From Ridgetops to Riverbottoms takes the reader on a journey down the many winding roads of the outdoor experience in Tennessee. Such a journey requires a seasoned guide, and there can be no better one than journalist Sam Venable, who has written about the woods and waters of his native state for the past twenty-five years. For Venable, the outdoor world is meant to be enjoyed. Whether he is casting popping bugs to bluegills during the frenzy of a willow fly hatch, lying motionless on his back in muddy corn stubble as mallards warily circle his decoys, savoring the sounds and scents of a...

Carson Brewer on ... "Mountain Places Snow was nice and crunchy underfoot. Not crunchy like peanuts or cornflakes. Rather, it was a silky, whispery crunchy. "Mountain Plants You can bury your nose deep in the cool violet bed and smell the mix of life and death while pondering the unceasing cycle of each into the other. "Mountain People Lem Ownby.... has plowed oxen, mules, horses on the forty-four acre farm on Jakes Creek. But he has never owned or driven an automobile.

Sam Venable is one of America s seventy-six million Baby Boomers who are turning into their parents. He can t quite see without his reading glasses, he thinks the music kids listen to these days is nothing but a loud racket, and his belt is mysteriously creeping up higher and higher on his chest.
The way Venable figures it, he s roaring along the road (at about twenty-seven miles per hour, the average speed for someone his age) to Codgerville. You Gotta Laugh to Keep From Cryin highlights the observations and lifestyle changes (and a few other things he can t quite seem to remember at the...

In sixteen thoroughly engaging essays, naturalist Stephen Lyn Bales ventures far and wide among the richly diverse flora and fauna of his native Tennessee Valley. Whether describing the nocturnal habits of the elusive whip-poor-will, the pivotal role the hedge plant Osage orange played in a key Civil War battle, or the political firestorm that attended the discovery of a tiny fish dubbed the snail darter, Bales illuminates in surprising ways the complicated and often vexed relationships between humans and their neighbors in the natural world.
Accompanied by the author's striking line...

Four decades of hilarious, and yet at times poignant, outdoor stories by Sam Venable, the award-winning humor columnist for the Knoxville News Sentinel.

As seen through the eyes of Sam Venable, the world is indeed bizarre and filled with nuttiness. The archives of the "Knoxville News Sentinel "offer ample evidence that Venable is a bit of the former and has made a career out of drawing attention to the latter.
For his latest book, Venable has gathered and organized 139 of his newspaper columns his biggest collection yet to create a trove of wit and wisdom. In the spirit of The Emperor s New Clothes, he points a finger at human nature, the environment, civil rights and wrongs, and an eclectic mix of other targets, drawing our attention to...