Reviewed by Kathleen Lunsford
Kathleen Lunsford is a Roanoke artist, mother and first-grade teacher.

This short, fictional story about an African-American boy living in the rural South in 1937 gives a picture of how Joe Louis was idolized. He was a role model to young people and gave them a sense of pride and hope. The story is told from the point of view of Sammy, who lives on a farm and wants desperately to be a boxer just like Louis. His friend Ernie gives him boxing lessons in return for Sammy’s help with schoolwork. In the end Sammy’s father helps him see that he can be great at something, just like Joe Louis.

This story has rich, realistic illustrations. The author has written more books about other African-Americans who broke color barriers. He gives historical information about Louis in the back of the book.

Reviewed by Mary Ferrari
Mary Ferrari is an associate professor of History at Radford University specializing in Colonial and Revolutionary America.

Through a shopkeeper’s records and creative methodology, “Buying into the World of Goods: Early Consumers in Backcountry Virginia” sheds new light on the Virginia backcountry, especially Franklin and Bedford counties during and after the American Revolution. Based on the records of John Hook, who owned stores in the two counties between the 1760s and 1800s, this is a broad study of the world of goods and the people who purchased them. The focus is on the types of goods sold, sales strategies of the time, and the desires and culture of consumers. But the work is so much more than a study of goods.

Those who shopped at Hook’s store, most of whom are not included in the standard history books, come alive. The book offers detailed descriptions of what backcountry Virginians drank, ate and wore. For example, by looking at the goods purchased by slaves, the author attempts to reconstruct slave households’ clothing and religious practices.

The book reflects not only a unique mixture of methodologies, but also a broad range of research. Just a few months of Hook’s account books detail more than 4,000 purchases, which the author analyzes in order to find patterns and larger cultural meaning.

Each chapter ends with an in-depth analysis of one item purchased, such as a clock or mirror, that supports the author’s point.

The book also is a biography of John Hook as he progresses from a young man who sweeps floors to a local plantation owner whose loyalist tendencies and complex personality make him a difficult neighbor.

The writing is lively and easily understandable, and the mixture of methods used to study the accounts of Hook and the vast variety of topics addressed result in a book that would have broad appeal to antique and historic house enthusiasts, re-enactors and local historians.

There is a verse in the Bible that has always stood out to me as though its words are rendered in blazing red neon. The verse is Hebrews 13:2 and the words are, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares." That verse always makes me think of all the animals, many of them strangers, that have found their way to my door over the years.

Dean Koontz, with his book "A Big Little Life," the tale of his female golden retriever, pretty much backs up this counsel with one amazing story after another. Trixie, the first dog he and his wife ever had, changed him forever. Trixie pushed his senses of wonder and joy to the forefront, even transforming the way he wrote, and making him view his faith in ways he would never have before envisioned. Koontz may be a little preachy at times, but his logic — where cold logic is applicable — is dead on.

I can only encourage those who do not have dogs in their lives to read this book. Even those who know firsthand how inspiring dogs can be may come away transformed by Trixie Koontz. I know that I was, and the world seems a better place because of this one "big little life."

— Linda Hopkins, a reader in Stuart, Va.

Reviewed by George Kegley
GEORGE KEGLEY is editor of the Journal of the Historical Society of Southwest Virginia in Roanoke.

“The New River Valley has long been fertile ground for oral history, folklore and just plain foolishness,” said Jimmie Price, a historian and minister who lives at Prices Fork, near Blacksburg.
His stories appear among the works of a team of 18 writers who have produced a monumental account of the 233 years of Montgomery County. They wrote in great detail, recording what has happened in that big county since frontier times.

Their huge book, weighing more than 5 pounds, is almost an encyclopedia of people and events. The 18 chapters tell all that anyone would want to know about Montgomery’s mountains, valleys and rivers, American Indians, exploration, settlers, frontier life, formation of towns and counties, transportation, agriculture, industry, springs resorts, the Civil War, literature, education, religion and legends from oral history interviews.

Legends are explored at length. Stories about the association of Daniel Boone, Davey Crockett and George Washington with Montgomery County have been told for years, but little evidence has been found. Records do show that Washington inspected Fort Vause at Shawsville, and a court document men inspected Fort Vause at Shawsville, and a court document mentions Boone.

The writers, most from a historical background, have supplemented their knowledge from a wide array of Southwest Virginia publications, court records and other documents to give a complete picture of their county. They have enlarged upon earlier, shorter histories of Christiansburg, Blacksburg and the county.

A valuable feature is a chapter on Lewis Miller, a folk artist and “chronicler of the 19th century,” by Su Clauson-Wicker. Miller’s sketches of everyday life and rural scenery in the late 1800s appear throughout the book. Miller, whose work is celebrated nationally, came from Pennsylvania to live in Christiansburg and left his name with the museum that published the history.

Among the many glimpses of Montgomery County gleaned from the book:
* In 1826, a visitor wrote that a fox hunter’s horn replaced a church bell on the Sabbath, “a day for visiting and pleasure.”
* Among the early villages were Carnegie City, once Big Spring and later Elliston; Rough and Ready; Five Forks, later called Auburn and then Riner; and Lovely Mount, later Radford.
* Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, forerunner of Virginia Tech, was established in 1872, and its farm campus was purchased in 1896.
* The Radford Army Ammunition Plant, built at the outset of World War II, employed more than 23,000 people in construction. Its operational work force of a peak of 15,000 came from 45 states; five daily trains carried Roanoke area workers to the plant.

The history has a striking cover, featuring “The Great Road,” a mural painted under a federal art program and installed in the Christiansburg post office in 1939. The oil painting illustrates county scenes.

Reviewed by Kelly Short

Kelly Short is a freelance writer and editor, and student.

If you enjoyed the “Naked Gun” movies, you’ll love “Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters.”
In “Sea Monsters,” Jane Austen supplies the highbrow, upper-lip angst, and Ben H. Winters keeps the gags and hilarity flowing.

As in the Austen original, this new book follows the stories and love lives of sisters Marianne and Elinor Dashwood. However, in “Sea Monsters,” the Dashwoods live in a different world, a world in which creatures of the sea attack and devour humans mercilessly and endlessly.
Sounds grim, right? Wrong. It’s funny.  The book’s magic stems from the absurd juxtapositions of English gentility and giant octopi.

Forget Marianne and Elinor Dashwood for a moment. Two characters, Lady Middleton and her mother, Mrs. Jennings, steal the show. These two alone make the book worth reading. They are natives of a far-flung atoll and were kidnapped by adventurers. How they deal with it is as hilarious as it is heartbreaking.

Take this paragraph: “Lady Middleton piqued herself upon the elegance and extravagance of her table, and of all her domestic arrangements; she loved to surprise her English visitors with displays of hospitality native to her homeland, such as flavoring her soups with monkey urine and not telling anyone she had done so until the bowl had been drained.”

And as for Mrs. Jennings: “Mrs. Jennings was a widow, her husband and male children having been ruthlessly slaughtered in the same raid during which she and her daughters were carried off in a sack by Sir John and his men. She had now, therefore, nothing to do but marry all the rest of the world.”
Go on. Read the book. Just make sure you don’t read in a place where you’re supposed to be quiet.

The father of a William Byrd student raised a complaint to the principal after finding his 16-year-old son engrossed in reading the book. "The Perks of Being a Wallfower" ranked sixth last year on the America Library Association's top 10 list of most frequently banned or challenged books.

The Roanoke Times ran a review of the book, should parents and students like to learn what the deal is. Or, you can read it for yourself. We've also had some lengthy conversation on the topic in the paper and on this blog. As a supporter of the First Ammendment, I'm happy to learn that at least this one book will not be banned in Roanoke County schools. What do you think?