The staff of Lexington’s Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning has laid out a selection of great books with Kentucky ties to add to your summer reading list this year.
Not Here to Stay Friends
By Kaitlyn Hill
When teenage aspiring screenwriter Sloan agrees to spend a summer of fun with her long-time best friend Liam in her dream city of Los Angeles, she doesn’t expect to be roped into participating in a teen reality dating show, much less to start developing romantic feelings for Liam. This funny, quirky YA romance is the perfect pick-me-up in book form, brimming with heart and lovable characters to whom teens and adults alike can relate. Local author Kaitlyn Hill’s writing is effervescent, and I can’t wait for her next book (coming this spring!).
– Review by Maggie Garnett, Registrar & Program Associate
Murder on the Orient Express
By Agatha Christie
A classic whodunnit, and perhaps Agatha Christie’s most famous novel, “Murder on the Orient Express” is a classic ‘locked room’ mystery featuring the inimitable Hercule Poirot. For the modern reader, there is the joy of Christie’s complex plots, her insistence on truth telling (the clues ARE all there, if you pay attention), and Poirot’s determined charm and interest in human psychology. We also see Christie’s strong female characters on full display. Many contemporary crime novels trace their roots to Christie, and “Murder on the Orient Express” is the author at the height of her powers. This book celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, and while it might not have been written with a Kentucky connection in mind, it’s Carnegie Center’s book selection for the annual Carnegie Classics event, taking place on Nov. 9.
– Review by Tracee de Hahn, Carnegie Center Author Academy
Hard Justice: Issue One
By Bryce Oquaye and Wesley Gift
Reminiscent of ’90s buddy cop films like Lethal Weapon and Rush Hour, “Hard Justice” is a martial arts action-packed comic series that delivers summer excitement. In issue one, Lexington artist Bryce Oquaye blends both Japanese manga tradition and American-style comics to illustrate Berea writer Wesley Gift’s story of Joseph “Saint” Raines’s search for justice for the murder of his brother, in which he encounters an unlikely teammate in Rex Samson. This exhilarating story is packed with humor and combat but ends with an exploration of ethics between two grieving men. The next issue will be released this summer, so follow this series to see where Saint and Rex find themselves next.
– Review by Lucy Jayes, Development Associate
The Lost Letters of Aisling
By Cynthia Ellingsen
In Lexington author Cynthia Ellingsen’s dual timeline novel, Rainey honors the wishes of her ill grandmother Evie by returning with her to Aisling, Ireland, where Rainey searches for lost letters Evie wrote as a teen shortly after WWII. During those years, Evie was forced to keep secrets and hide from those who would do her and her friend harm. Rainey tries to unravel the mystery around the letters and in finding them, discovers more questions that remain to be answered. This bestselling novel was an Amazon “First Read” selection for March 2024.
– Review by Jennifer Hester Mattox, Executive Director
The Heartbreak Years
By Minda Honey
Minda Honey’s “The Heartbreak Years” takes the reader from Louisville, Kentucky, to Los Angeles, California, to Denver, Colorado, and back again through the writer’s unapologetic and vulnerable retelling of dating and drinking in her 20s. Honey’s untempered voice will make you laugh out loud while offering incredible insights into race relations during the Obama years and searching for love during the rise of online dating. This memoir will have you rooting for the narrator as she navigates the so-called “defining decade” to finally learn she’s had everything she’s sought all along.
– Review by Lucy Jayes, Development Associate
Praise Song for the Kitchen Ghosts
By Crystal Wilkinson
Crystal Wilkinson begins “Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts” with a quote from Gayl Jones, illustrating how Black grannies and mamas pass on what they’ve lived through, and there’s no doubt our foremothers lived many hours in their kitchens making sustenance with love and masterful skill. This luminous memoir with recipes is a true praisesong to Wilkinson’s ancestors. With stunning prose and gorgeous photographs, Wilkinson gives readers a taste of Black life through five generations of her family’s cooks. She reminds us of the strength of familial ties and how love lives on, in both our hearts and our kitchens.
– Review by Claudia Love Mair, Kentucky Black Writers Collaborative Coordinator
Beware the Tall Grass
By Ellen Birkett Morris
When Louisville author Ellen Birkett Morris heard an NPR story about the phenomenon of young children with traumatic memories of other people’s past lives, she thought there might be a good novel in it — and she was right. Morris’ debut novel, which won the Donald L. Jordan Literary Prize, tells the parallel stories of Thomas Boone, a horse-crazy Montana ranch kid who is sent off to fight in Vietnam, and Eve Sloane, whose preschooler Charlie begins having nightmares and saying some very strange things. What unfolds is a tightly written page-turner you won’t want to put down.
– Review by Tom Eblen, Carnegie Center Literary Arts Liaison
Scissors, Paper, Rock
By Fenton Johnson
When Fenton Johnson’s novel was published in 1993, it was the first to address the AIDS crisis in a rural context. Much has changed since then, and much hasn’t. One thing that has remained constant is the emotional power of this beautifully written story of a young, gay man who comes home to rural Kentucky to care for a dying father and then must face his own mortality. You won’t soon forget this story about memory, love, grief and the bonds of family. Kentucky Humanities chose “Scissors, Paper, Rock” as its statewide read this year, and Johnson was recently inducted into the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame.
– Review by Tom Eblen, Carnegie Center Literary Arts Liaison