Carnegie Center executive director Neil Chethik with his recommended summer reading pick, “The One Inside,” by Sam Shepard. Photo furnished
Intro by Bianca Spriggs; Reviews by Carnegie Center staff
Well, folks, summertime – my favorite time of the year for reading – is finally in season. Some of my fondest memories up through adulthood revolve around holing up somewhere in the shade with a serious page turner. Entire summers have been lost to books. There’s just something about the thrill of three months of warm weather, grilling out and iced beverages that makes the imagination lengthen its tether to terra firma.
The following Kentucky-related titles are perfect summer reads – they make great poolside and camping companions, or you might squeeze a page or two in during long innings and longer road trips. At the end of this summer I’ll be leaving Lexington to take a teaching position, and in one of my last acts as literary arts liaison for the Carnegie Center, it is my pleasure to help present these summer reading options.
Blackberries, Blackberries
By Crystal Wilkinson
Crystal Wilkinson is well known throughout the state as a professor of creative writing (currently at Berea College), an independent bookstore owner (shout-out to The Wild Fig!), as well as an award-winning fiction writer. Her most recent novel, “The Birds of Opulence,” has garnered much acclaim throughout the state and region, but personally, I’m very excited to see the University Press of Kentucky’s reprint editions of her short fiction collections “Blackberries, Blackberries” and “Water Street.” Celebrated with remarks by luminary authors such as Nikky Finney and Honoree Jeffers, these are two timeless collections (with some snazzy cover upgrades) that revolve around communities and the relationships that divide us as well as those that bind us in unexpected ways.
– Reviewed by Bianca Spriggs, outgoing Carnegie Center literary liaison
Kids of Appetite
by David Arnold
Police interrogate two teens. All we know is that someone died and someone’s in jail for murder – what we don’t know is “why?” In David Arnold’s coming-of-age masterpiece, protagonist Vic struggles with both his dad’s death and his own disability that, among other things, prevents him from smiling. During his adventure, Vic falls into a crew of fellow runaways who sleep in a greenhouse and trade random acts of kindness for food. The follow-up to Arnold’s 2015 “Mosquitoland” is funny, heartwarming and charming, choosing to appreciate life rather than dwelling on the inevitability of death; it’s for the “super racehorse” in all of us.
– Reviewed by Bronson O’Quinn, Carnegie Center development associate
The Lighthouse Keeper
by Cynthia Ellingsen
Lexington author Cynthia Ellingsen’s follow-up to her novels “The Whole Package” and “Marriage Matters” is a fun read with a cast of characters and a lakeside community that make you want to visit – or stay permanently. Add to that a lost treasure, a century-old mystery, the restoration of a historic lighthouse, run-ins with some unsavory characters (modern-day pirates!) and a romance with a local nautical
researcher. Oh, let’s not forget the photo-worthy trips to Henderson Hardware – but you’ll have to read the novel to learn why!
– Reviewed by Jennifer Mattox, Carnegie Center development director
The Regional Office is Under Attack!
by Manuel Gonzales
University of Kentucky creative writing professor Manuel Gonzales’s most recent book is a wild ride through an alternate reality, grounded in great writing and more pop culture references than you would think possible in a 400-page novel. The story centers on two super-powered female assassins, each on different sides of the battle, as they fight their way through office politics, the possible end of the world and ultimately, each other. It’d be a disservice to call this a “summer beach read,” because even the thrilling action sequences can’t completely bury Gonzales’ thoughtful commentary on family, belonging and morality. But it sure is a lot of fun.
– Reviewed by Sarah Chapman, Carnegie Center office manager and registrar
The One Inside
by Sam Shepard
In a book that is billed as a novel – though it reads much like a memoir – the actor, playwright and director Sam Shepard explores the life of an aging actor and writer as he struggles with fame, sex and the remnants of a bitter bond with his deceased father. Shepard lives part-time in Midway, Kentucky; he won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize in Drama for his play “Buried Child.” “The One Inside” is his first novel but is paced like a play; the dialogue is especially piercing. The book’s plot, while not terribly compelling, allows for fascinating insights into how the father-son bond shapes a son for a lifetime.
– Reviewed by Neil Chethik, Carnegie Center executive director
Trampoline
by Robert Gipe
Kentucky author Robert Gipe has an ear for Appalachia, that’s for sure. At the center of his genre-defying illustrated novel “Trampoline,”is spunky, restless Dawn Jewell, a 15-year-old Black Flag fan living with her grandmother and addict mother in the fictional eastern Kentucky county of Canard County. Canard County is dominated by mountaintop removal, and Dawn’s Mamaw heads up the local resistance to “big coal,” despite the counterblast from her neighbors. Gipe’s prose calls on oral tradition, and with Dawn’s sweetly naïve yet brashly honest observations, he captures the complicated relationship between people and the places they inhabit. At times hard to swallow – but always impossible to put down –“Trampoline” is a coming-of-age story as much about Dawn as it is about an Appalachian community and the forces (and mountains) that shape it.
– Reviewed by Kimber Gray, Carnegie Center marketing associate
