In the Shadow of the Valley by Bobi Conn

I think a lot of people will find this memoir really captivating, even inspiring. As Bobi Conn told an interviewer,  "I chose to share my story and reflections as honestly and openly as possible because I realize that so many of us struggle with guilt and shame for things that have happened to us, as well as the choices we have made in our worst moments. We need to be able to have honest conversations about our experiences and ourselves, if we are ever going to advance personally or collectively." This is the memoir of a woman who grew up rough and poor in a holler near Morehead, Kentucky, graduated from Berea College about 80 miles away, did graduate work in creative writing, and is the single mother of a boy who was seventeen and a girl who was eleven as she completed this book. More than many books, it demonstrates awareness of "Appalachia" but also of the fact that its evils are the evils of everywhere as is its beauty. She grew up in a family beset with physical and mental abuse a