August 2012

Railroad passengers once zoomed across dreamy landscapes in the Appalachians, whisking over rivers and sailing past rocky bluffs. Now, though, passenger trains are practically extinct. But many of the great railway passages remain - as trails.

The best part of this rags to riches autobiography is that Ben Jones leaves no ugly truths lying beneath unturned stones.

Independent scholar Joanne Marshall Mauldin examines in day-by-day detail the final two years of novelist Thomas Wolfe’s life, beginning with his return, in the summer of 1936, to his Asheville, N.C., hometown.

Like others who travel Virginia’s highways and byways on business, I often wonder what great little stories lay just off the four lane. What’s there waiting for me to explore?