The County,
Lakes and the Woodwright New books hit area stores
By Scott Nicholson
From the Old Buffalo Trail to the Doc and Merle Watson
Highway, many travelers, explorers and settlers have made their
way to Watauga County over the years.
A new book capturing the county’s history has just been released
to reflect those travels and changes. “Watauga County: Images
of America” is the latest in the series from Arcadia Publishing
to collect trains, farmers, families and local attractions. Compiled
and annotated by local authors Donna Gayle Akers and Brian Lambeth,
the book covers various aspects of the county’s past.
Topics include Landscapes, Agriculture, Churches and School, Business
and Industry, Appalachian State University, Friends and Neighbors
and Recreation and Tourism, with photos showing how the area has
changed with the growth of the university and a tourist economy.
Native Americans and early settlers were the first citizens of
present-day Watauga County. In 1752, Bishop August Spangenberg,
the area’s earliest documented explorer, traveled through
the steep terrain. Located among the Blue Ridge Mountains, Watauga
County grew slowly with few settlers until after the Civil War.
The Boone and Blowing Rock Turnpike opened up the area to commerce
and tourists in the 1880s. The establishment of the Watauga Academy
in 1899, and the growth of ski resorts and upscale residential
developments also changed the landscape, with this book documenting
some of the biggest transitions.
Akers has published six books in the Images of America series,
which include titles on Boone and Blowing Rock. An avid genealogist
and historian, she can trace her family lineage back through eight
generations. Lambeth is a historian who has contributed to two
of Akers’s books.
The latest winner of the prestigious Novello Literary Award has
been released by Novello Festival Press. “Where The Lake
Becomes The River” by Kate Betterton features a gifted female
artist in Mississippi who grows up amid racial tensions. After
the death of her father, the protagonist becomes fascinated by
death rituals in other countries.
Betterton explores the peculiar structure of Southern families,
small-town life and the conflict between dreams and responsibilities.
Boone author Joseph Bathanti said of the novel, “Homespun
and profound, deadpan and poetic, hilarious and heartbreaking,
Kate Betterton’s ‘Where The Lake Becomes The River’
puts me in mind of Walker Percy, John Kennedy Toole and Harper
Lee.”
Betterton is a practicing psychotherapist in Chapel Hill. This
is her first novel and was selected from among 80 entries as winner
of the Novello Festival Award. Novello is operated by the Charlotte-Mecklendberg
Public Library System.
Though October has passed, Lisa Morton’s “A Halloween
Anthology” from McFarland Publishers offers year-round treats
and quite a few tricks, collecting some of the best historical
essays and fiction centered around October’s chilliest night.
It takes a look at cultural myths from around the world, as well
as folklore, poems and explanations of frightening icons like
the jack-o’-lantern.
“The Woodwright’s Guide” is a handcrafter’s
delight from the University of North Carolina Press. The newest
in the series of guidebooks featuring Roy Underhill, the book
offers tips and illustrated “how-to” guidance for shop,
home and forest.
The book explores nine trades of the woodcrafting, from lumberjack
to cabinet maker, showing the various tools of the trades and
the techniques for shaping and joining wood.
Underhill is host of the PBS show “The Woodwright’s
Shop” and is a former craftsman at Colonial Williamsburg,
Va.
All four books are available through local bookstores and online
booksellers.
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