T. S. Eliot said that April is the cruellest month, but maybe he'd have a different opinion now that April is National
Poetry Month . Accent on Books will have a number of different events in celebration during the month as will, I'm sure other stores and organizations. As you've probably noticed, there are a lot of great resources related to local poets right here on The Read. And you can even have a…
Continue
Added by Patrick Covington on March 31, 2009 at 3:30pm —
3 Comments
I asked my boy last year, who had just turned 5, if he knew of April Fools. If they taught him about it in school. No, he said. We were fast approaching the infamous date. We were driving home from a day at Warren Wilson College for me and a day of kindergarten for Avery.
I explained the concept to him, the whole idea of playing tricks and pranks of one another. A few minutes passed in silence. Avery started hitting something with his foot and I asked him to stop doing it. I asked again,…
Continue
Added by Sebastian Matthews on March 29, 2009 at 8:30pm —
No Comments
I am the author of two children's books. The first is The Most Unusual Adventures of Black Shadow Smokey and The Blue Streak, the second book is The Crystal Swan. The first book is an animal adventure and can be found on Amazon and Barnes and Noble on-line. The second book will soon be on these web sites and can be purchased now at Grateful Steps.com. Please check them out. I will post covers soon.
Added by Suzan Tanner McCoury on March 27, 2009 at 9:43pm —
No Comments

This time of the year I start listening-hoping to hear the first Whippoorwill of the season. I grew up hearing Pap tell a story about the Whippoorwill.
In days gone by, the story was quite popular in our area-so popular a man once came to record the story-straight from the source as they say. Pap was lucky to hear the story from both-the source and the recording.

Old Man…
Continue
Added by Tipper on March 26, 2009 at 2:00pm —
5 Comments
Osondu Booksellers is sponsoring a booksigning party for my debut novel TENDER GRACES. On April
17, 2009 from 7-9 pm. It's by reservation only. I hope if you are, or will be, in the area, you will call Osondu and reserve a spot!
Thank you!
Osondu Booksellers
184 North Main Street
Waynesville, NC 28786
828-456-8062
www.osondubooksellers.com
Margaret Osondu writes:
Tender Graces by Kathryn Magendie [is] a beautifully…
Continue
Added by Kathryn Magendie on March 25, 2009 at 9:30am —
No Comments
Local poet Cheri Jones will present her new book,"Chains," this coming Friday evening, March 27, beginning at 6:00 PM at Accent on Books, located on Merrimon Avenue in Asheville. Cheri will be introduced at this event by another acclaimed local poet, Marijo Moore.
"Chains" is an appropriate title for this sequence of poems, which portrays several generations of a family struggling with and against each other, bound as they are by chains of love and hate, kinship and madness. Although…
Continue
Added by Patrick Covington on March 24, 2009 at 8:12pm —
1 Comment

I enjoyed your top 50 books but I was surprised that "Hiking the Carolina Mountains" published by Milestone Press www.milestonepress.com was not one of them. The book is about to go into its third printing. I have a feeling that guidebooks are under "how-to" books and you didn't include that category.…
Continue
Added by Danny Bernstein on March 23, 2009 at 6:30am —
1 Comment

As the housing bubble has burst, I've been amazed to see how the housing/real estate market is woven into almost every aspect of our local economy. It's as if the giant motor that was funding all of our lives has run completely out of fuel-leaving us stranded on the side of the road. County employees, lawyers, business owners, contractors, teachers, nurses, the list could go on and on-all left wondering if the motor will ever start…
Continue
Added by Tipper on March 22, 2009 at 2:00pm —
No Comments

When the Daffodils began to bloom, I know Spring has arrived. Over the past week I've noticed Daffodils blooming everywhere-in my yard-as well as along the roadsides.
Each spring, I ponder the Daffodil blooms I see in fields or in wooded areas-in other words blooming in the middle of no where-yet sending out a strong and mighty signal that someone once lived there.

I…
Continue
Added by Tipper on March 18, 2009 at 1:49pm —
No Comments

I have been thinking about family heroes that I had noticed while doing family tree research. If you come from a very, very, very large pre-revolutionary war family you find so many unsung heroes with legends on their graves that indicate they received medals and awards in our country's wars. When we visit North Carolina I always look in on the family cemeteries.I know that all or most of the Morgans in Buncombe County are descended from two…
Continue
Added by Sallie on March 18, 2009 at 11:30am —
No Comments
"Waste Not Want Not" was a saying past generations used and lived by-because they had too. Wasting for past generations was considered shameful. Hard times caused folks to use what they had-to make do.

Miss Bonnie, my husband's Grandmother was born in 1914. She was a typist for Champion International, then after having children, a stay at home mom.

At the age of 55 Miss…
Continue
Added by Tipper on March 12, 2009 at 8:23am —
1 Comment

Time for this month's Appalachian Vocabulary Test-
1. catty cornered
2. choke rag
3. clabber
4. clim
5. cuss fight

1. catty corner-in a corner or sitting cross ways. "The last time I saw Old Blue he was sitting catty corner on the porch."
2. choke rag- a neck tie. "I hate going to weddings, cause I have to wear a choke rag!"
3. clabber-sour milk.…
Continue
Added by Tipper on March 10, 2009 at 11:27am —
1 Comment

Bill O’Reilly’s recent contemptible rant against Appalachian Americans is only the latest example of the widespread and multigenerational problem of Appalachian hillbilly stereotypes. Quite simply, O’Reilly reminded the world once again that people of the Appalachian Mountains are still the only cultural group in America that many people have the audacity to ridicule publicly as being of low intelligence, and worse.
Can you imagine…
Continue
Added by Tipper on March 6, 2009 at 6:30pm —
6 Comments

From my sick bed I hear feet running
down the hall, out the door
From my sick bed I hear talking heads
stocks plummet, leaders fail
From my sick bed I hear cooking
pots rattle, spoons chink

In my sick bed
bones ache, chest suffocates
In my sick bed I see two girls run in, run out
yet, a third… Continue
Added by Tipper on March 3, 2009 at 3:19pm —
1 Comment

I feel as though I've been living on another plane of life. A separate place where you exist and simultaneously you don't.

A neighborly place where you sit back and view your world go on without your input.

I've watched The Deer Hunter wash clothes, clean, cook, take care of the girls-all the things I usually do. I see he does them…
Continue
Added by Tipper on March 1, 2009 at 3:00pm —
No Comments