New Appalachian Books: Write-Ups

NEW APPALACHIAN BOOKS Write-Ups George Brosi Shelby Lee Adams. Appalachian Lives. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2003. 98 pages, 80 photos and an essay, "Appalachia in Another Light" by Vicki Goldberg. Oversized hardback in dust jacket. $50.00. The third time is not the charm for Shelby Lee Adams. His third coffee-table book is as gross as the first two. Apparently, Adams simply seeks out the families who most reinforce negative stereotypes of the region—those who are most "low class" and who include people with severe disabilities. Then they are posed in front of either junky yards or disheveled homes to simply stare into Adams' camera. Why anyone would want this book is beyond me. Phyllis Alvic. Weavers of the Southern Highlands. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2003. 234 pages with an index, bibliography, notes and photos. Oversized hardback in dust jacket. $35.00. Beginning at the Art Institute in Chicago in the '60s, picking up steam in the '70s with visits to key sites, working with Arts Council grants beginning in the '80s, focusing in during the early '90s, taking trips to Peru, Morocco, India, Nepal and Armenia in the late '90s for a little perspective, and finally putting it all together into one super impressive book, Phyllis Alvic has indeed written the book on Appalachian weaving! Kathryn Stripling Byer. Wake. Sylva, North Carolina: Spring Street Editions, 2003. 10 un-numbered pages. Hand crafted from handmade paper, a hand-sewn paperback. $12.00. This is a selection of poems written in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, tragedy by an acclaimed poet and teacher who lives in Cullowhee, North Carolina. They touch upon many of her experiences including her upbringing in Texas and trips to Mexico. As always they are accessible, penetrating, and well-crafted. Taken together, their meaning multiplies. 89 Daugherty, Raymond. The CCC and Me. Mathias, West Virginia: self-published, 2003. 83 pages. Trade paperback. $12.00. This delightful little autobiographical book focuses on the years 1934-1942 that the author spent stationed by the Civilian Conservation Corps at Lost River State Park near his present West Virginia home. It provides a valuable inside perspective on an important social force during the Great Depression. Victor Depta. Mountains and Clouds: Four Comedies. Ashland: Blair Mountain Press, 2003. 234 pages. Trade paperback. $12.95. Now retired from a career at the University of Tennessee at Martin, Victor Depta, a native of Buffalo Creek, West Virginia, lives inAshland, Kentucky. This is the second collection of plays by Depta. From the first, the famous Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia, selected two that were performed in the summer of 2002. Fred C. Fussell. Blue Ridge Music Trails: Finding a Place in the Circle. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003. 255 pages with an index and nearly 150 color photos by Cedric N. Chatterley. Trade paperback. $15.95. This book is in the same series as the fabulous Cherokee Heritage Trails Guidebook but with the focus on traditional music. It examines music venues within twenty-five miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway, in other words, in the really high Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and Virginia. The book takes the reader to more than 160 events and places where traditional mountain music is regularly played. For each site, the author supplies detailed location and contact information. This book is really fun for anyone to browse and invaluable for the reader trying to find the best mountain music. Denise Giardina. Fallam's Secret. New York: W. W. Norton, 2003. 331 pages. Hardback in dust jacket. $24.95. A native of the Southern West Virginia coalfields, Denise Giardina teaches at West Virginia State College. This book, her fifth after two set in West Virginia and two in Europe, combines the settings by creating a time-travel machine which allows her characters to travel back and forth between contemporary West Virginia and Cromwell's England in the 1600s! "Giardina is an accomplished storyteller, and the narrative is rich in detail. The despoliation of West Virginia's mountains by mining companies, a familiar theme of Giardina's, adds complexity to the plot. While this book doesn't carry the literary...