Finding Your Way in Asheville [Paperback]

Cecil Bothwell; Betsy Ball (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2005

The latest revision of the best-selling guide to Asheville, North Carolina.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

How to use this book:

This guide is based on the way real people really visit a city, or at least the way we think real people should really visit a city. Going to eight different places in distal parts of town in one day not only wastes nonrenewable resources and generates air pollution, it fritters your valuable tourist time. There is more to life than driving and parking. Walking, particularly in a city of Asheville's walkable scale, generates memories of gargoyles and trees and flowers and bricks and faces and sounds and smells. Real stuff. Driving generates memories of your dashboard and your windshield and your rear-view mirror and that irritating grinding metallic noise somewhere under the hood that you are praying isn't going to be as expensive as it sounds. Warning! Warning! Warning! Warning! Warning!

If your idea of a great vacation is shopping at a mall (or, shudder, an outlet mall) and eating at national chain restaurants, you have just wasted your money on this book. Now would be a good time to return to the independent bookseller where you bought it and politely ask for a refund. Yes, Virginia, Asheville has a mall and a lot of chain restaurants and if you need a guide book to find them you are in a kind of trouble that we are not qualified to address.

Look under "Counselors" in the Yellow Pages.

We are not going to direct you to national chain anything. We have mentioned tiny regional chain somethings if we decided they are unique enough to warrant it. The only exception to this rule is a local health-food grocery chain that has become a big player in its field. But we both remember when it lived in a tiny, funky storefront downtown and we share a little (unwarranted) pride in its success.

About the Author

Cecil Bothwell and Betsy Ball are long-time residents of Asheville who know the city inside, upside, downside and out. Bothwell is former managing editor of the local alternative weekly and winner of multiple national and regional writing awards. Ball is more sensible, sensitive and balanced than that.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Brave Ulysses Books (June 10, 2005)
• ISBN-10: 0970012535
• ISBN-13: 978-0970012531
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,845,904 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

When Cecil Bothwell was elected to Asheville's City Council in 2009 a Confederate, Christian activist attempted to block his induction to office, based on an archaic provision of the North Carolina Constitution which bars from office anyone who "shall deny the being of Almighty God." The trigger was Bothwell's statement concerning personal belief in his critical biography, The Prince of War: Billy Graham's Crusade for a Wholly Chrisitian Empire (Brave Ulysses Books, 2007).

The story went viral, reported and repeated around the globe in eight languages, on television, radio and in print. The debate concerning church/state separation erupted in blogs and letters-to-the-editor pages, and hundreds of supporters flooded the author with snail-mail, e-mails and donations to his campaign fund.

Bothwell is an investigative reporter and biographer based in Asheville, and has received national awards from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and the Society of Professional Journalists for investigative reporting, criticism and humorous commentary. Former news editor of Asheville City Paper, former managing editor of Asheville's Mountain Xpress and founding editor of the Warren Wilson College environmental journal Heartstone, he served for several years as a member of the national editorial board of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies and currently serves on the boards of two inter-national educational nonprofit organizations working in Latin America. His weekly radio and print journal, Duck Soup: Essays on the Submerging Culture, remained in syndication for 10 years.


He blogs at: bothwellsblog.wordpress .com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really fun to read!, August 4, 2005

By 

Mary (Asheville, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Finding Your Way in Asheville (Paperback)

This book is actually fun to read!

While it includes the sort of information you'd expect from a tourist guide, it also contains fascinating glimpses of Asheville political and natural history, and takes jabs at local icons and over-hyped destinations.

This is not the sort of guide that you'll get from the Chamber of Commerce, this one is about the real city and the reasons that we locals love it.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well, I beg to differ, April 4, 2007

By 

S. Shanafelt - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Finding Your Way in Asheville (Paperback)

It's not a bad book at all, although it is a bit outdated. Several of the stores and places to eat have closed since this edition, but it's still the best guide to the city there is. And to correct some of the other reviews, it does offer plenty in the way of useful advice -- like places to park, things to do, and a little insight into local culture. It's a great place to start learning about all things Asheville.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Good concept, but poorly executed, October 4, 2006

By 

Gary (Tallahassee, FL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Finding Your Way in Asheville (Paperback)

This slim volume is a hodge-podge of information about Asheville that is poorly organized and written in an affected style that makes it difficult to glean useful information. The maps included in the book are inadequate and are more akin to something drawn on the back of a paper napkin than what one would expect from a published guide. Photographs included in the book are of very poor quality, and sadly do little to enhance the quality of the book. The book specifically excludes B&B's and other possible lodging accommodations, which is intentional on the authors' part but seems a major omission in a book with such ambitions. Asheville's proximity to exceptional outdoor recreational opportunities is one of its biggest draws, but the authors do a very poor job describing them. [...]