Barn Find Road Trip

Starred review from October 1, 2015
This road-trip travelogue isn't simply a chronicle of general-item, what-we-saw-and-did-today events. The narrative flourishes as a specially focusedand unquestionably rivetingride-along with three friends. Experienced automotive writer Cotter, car-collector Brian Barr, and photographer Ross embarked on a successful 2,700-mile, 14-day trip through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania in Cotter's restored 1939 Ford woody station wagon, in search of old cars. We had been challenged by the publisher to find and document all the old cars we could in 14 days. They wondered as they wandered, Does that old barn house a vintage automobile? Is beyond that thicket of trees and brambles a field packed with old Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs, and evenas the men did indeed finda breathtakingly beautiful (and classic) 1937 Cord? Underscored by the infectious sentiment that discovering an old car is a very special occasion, Cotter and his buddies adhere to a cardinal rule of such a pursuit: ask! Taking frequent stops, they asked around for clues as to where they might find old cars, and their inquiries paid off (made easier and more productive because people responded to Cotter's lovely Ford woody). As far as to whether the cars they found were actually for sale or not, Cotter says this: Cars featured in this book might have been for sale when I wrote it in the fall of 2014. These for-sale references were meant to be interesting tidbits about how very ancient cars are actually still out there and available for purchase. Regardless, the nonbuyersbut car enthusiasts neverthelessamong us will live, for a couple of hours at least, vicariously through the men's excitement in such a splendid endeavor.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)