Novels!

Ciao Tutti,

Happy Inauguration Day!

I was really impressed by Margot's enthusiasm last week, and she seems like a wonderful faculty sponsor. I love meeting professors who are so happy to work with undergraduates.

As for my preconceptions of Appalachia, well, to be honest, after reading Jeanette Walls’ memoir, The Glass Castle, I think of poverty. The author vividly describes enduring part of her childhood in the mining town of Welch, West Virginia, a harrowing experience.

Here are two other books (novels) I very much hope to read before we leave:

Clay's Quilt, by Silas House
River of Earth, by James Still

Both seem to have received rave reviews as canonical works of Appalachian literature, and will give us a sense of what the region is like told from the perspective of those who have lived there.

A presto, Haley