Moon Handbooks Tennessee

by Jeff Bradley

Book Overview

From the live music in Nashville to Civil War Monuments and hiking in the Smoky Mountains, Moon Handbooks Tennessee is the guide to the best the state has to offer, both on and off the beaten path.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566916933
• ISBN13: 9781566916936
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Avalon Travel Publishing
• Length: 513 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.5" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding Tennessee Guidebook

We recently completed a trip to Eastern Tennessee and brought along several guidebooks. After a few days, it became apparent that one guidebook was head and shoulders above the others: Moon Handbooks Tennessee by Jeff Bradley. It is both comprehensive and concise. It contains lots of local color without drowning in it. And it is spot on in its evaluation of sights. (We didn't have any occasion to use it for lodging or food.) Full credit to Jeff Bradley for a writing syle that is one of the best in the business. He keeps things lively without neglecting the basic facts that need to be conveyed. In almost every instance his entries were more interesting and more complete than other guidebooks, while being about the same total number of words. He seems to know just when to insert a clever turn of phrase or an offbeat tidbit while still writing in a very direct style. The book covers all of Tennessee. It starts with general information about the state's natural history, settlement history, and culture. It then covers each region of the state. He does a good job of conveying which sights are most worth seeing in each area without neglecting second tier sights. He weaves together a complete tapestry that puts everything in the larger context of the region and the state. Throughout, there is a pervasive sense of the joy of travel in this interesting state. This guidebook is the real McCoy!

Even Tennessee history teachers should use this book

You don't have to be planning a trip to Tennessee to appreciate Jeff Bradley's book. If you are, don't leave home without it. Bradley not only tells you what you must see if you have the time, but he frankly tells you what might not be worth a visit, or at least what to be prepared for that you might not expect, such as the bumper-to-bumper, big-city-like traffic in the Smokies, especially in the fall when the leaves begin to change. He also provides interesting facts and historical details you won't find in other travel books. I grew up about 50 miles from Bean Station in East Tennessee but didn't know until reading Bradley's book that a tavern there was the best place between Baltimore and New Orleans to get a bottle of wine back in the stagecoach days. Almost every page is enriched with little-known facts, insights and advice, and the book is organized in a way that takes the frustration out of trying to find what you're looking for. I once had a job that took me to every one of Tennessee's 95 counties, but I moved away several years ago and my children, unfortunately, know little about this beautiful state that is as geographically and culturally diverse as any in the union. I brought the fourth edition of Bradley's book when I began planning a cross-Tennessee-and-back trip my 22-year-old son and I decided to take this summer in a rented convertible. Taking Bradley's advice, we chose many roads now less traveled (since the interstates were built), visiting places like Jonesborough (Tennessee's oldest town, first capital and home of the National Stortelling Festival) in East Tennessee, Lynchburg (exactly like the Jack Daniels' ads portray it, except for the abundance of shops on the town square selling things Gentleman Jack would never have imagined, as Bradley points out) in Middle Tennessee, and Grinders Switch between Nashville and Memphis, which I had always thought was a figment of Minnie Pearl's imagination. Our trip, thanks largely to Bradley's book, was as much one of discovery for me, a native, as it was for my son, who grew up in the Northeast. You will enjoy Bradley's book not just for its contents but also for his writing style. As the "About the Author" page notes, this Tennessee boy has been a stringer for The New York Times and taught writing at Harvard, so he knows a thing or two about sringing words together. He writes from personal knowledge of the place with respect but also with wit, honesty and a good measure of irreverence whenever he feel so moved, which is often. Buy the book or you'll never know how far in advance you need to make reservations for lunch at Miss Bobo's Boarding House in Lynchburg, how to get to the Lovelace Motel Cafe outside of Nashville for the best country ham and biscuits, where to find worldclass white water and bluegrass music in East Tennessee, or that the Talbot Heirs Guesthouse is one of the best and funkiest places to stay in the funkiest part of Memphis, a stone's throw from Bea

Mark Twain Lives!

If Mark Twain comes back from the dead to write a guidebook of the state where he was conceived (in Jamestown, as Bradley explains on p. 196), then buy that. But old Sam Clemens would be wasting his time, because in Moon Handbooks: Tennessee, Bradley's already written the "Life on the Mississippi" of Tennessee travel guides. Like "Mississippi," Bradley's "Tennessee" is so fascinating in in its details and anecdotes that I kept finding myself reading far more than I "needed" to for the travel at hand. And like Clemens, who clearly wrote from a genuine love of the river and the bygone steamboat days that he wanted to capture on paper, all of Bradley's local lore and country cookery reviews and sidebars on everything from roots musicians to the development of the the atom bomb in Oak Ridge...well, these all swirl together to create a sort of love song to the author's native state. Bradley isn't afraid to criticize where criticism is due--look at his coverage of the outlandish developments near the Smokies. But even then, it's clear his concerns are not based on some disaffected political agenda, but from a genuine, familial concern for a cousin who has lost his way. Consequently, Gatlinburg doesn't "outrage" Bradley, it breaks his heart because of its failed potential. And even then, Bradley doesn't just sneer and proceed into the pristine National Park, shaking Galinburg's dust from his feet. Just as any good family member will make a point of telling you that old yellow-eyed aunt Ruth used to knock 'em dead at the USO dances and can still cook a mean casserole and belt out a showtune, Bradley lingers and explores Gatlinburg on its own terms. He points out its cherished place in many Volunteer hearts (including his own) as a childhood wonderland, and shows that he's not above enjoying the small simple pleasures of a candy shop, or even the more garish wonders of Ripley's aquarium. If you don't know Tennessee, you won't find a more comprehensive introduction to the entire state. And if you already love Tennessee...you'll find all of the states most endearing qualities captured between the covers--and in the spirit--of this book.

High Expectations Exceeded

I have the first edition of this book, and I've raved about it to my circle of friends. I heard this third edition was vastly improved, and I doubted this, but figured I couold always give it as a gift.This book is going nowhere but to a choice space in my book shelf!It covers more material, has a format which invites digging deeper into a topic at hand, highlights special topics, has a clearer type face, and is simply loaded with URL's for further cyber digging. I got out my Tennessee Atlas and Gazetteer by Delorme mapping, a topo coverage of Tennesee, my state, and put a "mark" by all the towns and villages Mr. Bradley covered. Not a page without copious markings. What a living history exprience.He begins in the East as our state did, moves west, and brings out information about people, about the locale, gives historic facts and loads of human interest materal. He covers the Civil War as it progresses in various locations and is in fact more historical than a course or two I've had in Higher Eduction. And READABLE!! His wry, delightful humor graces most every entry. And as you follow this through the topo maps you SEE how history unfolds. Now I know where the Cumberland Gap is, I know where the mysterious Melungeons 'are', I've followed the tragic trail of tears, I know where to find barbeque all across Tennessee etc etc. I know where that terrific meteorite hit Tennessee, where biggie dinosaur fossils are found etc. .What a book! What a marvelous travel companion, what a history of my state. And I have a store house of "stories and tales" I'll make good use of.If you have an interest in Tennessee and can get only one book: THIS is it! Hands down. I'm grateful to Mr Bradley for doing it.Hap Eliason

Pack this first!

Jeff Bradley's Tennessee Handbook is the next best thing to having one of the "locals" show you around. Bradley is akin to Mark Twain, a great storyteller who spins local yarns with humor and insight. Bradley is a southerner himself, from Tennessee, and does a masterful job in painting a portrait for those of us from elsewhere.