What started as a way to get into the daily discipline of writing turned into a blog with much wider appeal than Wilkey ever imagined. The essays in this book, many of which first appeared on his blog, This Appalachia Life, reveal the complexities of Appalachia. Wilkey argues that any story about Appalachia that doesn't have the potential to break a reader's heart might be glossed over in some way. In the pages of this book, Wilkey strips away the veneer of oversimplification, victim-blaming, and historical amnesia to reveal the region's people and circumstances in historical and cultural context. The essays are simultaneously personal and scholarly, framing Wilkey's lived experiences growing up in poverty through the lens of his training as an historian and scholar.