WEEREAD: Memorializing Motherhood: Anna Jarvis and the Struggle for Control of Mother’s Day Anna Cipoletti May 8, 2021 On May 8, 1914, the United States Congress officially designated the second Sunday in May as Mother’s Day and the tradition is still holding strong. As of 2021, Mother’s Day will be celebrated by an estimated 8...
WEEREAD: Strange as This Weather Has Been Anna Cipoletti April 21, 2021 Told in alternating viewpoints by matriarch Lace Ricker See and her three eldest children, Ann Pancake’s debut novel Strange as This Weather Has Been is an urgent, poignant story about the environmental damages...
WEEREAD: 55 Strong Anna Cipoletti March 13, 2021 With written testimonials and spontaneous on-the-street interviews, 55 Strong: Inside the West Virginia Teachers’ Strike is a deeply personal account of the circumstances that sparked the 2018 strike and its pr...
WEEREAD: At Home in the Heart of Appalachia Anna Cipoletti January 25, 2021 A poignant memoir of family and place, At Home in the Heart of Appalachia’s opening chapter begins with author John O’Brien traveling for his father Jim’s funeral. A strained relationship with his father and hi...
WEEREAD: Holiday Reading for Children Anna Cipoletti December 21, 2020 A Day for Skating by Sarah Sullivan Written in simple rhyming couplets with no more than two lines to a page, Sarah Sullivan’s A Day for Skating is perfect to share with children who are just learning to r...
WEEREAD: Shiner Anna Cipoletti December 2, 2020 In her stunning debut novel Shiner, Amy Jo Burns explores friendship and grief in the mountains of West Virginia. Teenaged Wren Bird and her family live an isolated and antiquated life in Randolph County, nearl...
WEEREAD: Who’s Telling Appalachia’s Story? Anna Cipoletti November 7, 2020 Since it's release in 2016, J.D. Vance's memoir Hillbilly Elegy has received both praise and criticism. Borne out of a need to respond to Hillbilly Elegy, Appalachian Reckoning and What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia tackle issues that have plagued the region long before Vance came on the scene. Have you read any of these books? What are your thoughts on the role that they play in telling our story as Appalachians?
WEEREAD: The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales Anna Cipoletti October 31, 2020 Let’s face it: Halloween is going to look different this year. Maybe you’re forgoing your annual costume party or your visit to the Moundsville Penitentiary or changing up the way you do trick-or-treating. So h...
Recommended Reading: WV Books for Middle School and Young Adult Readers Anna Cipoletti October 13, 2020 As the kids settle into the new school year, check out these books to keep their minds active and explore the mountain state through reading. All of the books featured are either written by West Virginia author...
Recommended Reading: WV Books for Kids Anna Cipoletti October 6, 2020 As the kids settle into the new school year, check out these books to keep their minds active and explore the mountain state through reading. All of the books featured are either written by West Virginia author...
WEEREAD: Storming Heaven — A Novel of Resilience and Resistance in West Virginia Anna Cipoletti September 12, 2020 Spanning three decades, Denise Giardina’s novel Storming Heaven follows families in West Virginia and Kentucky as they navigate a transformed landscape. This work of historical fiction opens in 1890, “the year ...
WEEREAD: The Unquiet Grave Anna Cipoletti September 5, 2020 For many a West Virginian, the story of Zona Heaster Shue — better known as the Greenbrier Ghost — is a familiar one. The small details may differ, but the story usually goes something like this: in 1897, a rec...
WEEREAD: Voices on Unity — Coming Together, Falling Apart Anna Cipoletti August 29, 2020 In the anthology Voices on Unity: Coming Together, Falling Apart, editor Cat Pleska compiles the voices of 35 West Virginian authors to speak in poetry and prose on the topics of unity and separation. Though fe...
WEEREAD: Death in Mud Lick Ellen Brafford McCroskey August 22, 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning author Eric Eyre examines how Big Pharma opened the floodgates for West Virginia’s opioid epidemic in his book, "Death in Mud Lick".
WEEREAD: ‘A Hero’s Essence’ Erica Edinger August 15, 2020 While the main character of the recently released YA novel, A Hero’s Essence, has the superpower of shapeshifting, author Taylor Andrews’ appears to be writing. A rising freshman at Wheeling Park High ...
WEEREAD: Seceding From Secession — The Civil War, Politics and the Creation of West Virginia Jon-Erik Gilot August 8, 2020 Editor’s note: This book was featured at a recent Lunch With Books Livestream from the Ohio County Public Library. Authors Judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr., originally from Belmont County, Ohio, and Eric J. Wittenber...
WEEREAD: Appalachia North — A Memoir Christina Fisanick August 1, 2020 Appalachia, even to us West Virginians, seems at times like a foreign place. Appalachia is over there, not here. Appalachians are them, not us. In reality, Appalachia, as defined by the Appalachian Regional Com...
WEEREAD: Practicing Silence — New and Selected Verses Laura Lynn Brown July 25, 2020 What is silence? Our first thought is usually absence of sound. In Bonnie Thurston’s poetry collection “Practicing Silence,” silence is that, but it’s other absences as well, some of which have nothing to do...
WEEREAD: Riding on Comets Anna Cipoletti July 18, 2020 In her memoir Riding on Comets, born-and-bred West Virginian Cat Pleska recalls coming of age in the 1950s and ‘60s in a story that, at its core, is about a family trying to stay together. At first look, Pleska...
WEEREAD: The Third Rainbow Girl — The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia Christina Fisanick July 11, 2020 West Virginia’s history is often not well represented in books that tell stories from our hills and valleys. In The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia, Emma Copley Eisenberg buck...
WEEREAD: The Clarinet Polka Ellen Brafford McCroskey June 13, 2020 Author - Keith Maillard Author Keith Maillard was born right here in Wheeling in 1942, where he lived until eventually moving to Canada in opposition to the Vietnam War. He has utilized his vast knowledge o...
WEEREAD: Rocket Boys Ellen Brafford McCroskey May 30, 2020 Sixty-odd years ago, no one expected kids from Coalwood, West Virginia, to be whip-smart. Coalwood produced football stars and coal miners, not rocket scientists. “Rocket Boys” is the story of how the book’s au...
WEEREAD: Quiet Dell Stacey Miller Sacco May 23, 2020 A Small West Virginia Town Hides a Big Secret By 1931, the Great Depression had most of the nation in its grasp, including the once affluent Chicago suburb of Park Ridge. Asta Eicher was widowed several years ...
WHAT WEE ARE READING Wheeling Heritage Media May 9, 2020 Some of us have more downtime now than we did before we began to shelter in place during the pandemic. What better time than now to catch up on those books in the “to-read” pile next to your bed! Here are some ...
WEEREAD: Murder Never Dies Stacey Miller Sacco April 4, 2020 When the Friendly City Turned Rogue With 250 years of history, Wheeling’s story isn’t only innovation, triumphs and celebrations. Just like any other city, there has been a dark past we would rather forget. An...
Books That Every West Virginian Should Read Emily Torbett December 11, 2015 5 1. Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam, Jr. A true memoir, Rocket Boys details the childhood experiences of NASA engineer Homer “Sonny” Hickam Jr. in his hometown of Coalwood, West Virginia. In a poor mining town...
