Reading Map: Animal, Vegetable, Miracle : A Year of Food Life

Wish You Well
Baldacci, David
A tragedy sends Lou, her little brother Oz, and their invalid mother from New York City to the mountains of Southwest Virginia to live with their great-grandmother in a story encompassing prejudice, innocence and faith. A climactic courtroom battle decides the fates of Lou and her family and all who have been touched by them.

The Sky, the Stars, the Wilderness
Bass, Rick
Three novellas make up a trilogy that focuses on the land, whether it be the dry, difficult worlds of a Texas range, a winter wilderness, or an ancient ocean buried in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains.

Cataloochee
Caldwell, Wayne
Set in the mountains of western North Carolina, the novel follows the lives of three families from the end of the Civil War until 1928, when the National Park Service prepares to uproot them to make way for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Devil's Hearth
DePoy, Phillip
Leaving his job as an academic to return home to the Georgian Appalachians, folklorist Fever Devilin finds his homecoming taking an unexpected turn when he stumbles upon a corpse on his front porch.

Bloodroot
Greene, Amy
Myra Lamb of Bloodroot Mountain has troubling "haint" blue eyes and a grandma whose touch charms people and animals alike. When their neighbor John Odom tries to tame Myra, he meet with a shocking, violent disaster.

Hotel Paradise
Grimes, Martha
The death by drowning of a young girl at a once fashionable Appalachian hotel becomes an obsession of another young girl forty years later.

Prodigal Summer
Kingsolver, Barbara
Deanna Wolffe, a biologist working in a state park, lives alone and becomes involved with local inhabitants.

The Midwife's Tale
Laskas, Gretchen Moran
Serving as midwifes in a mining town, Elizabeth and her mother share intimate details of the lives of every family in the region, but none of their neighbors know their own secrets and desires.

Foggy Mountain Breakdown and Other Stories
McCrumb, Sharyn
A collection of suspense and mystery stories evoking the southern Appalachian region.

The Hinterlands
Morgan, Robert
A settler takes his bride into Kentucky in 1771 and as they develop the land, they raise their family until their great grandsons build a turnpike in 1845.

Disturbing the Dead
Parshall, Sandra
Working as a detective for the Richmond, Virginia Police Department, Tom Bridger returns to his mountain community roots to take on the role of county sheriff's deputy to investigate the killing of a Melungeon woman whose bones have been discovered on a remote mountaintop.

Burning Bright
Rash, Ron
A story collections capturing the eerie beauty, stark violence, and rugged character of Appalachia which span the Civil War to the present day.

Icy Sparks
Rubio, Gwyn Hyman
At the age of 10, an Appalachian girl develops croaks, jerks and spasms, leading to her expulsion from school. After treatment for Tourette's syndrome, she learns to control disease symptoms, attends college and experiences a happy ending.

Fair and Tender Ladies
Smith, Lee
Ivy Rowe wants to be a writer, but poverty and motherhood during World War I and the Great Depression limit her to composing colorful letters describing her Appalachian family and community.