"The host of NPR'sAll Things Considerednow takes readers on another year-long journey, this time through Appalachia -- by canoe, bicycle and white-water raft. He skims lightly over the depths and navigates the rapids with humor and a sharp eye for telling detail." --Publishers Weekly "Far Appalachiais a lyrical journey through the heart of the mountain South. It is a New River voyage through time and memory penned by a gifted son of Appalachia who -- with the best of us -- has both wings and roots." -- Sharyn McCrumb, author ofThe Songcatcher Praise for Noah Adams'sPiano Lessons: "Charming . his delight in music-making is palpable." --The New Yorker "[A] charming memoir -- Adams clearly possesses a gift that too many teachers don't -- the ability to convey just how much fun it is to make music, and just how many different ways there are for a piece of music to be beautiful." --Newsday "Entertaining and surprising detail --Piano Lessonswill make you a believer in the quest to find and make music and will have you falling back in love with your own dreams, whatever they may be.
" -- John Hockenberry, correspondent, ABC News, author ofMoving Violations "An affectionate tribute . [from] a writer of considerable merit." --The Seattle Times "A truly absorbing story . with humor and candor . Adams is a gifted interviewer with a good ear for a story, andPiano Lessonsis full of them." --Minneapolis Star-Tribune "Genuinely moving . Adams writes in the same earnest . tone that has endeared him to radio listeners for more than twenty years.
" --San Francisco Examiner & Chronicle "The balance of storytelling -- about pianos specifically, and then into music in general and back again -- rings nicely, with plenty of pushed pedals to sustain it." --The Philadelphia Inquirer "This is a wonderful book, which has a generous, transcendental beauty. The fascination of the river journey lies, for me, in the small details, which refresh and stir the reader like the smell of coffee by a campfire in the morning. I bet I won't be the only reader to be reminded of Thoreau." -- Jonathan Kozol , author ofAmazing Grace.