8 Kentucky-themed picks provided by staff from The Carnegie Center for Literacy & Learning and University Press of Kentucky
Perfect gifts for the literati or Kentucky culture junkie in your life, or as last-minute entries for your own holiday wish list, our annual winter reading recommendations this year feature eight books released in 2020 that are either written by Kentucky authors or focus on history or culture that relates to the state.
Dear Ann
by Bobbie Ann Mason
One of Kentucky’s most accomplished living novelists takes us back to 1960s California to explore themes of first love, memory, regret and what might have been. In this novel, Ann Workman, a 70-something Kentucky writer, wonders how her life would have been different if she had gone to grad school at Stanford rather than in the Northeast. This is an engaging story and, as always with Mason, a meticulously crafted piece of writing. It will capture your heart and maybe make you rethink your own life choices.
Palmares Vol. 1
by Gayl Jones
In her first book in two decades, Lexington author Gayl Jones offers a brilliant piece of historical fiction: a girl’s first-person perspective of slavery and freedom in colonial Brazil in the 17th century. “Palmares Vol. 1” is the first of a planned six-book series in which Jones, a finalist for the National Book Award in the 1990s, dramatically retells the century-long story of Quilombo dos Palmares, a once-thriving fugitive-slave settlement destroyed by the Portuguese in 1694. (Available only on Lulu.com.)
Harry Dean Stanton: Hollywood’s Zen Rebel
by Joseph B. Atkins
Joseph B. Atkins unwinds Harry Dean Stanton’s enigmatic persona in the first biography of the man who Vanity Fair memorialized as “the philosopher poet of character acting.” He sheds light on Stanton’s early life in West Irvine, Kentucky, exploring his difficult relationship with his Baptist parents, his service in the Navy and the events that inspired him to drop out of college and pursue acting. In addition to examining the Hollywood legend’s acclaimed body of work, Atkins also follows the actor’s years rooming with Jack Nicholson, partying with David Crosby and Mama Cass, jogging with Bob Dylan and playing poker with John Huston. Drawing on interviews with Stanton’s friends, family and colleagues, this much-needed book offers an unprecedented look at a beloved figure.
Kentucky Bourbon Country: The Essential Travel Guide (Third Edition)
by Susan Reigler
Like wine lovers who dream of traveling to Bordeaux or beer enthusiasts with visions of the breweries of Belgium, bourbon lovers plan their pilgrimages to Kentucky. The scenic Bluegrass region is responsible for 95% of all of America’s bourbon production and is home to nearly 70 distilleries, including many of the most famous in the world. Now in its third edition, this book offers updated, essential information and practical advice for anyone considering a trip to the state’s distilleries (including the state’s booming craft distillery sector) or the restaurants and bars on the Urban Bourbon Trail. Whether you’re interested in visiting the place where your favorite bourbon is made or hoping to discover exciting new varieties, this handy and practical guide is the key to enjoying the best of bourbon.
So We Can Glow
by Leesa Cross-Smith
If you love ’80s and ’90s nostalgia, you’ll enjoy the short stories in Leesa Cross-Smith’s collection “So We Can Glow.” Like watching an episode of “Stranger Things,” you’ll know the stories’ time periods by references to actors, all the hairspray, Sun-In, movies, songs…and you’ll also enjoy Kentucky references throughout. This Louisville native’s stories delve deeper. New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay describes the collection as “so unapologetically for women, about women, a love letter to who we are…so we can glow as brightly as we dare.”
This Great Green Valley
by Lynnell Edwards
In this engaging book of poems, the associate director of Spalding University’s celebrated MFA writing program, uses historical research, imagination and vivid writing to describe the hardships of Kentucky’s early European pioneers, including her own ancestors, as they settled in the Bluegrass region’s Kentucky River Valley. These short poems are followed by a long, lyrical one in which Edwards recalls pleasure-boating as a child through that same “great, green valley” nearly two centuries later. A vivid reflection on Kentucky history, without the sugar-coating.
A Simple Justice: Kentucky Women Fight for the Vote
by Melanie Beals Goan
Melanie Beals Goan offers a new and deeper understanding of the women’s suffrage movement in Kentucky by following the people who labored long and hard to see the battle won. Women’s suffrage was not simply a question of whether women could and should vote; it carried more serious implications for white supremacy and for the balance of federal and state powers, especially in a border state. Shocking racial hostility surfaced even as activists attempted to make America more equitable. Goan looks beyond iconic women such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to reveal figures whose names have been lost to history, introducing readers to individuals across the Bluegrass State who did their part to move the nation closer to achieving its founding ideals.
At the Center of All Beauty: Solitude and the Creative Life
by Fenton Johnson
Long before social distancing became a thing, the novelist and essayist Fenton Johnson was thinking about how solitude was a secret ingredient in many creative people’s lives and work. He explores the concept of solitude – not to be confused with loneliness – in a beautifully written book that is hard to put down. Johnson offers mini biographies of 10 famous artists and writers who were solitaries at heart, and he explores his own upbringing in Nelson County among the monks at the Abbey of Gethsemani, including the writer Thomas Merton.