West Virginia Books

I'm a PhD student in English taking Old English as a class. We are using several texts but this one seems to work better for me than anything else I've been exposed to. Easy to understand and follow. It has been a great help.

Old English is definitely a challenge, but Hasenfratz makes it a bit easier with clear writing with good reviews of modern English grammar. Each chapter is loaded with practice sentences and entire sections of actual historical texts to translate. The only drawback, no solutions are provided, so it makes an independent study of it a bit more difficult.

Hasenfratz and Jambeck's book attempts to remove the philology from the study of Old English and make it available to a wider audience. Ignoring the mistakes in the book (which will be addressed momentarily), this can be seen as good from the point of view of non-academics or the many English grad students who plan to forget Old English as soon as they're done. However, academics actively interested in the field of Old English are much better served by Mitchell and Robinson's Guide to Old English. As far as the mistakes, the first edition of the book is full of them. The website contains many corrections, if you feel like taking the time to look there. Unfortunately, the greatest concentration of mistakes occurs in the two page reference grammar at the end of the book and on the website, which as of mid September when I printed mine out, remains mostly uncorrected. As a result, you must constantly cross-check the reference grammar with both the material in the book and with other books on Old English. The entire paradigm given for weak adjectives which change stems is wrong, and unless you compare with Mitchell and Robinson, you will never have any idea.

In conclusion, if a second edition is ever released which corrects the many mistakes, it will probably be a good text if you have a passing interest in Old English. But for now (or if you're seriously interested in Old English), the more traditional books such as Mitchell and Robinson are still your best bets.

The first edition has some typos, but it is much more user friendly than other Old English textbooks. Apparently, the authors envision it being used in a 6-7 week course, but that is too short a time for people. It just takes longer than that to memorize solidly all the necessary forms. Despite its minor problems, I highly recommend it.

Believe it or not, WEST(by God)Virginia is not a part of Virginia! No, seriously folks, Richmond may be a great book, but it should not pop up under a search for West Virginia books! Sorry. And in case you're wondering, Charleston is the capital of West Virginia!

Practical, easy-to-read, fun guide!
Thanks to reading this book beforehand, our family had the best weekend trip in our lives!
Buy it, read it, travel, enjoy!!!!! :-)

P.S. To the author of the review on the bottom of the page: hey, smart pants, what does you review have to do with this book? People are making fun of you, be a sweety and delete it!

Your review skewed the system. Keep this info to yourself. The search engine has NOTHING to do with a review for a book. IDIOT!
The book ROCKS and, yes, while it has nothing to do with West Virginia, (and I consider that a plus) it explains in detail the ideocyracies of the fine city of Richmond.

My wife is related to John Young, via his wife Keziah. So I purchased this book hoping to add to our knowledge database on Keziah and her husband, as well as her side of the family. The author has some of the facts straight, based on other research the Tackett family has done. But other facts are dead wrong. He has Keziah's first husband John Townsend being killed in 1790, but he died of consumption in 1788. He has their child Mary killed in the attack at Tackett's Fort, but according to written interview with Keziah, Mary was captured by the Indians, never to be seen again. And for at least four chapters he keeps saying he doesn't know where to end the book, so here is a little more information. It was like he was talking to himself, but decided the thoughts he was having needed to be in print. The ink would have been better utilized with the story. Chronologically the author is all over the place. He has them buried in Youngs Bottom, then goes on to tell other stories about their lives. I just ordered another copy of the book "Lewis Tackett- Pioneer" to send to my son. If you want a better historical account this is a better expenditure of your money.

This is a very well written book and, without being biased as one of the many descendants of John Young, I recommend it highly. Mr. Jones made the adventures of the Tacketts and Youngs come back to life, and I felt like I was there with them when they canoed away from the Indians. My grandson loved this book too. Kudos!!!

I recommend this book to those who are interested in the life of the early settlers of the Elk and Kanawha Valley area. As one of MANY Young descendants, I found it fascinating and very informative. The writer makes this a very enjoyable read.

I bought the books (2) when they first came out and Mr. Dillion signed both for me. He was born in the coal field and knew the subject of which he wrote. Just within the last year I have obtained a copy of the report on the fire from the Federal Mine folks. I wonder why it took them 39 years to make the report public.... and one name was wrong in the list of those that were killed in that fire at the Holden 22 mine. The man's name was Isom Ooten, not Isom Hooten.

I can only speak to one of the mine explosions discussed in this book, the Burton Mine Explosion at Craigsville, WV in 1958. Many of Mr. Dillon's facts were wrong in that chapter. I'd think the names of the miners killed would be easy for him to obtain, yet some of them were wrong. Makes me wonder about the rest of the book.

This book gives one insight into the dangers of coal mining and the cultural aspects of it historically. Extensive interviews, with those actually involved. Humanity interwoven with hard facts. I actually cried during some accounts.

This book has great information about West Virginia's forests. With the great abundance of hardwood trees. Has Over 150 photo's of sawmill's, and other logging interests. If you are into logging or West Virginia's past this is a book for you.

This book has over 300 pages.....to bad only 97 of them hold the entire information portion of the book. There is a few pages in the back dedicated to a lumberjack's dictionary. The rest of the pages are pictures, index and glossary. You could probably find those or better pictures online if you tried. Overall I feel that this book was a waste of money and of time.

I bought my copy in, I believe 1965. Having been raised in West Virginia and been involved in the lumber industry, it is a gem of that niche in history of the Mountain State. The old photos are great especially on having visited many of the places represented. I have often wondered if it was out of print and am happy to see I can still buy it. I have loaned my copy several times to friends interested in early days of this main-line industry.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Reading this was almost painful. Notice that other reviewers admit they don't fish. That is the first clue. I don't make a habit of trashing books but this really was quite bad.

West with the Rise was recommended to me, and I really thought it was going to be all about fly fishing. The fishing journey gives Barilla a comfortable place to think about the challenges starting a family. And it seemed to say a lot for his marriage that Barilla's wife accepted his need to be alone on a fishing trip for a summer.

The book was thoughtful, honest, and entertaining. Each sentence is a pleasure to read, and I don't experience this too often. Many analogies enrich the prose. I don't fish, and some of the details about fishing seemed to go over my head. Otherwise, I'd give it 5 stars. I enjoyed the book. My wife did too.

You only have to read the first page of this book to know that James Barilla is a fine writer. This book is funny, poignant and fascinating by turns. I'm no fisherman, but the narrative drew me in and taught me plenty, both in the fishing sections and the more personal passages, of which there are plenty for the layperson. I loved especially the narrator's voice and fell in love with him - the end of his story is one of the more touching things I've ever read.

A guidebook should do two things. First, it needs to present a lot of factual information about places in the area it describes. Second, it must evaluate the places in a way that is useful to its target audience. This book meets the first requirement: it gives some historical information about the Salt Lake area and it describes many stores, restaurants, hotels, and other locations that will interest travelers. It also talks about health care, education, and other topics that are useful to people considering moving to SLC. Unfortunately, this Insider's Guide fails the second requirement by describing pretty much everything in glowing terms: if you believe this book, everyone is nice, the restaurants are all good, and you can't stay in a bad hotel. Compared to the more useful and frank evaluations found in the better guidebooks such as Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, or Let's Go, this book is definitely second class.

This is a very good, informative book, written with warmth and humour by someone who obviously has a great affection for the area and it's people. I've visited Salt Lake City for the last 4 years as a tourist and, as I read this book I'm back there smiling at it's quirks, looking around it's buildings, eating in it's restaurants and shopping in it's malls. The book is as easy going as the place it describes and is written logically, filling the reader in with the history and background before moving them around the city with added knowledge and appreciation of all that's there. This book will be my companion when I visit again this year. Oh and why only 4 stars - colour photographs instead of black and white please!

I was a helicopter pilot that performed rescues in this area during this awful flood. First off, it was an honor to be there and help the fine people of West Virginia. But I was hoping for a product that captured a time-line of the events, with hopes that the materials would be organized in an organized chronological manner - hour by hour. So if that's what you're looking for, this isn't it. And while the information is there, it's placed all over the print job. This book provides a generous amount of detail, but presents like a compilation of news stories taped down, photoscreened, and printed. Not a bad angle...but the print job looks like a cut-and-paste production on slick paper. I enjoyed the book, and if you were there, you'll want to have this book as a reference.

This book is profusely illustrated with black and white photos and a rainfall map. Accounts of the flood are taken from various local newspapers, giving a local flavor to the book while also providing a good documentary of events useful to weather historians.

I highly recommend this guide to anyone who will be traveling in the Northeast as well as Canada. This guide gives you everything from upcoming events for the year to where to stay & eat. The maps are easy to read and follow. I have been a reader of the Mobil Guide for many years and it is continuing to give the most accurate, up-to-date travel information. This is the MUST-HAVE for the Northeast traveler.

The book gives a good overview of the areas with many addresses. Anyhow I found it a bit too black and white. It gives useful maps, but no coloured pictures from the areas, which would make it a bit more pleasant to read.

I have a lot of relatives in Monongalia County in West Virginia. This has helped me a lot in putting some of the pieces together in my search for my lineage. I found that some of her information was slightly incorrect, but the genesis of the information led me in the write direction. I was particularly impressed with the history of the County. The detail that Connie P. Rice went into was very beneficial in understanding the people of West Virginia. For myself, this was a purchase that I will never regret.

Comprehensive endeavor at showing how African Americans lived in a border county... race relations issues are weakly framed and the complexities of them are glossed over.... There was actually very little effort to enforce Virginia laws against free blacks before the Civil War and Ms. Rice posits local elites as being repressive and this was not the case. She also ignores the issue of miscegenation which was an important aspect of relations in this particular county. Ms. Rice also does not focus on the role of the Mason Dixon Line and the differences free blacks encountered between Pennsylvania and Virginia/West Virginia. The photographs are MAGNIFICENT and make the book worthwhile, regardless of any minor flaws.