Akron Public Library

An insider's perspective on Appalachia, and a frank, ferocious assessment of America's recent fascination with the people and the problems of the region. "In 2016 headlines declared Appalachia ground zero for America's "forgotten tribe" of white working-class voters. Following the presidential election, demystifying Appalachia and locating the roots of its dysfunction quickly seemed to become a national industry, shoring up the success of J.D. Vance's...

"Ministers, church members, revivals, baptisms, shaped-note and gospel singing, faith healing, camp meetings, footwashing, snake handling, and other traditions of mountain religious heritage.".

A family living in the Appalachian Mountains in the 1930s gets books to read during the regular visits of the "Book Woman"--a librarian who rides a pack horse through the mountains, lending books to the isolated residents.

Hawk and Elizabeth Spencer struggle to raise a family in the Tennessee frontier in the midst of Indian troubles and the American Revolution.

Oral History, the lyrical saga of a Virginia mountain family, follows four generations of Cantrells over more than a century. With each chapter, Lee Smith, a master of regional voices, adds another branch to a family tree that sings with secrets and sadness, beauty and joy. Researching an assignment for an Oral History course, Jennifer drives to the Virginia hills where her mother and father grew up. Raised by a stepmother, the young college student...

Hiding out in the Appalachian Mountains of Kentucky, Beth Venable, a witness to a major mob hit who even the FBI can't protect, dreams of a new life with Ryal Walker, the man she's always wanted, but must survive her old one first.

"Frigid February air has settled into the bones of the Blue Ridge Mountains, making for a slow foxhunting season, though 'Sister' Jane Arnold's enthusiasm is not so easily deterred. With the winter chill come tweed coats, blazing fireplaces, and perhaps another to share the warmth with, as the bold hunting scarlets worn by the men in Sister Jane's hunting club make the hearts of women flutter--until someone's heart stops entirely. Harry Dunbar, a...

On t.p.: Ironmaking, blacksmithing, flintlock rifles, bear hunting, and other affairs of plain living.

In 1966, in the Appalachian Mountains of Northeast Georgia, a teacher and his students founded a quarterly magazine that they named Foxfire, after a phosphorescent lichen. In 1972, several articles from the magazine were published in book form and the acclaimed Foxfire series was born. Some thirty years later, the books continue to teach a philosophy of simplicity in living that is truly enduring in its appeal. Much more than "how to" books, the Foxfire...