Why am I passionate about this?
I grew up in rural northern Michigan. My family lived in comfort, never lacking essentials. Yet, many of those living around me had difficulty making ends meet. Many lacked health insurance and year-round jobs. As a child, I viewed my community as normal and typical of the American experience. In many ways, it was–in part, that is the point of this list. At the time, I didn’t know that we could do better for those around me who worked so hard daily. Now I do. I selected these books to highlight the vast disparities between those with and without the comfort and luxury of good health.
Troy's book list on connecting poor health and poverty
Why did Troy love this book?
While this book is fiction, it is impossible to avoid knowing that there are multitudes of children like young Damon Fields across rural America. Born on the edge, you know he is just one false move away from falling into despair. That this fall comes from a series of tiny slips and not a single large blunder makes the plot all the more poignant.
The fault of his demise is not entirely his, however. To reach the bottom, he must be failed by our schools, our healthcare system, and our social safety net too. That this bitterly sorrowful book retells Dickens simply shows how little progress we’ve made in the past two centuries.
58 authors picked Demon Copperhead as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Demon's story begins with his traumatic birth to a single mother in a single-wide trailer, looking 'like a little blue prizefighter.' For the life ahead of him he would need all of that fighting spirit, along with buckets of charm, a quick wit, and some unexpected talents, legal and otherwise.
In the southern Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, poverty isn't an idea, it's as natural as the grass grows. For a generation growing up in this world, at the heart of the modern opioid crisis, addiction isn't an abstraction, it's neighbours, parents, and friends. 'Family' could mean love, or reluctant foster…