THERE DOES NOT SEEM TO BE ONE TRAIL, CAMP SITE, RIVER, BIKE TRAIL, ETC. FORGOTTEN IN THIS BOOK. ALL INFORMATION IS ORGANIZED AND BROKEN INTO SELECT AREAS OF THE STATE. ESPECIALLY LIKED THE PRIVACY RATINGS OF EACH CAMPING AREA.

West Virginia Jew
By Mike Lilly. Pentland Press. Raleigh, N.C. 2001
Review by Steve Fesenmaier

Charleston native son Michael Lilly has written only the second funny book I have read about West Virginia. Lee Maynard's "Crum" is the first. You know the controversy that surrounds it. Humor can be very dangerous in these parts. This book's title sounds like something that William Pierce out in Pocahontas County may have created to blast his fellow freedom-loving West Virginians - but it is not. You have to know something about Lilly before you can understand the title.

Lilly left his home state after a wild young life, getting to know the most "colorful characters" in Charleston. He told me, " Within months of my departure, three of my good friends had been murdered, one in public. The streets of L.A. were nothing compared to what I grew up with here in Charleston." Lilly became a probation officer in Los Angeles, serving his time for 25 years. As he says, "Ghetto by day, Hollywood by night." During those years he learned a lot about Hollywood, and took a course at Cal Arts on screenwriting. He returned in 1999 to make a film of his screenplay "Tenderloin" which is now a film called "Correct Change." He also wrote the screenplay that was turned into one of the great sports films ever, "Hoosiers," which has won Oscars and is still enjoyed.

This short novel tells the story of a fellow who leaves West Virginia to become the next Clint Eastwood. His name is Calvin Barfield and bares some resemblance to the star of "Correct Change," the actor Russ McCubin.
Lilly uses largely real events to create a Candide-type story of a well-meaning fellow who discovers the joys and hazards of living in Tinseltown.
This book is very unusual because it shows the horrors of modern urban life, NOT the more acceptable horror stories about small town life, as often shown in Stephen King novels and contemporary television.

I had to recall other comic stories like such masterpieces as "Rally Round the Flag, Boys" by Budd Schulberg, creator of the Dobbie Gillis stories. Lilly himself says that the book is largely a cartoon, and has actually worked with a Hollywod animator on creating storyboards for a cartoon based on the book. Calvin is really a character out of the adult animation, "Fritz the Cat," by Ralph Bakshi. ( I wonder why no one has created a cartoon series based on our own Dancin' Outlaw? Making a feature has been in the works for a long time, but a creative WV artist may be able to create fascinating stories and images using a pen and paper - much cheaper, and it wouldn't require any payments to Jesco himself.)

I also had to think of Jethro from "The Beverly Hillbillies" and Lil Abner. Both are the grandfathers of this updated, adult version of the goodhearted hillbilly - in this case, one who loves sex and drugs and knows how to have a good time. I love his dog Partsman who is truly extraordinary, but given all the talking dogs and cats in films these days, not that unusual. I really liked his anti-hero "Kamikaze Don Dudley" - a real person Lilly knew in his wild and crazy personal life.

If you liked "Crum," read this book. And check out the audiotape read by the author himself. He does a fine job conveying the WV and Hollywood accents, and uses his well-developed sense of humor and irony to carry the tale. And it does have a "powerful anti-drug message," showing that there are worst evils in LA than even the hollows of West Virginia.

This is an extraordinarily thorough exploration of the life and times of a little narrow gauge railroad that hauled both coal and lumber during its long history. The authors take us on a delightful trip over the entire railroad, with text and map references that are well coordinated. The book includes a profusion of scale plans: two enginehouses, the Clifftop company store, the line's funky caboose, coal hoppers, a trestle, a truck-to-rail coal tipple, and other structures. Particularly useful to modelers are the photos, which include unusual pictures like much of the inside of a coal hopper. Though corporate histories can be dull, the historical portion of the book is captivating. We share the consternation of early entrepreneurs who unexpectedly ran out of coal reserves at the New River Gorge just as demand was skyrocketing: Fortunately for them and for us, the answer was coal just a few miles away and in between the Mann's Creek Railway. The authors invested thousands of hours creating this well written and profusely illustrated account. It sets a very high standard for railroad publishing. Buy this one!

This is a truly amazing piece of fiction that I absolutely could not put down until I was finished. I read and analyzed this book for one chapter of my master's thesis on Appalachian literature and ecofeminist theory. I found it to contain very powerful messages about the human connection to the earth. The conflicts in the book between the human characters are reflected and echoed in nature. In this book and its sequel, Giardina paints such an accurate picture of how oppression of any sort spreads and touches all corners of life.

Hailing from the coal regions of Northeastern Pennsylvania, when I learned of this title, I quickly ordered a copy and read it within a day and a half. I could not put it down, and, in fact, kept returning to passages because Giardina's prose is brilliant. The characters are so alive that I was actually upset to end the book and lose Carrie Bishop as a friend. Being a writer, I am in awe of Giardina. In fact, off I go to read the other Giardina book I ordered, "The Unquiet Earth." Anyone from coal country, be it NE PA's anthracite field or coal country in other locations, will readily identify with this story for its historical worth. Reading it is like listening to tales as told by our great-grandparents who worked in the damp,dark underground and their families, who toiled above.

And I've read a LOT of books. This is one of the few books I'veread that will have me laughing until my sides ache in one chapter,crying until I can't see the pages in another, and ready to go on aprotest march in the next.

Storming Heaven is an exhaustively researched, historically accurate, and utterly compelling story of the Battle of Blair Mountain, WV in 1921. It's the story of an armed conflict between coal miners and the hired gunhands who represented the coal operators. It's a story of how the United States government turned on its own people, looking away when women and children were murdered in cold blood, sending troops into the valleys and dropping bombs on the mountains.

And if the story itself isn't stirring enough, Giardina writes some of the most beautiful prose I have ever read. The mountains are *alive* in her books.

My copy of Storming Heaven is so dog-eared and highlighted that I'll soon need to replace it. I am astounded that a couple of others have rated this book a 'hard read'. Compared to what? Danielle Steele?

Once considered the best of the North American field guides, this book is rapidly losing ground. With the impending release of the new National Geographic Society (NGS) field guide, Western Birds is showing its age. This book was last updated in 1990 and is missing many of the recent species splits, renames, and taxonomic changes. Its other major drawback is the many missing eastern vagrants included in guides like the NGS, which covers the entire continent north of Mexico. Carrying Western Birds instead of NGS during fall migration will leave the west coast birder at a disadvantage.

I found this book to be typical of all Peterson guides. It's a useful book to have but not the best available. In typical Peterson fashion the book shows illustrations of birds instead of photos. While some find this more useful for showing details all too often I've found that the drawings like little like the actualy birds.

However this book does contain the bird's comman and scientific name for each species. In addition it has a physical description of coloration and markings, a description of the habitats where they are likely to be found, their geographic distribution, notes on their song and any similar species when applicable.

I find that this is a nice addition to the Stoke's Field Guide which shows pictures instead drawings.

Definitely a nice addition to your library.

Often called the birdwatcher's "bible," Roger Tory Peterson's Field Guides revolutionized bird identification and started a series of books on everything from Atmosphere to Wildflowers. It is still one of the best tools for bird identification, especially for those just learning how to recognize different birds. Its text is straightforward, consistent, and well-organized, and the illustrations are unsurpassed. Taxonomic (name and species) changes will come and go, and no book is going to be able to keep up with all of them for very long. Fall birding will always be challenging, but this is still the best book to have if you only want to carry one.

I really like this book so I'm giving it 4 out of 5 stars. Below I'm going to explain what I like and didn't like about the book.

At the beginning of the book I really liked how Shiloh always followed Marty around and tried to become friends. Shiloh would follow Marty across the bridge and to his house when he went outside. When Marty got to know Shiloh really well he would feed and take care of Shiloh. Marty did this because he knew that Judd didn't take care of his hunting dogs very well.

In the middle of the book I liked how Marty comes up with many ways to earn money so he can buy Shiloh from Judd. Marty thinks about collecting alumnium cans, recycling glass bottles, baby sitting or delivering catalogs. But finally he decides to work for Judd. At Judd's house Marty has to do all the chores to earn enough money to buy Shiloh.

By the time I got to the end of the story there were somethings I didn't like. For example, when Judd threatened to shoot Shiloh because he wasn't a very good hunting dog. There were also some parts of the book that were confusing. Finally, I didn't like it when Shiloh was caught in the hunting trap.

Wow, this is a fantastic book. Shiloh was well-written by Phyllis Reynols Naylor. This book good for any age, go to your library and get Shiloh. This book takes place up in the hills of Friendly, West Virginia. The two main characters are Shiloh a mistreated hunting beagle with ticks and fleasand a caring, loving boy named Marty. Mart's mom is a homemaker and Marty's dad is a mail carrier. It all started when Marty went up in the hills for a walk, when he spots Shiloh. He tries to get Shiloh's attention but he can't until Marty whistles and then the dog follows him. They stay together for a while and they soon fall in love with each other. Sadly, this mistreated and abused dog belongs to Judd Travers. He a has a bad temper and he abuses his dogs. Marty lies to his parents and friends and says that he gave back the dog but he didn't and he is also sneeking food for Shiloh. Soon enough his mom finds out what he has been doing. She makes Marty bring Shiloh back to his real owner. When Martt sees what Judd does to Shiloh he wants to take Shiloh away from him and make him regret what he did to the dogs that he owns. I will leave the ending for you to find out.

Shiloh, what a great book! The reason I like the book Shiloh was because 1, I like dogs. 2, I like stories that when you stop reading, you think about what might happen next.

This book was about a boy named Marty who found a beagle dog. He later found out that hte dog belonged to a person named Judd Travers. He would kick his dogs'! So, Marty decided to hide the dog. Later, Judd goes looking around for his dog. But when Judd asked Marty about his dog, he had to lie to keep Shiloh[Thats the name Marty gave the beagle.] dog in hiding.

Shiloh was one of the best books I've ever read. That's why I've rated it with 5 stars. Will Judd Travers ever get his dog back? I'm not going to be a spoil-sport, and tell. That means you can ask a friend. Or you can save your breath, and just read the book!

A fabulous book for two reasons. It chronicles a disaster that is virtually unknown beyond the state of West Virginia. Secondly, it's a great tool for any law student in a Civil Procedure class. Forget about "A Civil Action" or "Erin Brockovich", this book best depicts the struggles of those who suffered, both the victims and the lawyers who fought for the people in the Buffalo Creek region.

My Civil Proceedure Prof. assigned this to us over Christmas Break so we could become familiar with "piercing the corporate veil", which merely refers to the rare legal opportunity to cut through a corporation's legal armour and attack some of the meat and money, i.e. personal assets of the officers. This only happens when there is extreme wrong doing by those suits running the business, and if you want to know what extreme worngdoing is, this is the book that will lay it out for you, pretty as a penny.
I have to admit, I was dreading reading this book, as the holidays were a sweet time to escape the stressful activities of law school. So when "Harold", our WonderBread/uptight, D.C., in the process of divorce, Napoleonic law professor assigned this reading, I was not too thrilled.
But once I started reading, I couldn't put the book down. This is the story that makes good people want to become good lawyers.
The story is about a coal mining disaster, a preventable, mind-reeling, man-made disaster and how a dedicated attorney wades through the litigation process, extracting painful stories from the survivors, and skillfully uses hard work, pit bull clenched determination, the legal system and a little luck to persevere over a greedy, thoughtless, and culpable corporation. I hope those guys fighting Enron read this.
A great read, even if you have no legal aspirations and like a good, meaty story with a real-life happy ending.

Jerry Stern's account of the litigation over the Buffalo Creek dam disaster ought to be read by every wannabe trial lawyer so that he or she will understand the tremendous creativity real lawyering, particularly lawyering down in the pits, requires.

The real practice of law requires vision and courage, which this book amply illustrates. Stern and his team from Arnold and Porter took on the near impossible case, armed only with the real tools of our trade, the words and ideas that form the arguments that shape the law.

And yet this is not just the story of courageous plaintiffs' lawyers, it is about the truly great defense lawyers on the other side, in particular Zane Grey Staker, whose tenacity and command of the language and of his case, gave the A & P lawyers a great and fair fight, and of the United States District Judge, whose role was not only to provide each side with "the cold neutrality of an impartial judge" but who understood that proper case management plays a critical role in achieving substantial justice.

I just finished reading The Cabin-Misery on the Mountain for the fourth time. I enjoyed reading it as much the fourth time as I did reading it the first time. The love, heartbreak and misery of the people born on the mountain, people who never had a chance to get off the mountain makes for a thrilling mystery. The book is easy to read and easy to follow the story line. It holds your attention and is very entertaining for both women and men. I am looking forward to all of C.J. Henderson's book.

This author has such a nack for making the chractors and places seem real, that I was immediately absorbed in the story, which is what I look for in a novel. If I can't get absorbed in the story right away, I don't feel the novel is worth reading. I could not put it down. I will buy Cabin two as soon as it comes out. I'm that sure I'll love it. I hope CJ writes more novels in the future, she has a life time fan in me. I look forward to cabin two because I can't wait to see what happens to everyone next.

The Cabin Misery On The Mountain is one of the most intriguing books that I have read in a while. All of the characters came to life. I felt as if I was a part of Tuesday and Annabelle's lives. I couldn't put the book down until I was done and now I am hungry for more. Hopefully part 2 "Cabin II Return to Winding Ridge" will be out soon. I am an avid reader of horror and suspense novels and C.J Henderson ranks with the likes of Steven King, Dean Koontz and Mary Higgins Clark. It is refreshing to read the writings of a fresh new author. I can't wait to see the movie. Ten thumbs up!

Gloria is a great ride, very fun to read, despite the fact that, at first impression, you'll probably think that you're not going to like the heroine all that much. Gloria is a beautiful, wealthy, intelligent young women with every single advantage a woman in the late fifties could possibly have. When I started this book, I thought, "why should I care about this person?" There is something about her story, however, that will drive you to read on. The novel takes place essentially over Gloria's summer between college and graduate school in the late fifties. As the summer wears on, Gloria flashes back over most of her life, her horrible experience at boarding school, and her more positive experiences of high school and college. She is trying to come to grips with what she should do with her life, trying to resolve all the unanswered questions that have plagued her since high school and have intensified in college. What does she want out of life? The country club steel executive wife life her mother leads, or something more, something more intellectual, more offbeat. Gloria's dilemma is believable, her story, compelling. It will be difficult to put this book down. The characters are well-developed and the plot is unpredictable (but not outlandish at all). Don't be intimidated by the 600+ pages, they are all worth it.

I picked up Gloria by curiosity of the beautiful cover and title. I skimmed through a couple of passages and was entirely intrigued with the story. I bought the book and read it in a manner of days. While reading the intimate thoughts of Gloria, I honestly looked more than once at the cover as if to correct myself that this book was written by a man! The details of thought and beauty of Gloria's life is exquisite. The fashion and inner thoughts of Gloria show what a complex and interesting character she is. I seriously recommend this beautiful story, my personal favorite. I have never related to a book as I did to Gloria, and am yet to find one as captivating.

Gloria is a multi-faceted young woman. She has just graduated from college in Pennsylvannia and returned to her elite family in West Virginia for probably her last summer at home. This is a very emotional and indecisive time for her in which, in addition to swimming laps in her pool and dining at the country club, she drifts back in time via her volumes of diaries and a certain sense of unconsciousness. You not only experience this one summer with Gloria, but you relive much of her youth.

Gloria is haunted by many things in her past, and you feel her struggle to lift the good out of the bad. Her love for poetry and literature make much of your reading experience seem a sing and a dance through the pages. Gloria is vain and extravagant, yet ambitious and resilient, and you see the power residing within this young woman and you want her to triumph.

I loved this book. I absolutely recommend it.

A reader from Berea, Kentucky A good conclusion to the Marty/Shiloh trilogy! Marty and his dog Shiloh come full circle in this last of Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's trilogy. Having read each of the books in the series, I must say Shiloh is my favorite, but Shiloh Season and Saving Shiloh are well worth a reader's time! Naylor has a knack for naturally developing her characters. We want to hate Judd Travers from the beginning, but we, like Marty, wonder if there's a chance for Judd to really change. The experiences Marty has dealing with Judd and the anxiety that is described mounts to a dynamic conclusion that is not quite predictable, but desired by eager readers. Each of the Shiloh trilogy books has an easy style of writing, one that gives a realistic glimpse into rural West Virginia. We see and understand the struggles Marty goes through and anticipate a happy ending. Sometimes we are left hanging at the end of the chapter, but Naylor wraps up her Shiloh adventure with a satisfying conclusion.

The book I am reviewing is Saving Shiloh. This book is by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. This book was one of the best books I ever read. The best character was Marty. He is very adventure, brave, and suspicious. He knows something is wrong with his neighbor. And the weird thing is that Shiloh the dog used to be owned by the neighbor. Marty cared a lot for his dog. He always cared for him by feeding ad playing with him. On of the best parts was when Marty saved Shiloh from getting away. I don't want to give too much away but you should really read this book. Also read this book if you love adventures in your story.

Marty's beloved beagle is in danger again. Folks in the West Virginia backwoods are mighty suspicious of the resident crank, Judd Travers, the last of a three-generation family known for vicious, anti-social behavior. This shunned man is notorious for his cruelty to his own dogs and his arrogant hostility towards all human kind. Marty's family has tried to win the man's trust by demonstrating basic kindness and offering tentative frienship--social virtues which have never been modeled or extended to him before. But the compasionate boy discovers that it's a steep, uphill battle to convince diehard
neighbors and townspeople that Judd is honestly trying to turn
over a new leaf.

Trouble is: Marty himself wavers in his own belief in the man's innocence, when a man goes missing, then turns up dead, during an alarming series of burglaries. The mystery builds as first a blizzard, then a flood, wreak havoc in the hill-country community. Will Shiloh ever be truly safe from Judd? Despite all Marty's efforts to convince the man of his sincerity, Shiloh himself is reluctant to set foot upon the man's hated property. This final part of the SHILOH trilogy takes up one month after the end of SHILOH SEASON. Can dogs--and men--be redeemed after years of negative conditioning? After all poor Shiloh has suffered, whose turn is it to save him this time?