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Best Books of 2012

Started by Rob Neufeld in Book Finds Nov 19, 2012.

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Rob Neufeld posted a discussion

Barefoot in the Snow by Julia Nunnally Duncan

Marion poet cradles the individuals in her lifeby Rob NeufeldReview of: Barefoot in the Snow by Julia Nunnally Duncan (World Audience trade paper, Apr. 2013, 67 pages)             “The Loving Child” might be an alternate title for Julia Nunnally Duncan’s new book of poems, “Barefoot in the Snow.”  Her title poem…See More
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Landon Godfrey posted an event
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Vandercooked Poetry Nights at Asheville BookWorks at Asheville BookWorks

June 1, 2013 from 7pm to 8:30pm
Asheville BookWorks Inaugurates Broadside & Reading Series: Vandercooked Poetry Nights Asheville BookWorks, a community resource for print and book arts, introduces Vandercooked Poetry Nights, a reading series that offers the public the opportunity to print letterpress broadsides at the series events. The first Vandercooked Poetry Night is Saturday, June 1, 2013. Printing begins at 7:00 p.m. The reading begins at 7:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Asheville BookWorks will…See More
yesterday
Celia Miles posted a blog post

Celia Miles' new novel, sequel to Sarranda, is available in paper and Kindle

http://www.celiamiles.comSarranda's Heart: A Love Story of Place is now available in regional independent bookstores and on Kindle, soon on Amazon.See More
Saturday
Rob Neufeld posted discussions
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Sue Diehl posted an event
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Montreat College Friends of the Library--Tommy Hays, speaker at Montreat College Gaither Fellowship Hall

June 15, 2013 from 12pm to 2:30pm
June 15, 2013 Annual luncheon of the Montreat College Friends of the Library.  Tommy Hays will be speaking about his novel The Pleasure Was Mine and previewing his upcoming  What I Came to Tell You.  Lunch at 12:00 noon in Gaither Fellowship Hall.  $15.00 for lunch and speaker.  Speaker only at 1:00 pm in adjacent Gaither Chapel $10.00.  Annual dues: $15.00Reservations:  828-669-8012 Ext. 3502 or 3504See More
Saturday
Joe Perrone Jr. posted a blog post

As the Twig is Bent is Available Now in Audiobook

As the Twig is Bent, the original book in the Matt Davis Mystery Series by Joe Perrone Jr, is now available as an audio book from Audible.com and iTunes.  Opening Day and Twice Bitten, the second…See More
Friday
CHARLES C FLETCHER posted an event

Charles Fletcher at CLEVELAND, TENNESSEE

May 17, 2013 from 1pm to 7pm
Friday
Marsha Walpole posted an event

High Country Festival of the Book at Tweetsie Railroad, Watauga High School

June 21, 2013 at 8:30am to June 22, 2013 at 4pm
BISCUITS, BOOKS & BALLADS Join us June 21 for dinner at historic Tweetsie Railroad with NY Times Best-Selling Author, Sharyn McCrumb Tickets $50.00http://www.highcountryfestivalofthebook.com/tickets-for-biscuits-books--ballads.html    - WRITING WORKSHOP - June 21 from 8:30 - 4:00 At the Watauga County Public Library…See More
Friday

Readers' flood memories & Milton Ready's Madison County history

Writers remember Rocky Broad flood and Alexander’s stock stand

by Rob Neufeld

 

            “I cannot believe there wasn't anything said about the 1996 flood in Chimney Rock,” Marion Baker, co-owner of Bat Cave River Cottages, wrote in response to last week’s column about “the worst floods in WNC history.”

            She and her husband, Bruce, established the cottages “to treat others as you would want to be treated,” after having had an early career as U.S. Cellular agents and a life of seeing the country on a motorcycle.

            “We have not found another place we like as much as here,” Bruce writes on their website—“on the river with the isothermal weather region.”

            Their three-bedroom cottage includes a hot tub on a deck overlooking the Rocky Broad River.  From a similar deck on their house, Marion watched, in 2004, the river rise 12 feet.  “I saw 30-foot trees floating by,” she said.

            “I was not here [on Sept. 4, 1996], but I was told 13 inches fell in three hours,” she noted.

            The flood “was believed to be the worst in the area in 80 years,” The N.C. Dept. of Environmental and Natural Resources reports.

            Charles Smith from the Bat Cave area, remembers the flood of ’96.

            “It washed out US 64/74 below Bat Cave and along with it, several homes, businesses and campgrounds. The debris ran into Lake Lure and left a sizeable mess.

            “I remember seeing a pickup and several camping trailers wrapped around trees above the Esmeralda Inn. The fascinating thing, though, was that the rocks in the Rocky Broad River were literally sandblasted from the force of the water. They had a beautiful, clean, white appearance that I think remains.”

 

The 1916 scouring

 

            Readers also passed along memories told them about the 1916 flood.  Even being stranded in towns cut off by the suspension of train service had made lasting impressions.

            Lasting impressions of a physical nature involved the remolding of landscapes.

            Asheville’s remarkable Riverside Park—complete with boating and an island movie screen—succumbed to the 1916 flood, never to be rebuilt.

            Observing the scouring performed by the river, one legend goes, Edwin Wiley Grove realized the feasibility of a stone and gravel plant, and established Grovestone in Swannanoa.

            Alexander on the French Broad, a premiere stock stand and wayside inn in the days of the Buncombe Turnpike, was erased.

            "The French Broad River at Alexander swept away all of the village on the west side of the stream except the Southern Railway station,” the “Asheville Citizen” reported.  “The post office, a store and two dwelling houses went down in the swirling currents.”

 

Milton Ready’s new book

 

            Alexander becomes one of the historical memories raised up in Milton Ready’s new book, “Mystical Madison: The History of a Mountain Region.”

            Ready, UNCA Professor Emeritus of History, author, and small press publisher, recreates the life of Alexander’s stock stand.

            In many ways, it was not at all pretty, but drovers and others had rough fun.

            “The close proximity and even daily intimacy…to a barnyard of animals,” Ready writes, “sometimes resulted in reversals and transfers of their behaviors.”

            Zeb Vance, boy worker at a stock stand in Lapland (Marshall) and future N.C. Governor, “liked to mimic animals, particularly horses and cattle, by falling on all fours and lapping water from the French Broad with his tongue and hands.  Vance also used their sounds to punctuate many of his anecdotes and tales as well.”

            Ready keeps his book un-academic and leaves out footnotes.

His title, which sounds like a pop offering, is actually an irony. 

           “Few have spoken or written about Madison County in mundane, pedestrian terms,” Ready notes in his introduction, promising to put gritty frontier reality in the spotlight, while also putting forward the grand episodes, such as the county’s craft and song traditions.

           Ready’s epilogue is a quotable essay about Madison County’s outstanding contributions to history.  “Madison County has a mystique all its own,” Ready concludes,  “Indeed, the mere mention of the County’s name always seems to provoke an excited response.”

THE BOOK

Mystical Madison: The History of a Mountain Region by Milton Ready (EverReady Publications trade paper, coated paper, 2011, 256 pages, $24.95, P.O. Box 323, Lynn NC 28750)

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