In the end though, I had to go with 40 Acres and No Mule. Mostly because it only had 160 rating and 12 reviews on Goodreads which is such a shame. It's so good! I had read several Janice Holt Giles fiction books**** and enjoyed them but this is actually a non-fiction work where she recounts her first year living in the Appalachian mountains with her husband who grew up there. You get to see the Appalachian mountains from an outside's view - but an outsider who you can tell does love the people and area.
If you've enjoyed Christy in the past, I feel like this is a good non-fiction counterpart. Overall, it's lighthearted although it definitely has its heart tugging moments. She doesn't gloss over the realities of Appachian life in the 40s but she doesn't sit in judgement over them and most of the struggles she shares are her own troubles adapting to a different way of life. It's one she obviously sees value in and she's trying to share those values with her readers. And she has a real way with words. I wish her books were easier to find. I think I read the only copy of this book in our big Missouri collection and I had to wait a little while for it to arrive so who knows where it came from (probably one of the smaller libraries twhose collections I enby because they keep their older books).
* A Glass of Blessings and Some Tame Gazelle. Both light readings but delightful.
** Not really delightful and a bit of a let down after This House of Brede but that's the comparison speaking. It's still very well done and thought provoking if somewhat sad.
***The Spy Who Came in from the Cold - very well done and probably will always be my favorite spy novel because I don't like spy novels and I didn't hate this.
****Hannah Fowler is one I very heartily recommend!
40 Acres and No Mule was my Back to the Classics Challenge 20th century selection. It was written in 1967.
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