Mr. Richardson has compiled a fantastic collection of stories of east Alabama and painted a realistic portrait of the people and setting in this part of the state. As a lifelong resident of the neighboring Alabama counties to the north (Clay, Calhoun), it was especially interesting for me, as I learned about these southern adjoining counties. Readers from other parts of the country may relate to what Richardson has recorded, but then again, they may find Alabama life curious and strange. It’s hard to tell from my perspective, since I have lived here my entire life. I will admit that the more familiar I was with the areas described, the more interesting it was, so this book may hold a special appeal to Alabamians that the rest of the country may not see.

There are only two major frustrations of the book that I must acknowledge. First, he begins the book by stating that he is attempting to compile long-forgotten stories of the area in an entertaining fashion, rather than create a history book in the purest sense of the word. He admits that some of what is included is hearsay, with “no truth whatsoever, only told for the humor of the situation.” I came to this book for history and not entertainment and I unintentionally glossed over his very plainly written disclaimer at the beginning, either not taking this seriously or thinking that he was downplaying the historicity of the book in order to gain readers who ordinarily wouldn’t read history. Because of this, I was a little frustrated by the entertainment factor and the inclusion of so many well-known jokes and paranormal stories, but especially the author’s repeated insistence of the truth at the end of many stories, such as “(I promise you, I am not making this up)”, etc. It was redundant to read so many persistent comments on the truth of a story. Second, the spelling mistakes… oh, the misspelled words. The most cringeworthy was the ironic misspelling of the word “college” as “collage” in every single use of the word and the word “shiny” spelled as “shinny” (which I always pronounced as rhyming with “shimmy” before I realized what he was saying). Because of the misspelling of the word “What” in the book’s title, I am hoping that the misspelled words were an attempt at a folksy, downhome writing style to match the stories. That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway.

In all, the four eastern Alabama counties featured owe him a tremendous debt of gratitude for his hard work in preserving the area’s story, especially the ending story which caused me to outright weep at the hero’s reminiscing of his life. The book is easy to read and feels as though you’re sitting on a porch with an elderly person, who is recounting fascinating stories of times gone by that cause you to laugh, shake your head, and cry. It was obvious that the author spent countless hours in research and talking with locals to gather this information and I don’t think people realize the effort he has put into this lengthy book. I wish each local area had a similar type of book that east Alabama now has. ( )