By Steve Flairty
NKyTribune Columnist
For both pleasure and resource purposes, I’m often found with a book in my hands (haven’t become an e-reader yet), and I also know for a fact that many fellow Kentuckians are. I’m figuring that with COVID and the approaching winter chasing us indoors, the scale of reading is increasing. So, as I’ve done so in this column before, I took the pulse of what we are currently reading and wanted to share it with you.
First, for me. How about A Simple Justice: Kentucky Women Fight for the Vote, by Melanie Beals Goan, a UK associate of history? In the 100th anniversary year of the Nineteenth Amendment, which granted women in America, this book is timely, informative, and interesting, along with providing inspiration and a sense of awe. Then, Frankfort author Chris Helvey’s first-person writing shines again in Violets for Sergeant Schiller, a story of a German poet who finds himself on the frontlines as a soldier in World War I, where the “muse” distraction is high, indeed. I also just finished Mystery with a Splash of Bourbon, a series of short stories and informational pieces revolving around bourbon in Kentucky, with many of the authors having Kentucky connections.
Add to those Democracy in Chains, by Nancy MacLean; Thomas Merton, Monk: A Monastic Tribute; and one somewhat emotionally challenging read, The Sons of Bardstown, by Jim Wilson. The book chronicles the challenging experiences of the community connected to the Viet Nam War in the Kentucky town of Bardstown, where a tragic and disproportional number of casualties from the area occurred.
Dave Robertson likes The Complete Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, commenting: “In his own words, from probably the most misunderstood and under-appreciated President in history.” Tracy McIntosh named a couple of books on her recent list, one which is quite “Kentucky traditional” and the other quite unique. “I am currently reading a collection of Jesse Stuart’s short stories called Clearing in the Sky and Other Stories. I love Kentucky authors.” She called The Overstory, by Richard Powers, “one of the best books I have ever read . . . stories of nine people whose relationships with trees have led to tragedy or salvation. The people are very different, but their lives intersect in a very meaningful way. It is beautifully written, immensely interesting and full of wonderful and terrible facts about trees and conservation of them.”
The current literary fancy of Connie McDonald is Charles Mann’s 1491: New Revelations of the Americas before Columbus. “It challenges a lot of the information we were taught and taught to others,” she said. She also is re-reading Jan Karon’s Mitford series for the “warm and caring sense of community she creates, especially in contrast to the current conflicts in the news today.” She also mentioned a couple of her favorite Christmas books, The Christmas Miracle and The House Without a Christmas Tree.
Dawn Blair is reading The Christmas Barn to her youngest child, noting that it is “one of my favorite historical fiction books.”
Richmond native but now Texas resident Susan Spoon is an all-in literary buff. “Last spring my friends gave me a one-year membership in the Book of the Month Club. So, I enjoyed several of its books: The Giver of Stars; The Fountains of Silence; This Tender Land; A Gentleman in Moscow; and Golden Hour. There were others about which I had mixed feelings: The Goldfinch; The Reckless Oath We Made, and Miracle Creek.” Of those, Susan called them “well-written but somewhat disturbing.” Other books she has read recently are Before We Were Yours and Educated. The Giver of Stars, she noted, has a Kentucky connection and deals with a similar subject matter to The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, also mentioned by my friend Connie Burton.
My church minister, Marcus Lynn, is reading a mystery, The Last Time I Lied, by Riley Sager, and will soon tackle the non-fiction Killers of the Flower Moon, by David Grann. Night Comes to the Cumberlands is the current choice of Roger Guffey and Juanita Whitaker. Juanita, who is from the Jenkins area, noted that the book “was enlightening in that it explained how the coal industry was developed and why eastern Kentucky is such a depressed (economically) area. It saddened me.”
Scott Borders is reading The Tattooist of Auschwitz, which he characterizes as “a love story with a subtle way of weaving a story amidst the backdrop of the Holocaust.” That book is also a choice of Bev Ketron and Beth Garrod-Logsdon. Beth also likes Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen, by Sarah Bird, an historical fiction work based on the life of Cathy Williams, aka Pvt. William Cathay, the only woman to serve as a Buffalo Soldier.
Berea resident Gin Petty praised award-winning The Ten Thousand Doors of January, by Alix Harrow, a graduate of Berea College. “I don’t normally read fantasy,” Gin said, “but this one captured my interest. Beautifully done. Check the reviews!” Harrow’s second novel, Once and Future Witches, was recently released.
The Story of Midway University, by Robert Botkin, draws rave reviews from Bill Penn, who lives in Midway. He calls the book “a very well-written and detailed history of the former Kentucky Female Orphan School with insights on its founders, the various trustees, donors, and transformation to a four-year co-ed school that I think only a former president of the school like himself could provide.”
A neighborhood friend and fellow bibliophile, Sharon Turner, is reading Stay, by Catherine Ryan Hyde. I’ll close by quoting a description of the book that Amazon has on its page: “An unforgettable novel about the power of friendship and kindness by the New York Times and best-selling author of Pay It Forward.”
Oh, that we might internalize and put into actions Hyde’s insight…
