What to Read Next?: Suggested Reading from Library Staff

This column features recent and forthcoming titles from southeastern authors or books set in the region. Place any of these titles on hold online or call any Henderson County Library for assistance.

The Fabled Earth by Kimberly Brock is a historical fiction title set in 1932 on Cumberland Island off the coast of Georgia, where a group of wealthy young men and women take up residence for the season.

All We Thought We Knew by Michelle Shocklee is a dual timeline novel set in both 1969 and 1942 rural Tennessee where a woman learns family secrets after her twin brother is killed in the Vietnam war.

Debut author Elizabeth Bass Parman’s novel The Empress of Cooke County is a humorous family story set in a small Tennessee town in the 1960s where a mother tries to maintain control over her 18-year-old daughter while renovating an old mansion in time to host her high school reunion.

The Devil Hath a Pleasing Shape, the latest novel by Terry Roberts, takes place in 1920’s Asheville. Readers of Roberts previous books will remember Stephen Robbins, who is called to solve the murder of a young woman who was found in the Grove Park Inn.

River Road by Asheville author Wayne Caldwell is a companion to the author’s first collection of poetry, Woodsmoke. River Road continues the story of Susan McFalls, who moves to and renovates an old house in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Using personal letters, journal entries, and public records the authors show how George Masa’s personal struggles shaped his interest in conservation and how he advocated for the creation of Great Smoky Mountains National Park in George Masa: A Life Reimagined by Janet McCue and Paul Bonesteel.

When Jennifer McGaha's grandmother said her favorite age was fifty-five, in her own fifty-fifth year, Jennifer began to take note. The Joy Document is McGaha’s observations of everyday beauty shared in fifty essays that explore the art of joy.

Potter David Drake made pots and storage jars, but because of their beauty and massive size, and because he signed and inscribed many with poems, they are now valuable works of art. Studying these poems and local records, author Leonard Todd has put together a chronicle of Drake’s life and creative work in Carolina Clay: The Life and Legend of Enslaved Potter David Drake.

When Southern Women Cook by America’s Test Kitchen includes contributions from 70 women writers that include recipes, history, and stories of southern food.

Nature writer Leigh Ann Henion explores the natural world at night in the Appalachian region, sharing little known facts about plants and animals that thrive in the dark, right in our own backyards. Night Magic was selected as the Our State magazine book club November title.

Happy Reading!

Lisa Donaldson