Wish You Well

Amazon.com

The year is 1940. After a car accident kills 12-year-old Lou's and 7-year-old Oz's father and leaves their mother Amanda in a catatonic trance, the children find themselves sent from New York City to their great-grandmother Louisa's farm in Virginia. Louisa's hardscrabble existence comes as a profound shock to precocious Lou and her shy brother. Still struggling to absorb their abandonment, they enter gamely into a life that tests them at every turn--and offers unimaginable rewards. For Lou, who dreams of following in her father's literary footsteps, the misty, craggy Appalachians and the equally rugged individuals who make the mountains their home quickly become invested with an almost mythic significance:

They took metal cups from nails on the wall and dipped them in the water, and then sat outside and drank. Louisa picked up the green leaves of a mountain spurge growing next to the springhouse, which revealed beautiful purple blossoms completely hidden underneath. "One of God's little secrets," she explained. Lou sat there, cup cradled between her dimpled knees, watching and listening to her great-grandmother in the pleasant shade...

Baldacci switches deftly between lovingly detailed character description (an area in which his debt to Laura Ingalls Wilder and Harper Lee seems evident) and patient development of the novel's central plot. If that plot is a trifle transparent--no one will be surprised by Amanda's miraculous recovery or by the children's eventual battle with the nefarious forces of industry in an attempt to save their great-grandmother's farm--neither reader nor character is the worse for it. After all, nostalgia is about remembering things one already knows. --Kelly Flynn

Book Description

David Baldacci has made a name for himself crafting big, burly legal thrillers withlarger-than-life plots. However, Wish You Well, set in his native Virginia, is a tale of hopeand wonder and "something of a miracle" just itching to happen. This shift from contentiousurbanites to homespun hill families may come as a surprise to some of Baldacci's fans--but they canrest assured: the author's sense of pacing and exuberant prose have made the leap as well.The year is 1940. After a car accident kills 12-year-old Lou's and 7-year-old Oz's father and leavestheir mother Amanda in a catatonic trance, the children find themselves sent from New York Cityto their great-grandmother Louisa's farm in Virginia. Louisa's hardscrabble existence comes as aprofound shock to precocious Lou and her shy brother. Still struggling to absorb theirabandonment, they enter gamely into a life that tests them at every turn--and offers unimaginablerewards. For Lou, who dreams of following in her father's literary footsteps, the misty, craggyAppalachians and the equally rugged individuals who make the mountains their home quicklybecome invested with an almost mythic significance:They took metal cups from nails on the wall and dipped them in the water, and then sat outside anddrank. Louisa picked up the green leaves of a mountain spurge growing next to the springhouse,which revealed beautiful purple blossoms completely hidden underneath. "One of God's littlesecrets," she explained. Lou sat there, cup cradled between her dimpled knees, watching andlistening to her great-grandmother in the pleasant shade...Baldacci switches deftly between lovingly detailed character description (an area in which his debtto Laura Ingalls Wilder and Harper Lee seems evident) and patient development of the novel'scentral plot. If that plot is a trifle transparent--no one will be surprised by Amanda's miraculousrecovery or by the children's eventual battle with the nefarious forces of industry in an attempt tosave their great-grandmother's farm--neither reader nor character is the worse for it. After all,nostalgia is about remembering things one already knows. --Kelly Flynn

Download Description

In 1953, a young family has a devastating car accident which leaves twelve year old Louisa (Lou) and her seven year old brother Oscar (Oz) with their Pulitzer Prize winning father dead and their mother a bedridden, invalid who has completely withdrawn. Their only relative is their father's grandmother who is a stranger to them but who is willing to take the children in and care for their mother. So they move with their mother from their home in New York City to their great-grandmother's remote farm in rural southwest Virginia. As Lou and Oz get to know Louisa, they also get to know the harshly beautiful land that has sustained their family for generations and is the source of their father's acclaimed novels. It's a hard life for two kids from New York City, getting up at five in the morning to start working the farm, no electricity, no phones, an outhouse. But with the help of their new best friend, Diamond Skinner, and the kindliness of town lawyer, Cotton Longfellow, they thrive under their great-grandmother's care until one day a mining company makes an offer for the land that Louisa refuses to sell. To keep their farm, with the mining company and their own greedy neighbors against them, Cotton must try their case in court. Lou and Oz pray for a miracle...and their prayers are answered in undreamed of ways.

Customer Reviews:

A Real "Feel Good" Book.......2007-10-05

Want a book that captures you into a region, time and place? One that makes the reader re-evaluate the true value and meaning of life? If so, this is the book! The reader is allowed to experience each character via emotions and personality expressed in excellent narrative and dialog. It is very enlightening on a number of levels: the southern mountain culture, personal relationships and corporate exploitation of natural resources and people.

This excellent book is definitely one to recommend to friends of all ages. They will thank you for it.

Great Read.......2007-08-21

At first I was I dreaded taking this book from my cousin. But now I am so happy I did! I grew up in the Georgia Mountains and this book felt like home! It made me miss everyone I grew up with and especially my great grandfather!

A surprising, sentimental, but readable Baldacci.......2007-08-16

I'm used to David Baldacci's thrillers, which are never less than good. This was somewhat of a surprise, an affectionate tribute to the Virginia mountains from which his family came. Occasionally that affection tips over into melodrama, and the final chapters are indeed contrived with rather too much maudlin sentimentality and fairy-tale ending. A reviewer elsewhere described it rather nicely as "The Waltons in honey", and I can understand why. Yet the story is told with style and flair, with generally nicely-caught characters and places. Sure, it's a fairy tale, but we could all use a fairy tale now and then, and this one will melt all but the hardest of hearts.

When you read it, you'll find that the title is an especially neat touch.

Baldacci portrays a wonderful, moving story.......2007-08-01

I have read several of Baldacci's books. i.e., Total Control, The Simple Truth, and Saving Grace and I have enjoyed all these novels. This book, if you are not aware, is a major departure from his normal genre. I suppose he is following in the paths of Grisham, Patterson, Hiaasen, and Parker by stepping out of their genre to create human interest, and young adult type stories. I think it's great that these gifted authors are creating such wonderful stories, (A Painted House, by Grisham comes to my mind) especially those stories for the young adult group.
I thought this book was a wonderful, relaxing tale. It has its sad parts but it is still a heartwarming story. The author's descriptive scenes of the beautiful rural Virginia during the 1930's were terrific. Don't expect any mysterious killers, car crashes, love scenes, just a homegrown country story that is very enjoyable. There's no need for me to detail the characters and plot as there are numerous reviews already. In summary, I think it's a moving story with richly portrayed characters that I encourage you to read.

A heart warming story.......2007-06-29

this is a story of love,strength, courage, humor and most importantly...family

Hotel Paradise (Random House Large Print)

Average customer rating:

couldn't relate to its ambiguities
Unfinished Masterpiece
A Kind of Paradise
Kept my attention...
Disappointing Ending

Hotel Paradise (Random House Large Print)
Martha Grimes
Manufacturer: Random House Large Print
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0679758798
Release Date: 1996-04-30

Book Description

Internationally acclaimed Martha Grimes once again turns her hand to crafting a story of such rich atmosphere and intricate suspense that she transports the reader to a world unlike any other.

A once-fashionable, now fading resort hotel. A spinster Aunt living in an attic. Dirt roads that lead to dead ends. A house full of secrets and old, dusty furnishings, uninhabited for almost half a century. A twelve-year-old girl with a passion for double-chocolate ice-cream sodas, and decaying lake-fronts, and an obsession with the death by drowning of another young girl, forty years before.

Like all important events in the past, there are repercussions and ramifications in the present. In the world as seen by Martha Grimes, those repercussions simmer and seethe and wind their way through hearts and souls. The ramifications can be subtle. Or exhilarating. Passionate. And they can also be deadly.

Hotel Paradise is a delicate yet excruciating view of the pettiness and cruelty of small town America. It is a look at the difficult decisions a young girl must make on her way to becoming an adult and the choices she must make between right and wrong, between love and truth, between life and death. It is a novel with extraordinary range and depth that ultimately becomes a thrilling morality play.

With its narrative grace, its compelling characters, and its moment-to-moment suspense, Hotel Paradise is Martha Grimes at the top of her form.

Customer Reviews:

couldn't relate to its ambiguities.......2007-08-14

I couldn't get into this novel. I don't think Martha Grimes took the time to create a vision of a realistic setting, time, and character definitions for this book. As a consequence, I couldn't relate to the place, era, or people that make up the fabric of the story. It felt like being in Disney World...one minute you're on Main Street USA, then a few steps later you're on the frontier 40 years earlier. Disney makes it fun, but in this novel it's just confusing.
The main character, supposedly a 12 year old girl, sounds like Martha Grimes, the adult, sometimes remembering to pretend she's a 12 year old girl. And I couldn't tell if this was set in the 90s, 70s, or 50s, because the cues were inconsistent. If this were deliberately meant to be a surrealist novel, it would have been more interesting, but I think Ms. Grimes just couldn't get her context clear. It became distracting. After a while, I got tired of wandering around in this tale and just stopped reading it. Perhaps the ending provides some logical reason for the confusion.

Unfinished Masterpiece.......2007-02-22

This is the first Martha Grimes book I've read. It reminded me of "To Kill a Mockingbird" (one of my all-time favorite books) in its setting and characters, and particularly the main character, the extremely appealing and spunky Emma. I thoroughly enjoyed it...up until the end. Yes, the plot is all over the place, and the pace is slow, but it's beautifully and intelligently written, laugh out loud funny at times, and the descriptions of the wonderful food prepared by Emma's mother will make you hungry! I only gave it three stars, however, because of the ending. However, I did read in another review that evidently this is the first book of a trilogy and the story is picked up in "Cold Flat Junction," so I'm heading to the library to find that one!

A Kind of Paradise.......2006-08-22

This book begins a trilogy that surpasses the genre of mysteries. The development of Emma as a young narrator is both real and poignant and humorous--I found I was thinking of her as a real human being, whose brave acceptance of the life she's been given moved me. If you enjoyed To Kill A Mockingbird, or even Anne of Green Gables when you were young, you should find this book and enter this beautifully drawn world of a South from not so long ago.

Kept my attention..........2006-05-22

I bought Belle Ruin on CD to listen to in my car during my long commute to work and back every day. I found that this was the fourth book in this Martha Grimes series and did not stand alone because of the references to prior stories and characters. I liked what I heard of the beginning of Belle Ruin enough to look into the other previous books. I found Hotel Paradise. Thought there is a previous book, the End of the Pier, that one is not about Emma, so I skipped that one. I will go back to it though. Anyway, who would have thought that the ramblings of a 12 year old girl could be so hypnotic? I am listening to the audio book and find myself looking forward to the time in my car so that I can hear more. This story is as much about the insights and musings of this girl as it is about the deaths around her in which she is so interested. Left mostly to her own devices, with little, if any, adult supervision, Emma gets it into her head that a young girl, a girl her age, who died 40 years ago was murdered as opposed to being in an accident. Using her age as manipulation, she goes places and talks to people who wouldn't have given the time of day to an adult in the same way. She asks and asks an thinks and thinks until she comes up with the answer to the death of Rose Devereaux and who killed her. This book ends with that revelation and just stops. I was a bit disappointed in that until I started on Cold Flat Junction where I realized that the story had only just begun. The first line of Cold Flat Junction is, "I'm sitting here where you left me hardly more than a week ago." and on Emma goes with more of the same in Martha Grimes next novel of coming of age in a small town.

Disappointing Ending.......2005-11-13

Good read right up until the very end. The well-written characters and wonderful descriptive prose keep you turning the page. I was a bit disappointed in the ending...I was hoping for a more dramatic resolution of the mystery.

Average customer rating:

Dumbest Book I Ever Read!
The Girl who loved to bore you for 260+ Pages!
Stephen King Fan? Must Have!!
A Five-Star Short Novel
I Don't Particularly care for baseball...

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon : A Novel
Stephen King
Manufacturer: Scribner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0684867621
Release Date: 1999-04-06

Amazon.com

Trisha McFarland is a plucky 9-year-old hiking with her brother and mom, who is grimly determined to give the kids a good time on their weekends together. Trisha's mom is recently divorced, and her brother is feuding with her for moving from Boston to small-town Maine, where classmates razz him. Trisha steps off the trail for a pee and a respite from the bickering. And gets lost.

Trisha's odyssey succeeds on several levels. King renders her consciousness of increasing peril beautifully, from the "first minnowy flutter of disquiet" in her guts to her into-the-wild tumbles to her descent into hallucinations, the nicest being her beloved Red Sox baseball pitcher Tom Gordon, whose exploits she listens to on her Walkman. The nature writing is accurate, tense, and sometimes lyrical, from the maddening whine of the no-see-um mosquito to the profound obbligato of the "Subaudible" (Trisha's dad's term for nature's intimations of God). Our identification with Trisha deepens as we learn about her loved ones: Dad, a dreamboat whose beer habit could sink him; loving but stubborn Mom; Trisha's best pal, Pepsi Robichaud, vividly evoked by her colorful sayings ("Don't go all GIRLY on me, McFarland!"). The personal associations triggered by a full moon, the running monologue with which she stays sane--we who have been lost in woods will recognize these things.

In King's revealing Amazon.com interview, he said the one book he wishes he'd written was Lord of the Flies. When Trisha confronts a vision of buzzing horror in the middle of the woods, King creates his strongest echo yet of the central passage of Golding's novel. --Tim Appelo

Amazon.com Audiobook Review

With a convincing mix of youthful optimism and world-weary resignation, reader Anne Heche adds resonance to this unabridged recording. Heche is especially effective as the 9-year-old heroine, Trisha McFarland, who makes a fateful decision during an afternoon hike with her dysfunctional family. "The paths had forked in a 'Y.' She would simply walk across the gap and rejoin the main trail. Piece of cake. There was no chance of getting lost." As one might suspect, there is every chance she'll get lost--or worse--and taking the shortcut turns out to be a very bad choice indeed. At times Heche's reading may be too measured, but her narration is generally quite good and her steady portrayal of a young girl lost renders this tale all the more frightening. (Running time: 6.5 hours, 6 cassettes) --George Laney

Book Description

What if the woods were full of them? And of course they were, the woods were full of everything you didn't like, everything you were afraid of and instinctively loathed, everything that tried to overwhelm you with nasty, no-brain panic.

The brochure promised a "moderate-to-difficult" six-mile hike on the Maine-New Hampshire branch of the Appalachian Trail, where nine-year-old Trisha McFarland was to spend Saturday with her older brother, Pete, and her recently divorced mother. When she wanders off to escape their constant bickering, then tries to catch up by attempting a shortcut through the woods, Trisha strays deeper into a wilderness full of peril and terror. Especially when night falls.

Trisha has only her wits for navigation, only her ingenuity as a defense against the elements, only her courage and faith to withstand her mounting fear. For solace she tunes her Walkman to broadcasts of Boston Red Sox games and the gritty performances of her hero, number 36, relief pitcher Tom Gordon. And when her radio's reception begins to fade, Trisha imagines that Tom Gordon is with her -- her key to surviving an enemy known only by the slaughtered animals and mangled trees in its wake.

A classic story that engages our emotions at the most primal level, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon explores our deep dread of the unknown and the extent to which faith can conquer it. It is a fairy tale grimmer than Grimm, but aglow with a girl's indomitable spirit.

Download Description

Set in New England, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is the gripping tale of nine-year-old Trisha, who wanders off the beaten path of the Appalachian Trail to escape the bickering of her family. When she tries to catch up to them, Trisha strays deeper into a wilderness which, in the hands of America's most frightening writer, becomes a place of primordial terror. Especially when night fails. Trisha has only her wits for navigation, only her ingenuity as a defense against the elements, only her courage and faith to withstand her mounting fear. For solace, she tunes her Walkman to broadcasts of Boston Red Sox games and the gritty performances of her hero, relief pitcher Tom Gordon. And when her radio's batteries die, Trisha begins to imagine that Tom Gordon is with her -- her key to surviving an enemy known only by the slaughtered animals and mangled trees it leaves in its wake. A classic story that engages our emotions at the most primal level, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon explores our deepest fears of the unknown and the extent to which faith can conquer them. It is a fairy tale grimmer than Grimm but aglow with a girl's indomitable spirit.

Customer Reviews:

Dumbest Book I Ever Read!.......2007-10-13

The only reason I read this book in the first place was because my husband is a big Red Sox fan and he wanted me to read it so I did.

BEWARE! Don't waste any time or money on this one! The only positive thing I can say about this is that although I read it a long time ago, I still remember it. However, not because it is any good, but rather because I felt so stupid for spending my time reading it. It is hands down the dumbest book I ever read that I finished. It was gross, disgusting, and moved very slowly (which I believe was purposeful to show how long it seemed to the girl to find her way out of the woods). This was the first Stephen King book I ever read, and my last! I couldn't understand why he is a best selling author and truly believe that if an unknown author wrote this, it would not even be published. It was soooo boring!

When I finally finished it, I was relieved I was done, shocked that the whole story was about the girl trying to find her way out of the woods and nothing really ever happened. I kept reading only because I thought there must be more to it than just this, but there never was. I was very disgusted that I wasted my time reading this! I certainly don't recommend it to anyone.

The Girl who loved to bore you for 260+ Pages!.......2007-09-07

"The girl who loved Tom Gordon" By Stephen King.

In June of 1998 Trisha McFarland has gone on a hike on the Maine branch of the Appalachian Trail with her brother and recently divorced Mother. As usual her mother and brother are arguing. Trisha has to pee so she leaves the trail and low and behold becomes lost in the woods......

This has to be one of the worst books Kings has written and I have read quite a few of them. The story as mentioned revolves around Trisha over a period of 9 days as she tries to find her way out of the woods. There are no other immediate characters and therefore no interaction, almost no dialogue, and almost nothing interesting happening for 260+ pages.

The Good: Nothing really comes to mind

The bad: As mentioned this story is completely boring. You are essentially reading the daily goings on of a 9 year old girl lost in the woods which is not interesting in the least. To make a bad story worse the main character Trisha is not believable as a 9 year old and hence doesn't work. I noticed that she constantly thinks and talks (to herself of course) about things I don't think most 9 year olds in 1998 would know about or think about. She mentions "MASH" the TV show, she mentions "I love Lucy". How many 9 year olds have seen these shows? She mentions V.C. Andrews. How many 9 year olds in 1998 have viewed "Flowers in the Attic" or read the book? She makes reference to a "Serta Perfect Sleeper" mattress and also to receiving junk mail. I just didn't get the since that this was a 9 year old girl. It seemed more like the memories of a 50-60 something writer were slipping into the story.

Overall: Skip this at all cost. If the Author's name wasn't "Stephen King" I don't think this would have ever been published. Try something else.

Stephen King Fan? Must Have!!.......2007-08-15

This book is absolutely beautiful. Any King fan MUST HAVE this, and at such a great price. Don't buy it to read The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, buy it to have an amazing piece of work done entirely by the greatest author of my time, Stephen King.

A Five-Star Short Novel.......2007-07-11

I can't believe that the other reviews didn't give this novel five stars. It's not the blood-and-guts scary we're used to with Steven King, but it is scary. A nine-year-old girl becomes lost in the woods of Maine for days and days. What an adventure! And what's following her! I don't want to give anything away, but this story is only lightly supernatural.

It's one of King's best stories in my opinion. The book-on-tape version is also fantastic.

Your comments--positive or negative--are appreciated.

I Don't Particularly care for baseball..........2007-06-10

and i could care even less about the Red Sox, but somehow King found a way to make me care about Trisha McFarland, the heart wrenching and gutsy 9 yearold of, the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. She is lost in the woods, seperated from her bickering and broken family. As our heroine bravely fights the elements of the forests, something imagined or real is after her, it goal to be her demise.

Never a dull moment in this King novel. I just had to finish it in two days because I couldn't put it down. Just the right amount of action and blurbs from outside the forest that Trisha struggles to find a way out off.

Five stars. You will enjoy this short, exciting read.

Average customer rating:

Touchingly True To Life

Rennie's Way
Verna Mae Slone
Manufacturer: University Press of Kentucky
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

What My Heart Wants to Tell

ASIN: 0813118557

Customer Reviews:

Touchingly True To Life.......2003-08-26

I can't believe I have this book. I was raised in Cumberland Gap and I just have
*never read such a book that is so true
to life in the Appalachians. Rennie does it all. She's just as
hard of a worker as Julie is in Robert Morgan "Gap Creek".
However Ms.Sloan adds the perfect touch of the hills by writing
in dialect only a true southerner would appreciate. She explains
the "thinking" of mountain folk, which I hope breaks down some
barriers. She has a gift of description that is SO true to life.
I was raised in the 60's and 70's, but not very much has changed
since Rennie's day.

I has touched my heart and taken me back home so closely, that
I started rereading it just as soon as I finished it the first
time. My Mom (who is a Gapper)will read it next, and I know
it will thrill her to death to 'remember' her days growing up
in the hollers also. I luckily ran upon this book in Kentucky
at a Tourist Information Bldg located in Pine Mtn. ... and it's
been one of the best investments I have made. I love the
strength, courage, wisdom, humanitarianism and devotion that
Mountain Women had/have. True pioneers and true survivors.

I will definately be seeking out more books by Ms.Sloan. She
states the life better than anyone has attempted yet in my
opinion. "Rennie" has not only brought back some of my fondest
memories, but she has also helped teach me things that I took
forgranted and bypassed as a child. Thank you, Ms.Sloan.

You've portrayed Mountain People as the symbol of strength and
simplicity that we are. I believe this will also help the following generations
of Mountain People truly "understand" ...
with extreme pride and dignity in their heritage.
One definately to be proud of. "We've" been stereotyped in
such a negative way so often, for so long ... this book is a
breath of fresh, country air. I could smell the cornbread, shucky beans and fried 'taters, literally.

Book Description

The legendary Appalachian Trail, stretching from Georgia to Maine, attracts millions of hikers every year. The International AT, opened in 2000, has added 1,073 km from Maine to Quebec. This addition to Raincoast's popular Journeys series is the tale of writer and photographer Monique Dykstra's adventures while hiking the brand new International Appalachian Trail. She's a city girl who thought hiking was "simply a matter of throwing some clothes and a few granola bars into a pack and heading for the hills." Two months, 1,073 km, and countless blisters later, she wasn't so sure. This extremely funny narrative includes Dykstra's descriptions of the characters she meets along the trail as well as 50 of her fascinating photographs.

Customer Reviews:

beautiful photos, but skipped part of trail.......2007-09-11

The author took many photographs, which appear in the book and which are worth the price of the book by themselves. One quibble I have is that the author admits to skipping parts of the trail by hitchhiking, canoeing and taking a bus. For example, I looked for a description of the last part of the trail along the southern shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, but the book does not describe this part perhaps because the author skipped it by taking a bus. Most of this trail is road walking, so I do not blame the author. But in the interest of truth in advertising.... As other reviewers have noted, the author adeptly describes the people she met along the way.

The very best kind of travel writing.......2004-10-05

Reading this book is like having your best friend sit down across the table from you and tell you about her vacation, while showing you the beautiful pictures she took along the way. Dykstra is a natural storyteller who has a knack for meeting people and then describing her encounters in quick, deft word portraits. Her fascinating, often hilarious account of her journey kept me in awe, and in stitches, from beginning to end. She doesn't appear to hold back her emotions in her writing and her description of both the joys and occasional disappointments of solitary backpacking give her account a rawness and honesty that I haven't read in other travel books. As well, Raincoast has done an excellent job in reproducing her photos in this book. It's like reading a National Geographic article extended to book-length.
If I have any criticism of this book it is that it had to end. Dykstra's seven-week journey on the Appalachian Trail flashes by in just a few hours of reading time, when I wanted it to keep on going and going and going... Perhaps the publisher can talk her into walking the remainder of the Trail, from Maine to Georgia, and we can have another enchanting book that is three times as long and filled with even more breathtaking photos. My highest possible recommendation for purchase.

delightful read.......2004-05-20

oh i want to do it too!!
with Ms Dykstra (canadian!) i hiked from Maine to Gaspe on the IAT.
as an armchair traveller i found this short book (137 pages) thoroughly enjoyable. easy to read, wonderfull glossy pages and photos, heartfelt humour and pain; i wanted more. the end of the book has extensive guide lines for those who want to do the hike.

Average customer rating:

Great Book
Evidence of the importance of family in Eastern Kentucky
Takes you back in time
A book of extraordinary poignancy and sensitivity.
A wonderful chronicle of a simpler time and place.

Appalachian Mountain Girl
Rhoda B. Warren , and Rhoda Bailey Warren
Manufacturer: Academy Chicago Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0897334647

Customer Reviews:

Great Book.......2007-03-26

I couldn't put this book down. Very well written personal stories and vignettes. The author's descriptive style made the book very visual as well as emotive. -- Monica Steele, Jeffry's wife.

Evidence of the importance of family in Eastern Kentucky.......2000-11-04

These memories of growing up the 1930's in a Letcher County Kentucky coal mining community are inspiring, especially as they show how rich the author's family was in love and support while living in poverty. The author's respect for the beauty of the area and its people is evident, and she brings members of the community to life, including the plow man, the mid-wife, and the country preacher. To survive, the family eventually moved to the small New York town where an aunt lived, and where the author met and married a local businessman just before her eighteenth birthday. Her vivid description of her first visit back "home" as a sophisticated married woman is bittersweet and hilarious, and that scene alone is worth the price of the book.

Takes you back in time.......2000-01-03

Once I began reading, I couldn't put the book down. The author transports you to Kentucky in the Appalachian Mountains back in the 1930's. I loved how descriptive the writing was. I plan to get a copy of the book for many of my friends.

I went to school in Wyoming, New York (1968-1981) where Rhoda Warren lived as an adult and I knew her name, but I had no idea of her abilities or her personal story. I am so proud of her. She really has a talent for writing.

A book of extraordinary poignancy and sensitivity........1999-03-24

This is a book that I couldn't put down, but hated the thought of coming to the end of it . It is about a close society of people; a people that in spite of the adversity that they faced in depression era Appalachia, were able to conquer the demons of the company owned mining towns and live lives filled with dignity and compassion. The sensitivity of the descriptive prose brought me into the lives of these noble, heroic people. I found myself wanting to reread so many of the chapters, and I did. I recommend this book to people of all ages and circumstances. It is a beautiful introduction to an important and sometimes sad part of American Culture.

A wonderful chronicle of a simpler time and place........1999-02-12

"Appalachian Mountain Girl" flows with the gentleness and innocence of a happy childhood amidst mountain hardships. So nice to read contemporary memories of Southeastern Kentucky in the 1930's before "progress" crept in to change the landscape forever. This book lends a romance even to the coal mines which provided her family of 13 children with food and shelter. Thanks to Ms. Warren for sharing her life with us.

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