Write-Ups

NEW APPALACHIAN BOOKS Write-Ups George Brosi Anglin, Mary K. Women, Power and Dissent in the Hills ofCarolina. Urbana, Illinois: The University of Illinois Press, 2002. 168 pages with notes, references cited and an index. Trade paperback. $16.95. This is a fascinating and important study of the women of the Mica industry in Western North Carolina. It begins with an impressive rundown of the context for the industry, then gets into some concrete life histories and ends with a section putting it all in the context of academic anthropology. "Anglin breaks new ground in exploring how gender, kinship, and social class interact" - Steve Fisher. Mary K. Anglin teaches at the University of Kentucky. Beiswanger, William L., Peter J. Hatch, Lucia Stanton and Susan R. Stein. Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002. 218 pages with an index, suggested readings, notes and replete with color photographs. An over-sized coffee-table book. $45.00. Four members of Monticello's scholarly staff combine to create the only kind of book that could do justice to this pillar of American history and the only American home on the U.N.'s top list of World Heritage Sites. A plethora of photographers present some breathtaking images that live up to the standards of the commentary that is based on a deep and comprehensive knowledge of the man and the grounds. This book is clearly a keeper. Bolgiano, Chris. Living in the Appalachian Forest: True Tales of Sustainable Forestry. Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 2002. 200 pages with an index, bibliography, notes and a section of black-and-white photos. Trade paperback. $18.95. Here is the people side of sustainable forestry. This is a humaninterest book focusing in on how different people have answered fundamental questions about forestry practices in their lives. The author is a free-lance writer who lives on a hundred wooded acres in the mountains of Virginia. This is her third book. 100 Brooks, Skip. Monteith's Mountains: Death Stalks the Southern Appalachians. Boone, North Carolina: High Country Publishers, 2002. 288 pages. Hardback in dust jacket. 21.95. This is a murder mystery set in the logging camps which thrived in the Treemont area of the Tennessee side of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at the end of the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th Century. Skip Brooks (b. 1942) lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. This is his first novel. Duke, David C. Writers and Miners: Activism and Imagery in America. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2002. 275 pages with an index and notes. Hardback in dust jacket. $45.00. This is the first comprehensive book to tackle the whole subject of how fiction and poetry writers have portrayed coal miners. It focuses on three groups —outsiders, those with some first-hand knowledge of the coalfields and active miners who have become authors. Although often Duke gives frustratingly short summaries of complex literary careers, he does focus in on a handful of writers, especially Don West and Denise Giardina, in a way that significantly adds to regional scholarship. Duke is a professor of History at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia. Griffith, Nicola. Stay. New York: Nan A. Tálese/Doubleday, 2002. 303 pages. Hardback in dust jacket. $23.95. Aud Torvingen, a former Atlanta cop, is mourning the loss of her lesbian lover and living in a cabin in the North Carolina Mountains as this novel begins. It moves to New York City as Aud becomes involved in investigating a powerfully heinous criminal. This is the fourth novel of Nicola Griffith, who has received five Lamda Awards and lives in Seattle. Hargan,Jim. The Blue Ridge and SmokyMountains:An Explorer's Guide. Woodstock, Vermont: The Countryman Press, 2002. 464 pages with an index and lots ofblack-and-white photos. Trade paperback. $19.95. This guidebook simply tries to do too much. Nothing gets very much attention, and everything gets a little, so the reader is easily overwhelmed instead of truly "guided." The book basically covers the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the area near the Tennessee-North Carolina line stretching from Georgia to Virginia. It is illustrated by the...