Seven eye-opening books about Appalachia

Kaytie Norman joined Open Road Integrated Media in 2019 after spending three years writing and editing books for Media Lab Books. Her hobbies include cooking, honing her Liz Lemon impression and encouraging people to read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. At Early Bird Books she tagged seven top books about Appalachia, including:

Sugar Run
By Mesha Maren

Thirty-five-year-old Jodi McCarty has just been released from prison after 18 years. Unable to yet face going back to her former home in the Appalachian Mountains, she instead heads south. This leads Jodi to Miranda, a single mother making ends meet by living in a motel room. As Jodi and Miranda fall for one another, they’re both determined to start their lives over. But fresh starts are hard to come by when you come from a place that refuses to forget the past. Described as “a literary page-turner, hair-raising in both plot and prose” by O, The Oprah Magazine, you won’t be able to put down Mesha Maren’s Southern noir until you’ve reached the very last page.

Read about another entry on the list.

Writers Read: Mesha Maren (January 2019).

--Marshal Zeringue