2 comments about Lighthouses of New England (East Coast).

1. This book is not only very informative, but full of wonderful photographs. It is an interesting read and lovely to look at.



2. When I received this book as a gift I expected that it would be another lovely book of New England photos to keep on the guest room bookshelf. I was pleasantly surprised to find myself caught up instead in the beautifully-written text. Who knew there were so many intriguing myths, legends, historical facts, and entertaining anecdotes about the people who built, populated, and even haunt New England lighthouses? This book turned out to be a terrific history lesson and an all-around great read.

2 comments about Vanished!: Explorers Forever Lost.

1. This short but diverting read tells the stories of 8 different disappearances while exploring. The prose is somewhat inelegant and relies on colloquial expressions and the author's imaginings of possible events as much as on plain facts and scholarly vocabulary. The book's subjects -- Ambrose Bierce, Percy Fawcett, Glen & Bessie Hyde, Everett Ruess, Amelia Earhart, Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Michael Rockefeller, and Johnny Waterman -- make for engaging reading. It's just a shame that it's all over so soon. Perhaps Balkan didn't feel it necessary to go too much in-depth about the circumstances of the disappearances and the details of their lives before their final journeys, but in that case I wish he had produced a lengthier tome by including some of the other missing explorers of the 19th and 20th centuries. All in all, it's a surface-deep read, but the author clearly did a fair bit of research and it will certainly be entertaining for those unfamiliar with these ill-fated individuals.



2. VANISHED! EXPLORERS FOREVER LOST by Evan Balkan is good. Really, REALLY good. Suspenseful, concise portraits of 9 adventurers, some famous and others more obscure, include:
   
   Amelia Earhart
   Antoine de Saint-Exupery
   Ambrose Bierce
   Glen & Bessie Hyde
   Percy Fawcett
   Everett Ruess
   Michael Rockefeller
   Johnny Waterman
   
   It is easy to either lionize or denigrate out-sized personalities, but Balkan is clear-eyed and compassionate. Adventurers are placed into context: how the person fit into their own era, and the impact of their disappearance on society and their families. A book revolving around tragedy might easily be dark and depressing. VANISHED! is not: Balkan leavens the subject matter with a wry turn of phrase at just the right time. He also discusses the meaning of adventure and risk, and its importance to even the most sedentary "armchair explorer".
   
   Exhaustive research seems to have gone into this book. As a climber of 20+ years and an extensive collector of mountaineering literature, I have long been familiar with Johnny Waterman's sad saga. Balkan delineated Waterman's familial background concisely, setting into context Johnny's epic climb of Mt. Hunter in a way the non-climber could understand and appreciate. Yet, VANISHED! included details new to me. Kudos to Balkan's well-done homework, utilizing essential citations such as Glenn Randall's little-known book, Breaking Point: Challenge on Alaska's Mt. Hunter, THE AMERICAN ALPINE JOURNAL, and personal communications.
   
   My only "complaint" is that VANISHED! was too short. The book is a good value, but Balkan is a gifted author and I would have enjoyed reading more. One is hoping that his next book will have "covers that are a long way apart."
   
   

1 comments about Sightseeking: Clues to the Landscape History of New England (Revisting New England).

1. In this interesting book, Lenney looks at six man-made features of the New England landscape (placenames, boundaries, townplans, roads, houses, and gravestones) and attempts to "map" them while tracing their trends. Some of his discoveries are most intriguing: the "Great-Big Line" that can be drawn east-west across central Maine, north of which placenames employ the term Big, while south of the line Great is the overwhelming choice is one example; another is the fact that many early boundary lines run slightly NW-SE rather than straight N-S because the magnetic pole changes over time and during the 1600s magnetic north was farther NW than it is today. The shear number of ways Lenney details variants as he "seeks" New England landscape characteristics is truly amazing: the number of townplans discussed, for instance, is over a dozen and the number of house types is even higher (over 17). The book is simply loaded with fascinating information that will make anyone's next excursion through New England more worthwhile than ever - even if it's just via a book of detailed maps while sitting in an easy chair. Lenney is an engaging writer as well. The only fault I can find with the book is its total lack of photographs. Other than that, it's worth "seeking" out.

No comments about The Magic Apple Tree: A Country Year.

No comments about Popular Culture: The Metropolitan Experience (Studies in Communication).

1 comments about In the Land of the Wild Onion: Travels Along Vermont's Winooski River.

1. In The Land of the Wild Onion by Charles Fish is one of those rare and special books that educate and entertain us at the same time. It is filled with the same kind of wit and wisdom we find when we read Thoreau, and this comparison of Fish to Thoreau is apt. Both writers are great scholars, but good friends to us. They never talk down to us, but always educate us. When we put down their books we feel incomparably better for having shared their company. It would be better to talk with them in person sitting on a rocky outcrop overlooking Walden Pond or the Winooski River, but reading their books is an experience that can be repeated again and again, with notes taken, and thoughts tucked away for reflective observation.
   
   In The Land of the Wild Onion we meet trappers and hunters, fishers and farmers, friends and neighbors - all Vermonters and all with a story to tell. Fish brings them to life so truly and lovingly that we come to know and like them almost as much as he does. His book is not a novel - far from it - but Fish writes so well that we forget we are reading a history of Vermont's Winooski River and get lost in the story of some of the people he meets in his adventure canoeing and portaging down the river from its source to Lake Champlain. It is a leisurely journey with plenty of time to discuss the origins of the river, land, animals, and people.
   
   A Vermonter reading this book will respond with pride because Fish loves his state and shows why it is such a special place. The rest of us will want to head to Vermont for a long visit, perhaps in the fall when the trees and mountains that fill the state are in their autumn glory. Then, as Fish suggests, we can leave our troubles behind and take a deep breath as we attend to the beauty revealed in nature that is missing from so much of our busy lives. Fish tells us: "In its own meandering way, my book has been an attempt to attend." More than this, "We are the caretakers of the planet; we must attend. It is our fate."
   
   In the Land of the Wild Onion is a book once read not soon forgotten. Highly recommended.

No comments about Frommer's Great Outdoor Guide To Southern New England.

1 comments about The Red Lion Inn Cookbook: Classic Recipes and New Favorites from the Most Famous of New England's Inns.

1. The Long Island editor for 'Zagat Survey", Suzi Forbes Chase is also the author of a great many books and articles on cuisine and travel. Her newest effort is "The Red Lion Inn Cookbook", a superbly compiled and deftly presented collection (now in a newly expanded third edition) of more than 180 savory recipes derived from the menus of the Red Lion inn, for more than 200 years one of New England's most historic and popular dining establishments. The recipes comprising this impressive collection include traditional classics as well as recipes that have been revised and updated. The result is a compendium of dishes that are thoroughly 'kitchen cook friendly'. Beginning with a history of the Red Lion inn in particular, and New England cooking in general, the recipes include appetizers and hors d'oeuvres, soups, salads and salad dressings, breads and muffins, meat and game, seafood and poultry, vegetables, rice and potatoes, puddings, pastries and desserts, cookies and candies, Red Lion Inn holiday recipes, Red Lion Inn luncheon recipes, Red Lion Inn breakfast recipes, and concludes with recipes for cocktails and drinks. "The Red Lion Inn Cookbook" is a confidently recommended addition to personal, professional, and community library regional cookbook collections.

2 comments about Boston on Fire: A History of Fires And Firefighting in Boston.

1. I loved this book. This is a carefully crafted and well researched collection of tales about fires out of control and what are very scary risks, even up to the present day.

   It starts from times when there were no machines to fight fires, dirt roads downtown, little or no water available, and nobody on the payroll. Stories cover fires in and around Boston that wiped out entire neighborhoods and changed hundreds of lives. The story of the famous Cocoanut Grove fire of late 1942 is right from the front line and for me, brought the recent Station Nightclub fire to mind.

   As a bridge to further study, it has detailed references to source material drawn upon, but I have to think that none of it can be more captivating than this compendium.....




2. A person would not expect to find a history of fire fighting in Boston to be a difficult book to put down. I bought this volume mostly because I had enjoyed the author's earlier story of the Cocoanut Grove Fire and I'm delighted I did. I had no idea of all the inovations in fire fighting that were first invented or applied in Boston. I happened to start reading the book at the back when I was thumbing through it and came across a description of the fire at the Vendome Hotel on Commonwealth Avenue. I'd witnessed that fire while passing by on my way to work. I then read the book from that point to the end before starting to re-read it from the beginning. It was amazingly accurate because I'd been alive and read about many of those recent fires at the time. The great fires from the past were even more fascinating.The author did a wonderful job of making what could have been boring, boring, boring, into a history that was riviting, riviting, riviting. It's a great read even for non-sparks and fire fighters.

No comments about New England Backroads.