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Show Noah Adams finds BY GREGORY old-fashion- America on the river ed Listeners of National Public Radio are familiar with Noah Adams rich, evenly paced voice from his tenure as of All Things Considered. Now readers have an opportunity modto discover Adams other voice equally erate and mellifluous in his new book. Far Appalachia. co-ho- st self-assure- The work chronicles Adams nearly yearlong personal journey into the heart of one of the oldest river valleys on the North American continent Following the entire course of the New River from its origins on a remote hilltop in North Carolina to its mouth in West Virginia, he discovers along the way an stretch of America where the pace is easier. "It's the clean air and the quietness out there that I like." Adams said in a recent phone inters iew. "1 could easily live there . . . in North Carolina or Virginia You sort of don't even notice until you drive four hours and you get out of your car and you say, 'Where's the noise?' Adams doesn't merely explore the modem New River in the pages of his book: he recalls the regions history faim iLs frontier origins to its industrial past. Although he presents the story in a linear Ur$s&h d, narrative, the book is, as he notes in his prologue, the culmmanun of lLmonlhs of short explorations. Part of his goal Adams said, was to acquaint readers with a part of the country they may know little about and to encourage them to v tsiL Appalachia itself is such a huge subject that I've wanted to write about it for years, Adams admits, but 1 couldn't find a way until I figured, well, here's a little way to do iL You can write a smaller book, and it's got a narrative and people know where it's going to end." Adams said choosing a single place in the region to recommend would be difficult "But I love Snake Mountain in North Carolina, and nobody goes there. It's such a beautiful, beautiful place, he said. 'That's someplace people wouldn't think to go, and Ashe County is a lov ely place to visiL I would have never gotten there had it not been for this book, and its just Solvit tui&fMi From one of Americas most beloved storytellers national bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Robys new novel, A Pulitzer . paperback, ' 1 hardcover ' 0375418830 Prize-winn- herself, Anne er of holy losers, if not outright fools. Many of her novels (this is her 15th) read like rundowns of extended family reunions at which all parties seem determined to present their worst or at best, most eccentric behavior. Rebecca (Beck) Davitch, the accidental matriarch at the hub of this Baltimore clan, finds herself at 53 with a grown brood three mildly squabblesome stepdaughters and their extended households, along with her own daughter, now on her third d combo and a resident plus an party business to run out of a grand, if deteriorating brown-stonthe Open Arms. Becks problem, oddly, is not overextension, but a gap at the core: the one thing achingly missing from her life is her husband, Joe, who died only a few years after sweeping her into this maelstrom. Her midlife crisis, when it comes, is one blow-by-blo- w 3 BLACKBOARD bestseller in ISSN Tyler is a champion This poignant and humorous tale of family love, family tragedy and coming to terms with the true meaning of being there for each other will inspire and warm the hearts of readers everywhere. Let Kim Roby take you on a journey that wont soon be forgotten. - .. By Anne Tyler Knopf, $2S ISBN 0375412530 REVIEW BY SANDY MCDONALD from Dafina Books and Kensington Publishing trade .V CASTING TOE FIRST STONE, coming this July from Dafina Books. - :, or Gregory Harris is a writer and editor h ho lives in Indianapolis. time-honor- QQ $29.95, ITS A THIN LINE Dont forget to look for Kims ticularly impressive given that he had no raftprior experience ing. Capturing the experience was a challenge. Adams admits. "You really are in deeper holes than you would appear to be from the bank, he said. "You just don't see that from the bank. And all of a sudden, man, there's that wall of water that's way over your head. And you don't appreciate that when you're sitting there on a rock someplace watching the rafters come down the rapids. In addition, the seasoned journalist found himself unable to use one of the tools of his trade. The situation in a boat. Adams said, means you can't be writing notes, so I would have a microcassette recorder in a little waterproof bag and then wander away from the lunch crowd and just get a few things down and then try to find time that night BACK WHEN WE WERE GROWNUPS . . . hour and make notes. Adams said he enjoys writing as a break from his radio duties but is not currently working on another book. I always like to have something else going, but I think Ill try a few magazine pieces and just not worry about it and wait until a book demands to be wnt-j- jj ten. Whether working 5 on books or his radio program. Adams said he keeps in mind a James L quote from producer-directBrooks: Ease is always an illusion. When I do a radio story, and I've been satisfied with only a few over the years, and I hear it, and it sounds so simple, I think. How could h have been that much work?" Adams said. That's when I know it was a good piece. experience of the foaming, thundering surges in remarkable detail. This feat is par- FalmGBTalaOBN fun ; ))oVoIU (yjffi $22 to sit for about an a treasure. Far Appalachia climaxes with the author brav ing the rapids of the Lower New with a group of w hitew ater rafters. Adams captures the HARRIS husband-and-chil- uncle-in-la- e, 10 MAY 2001 k j t 7 r3. V . 'Z 'V ' of identity slippage. Shes perfectly clear or thinks she is on who she was at 21, when Joe mistook her for a natural bom celebrator, thus typecasting her into the role she has occupied for the past three decades. But who is she now? Has she inadvertently strayed from her true real life, the one she was meant to have? We all wonder from time to time about the road not taken. In Becks case, a seemingly portentous dream about the son she might have had with Will Allenby. her sweetheart, prompts her to look him up to often awkward, sometimes hilarious effect A carefully staged meeting with his resentful teenage daughter is a modem classic. Becks family is far more accepting of this potential rekindling: indeed, her mother, an -- childhood-unto-colle- ge passive-aggressi- whose every innocuous comment bears a barbed reproach, is outright ecstatic. Will Beck find the lost segments of her younger self by reconnecting with this phantasm from her past? The reader will quickly form a fervid opinion as to whether she should. Meanwhile, Tylers latest fcntertainingly refutes Tolstoys dictum that happy families are all alike. K Sandy MacDonald is incubating a family compound on the island of Nantucket in Massachusefts. r ui, uj-uja- |