Appalachian Vacation

Early summer is a good time to pause and take in the gentle breezes, chirping birds, and brilliant violet, fuchsia, and yellow flowers. In May I am reminded of past trips down the Blue Ridge Parkway and into the Smoky Mountains. Even if you can't take an actual vacation there, you can still immerse yourself in the slow, meandering pace of rural mountain life by reading some novels set in Appalachia. Among my favorites are Lee Smith's award-winning books, described by New York Times book reviewer W.P. Kinsella as "literate, intelligent, insightful and entertaining," and Wendell Berry's multi-generational series set in fictional Port William, Kentucky.

Wendell Berry: The Memory of Old Jack

                        Nathan Coulter

                        Hannah Coulter

Kaye Gibbons: Charms for the Easy Life

Lee Smith: Fair and Tender Ladies

                 Oral History

Barbara Kingsolver: Prodigal Summer

Charles Frazier: Cold Mountain

Fred Chappell: I Am One of You Forever

                       Brighten the Corner Where You Are

                       Farewell, I'm Bound to Leave You

Sheila Kay Adams: My Old True Love

Robert Morgan: Gap Creek

T.R. Pearson: Blue Ridge

Jan Karon: At Home in Mitford

Thomas Wolfe: Look Homeward, Angel

Ann Pancake: Strange As This Weather Has Been

Catherine Marshall: Christy

Welch, Wendy: The Little Bookshop of Big Stone Gap (memoir)

If you also add some music (O Brother Where Art Thou?  O Sister! or The Three Pickers) and a DVD or two (Songcatcher, Coal Miner's Daughter, The Last Mountain, or Hatfields and McCoys), your summer getaway will be complete.