Tennessee Books

For the first time readers are able to read about a serious and complex subject and actually understand what the authors are trying to explain. Government and Politics in Tennessee sounds like a topic created only to cure insomnia, yet the authors (mainly author Billy Stair, former senior policy advisor to Governor Ned McWherter) are able to create a fun atmosphere filled with interesting personal experiences (visiting a high school in rural Tennessee and arriving by helicoptor)and little known yet fascinating facts. This book serves as an exceptional look into the world of Tennesse politics and should be read by anyone with an ounce of intrest in the subject, for it will surely intensify your appetite for all things Tennessee.

Everyone has heard of this trial. However, until I heard this rendition of the trial and play I wasn't as interested. This play sheds new light on it and makes it so much more interesting and actually brought it to life for me.

I am from greeneville,tn, but moved away over 25 years ago. I purchased the book on a whim and was amazed at the memories it brought back. When I first got the book I randomly opened it an there was a picture of my grandmother as a child with her parents and siblings. It is an amazing collection of pictures.The pictures paint a beautiful picture of a simpler time in a small town.

This helpful reprint of Dr. John C. Gunn's original 1830 edition of Domestic Medicine gives a sampling of the state of medical treatment in the 19th Century. Dr. Gunn broke new ground for his time, encouraging non-professional laymen to understand and care for the health of their families and use native medicinal plants of North America rather than exotic drugs. Nonetheless, he does carry forward some of the legacies of the age in recommending bloodletting, vigorous purging, and the use of opium, calomel, and mercury. Though he decries the use of tobacco for recreational purposes, he is happy to recommend the medicinal use of tobacco as a diuretic, emetic, or laxative (for "obstinate constipation").

At a time when the standardization of medical training in the United States was in its infancy, including perhaps a year's apprenticeship under a practicing physician, Gunn's Domestic Medicine helped families cope with the frequent illnesses that plagued frontier life. Along with the family Bible, Gunn's Domestic Medicine (and the later Domestic Physician) graced the parlor tables of many a home in the 1800s. This reprint edition gives modern readers a chance to own a piece of the past.

This book remains one of my all-time favorite books on folk holidays. A series of essays on various fall and harvest celebrations, it centers around Halloween, but branches out to discuss celebrations from Christmas mummers parades of the Ulster Scots and cutting the last sheaf of wheat, to Bonfire night in Newfoundland, to modern day trick-or-treat scare myths.

Beyond merely recounting the history of Halloween, this book does a wonderful job of placing our holiday in a global context and discussing what societal need these holidays or myths fulfilled. A fascinating study of our human history, I recommend this book highly to anyone interested in folk history and the "meaning" of holidays.

In a similar vein, I also recommend, Halloween : An American Holiday, an American History by Lesley Pratt Bannatyne for a more detailed look of the holiday as it unfolded in the US.

Covers a little-known aspect of the Wild Bunch and Harvey Logan in particular. Well illustrated and fun to read

This is a great little book filled with photos of some of the residents of Haywood County, TN. It's a wonderful genealogical resource or nice just to have for your home, since most everyone in Haywood County knows each other anyway!

Women poets in Appalachia have been pretty much overshadowed by their male counterparts--Fred Chappell, Robert Morgan, Charles Wright, for example. But tucked away in their coves and hollows, some women have been writing poetry that is the equal of those celebrated male poets and have been doing so for quite a while. This collection begins to give these women their due. Although I could have wished for more poems to go along with the essays, I am happy to have this introductory edition, because I hope it will spur more interest in women poets in Appalachia. It is a fine companion volume to Joyce Dyer's wonderful BLOODROOT, a collection of essays by Appalachian women writers.
Who could doubt that poets like Kathryn Stripling Byer, Maggie Anderson, George Ella Lyon, and Lynn Powell are as deserving of notice and praise as their male counterparts? The essays on Byer and Powell are especially well done. The authors, Anne Richman and John Lang, are excellent critics and their observations illuminate the work of two writers who have themselves illuminated their place in the southern Appalachians.
Felicia Mitchell has done poetry lovers a huge favor by gathering together the voices in this book. The authors of the essays are, as she says, "open-minded critics whose balanced analyses help to shed light not only on Appalachian women's poetry but also on a segment of contemporary poetry that is far richer than some people yet know--but will, if this book does its job."
Let's hope that it does. Move over Jorie Graham, Louise Gluck, Ellen Voigt, and others "up there" in your literary hotbeds. These mountain women are writing poetry that spins its language in ways more engaging than most of what shows up in the pages of THE NEW YORKER or the Norton Series of Poets. Give them a listen. You'll like what you hear.

Purchased 3 copies for Christmas gifts - all three recipients were delighted to receive this book about the Mississippi Delta.

His most "frightening moment" on the trail is a great read and had me laughing out loud. All of his guidebooks are excellent, but I believe this is the best. It contains a nice history of the trail, a good biography of MacKaye, and excellent topographic maps.