This is the autobiography of Cassie Chambers Armstrong, a woman in her middle thirties who is the Vice-Chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party and a candidate for the Louisville Metro Council in District 8. She is a lawyer for Kaplan, Johnson, Abate & Bird. Her mom grew up in Owsley County, Kentucky, and gave birth to her while she was a student at Berea College. She grew up in Berea through her sophomore year in high school, and then continued her studies at United World College, Wellesley University, Yale, the London School of Economics and Harvard Law School. She received a Skadden Fellowship to do legal work with survivors of domestic abuse in rural Kentucky. “Women in Kentucky’s Appalachian community come into focus in lawyer Chambers’s powerful debut memoir, which aims to put a human face on a stereotyped region. . . . This is a passionate memoir, one that honors Appalachia’s residents.”—Publishers Weekly. “A family memoir that celebrates the inspiration of strong women within a rural culture most often characterized as patriarchal . . . [Chambers tells] stories that illuminate the hardworking spirit and flashes of hope among the populace, the women in particular.”—Kirkus Reviews. “Cassie Chambers tells the story of the women in the mountains of Kentucky who nurtured her, as well as her own journey to become a fierce defender of Appalachian women. This is a book that teaches us about service and gratitude, family and the tenuousness of belonging, and the power of education, loyalty, and home.”—Steven Stoll.
New York: Ballantine Books/Penguin Random House, 2020. 304 pages. Hardback in dust jacket.