Welcome to Litsy!

26-29 Jun 25 (audiobook)
Interesting look at why certain groups of people appear to vote against their own interests and support Trump‘s Republican Party specifically in Appalachia. Highschild interviewed many people living in the region with the highest rate of Trump supporters in the US and reported her findings. Particularly notable was the statistic that far more republican voters believe poverty is a result of one‘s own actions and failures.

HELL YEAH. I loved this book. So spooky and loved the sister relationship.

15 year old Wren lives in the West Virginia mountains. She is cut off from the world by her snake handling preacher father. Her mother‘s true soul mate is her best friend who has pledged to always stay close and protect her. As a series of tragedies occur Wren starts to unravel all of the secrets of her family and emerge from her seclusion. I really liked this. Vivid characters and the story unwound in ways that surprised me. #14books14weeks book4

Received this book in a box for my Little Free Library ~ glad I added it to my personal shelf first.

Demon is someone you root for as you move through his life experiences. I had to renew this audio from Libby three times to get through the whole story. It's definitely a pick for me but the story seemed a bit long. ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Fun fact! The first year I volunteered at the National Book Festival (2017), I was an usher in the main conference hall. Vance was one of the featured authors, but it was before he lost his mind and sold his soul. As I recall he was an interesting speaker and was well received. So it‘s particularly galling that the current regime has fired the Librarian of Congress under blatantly false pretenses.

This slow-paced novel is set mostly in the Ohio Appalachian Mountains. Growing up literally dirt poor and basically abandoned by her parents, Jodi grows up with her grandmother on Bethlehem Mountain. Jodi gets involved with a woman & makes some tragic decisions. Life gives her another chance, but will Jodi fall back into old habits? 4/5⭐️

Thinking I may need to shift to books that are about escaping our current reality, as I keep reading the opposite and it‘s heavy. 🙃 But this is a good one, by a well-known sociologist (still doing vital work in her mid-eighties!) and based on ethnographic research where she deeply studies and truly listens to those whom we might perceive as voting against their own interests. A powerful takeaway is Hochschild‘s assertion that many (who ⬇️

Reading for March bookclub as chosen by Vicki. Started reading on my Kindle but couldn't get into it so downloaded as an audiobook. I usually love Appalachian literature and appreciate this book is an uplifting book on the area instead of drug fueled stories but the writing is banal and the book boring.

Bailed on it but went back to the audiobook as it is a bookclub book,, and it is getting better but still not one I would recommend.

A well done, investigative reporting in Appalachia of a community before and after a white nationalist march in Pikeville, KY. Interviews with residents give shape to the frustrations of loss, shame, and poverty though they work hard yet can‘t get ahead. It‘s a great book, but it didn‘t make me feel better.