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New Book Notes George Brosi Lisa Alther. Blood Feud: The Hatfields & the McCoys: The Epic Story of Murder & Vengeance. Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 2012. 236 pages with maps, introduction, acknowledgments, end notes, bibliography, and index. Hardcover with dust jacket. $24.95. Lisa Alther, whose first national best-seller was Kinflicks in 1976, has again risen to near the top of the book sales charts. This book covers the basic chronology of the feud, but it also examines its context—from other nearby feuds to the events before and after the feud era and the facts and myths of the culture of the area. Alther's deft command of style and her keen perceptions of the feelings beneath the facts makes this book a compelling read. It goes beyond supplying knowledge and provides understanding, and a dash of wisdom, on this complex phenomenon. Lisa Alther, a Kingsport native, divides her time between homes in Tennessee, Vermont, and New York. Frederick A. Barkey. Working Class Radicals: The Socialist Party in West Virginia, 1898-1920. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2012. 271 pages with a foreword by Ken Fones-Wolf and charts. Trade paperback. $16.95. During the second decade of the twentieth century, socialists were elected to public office in nine West Virginia counties, and in five municipalities they held all public offices. They served as mayors of three additional towns. This book chronicles the rise and fall of the West Virginia Socialist Party. Frederick A. Barkey is Professor Emeritus at Marshall University. Patricia D. Beaver and Judith Jennings, eds. Helen Matthews Lewis: Living Social Justice in Appalachia. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2012. 263 pages with photos, an index, bibliography, chronology, and introduction by Stephen L. Fisher. Hardback in dust jacket. $40.00 Born in 1924, Helen Matthews Lewis has achieved the status of an icon among Appalachian activists and scholars. She has directed the Highlander Center, worked with Appalshop, and taught for a variety of different academic institutions. This is an important book. [End Page 110] Jenny Bennett. Murder at the Jumpoff. Vilas, N.C.: Canterbury House Publishing, 2012. 214 pages. Trade paperback. $14.95. Hardback in dust jacket. $40. Yes, the "jumpoff" in the title of this book is the cliff on the side of Mt. Kephart in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, about three miles on the Appalachian Trail northeast from Newfound Gap. This novel celebrates off-trail hiking, something the Park discourages. Jenny Bennett is a freelance editor who worked for eighteen years for the London Financial Times. David Bottoms. We Almost Disappear. Port Townsend, Wash.: Copper Canyon Press, 1998. 63 pages. Trade paperback. $16.00. David Bottoms was born and raised in Canton, Georgia, and has worked as a professor mainly in Atlanta. Until recently he was poet laureate of Georgia. "David Bottoms is brilliant in the clarity and richness of his language, profoundly humane in the breadth and compassion of his vision. He is quite simply one of the best poets writing today."—Jane Hirshfield. "We Almost Disappear rescues memories from oblivion and holds them up to the light—transformed, transfigured. It is a radiant book."—Edward Hirsch. Tess Collins. Helen of Troy. San Francisco, Calif.: BearCat Press, 2012. 211 pages. Trade paperback. $19.95. Tess Collins grew up in Middlesboro, Kentucky, and sets her novel, inspired by the ancient story of Helen of Troy, in the Clearfork Valley of Tennessee. Collins currently lives in San Francisco where she manages the Curran Theatre. Michael Crisp. Murder in the Mountains: The Muriel Baldridge Story. Georgetown, Ky.: Remix Publications, 2011. 196 pages with illustrations. Trade paperback. $29.95. On June 29, 1949, Muriel Baldridge, a seventeen-year-old high-school cheerleader, was beaten to death in her hometown of Prestonsburg, Kentucky. Although a trial was held, no one has yet been convicted of the murder. This book explains the crime and the effort to find the perpetrator in detail. Michael Crisp is a businessman and film-maker who lives in Georgetown, Kentucky, his hometown. [End Page 111] Mark DeFoe. In the Tourist Cave. Buckhannon, W. Va.: Pringle Tree Press, 2012. 26 pages. Trade paperback. $14.00. Mark DeFoe is Professor Emeritus at West Virginia Wesleyan University...