Art & Soul: West Virginians in the Arts
by The Appalachian Education Initiative
Morgantown Printing and Binding, 2005
Do you know that Ted Cassidy (Lurch on The Addams Family), and Paul Dooley (Molly Ringwald’s father in Sixteen Candles) went to public schools in West Virginia? So did Henry Louis Gates Jr., Bill Withers, and Ann Magnuson.
Art & Soul “celebrates the successes of performing, literary, and visual artists who attended a West Virginia public school for at least some portion of their K-12 education,” according to Jennifer Francis Alkire, president and CEO of the Appalachian Education Initiative.
This attractive book devotes two pages to each person celebrated here. A short biography most often is accompanied by “From the Soul,” a section reserved for the featured artist to put their thoughts about being from and educated in West Virginia.
With this book, the Initiative is hoping to raise awareness of the vital role the arts play in a child’s development.
This is the first of three planned volumes to be published over the next seven years.
Rock Around the Clock: The Record that Started the Rock Revolution
by Jim Dawson
Backbeat Books, 2005
On July 9, 1955, “Rock Around the Clock” became the first rock ’n’ roll single to reach the top of the American pop charts. On this 50th anniversary of the achievement, author Jim Dawson reveals the beginnings of rock ’n’ roll. It starts from the song’s murky origins and Bill Haley’s early struggles as a professional musician, to the record’s explosion, and Haley’s resulting success and eventual burnout.
Haley’s recording of “Rock Around the Clock” has sold over 25 million units, according to Rolling Stone. Other sources put the tally at three or four times that. The author makes the case that the song heralded the beginning of modern youth culture, telling the story of the song and the record, and the way they changed everything.
Anthracite Roots: Generations of Coal Mining in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania
by Joseph W. Leonard III
The History Press, 2005
Author and former coal miner Joseph W. Leonard III writes of his family and community’s work in the coal mines for more than 160 years. He provides a means for understanding and appreciating the crucial work coal miners have done throughout the years. His family’s stories illustrate with touching candor the plight of many thousands of families who stood proud through years of watching their sons, fathers, and husbands descend down the shafts into darkness. Leonard recalls the unforgiving conditions—cave-ins, explosions, and choking dust—that he and his forebears endured in the mines. Also captured are tales of kindness and compassion that permeated mining communities in the face of hardship.
Everyday Philosophy: Practical Applications
by Gene Bammel
AuthorHouse, 2005
This book applies the thoughts of the great philosophers to medical ethics problems like transplants, abortion, and euthanasia. It compares the visions of Plato and Aristotle with those of the Buddha, Confucius, and with Darwin, Freud, and Nietzsche. It compares Judiasm, Christianity, and Islam in the face of contemporary atheism.
The author’s intention is to provoke readers to think about current issues and to provide them with some of the materials necessary for insight into everyday problems. It concludes with maps of the ancient, medieval, and modern philosophical worlds, and shows the relevance of the past when dealing with our current problems.