Welcome to Read this Book, a newsletter where I recommend one book that needs to jump onto your TBR pile! These books are from all sorts of different genres and for all age ranges.
At the end of July, Eastern Kentucky experienced a 100-year flood that devastated Applachian communities along the border of Kentucky and West Virginia. Hundreds of families lost everything, some even losing family members to the flash floods that happened without warning in the middle of the night.
The weeks since have been spent trying to clean up and prepare to rebuild. This is no easy task as bridges were swept away and many areas were only reachable by boat for days. But if Appalachian people are anything, they’re resilient. We’ve done it before, and we’ll do it again.
So today I’m sharing a book by a journalist who reported from Eastern Kentucky for several years. This book may give you a better idea about the region and the challenges it faces.
Twilight in Hazard: An Appalachian Reckoning by Alan Maimon
When journalist Alan Maimon was moving back home to the United States after many years reporting in Berlin, Germany, he decided to try to gain experience by reporting from a lesser known part of the country, a place where he felt like he was reporting in a foreign country. That’s how he found Hazard, Kentucky.
Through his reporting, Maimon touches on some of the major issues that Eastern Kentucky faces, like coal companies denying disability benefits for miners with black lung disease, the opioid crisis, mountaintop removal, and lack of quality healthcare. Other journalists have written entire books on each of these topics, but Maimon does a good job providing readers with an introduction to these complex issues.
Miamon centers his experience on getting to know the people of Eastern Kentucky, using himself as a sort of a guide for people outside the region. As he learns more about Hazard, so do his readers. But he did receive pushback from the people of Hazard, and they ended up holding a sort of town hall where people from the community could respond to his book. After listening to the people of Hazard, he changed the paperback based on their feedback to include many of the grassroots organizations fighting for change in the region.
I recommend this for folks outside of Appalachia who are looking to get to know the region. For more Appalachian Literature recommendations, check out “15 Books to Read Instead of Hillbilly Elegy” and “15 More Books to Read Instead of Hillbilly Elegy.”
Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!
That’s it for this week! If you would like more info about how you can help Eastern Kentucky, please check out E KY Mutual Aid and Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund. As always, you can find me over on my substack Winchester Ave or over on Instagram @kdwinchester. As always, feel free to drop me a line at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For even MORE bookish content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.
Happy reading, Friends!
~ Kendra