Diane Daniel
Farm Fresh North Carolina

In this unique guidebook, author Diane Daniel introduces us to the wonderful world of food grown right here in North Carolina. The extensive subtitle sums it up: “The Go-to Guide to Great Farmers’ Markets, Farm Stands, Farms, Apple Orchards, U-Picks, Kids’ Activities, Lodging, Dining, Choose-and- Cut Christmas Trees, Vineyards and Wineries.”

Diane says she first got the idea for the book from a Virginia cookbook that also featured tours of historic farms. How did she settle on the 425 places featured in her new book? “To first locate places, I culled through dozens of lists, from national websites to lists created by county extension officers ...” she says. “It was a daunting task, and organizing that research was a challenge.”

Next, she visited hundreds of sites across North Carolina. “I first approached farms, stores, restau- rants, wineries, and any other place in the book as if I were a regular customer so I could see how they treated the average person,” she says. “If they weren’t hospitable and professional, they didn’t go in the book.”

Along the line, there will delightful little surprises. “At Fickle Creek Farm in Orange County, I witnessed a chicken lay an egg,” Daniel writes. “She was hovering a few inches above her nesting box and out it dropped. I’d gathered eggs before ... but I’d never seen that. Most people haven’t, and that includes some farmers I asked. I couldn’t stop talking about it for weeks.”

Farm Fresh North Carolina is organized accord- ing to the state’s five regions which are then divided into categories of interest. Our 21-county “Mountains” region in the book includes discussions of our Christmas tree farms, farm-to-table restaurants (“especially in the Asheville area,” she writes), poultry, and such diverse and valuable family-owned farms as Double “G” Ranch, Spinning Spider Creamery, Sunburst Trout Company, and dozens of others.

“We have an amazing number of ways visitors can intersect with farm life,” says Diane. She even includes a comprehensive list of tips for anyone interested in visiting one of the farms in the book. “My overall message to travelers is to remember that working farm is not Disney World. It doesn’t have regular operating hours or a paved parking lot. Its primary mission is to provide us with food or other agricultural goods.”

Sidebars offer information about North Carolina’s rich agricultural history, politics, and eccentricities. Diane also included recipes she gathered from her visits with the state’s farmers, innkeepers, and chefs.

“This is one comprehensive and persuasive guide,” says Library Journal. “Daniel paints a charming picture of the attractions of rural life that should motivate even the most dedicated couch potato ...”

Readers will be inspired to cut a fresh Christmas tree, pick a peck of apples, go for a hayride in the fall, sample the state’s wines, and perhaps even spend the night on a working farm.

Farm Fresh North Carolina, nonfiction, softcover, $18.95, by Diane Daniel, is published by The University of North Carolina Press.

You Think That’s Bad

Jim Shepard

If you’ve ever worried that perhaps the writing of classical short stories was a withering art, pick up a copy of Jim Shepard’s latest book, You Think That’s Bad. With a discerning eye, he surveys the full scope of human experience, selecting an intriguingly diverse range of topics to share with his readers. The wildly successful, the average (and less than average), the brilliant, the deluded, and the depraved—all are fodder for Shepard’s literary interpretation.

Shepard, who lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and is a member of the MFA faculty at Warren Wilson College, creates characters and situations that smoothly and quickly draw the reader into their story. An employee of a nuclear research facility is restricted from sharing with his wife his work experiences. But nothing stops him from divulging to a fellow work the intimate secrets of his marriage. In another, an Alpine researcher falls in love with his brother’s girlfriend (his brother perished in an avalanche the researcher is convinced he caused).

Publishers Weekly describes his most recent work as “Elegant and darkly tinged stories.” Kirkus Reviews writes, “(It) combines bursts of humor with flashes of tragedy.”

The author has written six novels and three other collections of short stories. His works appear regularly in The New Yorker, Playboy, The Atlantic, and other publications.

You Think That’s Bad, fiction, hardcover, $24.95, by Jim Shepard, is published by Alfred A. Knopf. He will be signing books at Malaprop’s Bookstore on May 1.

Leslie A. Cunningham
Imprints of Birth

Leslie Cunningham, of Weaverville, knew from an early age that her journey through life was something she wanted to record as it unfolded. She was only nine years old when she first picked up a camera and began photographing the precious moments of her childhood. It was a persistent passion that blossomed into a career as a photographer.

“It was shortly after the birth of my beautiful daughter,” she writes, “that I began wondering if all women felt as removed from their bodies as I did. My shape was no longer my shape.”

This curiosity led her to talk with and photograph other women representing all stages of life. The results comprise her new book, Imprints of Birth. “We laughed, shared our stories, and revealed our bellies,” says Leslie. Through this process, they began to explore the threads of motherhood that connected them all, including “the curves, the bumps, the dimples, and scars.”

The author’s artistic photographs and sensitive commentary celebrate the beauty of womanhood. “What I noticed in the photo sessions,” says Leslie, “was that our bellies still hold a very sensual part of our whole being.” Still, she adds, “It’s hard not to judge ... (to) accept what is.”

Imprints of Birth, nonfiction, softcover, $29.95, by Leslie A. Cunningham, published by blurb.com.