Life among the poorest is eye-openerby Rob Neufeld             Enlightened and sobered by Katherine Boo’s account of political amorality and human behavior in “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity,” I was also amazed by her narrative achievement.            The book is…See More

WNC BOOK DISCUSSION CALENDAR, JULY 2014Tuesday, July 1WILD BOOK CLUB: The WILD Book Club discusses “The Interestings” by Meg Wolitzer at the Battery Park Book Exchange, 1 Page Ave., Asheville, 7 p.m. Call 254-6734.BOOK DISCUSSION: “A Tale for the Time Being” by Ruth Ozeki is the subject of a book discussion at the Weaverville…See More

The movie, filmed in 1929 in Graham County NC, accompanies the Asheville History Center's "Hillbilly Land" exhibition.See More

Local artist and Swannanoa Valley historian Jerald Pope is releasing his first novel, “The Elvis Tooth.” Pope describes the book as “a comic, historical, action-packed beach book, about Black Mountain that combines real history and stories with a time travel flair,” The titular tooth, the key McGuffin in the story, was an actual tooth pulled from Elvis Presley’s mouth in Black Mountain by Dr. Love in 1975. Pope is best known locally for the “Way Back When” series of plays that ran at the Black…See More

HISTORIC PHOTO Bent Field trestle wreck “We have many train wreck pictures,” says Marcy Thompson, Local History Librarian at Transylvania County Library.  Railroad and logging work were dangerous occupations; and Joe Wilde, a logging crew foreman and photographer had been on site for a number of them.  The wreck…See More

Spruce Pine and North Toe: The History and the Vision Part 3 of 4: Entering the 20th centuryby Rob Neufeld(See Part 1.  See Part 2.)             Susanna “Aunt Susie” Wiseman Phillips was 72 years old when the 20th century arrived in the…See More