The hard truth about the Cold War
We Americans like to sidle around the truth nowadays, which we do by labeling ourselves relativists. Like Pontius Pilate, we…
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Crowe wins prestigious poetry award
Tuckasegee poet Thomas Crowe won the George Scarborough Prize for Poetry during the recent Mountain Heritage Literary Festival at Lincoln…
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Oil thicker than blood in Texas
Reviewers of Philipp Meyer’s new novel, The Son (ISBN 978-0-06-212039-7, 561 pages, $27.99) have compared his epic story of the…
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Kingsbury gives us a comfortable summer read
In The Bridge (ISBN 978-1-4516-4701-3, $19.99), Karen Kingsbury treats readers to a tale of romance and tribulation centered on a…
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King’s Joyland set in eastern North Carolina
There is something about carnivals, amusement parks and shoddy summer circus operations that inspire a special kind of supernatural tale.…
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The power of books to change lives
Here are the true stories of some young people, all of them still under the age of 35. For the…
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Morgan conjures the past with a poet skill
Robert Morgan has a rare and cunning gift: he can sift through the detritus of the past, pluck objects and…
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A book to help wade through self-help industry
In The Last Self-Help Book You’ll Ever Need: Repress Your Anger, Think Negatively, Be a Good Blamer, and Throttle Your…
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A story of violence and race in small-town N.C.
My decision to read this “docudrama” (part memoir, part history and part detective story) was prompted by my genuine wish…
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A fast look at a few worthwhile tomes
Here they are, books yammering for review: a hillock of books on the floor by the desk; more books stacked…
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Dobyns novel reveals small town underbelly
Stephen Dobyns has written 20 novels and more than 10 volumes of poetry; however, he is difficult to “classify.” His writing…
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A rural bookstore that beat the odds
“Bookshops are magic.” This quotation, buried in the middle of Wendy Welch’s The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap: A…
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For your culinary and reading pleasure
Most booklovers have suffered that “Oh, no” moment when a friend, with nothing but the best of intentions, presses an…
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Tension-soaked novel is one of Appalachia’s best
Mark Powell’s The Dark Corner is probably the best Appalachian novel that I have read in the last decade. It is…
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History of Cherokee War is top notch
We Americans sometimes forget how new we are to the history of the world. Here in Western North Carolina, for…
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Movies, book explore travails of Memphis Three
They were known as the West Memphis Three: Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin and Jessie Misskelley Jr., three teenagers who were accused…
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To bee or not to be
With its title Colony Collapse Disorder taken from a recent mysterious collapse of honeybee populations in North America, Keith Flynn’s…
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The unforgettable life of Nancy Silver
Recently, when I was surfing through a depressing collection of nighttime TV programs — religious rants, psychics, cooking shows and…
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An insightful look at guerilla warfare
Since the Second World War, Americans have lived by the old dictum that only the dead have seen the end…
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Rash’s Appalachia is both rich and flawed
Ron Rash’s latest collection of short stories echos a theme that runs through all of his works: an awareness that Appalachia…
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Final volume of Churchill biography a long-awaited gem
William Manchester, author of a number of best-selling books, including The Death of A President, American Caesar, and Goodbye, Darkness,…
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1967 novel sheds light on obscure mass drowning
In recent years, I have become interested in an obscure incident that occurred in Jackson County in 1882 — the…
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To be (born) or not to be
Since reading Ben Wattenberg’s The Birth Dearth 25 years ago, the subject of demography has fascinated me. This past week…
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Another look at Wolfe
Thomas Wolfe: An Illustrated Biography by Ted Mitchell. Pegasus Books, 2007. 341 pages. Thirty-three years ago this month, at the…
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Zombie lore, one bite at a time
If you are literate and moderately aware of what passes for entertainment in film, popular novels and comics, then you…
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Literature deprived
Certain genres of literature fare better when critically judged by the standards of that particular genre rather than by any…
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Kerouac still matters, though the perspective has shifted
Of all the Beat writers of the 1940s and 1950s — Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, John Clellon Holmes, Gary Snyder,…
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Historian presents a factual story of Cleopatra
“Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.” — Cicero, 106 B.C. Stacy…
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An America divided by class
For the past 80 years more and more Americans have linked themselves economically to the machinations of the federal government.…
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Uncompromising, dark and a worthwhile read
A couple of years ago, I blundered into something called “The Bottom Dog Appalachian Writers Series.” Published in Ohio, this…
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Half-price sale at Friends of the Library bookstore in Sylva
A half-price book sale will be held from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19 and from noon to…
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Novel explores the woes of rich white trash
Let me take a deep breath and see if I can get this out in one long ugly sentence: A…
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Author to discuss AT journey
Writer Amy Allen will discuss her journey along the Appalachian Trail as she presents her book, Summoning the Mountains: Pilgrimage…
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Racism and adultery drive Spencer’s novel
Daniel Emerson is afraid of black people. After a chance encounter with a group of violent African American teenagers left…
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Re-discovering a child’s outlook and a sense of humor
Although its publisher marketed Robert Munsch’s Love You Forever as a children’s book, this touching story of a mother’s love…
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Bringing out the horror of teen angst
In recent years, there has been a kind of Swedish literary invasion in America, especially in the horror genre. Perhaps…
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The stuff of dreams: Important 20th century poet discovered in new book
As the poet Yvan Goll lay in a hospital in Paris dying of leukemia, a continuous line of some of…
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Books for holiday gifts can be a risky business
Think of the times someone has said to you: “You’ll love this book!” This well-intentioned person then shoves a book…
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Novel is both shocking and admirable
Anyone who remembers Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby (1967) and the Roman Polanski film that came out about a year later,…
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Diversity within unity — a book for the ages
From the foothills of the Southern Appalachians, and in the tradition of such spiritual classics as Gurdjieff’s Meetings With Remarkable…
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For the love of local bookstores
When I was a child living in Boonville, N.C., a town of 600 people, my mother would load us into…
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Lahane scores with steamy suspense novel
I have been a Dennis Lehane fan for about two decades now, and after reading classics like Mystic River, Shutter…
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Events for readers and writers
Author’s works come to life The Touring Theater of North Carolina will present “Look Back the Maytime Days: From the…
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News in brief for readers and writers
Library showcases author for book discussion Kimberly Brock will do a presentation based on her novel, The River Witch, at…
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A flawed story that is still worthwhile
Mark Helprin drives me crazy. Helprin’s novels — he is the author of A Soldier of the Great War, Freddy…
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Adult writing group to meet
A creative writing group for adults age 18 and over will be held at 7 p.m. Oct. 23 at the…
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Watkins to discuss Goll’s translation
Jackson County writer (author of the heralded travel memoir East Toward Dawn) and translator Nan Watkins will be giving a…
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Author to speak about citizen empowerment
Paul Loeb, a writer who has spent more than 30 years researching citizen responsibility and empowerment, will deliver a lecture…
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MacDonald may be innocent after all
I always thought he was guilty. Any doubts that I might have felt vanished after I read Joe McGinniss’ Fatal…
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Writer talks about memoir
Jackson County Public Library in Sylva will host a book talk with Barbara Taylor Woodall on at 7 p.m. Oct.…
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