Moon Handbooks: North Carolina

Rating:
Summary: Great Guidebook to a Great State
Review: In a time of increasing specialization in travel books (one expects to see any day now a book for gay Civil War reenactors who travel with dogs) there is still a place for a guidebook for an entire state.

Mike Sigalas has done the best job that anyone has in serving up an introduction to North Carolina. He goes from Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks to the part of North Carolina that reaches out under Tennessee, pointing out the highlights as well as giving a taste of the history and cultural heritage of very different places.

His gentle humor works well in these pages. While talking about a sapphire mine in Franklin, for example, he explains how the owners sell tourists "a bucket of mud alleged to contain wondrous stones."

You will find more detailed books on various parts of the Tarheel State--and Mike has written a couple of those as well--but you will not find a better guidebook to the entire state.