleague on the domestic terrorism squad, who utters three devastating words: "It's about Zachary."
Review: Not a sequel to Need to Know exactly, but an interesting tie-in. I don't know if the print books would have the same effect, but Cleveland's audio books cause my blood pressure to increase while I'm listening. Her protagonists make some questionable decisions, but I'm on the the edge of my seat the entire time. Since I only listen to audio books in the car, sometimes I'm glad to arrive at my destination just to take a mental break from the crazy.
I really enjoyed this. Anxiously waiting for more books by this author.
Other Books by Karen Cleveland:
Published 2018, Need to Know
Author: Tayari Jones
Genre: Fiction
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2019
Pages: 336
Rating: Highly Recommend
Synopsis: Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. Roy is arrested and sentenced to twelve years for a crime Celestial knows he didn't commit. Though fiercely independent, Celestial finds herself bereft and unmoored, taking comfort in Andre, her childhood friend, and best man at their wedding. As Roy's time in prison passes, she is unable to hold onto the love that has been her center. After five years, Roy's conviction is suddenly overturned, and he returns to Atlanta ready to resume their life together.
This stirring love story is a profoundly insightful look into the hearts and minds of three people who are at once bound and separated by forces beyond their control. An American Marriage is a masterpiece of storytelling, an intimate look deep into the souls of people who must reckon with the past moving forward - with hope and pain - into the future.
Review: I had this out from the library at least twice and never read it. It was free to download to my kindle so I made it my first novel of 2020. I loved it.
Synopsis: Nestled in the Appalachian Mountains, Owsley County is one of the poorest counties in both Kentucky and the country. Buildings are crumbling and fields sit vacant, as tobacco farming and coal mining decline. But strong women are finding creative ways to subsist in their hollers in the hills.
