Lukiyanova Natalia
Book of nature
Book of nature. Isolated over white
With summer fast approaching, our minds are already wandering to the beach, pool, lake or any other body of water that might invite us to cozy up for a full day of relaxing, sunglasses in place, book in hand. Some of our friends from the local literary community, including representatives from the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning, Kentucky Women Writers Conference and Joseph-Beth Booksellers, have teamed up to provide a list of recommended reads for the summer – with all of these authors either from Kentucky, writing about Kentucky or making appearances at Kentucky events in the coming weeks and months.
“Sweet Lamb of Heaven”
by Lydia Millet
“When I insisted on keeping the baby, Ned threw his hands into the air palms-forward.“ So we are plunged into Anna’s story of an unfortunate marriage and the birth of their daughter, Lena. Scathing vignettes of Ned’s indifference as a husband and father alternate with descriptions of the voices – mysterious, hallucinatory, disembodied voices – that commence when the baby arrives and fade when the toddler begins to speak. This is no standard-issue domestic drama. Ned’s insincere political aspirations also come under fire from our sharply observant narrator: “It’s not that he’s left the business world behind, it’s just that he now believes politics are a sector of his enterprise.” Weary of Ned’s neglect, Anna flees, taking Lena, and embarks on their new life on the lam, traveling anonymously from Alaska to Maine and encountering an unusual cast of characters. Ned, meanwhile, needs a wife and daughter to be electable and launches his pursuit. With surprising plot twists and philosophical musings about politics and God, “Sweet Lamb of Heaven” is a cerebral summertime page-turner.
—Reviewed by Julie Wrinn, director of Kentucky Women Writers Conference
Note: Author Lydia Millet will appear at the 2019 Kentucky Women Writers Conference, Sept. 20-21
“Visible Empire”
by Hannah Pittard
In “Visible Empire,” University of Kentucky Creative Writing MFA program director Hannah Pittard tells a fictional story of the real-life tragedy that forever changed her hometown of Atlanta: the 1962 crash of Air France flight 007, which killed 122 passengers, including many cultural and civic leaders from Atlanta. With alternating points of view, Pittard intertwines the second-deadliest aviation disaster in history with the fire of the civil rights movement, and the love and loss experienced by families – all set in the grueling heat of a Georgia summer.
—Reviewed by Kimber Gray, Marketing Associate
“The Winemaker’s Secret”
by Cynthia Ellingsen
I fell in love with the fictional setting Starlight Cove in Cynthia Ellingsen’s 2017 novel “The Lighthouse Keeper,” and the Lexington author brings us back to that quaint vacation town with another mystery in “The Winemaker’s Secret.” This time, the story is centered in a family-owned vineyard, where a decades-long family secret and the theft of rare ice wine put the main character’s life at risk and the family business in jeopardy. This novel is best enjoyed alongside your favorite wine, whatever that may be.
—Reviewed by Jennifer Hester Mattox, Carnegie Center development director
“Suspicious Minds”
by Gwenda Bond
This bestselling official prequel novel to the popular Netflix series “Stranger Things” is everything fans could want. Lexington author Gwenda Bond narrates the origin story of key character Eleven from the point of view of her mother while living in 1970s America as a young college student – and test subject. Terry Ives is tasked with the impossible: to keep her child safe from the monstrous villain, Dr. Brenner, who will stop at nothing to manipulate humanity for the sake of “state-sanctioned scientific research.” This unsettling and emotionally evocative novel depicts the strength of “friend-family” ties while reflecting the uncrossable, yet sometimes intertwined distances between people, power, and the unknown. With nostalgic pop culture references and a peppering of Easter eggs from the “Stranger Things” series, Bond creates a harrowing yet heartening account of a group of young suspicious strangers destined to uncover the darkness that grows in Hawkins before it envelops the world.
—Reviewed by Erica Cook, Carnegie Center volunteer and outreach coordinator
“Cherokee American”
by Margaret Verble
Lexington author Margaret Verble has penned a gorgeous narrative of Cherokee family life on so-called Indian Territory in the years after the Civil War. As white, black and native American people interweave their lives, the Lexington author – a Cherokee herself – plants one plot mine after the next: kidnapping, land-grabbing, marital affairs and murder. To leaven the load, she offers up some wonderfully compromised characters, hilarious situations and mind-bending sex.
—Reviewed by Neil Chethik, Carnegie Center executive director
“The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo”
by Ian Stansel
The debut novel from University of Louisville professor Ian Stansel, “The Last Cowboys of San Geronimo,” is a fast-paced contemporary Western rich in detail. Lena Van Loy chases a killer through rough northern California terrain in pursuit of personal justice, and in the unraveling history that surrounds Lena, her husband and his brother, Stansel dives deep into the equestrian world and the roots of family rivalry. Compelling and beautifully written.
—Reviewed by Brittany Jackson, Carnegie Center development associate
“The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek”
by Kim Michele Richardson
“The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek” is a novel made for book lovers with interest in little-known pockets of history. Cussy Mary’s story is fascinating – with a genetic condition that causes her skin to be tinted blue, not only is she one of the last living “blue people” of Kentucky, but she is a pack horse librarian who delivers books to her patrons by mule as part of the New Deal-funded Pack Horse Library Project. Richardson’s historic novel is a heartbreaking ode to the power of literature as a mechanism for changing culture, and fans of Appalachian fiction will eat it up. A must-read for anyone who has ever loved a library.
—Reviewed by Lindsay Crist Lawson, fiction buyer for Joseph-Beth Booksellers
Author Chris Offutt. Photo furnished
2019 Books-In-Progress Conference
Author Chris Offutt will be the keynote speaker at the 2019 Books-in-Progress Conference, taking place at the Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning May 30-June 1. Among the other presenters at the conference will Gwenda Bond, Cynthia Ellingsen, Ian Stansel, Margaret Verble and Hannah Pittard, whose books are featured here, and many others as well. For more details on the event, visit www.carnegiecenterlex.org.