The Mountains We Call Home by Richardson

THE MOUNTAINS WE CALL HOME by Kim Michele Richardson is a work of historical fiction subtitled “The Book Woman's Legacy.” It continues the excellent series which began with The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, followed by The Book Woman’s Daughter. This time, readers find Cussy Mary, a young woman whose skin appears blue due to genetic factors, in jail for marrying a white man, Jackson Lovett. It is the early 1950s (prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in Loving v. Virginia) so the partners are separated and imprisoned. This is a hard book to read at first as Cussy works long hours in the prison kitchen and laundry, amidst harsh conditions. Eventually, she and the readers find hope and some respite as she is assigned librarian duties and begins to transform life for other inmates through literacy and the escape that books often bring. Concerned with freedom and bodily autonomy, there are many sad aspects, including talk of lobotomies, a botched death sentence, and threatened abortion. This title is a LibraryReads Hall of Fame selection and for interested book groups, a Reading Group Guide is included which also explores rural vs. urban life and several social issues. Library Journal describes THE MOUNTAINS WE CALL HOME as “a deeply satisfying companion novel … exploring injustice, belonging, and the transformative power of literacy with compassion and grace.” Kim Michele Richardson is herself passionate about literacy and has honored the Pack Librarians by founding an initiative called Courthouses Reading Across Kentucky, establishing Little Free Libraries across the state.

Lauryn Harper Falls Apart by Shauna Robinson

LAURYN HARPER FALLS APART by Shauna Robinson is a LibraryReads Hall of Fame selection for September 2025. It is a cute story about a confused young woman who finds her way after being demoted due to a misunderstanding at her workplace. I read portions of the ebook and listened to the majority of the Spotify audiobook which is excellent. The narrator, Deanna Anthony, perfectly captures the bewilderment and self-delusion that Lauren Harper exhibits as she repeatedly is her own best enemy, reluctant to rely on the collegiality of other disgraced and misfit corporate employees. They have all been sent to a rural outpost which hosts the charity arm, Ryser Cares, of a big and often controversial conglomerate. Together the group bonds as they attempt to resurrect the former Fall Festival in order to raise funds to support Greenstead’s Community Center. I think Robinson’s fans will enjoy this feel-good tale, even if it seems very predictable. My own issues are similar to those I expressed about her earlier work, The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks: the financials just don’t add up. If Lauren is set to retire in the next few years, what is keeping her from donating (or loaning) $10K to cover the festival costs? Surely, she has that amount readily available and doesn’t need to subject readers to repeated musings about where she can find sources of funds. And, to me, Ryser’s funding proposals and grants seem so inconsistent as shown by the wide disparity versus funds they eventually allocate. A heartfelt story evoking memories of local festivities.

Disillusioned by Benjamin Herold

Described as “a powerful account of the intersection of race, housing, education, and injustice in America,” DISILLUSIONED by Benjamin Herold is the product of four years of thoughtful research and writing. Herold is a prolific journalist with a master’s degree in urban education and he brings that expertise to a study of five families, the suburbs where they live, and their schools. They are geographically and, to some extent, culturally, diverse:  the Becker family from Lucas, Texas, Robinsons from Gwinnett, Georgia, Adesina family from Evanston, Illinois, Smiths from Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, and Hernandez family from Compton, California. However, Herold points to commonalities: the history of “white flight” and “red-lining” discrimination; the dreams and pursuit of a better life; and the more recent reality of high taxes and fragile infrastructures, with a special emphasis on school districts. He skillfully employs personal anecdotes as well as surprising statistics. For example, he notes that for suburbs “white people went from 79% of the population in 1990 to just 55% three decades later.” Those demographic shifts are also outlined in a 2022 report from The Brookings Institution. DISILLUSIONED received a starred review from Kirkus (“ambitious narrative about the simmering inequities in American suburbs”) and this title appeared on The Washington Post’s list of “10 noteworthy books for January.” Herold’s own essay in Kappan Online provides an overview. Interested readers may also wish to turn to Dream Town by Laura Meckler, The Injustice of Place, or even Our Hidden Conversations by Michele Norris.

Death Under a Little Sky by Stig Abell

DEATH UNDER A LITTLE SKY by Stig Abell (How Britain Really Works) is the fiction debut from a former editor of The Times Literary Supplement. Perhaps that explains the relatively little dialogue in this mystery story. Instead, there are long paragraphs of description, generally told from the third person. Still, Abell offers intriguing insight on life in the English countryside. The main character (who will also feature in a subsequent mystery scheduled for mid-year publication) is Jake Jackson, a newly divorced former copper. He moves to a remote cottage that his recently deceased uncle has left to him. In many ways Jake’s world narrows to the few local inhabitants with whom he has contact and yet, he simultaneously seems to grow in self-knowledge and resourcefulness. That transformation and his somewhat reluctant involvement in investigating a local death cold case propel both the story and his increasingly affectionate feelings towards Livia, single Mom, local vet, and neighbor. Publishers Weekly issued a starred review, calling DEATH UNDER A LITTLE SKY an “impressive mystery” and saying, “Kate Atkinson fans will be in heaven.”

The Overlooked Americans by Elizabeth Currid-Halkett

THE OVERLOOKED AMERICANS by Elizabeth Currid-Halkett focuses on “The Resilience of Our Rural Towns and What It Means for Our Country.” Currid-Halkett, the James Irvine Chair in Urban and Regional Planning and professor of public policy at the University of Southern California, writes “I am not trying to convince you of my perspective, but rather I want to share with you with the people in rural America are experiencing and what they're saying about the important issues of our time.” She laments the analysts who are “dismissing and illegitimizing the fact that, for many conservative voters, cultural issues were more important to them than economic ones.” Based on her work, Currid-Halkett argues that “the United States is a far less divided place than our media and politicians would like us to believe.” She may have a point given, for example, the recent returns on Issue 1 in Ohio where local news conceded, “Residents from extensive urban centers, as well as suburban and rural regions, joined forces to voice their dissent against the potential changes.” Currid-Halkett advocates for more listening and outlines a very complicated situation that should spark all kinds of discussion. She includes an extensive Bibliography and Notes which together account for roughly a fourth of the text. THE OVERLOOKED AMERICANS received a starred review from Kirkus, is a 2023 Must Read Book for The Next Big Idea Club, and would certainly complement the work that Judy Woodruff is doing for PBS on America at a Crossroads.

Added August 23rd: Just wanted to briefly make the connection between David Goodhart’s The Road to Somewhere (2017) where he talks about people who are “Anywheres” – comfortable around the globe – and those who are “Somewheres” – identifying with a very local environment. The Economist just published a super interesting piece (“Red giveaway”) which describes research that attempted to measure this and found that “moral values underlie voters’ choices.” Benjamin Enke, Steven Sun, Raymond Fisman, and Luis Mota Freitas looked at “particularism” versus “universalism” and found that both Republican lawmakers and Republican voters tended to favor the former, making speeches and giving to charities that favored those close to them.