Literary Tourism: Kentucky Archives

Starling House

by Alix E. Harrow

Harrow’s third novel is a gorgeously modern Gothic fantasy with horror elements set in the fictional town of Eden, Kentucky that was once a booming coal town but has fallen on hard times. Opal desperately needs money to care for her brother and takes a job working for Arthur at the creepy, brooding Starling House to pay the bills. The Gothic mansion was owned by a mysterious nineteenth-century author and illustrator who was rumored to have killed her husband. The house holds many secrets, and Opal and Arthur will have to contend with a deep darkness, both literal and metaphorical, in order to right the wrongs done to individuals and to their whole community. I marveled at the way Harrow incorporated real events from Kentucky’s history into her story in astoundingly creative ways.

Horse

by Geraldine Brooks

This 2022 novel from Pulitzer Prize winning author Brooks spans three timelines as she delves into the true story of Lexington, one of the greatest racehorses in US history. In 1850 Kentucky, Jarret, an enslaved groom, bonds with the bay foal under his care oer the years against the backdrop of the Civil War, while an artist becomes known for his paintings of the racehorse. In 1954 New York City, a gallery owner comes across a mysterious nineteenth-century equestrian painting. In 2019 Washington, DC, a Smithsonian scientist and an art historian work to unearth the lost history and the Black men behind Lexington’s wins. After reading Brooks’s more recent memoir Memorial Days, I was intrigued by her many references to working on Horse in those pages.

Groundskeeping

by Lee Cole

Cole’s debut novel follows Owen Callahan, a struggling writer who moves back to Kentucky to live with his Trump-supporting grandfather and uncle in the run-up to the 2016 election. As the new groundskeeper at Ashby College, he enrolls in a creative writing workshop where he meets Alma Hazdic, a writer in residence and the daughter of successful Muslim Bosnian immigrants. They begin to date in secret over the course of the school year, each searching for understanding and connection. Cole’s novel captures the complicated feelings we sometimes have about the place we call home. I enjoyed the many references to Kentucky and Louisville, especially the interlude where the protagonist embarks on a walk from the Highlands to Clifton, stopping into many real businesses and encountering real people along the way.

Returns and Exchanges

by Kayla Rae Whitaker

My understanding of this sweeping family saga and 2026 Summer Reading Guide selection shifted when I realized the title captures not just the workings of the family business but the relationships in that family. In 1979 matriarch Fran feels the first whispers of a crush for her female employee at her Baker-Taylor chain store. Subsequently, all hell breaks loose—but in slow motion. This is a novel about people first discovering and then wrestling with the constraints of their lives, and deciding how far they’re willing to go to break free. Whitaker examines money and class, insiders and outsiders, and the claustrophobia of a small town where everybody knows your business and you’ll be punished for stepping out of line. This is a slow burn but I raced through it—except when I paused to google real places, people, and events from Lexington history.

Jayber Crow

by Wendell Berry

Jayber Crow returns to his native Port William, Kentucky after the 1937 flood to become the town’s barber. There he learns about the deep meaning of community, the discipline of place, and what it truly means to love. You’ll love spending time with Jayber Crow and the small town community of Port William, Kentucky. This gorgeous novel has an impressive sense of place. It's a book you can see and feel. It's contemplative, beautiful, and sad. I can't stop reading or recommending it, and I always hope it finds the right reader at the right time.

The Thread That Runs So True

by Jesse Stuart

This 1949 memoir is considered an American classic, but if you’re outside of Kentucky, it’s likely one you’ve never heard of. My dad was a huge Jesse Stuart fan and some of the earliest book gifts I received as a child were collections of his stories, given to me by my father. Jesse Stuart started teaching when he was only seventeen years old, beginning in a one-room schoolhouse. This memoir covers twenty years of his career in the mountain region of Kentucky as he moved from teacher to principal to superintendent.

Amy & Roger’s Epic Detour

by Morgan Matson

From the 2015 Summer Reading Guide. For fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han. After her family (or what's left of it) impulsively moves from California to Connecticut, Amy has to get her car cross-country. There's just one problem: because of a tragic accident, Amy doesn't drive. Enter Roger, an old family friend who volunteers to come along for the ride, and who is dealing with his own heartbreak. Before long, the two friends decide to ditch her mom's carefully-orchestrated route in favor of the scenic route, stopping to see familiar haunts, old loves, and plenty of small town America. Matson adds color to this sweet story with emails, receipts, and playlists galore. Sure to inspire wanderlust. If you like this, read Since You’ve Been Gone next.

Appalachian Elegy: Poetry and Place

by bell hooks

This 2012 poetry collection was inspired by author and activist hooks’s upbringing in rural Kentucky. In an interview with another of my Kentucky favorites, Silas House, hooks once said she wrote Appalachian Elegy because she “want[ed] people to really hear an African American voice claiming Kentucky and claiming belonging.” She wrote this collection after coming back home to Kentucky after a thirty-year absence. With a strong sense of place, the poems explore creation, lamentation, the historical Kentucky landscape, climate change, marginalization, and the ways identity can change over time.

The Patron Saint of Liars

by Ann Patchett

This is the 1992 debut from now-established novelist Patchett. When Rose Clinton comes to St. Elizabeth’s Home for Unwed Mothers in Habit, Kentucky (what a name!), she plans on giving up her baby for adoption. But when Cecilia is born, she decides to keep her and marries Son, a handyman at the home. Told in three parts through Rose, Son, and Cecilia’s perspectives, this novel examines secrets, shame, loss, and what happens when we run from the past. I recommend following this up with her mini-memoir The Getaway Car, a mini-memoir where she tells the story of how the novel came to be.

Eli the Good

by Silas House

This was the first Silas House novel I ever read, upon the recommendation of a nerdy friend who typically reads all literary fiction, all the time. I was intrigued by his rec of a YA novel and was so glad I picked this up. This coming-of-age historical novel takes place in the summer of 1976 as the Bicentennial approaches; now, as we approach the 250th, seems a particularly good time to revisit House’s 2009 novel. Eli Book is ten years old living in the hills of eastern Kentucky, and worried about his family. His father is home from Vietnam, his sister is running wild, and his mother is distant. Thankfully he has his best friend Edie, but the solace of their friendship may not be enough as his father’s nightmares get worse and tempers come to the surface.

The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek

by Kim Michele Richardson

Books have the power to change lives and nowhere is this more true than the story of 19-year-old Cussy Carter, an Appalachian woman who joins the Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and delivers books to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky. She's also the last living female with Blue People ancestry, all of whom had a skin condition called methemoglobinemia, which really did turn their skin blue. Inspired by real history and set in 1936, this is a story of hope and heartbreak and how fierce determination can challenge the grasp of poverty and oppression.

Chirp

The Birds of Opulence

by Crystal Wilkinson

This 2016 novel was my first introduction to Crystal Wilkinson, who later served as Kentucky’s poet laureate from 2021-23. It turned me into a huge fan and I’ve followed her work ever since. This sweeping intergenerational story about mental illness, female friendship, survival, and secrets follows four generations of women in the Goode-Brown family who live in the small town of Opulence, Kentucky. In lush prose, Wilkinson reveals how each woman is dealing with her own form of trauma as they all come of age and watch their mothers and grandmothers pass away. I cared deeply about these characters and couldn’t help but root for them.

This Close to Okay

by Leesa Cross-Smith

On a rainy October night in Kentucky, recently divorced therapist Tallie Clark is on her way home when she spots a man precariously standing on the edge of a bridge. Without a second thought, Tallie pulls over and jumps out of the car into the pouring rain. She convinces the man to join her for a cup of coffee, and he eventually agrees to come back to her house, where he finally, reluctantly, shares his first name: Emmett. Over the course of the emotionally-charged weekend that follows, Tallie makes it her mission to provide a safe and comfortable space for Emmett, although she doesn’t confess that she works as a therapist. However, Emmett is not the only one who needs help—and he has secrets of his own. Heads up for an open door scene and serious content, including depression and suicide.

When in Rome (When in Rome #1)

by Sarah Adams

When I found myself in need of an engaging, uplifting, and not-too-heavy listen for a solo road trip, I opted for the first book in Sarah Adams's When in Rome series; I read the second book Practice Makes Perfect last year but reading them out of order was no problem. This romance was the perfect book for the occasion: in it, famous pop star Rae Rose desperately needs a getaway and flees Nashville for Rome, Kentucky. She would go to Italy if she could, but since the setting for her favorite Audrey Hepburn movie is too far to be practical, she settles for the much nearer Rome that pops up in her GPS. Car trouble puts her in the path of Noah Walker, a gruff but handsome pie shop owner with a heart of gold. I enjoyed the small town charm, celebrity/commoner relationship, career details for music and pies, and Noah's deeply invested sisters. The book was the exact right length to carry me to my destination, and Karissa Vacker and Andrew Eiden's narration was perfection. After reading this, I feel like a re-watch of Roman Holiday is in order.

Literary Tourism: Kentucky

a gateway

to reliable joy this summer

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summer reading starts May 16th