by Laura DeNooyer | Aug 15, 2023 | Book Reviews
Decades ago, on my first trip to Southern Appalachia during college, I visited the Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina. That’s when I fell in love with the Smoky Mountains, the surrounding area, and its people—as an outsider and a Northerner. But author Pepper...
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 | 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,...