Our State is happy to present the Our State Book Club with Wiley Cash! Each month, New York Times bestselling author Wiley Cash handpicks contemporary books by fellow North Carolinian authors and those writing books set in the state, encouraging readers to join in the fun. Wiley will review each book in both the print and digital versions of the magazine and produce two podcast episodes highlighting the selected book and author.
May’s Book Selection
From her home in Winston-Salem, Halle Hill writes about outsiders, a label she knows well. Despite growing up in a tight-knit Seventh-day Adventist community in east Tennessee, Hill often felt out of place, especially as a Black native of Appalachia.
“My people have been in Appalachia forever,” she says, “but it sometimes felt like we were this little group of aliens trying to make it together as a family.”
Hill investigated questions of belonging while studying religion in college. She found that fiction allowed her to explore the way she’d always felt as someone who both belonged to and sensed exclusion from a particular identity — and discovered that this character tension makes good stories.
“Sometimes it’s really good to be a stranger,” she says, smiling.
Book Club selections are available for purchase at McIntyre’s Books at a 20% discount. Visit mcintyresbooks.com for details.
Our State Book Club with Wiley Cash Podcast
Join The New York Times best-selling author and North Carolina native Wiley Cash as he highlights great writers across the state and their work each month. Listen in on conversations between Cash and his author friends as they discuss how North Carolina inspires them on the Our State Book Club podcast.
Click here to start listening.
Our State Book Club Tote Bags
Rep the Our State Book Club with the new exclusive tote bag! Easily carry the latest book club pick or current Our State issue in this roomy and comfortable 100% cotton tote.
Book Reviews
Have you already finished this month’s book and need other recommendations? Check out these titles!
Through the Snow Globe
When a woman encounters a magical snow globe in her small North Carolina town, she’s given the opportunity to face her past and learn to appreciate her present.
Appalachia on the Table
What is Appalachian cuisine? After finding her grandmother’s cookbook, an author combs through the region’s culinary history to find the answer.
Now You Know It All
They aren’t heroes or villains, saints or sinners. The women of each short story in this new collection are complex, with secrets and desires much larger than the North Carolina towns in which they live.
