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kcrouth's review against another edition
4.0
Far Appalachia is a nicely written travelogue tracing the New River from its source in the mountains of Western NC to its destination in the Kanawha River in West Virginia. In the tradition of a great travelogue, the authors journey describes many interesting places along the way, talking to people, recounting history, giving context, and relating personal experiences. In reading, i found many connections that our family has to the New River that we didn't even know about. For one, a branch of the headwaters runs literally through the campus of the university where one of our children did their undergrad degree. Another connection is that we have driven along side it countless times going to our favorite camping location in SW Virginia. After reading, we want to make a point of exploring more of the New River, especially New River Gorge National Park and Preserve in WV. Far Appalachia is an enlightening and enjoyable tale, in the good company of books by William Least Heat-Moon (the Blue Highways trilogy), Bill Bryson (A Walk in the Woods and others) and of course Steinbeck's Travels with Charley.
berkeleybear's review against another edition
Just got distracted. Very beautiful. Will come back to this when I’m missing SW Pennsylvania.
akooda7's review against another edition
4.0
One of the reviews on the back of the book captures the author’s style, “modesty, economy and grace”. I have spent some time in the places in the book and that helped with visualization. The author does well in describing the people and geography. His retelling of rafting the New was so excellent. I felt like I was there.
aubrigail's review against another edition
5.0
Also in my top five favorites...great story (especially if you're familiar with any of the places he writes about)
lazygal's review against another edition
3.0
This is a good "in-between" book - something that you can pick up and put down easily without losing plot. It's the story(?) of the author's trip down the New River via kayak, bike and Jeep, stopping along the way to see the sights and meet people. There's some family history here, but mostly it's about the river and the people.
acreech's review against another edition
3.0
It made me feel like I was almost home for a little while.