Salvation on Sand Mountain: Snake Handling and Redemption in Southern Appalachia, (Paperback)

from Mrs_McGreevy

Dennis Covington was a reporter covering the juicy case of a backwoods Appalachian snake-handling preacher accused of the attempted murder of his wife. By poisonous snake. Yes, I said snake. He came to the small community and began to learn about the preacher and his wife and the snake-handling c...

from Michael.Xolotl

Interesting account of a minority religious tradition. The author understands what I think is the core of all religion, the need for wordless profundity, mystery, and palpable otherness, and, as a result, he's sympathetic to the subject, which is unusual nowadays.

from infinitechoice

Reading this book coincided with a trip I took to northern Alabama. I even went to Scottsboro, but alas, could not convince my travel companions to seek out a snake-handling church service. I found the subject matter of the book fascinating, and the writing style perfectly suited to the material:...

from klburnside

This book was incredibly engaging. Dennis Covington originally travels to the Appalachian mountains of northeast Alabama to report on the trial of a snake handling preacher who is convicted for the attempted murder of his wife, who suffered multiple snake bites. After covering the trial, Covingto...

from mirrani

I thought this would be all religion and such, but because it was written by someone who is is coming in to a community to try and understand the culture, it's done very well. The basic idea is not a focus on the law issues with snake handlers and attempted murder or a strict focus on the religio...