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NON-FICTION Death in Mud Lick: A Coal Country Fight against the Drug Companies That Delivered the Opioid Epidemic by Eric Eyre. New York: Scribner/Simon & Schuster, a 2021 paperback edition of a 2020 hardback release. 288 pages with an Index and notes.  Trade paperback. This book is one of the most important books on Appalachia published so far this century. It is virtually unprecedented in its powerful expose of one of the greatest tragedies in American history masterminded by millionaires who had our politicians paid off directly or indirectly. No wonder the New York Times named it a best book...

CHILDREN'S BOOKS Saving Granddaddy’s Stories: Ray Hicks, The Voice of Appalachia  by Shannon Hitchcock Ray Hicks (1922-2003) was the most authentic and celebrated teller of Jack tales and other mountain tales of his time which -  largely due to his old-time charisma – was the time when old-fashioned story telling became a powerful movement. He lived his whole life in the same house on Beech Mountain not far from Boone, North Carolina. The title refers not to the author, Shannon Hitchcock – or a protagonist of her book -  being the grand-daughter of Ray Hicks, which she is not. Rather,...

NON-FICTION Bluegrass Ambassadors: The McLain Family Band in Appalachia and the World by Paul O. Jenkins. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2020. 249 pages with an Index, Bibliography, Notes, Discography, Chronology, Appendices, Family Tree, and photos. Trade paperback. The McLain Family Band was formed in 1968 by Raymond K. McLain, then the Director of the Hindman Settlement School in Hindman, Kentucky. At the time, his son, Raymond W. was 15; daughter, Alice, was twelve and Ruth was ten. The father played the guitar, the son played the banjo; Alice played the mandolin, and Ruth play the bass. Two years later,...

NON-FICTION On Rising Ground: The Life and Civil War Letters of John M. Douthit, 52nd Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment by Elaine Fowler Palencia. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2021. 194 pages with an index, Bibliography, illustrations and photographs. Hardback in dust jacket. John Douthit joined the Confederate Army in 1862 leaving behind on his small Fannin County, Georgia, hillside farm a wife pregnant with a daughter he would never see. Her great-great grand-daughter, Elaine Fowler Palencia, has found his Civil War letters and deeply researched his regiment’s history. Her background as the author of six works of fiction and four...

NOVELS The Cul-de-Sac War by Melissa Ferguson. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2020. 336 pages with discussion questions. Trade paperback. This cul-de-sac is located in Abingdon, Virginia, and the protagonist of this Christian romance, Bree Leake, lives there as does her nemesis, Chip McBride. So, she devises pranks designed to force him to move, only to find that he is more inclined to fight back in kind than to retreat. And, what do you know, their enmity turns to affection, making for a funny romantic comedy. The author, Melissa Ferguson, lives in Bristol, Tennessee. This is her second book. Of Fire and...