This volume contains the first five books in the Mandie series of children’s books set in the early 20th century. The main character, Amanda “Mandie” Shaw, lives in the Nantahala Mountains with her family, where she goes adventuring and solves mysteries. In the first few books, Mandie is helped by her best friend Joe Woodward.  She meets another helpful pal, Celia Hamilton, after she is sent to boarding school in Asheville. Mandie’s cat, Snowball, also makes frequent appearances in the books.  Recurring themes in the books are Mandie’s attempts to behave properly, her Christian faith, and her partial-Cherokee background.  Titles included in this volume include: Mandie and the Secret Tunnel, Mandie and the Cherokee Legend, Mandie and the Ghost Bandits, Mandie and the Forbidden Attic, and Mandie and the Trunk’s Secret.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Posted: August 31st, 2009 under 2000-, 2007, Buncombe, Children & Young Adults, Leppard, Lois Gladys, Mountains, Mystery, Novels in Series, Religious/Inspirational, Swain.
Comments: 2

Like a number of other fictional heroines, Deena Livingston retreats to the North Carolina mountains after her heart is broken in the big city.  Deena plans to keep to herself as she sorts out her life, but her late grandfather has made other plans for her.  Deena can have Grandpa Ernest’s cabin and a small inheritance if she works six months in the after-school and summer programs that grandpa funded at the local Presbyterian church.  Teaching cooking to preteens takes Deena into new emotional territory.  Learning about the troubled histories of these children and seeing their potential prompts Deena to put her own problems into perspective.  Her growth is helped along by two brothers, Jonas and Zack, one of whom provides the romantic interest.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Posted: July 6th, 2009 under 2000-, 2009, Mountains, Religious/Inspirational, Romance/Relationship, Swain, Wisler, Alice J..
Comments: none

We each react in our own way to the misfortunes that befall us.  Artist Matthew MacEwen risked his life to save a young girl from the flames of a wrecked plane.  Was he aware that he might die in the rescue and, if so, did he intend to take that risk?  When he ends up alive, but with scarred hands that end his career as an artist, he has to struggle to overcome bitterness. He returns to the mountains of North Carolina where he builds a new life as an art teacher and a rafting instructor.  His scarred hands have also kept him from dating.  When a beautiful young woman comes to his rafting camp, he is drawn to her.   Little does Matthew know that this beautiful woman is tied to the tragedy in his past.  In this short novel, Matthew and Christine hope that God will to lead them to a better life, a life together.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Posted: April 19th, 2009 under 2000-, 2003, Graham, Lehman, Yvonne, Mountains, Religious/Inspirational, Romance/Relationship, Swain.
Comments: none

Ivy: Lilies of the Field is Larry Morgan’s third novel based on the lives of Ivy Rowland, his great-grandfather’s first wife, and her friends and family. While the previous two books–Ivy:Yankee Sweetheart, Rebel Nurse and Ivy: Camp Branch to Groveton–take place during the Civil War, this one is bookended by military conflicts: it starts in the final days of the Civil War and ends with the Spanish-American War. In the three decades between the wars, marriages are celebrated, houses are built, and children are raised. Some of the characters settle near the Nantahala Gorge in western North Carolina, while others make their lives in Georgia or Virginia.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC-Chapel Hill Library catalog.

Posted: November 14th, 2008 under 2000-, 2006, Historical, Macon, Morgan, Larry G., Mountains, Novels in Series, Swain.
Comments: none

The fourth Temperance Brennan mystery, Fatal Voyage, opens with Temperance arriving on the scene of a commercial airline crash in the mountains of Swain County. As a member of the Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Team, she is charged with identifying bodies and investigating the crash, but her discovery of a leg that does not belong to any of the deceased passengers complicates things. She splits her time between investigating the crash and the leg, but soon finds herself accused of misconduct by a local politician. Canadian Detective Andrew Ryan, a frequent fixture in Brennan’s other investigations, also makes an appearance, trying to solve a third mystery.

Check this title’s availability in the UNC Library catalog.

Posted: July 21st, 2008 under 2000-, 2001, Mountains, Mystery, Novels in Series, Reichs, Kathy, Swain.
Comments: none