Appalachian Reads is a book discussion group sponsored by Blount County Public Library. Participants meet on the third Saturday of every other month from 10:30-11:30 a.m. in Dorothy Herron Room A. The first year of Appalachian Reads began July 15, 2017 and ran through May 19, 2018. Building on success, the group began its second year on July 21, 2018, and continues to meet for bi-monthly discussions.
The library will have four print copies of all titles plus R.E.A.D.S. access. If you have questions or suggestions, please contact Reference Librarian Brennan LeQuire at 865-982-0981, ext. 302.
| Date | Book | Facilitator |
|---|---|---|
| July 20 | Rocket Boys by Homer Hickam | David Sincerbox |
| Sept 21 | Prayers the Devil Answers by Sharyn McCrumb | Jim Stovall |
| November 16 | The Tall Woman by Wilma Dykeman | Jan Taylor |
| January 18 | Cataloochee by Wayne Caldwell | Jennifer Voorhis |
| March 21 | Country Dark by Chris Offutt | A.J. Coulter |
| May 16 | TBA | – |
Discuss Country Dark by Kentucky native Chris Offutt on Saturday, March 21, 2020 at 10:30 a.m. in Dorothy Herron Room A. Discussion will be led by A.J. Coulter.
This novel is described by the New York Times as “dark, but deeply humane….an achievement of spellbinding momentum and steadfast heart.” The story’s setting is rural Kentucky in the years following the main character’s service in the Korean War.
Chris Offutt is an outstanding literary talent, whose work has been called “lean and brilliant” (New York Times Book Review) and compared by reviewers to Tobias Wolff, Ernest Hemingway, and Raymond Carver. He’s been awarded the Whiting Writers Award for Fiction/Nonfiction and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Fiction Award, among numerous other honors. His first work of fiction in nearly two decades, Country Dark is a taut, compelling novel set in rural Kentucky from the Korean War to 1970.
Tucker, a young veteran, returns from war to work for a bootlegger. He falls in love and starts a family, and while the Tuckers don’t have much, they have the love of their home and each other. But when his family is threatened, Tucker is pushed into violence, which changes everything. The story of people living off the land and by their wits in a backwoods Kentucky world of shine-runners and laborers whose social codes are every bit as nuanced as the British aristocracy.
Open to the public, Southern Appalachian Studies programs are sponsored and hosted by Blount County Public Library with the support of Blount County Friends of the Library.
