1 comments about In the Steps of Jane Austen: Walking Tours of Austen's England.

1. The pictures are not enough. Especially those about the houses which Jane and her family lived in. The words are quite boring. It is more suitable to be categorized as a tour guide rather than a book introducing Jane Austen's England.

5 comments about In the Garden of Iden: A Novel of the Company.

1. This review contains slight spoilers.
   
   Wow a book that actually summarizes itself (pg. 239):
   "How could millennia-old superbeings be so boring?" Indeed!
   
   Baker's premise was interesting: an organization of immortals travels back in time to preserve things that they deem preserve-worthy. This includes mortals who they convert into immortal cyborgs to serve as their operatives.
   
   If only she had developed this premise in the book, but no, it turns into a silly historical romance between Mendoza - a supposedly highly trained operative - and a stiff (pun intended) mortal, Nicholas, who sees God in every orgasm. Foul ! - a romance novel masquerading as a Science Fiction work!
   
   It seems that Baker forgot about the science fiction somewhere after the first 5 chapters or so to bore us with an improbable historical romance set in the counter-reformation of 16th century England. The book ends with Mendoza being reassigned to the crumbling Aztec world - oh boy, Baker can perpetuate this by transporting the historical romance to a new location. Please spare me!
   
   From the point where you discover the dumb title pun - most of the book is set at the estate of Walter Iden, with its magnificent gardens - this dull, grind of a book becomes very, very bad. The characters are shallow, never developed enough for the reader to discover, or very much care about, their motivations. The mysterious Company that, more or less it turns out, controls the immortals is never developed at all. We are given no clues about its motivation or purpose, much to the detriment of the story. Another reviewer used the term "dimensionless", which is apt in so many ways.
   
   I found little to like about this book, other than the premise. The characters are thinly drawn, predictable, and one dimensional, creating no emotional attachment for the reader. The flow of the book is inconsistent, it d-r-a-g-s for 200 pages while Mendoza and Nicholas do it in every alcove of the estate and we endure an - admittedly well researched - history of religious conflict in Reformation England, then zips to a denouement where the plot turns too abruptly, the mortals meet their various ends and the operatives move on. Yes, it's as interesting as it sounds. Yawn.... I was surprised to learn that the author is an authority on Elizabethan English as I thought that the dialect was faulty: too many 20th centuryisms seemed to work their way into the dialog.
   
   Alas this book seems to suffer from a malady that afflicts Science Fiction writers today: it was written with sequels in mind, rather than developed into a coherent work of fiction. Can no one in this genre write an engrossing work that is self-contained?
   
   This is a silly, poorly-written romance that wastes an interesting premise. Avoid it; there are better things to read (and so little time)!



2. I picked up this book because of some recommendations from friends on Shelfari. I was greatly disappointed!
   
   This book starts out so well, describing the Company, time travel and immortality and then goes to Spain in the 1500's where a little girl (Mendoza) is rescued from the Inquisition and put in a "special program" with other children. They are trained and receive a number of surgeries that transform them into Cyborgs. The book then goes downhill from there as Mendoza is sent on her task to work in 1500's England during the end of Queen "Bloody" Mary's reign. From there it is painfully dull and very difficult to finish.
   
   What also made this book difficult was that the vast infrastructure that was set up underground in the 1500's is very unbelievable. This book is definately not on my recommended list!



3. To start, this is the first book of a series. Like any series, you will not get the whole story in the first book. The first chapter introduces you to the world of the series, and Mendoza drops dark hints that the Company is not as altruistic as it seems to be. She does not return to this theme again. Rather, that theme is explored in other books in the series. What this book is about is Mendoza's first, disastrous assignment. It is a character story more than a plot-driven story. At its heart, it is both a love story, and a cautionary tale of fanatical religious devotion, set appropriately against the fanatically devout reign of Bloody Mary. Most of the book is extremely well-written.
   
   The beginning chapters detail the Company and Mendoza's recruitment. She gets rescued from the dungeons of the Spanish Inquisition and goes through the immortality process. This part of the book is utterly riveting. She goes on her first assignment and meets her new teammates. Things start to slow down a bit, but it's still very well-written and is full of gorgeous details. Her team arrives at the Garden of Iden, where her job is to catalogue all of the plants there, because in the future many of these plants will be extinct. She also meets The Guy.
   
   And things come to a screeching halt. This is where I knocked my review down a star, because for the next hundred to two hundred pages, there is a lot of crawling around among the plants, and a lot of witty exchanges and lovey-dovey scenes between Mendoza and The Guy, and the occasional dropped hint that all of this will end in sorrow, but most of the bigger, interesting incidents that happen in this section seem to be filler, with very few serving to advance the plot. Baker's problem is that she sets up Mendoza as needing to study the plants for a full year in order for future scientists to accurately recreate them. That is a very long time frame to have to fill, and only rarely does Baker say anything like, "What with one thing and another, time passed."
   
   Towards the end, things pick up again. The ending left me with a lot of questions about the Company that I wanted answered. Hopefully, Baker will answer them in further books in the series.



4. The time travel and life extension premise is great, but she doesn't do much with it. The rest of the book is full of sarcastic and irritating characters who really are not likeable that reads like a television sitcom. Once I realized I wasn't going to get a satisfying sci-fi experience and lowered my expectations to rock bottom, it was readable in a tawdry way. I might try another one though as the second novel is purportedly much better.



5. Great concept, entertaining read, decent characters - but moved quiet slow. Almost more of a romance novel than a time-travel SF novel. The characters are almost *too* powerful with their gadgets and physical upgrades. I guess at the end of the day, I would say it was a flat and bit depressing read.

No comments about England, 2nd (Footprint - Travel Guides).

3 comments about Holkham.

1. I never received the book! How can I review it?
   Kindest regards
   Edoardo Greppi



2. An exceptionally well written account of the building, builders, and custodians of a magnificent piece of history. Would that this sense of stewardship were more widespread.
   
   Enjoy.



3. This is a very good book on a fascinating family and a grand estate. Holkham is without doubt one of the grandest of the non royal estates, it really is quite a stack of stones. The history makes the house all the more interesting. The images in this book are very good and the text is very well researched. A must have!

1 comments about The Great Boston Trivia & Fact Book.

1. I make up a lot of trivia questions for an elderly population and there were lots of facts in this book that I could use.

No comments about Massachusetts Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities, & Other Offbeat Stuff (Curiosities Series).

No comments about LITTLE BLACK BOOK OF BOSTON (Little Black Book) (Little Black Book).

No comments about Road Biking Northern New England: A Guide to the Greatest Bike Rides in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine (Road Biking Series).

No comments about Hiking the Pioneer Valley.

3 comments about Untamed Vermont: Extraordinary Wilderness Areas of the Green Mountain State.

1. I have been visiting Vermont since the late 60s -- and every arrival is a fresh falling in love with its landscapes. Blake Gardner's new book, "Untamed Vermont," is an extraordinarily powerful evocation of the place at its best. It roams around and finds both the grand vistas and the quiet, small miraculous patches. Gardner's compositions are stunning. One of my favorites is a photo of wild grapes in the Big Branch Wilderness that has the serene lushness of a painted still life. Another one in the same woods: a portrait of a warbler's ground nest, half-hidden by ferns and browned leaves. He captures a forest coated with rime ice in the Camel's Hump area -- a wildly intricate, hypnotic vision. Though it's obvious that Gardner has hiked and climbed to some pretty remote spots to make these photographs, he also shows places that anyone can visit. If you're addicted to Vermont -- or wild lands anywhere -- you'll want to own this book.



2. After gazing at the stunning vistas of nature transposed by Blake Gardner,I realized what a meditation these photos became for me. I was immersed in the depths of colors,shapes ,forms and the sensation of being there,standing next to this inspired artist,silent in the wonderment of the beauty and ancient stillnes that has been captured.
   Every photograph is a unique tribute to Vermont,our earth and the talent of one who sees.



3. I'm really impressed by Blake Gardner's new book Untamed Vermont for several reasons. First and foremost, Blake's photos of the Green Mountain State are outstanding. With his large format camera, he captures both grand scenic and intimate landscapes of Vermont's forests, mountains and lakes - everything from fiddleheads pushing themselves up through the oak leaves of a recently thawed ground to the sweeping vista of the Mountain State from atop Camel's Hump which adorns the cover of this book.

   The second reason I like this book is that the photos are accompanied by some excellent text. Senator Patrick Leahy himself, whom has been a US Senator from Vermont since 1974, writes the Foreword. He not only takes this opportunity to boast of Vermont's "inspiring colored leaves in autumn, the rivers and lakes that dot the countryside, and the countless hiking trails that weave up and around the Green Mountains." He also takes this opportunity to tell of the importance of protecting Vermont's wilderness areas. "It is important to preserve Vermont's Wilderness for our enjoyment and that of generations to come," he writes. "Vermont's first-rate quality of life is partly due to the accessibility of open lands, mountains, lakes, and rivers. Being surrounded by nature offers a time for solitude and reflection, recreation and quality moments with loved ones." I can't agree more.

   Most of the book's text is written by Tom Wessels. Tom is an ecologist, writer, and founding director of the Conservation Biology Program at Antioch New England Graduate School. Of course Tom's going to get points because Antioch is my wife's alma matter, but he also has written a beautiful narrative text which manages to add an additional layer of satisfaction to this great nature photography coffee-table book. The book is full of interesting facts about the Green Mountain State and it's ecology.