Tag: Appalachia
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#3 Heartlands Best Reads of 2018: Amity and Prosperity
The changing landscape of rural America. Big economic forces impacting big-hearted, sympathetic characters. New ways to look at the Great Divide. Interesting places and hints of God. Great writing. These are the things that make for a great Heartlands Read. Throw in fracking and you’ve got Eliza Griswold’s gripping and sometimes-terrifying book, Amity & Prosperity: One…
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#9 Heartlands Best Reads of 2018: The Sarah Book
In my last post, we began the countdown of the Heartlands Best Reads of 2018. Check out that post for the criteria. The Sarah Book is a crazy book, continuing author Scott McClanahan’s life goal of making West Virginia look even more offbeat than most folks already believe it to be. It’s scandalous, shocking, heart-breaking, and laugh-out-loud…
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Fracking & A Fractured Land
The Washington County Fair in 2010 should have been unalloyed joy for Stacey Haney and her family. After all, Haney’s 14-year-old son, Harley, and his goat, Boots, took the Grand Champion Showmanship award. Paige, her 11-year-old daughter, got awards for her two rabbits, Pepsi & Phantom, and for her Mexi-SPAM Mac and Cheese entry in…
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Living in the Pages of The Sarah Book: A Review
If I didn’t know Scott McClanahan, I’d be worried about him. In fact, I’d go up to him and ask, “What is wrong with you?” That’s a less profane version of the question his wife, Sarah, asks him near the beginning of The Sarah Book when he burns their wedding Bible after getting a series…
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