Books Set in or about Appalachia

Playing Books and Bites Bingo? Here are some suggestions for the Books Set in or about Appalachia square.

Updated March 12, 2025
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Brother : a novel
Ahlborn, Ania.
Paper Book
From bestselling author Ania Ahlborn comes this #HorrorBookTok sensation and novel of terror...the unforgettable story of a young man determined to break from his family's unconventional--and deeply disturbing--traditions. Deep in the heart of Appalachia stands a crooked...
Smothermoss : a novel
Alering, Alisa
Paper Book
"Bristles with dark magic. . . . equal parts gruesome and gorgeous and otherworldly."―The New York Times Book Review "This beautifully strange book of the mountains is alarming and inspiring."―Samantha Hunt, author of The Unwritten Book Winner of...
All this marvelous potential : Robert Kennedy's 1968 tour of Appalachia
Algeo, Matthew
Ebook
"A powerful story, skillfully told." -- Booklist  A new portrait of Robert Kennedy, a politician who, for all his faults, had the uncommon courage to stand up to a president from his own party and shine a light on America's shortcomings
Every bone a prayer
Blooms, Ashley
Paper Book
"Blooms has taken the voice and names of Appalachia, tended, and evolved them, and created a book that is at once haunting and hopeful."--NPR Praised by BuzzFeed, Good Housekeeping, POPSUGAR, Bustle, and more! Misty's holler looks like any of the thousands of hollers that fork...
Rednecks
Brown, Taylor
Audiobook
Winner of the Southern Book Prize for Fiction An NPR Best Book of 2024An Atlanta Journal-Constitution Best Southern Book of 2024 Co-winner of the 2024 Weatherford Award in Fiction Audie Award for Best Fiction A...
They all fall the same : a novel
Browne, Wesley
Paper Book
"A dark gritty slice of Rural Noir that goes down smooth but has a hell of a kick like a strong shot of high quality bourbon." --S.A. Cosby, New York Times bestselling author WINNER OF THE 2025 WEATHERFORD AWARD FOR FICTION ONE OF GOODREADS' 2025 BIGGEST...
Hill women : finding family and a way forward in the Appalachian Mountains
Chambers, Cassie
Paper Book
After rising from poverty to earn two Ivy League degrees, an Appalachian lawyer pays tribute to the strong "hill women" who raised and inspired her, and whose values have the potential to rejuvenate a struggling region. "Destined to be compared to Hillbilly Elegy...
Death in Mud Lick : a coal country fight against the drug companies that delivered the opioid epidemic
Eyre, Eric
Paper Book
A New York Times Critics' Top Ten Book of the Year * Edgar Award Winner Best Fact Crime * A LitHub Best Book of the Year From a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at the Charleston Gazette-Mail, a "powerful" (The New York Times), urgent,...
These silent woods : a novel
Grant, Kimi Cunningham
Paper Book
A father and daughter living in the remote Appalachian mountains must reckon with the ghosts of their past in Kimi Cunningham Grant's These Silent Woods, a mesmerizing novel of suspense. No electricity, no family, no connection to the outside world. For...
Revelator
Gregory, Daryl
Paper Book
ONE OF THE WASHINGTON POST'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR * The dark, gripping tale of a 1930's family in the remote hills of the Smoky Mountains, their secret religion, and the daughter who turns her back on their mysterious god--from the acclaimed author of Spoonbenders. ...
Soul full of coal dust : a fight for breath and justice in Appalachia
Hamby, Chris
Paper Book
Decades have passed since black lung disease was recognized as a national disgrace and Congress was pushed to take legislative action. Since then, however, not much has changed. Big coal companies-along with their allies in the legal and medical professions-have continually flouted the law and...
Appalachian reckoning : a region responds to Hillbilly Elegy
Harkins, Anthony
Paper Book
2020 American Book Award winner, Walter & Lillian Lowenfels Criticism Award 2019 Weatherford Award winner, nonfiction With hundreds of thousands of copies sold, a Ron Howard movie in the works, and the rise of its author as a media...
Appalachian elegy : poetry and place
hooks, bell
Paper Book
Author, activist, feminist, teacher, and artist bell hooks is celebrated as one of the nation's leading intellectuals. Born in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, hooks drew her unique pseudonym from the name of her grandmother, an intelligent and strong-willed African American woman who inspired her to...
Clay's quilt
House, Silas
Paper Book
On a bone-chilling New Year's Day, when all the mountain roads are slick with ice, Clay's mother, Anneth, insists on leaving her husband. She packs her things, and with three-year-old Clay in tow, they inch their way toward her hometown along the treacherous mountain roads. That journey ends...
Demon Copperhead
Kingsolver, Barbara
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE * WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION New York Times Readers' Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century * An Oprah's Book Club Selection * An Instant New York Times Bestseller * An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller * A #1 Washington Post...
Child of God
McCarthy, Cormac
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road * In this taut, chilling story,Lester Ballard--a violent, dispossessed man falsely accused of rape--haunts the hill country of East Tennessee when he is released from jail. ...
Outer dark
McCarthy, Cormac
Paper Book
From the bestselling author of The Passenger and the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road * A novel at once fabular and starkly evocative, set is an unspecified place in Appalachia, sometime around the turn of the century. A woman bears her brother's child,...
Betty
McDaniel, Tiffany
Paper Book
A stunning, lyrical novel set in the rolling foothills of the Appalachians about a young girl and the family truths that will haunt her for the rest of her life. "A girl comes of age against the knife." So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in...
The giver of stars
Moyes, Jojo
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER |  A REESE'S BOOK CLUB PICK   "A great narrative about personal strength and really captures how books bring communities together." --Reese Witherspoon   From the author of the forthcoming Someone Else's Shoes<...
The book woman of Troublesome Creek : a novel
Richardson, Kim Michele,
Paper Book
Inspired by Kentucky's blue-skinned people and the Kentucky Pack Horse Library of the 1930s, this is a story of courage, strength, and a woman's belief that books can carry us anywhere ? even back home.
The prettiest star
Sickels, Carter
Paper Book
One of 2020's most acclaimed books. A Kirkus Best Fiction Book of 2020 * One of O Magazine's Best LGBT Books of 2020 * Winner of the Ohioana Book Award * Winner of the Weatherford Award * A Finalist for the Southern Book Prize * A Finalist for the Granum Foundation Prize ...
Black Coal and Red Bandanas: An Illustrated History of the West Virginia Mine Wars
Tyler, Raymond
Our illustrated history begins with Mary Harris 'Mother' Jones arrival at the turn of the century. White-haired, matronly, and fiercely socialist, Jones became known as the 'miners' angel,' and helped turn the fledgling United Mine Workers into the nation's most powerful labour union. 'Pray for the...

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