art by midjourney.
Whether you’re rocking on the front porch or swinging in a hammock, our summer reading list packs more heat than an August afternoon.
Growing up, nothing made me feel more alive than getting my grubby, little hands on my school’s summer reading list. While other kids sprinted to the pool or begged their mamas to go to Myrtle Beach, I was lost in the Canadian wilderness with Gary Paulsen’s “Hatchet” or tangled up in the 18th-century drama of “Johnny Tremain.”
These days, nobody’s rewarding me with Pizza Hut coupons for having finished some books — a real shame — but I still make a summer reading list on my own. It’s the perfect excuse to spend a slow afternoon soaking up stories, and if you’re a book nerd like me, you might enjoy this year’s line up. Each of these Appalachian page-turners pairs perfectly with sweet tea and summertime.
BEST FOR:
FIRE IN THE BELLY REALISTS
When Toya Gardner visits her grandmother in the mountains of North Carolina, she plans to finish her MFA thesis — not get swept into a political firestorm. But when violence erupts and an investigation unfolds, long-buried tensions resurface fast. With taut pacing and unflinching honesty, David Joy explores how people and places reckon with race.
BEST FOR:
FANS OF SLOW BURNING SECRETS
When Cowney Sequoyah lands a job at the famed Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina during WWII, he leaves behind his hometown and enters a rarefied world of foreign diplomats. As rumors swirl and a girl disappears, Cowney finds himself caught between suspicion and survival in a quiet, finely drawn coming-of-age tale that exposes social, cultural, and ethnic divides.
BEST FOR:
DYSTOPIAN DREAMERS
In a near-future America ravaged by climate change, one young man flees the only home he’s ever known in search of something better. Guided by a dog and a whole lot of hope, Lark makes a perilous journey across a broken landscape only to discover what survives when the world falls apart — and what it means to keep going when everything you love is lost.
BEST FOR:
FOLKS WHO LIKE BOOKS WITH BITE
Born into poverty in southern Appalachia, Demon faces a world stacked against him. But he’s no victim. Sharp-tongued and fiercely observant, he narrates his own survival with grit and wit. In this modern-day take on “David Copperfield,” Kingsolver delivers a story that’s raw, richly human, and unforgettable. There’s a good reason this novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
BEST FOR:
FANS OF HAUNTING LOVE STORIES
Set in the High Country of Appalachia during the Korean War, this novel follows Blackburn Gant, a solitary cemetery caretaker, as he protects the pregnant wife of his childhood friend — now serving overseas. The story smolders with quiet devotion and moral tension, touching on shame, sacrifice, and the ties that bind us to place. Ron Rash’s prose, as always, is lyrical without being fussy — like a banjo ballad strummed in the backwoods.
MORE RIVETING READS
Every purchase helps keep our Appalachian magazine alive, thriving, and free to readers like you.
ONE PASSAGE: SIDLE CREEK
NEXT UP
