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NON-FICTION   Policies, Preservation & Promotion: Connemara & Appalachia: A Comparative Study of Two Intangible Heritage Cultures, Connemara, Ireland and Appalachia, U. S. A.  by Anna Aspell. Beau Bassin, Mauritius; LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, 2017. 60 pages with a bibliography and appendices. Trade paperback, $42.00 This book consists of the dissertation submitted by Anna Aspell for a degree at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in her native Ireland. Aspell studied at Western Carolina University as well as Galway-Mayo and limited her study to the story-telling and music traditions of Jackson County, North Carolina and the Connemara District in Western Ireland. At...

GRAPHIC NOVELS Warlords of Appalachia by Phillip Kennedy Johnson. Los Angeles, California: Boom! Studios, a 2017 release that first appeared in four magazines in 2016. 112 un-numbered pages  illustrated by Jonas Scharf, colored by Doug Garbark, lettered by Jim Campbell, cover by Massimo Carnevale. Trade paperback, $19.99. The author, Phillip Kennedy Johnson states that his vision of this book was formed before the Trump Presidency, but that event essentially adds credence to his plot. The setting is a future America taken over by fascists and only Kentucky refuses to accept the sovereignty of the national regime, and dares to fight...

BOOKS FOR CHILDREN AND TEENS The Five Cubs of Kingdom Come by Judith Victoria Hensley. Charleston, South Carolina: Create Space, 2016. 53 pages with many color photographs of bears. Trade paperback, $14.00 A retired Harlan County, Kentucky, teacher, Judy Hensley has a passion for photography, and one of her favorite places to take pictures is Kingdom Come State Park there in Harlan County. It is known as the habitat for many bears who don’t seem to mind having their pictures taken by humans. A few years ago a bear there gave birth to five cubs. Two cubs is common, three...

CHILDRENS BOOKS Stuart Squirrel Learns a Lesson in Great Smoky Mountains National Park by Sandra D. Aldrich. Knoxville: Celtic Cat Publishing, 2017.  32 un-numbered pages, a picture book illustrated by Ryan Webb, with a foreword by Kim Delozier.  Oversized trade paperback, $11.95. Here is a story that emphasizes the lesson that tourists should not feed the Smokies wildlife. The book also includes ample information about the Park itself.  The author is a Florida native who taught for 28 years in Florida and North Carolina and now lives in East Tennessee. She has been a volunteer in the Great Smoky Mountains National...

NON-FICTION Abingdon by Donna Gayle Akers. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Press, 1917. 95 pages with a Bibliography and lots of color pictures throughout along with black-and-whites. Trade paperback, $22.95 Part of the Images of Modern America series, these photos and captions are from the 1950s through the 1980s, but the feel of the book is decidedly ‘50s, with virtually nothing here that reminds me of the ‘60s or ‘70s. The author, Donna Gayle Akers, is a ninth generation descendant of early residents and the author of four previous Arcadia books about the area.   The Floyd Collins Tragedy at Sand...