Best General Kentucky Travel Guides

The handsome barns and well-tended pastures found throughout central Kentucky have been the home to international racing champions, and now individuals from all over the world, including England, Ireland, Japan, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia, have a stake in the region's flourishing horse industry. As preeminent racing historian Edward L. Bowen notes in his introduction, "It is a special place where the ruler of Dubai and a stable groom have something in common; the queen of England can admire a leathery old jockey; a philanthropist and a veterinary professor have the same goals; and a $2 bettor celebrates at the same moment that a corporate CEO grits his teeth in disappointment." His work has appeared in several national publications, including Architectural Digest, National Geographic, and the Smithsonian Guides to Natural America.

Others support the daily life and work of Kentuckians, such as a Sunday afternoon celebration of a baptism in Jessamine Creek or friends sharing their thoughts on a warm February day in Sharpsburg, Bath County. Including a foreword by Wendell Berry, the book also reminds us of our responsibility to serve as stewards for Kentucky's rich history and historic places. "Archambeault's work, in words as well as images, is an invaluable a resource as is the land he records. "The historic and cultural significance of the landscapes, buildings, and sights of old Kentucky as many of them fall into neglect, become altered, or disappear is explained in this photographic elegy to the scenic treasures of Kentucky culture.

Using straightforward language yet incorporating the most up-to-date scientific information and nomenclature, the book will be welcomed by amateur naturalists or professional botanists looking for species in the field and by those who simply enjoy photographs of beautiful wildflowers. The combination of habitat information derived from the author's experience and beautiful photographs places this volume among the best of the regional orchid treatments. Although the southern Appalachians are known to botanists and wildflower watchers as a botanical paradise, it will probably surprise and then delight many people to discover that over fifty species of orchids are native here. This book is quite a treat for you amateur naturalists or professional botanists who happen to live, vacation or botanize in the southern Appalachians.-- SIDA. It is written in a conversational, sometimes almost folksy style based on the author's 25 years of experience in seeking out and photographing the orchids of his native Southern Appalachians.

She wasn’t quite sure moving to Montana and marrying a cowboy was a better option—but, head over heels in love, she did it anyway. Knadler articulates her journey in a manner so self-deprecating and hilarious that it doesn't take long to realize she isn't ridiculing rural Virginia, she’s analyzing her own place in it...She is braver than most writers would be about exposing the vulnerable underbelly of her new marriage, and about how close she came to throwing in the clogs. "Jessie Knadler's story about leaving the glossy office buildings and late nights of Manhattan to take a chance on love and create a new life in rural Lexington, Virginia, sounds like something out of a movie. “Jessie Knadler’s memoir, Rurally Screwed …is more than a fast-paced ride through the rodeo scene of relationships from Manhattan to Montana, but an examination of American life, the things we take for granted and the things we ought to cherish. “At once brutally honest and over-the-top hilarious, Rurally Screwed is the most engaging and relatable book about marriage I've ever read. Jessie, as a character in the book and in real life, is a strong, witty, courageous and hilarious woman.”— Breathe. Rurally Screwed entertains by continuing well past the ‘I do’ and, best of all, this is a real-life romance, a memoir with a hilarious narrator… Rurally Screwed is also a hero's journey as Jessie navigates her relationship with various identities—a child from Montana, a woman from New York, a wife in rural Virginia. Her searing wit and unflinching honesty is a pleasure to read…Fans of Ree Drummond's The Pioneer Woman will love Rurally Screwed, as will anyone who has fallen madly in love with his or her opposite.”— Book Club Classics.

Secret Louisville: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure is a book that answers questions you didn't even realize you had about the city that stands proudly along the Ohio River. You get the picture: Think of this book as a scavenger hunt of sorts for Kentucky's largest city, covering the strange, the surprising, and sometimes the silly locales, history, and facts.