NEW YORK (AP) — Isabel Wilkerson s “Caste,” an acclaimed biography of Malcolm X and fiction by Martin Amis and the late Randall Kenan are among this year s finalists for National
I Will Always Love You: A Dolly Parton Reading List
Dolly Parton attends the 61st Annual GRAMMY Awards at the Staples Center on February 10, 2019, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic via Getty Images)
Central Florida doesn’t do glamour. I know because I was born and raised in Lakeland, Florida, the birthplace of Publix supermarkets and where Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley Richardson, died in a nursing home. Growing up, my sister Abby and I had a never-named game where we’d see a figure skater, Vanna White, anyone, wearing a pretty dress on television, and then we’d passionately bicker over who got to have the rhinestoned, beaded, or sequined costume. We knew what glamour looked like, and we wanted it. By the time I’d graduated high school, I knew glamour in real life. I’d seen it in person three times.
What’s the best new book you read this year?
In a year full of uncertainty, stress and sadness, books provided many people an important escape. For others, so many hours at home offered the perfect time to dig into nonfiction writing about the issues our country faces today. Many sought out books that examine and critique racism, for example.
On Monday’s
St. Louis on the Air, listeners called in to share their favorite books released in 2020. That included “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson, “A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II” by Sonia Purnell and “She Come By It Natural: Dolly Parton and the Women Who Lived Her Songs” by Sarah Smarsh. One listener also cited “A Universe Less Traveled” by Eric Von Schrader, a former St. Louis resident interviewed by Sarah Fenske in September.