Customer Reviews

Kentucky…The Mountains I Call Home

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I enjoyed the poetic tales that this author has written about living in the Appalachian mountains. Just good clean down home living! Makes the reader visually see and become a part of mountain life. I was able to see a side of Kentucky that many haven't portrayed through their writing. Some humor, some tears, and very interesting and easy to read! Would suggest it or recommend it to others!

My daughter and my grandmother took turns reading the poems to each other. It was so wonderful to hear them discuss each poem. It brought back fond memories for my grandmother and was a great history lesson for my daughter. This is a great book for ALL ages!

KENTUCKY...THE MOUNTAINS I CALL HOME, by Joyce Bowling, is a beautifully written collection of stories and poems that offer heartwarming tales of the life and times of the author and revolve around family, friends and community in the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky.

Joyce's book gives us a look at the geographical region of her homeland and the models for the heritage and culture that influenced her life into adulthood. Her stories and poems provide a refreshing read that is a labor of love as she shares her growing up years.

We see the early life of her relatives in a community setting where everyone knows everyone else. We see how they interact in a sharing capacity, how they make a living and provide for their own needs through planting crops, sewing clothing, making quilts, and we see their deep faith and how they worship. The stories are warm, friendly, and one feels the sense of the moment and place where Joyce's memories began and/or took place.

One story and its complementary poem drew memories from me. In 1970 I watched on television as news blasted the story of the mine explosion in Kentucky where thirty-eight miners were killed. It was news to me--it was reality to Joyce and her family as they stood by praying for family and friends who were in the mine. This is just one heart-rending story and poem you will read about Joyce's life in the mountains she loves.

If you love history, culture, and traditions centering on peoples' lives, you will also love Joyce's book of stories and poetry that show you the gentle side of a community way of life as folks grow, share faith, joy, happiness, and pain in their warm interactions together. I thought it was a wonderful read, and I plan to revisit it often because the poetry is like folk tales that give you something new each time you read it.

Reviewed by: Jeanette Cooper,
Retired teacher and author

Kentucky The Mountains I Call Home is a truly refreshing book of memoirs that is sure to stick with you long after you have finished reading it. The author has an uncanny ability to share life on the Kentucky Mountains where one feels one they become a part of the community, if only for an afternoon. This is an entertaining read, a delight to learn about life in the small community.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to just get away for awhile. Clearly, the author has us, the reader in mind and by doing so has allowed one to capture the beautiful Kentucky mountains. A terrific read and most certainly well written!

Dorothy Krusky
Canada

The older I get, the more it seems I now long for those `Good Old Days.' Days that are sadly now long gone from modern day America, yet days that many of us will treasure in our memories as long as we live.

In this book, Author Joyce Bowling does a marvelous job of recalling her family's `good old days' in the vibrant, green mountains of Kentucky - the mountains that she still loves and still calls her home. Days of Small Town Life, Mom and Pop Grocery Stores, Sunday Worship Services, Gala Family Dinners, Neighbor Helping Neighbor, and Holidays such as Christmas and Halloween, which seem to have lost quite a bit these modern days.

And, those Good Old Days when childhood seemed much simpler than it is today, and far more grand. Days when children enjoyed just being outside in the Great Outdoors, or just sitting around on the old front porch swing listening to their elders spin tantalizing tales. And days when children truly enjoyed very simple pleasures, such as digging up ancient artifacts in the dirt behind the house, or excitedly rummaging through dusty old attics, in search of family treasure.

If you enjoy Nostalgia as I do, I think you'll enjoy this book.