Join our WV Living Book Club ! And this isn’t your run-of-the-mill book club. Each issue, we will choose a book to read that meets one of the following criteria:
- A book about West Virginia
- A book by a West Virginian
- A book printed and distributed through WVU Press
The books are available to purchase through our website, at our independent bookstore partners, or through our partnering libraries. You can join us in person at The F.A.R.M in Granville, right outside of Morgantown, or join us virtually. Our goal is to make it fun and interactive. We theme our gatherings by incorporating food that fits with the tone and tenor of the book and facilitate discussion with the author or a subject expert.
To participate in our WV Living Book Club, you’ll have four registration options:
- Register to receive a copy of the book and participate IN PERSON for our event. Food and beverages are included.
- Register to participate IN PERSON for our event, but does not include the book. Food and beverages are included.
- Register to participate in the ONLINE discussion event for free.
- Register to receive a copy of the book and participate in the ONLINE discussion.
Our 2025 Selections
Tiny Worlds of the Appalachian Mountains: An Artist’s Journey by acclaimed artist Rosalie Haizlett. The beautiful book is a loving showcase of her 2022 six-month journey from the far edges of the Appalachian range in Alabama to its northernmost point in Newfoundland and back home again to West Virginia. Accompanied by the sequential reflections of her discoveries and experiences, Haizlett’s renderings capture the essence of the region through its flora and fauna with a careful thought and affection we can all appreciate.
A Killing in the Hills is the first in a haunting mystery series of eight books by West Virginia native and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Julia Keller that is set in an impoverished rural West Virginia mountain town. The Bell Elkins novels feature a prosecutor determined to see justice prevail in a dying community. Although this powerful story is fiction, the challenges and struggles are those that we all can relate to.
In Making our Future, Emily Hilliard, the state’s former folklorist, writes about everything from the cultural significance of the West Virginia hot dog, the tradition of independent pro wrestling in Appalachia, the practice of nonprofessional women songwriters, the collective counter narrative of a multiracial coal camp community, the invisible landscape of writer Breece D’J Pancake’s hometown, the foodways of Helvetia, and the post apocalyptic vision presented in the video game Fallout 76, and more. The book argues that folklore is a unifying concept that puts diverse cultural forms in conversation, as well as a framework that helps us reckon with the past, understand the present, and collectively shape the future. This book makes for thoughtful discussion!
Halfdollar is a novel written by the five-time winner of West Virginia’s annual Liar’s Contest, Bil Lepp. Edison Jansen is five years old when he learns from his dog that if you pee on a tree, that tree and all the surrounding area, becomes yours. That same year Skeeter Barth, mastermind of mayhem, moves in next door to Edison. Together they set out to conquer the world. Edison, Skeeter, and Charolais prove again and again that three smart-aleck, headstrong, and somewhat lazy adolescents can’t be stifled by the hard town of Halfdollar, West Virginia, where unemployment, depression, drunken adults, and bad teachers are as a common as banjos at a bluegrass festival.
Previous Book Club Selections
CLICK THE COVER IMAGES BELOW TO WATCH THE RECORDED ZOOM DISCUSSION.
spring 2024
summer 2024
Fall 2024
Attention bookstores and libraries: Are you interested in partnering with us? Fill out this form and we’ll list you below and send you a poster to display.
Partnering bookstores and libraries
Plot Twist Books, Charleston
Morgantown Public Library System, Monongalia County
Burnsville Public Library, Burnsville
Dora B Woodyard Memorial Library, Elizabeth
WordPlay, Wardensville
Morgan County Public Library, Berkeley Springs
Cicada Books & Coffee, Huntington
Books-a-Million, Beckley
Do you have a book to suggest as a WV Living Book Club read or for a story in WV Living magazine? Click here to give us some information about it. Books must be about West Virginia or written by a West Virginian. We love suggestions—just be aware that we plan our reads a year in advance.
