I fled Appalachia 10 years ago swearing that I would never come back. I may be back in the Bluegrass but I am still a considerable distance from those "mountain folk". I can tell you first hand that trying to deny part of your heritage come with a heavy price. I am not the only one it seems that has learned that. The author of Salvation on Sand Mountain went one step farther and actually participated in the very culture that so many of us "educated" younger people flee. When I was younger I used to look with horror on the holy rollers, snake people whatever you want to call them. The fact remains that to people like me they were a product of an uneducated sector that would be best swept away.
When I first saw this book I was like Wonderful, one of them learned to write and is now going to let the rest of the world know their "ways". I picked up the book out of morbid curiosity and came away enthralled. Dennis Covington did an excellent job of capturing the heart and soul of Appalachia while making the people seem multi-dimensional. The people he portrayed were not the dumb imbeciles I took them for in my younger days but rather people who is dealing with poverty and the secular world as best as they know how.

To celebrate the start of the holidays I read David Sedris Holidays on Ice. It was so funny that it made me forget that it is dark and cold. Holidays has his usual sarcastic humor. It almost lives up to his best work to date Dress your family in Corduroy and Denim. Almost.  Now I am sad cause this means I have read all of his books.