North Carolina Books

Crone's portrayal of the South in mid-twentieth century is an authentic, gripping view of dysfunction and perceived reality. Claire's understanding of her parents' world grows as she grows. The use of multiple narrators through time to tell the story draws the reader in, even though the individual stories can stand on their own, complete with power, narrative shape, and characters you care about. Like Larry Watson's view of Montana in his novels, Crone makes no real judgment, simply recites the events from vantage points that bring the reader to her own conclusions. Worth reading and re-reading.

These haunting short stories cover about 50 years in a North Carolina town...each story can stand on its own, but since many of the characters weave in and out of all of them, the book is really more like a novel (similar to Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio). The narrators include some of the main characters, so the style of each tale varies; moreover, the people aren't freaks, as many of Sherwood Anderson's characters are----so what happens over the years in this small town is moving and meaningful to the reader in the way that the best literature becomes part of our lives.

Fayton, N.C., is a small town in Moira Crone's imagination, but it will strike a truthful chord with anyone who has experienced small-town life, with all its claustrophobic joys and troubles. The South is familiar territory to this New Orleanian, who teaches at Louisiana State University. In "What Gets Into Us," a story collection that also works as a fragmented novel with varying points of view, Crone depicts the tangled lives of Southern families -- the secrets of the neighbor next door, the waves of change that came with the civil rights movement and feminism and greedy development. Springing out into the world or slouching homeward, Crone's characters are as real as real can be.

In "The Ice Garden," winner of the Faulkner/Wisdom Prize, Crone tells a story of Claire McKenzie, one of the most engaging characters in this collection. Daughter of a troubled mother and a father in denial, Claire has more than her share of difficulties to face, but she does, and head-on, as is often the way with Crone's female characters.

Crone knows the tangled ties of mothers and daughters: "After a while I had the thought that my mother was very brave, compared to other people," Claire says. "Because it was so hard for her to live, knowing all she knew, feeling all she felt, as disappointed as she was, as confused and jealous. My mother needed beauty to keep her going. There was just no other way for her. She could never get enough. I must be just like her, I thought, then I thought, no."

As with Ellen Gilchrist's beloved Traceleen, Crone's African-American domestic workers often provide the most telling perspectives. Sidney Byrd returns to town for her friend Pauline's funeral and has tea with a grown-up Lily Stark, whom Pauline once rescued from a terrible situation. "At the sight of her serving me, I think, well, the time has finally come when Lily and I can talk as if there had been one life in that town in those days, and not two, the one at the front door and the one at the back. But soon I learn."

Crone has a gift for the telling phrase that conjures a time, a shared perception. Remember those parties, 'the kind where there was a huge dance band, white tablecloths, rum and Coke, and dinner"? Or the days when "There were big state hospitals then, with nice grounds, which were peaceful, some of them -- people lived in such places for years, their whole adult lives. Families could take a person there and drop them off." Or consider this description of a desperate woman: "She is old now, but she can still throw herself at strangers." Or "Being a lady is all about ignoring things." Entire eras, types of people, states of mind are summoned in Crone's gorgeous, memorable sentences.

As time works on Fayton and exacts its inevitable toll on human life and spirit, Crone's families -- the Senders, the Starks, the McKenzies, the Cobbs -- experience loss and change, abuse and betrayal and sometimes redemption. The drug of place -- sometimes intoxicating, sometimes poisonous -- gets into the town's inhabitants with its changing architecture, its difficult, sometimes blinding, sometimes obscuring, light. Crone wholly imagines the lives of these people, who might be you or me, in the house next door in any Southern town, with all the lights on and everybody home, dark secrets in every corner.


. . . . . . .


Book editor Susan Larson can be reached at slarson@timespicayune.com or at (504) 826-3457.

If you haven't met Peaches Dann, an amateur detective with a memory problem, you are in for a real treat. I would, of course, suggest that you pick up the first books in this series as well. When an reclusive multi-millionaire dies and leaves his fortune to various members of the family to the tune of fifteen million each. Deaths begin to occur even though it seems each member of the family is satisfied with the portion received. A friend of Peaches asks for her help in uncovering the killer. The family must make a joint trip to England to satisfy the terms of the will. When Peaches' friend is almost killed, Peaches flies to England to come back with them on the ship. This is no "Love Boat" cruise. Attempted poisonings, near misses on pushing members of the party overboard and a most humiliating, but hilarious, attempt on Peaches' life add to the non-stop excitement and fun of "Where There's a Will." This is a must-read for all cozy fans.

Elizabeth Daniels Squire's new Peaches Dann mystery, Where There's a Will, has everything: the beauty and danger of a high mountain setting in western North Carolina; a hazardous trans-Atlantic voyage on the fictional British luxury liner, the Ocean Queen; and a motley cast of newly made multimillionaires, one of whom may be out to murder the others. To this mixture is added a baffling plot with more twists and turns than a DNA helix. The result is an exciting adventure in mystery reading, especially the climactic scene in which Peaches, at the risk of her own life, solves the murder of handsome, charming Wingate Scott. When you start reading Where There's a Will, be prepared to read it straight through to the end, because you won't be able to put it down.

Suffering from a terrible memory, Peaches Dan takes lessons to learn a few tricks that will help her survive in the everyday world. She writes a book, How To Survive Without A Memory, to help others with similar afflictions recall critical things. Surprisingly, Peaches also solves murder mysteries by using her tricks to help her recall the clues.

Marietta, a high school friend, asks Peaches to investigate the death of her brother Winston, who allegedly jumped off a cliff. Marietta insists her sibling would never venture near an overhang because he deeply feared heights. Money could be a motive as Winston and his relatives recently came into a $15 million inheritance each. On a trip to England, someone tries to kill Marietta, who immediately persuades Peaches to join her. On the luxurious return trip by sea, several other murder attempts occur, including one on the sleuth. Peaches knows she must identify the culprit rather quickly before someone else dies at the hands of the unknown assailant.

Elizabeth Daniels Squire has created a near perfect sleuth in Peaches. The middle aged person with a faulty memory refuses to allow her ailment to stop her activities. WHERE THERE'S A WILL is a who-done-it loaded with misdirection cleverly executed by the author. Anyone who reads this novel will search for the previous five books in this humorous series with a deep message.

Harriet Klausner

Everything arrived in perfect order

Elizabeth Fox-Genovese has produced a very scholarly and enlightening examination of women of the old South. In vivid detailed with painstaking research, she presents the daily lives of women, black and white, within the plantation household. Though written from an academic perspective, the author has succeeded in presenting her research in an entertaining and even captivating narrative style. For those looking for the behind the scenes lifestyle of unknown women of the South, this is the one book of choice.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of "Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction." He has also authored "Soul Physicians," "Spiritual Friends," and the forthcoming "Sacred Friendships: Listening to the Voices of Women Soul Care-Givers and Spiritual Directors."

This is an impressive and large-scale achievement. I would have appreciated more acknowledgment of the role that white male eurocentric paradigms played (and continue to play) in the south and oppresion of Women of Color. Overall, a good starting place.

This play does exactly what Aristotle suggested a play such do, cause the reader or viewer to experience catharsis. It is so visceral and penetrating. I was enlightened, disturbed, and in awe of Ms. Orldandersmith's poetic genius. This play is simply amazing, because it offers truth in such a creative,compelling way. It will enter the canon of great American plays.

It's such a wonderful experience when you read a book, listen to a CD, view a film or attend a play, and you just know that you are privy to something that can, and usually will, change your life. "Yellowman" is a work on that level; a work of staggering truth and honesty.

Dael Orlandersmith-both as a writer and an actress-is among the best of her generation. This play was produced all too briefly at MTC in New York, but for those who didn't get to see it, please read the text. You will not be dissapointed.

This is probably the best play in the last 5 years.

I saw this play with Dael Orlandersmith and Howard Overshawn at The Wilma Theatre in Philadelphia in 2002; and nearly 2 years later I bought and read the play because I still think about it so often. Everything I might say about it is insufficient, if you are inclined and have the opportunity - read it, see it, you'll never forget the experience. "Yellowman" is just magnificent.

Written accounts of solitary wilderness living show up every once in a while, and seem to have become especially popular after the Baby Boomers "discovered" Thoreau in the 1960s. His words still inspire a few folks to chuck their lives of quiet desperation and head for the hills to get away from it all. Some are successful, some are not. Many stay there only a year or two before the most pressing need -- the financial one -- forces them to return to civilization.

That's not the case with Thomas Rain Crowe, who spent four years (1978-1982) living alone in a cabin in the Smoky Mountains of western North Carolina. Crowe went back to his home state after living in a variety of places, doing a variety of work, communing with a variety of people. When given the opportunity to be the cabin tenant, he made the most of it. He worked hard to be self-sufficient, growing his own food and tending to his home and his tools. Others might have been bored in such a setting, but not him. He was always busy: gardening, fishing, taking care of his beehives, making homebrew, digging his root cellar, taking notes on the experience. And he regained the use of one his most valuable resources, the Southern Mountain speech of his childhood. He was downright satisfied with the situation.

His mentors in this effort were several local men who offered advice from time to time: Zoro Guice appeared in Yoda-like fashion whenever Crowe needed to learn how to perform a certain task. Walt Johnson was the scamp of the neighborhood, but was also an accomplished dowser who could find water every time. From these and other natives Crowe learned how to live close to the land, to live in the time of the seasons. The reader senses that Crowe would be living there still, if civilization hadn't encroached upon the property and changed it forever. That's when he knew he had to leave.

Not just a doer, Crowe is also a viewer -- a writer, a poet, a spiritual man who feels a strong connection to the natural world. His poetry uses simple words and turns of phrase to evoke powerful images. On the other hand, his prose, the narrative of his story, is the work of a learned and literate man. Complex constructs entice the reader to keep on going, to chew on the concepts and experiences offered. It takes time to digest these lines, and it's time well spent. Having witnessed Thomas Rain Crowe read some of this book aloud in person, I have the benefit of having heard the hint of the Smokies in his voice, the love for the place evident in every well-spoken syllable. No matter; it comes through in the typewritten text as well.

So was Thomas Wolfe right or wrong? Can you or can't you go home again? The reader decides. In the meantime, "Zoro's Field" should be placed on a shelf with the works of the old and new naturalists (Thoreau, Burroughs, Leopold, Carson, Eiseley, Bass) to one side, and the "Foxfire" books to the other. A thought-provoking addition to the environmental canon.

The local legend and mountain sage of the Appalachians of western North Carolina Zoro Guice told the author, "If a man goes out in the woods and just sits down in one place for long enough, all of nature and everything he needs to know will eventually pass before him like a parade." And so Crowe--poet, publisher, and recording artist--took up residence in the Appalachians for four years, and writes about the "parade." As in Thoreau's "Walden," Crowe writes about how he subsisted in the wild and what he learned from this. But moving somewhat beyond "Walden" in content and form, Crowe writes more about what goes on beyond himself; and some passages are in the form of verse. Not so meticulous or contained as "Walden," "Zoro's Field" reflects on modernity's effects on the tie with nature, environmental concerns, and changes which have come to the area. Though different in ways from Thoreau's classic which it cannot help but be compared with, Crowe's work in this same genre holds its own as an engaging, thought-inducing memoir.

More than a modern Walden, this is a book about intentional living. Crowe returns to home land in the southern mountains of North Carolina after living in Europe and northern California. Guided by principles of the Beat poets and philosophers, he embraces the traditions of sustenance, growing his own food, tending bees (honey for trade), making wine and beer. From his cabin beside the Green River gorge, he explores both terrain and history in celebration of a way of life that has been largely lost. The book is elegant and poetic. Crowe writes with an easy style, but critical intellect.

I really liked this book (and the series of 100 Classic Hikes). I live in Illinois, but do a lot of hiking in Colorado and these books are very helpful in getting you to the location and then describing the hike. I have yet to be disappointed by one of the hikes described in these books.

We visited Asheville, NC in the Summer of 2008 and absolutely loved it. I have posted more information on a few hikes in North Carolina and Colorado on my climbing/hiking website at www.MountainInsider.com

Scott Skinger
MountainInsider-dot-com

Joe Miller has first-hand experience with hiking and biking. Joe takes you on an adventure you haven't ever experienced before! Take at least one of the trails and see how accurate Joe has described the hike. Excellent book!

The 4th North Carolina Cavalry in the Civil War is a detailed, specific history grounded heavily on primary sources, including official records, letters, diaries, and personal recollections of Civil War soldiers. In 1862, the Partisan Ranger Act induced North Carolina leaders to recruit companies of irregular soldiers for Confederate Army service; seven of these companies were merged into the regiment of the 4th North Carolina Cavalry, a medley of urban and rural dwellers alike across fifteen counties. Chapters recount the major engagements of the 4th North Carolina Cavalry, including skirmishes along the Blackwater, The Battle of Whitehall, and Gettysburg, but well over half of The 4th North Carolina Cavalry in the Civil War is devoted to an extensive person-by-person roster of individuals, each with a short paragraph delineating what historical records say happened to him. (One such entry is "Pugh, George A.: Private - Enlisted in Co. D on 5/10/1864 in Perquimans Co., NC; present or accounted for on muster rolls through October 1864.") Black-and-white photographs, notes, a bibliography, and an index round out this in-depth supplement to Civil War reference shelves.

A very well documented story-from a writer who obviously knows and loves his craft. I think we will hear much from Mr. Raiford in the years to come.

I am a stay at home who works nights for AAA so I'm kept pretty busy 24/7. This book helped me enhance my creativity and helped me to encourage my daughter's desire to learn. She now is 20 months old, counts to 10 on her own, sings the whole twinkle,twinkle little star song (missing a word here and there) and is starting to really grasp letters. She can sing up to the letter D. Not that the only reason is this book but it gave me some really great ideas to help her along. Some are very common knowledge but many are not. I am so glad I came across this and am about to go onto the twos book. I can't wait. By the way it's not all about work it's really a lot of fun as well.

I found this book to have a lot of great ideas to do with toddlers

I use this book on a regular basis to help with ideas for activities for my preschooler. It is so well organized with great ideas and easy activities. I have a stack of preschooler idea books at home and this is the one that gets the biggest workout! I plan to buy the next one in the series, too.

This is a popular one at the center that I contract out of for family child care. It's a worthwhile book. It's a great series. I like knowing that the activities are specifically catered to an age group. It helps with family child care and daycare, too.

Very interesting short story. Great for my lady mail route carrier. She loved it.

This is a wonderful book. It is the story of Addie Clawson, who became the first female mail carrier in this rural area.
It tells of the struggles with the rugged winters and the doubts of many of the people who thought that a women just could not handle this type of a job. After having gone to school at Appalachian State University and traveled this area on my job I can attest to the rugged conditions. The book is written for children (grades 4-5) but adults will enjoy this book too.