by Laura DeNooyer | Jan 25, 2022 | Uncategorized
In rural southern Appalachia, there’s plenty of friction from distrust of outsiders and city folk. Author Pepper Basham brought some of that to life in Laurel’s Dream, reviewed on December 7. But regardless of outsiders, family feuds sizzle within many...
by Laura DeNooyer | Jan 18, 2022 | Book Reviews
I’m thrilled to feature other authors and their novels on my Standout Stories blog. But today, please allow me the indulgence of sharing my own. Two months ago, I re-launched All That Is Hidden with a fresh cover and revised content—new and improved!...
by Laura DeNooyer | Jan 11, 2022 | Book Reviews
When I first picked up Under a Cloudless Sky, I thought it was about the 1920 miners’ massacre known as the Battle of Matewan, a shootout between local coal miners and the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency in West Virginia. Ten men died as a result of this fight for...
by Laura DeNooyer | Jan 4, 2022 | Book Reviews
Will the real Mack Strum please stand up? While reading Chris Fabry’s A Piece of the Moon, I stumbled across this character Mack Strum, a country singer. The story’s setting is a country radio station in rural West Virginia. Waite Evers, the manager, recites...
by Laura DeNooyer | Dec 7, 2021 | Book Reviews
Like millions of others, I long ago fell in love with the book Christy by Catherine Marshall. I read it in middle school about five years after publication (1967). That was my first introduction to the Smoky Mountains, delving into 1912 southern Appalachia,...
