Part memoir of growing up in eastern TN, part author's search for her family's history, who may or may not be Melungeon (a historically isolated group in the area that was known for dark skin, six fingers, etc.). There is a lot of interesting southeastern US history here (the Spanish rampaging through bringing diseases and pigs, the different Indian groups and how they dealt with traders, colonists, etc.), including some surprising scenarios suggested to account for the Melungeons and other mixed race groups - and at the end of the book, DNA testing shows that some of the improbable histories (or something similar) must have happened. Cool.

Some fun stuff on religion and social class (and race) in the south, too.