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Book Review of Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains

Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains
dragoneyes avatar reviewed on + 847 more book reviews


This book would have been awesome if it would have stuck to the title of the book. What I was looking for was a book that compiled all the stories of the Hill Women of Kentucky. Their hardships and their great strengths. Growing up in the western part of Virginia, I experienced and saw a lot of these type of women. Unfortunately, we get scraps of this from the author. The book starts off well enough. We learn about Granny, Aunt Ruth, Wilma (the author's mother), friends and cousins but then the story starts in on the author's life. Which, being a hill women herself, is fine and dandy until it takes up a good portion of the book. I didn't think I was reading an autobiography but that it what it was for the middle portion of the book. It seemed like the author just needed to "toot her own horn". Then we go back to the hill women for a bit. We get to see how life is handed to them in the legal system. I was taken by surprise by what they had to go through. I was back to enjoying the book when the author had to throw politics in there. The author is an avid democrat and it is flung in your face whether you want it or not. I could care less about her political affiliation. I felt the ending was unnecessary. Really wish that the author would have just stuck to the stories of the hill women. I was quite deceived.