Wayne Derek Quarles wins no sainthood awards. Within the span of a week, his malevolence causes him to lose his job, his Hummer, and his wife. On his way to visit an elderly great-uncle in tiny Union, West Virginia, Wayne's life turns even more wretched as injuries force him to stay for awhile.At his new home and while convalescing, Wayne learns of an ancestor who left his native Monroe County, Virginia and returns home wounded and angry, now living in a new state, West Virginia. Wa...

Books with names about famous trains are frequently written by historians and are filled with endless facts such as ridership figures, equipment types, and servicedetails. This is not one of those books.Instead, Chasing the Powhatan Arrow is a fresh look at the people, communities, and issues affecting the population outside the train along its 600-plus mile route. This book presents a wide range of issues, including the history of tobacco, coal mining, and the Civil War to c...

Sammy Reisinger is a 17-year old violin prodigy from a wealthy New Jersey family. She has inherited a priceless Cremonese violin and she is schooled in the classics. Becoming enamored with traditional Appalachian music, she decides to visit the venerable Old Fiddlers Convention in Galax, Virginia. While there, disaster strikes, leaving her seemingly trapped and orphaned. This is the story of how she and her tiny host community deal with an epic disaster.

Southern West Virginia is one of the poorest areas in America. With the collapse of coal mining industry jobs beginning in the 1950s and continuing to today, thousands of people have left, leaving behind a society marked by poverty, malnutrition, and drug abuse.A new scourge has emerged literally on the horizon: mountaintop removal mining. This assault on the landscape and the remaining people has been complete, with poisoned water, fouled air, decimated wildlife, and the utter dest...

In his new collection of poetry and abstract paintings, Michael Falugi, evokes poetic images through his words and paintings, where fantasy and reality intertwine in a seamless fashion.His poetry and paintings are filled with stunning imagery - both unique and natural. The distinctiveness of his images gives his poetry a curious kind of clarity. Falugi finds his way between fantasy and reality, with his gift to capture memorable, fleeting moments, where everything is uncommon and n...

When Marjorie Taliaferro's beloved twin sister Sally Taliaferro Bradley is stricken with breast cancer, it's tragic enough. But when the governorship of the Commonwealth of Virginia, a position she rightfully deserves, is wrested from her during her infirmity, it is an action that cannot stand. Marjorie and her life partner Liza Randolph, along with a cadre of supporters, lay forth plans to recapture Sally's lawful position and along with it a measure of fair governance to the state.

IN 2004 THE VIRGINIA STATE LEGISLATURE issued a proclamation declaring a series of roads throughout the southwestern part of the state to be the Virginia Heritage Music Trail, to showcase the traditional Appalachian music whose roots permeated the culture. They nicknamed it The Crooked Road.The music had been there since the arrival of the first European and African immigrants, but the initiative gave it a geographic focus. The Crooked Road has since become one of the nation's most ...

I have never been particularly interested in slavery, perhaps because it is such an obvious fact of my family's history. The fact that I am descended from slaves is hard to acknowledge on a day-to-day basis, because slavery does not fit with my self-image. Perhaps this is because I am pretty certain I would not have survived it.In the manner of Calvino's Invisible Cities, Wendy Walters deftly explores the psyches of cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Manhattan, and ...

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • You can't make this stuff up. Dave Barry wouldn't lie—and here are the real life, laugh-out-loud stories from across America to prove it.Get up-close with Dave as he examines UFO thrillseekers and Elvis-worshippers, plays lead guitar with a horrifying rock band that includes Stephen King, and swears to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in stories like these:• a U.S. Supreme Court justice shares h...

The captivating story of how trains shaped American history**“Wolmar’s sweeping history of railroads in America is rich in drama.” —**The New YorkerThe United States was made by the railroads. Promoted by visionaries and built through heroic effort, more than two hundred thousand miles of railroad track and a series of magisterial stations covered the United States by the early 1900s. Trains united far-flung parts of the country, b...

The author found an abandoned, 50-year-old grain silo and made it into a 5-story round house. In this true story he tells his challenges and triumphs in completing this difficult task of transformation without any blueprints. Numerous photographs from the project are shown so the reader can visualize this unique building project.