In loving memory of the queen of East Tennessee, we round up a reading list to help you dive deeper into the region and the country music tradition that Dolly Parton loved so well. With her book gifting programme, the Imagination Library, Dolly is responsible for putting free books in the hands of 3 million children worldwide.
Her father was unable to read and write, and Dolly saw firsthand how his struggles with literacy impacted his life. In her Daddy’s memory, Parton first launched the Imagination Library in the place that raised her, Sevier County, Tennessee, in 1995. In a 2012 interview with the Miami Herald, the rhinestone-donning icon said, “If I’m remembered 100 years from now, I hope it will be not for looks but for books”.
Get to reading, y’all.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
A true ode to Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is Kingsolver’s retelling of Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield set in modern-day Virginia. A young boy, Damon Fields, is born to a teenage mother in a trailer park in the mountains of Lee County, and it only gets worse from there. This sprawling novel follows “Demon”, as he is called, through a life of poverty and addiction, focusing on the opioid crisis that has laid bare a region so rich in history and beauty. This powerful adaptation is biting, brutal, and will fill you with equal parts righteous anger and a lust for life.
Oral History by Lee Smith
You might not have heard of her, but this realist writer from a small mining town in Virginia penned one of Dolly’s favourite books. Oral History follows a young woman named Jennifer as she travels from college back to her childhood home, Hoot Owl Holler, armed with a tape recorder. Determined to crack open her family’s history, she soon unravels heartbreaking stories of obsession, murder, and love affairs. Dolly herself once said that Oral History plunged “plum deep into her soul”.
The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels
This unflinching homecoming novel asks what it means to be both gay and Appalachian. It’s 1986 and 24-year-old Brian has been living in New York City with his loving partner and a chorus of gay friends. However, when AIDS takes the lives of those he loves the most, Brian is forced to return to his small Ohio town and pick up the pieces – while also confronting the family he left behind. Ever the LGBTQ+ ally, Dolly would want you to have this on your bookshelf.
Betty by Tiffany McDaniel
If you’re mystified by Dolly Parton’s scrappy, Tennessee childhood, growing up alongside eleven siblings in a three-bedroom shack, then Betty is the late summer read for you. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a Cherokee father and white mother, our heroine Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. This aching family story follows Betty as she uncovers dark family secrets and stories about her Appalachian hometown of Breathed, Ohio.
Wait for Me by Amy Jo Burns
A story of mother-love, music, and the magic that was the Grand Ole Opry stage, Wait for Me centres on the disappearance of Elle Harlow, a young folk singer who vanished in her prime. The last time anyone saw Elle was in 1973, but now, two decades later, another aspiring singer, eighteen-year-old Marijohn Shaw is set to uncover the mystery. Between meteor showers, mandolins, and Nashville lights, this fizzy summer read will bring a pang to your heart.
All Over but the Shoutin’ by Rick Bragg
Head down to the foothills of the Appalachians, on the stitch where Alabama meets Georgia, and hear this Pulitzer Prize-winning writer tell you his family story. Dirt poor and bound for either the cotton mill or the penitentiary, Bragg chronicles how he evaded the family destiny and ended up becoming a New York Times journalist, all while making you fall in love with the crazy characters of his childhood. For a true-to-life telling of what life is like on the margins in the South, Bragg is your guy.
Saint Monkey by Jacinda Townsend
This tender coming-of-age novel set in the 1950s is about two young Black girls who are just trying to make it out of Kentucky. Audrey can make the whole church tremble with her piano playing, while best friend, Caroline, longs to become a movie star. However, only one of them will make it. As Audrey flees their small townhome of Mt. Sterling for the jazzy lights of Harlem, she must say goodbye to everything she has ever known – including Caroline. A story of ambition, girlhood, and the places music can take you, Saint Monkey rings with Dollyisms.
The Farewell Tour by Stephanie Clifford
It’s 1980 and the sun is setting for music superstar Lillian Waters. After decades in the business and even longer at the bottom of a bottle, Lillian is set to hit the road one last time on her grand farewell tour. However, under the spotlights of Nashville’s best honky-tonks, Lillian realises that the tour won’t be complete until she makes one crucial final stop to her childhood farm. A tale of sisterhood and what we give up when we chase fame, this interesting look at music superstardom just might make you see the “Jolene” singer in a new light.
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
It’s a classic for a reason, right? This Dust Bowl saga follows the Joad family as they flee their farm in Oklahoma and travel west along Route 66, looking for farmwork. Written in 1938, Steinbeck’s masterpiece looks at the hard grind of poverty and what it really means to self sacrifice yourself for your family. This was a favourite of Dolly Parton’s and she once admitted to having read the novel at least three times, saying, “I relate to the hard work, the poor people, the struggles, and the times”.
Bone Black: Memories of Girlhood by bell hooks
Bell hooks is one of the great feminist thinkers of our time, but in this vulnerable memoir, she steps out from behind the curtain. Cataloguing her dreams, her reads, and her hurts, hooks opens up about what it was like growing up as a young, gifted Black girl in the segregated South. In painterly prose, hooks recalls the coldness of her family life, while also writing how she found salvation in books. It was “Jo, the serious sister who is punished” in Little Women who was her hero; over the years, countless other female characters paved the way for the bell hooks we know to emerge. For lovers of Dolly’s feminism, this memoir adds a new dimension to the word and asks us to question our own origin stories.
