Far Appalachia by Noah Adams

There is a new book that readers of The Highlands Voice particularly might want to read. The author is an old radio acquaintance to many -- Noah Adams of the "All Things Considered" show on National Public Radio. He has written Far Appalachia, a book about the New River and its watershed and its people.

It covers the New from its start in North Carolina through western Virginia and into West Virginia where it leaves Bluestone Lake as a mighty river. Then the falls, then the New River Gorge National River of the US Park Service to Fayetteville, and the last 15 miles past Hawks Nest State Park to its mouth where the New and the Gauley form the Kanawha. Noah took a year to cover such ground, compile the history and interview today’s residents.

His adventures, too he relates – he’s rafted, biked and hiked. He attended music festivals. All enrich the stories in his book. His 238-page book is easy to read.

He understands nature well as human nature so there is much to learn and appreciate. He cares and because of this we care. He details an earlier time when for three generations pioneer families and communities were self-sufficient. Then came logging and then coal. He tells us about the people today and this timeless river and the changing Appalachia through which it flows.

Stirring the Mud on Swamps, Bogs, And Human Imagination by Barbara Hurd

Barbara Hurd. a professor of writing at nearby Frostburg State University in Maryland, has written a book about Cranesville and Finzel Swamps on the West Virginia-Maryland border.

She is a lyrical, thoughtful writer -- an imaginative one. She has for years observed nature in these areas that are not solely water or earth. She writes to share her thoughts.

If you know of these areas or want to know about these wet, flat, high places that have character unlike anywhere else, you might enjoy this series of essays.

Both places she describes are now preserves of The Nature Conservancy.