What Readers Say…

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The book that has almost taken its final form consists of folk writing for folk. So to seek endorsements from academics or “known” writers should mean less to me–and more importantly, to a potential reader–than the testimonies of regular readers like you.

I’m getting back mostly short snippets of response to the book–gratifyingly positive–but want to have something a bit more finely-honed for the purpose of book review that prints with the book. I’m looking for at most 300 words from a half-dozen readers to use in the front of What We Hold In Our Hands. (You can send a longer version and excerpt as I’ll be using these for other purposes after the book arrives–like these reader reviews for the first book.)

I’m still–far as I can tell–on schedule for having files ready to send off by the end of March, so if you’re willing to sample from the entire book in the next couple of weeks and create a short review, I’d love to be able to select however many fit the space I’ll have. It is typical readers that should speak about their impressions and experiences in reading the book. Some of you have been around since Slow Road Home was in the early formative stages, so have a long-lens view of what I hope to encompass in this new view from our front porch in the Blue Ridge.

Ask. If you are willing to pen a short review, I’ll send you a link (per your choice) to download a pdf version or a doc version of the book, for your use only of course. You can leave a comment or email me to get the link.

What you’ll see still has hiccups, lacks the images, doesn’t really feel so much like a book as the formatted version is starting to shape up. But from either version, you could sample enough to get the flavor, or as only a few have to date, read the whole thing. The latter, of course, will give a better sense of the whole. But I’m anxious to have a future reader be able to know what it is they hold in their hands when they first pick up the book this summer and fall.

Your perspectives will help me tell others “what the book’s about” because I’ve stood too close to it for too long to really know.

Our operators are standing by. And thanks so much for your standing by. It means quite a bit, truly.– Fred

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Fred First holds masters degrees in Vertebrate Zoology and physical therapy, and has been a biology teacher and physical therapist by profession. He moved to southwest Virginia in 1975 and to Floyd County in 1997. He maintains a daily photo-blog, broadcasts essays on the Roanoke NPR station, and contributes regular columns for the Floyd Press and Roanoke's Star Sentinel. His two non-fiction books, Slow Road Home and his recent What We Hold in Our Hands, celebrate the riches that we possess in our families and communities, our natural bounty, social capital and Appalachian cultures old and new. He has served on the Jacksonville Center Board of Directors and is newly active in the Sustain Floyd organization. He lives in northeastern Floyd County on the headwaters of the Roanoke River.

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  1. I have been looking forward to the “next collection” of First’s memories…..Send it on, and I will begin reveling in the word pictures of a life well lived.