New Appalachian Books

New Appalachian Books by George Brosi Berry, Wendell. The Wild Birds. San Francisco: North Point Press, a 1989 reprint of a 1986 release. 146 pages. Trade paperback. $8.95. "Berry is a poet of landscapes and legacies: The Wild Birds is a heartfelt expression of the complex bonds between generations and the ways in which a neighborhood is shaped by its common ties to the land and undone when those connections weaken." -The San Francisco Chronicle. "Readers will have to look long and hard to find a more polished and engaging collection of storeis." San Diego Magazine. Wendell Berry, and his wife Tanya, farm organically with draft animals near where the Kentucky River empties into the Ohio in his native Henry County, Kentucky. This collection of stones utilizes the same setting and characters as his four novels. Bowers, John. Stonewall Jackson: Portrait of a Soldier. New York: William Morrow, 1989. 367 pages. Hardback in dust jacket with index, old photos, and maps. $19.95. In his prologue the author says that in trying to come to terms with Jackson he was coming to terms with the people from whom he sprang-the Scotch-Irish of Appalachia. Born and educated in Tennessee, the author now teaches at Columbia University in New York City. This book is a significant and engaging biography of the native of what became West Virginia who settled in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia to teach at VMI and fought in that Valley for the Confederacy in a most memorable way. Brewer, Carson. Just Over the Next Ridge: A Traveler's Guide to Little-Known and Out-of-the-Way Places in Southern Appalachia. New update, expanded edition. *George Brosi is the proprietor of a business called Appalachian Mountain Books which publishes a periodical by that same name twelve times a year. He sells books, both new and out-of-print through the mail and brings a display of books for sale to regional events. He has recently moved from Berea, Kentucky, to a new place in the Great Smoky Mountains. His new address is Appalachian Mountain Books, Route 2, Box 238, Whittier, North Carolina 28789. His phone number is 704-586-5319. 69 Knoxville: The Knoxville New-Sentinel, 1989. 180 pages. Trade paperback with charts, photos, and an index. $7.95. Carson Brewer grew up in Hancock County and went to Maryville College, but despite his impeccable East Tennessee credentials, he includes the mountains of Southwest Virginia, Eastern Kentucky, North Georgia, and North Carolina in this delightful book. It features off-the-cuff descriptions of some of the true glories of our region. He scoffs at Dollywood, skips over the bed and breakfasts quickly, and zeroes in on the wildflowers! This is one of the best of the regional guidebooks for people interested in nature and history more than hot tubs and fancy desserts. Cash, June Carter. Mother Maybelle's Cookbook: A Kitchen Visit with America's First Family of Country Music. New York: Wynwood Press, 1989. 224 pages. A handy spiral binding enclosed in a hardback cover combines the advantages of both. Photographs. $11.95. Anecdotes and recipes make the famous Carter Family of Hiltons, Virginia, come alive in this well-done book. Caudill, Harry. The Mountain, the Miner, and the Lord and Other Tales from a Country Law Office. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, a 1989 reprint of a 1980 release. 177 pages. Trade paperback. $10.00. Harry Caudill is best known as the author of Night Comes to the Cumberlands and other works of social commentary, but he is also a novelist and this is one of two books of local color, human interest stories. By telling of local characters in his native Letcher County, Kentucky, Caudill illuminates the character of mountain people in general. Chappell, Fred. Brighten the Corner Where You Are. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989. 212 pages. Hardback in dust jacket. $15.95. "Don't leave this book alone in a room. It will do something. It has blood in it-teeth, hands, eyes, a spirit, an aura, life. If your priority is delight, read Brighten the Corner Where You Are. And prepare not to move until you...