North Carolina Books

Just the title provides food for thought: Blue Ridge 2020, An Owner's Manual, reminds us that the public has a responsibility for effective stewardship of the public lands in the Blue Ridge. I also like the play on words of 2020--hindsight is 20/20, and if we don't take a hard, clear look at what is happening to the ecology of the Blue Ridge and work hard to improve it, we will have deep regrets by the year 2020. The human scale of twenty years is very effective. I'm 31--what kind of Blue Ridge will I experience at 51? As a local environmental activist in the Page Valley, I find this book is a tremendously useful and motivating resource. In one book, Steve Nash provides an overview of specific problems and practical solutions. His writing style is clear and accessible. If you care about the health about the Blue Ridge or want up to date information about the quality of air and water in the mountains, this is a book you need to read. This is one of the best "state of the ecology" books I've read, and it is particularly useful for its regional approach.

I'll begin by saying I'm probably biased in favor of this book right from the start. (My name's in there!)

I've known that this project was in the works for some time, although I didn't know what the outcome would be. I got my copy a few days ago and was thoroughly impressed. The book is broken down by regions, all of which follow the Blue Ridge Parkway through North Carolina and Virginia. The musical culture highlights of each of the regions are covered in interesting detail, and often focuses on individuals who have been an important part of the musical heritage of the Blue Ridge.

The only downside to the book is that there are a few minor mistakes, such as events or venues being listed in the wrong regions. This is not a major problem, though, unless you actually intend to use it as a "guidebook." In this case it would be advisable to call ahead before making the trip. Hopefully these inaccuracies will be rectified in future editions.

I grew up listening to (and playing) bluegrass music and I'm always hungry for any new publications that covers the music I love. This one whets my appetite.

I first read "Bobby Rex" some 12 years ago at the tender age of 12. At that time, it was one of the first non-classic grown-up books I'd read, and I found myself unable to believe that someone could capture such simplicity and depth in single sentences. I loved the book so much I even stole a copy of it from the local library (don't worry, i've more than payed for it in overdue fines throughout the years) because I couldn't stand the thought that someone else would check it out and never return it. But I digress... Why is it such a beautiful book? Because it speaks sweet, insightful and often hilarious volumes without falling all over itself the way so many writers do these days. It's the sort of book you read and then sit back and think, God, I could write that... because it's just like someone relating stories to you. Its the tale of a young girl, Pally Thompson, who over the course of 3 or 4 years discovers the truths and myths about those people with whom she surrounds herself. -- Marianne Gingher does an absolutely brilliant job of painting smalltown lives and loves during the latter part of the 1950's. She treats her characters, all of them (even those who may not deserve it) with respect and dignity. Never sacrificing even a single word, she allows her characters to grow and breathe and, perhaps most importantly, to learn. "Bobby Rex" is a novel of discovery. Rich and honest and oozing with charm.

Grandma went to church with Henry Beattie. Her uncle testified for the prosecution. Granddad attended the trial. Dr. Trotti's article on half-tone images [featuring Beattie] in "The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography" whetted my appetite for his new book "The Body in the Reservoir." It was worth the wait.

Trotti's book represents a milestone in Virginia's cultural and journalism histories. For the first time [that I am aware] one work summarizes the crimes of Phillips, Cluverius, Marable, McCue and Beattie and their individual and collective significances. The book also reports on the newspapers' handlings of piracy, insurrections, lynchings [especially that of Thomas Smith] and other famous outrages peculiar to the Commonwealth. The author draws comparisons from a broad base of relevancy while maintaining focus on major cases.

The author traces development of newspaper sensationalism in Virginia from colonial days to the early twentieth century. Trotti credibly shows how cultural, technological and developments in social sciences encouraged such reporting. He identifies elements common to the South and unique to Virginia. In chapter five, he pauses to further hone his earlier work on image technologies.

Trotti's style is precise and logical. His conclusions are astute. The roles of police/dectectives in later cases may be understated, but the author presents newly compiled facts and statistics important to better understand these influences.

Illustrations and endnotes support the text well. The endnotes double as an informal bibliography. The index is optimal.

For scholarship, analysis and historical value, "The Body in the Reservoir" ranks high. The work compliments Lebsock's "A Murder in Virginia" by expanding the contributions of the African-American publisher/editor John Mitchell. Trotti's research on sensationalism belongs on a shelf beside Hamm's "Murder, Honor and Law;" each illuminates a different, key aspect of Virginia's legal psyche and that of the "New South."

Trotti covers all the great murder sensations of Virginia's yellow journalism period . . . . . all, of course, but the last one. The sensational Hall Case and its subsequent cover-up were only revealed recently in "Murder At Green Springs."

This is the translation of a Spanish book by an archpriest. It was then consisdered by many to be vulgar, but Elisha Kane, the translator of this volume found it to be most interesting and, with his brillant translation, shows the reader how so. It is full of wit and makes a wide use of play on words.

It is the story of a busybody named Trotaconventos who sticks his nose into other people's business - especially when it involves love. He tells of a clergyman who gets involved with a woman. The book questions the distinction between sacred and romantic love. Should a man of the church be above reproach?

Kane has illustrated the rhyming quatrains with impish cartoons. Kane was a professor of Romance Languages when he did the translation.

Of the many things that shape our lives, perhaps few are more important to the budding writer than the books he or she reads. "Books of Passage" takes us into the hearts and lives of twenty-seven of North Carolina's most beloved writers. From Hurlbut's Bible to the Autobiography of Malcom X, these authors share a moment and a book that transformed their lives and set their feet on a different path. Reading this book is as comfortable as settling down on the sofa for a chat with a friend. Add a mug of hot chocolate and you're in for a heavenly evening! -Sandra S. Provenzano

If you are thinking of a gift for someone that happens to be an Alumnus of Appalachian State, this is it! A great look into the past. Lots of pictures, lots of information. It offers up some geneology information, but not focused on it at all, a great read. No color pictures, what a drag.

I bought this book because I understood that a few of my ancestors were quoted in it; as a genealogist, I look for every mention of my ancestors possible! But this book brought home the staggering (to me, I never said I was smart) fact that not all conflict between settlers and Native Americans took place on the plains. Many, many conflicts took place right here in the midwest, in Ohio, Michigan, etc. And this book provides an excellent description of the people and events of this period of settlement. It adds a dimension to my research, and is an fascinating study.

The men of the 15th and 16th centuries who first explored the Eastern seaboard of the New World left written records of their travels that have been of significant interest to 21st century scholarship and academia. Thomas Hariot's "A briefe and true report of the new found land of Virginia" is a facsimile edition of the 1590 Theodor de Bry Latin Edition featuring the modernized English text is a four hundred year old document published for the Library at the Mariners' Museum by the University of Virginia Press. The original, highly illustrated edition served to provide Europeans with their first introduction to the American continent and shaped contemporary European perceptions of North America -- and subsequent research on that period ever since. Containing hand-colored illustrations from the period, the original is one of only three recorded copies with colored plates still in existence. This superbly produced and highly recommended edition with the inclusion of a contemporary English text for present day academia should be considered an essential and core addition to academic library American History reference collections and supplemental reading lists.

I am truly surprised that nobody else has submitted a review of this book! It certainly deserves to be widely read as an original contribution to African-American studies, to food studies in general, to cultural studies, and most importantly, by anyone who wants to understand how sterotyping works as part of the process of oppression. I also learned a great deal about what 'signifying' means, and how it can be used as an analytical tool.

This is not a perfect book. Sometimes I found it moved to quickly from the general to the specific and vice versa. But Williams-Forson has taken a really tough topic - the way Chicken has been attached to African American women, and she treats it with sensitivity, creativity, wit and an eclectic set of tools from literature, social science and history. In the process she gets to the heart of how stereotypes cut in a lot of different directions; they reveal weaknesses and strengths, solidarities and divisions. She is not interested in passive victimology, nor does she ignore the violence and pain of slavery and prejudice.

The result is a book which really does teach you something new about the Black experience. It is the opening, I hope, of a new generation of black history which shakes off some of the old narratives which have served their purposes, and gets into really complex terrain. I look forward to more complex counterpoint with the work being done in the Caribbean and on the Black experience elsewhere in the Americas. I will certainly be using this book in the classroom, and I hope it gets the broader readership it deserves!