#hardcover #westvirginia #nonfiction #truecrime 

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

New York

The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia

A deeply researched and stunningly written investigation of the murder of two young women-and how a violent crime casts a shadow over an entire community. In the early evening of June 25, 1980, Vicki Durian, 26, and Nancy Santomero, 19, were killed in an isolated clearing in Pocahontas County, West Virginia. They were hitchhiking to a festival known as the Rainbow Gathering but never arrived. For thirteen years no one was prosecuted for the "Rainbow Murders," though suspicion was cast on a succession of local men. In 1993, a local farmer was convicted, only to be released when a known serial killer and diagnosed schizophrenic named Joseph Paul Franklin claimed responsibility. With the passage of time, as the truth seemed to slip away, the toll became more inescapable--the unsolved murders were a trauma, experienced on a community scale. Emma Copley Eisenberg spent five years re-investigating these brutal acts, which once captured the national media's imagination, only to fall into obscurity. A one-time New Yorker who took a job in Pocahontas County, Eisenberg shows how a mysterious act of violence against a pair of middle-class outsiders, has loomed over all those involved for generations, shaping their identities, fates, and the stories they tell about themselves. In The Third Rainbow Girl, Eisenberg follows the threads of this crime through the complex history of Appalachia, forming a searing portrait of America and its divisions of gender and class, and of its violence.

The Third Rainbow Girl

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#hardcover #nonfiction #westvirginia #truecrime 

Michigan

Mississippi

This poignant, gently humorous novel is about prejudice and acceptance....15-year-old Joan Lee is a child of two worlds. As a Chinese American, she has never felt her separateness more than now, in 1927, in this new place in West Virginia. Only Miss Lucy, their landlord and neighbor, seems welcoming....There's nothing coy about Yep's portrait of prejudice, which he sketches from several angles."--Booklist. "A pleasure to read, entertaining its audience even as it educates their hearts."--Horn Book.

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Ohio

"This poignant, gently humorous novel is about prejudice and acceptance....15-year-old Joan Lee is a child of two worlds. As a Chinese American, she has never felt her separateness more than now, in 1927, in this new place in West Virginia. Only Miss Lucy, their landlord and neighbor, seems welcoming....There's nothing coy about Yep's portrait of prejudice, which he sketches from several angles."--Booklist. "A pleasure to read, entertaining its audience even as it educates their hearts."--Horn Book.

The Star Fisher

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#hardcover #nonfiction #truecrime #westvirginia 

Colorado

Georgia

A Novel

In the next stunning novel from Pulitzer Prize-winning Julia Keller, following the popular A Killing in the Hills, a pregnant teenager is found murdered at the bottom of a river. Phone calls before dawn are never good news. And when you're the county's prosecuting attorney, calls from the sheriff are rarely good news, either. So when Bell Elkins picks up the phone she already knows she won't like what she's about to hear, but she's still not prepared for this: 16-year-old Lucinda Trimble's body has been found at the bottom of Bitter River. And Lucinda didn't drown--she was dead before her body ever hit the water. With a case like that, Bell knows the coming weeks are going to be tough. But that's not all Bell is coping with these days. Her daughter is now living with Bell's ex-husband, hours away. Sheriff Nick Fogelsong, one of Bell's closest friends, is behaving oddly. Furthermore, a face from her past has resurfaced for reasons Bell can't quite figure. Searching for the truth, both behind Lucinda's murder and behind her own complicated relationships, will lead Bell down a path that might put her very life at risk. In Bitter River, Pulitzer Prize-winner Julia Keller once again weaves a compelling, haunting mystery against the stark beauty and extreme poverty of a small West Virginia mountain town.

Bitter River

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#murdermystery #suspense #westvirginia #juliakeller #oap


Washington

In A Killing in the Hills, a powerful, intricate debut from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Julia Keller, a mother and a daughter try to do right by a town and each other before it's too late. What's happening in Acker's Gap, West Virginia? Three elderly men are gunned down over their coffee at a local diner, and seemingly half the town is there to witness the act. Still, it happened so fast, and no one seems to have gotten a good look at the shooter. Was it random? Was it connected to the spate of drug violence plaguing poor areas of the country just like Acker's Gap? Or were Dean Streeter, Shorty McClurg, and Lee Rader targeted somehow? One of the witnesses to the brutal incident was Carla Elkins, teenaged daughter of Bell Elkins, the prosecuting attorney for Raythune County, WV. Carla was shocked and horrified by what she saw, but after a few days, she begins to recover enough to believe that she might be uniquely placed to help her mother do her job. After all, what better way to repair their fragile, damaged relationship? But could Carla also end up doing more harm than good--in fact, putting her own life in danger?

A Killing in the Hills

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#paperback #nonfiction #shephardstownwv #wv #westvirginia #stpeterslutheranchurch  #lorikelly #stjamesluteranchurch #history

West Virginia

Still on This Rock 

#paperback #fiction #atmospheric #murdermystery #thriller #mystery #westvirginia

Illinois

#paperback #westvirginia #hiking #hikingwestvirginia #alleghenytrail #trailofthefivesenses #plants #wildlife #maps

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

The Trails of West Virginia 

Hiking the Mountain State

#paperback #fiction #mystery #detective #murder #westvirginia #juliakeller 

Texas

Minnesota

Author Keith Maillard received critical acclaim with his novel Gloria, which told the story of a young woman on the cusp of womanhood in a town called Raysburg, West Virginia. In his newest book, The Clarinet Polka, Maillard turns that same eagle-eyed attention to the other side of the tracks of that very same town and creates a stunning portrait of Polish America and of one man’s struggle to find meaning in his life and roots.

The year is 1969, and young Jimmy Koprowski returns from his stint in the airforce to Raysburg, his blue-collar Polish American hometown where nothing much happens beyond working at the steel mill, going to Mass, and getting drunk at the local PAC. Jimmy’s efforts at rebuilding his life result in sleeping off hangovers in his parents’ attic and drifting into a destructive affair with a married woman.

But things change when his younger sister Linda decides to start an all-girl polka band, and Jimmy falls for the band’s star clarinetist, Janice, whose young life is haunted by tragic events that happened before she was born. The threads of Jimmy’s family life, the legacy of WWII Poland, and the healing power of music, language, and tradition all begin to converge.

At once gritty and compassionate, moving and witty, The Clarinet Polka showcases the emotional and perfectly pitched voice of a lost soul finding his way.


The Clarinet Polka

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A fascinating exploration of a place and our reliance on technology. #hardcover #westvirginia #thequietzone #science #npr #socialscience #usgovernment

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence

In this riveting account of an area of Appalachia known as the Quiet Zone where cell phones and WiFi are banned, journalist Stephen Kurczy explores the pervasive role of technology in our lives and the innate human need for quiet.

The Quiet Zone

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Maine

Paper cover and inside the hard cover front of the book have water damage but book is otherwise clean with one small page tear. 

North Carolina

“M. Glenn Taylor’s plain spoken eloquence on labor, race, and war recalls the voices in Studs Terkel’s inspired Working. The Marrowbone Marble Company is a novel of stirring clarity and power.” —Jayne Anne Phillips, author of Lark and Termite Author M. Glenn Taylor was nominated for the National Book Critic’s Circle Award for his novel The Ballad of Trenchmouth Taggart. Taylor returns spectacularly with The Marrowbone Marble Company, a sweeping story set against the changing landscape of post-World War II America that recalls The Story of Edgar Sawtelle and the early lyrical work of Cormac McCarthy. A masterwork of Southern fiction that the National Book Award-winning author of Spartina, John Casey, calls, “a terrific rough-and-tumble novel,” The Marrowbone Marble Company is a gift from a truly exhilarating American voice.

The Marrowbone Marble Company

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Missouri

2017 Christianity Today "Award of Merit" winner 2017 Christy Award winner! (General Fiction category) The summer of 1972 was the most pivotal of Matt Plumley's childhood. While his beloved Pirates battle for back-to-back World Series titles, Matt's family moves from Pittsburgh to Dogwood, West Virginia, where his father steps into the pulpit of a church under the thumb of town leader Basil Blackwood. A fish out of water, Matt is relieved to forge a fast bond with two unlikely friends: Dickie Darrel Lee Hancock, a mixed-race boy, and Jesse Woods, a tough-as-nails girl with a sister on her hip and no dad in sight. As the trio traipses the hills and hollers, Matt begins to fall for Jesse, and their promises to each other draw him deeper into her terrifying reality. One night, the wrath of the Blackwoods and the secrets of Jesse's family collide, and Matt joins Jesse in a rescue that saves one life and ends another . . . and severs the bond of their friendship. Years later, Matt is pulled back to Dogwood and to memories of that momentous summer by news of Jesse's upcoming wedding. He could never shake the feeling that there was more to the story of that fateful night, and he's determined to learn the truth behind the only promise Jesse Woods ever broke.

The Promise of Jesse Woods

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A quick and engrossing read about a woman dealing with feeling about her sister’s best friend and the loss of her family as a swarm of cicadas occupy her West Virginia town. This indie read has a beautiful cover. #lgbtq #lgbtqfiction #indiebook #quillproseaward #westvirginia #undertheradar

Summer of the Cicadas is about a West Virginian town where a brood of Magicicadas emerges for the first time in seventeen years. The cicadas damage crops and trees, and swarm locals. Jessica, a former cop whose entire family was killed in a car crash two years earlier, is deputized during the crisis. Throughout the book, Jessica must deal with her feelings for her sister's best friend, Natasha, who is a town council member. After Fish and Wildlife removes the swarm, Jessica must also confront the two-year anniversary of her family's death, Natasha's budding romance with a local editor, as well as a sudden but devastating loss that changes everything.

Summer of the Cicadas

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Missing May

#paperback #history #westvirginia #photography 

Formed in 1851 from portions of Randolph, Lewis, and Barbour Counties, Upshur County, West Virginia lies in the north central part of the state on the Allegheny Plateau. Rolling foothills and waterways such as the Buckhannon River paint a picturesque landscape, while warm-hearted residents provide testimony to the benefits of living in such amicable surroundings. Upshur County revisits this area during its earlier days, when time seemed to move much slower and wagon squeaks and horses' neighs were common sounds in the towns and along the roads. It also brings the reader into present-day Upshur County, highlighting the industrialization that has taken place in more recent times. This volume celebrates Upshur's long and rich heritage by lingering on the stories and images of historical sites, which include the offspring of the sycamore tree in whose hollowed trunk Samuel and John Pringle lived for three years in the 1700s and the old courthouse that was damaged by fire three times in its first six months of existence. Readers will no doubt recognize many of the traditions captured in these pages, including scenes of street parades and the famous Strawberry Festival.

Upshur County, WV

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#hardcover #cookbook #cooking #baking #holidays #WestVirginia #food 

Tennessee

Mountain Measures a Collection of West Virginia Recipes

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A Memoir

MORE THAN EIGHT YEARS ON THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LIST

The extraordinary, one-of-a-kind, "nothing short of spectacular" (Entertainment Weekly) memoir from one of the world's most gifted storytellers.

The Glass Castle is a remarkable memoir of resilience and redemption, and a revelatory look into a family at once deeply dysfunctional and uniquely vibrant. When sober, Jeannette's brilliant and charismatic father captured his children's imagination, teaching them physics, geology, and how to embrace life fearlessly. But when he drank, he was dishonest and destructive. Her mother was a free spirit who abhorred the idea of domesticity and didn't want the responsibility of raising a family.

The Walls children learned to take care of themselves. They fed, clothed, and protected one another, and eventually found their way to New York. Their parents followed them, choosing to be homeless even as their children prospered.

The Glass Castle is truly astonishing--a memoir permeated by the intense love of a peculiar but loyal family.

The memoir was also made into a major motion picture from Lionsgate in 2017 starring Brie Larson, Woody Harrelson, and Naomi Watts.

The Glass Castle

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#paperback #lgbtq #novella #westvirginia #cicadas #indiebook #quillproseaward 

Emma Copley Eisenberg

The Third Rainbow Girl

Emma Copley Eisenberg

The Third Rainbow Girl

Emma Copley Eisenberg

The Third Rainbow Girl

Laurence Yep

The Star Fisher

Emma Copley Eisenberg

The Third Rainbow Girl

Julia Keller

Bitter River

Julia Keller

A Killing in the Hills

Emma Copley Eisenberg

The Third Rainbow Girl

Lori Kelly

Still on This Rock

Julia Keller

A Killing in the Hills

Allen de Hart

Hiking the Mountain State

Julia Keller

Bitter River

Keith Maillard

The Clarinet Polka

Stephen Kurczy

The Quiet Zone

Emma Copley Eisenberg

The Third Rainbow Girl

Glenn Taylor

The Marrowbone Marble Company

Chris Fabry

The Promise of Jesse Woods

Emma Copley Eisenberg

The Third Rainbow Girl

Chelsea Catherine

Summer of the Cicadas

Cynthia Rylant

Missing May

Upshur County Historical Society Staff

Upshur County, WV

West Virginia The Junior League of Charl Staff

Mountain Measures a Collection of West Virginia Recipes

Jeannette Walls

The Glass Castle

Chelsea Catherine

Summer of the Cicadas