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Appalachian Fiction with Natalie Seabolt in WV
42 Plays1 month ago
Recent Reads:
- Maria: Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
- Natalie: The Bear by Andrew Krivak
Reccommendations:
- New: The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich
- Backlist: Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
- Local: Night Watch by Jayne Ann Phillips
Book End - Appalachian fiction that connects the people, landscape, and mountain culture:
- The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
- Given Ground by Ann Pancake
Recommended
Transcript
00:00:19
Speaker
Hello, and welcome to The Checkout Stack, where we talk books with a new librarian every episode. i am your host and the world's biggest library superfan, Maria Scogin, and I'm so excited to introduce our guest today, Natalie Siebold from Somersville Public Library in West Virginia. Natalie, thank you for being here today. Can you introduce yourself to our guests and tell us a little about you and your library?
00:00:44
Speaker
Sure. Thank you so much for having me first. So I am also a lover libraries and probably wouldn't even be sitting here today if it weren't for my library when I was growing up.
00:00:57
Speaker
And so I would like to talk about that for just a minute before I talk about my library where I work now. We have a few small libraries in the area where I grew up, and the one in my town, um i used to spend every Saturday afternoon there, you know, reading, and my mom would would drop me off, and I would be there for several hours, and she would come and pick me up.
00:01:21
Speaker
And there was an addition built onto the library when I was a little older, maybe 6th, 7th grade. And that's where they housed like the adult materials. And then the children's library was in the front.
00:01:32
Speaker
And in order to access the back, you had to have permission, of course. And so my mom had to fill out this form, which allowed me to to go back. And so it was literally a changing like moment in my life where was led me to be who I am today, because I was in the seventh grade reading Faulkner and Hemingway and these things. And it, you know, kind of created hunger in me, I think, for literature and for, you know, the the love of books and the love of learning and the love of experiencing the world.
00:02:11
Speaker
And so That led me to be an avid reader, a writer. And I went on to study writing and teach writing for almost 24 years at the college level as what I've been doing before I ended up being a librarian.
00:02:28
Speaker
And so I'm very grateful for that experience. And having a library, you know, to to access, especially in rural communities, sometimes, you know, access can be difficult just due to the lack of transportation or inability to get there. And I was lucky enough to be able to be there. And it really shaped my world.
00:02:49
Speaker
And so i hope that's true for many other people as well. And so I was actually teaching. I've been teaching for, like I said, 24 years. And I wanted to just add something different.
00:03:05
Speaker
And at my local library, there was a part-time position. And so I took that and it led to me becoming the director there but about a year later. Yeah. Well, we had someone who retired and the job was open and it just, it was, it's sort of like a dream job to me and the stars just aligned.
00:03:27
Speaker
And so I started and as the director at Summersville Public Library. And so we're a small but rural library, we're a city library. And our service area is probably about 9,000 people in the county.
00:03:43
Speaker
yep And so we all at um the library, there are four of us. So I have an assistant director and two part-time staff members. And we all wear many, many different hats because we are responsible for all of it. Everything from, you know, early literacy through adult programming and everything in between.
00:04:04
Speaker
Wow. I love your story about getting the permission slip to enter the adult section of the library. feel like I have vague memories of moving out of the kids section into like the teen section, which was sent.
00:04:17
Speaker
It was in the back with the adult stuff. And even so though I wasn't in the adult stacks, like I do remember the feeling of being like, wow, I'm so grown up that I'm going into the like bigger section of the library now.
00:04:30
Speaker
So that's a funny I hadn't, I now hadn't thought about that experience in a long time, but very relatable, I think, to a lot of us, library kids. Yes. i Yeah, that feeling of walking into, and don't know, just into this new world, ah this adult world, but also then walking into those books, right, which take you on different journeys and into different places.
00:04:55
Speaker
It's a very special time. Great. Well, let's jump into some book talk. um I will kick us off with our recent reads. So I recently read Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. Have you read this one, Natalie?
00:05:11
Speaker
I have not, but it's on my list and on our shelves. Okay, yeah. So the way that I found this book was i get most of my books from my bookmobile, which comes to my town once a week.
00:05:24
Speaker
And if I run out of books in between the next bookmobile drop, I will go on Libby and I will go to general content available now and then I'll sort it by most popular.
00:05:35
Speaker
And Me Before You is always at the top of the list. It's always like within the first five or six books that are most popular and available right now. And for probably a year and a half, I have been looking at it and thinking to myself,
00:05:51
Speaker
That's a that's a chick lit book. That's like below my quality of reading. That's not really something I would be into, which is funny because every time I do that, then when I go actually read it, it turns out that I love it because I have this idea. I'm a very sophisticated reader and sometimes I am. But like a lot of the times I just love what's popular like everyone else because they're good.
00:06:13
Speaker
So that's how I came to this book was on was thinking being kind of snarky about it, but I ended up really liking it. So the story is, would call it like a melodrama with kind of a hint of romance.
00:06:28
Speaker
and So our main character, Louisa, is hired on a six month contract to provide care for a surly but handsome quadriplegic named Will. but Will used to be super fit. He was a corporate executive and lived what he would describe as a big life in the city before he was hit by a car and lost mobility in like the entire lower half of his body.
00:06:54
Speaker
This might be a little bit of a spoiler to say, but I think it's important to know going into the book that Will is considering assisted suicide. And so the book is about him trying to make that decision and the people around him trying to change his decision and influence him.
00:07:13
Speaker
And so if that's a heavy topic for you, just know that Will the book kind of comes at this with a neutral stance. and It does not assign moral judgment to to that decision that Will gets to make.
00:07:25
Speaker
So I think that's important to know going in. But I really loved just the relationship between Louisa and Will, how they helped each other grow and changed their perspectives on the world. And i yeah, like I said, i I ended up really liking it. I would probably give it like Three and a half stars.
00:07:42
Speaker
So that was Me Before You by Jojo Moyes. Natalie, what is your recent read? So my recent read is The Bear by Andrew Kruvach.
00:07:54
Speaker
And this book was published in 2020. And i just recently discovered it. And that's something I love, though, about how a book can be new when it's new to you.
00:08:05
Speaker
Right. and And you pull it off the shelf and um it it doesn't matter where it came from. It's it's just this portal into another world.
00:08:16
Speaker
And so... The Bear is almost novella size. It's a very small novel. And it was actually, the way I found it was, it's a National Endowment for the Arts big read.
00:08:31
Speaker
And it was just, on it was on a list and I was browsing that and and I saw it. And so, and and I don't would want to give too many spoilers either, but I do have to say that this is the first, literally the first sentence of the book.
00:08:47
Speaker
um You find out that the two characters in the book are indeed the last two humans on the planet. a father and his daughter. And so the book is written somewhat like a fairy, not really a fairy tale, almost like a folk tale.
00:09:05
Speaker
You don't get names. It's just the man and the girl. And so you sort of have this idea isolating feeling, which of course you would if you were, you know, the two last human beings on the planet.
00:09:21
Speaker
And so you get some mention of the time before. You don't have an idea of like what has happened. you know, why all of the people are gone.
00:09:33
Speaker
But there are some, you know, references, like in their little home, they have some books that they've preserved. And he teaches, you know, the dad teaches his daughter how to read.
00:09:45
Speaker
And he teaches her every survival skill. You know, she's about 12 years old, and she can hunt, and she can skin, and she can you know, make clothing and they make shoes and they, you know, grow some things. And he's taught her all of these things. And I just kept thinking how lonely it would be to be in that situation, but also how capable they were just to make it through the day. And there's just this kind conflict between us now, who have all of these, you know, conveniences. And we don't think much about what it would be like to actually not have all of our daily comforts and everything. But the story is actually very detailed in a lot of what
00:10:40
Speaker
and like the steps of what they do. It's almost like not quite an instruction manual, but they really go through the steps and it creates this visceral kind of experience as you, you know, he and makes her a bow and some arrows as a gift for her birthday.
00:10:58
Speaker
And, and she's, you know, very good with it. And, So the book tells the story, of course, of what happens to them. The setting is fictional New Hampshire.
00:11:11
Speaker
And so they live in the, in the woodlands, of course, but they make their way to the coast on a journey to get salt. which they need.
00:11:22
Speaker
um And so they go every couple of years to do this. And along that way, you get some details about the girl's mother and what happened to her and, you know, some some other details about civilization.
00:11:33
Speaker
And then the conflict really begins to happen. And I don't want to spoil that or anything, but there are some really high adventure moments situations that happened to them there.
00:11:45
Speaker
And then the book begins to take a turn into more of a folk tale-like structure because the girl meets up with some animal, a bear, of course, and a puma, and they talk to her.
00:12:01
Speaker
They speak to her. And so it was a little startling at first because the first part of the book is so concrete in survival, right? and And technique and like what things smell like and look like and feel like. And then suddenly there's a shift and it is, it is pretty sudden.
00:12:22
Speaker
And at first I wasn't sure how I felt about that. But by the end, I was like, okay, this is the kind of tale this is.
00:12:33
Speaker
And I even went back and read some of the first part again, just to make sure i didn't miss anything. um So I would say to kind of go in knowing that it is definitely set up this way.
00:12:47
Speaker
And, you know, it it turns, you sort of have to suspend disbelief a little bit, you know, because things shift quickly. But it's, it's the kind of book that is at once heartbreaking, but also at once hopeful, because the humanity of the people that yeah remains, despite the fact that they're the only two left, is very encouraging and heartwarming.
00:13:13
Speaker
and I did cry in this book, but I'm somewhat of a sap. and so And I, you know, but, and so I will say that, you know, you do need to be prepared, although the first line prepares you because you realize they are the only two people left on the planet. And you realize that this isn't going to end.
00:13:32
Speaker
The story is going to end and and and they are going to end, right? And you kind of go in knowing. And so it doesn't, I think that helps it not hurt so much, maybe. Yeah. But it is a beautiful book and it's, it's very, the language is sparse because it is written like a folk tale, but the story is rich and it's endearing, this relationship between the daughter and her father and their connection with the landscape and, you know, what it takes to survive and how they hold the memories of those who have gone before.
00:14:04
Speaker
And so, of course, I do recommend it and I think that you should read it And it is a really beautiful but Yeah, I think what's interesting to me about that book and I read a lot of apocalypse novels and I like them for the survival aspect, but I don't like the part where it's humans being horrible to each other because they're trying to fight for resources.
00:14:28
Speaker
So I think it's interesting that in this book, like you're already the last two. You're not looking out for people that are coming to kill you in the night and steal all your resources. So I think that that makes it interesting to me personally.
00:14:41
Speaker
Yes. And I think it comes down to, you don't have that fear, but it really is sort of this ancient man against nature kind of feeling, of course, because they have to be so careful.
00:14:55
Speaker
Yep. And there is danger, but it's like you said, it's a very different kind of danger. And it's not, they don't have to look over their shoulder all the time. Right. They just never break a leg. Yeah.
00:15:06
Speaker
Right. Yes, you have to be very careful. That was my thing. Very careful not to get hurt. yeah And so they have to be smart in a very different way. And that does create, of course, some tension in the book, which is really good and pushes the story forward.
00:15:20
Speaker
um and it it definitely creates excitement. Great. That was The Bear by Andrew Kravak. Next up, we are going to go into the new book stack. So this is something that's been released in the last year. Natalie, what new book are you bringing to the show today?
00:15:38
Speaker
I want to talk about The Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich. um So it was published in October... It takes place in the Red River Valley, of course, um in North Dakota, and tells the story of a family and a community simultaneously.
00:15:57
Speaker
And so in this particular part of the country, the sugar beet industry is kind of like, you know, what everybody does. And so the characters are defined by their interaction with that industry or the way that they are not interacting with it.
00:16:14
Speaker
And the novel is told in chapters that are the points of view of different characters. So for instance, we have Kismet, who is a young girl in high school, just getting ready to graduate.
00:16:29
Speaker
And she's deciding, it's a coming of age story. She's deciding what she wants to do, who she wants to be with, how she wants to be in this small town. You know, does she want to stay? Does she want to go to college? What's she going to do?
00:16:42
Speaker
So it's a, it's of a typical story of a person this age, but it's layered, of course, with her mother's point of view. Her mother's name is Crystal, and she's actually a truck driver who hauls the sugar beets from you know, the processing plant out to where they need to go.
00:17:01
Speaker
And so, you know, in this small town structure, of course, you know, the way that you make it is to have a decent job. And she has to work nights. She works long hours.
00:17:14
Speaker
The weather is harsh, not super easy. And she wants better for her daughter. She wants her daughter to not suffer like she has in in many ways, as many mothers would.
00:17:26
Speaker
And again, it's typical in terms of the sick experience that many people have. And um as you navigate your way through, you know, the place where you are, and and Then we have other characters such as Crystal's husband and one of the boyfriends of Kismet and how they navigate, you know, life in the community.
00:17:57
Speaker
And there's sort of a love affair between Kismet and two different boys. And she kind of moves back and forth with that teenager kind of feel.
00:18:08
Speaker
um She's not sure what she wants to do. And It's kind of torturous to me because, you you know, you look back at that age and think like, oh, my gosh, girl, like, you know, make a decision here.
00:18:22
Speaker
And but it's also a beautiful thing because she is not bound by relationships yet, you know. And so there's also been a tragedy in the town.
00:18:34
Speaker
And it's, it parallels their connection with the industry and the way that the town works too, because everybody was touched by this tragedy. And I don't want to say what the tragedy is because I don't want to spoil that part of the book. But, you know, it's a, anytime there's a tragedy in a small town, of course, it can have a devastating effect um and everybody knows each other, everybody, you know, and so then there's also, of course, a lot of gossip, a lot of rumors, a lot of judgment based on how people react or what happens.
00:19:04
Speaker
And, and so as Erdrich often does, she pulls both from her Native American and German history. She does this in many of her books, of course. And so you get the perspectives from, you know, white civilized, you you know, America and the Native American perspective too, which is always in conflict to a degree, but also always boils down to we're all human beings and a lot more alike than we are different, which is something beautiful about the book.
00:19:37
Speaker
The book follows Kismet mostly. She's like the main thread, and the other threads and points of view weave around that. to culminate in a story about someone who does discover who she is and what she wants and what steps she's going to take in her future.
00:19:55
Speaker
And it's it's a beautiful book. And of course, I'm like you. I tend to be more of a literary reader. I like to be challenged. I want the text to be as beautiful and challenging as the story.
00:20:10
Speaker
And this book is like that. Wow. The thing I love about Louise Erdrich for anyone in Minnesota is that she has a bookstore called Birchbark Books in the Twin Cities.
00:20:24
Speaker
And if you live close enough to visit it, you should go there. It is a very magical bookstore. I like a lot of the books that Louise Erdrich puts out into the world. That was the Mighty Red by Louise Erdrich.
00:20:37
Speaker
Next up, we are going to go into the backlist. So Natalie, what is the backlist title that we are bringing to the show today? This book is Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson.
00:20:51
Speaker
um This book was actually published in 1980, so it's rather oh but that it is a timeless kind of book in terms of the story.
00:21:03
Speaker
We have two, so two young girls, two sisters in the opening of the book. And as many stories begin, we have a death in the family. And this is bringing people together and things are shifting.
00:21:17
Speaker
And it's not, I mean, this isn't a spoiler. I mean, you find out right away that the girl's mother has passed. But there's a question about what happened. but Was it an accident or was it suicide?
00:21:30
Speaker
And i will say this is not, it's not like a gruesome book or anything like that, but in terms of the accident. But the girls then, you know, have to have a place to be.
00:21:44
Speaker
And so they make a journey to Finger Bone, Iowa, or Idaho. Finger Bone, Idaho is where this takes place. And it's a small town also.
00:21:56
Speaker
And there's a train that, that runs through the town. And this is what brings the girls there. And so they live with their grandmother for a while and then they move in with their sister aunts. These are the sisters of their mother.
00:22:13
Speaker
And but there are, of course, conflicts. I mean, none of these older women were prepared to take on two young girls. And so, you know, there's some family conflict there. And then the two girls themselves yeah are just longing for a mother, longing to figure out where they want to be in the world as well, and, and how they're, you know, going to get there.
00:22:37
Speaker
There's a feeling that the, the world and the events which have happened in their lives, are are shaping their future. And they don't have much say in it, really.
00:22:49
Speaker
And so it's that sort of adolescent angst, too. They're, you know, both getting to the point where they want to make decisions for themselves. And um and they're trying to forge relationships with the women that in their family, but things just don't work out the way that they hope. And so they end up being taken in by their very eccentric and sort of long lost aunt who returns.
00:23:14
Speaker
This is the youngest sister in the family. Her name is Sylvie. And but so they move in with her. And she is
00:23:24
Speaker
She's the opposite of, you know, the hardworking, clean housekeeping kind of woman. And so here's where the title kind of plays into this.
00:23:36
Speaker
The book has a lot of conflicts between the domestic and sort of the, you wild person inside all of us. And what does it mean to... follow the rules or rebel against the rules. And Sylvie is an artist, and she is ah not a housekeeper.
00:23:56
Speaker
She's not someone who keeps regular hours. You know, she's not going to have breakfast on the table or, you know, dinner at 5. I'm And this is inspirational to the the narrator who is the youngest girl, Ruthie, and but it's not accepted by her older sister, Lucille.
00:24:17
Speaker
And so then the girls sort of become in conflict because Lucille wants reliability and a strong, you know, domestic household. And Ruthie tends to, you know, kind of fall on the side of Sylvie. And so,
00:24:32
Speaker
the, there are many conflicts that happen, which lead to the threat of the girls being taken and in just put into like state care in the book. And so they have to decide, you know, what, what path to take, like what to do where to go, how to do that.
00:24:52
Speaker
And it's, it's a very lyrical haunting book. And and And even deals with mental illness in the family a little bit. And, you know, how you fit into a community, how you fit into a group of people and even in a family. And so it's intricate relationships are dealt with in this book in very beautiful language as well.
00:25:15
Speaker
Wow. That sounds really good. I'm currently reading Middlemarch right now. Have you read that one? I have, yes. It reminds me of... I'm just at the start of the book, but the two sisters in that story are also like one is very pious and like proper and the younger sister is a little bit more like...
00:25:34
Speaker
loose and worldly. Does that connection feel right to this story? It does. It does. And you know how in Middlemarch, there's a lot of physical moving, moving right, of place and furniture and like these things like that happen, like, you know, and this book is not, of course, exactly the same kind of style, but it's that same kind of idea.
00:25:57
Speaker
And those relationships are run very parallel to that, to that idea. Oh, interesting. That's cool. That was Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson.
00:26:08
Speaker
Next up, we are going into a local author. So again, Natalie is in Summersville, West Virginia. So Natalie, where is this author from and what is the book?
00:26:19
Speaker
So my author is from Buckhannon, West Virginia, and this is Jane Ann Phillips. We are very proud of her. She actually won the Pulitzer Prize in 2024 for her book Nightwatch, which is the book that I would like to talk about um from her.
00:26:37
Speaker
This is not far, far from where I live. You can get there within an hour or so. And so it's just a nice and inspiring feeling to have someone who is um a world-renowned writer, you know, right here, um from right here.
00:26:52
Speaker
So this book, Nightwatch is in a trilogy of sorts, but not the kind of trilogy that's connected through character or even through like a chronological storyline.
00:27:05
Speaker
It's just that Jane Ann Phillips has written three historical fiction books. Her first novel was called Machine Dreams, and it's about the effects on family and in community in Vietnam, in the Vietnam War.
00:27:19
Speaker
And then the second one, is Lark and Termite, and that one dealt with the Korean War. And so Nightwatch deals with the Civil War's effects on the people. The U.S. Civil War?
00:27:33
Speaker
Yes, U.S. Civil War. And it takes place in in and around weston West Virginia, which is where the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum was located.
00:27:48
Speaker
is that really a thing? Yes, it's a thing. And let me tell you, so the asylum grounds are still there and still, you can still access them with a tour and things like this.
00:28:01
Speaker
And they are even claimed to be quite haunted. And so there are ghost tours and things that you can do there in the fall and you can visit this place. But it's, It's kind of mind blowing um when you think about what was sort of thought about mental health at at this time. you know, this is so the book kind of takes place within a 10 year frame, 1864 to asylum is is up running.
00:28:28
Speaker
okay and so the asylum is is up and running you know, i'm in 1874. And we have a young narrator. Her name is Connelly, and she's about 12 years old.
00:28:42
Speaker
When the book opens, she lives with her mother and three young children with a man they refer to as Papa. But you realize very quickly that this is not her father.
00:28:54
Speaker
Mm-hmm. But the mother is, has gone through some sort of tragedy and she's not speaking. And so you get nothing from her, right?
00:29:06
Speaker
In terms of what's happening or who this person is. And, know, There is a strong hint that he is not a good man and could be a threat to Connelly herself.
00:29:19
Speaker
The mother has just recently given birth to twins and then had another young child from this man, about a year old or so. And ah you You don't really know why yet, of course, in the beginning, but he has decided that the the mother character needs to go to the asylum and get help.
00:29:40
Speaker
And so he basically... He tells Connelly that he's just leaving the children with neighbors, but he's actually talks people into like taking these children so that he can like send this woman you know away. And so he sends the daughter with her to care for her and he just drops them off at the asylum.
00:30:04
Speaker
Oh, my gosh. They make this long journey, you know, in horse and wagon and they go there. And so the daughter has to go in and navigate the care of her mother, which is both heartbreaking, but also you see the resilience that she has because she's the one who had been taking care of everything before.
00:30:24
Speaker
at home. You know, she was bringing the babies to be nursed, and she was cleaning, and she was cooking, and she was doing all of these things. And so now here she is out in the world, in a strange new environment, trying to navigate the care.
00:30:39
Speaker
And they come up with a story about who her mother is. And so it's, the story is very, it has layers of deception, right? Because we don't know who this man is and we realize he has a past.
00:30:55
Speaker
And then we don't really know why they're lying, right? what What, what is the point of that? um Of course, you do discover all of these things in the book, But she has to get her mother into the asylum and get her some help and care in hopes that she will recover and begin to speak again, you know, and that they can still have some kind of life together.
00:31:16
Speaker
This book also has multiple viewpoints in different chapters. And so you hear from Connelly, of course, she's the main narrator, but then there's, um, sort of a witchy woman, granny woman, midwife character named D'Irvla.
00:31:34
Speaker
That's an old Irish name. And she, it was the midwife when Connelly's mother was born. So she's raised... this woman and then birth, know, helped her birth her children.
00:31:47
Speaker
And she is a healer, you know, in the area, and people go to her for help and for advice. And she's been cut off from the family, though, because the Papa character did not like her. He didn't want her interference.
00:32:02
Speaker
But she does have second sight, and she can see things, and she realizes what has happened. And so within the story, you begin to get some, the backstory of what has happened.
00:32:16
Speaker
And she tells you about a couple different journeys that she's taken in order to find these people where they are and help them. Over this 10 year period. And so you get the backstory as you're getting the story of the present.
00:32:31
Speaker
It's just layered through different points of view. And so when, when they get to the asylum, of course, um you get another point of view from a small boy who lives there. his They call him Weed.
00:32:46
Speaker
And, and so, you know, children point, ah a children's point of view often, you know, can tell things that adults miss, right? It's, it's a different kind of looking, a different kind of seeing, a different kind of voice.
00:33:00
Speaker
And so you learn some things too about the other people at the asylum and the doctors and everyone who works there through this child's point of view and how all of these characters are going to,
00:33:13
Speaker
meet up and reconnect and the full story is going to be told to you. And and so that's how the progress of the book goes. And all of this is happening at the same time as the U.S. Civil War?
00:33:27
Speaker
So the war, has just been over. It's recently over. Okay. You know, it's recently over. people feeling from the effects of it. Yes, everyone is, you know, economy, place. There's been a lot of destruction.
00:33:41
Speaker
and as you also have... This is in West Virginia. Oh, right. Cause it's the local. So it's in Appalachia. Yes. So, and, and, but there's still, so there, one of the viewpoints is called the sharpshooter and he is a soldier and you of course do find out where he came from and who he is and what his role is in connection with these women as, of as the story goes along.
00:34:06
Speaker
But you also get a lot of details about, just the the actual, what it felt like to navigate that conflict between being, you know, fighting for the North or being from the South and making that choice and how that affected people, you know, just in their daily lives and, you you know, how injury and separation and time and distance affects people and families. And,
00:34:32
Speaker
The book also has a lot of like photographs and charts and historical documents that are placed in between the chapters, even though this is a novel, which gives it this like nonfiction feel at times.
00:34:48
Speaker
Right. But it's like context. Yeah. Yes, it's setting the context and I think helping people understand what, you know, sort of what we knew and what we thought about health and mental illness or difficulties at the time.
00:35:02
Speaker
You know, and there's a list of conditions which might get you into the asylum at this time. And it's very interesting. yeah but But there are also a lot of quotes and things from the actual doctors and and people who founded the the asylum.
00:35:18
Speaker
Yeah. And, and they you know set a context for it, of course, and, and I think help people who don't have a lot of knowledge about that particular time in history to understand how they were seeing and thinking about these things.
00:35:32
Speaker
And, but it's an, it's a nice addition, a nice touch to the book. Wow. Yeah, I bet the list of reasons you could get entered into the asylum would be very startling by today's standards.
00:35:45
Speaker
Yes, indeed. I was shocked at some of them. I couldn't believe it. fun Well, that sounds very compelling. That was Night Watch by Pulitzer Prize winning author Jane Ann Phillips.
00:36:00
Speaker
Next up, we are going into our bookend. So for this segment of the show, our guest gets to pick any topic they choose and then bring three books on it. So Natalie, what is the topic that you are bringing to the show today?
00:36:14
Speaker
So I'm going to talk about books that are set in Appalachia. And they these books all showcase showcase a very deep connection between people and the land and how the culture is developed out of that.
00:36:28
Speaker
So a deep connection between the landscape of Appalachia and these people. Great. And what is the first book it of books in Appalachia that you're bringing? So the first book is The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister.
00:36:43
Speaker
And this is a new book, came out in 2024. And so what we have here is a family, the Hattisleys, and they have a story.
00:36:55
Speaker
They have been told that they are descendants from Scotland, and they came to the United States and settled right here in around Nicholas County, where I live.
00:37:10
Speaker
There are some bog lands. that are here. And so there's a connection between the bog and the ancestral land in Scotland.
00:37:21
Speaker
And these people believe that the bog is alive. The bog is almost like a character in the novel. And they have a pact with this bog, like a literal pact with the land.
00:37:35
Speaker
And so they live on it, and they live in seclusion, though. they It's almost like a cult. They don't go out into the community. They don't know anyone. No one comes there.
00:37:46
Speaker
They are just a family unto themselves. And so you wonder, how do they continue their family line? Well, they have a pact with the bog. And so when the patriarch of the family is, has passed on or is close to dying, this person is sacrificed to the bog and then the bog gives them a wife for the eldest son.
00:38:11
Speaker
ah So the bog creates a person or it traps a person in the bog. Yeah. It creates a person and she comes out of the bog and then is the wife and then bears the new children, you know, to the family. And this is how the family moves forward.
00:38:30
Speaker
So this is the legend. This is the family's history. Now, they also had at one time great fortune. And there is a story that goes along with how they got the money and, you you know, how fortunate and blessed they were and all of this. But at the time the book begins, there's a lot of conflict because their patriarch is not well.
00:38:54
Speaker
And they realize that they're going to have to do this ritual to, to call the new wife, right? It's coming. And And they have one sister who has left the family, and her name is Wenna, and she's the main the voice of this book. She's telling this story.
00:39:11
Speaker
And they contact her to to come back and help with the ritual. And of course, she's torn because she's out of the cult. She's out of the town. She's in the world.
00:39:25
Speaker
You know, she fell in love, and she has a husband, and she is very hesitant. And of course, he doesn't want her to go back. He's terrified, really. And he wants to go with her, but she says, No, i you know this is something I have to do. And so she decides to return home and to help her family make this transition as the father passes away.
00:39:46
Speaker
So we have an eldest son who is the next in line. He would technically be the patriarch. But we discover that while Wenna has been gone, things have fallen into disarray.
00:40:00
Speaker
The fortune is dwindling. And so the family doesn't have much money. And they don't have any way of making money because none of them have jobs. They're not educated. They're secluded, you know, in this huge old mansion of a home in this bog land that is secluded from everything, right?
00:40:19
Speaker
And a tree has fallen on the house and destroyed oh part of it and has injured the brother the that would be next in line, right? And so it's sort of like...
00:40:31
Speaker
the their father is passing, but the eldest brother is incapable of taking on this job, but they're not sure how the bog is going to react, right? Will they give, will the bog give them a wife to continue their family line? Or is it going to frown upon, you you know, this injured son?
00:40:49
Speaker
You know, what's going to happen? How can they appease the bog? how And then also, you know, the bog itself is having problems. And it It just relates a lot to environmental concerns and climate change and things that are happening. And they've always tended to the bog and cared for it, but they're having a hard time doing that because things aren't the way they used to be.
00:41:12
Speaker
And so the bog is seeming to break down and the family is breaking down and what is going to happen. And so, you know, the story is really about that, the conflicts between, you know, family and the outside world, and this kind of supernatural idea. And then, of course, the idea that that cannot be what it seems to be.
00:41:37
Speaker
and And so it's kind of a mystery. I mean, the book in a way is is kind of a mystery about what has actually happened here. But the the children in the family, i mean, they're all adults at this time, but they they do deal with this in different ways, of course. Some pull inward and some decide to go outward and look for answers and discover the real truth about the family's past and the bog wife and what is going to happen now.
00:42:06
Speaker
I have a question. Are you rooting for the family? Because part of me feels like the idea of you being in this bog, isolated, it's like kind of sinister. So it's like, do you want the bog to reconcile with them? Or is it kind of like unclear what the best path forward is?
00:42:26
Speaker
Well, I think so. I think there's definitely a conflict. It's like there was a part of me that wanted things to go right because you do come to understand a lot of heartbreak and the children talk about their mother, right, who was a bog wife.
00:42:44
Speaker
And they talk about her being this beautiful, lovely woman who, but she also is like spectral in a way because she wasn't a warm, necessarily loving, I mean, she came and she did the job and then she departs, right?
00:43:07
Speaker
And so they have an attachment to her and you want it for them because you want people to have a family, a place to be, a history, a story. We all want that.
00:43:18
Speaker
But at the same time, you are right. This is a sinister story. And you realize that the isolation they've been, you know, living is not good for them.
00:43:29
Speaker
The bog isn't healthy. They aren't healthy. Things are not okay. Yeah. And, you know, bad weather is coming, winter is is is arriving, and they don't even have the money to like get the right clothing or have them the necessary food or supplies they need.
00:43:48
Speaker
And so things begin, you know, to to rise to a climax here because something has to happen. So you want to root for them, but it's almost like you're not sure what you want to happen.
00:44:02
Speaker
Because we' what could happen? Like, where're what is going to happen here? And how can this possibly work out in a healthy way? And so it gets a very tense and kind of thrilling at the end.
00:44:15
Speaker
And it is a little heartbreaking and a little sad. But things change forever for them. I will say that. Okay.
00:44:26
Speaker
That was The Bog Wife by Kay Chronister. Next up, what is our second book in the Appalachian bookend? The second book is Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver.
00:44:43
Speaker
and This book also won the Pulitzer Prize in 2023. And I didn't set out to, I was just like, oh, like when I started thinking about it and choosing the books and I was like, well, this is kind of interesting because I wasn't picking them like that.
00:44:59
Speaker
But Kingsolver says that her novel was actually inspired by Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. So we have Demon Copperhead, David Copperfield. You know, there's a kind of connection there. And if you actually go back and look at the characters in the two novels, they are there are similarities and links between them. So if you're a Dickens fan, this has a direct connection to that story.
00:45:27
Speaker
Overall, the book, of course, deals with Poverty, class issues, drug addiction, specifically the opioid crisis that has happened in Appalachia in these past years.
00:45:40
Speaker
It's set in Lee County, Virginia, is where this takes place. And so Demon is the main character of the book. his His real name is actually Damon, but he ends up getting nicknamed Demon in a not so nice way, but he kind of takes that on and he keeps it.
00:45:59
Speaker
And then it just becomes a nickname. And then he kind of takes that on. So Demon lives with his mother. And they have neighbors who are very supportive of the family and try to help his mom, who is a single mother, you know, bring up her child.
00:46:18
Speaker
Sadly, his mother dies of an overdose when he's quite young. And so he's put into state care. And he has several homes that he lives in. And so you, you journey with him through the ups and downs of this and him trying to find his own identity and trying to find a place in the world.
00:46:40
Speaker
He, he ends up in a fairly decent place um in his journey, and he becomes a high school football star. and thinks that he's going to go to college and he's going to have this great life and everything.
00:46:53
Speaker
And then he gets injured. And so it's sort of the, you know, though the rising of him from, you know, these humble beginnings and all of this tragedy.
00:47:04
Speaker
You think it's going to happen for him, and then he has this knee injury and he can't play football anymore. And sadly, he gets addicted to opioid, you know, painkillers through this event. And And so then you sort of see the decline and the unraveling of his future and what's going to happen to him.
00:47:23
Speaker
But by this point, you love him because he has such a good heart. And he's just so hopeful. And he has so many things that he wants to do. And you really are cheering him on and wanting you know to see him succeed. But you also realize that the climate around him is not really conducive to him rising from it. It's going to be a big challenge.
00:47:47
Speaker
But along the way, he makes a lot of good friends, and he has a lot of support and help. Things never go smooth for Demon Copperhead. But you, you will be, i feel, satisfied at the end of the story.
00:48:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yep. This is one I have read. And i will say for those who don't know Charles Dickens, David Copperfield, the book is about kind of critiquing that time period in London and how the state didn't take care of orphaned children.
00:48:21
Speaker
And so this book, Demon Copperhead, is also a critique of the foster care system and how we have failed to deal with the opioid crisis. So it's very powerful, very moving and very readable. So if the if the Charles Dicken reference is scary to you, do not be afraid. It's like a very it's a very approachable book and it's very impactful, I think.
00:48:45
Speaker
That was Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. All right, we are on to our last book of the show today. Natalie, what is our third and final Appalachian book?
00:48:59
Speaker
Our third book is Given Ground by Anne Pancake. This is actually a collection of short fiction. It is one of the most beloved books of my life. I will say that to you.
00:49:12
Speaker
I think it is... and And being a literary reader, of course, I love short fiction. But I think that Anne Pancake, who is from West Virginia, actually, also, has a way of writing about place that is...
00:49:31
Speaker
musical and lyrical and also haunting, but also beautiful because she loves the place, but also sees the complexities and challenges of it when it comes to poverty and, you know, class issues and the ideas that often persistent Appalachian literature, you know, between the past and the present, old ways and progress, you know, the old people and and the young, and how, how to be who we are without losing ourselves, but yet progressing along with the rest of the world.
00:50:12
Speaker
and There is a deep, deep attachment for many Appalachian people to the landscape, despite the challenges that it takes. in many ways, the Appalachian region has been devastated by a lot of industry and environmental disasters and things like that.
00:50:30
Speaker
But people still have a very deep love of the land. And this is revealed so much in these stories. that Anne Pancake wrote in Given Ground. Now, she has another collection of short fiction, and she also wrote a novel called as Strange As This Weather Has Been. So she is a fiction writer overall.
00:50:51
Speaker
I would like to recommend the first story in that book. If you read any of them, if there was just one, I would read Ghostless. It's the first story in the book.
00:51:03
Speaker
And it it tells the story of a young boy who has recently lost his father. And his father was a a person who also had a second kind of sight, and he could see ghosts.
00:51:16
Speaker
And this young boy had a very temperamental relationship with his father in many ways um because the the community is small. It's been devastated by, and you know, a low economy and um loss of jobs. And there are a lot of outsiders coming in for tourism. And so that's always also a conflict, right? There's always a lot of judgment there between people.
00:51:42
Speaker
ah Native people and the people coming from outside. And it's felt pretty heavily by this character. And so the book has a lot of characters like this who are facing controversy and challenges, but writes about them you in a very musical and beautiful way.
00:52:00
Speaker
The language of Anne Pancake's writing is, it's just one of my favorite things in the whole world. And I would really like to share that with, you know, with everyone and anyone who is willing to take a journey through these stories.
00:52:15
Speaker
Wow. High praise for Given Ground by Anne Pancake. And Natalie, could you repeat the name of the story specifically that you recommended? Yes, the story that I recommend the most is Ghostless.
00:52:29
Speaker
Great. Thank you. Well, that wraps up all of our book segments for the day. at the end of the episode, I always like to leave space for our guests to plug anything for their library. So Natalie, do you have anything you want to shout out about the Summersville Public Library?
00:52:47
Speaker
Well, the Summersville Public Library had um a new summer reading program this year, and we are very excited about that. And i would just encourage, of course, everyone who comes to our library, but also...
00:53:03
Speaker
To all of the listeners out there that have a ah small rural library near where they are, i would just like to say, please visit your library.
00:53:14
Speaker
Use it. Go to events. Share those events. Go check out books. Be a patron and be a supporter because the library needs you. And you might not know it, but you need the library too.
00:53:28
Speaker
I really believe that. I think that libraries are, are a sacred space of safety and learning and education and a place where you can think in your own mind without the distractions of the world.
00:53:44
Speaker
And, you know, rural libraries often have challenges that big, large ones do not. And the more patrons they have, often the more funding they can get and the better offerings that they can give to everybody.
00:53:58
Speaker
and And remember, libraries are free for everybody, right? They are this place of a community hub of sorts, but also you know, the collection can open up the world to, to you.
00:54:16
Speaker
And so if anything, I would just like you to visit your local library and support it as much as you can. Yeah. Beautifully said. i think that's something maybe a lot of people don't realize is that the number of books that are checked out through a library, like that gets counted up and that gets used to justify funding for the library. So if you're ever feeling like, oh, I shouldn't check this out. I don't know if I'm going to read it. Like, just check it out.
00:54:44
Speaker
It helps the library. It's great for you. Like, just do it. but Absolutely. Do it every time. Every time. Yep. So. Great. but Well, this has been a wonderful episode.
00:54:56
Speaker
if you enjoyed listening, please consider giving us a five-star review on Spotify or on Apple Podcasts to help us grow our numbers. And more importantly, if you have a friend that you think might enjoy the show, send this episode to them.
00:55:10
Speaker
If you are a librarian and you're interested in being on the show, please reach out to me at thecheckoutstack at gmail.com. Alrighty, listeners, thank you for joining us today.
00:55:20
Speaker
Now go forth and use your public library.