Britton Summer Reading Club

The Well Ain't Dry Yet by Belinda Anderson

Twilight Dawn sits at the quilt frame creating something from scraps given to her and then sets aside her work and lets her neighbors and friends tell their story. The realistic characters could almost be our neighbors or friends. Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of this book is the ability of each character's tale to stand on its own, but also work together as one book or "novel." Anderson is a very talented writer whose work will indeed delight her readers.

Alison's Automotive Repair Manual by Brad Barkley

Almost two years after her husband's accidental death, Alison Durst's life is at a standstill. Her house is empty, her teaching job is on hold and she's still living with her sister and brother-in-law in their small West Virginia town. A moldering 1976 Corvette in the garage seems her way out of this "rest stop". Alison endeavors to restore the car, which results in life-changing implications for all around her. With car repair as a metaphor, we learn much about forgiveness and hope; the differences among facts, lies and truth

Appalachian Gothic Tales by Jean Battlo

This title is a collection of six stories, five of which are set in Southern West Virginia. One story is a futuristic fantasy set in the year 2180; another is a medieval mystery set in the year 1437. And then there is a good, down-home horror story. The result is a strange and intriguing mix of the past, present and future.

Contrary Blues by John Billheimer

A first novel introduces Federal Department of Transportation Inspector Owen Allison. He travels to a small mining town, intent on stopping a bus fare scam, but finds more than he bargained for when a local gadfly is murdered.

Dismal Mountain by John Billheimer

Owen Allison heads for the hills of West Virginia when a confrontation between Owen's Aunt Lizzie and a real-estate developer leads to the death of a trucker

Drybone Hollow by John Billheimer

A local dam breaks, sending a black ribbon of coal sludge cascading miles and miles through hollows. Four people lose their live in the accident and the ambulance-chasers gnash their teeth and formulate strategies for the inevitable lawsuits against big coal. Owen knows the owner of the coal mine and he his hired on the spot to find out just went wrong.

Highway Robbery by John Billheimer

When a highway construction crew uncovers human remains, the subsequent investigation has everyone on the edge of their seats, including the environmentalist protesting the creation of the roadway.

Stonewall Jackson's Elbow by John Billheimer

In this story of greed, fraud and (why not?) romance, a banker dies and government investigators discover a funds shortfall of a quarter of a billion dollars. The FDIC tries to recoup some of the loss by auctioning off the bank's assets which includes a Museum of Fakes and Frauds. The museum's curator vanishes and strange things start happening to the auction bidders.

Of Men and a Mighty Mountain by W.E. Blackhurst

The mountain in question is Cheat Mountain. This 1965 title tells the story of harvesting the timber on the mountain and the steam engines needed to bring the lumber off the steep mountain.

Riders of the Flood by W.E. Blackhurst

Published in 1954, this book tells the story of logging on the Greenbrier River 60 years earlier.

The Handywoman Stories by Lenore McComas Coberly

A collection of stories set in Appalachia that explore American culture in the last half of the twentieth century by focusing on one West Virginia town and its colorful and diverse inhabitants.

Mean Season by Heather Cochran

The old adage "be careful what you wish for" gets new life in Cochran's sweet, funny debut. Life in tiny Pinecob, W.Va., takes a turn for the wacky when Hollywood heartthrob Joshua Reed, nailed with another DUI, is forced to spend 90 days of house arrest in the home of a local fan. Leanne Gitlin, 25, has loved Joshua since she was 15 and led his fan club for eight years; such relative proximity to glamour makes her stand out in town.

Fallam's Secret by Denise Giardina

Giardina has created a fun time-travel adventure that will please fans of time travel/romance writer Diana Gabaldon. Lydde, an actor, returns from England to her childhood home in West Virginia when her beloved uncle dies. She follows his written instructions to a cave, where she falls into a crevasse that drops her into Norchester, England, in 1657.

Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina

In the Battle of Blair Mountain, West Virginia, in the early 20th century, coal miners fight for unionization under the leadership of Rondal Lloyd and Carrie Bishop, a nurse who helps him before and after her husband's death.

Small Town Odds by Jason Headley

Headley's offbeat, bighearted first novel paints a delightful portrait of small town life, as experienced by 24-year-old Eric Mercer, a sardonically charming underachiever. Eric lives and works in tiny Pinely, W.Va., where drama means betting on the annual (and futile) efforts of the high school football team to beat archrival Cedarsville.

Ambassador's Son by Homer Hickam

In 1943, Coast Guard captain Josh Thurlow leads a desperate venture to Japanese-held islands of the South Pacific to track down a Medal of Honor hero and an ambassador's missing son.

Keeper's Son by Homer Hickam

This excellent story of World War II on the Outer Banks will surprise no one who remembers Hickam's Torpedo Junction (1989), his nonfiction account of the U-boat war off the American coast in 1942. Drawing on his research for that book, Hickam deftly crafts a romantic, even melodramatic story, occasionally venturing beyond the limitations of historical factuality but always presenting consistent viewpoints for both American and German characters.

The Midwife's Tale by Gretchen Laskas

Serving as midwives to the residents of a small mining town in prewar Appalachia, Elizabeth and her mother share in the intimate details of the lives of every family in the region, but none of their neighbors know their own secrets and desires.

Clarinet Polka by Keith Maillard

Returning to his Polish-American hometown, young Vietnam soldier Jimmy Koprowski feels stifled by the community's unpromising routines until his sister starts an all-girl polka band and sets in motion a series of events that helps him start to heal.

Gloria by Keith Maillard

Despite her prosperous, high-society family background, popularity, and beauty, Gloria finds herself dissatisfied with her life as she faces her final summer at home during the late 1950s before setting out to conquer the world beyond her horizon.

Hazard Zone by Keith Maillard

Examines the complex relationship between a middle-aged West Virginian and his mother.

Crum by Lee Maynard

The appearance of this novel in 1988 stirred deep feelings, and this second edition will no doubt do the same. Maynard, a native of Crum (Wayne County), West Virginia, spins a shocking, often outrageous, always irreverent tale of a young man's rebellion against the people and the place which have surrounded his life. Part Huckleberry Finn and part The Red and the Black, the story is ultimately not about the town of Crum, but about the need to reject the comfort and familiarity of home and find a place in the larger world. At the same time, Crum is a touching and humorous look at small-town life, and at the peculiar rituals of male adolescence.

Screaming with the Cannibals by Lee Maynard

Screaming with the Cannibals gets its title when the central character of Crum, whose Christian name is revealed in this novel, finds himself in an evangelical service in Kentucky on the other side of the Tug River from his native West Virginia. As the folks touched by the Spirit wave and howl, he remembers how back in Crum, the folks used to tell him to stay on his side of the rivers because the people on the other side were known to eat their children. So he ends up in a Kentucky holy-roller church, screaming with the cannibals.

A Posturing of Fools by Brewster Robertson

The promise of a wild ride is implied in the opening stroke of Robertson's novel. From the moment we meet our dubious hero, Logan Baird, the reader is hooked. A salesman for a pharmaceutical company, Logan is duly grateful for the opportunity to enjoy the opulence of the Greenbrier in the name of work. Through his unjaded eyes, the reader is treated to a vicarious visit to paradise. As with any paradise, however, there must be a snake.

Sugarlands by Foster Mullenax

Biographical novel chronicles the life story of his parents and it is set on the family's hillside farm in Sugarlands near Parsons and Thomas in Tucker County.

Tear Down the Mountain: An Appalachian Love Story by Roger Alan Skipper

Drawn together by a shared inability to fit into their secluded Appalachian Pentecostal community, Sid and Janet find their marriage further complicated by Sid's work injuries, Janet's destructive tendencies, and an influx of outside influences.

Absolute Rage by Robert Tannenbaum

Butch Karp takes former security guard Marlene, now busy training mastiffs, and travel to rural West Virginia to help a man who has been railroaded for the murder of a coal mine union organizer. Karp is tapped by the West Virginia governor to break the back of the corrupt company that's really responsible for the crime.

Follow the River by James Alexander Thom

Mary Ingles was 23, married and pregnant, when Shawnee Indians invaded her peaceful Virginia settlement, killed the men and women and then took her captive. For months, she lived with them, unbroken, until she escaped and followed a thousand mile trail to freedom - an extraordinary story of a pioneer woman who risked her life to return to her people.

Girl Talk by Julianna Baggott

Poet and short story writer Baggott's debut novel is a touching coming-of-age story that delivers more depth than the title might imply. A baby boomer doctor's wife in New Hampshire takes her 15-year-old daughter on a voyage of discovery, then later denies the secrets revealed calling it a "summer that never happened."

The Madam by Julianna Baggott

Baggott journeys back in her family history to forge a tale of living in Marrowtown, West Virginia, during the 1920s and 1930s. Marrowtown is a gritty place of backbreaking labor, moonshine, abandoned children and men who beat women and women who fight back. Alma is overwhelmed by the demands of her husband and three children and exhausted by her work at the factory and also running a boardinghouse. So she rejects the unjust work of thankless toil and starts her own business, a brothel. Insights in selling sex, women's depthless capacity for improvisation in a fight for survival and to defend loved ones shine forth.

Appalachian Stories: Eleven Short Stories by Bo Ball

Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks

Historical novel of John Brown. It covers in detail the anti-slavery movement of the 1840 through Bloody Kansas and culminating in Brown's insurrectionary raid on Harpers Ferry.

Circumstantial Evidence by Uriah Barnes

A legal thriller published in 1930. Author was member of the West Virginia Bar, former member of the state university law faculty and of the staff of employees of the state Supreme Court.

The Watchman by Davis Grubb

A complex work set in a prison in an old river town called Adena has called many things including "a good vs. evil prison tale," "gripping," and "chilling."

Spring Again by Gladys Jones

Sara Renfrew returns to America from to Paris to marry, the heritage of strong sense of honor and responsibility. However, the pre-arranged world of this Southern woman is thrown into reality by the events of the day. Set in the turbulent 1960s as well as flashbacks to the 1860s.

Farlanburg Stories by Lisa Koger

The sleepy rhythm of small-town, rural Southern life flows through the ten simple yet powerful tales in Koger's consistently appealing debut.

The Monster Stick and Other Appalachian Tall Tales by Paul and Bil Lepp

Repeat winners of the West Virginia Lars Contest have collected of the best stories that ever happened...or did they?

Fidelities: Short Stories by Valerie Nieman

Heartrending and beautiful stories mostly set in West Virginia.

Black Tickets by Jayne Anne Phillips

Winner of the prestigious Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction, Phillips writes stories that lay bare the suffering and joy of the abused and the abandoned, the violent and the passive, the impoverished and the disenfranchised who populate the small towns and rural byways of the country. A patron of the arts reserves his fondest feeling for the one man who wants it least. A stripper, the daughter of a witch, escapes from poverty into another kind of violence. A young girl during the Depression is caught between the love of her crazy father and the no less powerful love of her sorrowful mother.

Deceiving Destiny by Craig Skaggs

A family saga about a family from the Shenandoah Valley that escapes the destruction of the Union Army by moving to the hills of West Virginia. The story follows the fortunes of the Forsythe family through World War II.

Chasing Dragons by Tom White

Calling itself "a novel of the environment", the story is set in West Virginia and is about mountaintop removal and the environmental movement.

Only Great Changes by Meredith Sue Willis

Born in a small town in West Virginia, Blair Ellen Morgan yearns for something she cannot name. When she learns of an Inner-City Program at Franklin State, a small Christian college in the same range of hills as her home, she realizes she as found what she is looking for. She goes to work as a VISTA volunteer and her romantic view of life confronts the real.

Oradell at Sea by Meredith Sue Willis

The story takes place in two main settings: on a cruise ship and through flashbacks to the narrator's fictional town. The transitions from past to present show a wealthy woman and how she came to her current worldview and why she has so much trouble handling her current crisis.