Great Reads from Great Places

Every year, a list of books representing the literary heritage of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands is distributed by the Library of Congress’s Center for the Book  during the National Book Festival. Each book is selected by a local Center for the Book or state library and most are for children and young readers. Books may be written by authors from the state, take place in the state, or celebrate the state’s culture and heritage. Why not read the book suggested for your state or district and then learn, through these books, about the other places that interest you?

 Great Reads from Great Places, 2023 full selection list

The Great Reads from Great Places book list is available in an easy-to-print PDF file. Other versions and a text version of all the years from 2002 to the present is also available from The Library of Congress Great Reads website.

2023 Great Reads from Great Places Selection

The South Carolina State Library's Center for the Book has chosen as this year's Great Reads from Great Places book, The Blue Line Down, by Maris Lawyer.

Cover of The Blue Line Down by Maris Lawyer

The Blue Line Down

Maris Lawyer

From debut novelist Maris Lawyer, The Blue Line Down is a breakneck tale of betrayal, loyalty, and unexpected homecoming.

Jude Washer wants to run - away from the coal mines where he is destined to work, away from his father's abuse of his little brother, away from the prison-like confines of his village. Whispers of unionizing ripple through the small West Virginia mining town. When the mines take Jude's brother away from him, Jude takes matters into his own hands. With nowhere else to go, Jude joins the Baldwin-Felts Agency, a band of violent men dedicated to stamping out unionizers across the mountains. It is 1922, and the Baldwin-Felts are poised to raid a mining town in Virginia. When the coal miners fight back against the agents, Jude, now twenty-four, and Harvey, a new recruit, take an opportunity to flee amid the bloodshed.

With the Baldwin-Felts on their tail, Jude and an injured Harvey make their way down the mountains, where they are intercepted in South Carolina by a ragtag gang of bootleggers who put them to work to pay off a debt. Jude is desperate for a place to call home, but can he find it in these hardscrabble hills among strangers?

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