The Parton sisters’ cookbook

About 10 years ago, Dolly Parton became one of my heroines.

It wasn’t her music, or her movies, or her theme park that brought my salute. No — it was the day I was browsing the West Asheville Library and discovered information about Parton’s contribution to literature and books: the Imagination Library. 

A book of peace in hard times

Given the harrowing natural disasters in the South, I thought a good book to review this month would be one that might serve as a source of solace and peace to those who are currently struggling with these catastrophes.

The forgotten victims of violent death

Approximately 20,000 murders occurred in the United States in 2023. These killings ranged in scope from gang battles to domestic violence. 

‘Between Gone and Everlasting’

Danita Dodson will read from her latest book, “Between Gone and Everlasting,” at 3:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. 

A bird’s eye view of feathered friends

In a remarkable book that combines eco-poetry, poetic prose and personal and scientific information by award-winning African-American ornithologist and professor at Clemson University, J. Drew Lanham, birds are the major focus, with Lanham even giving us a semi-humorous list of rules for birders.

Southern stories for summer reading

Perhaps like many people, summer is a time for me to finally read those books I’ve been wanting to get to. While this summer began with determination to dwindle the stack of my “to-read” books, that stack has ended up bigger than smaller.

Time to stop the bashing, says Nina Power

When I heard British writer and philosopher Nina Power interviewed recently, I ordered her book. I was interested in her ideas, but also in her. I liked her curiosity and intellect, her attitude of respect and her low-key sense of humor.

‘And So I Run’ reading at City Lights

Local author Anne Jobe and editor Christine Reed will host a special reading at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 22, at City Lights Bookstore in Sylva. 

Books, parrots, love and regrets

If Monica Wood’s “How to Read a Book” were a painting rather than a novel, it would be a triptych, one of those three-paneled works of art often hinged together so that it can be closed or displayed open.

Will you ‘Bee the Change’?

Author John Kotab will present his latest book, “Bee the Change: If We Protect, Nature Will Provide,” at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 15, at Blue Ridge Books in Waynesville. 

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