New Book Notes

Bob Henry Baber. Pure Orange Sunshine: A True Tale of Peace, Love, and Misunderstanding. Bloomington, Ind.: Xlibris Corporation, 2011. 219 pages. Trade paperback, $19.99.

This is an autobiographical novel of a 1960s and 1970s journey from West Virginia to California and back by an author who served for several years as the Mayor of Richwood, West Virginia, and is currently running for Governor of West Virginia on the Mountain Party ticket which opposes mountaintop removal coal mining. Baber works as a fund-raiser for Glenville State University in Glenville, West Virginia.

Randy Ball. Rogersville. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2011. 127 pages with photos. Trade paperback, $21.99.

Randy Ball is the featured photographer of the Spring 2008 issue of Appalachian Heritage, and a life-long Hawkins County resident.

Jean Battlo. Kimball, West Virginia 1911–2011: Still Standing—Birth of the Small Town in the N & W Era. Parsons, W.Va.: McClain Printing Company, 2011. 141 pages with photos. Trade paperback, $25.00.

“Kimball is my hometown, and, other than my college years, I have spent all seventy-two years of my life in this town where I was born,” states Jean Battlo to begin the Forward of this book. This profusely illustrated little book tells the story of Kimball’s first one-hundred years.

David C. Brown. Gap Hollow: a novel. Charleston, W.Va.: Mountain State Press, Inc., 2011. 304 pages. Trade paperback. $16.00.

This is a novel about a college professor’s quest to find his father’s identity interrupted by meth labs, wealthy alumni plunderers, and battles to save endangered forests. The author lives in Scotts Depot, West Virginia, and is a retired coal miner and civil engineer.

David C. Brown. Serendipity Hollow. Charleston, W.Va.: Mountain State Press, 2011. 290 pages. Trade paperback, $16.00.

This is another novel by the same author as the last entry. It follows a romance between a coal mine owner and a lawyer who is trying to stop mountain top removal mining. “Gutsy, fast-paced, Serendipity Holllow will please suspense fans” —Claude “Bass” Halstead, retired coal miner.

Christopher Dorsey. Southern West Virginia and the Struggle for Modernity. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Company, Inc., 2011. 218 pages with photos, notes, bibliography, and index. Trade paperback, $45.00.

This study is based on graduate work the author, a Navy Officer, did at Syracuse University. It is basically an economic history of the region with chapters on the union struggles at the mines of Paint Creek and Cabin Creek, the Battle for Blair Mountain, political corruption, and mountaintop removal mining.

Trula Vandell Gray with John Vandell. A Coal Camp Chronicle: Rememberin’ My Raisin’. Parsons, W.Va.: McClain Printing Company, 2011. 157 pages with photos and a map. Trade paperback, $15.00.

This is the memoir of a school teacher who arrived in the 1930’s to teach at Hemphill in McDowell County, West Virginia.

Richard Hague. Learning How: Stories, Yarns & Tales. Huron, Ohio: Bottom Dog Press, 2011. 211 pages. Trade paperback, $18.00.

This is a collection of stories, four of which originally appeared in Appalachian Heritage. A Cincinnati high school teacher, the author grew up in Steubenville, across the Ohio from West Virginia, and spends summers in rural southeast Ohio. He is the author of five poetry collections, five poetry chapbooks, a memoir, and two multi-genre collections. “The fiction in this collection is as comforting as it is challenging, as familiar as it is surprising, and, in all the aspects that matter to the serious reader of literature, it is thoroughly satisfying.” —Chris Holbrook.

Pauletta Hansel. What I Did There. Loveland, Ohio: Dos Madres Press, Inc., 2011. 83 pages with photos. Trade paperback, $15.00.

Pauletta Hansel grew up in Jackson, the county seat of Breathitt County, Kentucky, where her parents taught at Lees College, now a part of Hazard Community College. She has lived in the Cincinnati area most of her adult life. “This work is Pauletta Hansel’s poetic records of a journey, one of discovery and reflection about her origins, family, work, children, love. Her road is sometimes jagged, rarely certain, and, because of this, is courageous and honest in...