Huntsville is a unique town--full of history and full of the future. It takes a wide variety of books to contain it all. Here are some of my Top Picks for books about Huntsville. Any of these would make great gifts for your family or friends, or better yet, yourself.
This beautiful coffee-table book is my top pick because it is so elegant and impressive. It has wonderful full page and two-page color pictures of Huntsville. This book was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County, so it contains important information about local businesses. The foreword to the book is by local astronaut and Huntsville resident, Dr. Jan Davis.
Tom Carney, editor of Old Huntsville magazine, has published a CD that contains hundreds of old photographs. Meet the people from Huntsville's past, see the homes, churches, and office buildings that once stood proudly in our city. This isn't a book--but it has so much of the history and flavor of Huntsville that I had to include it.
3. Civilization Comes to the Big Spring
Sarah Huff Fisk has spent most of her life painstakingly researching Huntsville and its history. This book documents how the town must have looked in 1823. Anyone researching their family roots that date back to this time period will enjoy the documentation of original town site at Big spring, and the earliest businesses that thrived on the town square.Huntsville Botanical Garden's shop has finally come out with a reprinted edition of its wonderful guide to the many wildflowers found in North Alabama. This book is colorful with a full page for each wildflower. The size is easy to pack when hiking or bicycling around this area. This book makes a great gift for people living in northern Alabama.
ocal lawyer Fred B. Simpson exposes the horrendous acts of lynchings in Huntsville/Madison County between 1878-1904. Nine people were hung, including one white man and two black women. Simpson also provides a lot of genealogical information about every person mentioned in the book.
6. A Locust Leaves Its Shell : Collected Columns by Bill Easterling
Bill Easterling wrote a popular human interest column in The Huntsville Times from 1978 until his death in 2000. This is Easterling's second book and it reprints some of his columns from 1990 to 2000. His first book was, "Voices on a Cold Day." For a look at life in Huntsville and observations from one man, this book makes for inspirational reading.
This unusual cookbook contains 324 pages of recipes and timeless tips from the past. The recipes are old Southern favorites and the tips are quite entertaining. If you're looking for some of your grandmother's favorite recipes, you might find them here. This is Cathey Carney's second cookbook; the first one sold out in three months.
This was Tom Carney's first book. In it he tells all the "colorful" stories in Huntsville's history that others have been to polite to mention. Chapters include "The Legend of Lily Flagg," "The Man with No Name," "Frank Gurley: Fugitive in Gray," "Scandal on Randolph Avenue," and many more.
Tom Carney, editor of Old Huntsville magazine, continues to dig up tales of Huntsville in his second book. This book contains "The Legend of Mollie Teal," "The Battle That Wasn't," "The Monte Sano Railway," "Inside the Ku Klux Klan," and many, many more. These are based on fact; otherwise, they some are hard to believe.
10. Found Among the Fragments
Sarah Fisk combines her detailed research with fiction to tell the story of Huntsville following the Civil War. Using facts to support her characters, she tells a true story about how women and children were affected by the war. This book shows how Huntsvillians lived and struggled during the 1880's.
