Ask a Bookseller: "Another Appalachia"

Part of the fun of connecting with independent bookstores all over the country is that we get to hear about books that are local and special to those locations. That’s the case with this week’s recommendation from Alissa Brown of “The Inner Geek” in Huntington, West Virginia. She recommends the memoir “Another Appalachia: Coming up Queer and Indian in a Mountain Place” by Neema Avashia, who grew up just down the highway from The Inner Geek. “It's very nice to have something from a queer author of color come out of here so that people know Appalachia isn't just a swath of straight white rednecks,” says Brown, laughing. Further broadening the image she knows many people carry of Appalachia, it was not coal that brought Avashia’s father to move to West Virginia, but a chemical plant. The memoir is beautifully written, says Brown, in a voice that is smart and readable, and it provides a thoughtful, complex view of one part of rural America.