Customer Reviews

Foxfire 12

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To start, pay no attention to Publisher's Weekly when the whine about the repeativeness of the Foxfire books. The reviewer obviously has not read all the books. I own, read and use almost all of the Foxfire books. Actually, we owe both the Foxfire people and we certainly owe the characters of a gone generation. This work, Volume 12, is indeed like the others. That is a good thing! A wonderful history of how it was. In this day and age of having most needs meet and something for everyone on the Wal-mart shelf, we tend to forget just what it was like in our not too distant past. These books, the Foxfire books, brings to light skills, attitudes and a way of life that is all but forgotten. Do be warned though, as one reviewer has pointed out, these are not step by step "how to do it" books. But This is sort a good thing as the how to books out there are sort of a dime a dozen any more. When a people lose their history, they lose part of their soul. As the title of this work states, this addresses many of the old forgotten skills and there is so much more. The editors have done a wonderful job. They have made a very honest effort to replicate the dialect of those places and times and I feel that this is a big part of the charm of these books. I am old enough to have known many of the kinds of folks featured in these books, being only one generation past them, and have a great appreciation for what and how they did all the little things we take so for granted now. I might also suggest that you actually try some of the things mentioned in these volumes. It will give you even more of an appreciation for what they did, and hey, who knows, the skill you develope just might come in handy one of these days! This particular volume also includes some great interviews with the decendants of Cherokees who, after all, were the original owners of most of the land involved here. These interviews are priceless. Recommend this and the other Foxfire books highly.

I have the entire series, plus the AUNT AIRE "special". I consider them all treasures. The way theu came about and still do, the subjects covered and in such detail too. There are 12 plus the special extra and they are all equel in value to me. To my knowledge, they are the most readily available to the public and a source of old Appalachian ways describing them in great detail.

I bought the set of 12 Foxfire books and I have not read them all yet, but what I have read is excellent. These high school kids have done an amazing job putting together histories, how-to's, and interviews. What a great project for them and all of us. This information could have been lost forever.

I bought all of the Foxfire Books and shared them with my son. We enjoy the vastness of the practical knowledge in all phases of life. These books help us GET IT DONE!

More from the series of plain livin'. The personality section was very good reading. The people interviewed were extremely interesting.