The Kindred Gathering: A Reckoning with the Melungeons (The Battle for Coalwood) (The Kindred Gathering, 2) [Paperback]

J. R. Hatmaker (Author), David E. Bader (Editor), Sally Skunza (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2007 | Series: The Kindred Gathering, 2

Book two of the Clear Fork Series It s 1963, a time when coal and steel companies are posting only meager profits, and a huge easy-to-mine coal seam is found in Clear Fork, Coalwood, McDowell County, West Virginia. Coal and Steel executives are ecstatic until they discover the deposit is not on company land the land is owned by the Whitaker family whose ancestors centuries before settled Clear Fork. Company officials, led by a self-important blueblood from New England, try to take the land through legal and illegal means. As a result of the actions of a corrupt judge, the Whitakers are forced to call a gathering of their kindred to defend Clear Fork. A rich Ohio widow, a college professor and a small group of teenagers join the Whitakers, and from every direction, North America s strangest clans, including the mysterious Melungeons, converge on McDowell County. As a result, steel company officials learn the power of the Kindred.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

J. R. Hatmaker is a native of Coalwood, McDowell County, West Virginia, an area once known as Clear Fork. Born into a coalmining family, Hatmaker grew up in the innocent and fun-filled days of the 1950s and turbulent 60s. He graduated from Big Creek High School at War, and subsequently attended the University of Maryland and Mundelein College. He graduated from the East European Language and Area Studies Program at Syracuse University. A decorated Vietnam-era veteran and former businessman, Hatmaker is now retired and resides in central Ohio, where he continues to write about life in the Appalachians.

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: BV Wespat; 2nd edition (March 14, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971334218
• ISBN-13: 978-0971334212
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,891,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Writing is TERRIBLE, February 27, 2010

By 

Nancy Sparks Morrison "Nancy" (Cross Lanes, WV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Kindred Gathering: A Reckoning with the Melungeons (The Battle for Coalwood) (The Kindred Gathering, 2) (Paperback)

The story of this book is a good one, but the author tells the story as if we were children sitting around a campfire at night.

There is precious little diaglogue to move the story along, a lot of description which could have been better done by actually showing the actions of the characters or via dialogue between characters. And long spots were the author tells us what is going on or what is happening, going to happen rather than let us 'see' for ourselves

Some of the characters were believable but others were just a shell of what they could have been.

I read a library copy that had been DISCARDED and am certainly glad
that I did NOT pay for this book.

TOO BAD. With a good author, this could have been a very interesting and entertaining book. I research the Melungeons so I know a lot about what they would or would not have done.

Nancy Sparks Morrison