New Appalachian Books

New Appalachian Books by George Brosi* Cockrell, Amanda. The Moonshine Blade. New York: Bantam Books, 1988. 263 pages. Mass market paperback. $3.95. The heroine of this action/romance is a professor at a small college in the Blue Ridge Mountains. The author holds a graduate degree from Hollins College and lives in nearby Roanoke, Virginia. Dickinson, Jack L. Jenkins of Greenbottom: A Civil War Sage. Charleston, West Virginia: Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, 1988. 100 pages, illustrated with a bibliography and index. Oversized trade paperback. $7.95. This- attractively presented book tells the story of a plantation owner in the Huntington, West Virginia, area who became a Confederate officer. Douglas, John. Shawnee Alley Fire. New York: St. Martin's Press, first paperback reprint, 1988. 215 pages. Mass-market paperback. $3.50. A "thoroughly seductive mystery debut . . . quietly enthralling and memorably evocative, the most auspicious or the many recent mystery debuts." -Publisher's Weekly. I enjoyed it, and felt that the author, a native of Cumberland, Maryland, now living in West Virginia, did a great job evoking his native ground. Dunn, Durwood. Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Southern Appalachian Community: 1818-1937. Knoxville, Tennessee: The University of Tennessee Press, 1988. 319 pages. Trade paperback, illustrated, index and bibliography. $12.95. *George Brosi owns and operates the Appalachian Bookstore in Berea and publishes the bimonthly Appalachian Mountain Books. He also sells books through mail orders to clients in all parts of the country. If readers need more information about any of the above listings, write him at 123 Walnut Street, Berea, Kentucky 40403. 71 This is an important contribution to regional scholarship and popular understanding of our region-since it focuses upon one of the communities which is most dearly loved by tourists. It has both the strengths and weaknesses which come from being written by a scholar who has personal roots in the community he is studying. Cades Cove is located in Blount County, Tennessee, and Dunn is a professor at Tennessee Wesleyan. Frazier, Tom. "You Can Go Home Again" and Other Mountain Moments. Williamsburg , Kentucky: Mountain Moments Productions, 1988. 56 pages. Staplebound paperback. $3.50. The author grew up in a Harlan County coal-camp and is presently an English professor at Cumberland College in Williamsburg, Kentucky. This book is a compilation of his syndicated column carried by rural newspapers across America . Topics include: "Four Rooms and a Path, Screen Doors," and "Rasslin'." Garza, Amy. Retter. Nashville, Tennessee: Winston-Derek Publishers, 1988. 226 pages. Trade paperback, illustrated. $12.95. This first novel is fictional biography of the author's grandmother. It has an appealing, down-to-earth charm, and it portrays mountain people as neither saintly nor especially sinful. Those who read widely will have to get used to a writing style which some may consider idiosyncratic and others, amateurish. It is set in the high mountains of Jackson County, North Carolina. Giardina, Denise. Storming Heaven. New York: Ballantine Books, the first paperback reprint, 1988. 293 pages. Mass-market paperback. $3.95. "Brilliant, diamond-hard fiction, heartwrenching, tough and tender." -Los Angeles Times. This novel, based on the struggle to unionize the coal mines of southern West Virginia, is written by a gifted young author who grew up in a West Virginia coal camp. It was a co-winner of the Weatherford Award as the outstanding Appalachian book for 1987, and selected as the book of the year by the Appalachian Writers Association. Glen, John M. Highlander: No Ordinary School: 1932-1962. Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1988. 309 pages, illustrated with a bibliographical essay and index. Hardback in dust jacket. $30.00. Highlander was founded in Grundy County, Tennessee, in 1932. Shut down by the state of Tennessee in 1961 and moved to Knoxville, it has been operating in Jefferson County, Tennessee, since 1972. This scholarly study of Highlander illuminates not just local history, but also the field of adult education and the social movements Highlander has been involved in-from Civil Rights to CIO to the Appalachian Land Ownership Study. Hagan, Chet. Redemption. New York: Richardson and Steirman, 1988. 263 pages. 72 Hardback in dust jacket. $16.95. "Redemption takes place, like James Dickey...