Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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A doozy of a book!

You Weren't Meant to be Human by Andrew Joseph White

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You Weren’t Meant to be Human fulfills the “black” square on CBR17 Bingo I had Andrew Joseph White on my radar from his debut, but it wasn’t until Compound Fracture that I finally read one of his books. Even though most of his books haven’t exactly been for me, I have a special spot in my heart for Appalachia, and especially West Virigina because it will always be home. So when I saw AJW’s upcoming adult debut was set in WV, I knew I needed to […]

“They wear red bandannas knotted around their necks, as if their throats have already been cut.”

Rednecks by Taylor Brown

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When the coal miners of West Virginia attempt to unionize for better working conditions, the resulting conflict escalates close to the level of civil war – and a Lebanese-American doctor caught in between must choose where his allegiance lies. I’ve read about the Battle of Blair Mountain and the West Virginia Mine Wars before, but only in vague detail in high school history courses. Now, of course, I know a lot more – indeed, feel as though I saw it with my own eyes. Though […]

Go ‘Neers

The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia by Emma Copley Eisenberg

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It’s important to note right off the bat that The Third Rainbow Girl is not a true crime tale in a conventional sense. It’s not In Cold Blood or I’ll Be Gone in the Dark. If you’re looking for a plucky sleuth to solve the crime and tell us *what it all means*, then keep looking. Instead, the book functions as an exploration of many things: of Appalachian culture in rural West Virginia, of class and gender, of human sexuality, of memory and the persistence of time. They don’t all […]

Miles from Harlan County but Still Close

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My favorite mysteries have a strong sense of place, where the setting is as much of a character as the detective or police chief or in this case, the prosecuting attorney at the center of the story. In A Killing in the Hills, the place is Acker’s Gap, West Virginia, a small town hard hit by addiction and the illegal prescription drug trade where Bell Elkins, a local girl made good, but with a traumatic past, has returned to take on the community’s ills as […]



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