It has some neat information, but it sure does carry a high price tag for such a slim book.

I don't know that I would by this book for reading purposes. It is not really "readable". If you are that curious about the AT, spend an hour in the local bookstore skimming through the funny stories in this book.

This book is a mockery of Southern Appalachian people. Not only is the dialect incorrectly conveyed, but the pictures are demeaning as well. Mr. Schroeder, a native Californian, obviously made little (if any) attempt to get to know the group about whom he writes.

This book has a storyline much like the traditional Cinderella. It features Appalachian dialect which is remarkable. This story is an added bonus to any fairy tale unit and an excellent reading experience.

The usual Appalachian Trail guide. Full of information you need and information you don't need, missing things you wished you knew. Apparently the people who publish these books have yet to figure out that, when hiking the Appalachian Trail, the amount of weight on your back is a consideration. Photocopy the important bits, cut them out and paste them together on an 11 x 17 piece of paper, photocopy again, on both sides of an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper, leave the book at home and throw a half dozen chocolate bars in your pack instead. Enjoy the hike.

All of the foxfire books have a similar format: interviews with elders who practice a specific handicraft. And in the telling you can learn a lot of good details, but these books are not meant to teach you how to do any of these crafts, they are simply recording the knowledge of these elders. There are much better how-to's out there for skills. For a general book, get "The Encyclopedia of Country Living", for a book on hide-tanning get "Deerskins into Buckskins", both available from amazon.com

I bought this book to assist my teaching 7th graders about Southern literature and folklore, and I was not disappointed. The subject matter was interesting and appropriate for children. For my own enjoyment, however, I would have preferred something that seemed more authentic, especially in terms of dialect and my Southern Appalachian culture.

While this book is filled with tons of interesting historical tidbits about the Eastern United States from pre-Columbian times to now, I felt it often failed to get to the heart of the matter. I had a difficult time wading through all the extraneous detail looking for information that actually seems to pertain to the topic. I also often found it challenging to follow the author's logic and sometimes plain disagreed with it.

While, for the most part, the author seems rigid about stating only what can be *proven* and encourages the reader not to make assumptions or believe certain traditions and legends, she conversely sometimes makes assumptions herself that don't always hold water for me (either that, or she sometimes fails to state why she believes something is true, despite the copious footnotes included.) And from time to time, she seems to contradict herself. For those who don't know, there seem to be two very distinct camps regarding Melungeon research - those who think a very small number of people comprised the group and that if you can't trace your roots back to one of these family names that you are not a Melungeon descendant, and those who feel the group is more widespread. The author belongs to the first camp, one who's arguments I personally think seem narrow-minded. I'm not an expert on the subject, but from the reading I've done, I find this first camp's logic simply doesn't work for me, in ways too numerous to mention here, and that might account in part for my disappointment in the book. I had also hoped to learn more about the lifestyle and culture of the Melungeons, or at least as much as is known or believed to be true, and very little was included.

Clearly, the author has done an enormous amount of research on her subject and it is very near and dear to her heart, and overall, I think this book provides much food for thought regarding the origin of the Melungeons. But I wish the reading had not been so laborious and confusing.

Eller opens the eyes of the reader as he talks about the events that formed Appalachia as we know it today. He tends to romantacize somewhat but gives the reader the hard facts that have affected the Appalachian region and its people.

Ms. Hall's book is generally entertaining in her descriptions of trail life, but her narrative doesn't accomplish much beyond telling well-worn stories of trail life (though there are a handful of notable exceptions). I'm fine with a prosaic description of her experiences, though. What I could not handle were her naive, ill-conceived rantings about issues that affect the AT (acid rain, user fees, species reintroduction, etc.). Her research for these essays appears to have involved talking to one individual and presenting that person's views as gospel. The net result is a collection of horribly oversimplified views on terribly complex issues. Her position is simply that we should stop polluting and let nature take its course. There's nothing on how we should make that happen or anything useful like that. What bothered me the most, though, is that she takes the aggravating stance of claiming how close to nature she is, as well as how she's "fighting for survival" on the trail, but never rectifies that stance with all the man-made products (fleece, Gore-Tex, nylon, etc.) or the pre-packed food she carries.

Overall, the book is not as bad as I make it out to be. Her narrative was generally interesting enough to keep me entertained, but I had to fight the regular, frustrating tangents she consistently presented. I must admit I read them all, though by the last half of the book it was to see what absurd statements she would make next, rather than for information. In the end, the product is a book that attempts to inform the reader of what the AT experience is like, as well as what issues are affecting the trail. Ms. Hall would have been better served to attempt just one of those things.

The author skillfully weaves between accounts of trail experiences and descriptions of the trail's history, preservation issues and features of the environment. I got this book from the library hoping to read an account of what it is like to hike the trail, so I somewhat enjoyed the very few descriptions of actual trail life. Still, these portions were not as well written as the more "factual" informative sections, and were really outnumbered, and so I found it all pretty dry and her trip fairly uninteresting.

My recommendation for a good travel book is "Homelands..." by Byron Ricks. It's about kayaking and you feel like you're there.

I thought this book was great, but then again I am biased because I plan on hiking the Appalachian trail with my wife in the same winter conditions that Adrienne and her fiancee faced. Throw in the dog, and I am even more entertained. Do not look for information on the trail, but rather an overall emotional story with this book.

I am not familiar with the particular family that is the focus of the book and documentary, but having lived in Eastern Kentucky all my life, I can attest to the fact that this family represents the exception and not the rule. It is quite dangerous to generalize that the entire region is full of families living in such conditions. There are poverty-stricken people in every region, even in inner-cities. Documentaries like this serve to perpetuate the "hillbilly" stereotype that is so demeaning and destructive to the proud people of Appalachia. Most of us are not living without modern conveniences, technological advances, or even advanced education. I would have appreciated the spirit of this effort if there had been any attempt to distinguish the experiences of this family from the majority of the population of Eastern Kentucky. Instead, they are presented as a typical example of the "modern" Appalachian family. That is a shamefully deceptive myth.

I am not from Kentucky but I personally know relatives of this family and I have visited this mountain area with them. This is really how this family lives and I find the documentory and the book to be actual fact regarding this situation. Many of the relatives have left the area over the years and do lead fine lives in other states. This would represent the remainder of the family that chose to stay with their roots.

In my opinion, the American Hollow is not the author's literary and photographic perception of life in Appalachia. It is an unbiased view of life in the hollow as seen by one family. The author did not attempt to label the family as being representative of the population in general. Whether the family is atypical of the average Appalachian family is irrelevant. The determination of authenticity can be more appropriately evaluated by the participants, the actual family members depicted in the book and film. If the family and neighbors recognize the depictions as creditable, then the author has done a good job of telling it like it is, without approval or disapproval, but merely acceptance that this is one Appalachian family. I missed the documentary on HBO and have searched high and low for it without success. Would be interested to know where I might obtain a copy...all comments welcomed.

The author showed a tendancy for too much self-pity in his first book (based on the first half of his AT hike), but in this one he lies down in the middle of the trail and wallows in it. Curran approaches things in a way that is rational, carefully thought out, even scientific. The essence of this book is his efforts to apply this method to figuring out his relationship with God. It's a bit like trying to paint a cloud.
For those interested in the actual hiking itself, Curran comes off as a bit too harsh in his judgments of people and businesses he encounters along the way. His comments hint that he often doesn't feel properly respected or treated. I wonder if it has something to do with his being a retired Army colonel, and if he realizes that the world doesn't know or even care about that.
Not enough real substance here for my taste.

Just more of the same on this book. It is just a continuation of his first book, and I found it to be a bit boring. Not recommended by me.

A fitting conclusion to the trek started in Curran's earlier book The Appalachian Trail: A Journey of Discovery. He not only clearly explains the trials of life on the trail but also probes deeper thoughts with which many long distance hikers flirt during long hours of solitude. I could feel the almost daily highs and lows that reward and plague thru-hikers. There is no "sugar coating" and no boasting, he just tells it like it is, both physically and emotionally.
Informatative and easy reading, it is a more realistic view of hiking the Appalachian Trail than a bestseller.