Pickin’ Bone in the Bible Belt By: Bill Tabor Welcome back to Tipple Holler and the Boissevain coal camp. It’s a growing time in the camp; new residents are moving in and seasoned residents are going about their lives as best they can. Now the old superintendant has adopted a new policy, one that uses children on his bone picking belt. It is a cruel policy that allows company bosses to pay very little to clean rock from their precious coal. The camp’s school marm has fallen in love with Mountain Moonshiner Thurman Light. When a union organizer insults his beauty, we wonder if Thurman will enact some sort of mountain revenge. More murder, mayhem, and mining await on the pages of Pickin’ Bone in the Bible Belt. Come on along.

This novel, set in the titular locale, is set at the turn of the century when coal was beginning to become the life blood of Southern Appalachia. It delves into the personal life styles of fictional characters that go about their daily lives just trying to dig a meager living from the bottom of Boissevain’s deep shaft mine. They go about their work facing cruel task masters hired by outside interest to do one thing and that is to dig coal. These pick and shovel miners are of little concern to these owners. Go with us now into Tipple Hollow, or as locals call it Tipple Holler, and meet these families who live as everyone else does dealing with social and emotional issues. They deal with mining, murder and mayhem. They do all this and still manage to delight you with laughter, love, and an appreciation of what coal camp life once was.

Ophidian's Gaze By: Bill Tabor In a small 1970s Appalachian coal town, residents find themselves embroiled in mystery and uncontrolled rumor. A lethal menace has found its way onto sleepy Main Street where it quickly claims two victims then quietly slips away. As town officials deal with unexplained death, a local drug dealer becomes frantically fearful of capture and begins to act irrationally. Amid violent acts and uncertainty, local law enforcement must quell townsfolk’s fear. Add to all this an interfering federal agent from some unknown government agency and you have Ophidian’s Gaze.

Tarpaper Shacks and Tipple Lights: The Continuing Saga of Tipple Holler By: Bill Tabor Old taxman should have stayed in the county seat. Coming to Boissevain Coal Camp is the last bad mistake he’ll ever make, especially for a crooked bureaucrat with his fingers in the collections. Meanwhile the miner’s union has decided to do something about their organizer’s killing and his missing assistant. They send a specialist to solve their issues, a specialist you will never forget. With a host of coal camp residents looking on, page by page, murder, mayhem, and mining continues. Come with us to Boissevain, Virginia in 1912.

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide. Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in a small Southern town, Maya and her brother, Bailey, endure the ache of abandonment and the prejudice of the local “powhitetrash.” At eight years old and back at her mother’s side in St. Louis, Maya is attacked by a man many times her age—and has to live with the consequences for a lifetime. Years later, in San Francisco, Maya learns that love for herself, the kindness of others, her own strong spirit, and the ideas of great authors (“I met and fell in love with William Shakespeare”) will allow her to be free instead of imprisoned. Poetic and powerful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings will touch hearts and change minds for as long as people read. “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings liberates the reader into life simply because Maya Angelou confronts her own life with such a moving wonder, such a luminous dignity.”—James Baldwin From the Paperback edition.

The invisible man is the unnamed narrator of this impassioned novel of black lives in 1940s America. Embittered by a country which treats him as a non-being he retreats to an underground cell.

WINNER OF THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE A beautiful, comprehensive volume of Dylan’s lyrics, from the beginning of his career through the present day—with the songwriter’s edits to dozens of songs, appearing here for the first time. Bob Dylan is one of the most important songwriters of our time, responsible for modern classics such as “Like a Rolling Stone,” “Mr. Tambourine Man,” and “The Times They Are a-Changin’.” The Lyrics is a comprehensive and definitive collection of Dylan’s most recent writing as well as the early works that are such an essential part of the canon. Well known for changing the lyrics to even his best-loved songs, Dylan has edited dozens of songs for this volume, making The Lyrics a must-read for everyone from fanatics to casual fans.

Provides definitions and examples of words and phrases used in different geographical regions of the United States.

The death of high school basketball star Rob Washington in an automobile accident affects the lives of his close friend Andy, who was driving the car, and many others in the school.