No comments about Worcester, 1880-1920 (MA) (Images of America).

No comments about Dreams of Natural Places: A New England Schooner Odyssey.

5 comments about In a Dark House (Crombie, Deborah).

1. I thought that the two books previous to this in the Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James series were slight disappointments. Kincaid seemed relegated to a side character with Gemma taking the lead. IN A DARK HOUSE is an excellent mystery that brings the two back to equal ground and re-establishes them as one of the best partnerships in mystery fiction.



2. Deborah Crombie continues to deliver a series worth reading and rereading...this entry is no exception. Balancing jurisdictional disputes, personal life distractions, and a strong sense of historical detail, In a Dark House is another superb example of Crombie's sensitive portrayal of character, place and pitch-perfect plot. If you haven't read her work yet, get them all and be prepared to enter a world you won't want to leave.



3. Deborah Crombie's James & Kincaid series just gets better and better. Here the setting is Southwark, not a usual venue for London-loving writers. As always, Crombie provides a physical map with her text, although her descriptions of place are so excellent that it's ironically unnecessary. The aged warehouses oozing toward oblivion in the Thames, the aggressive marks of gentrification (for an even better take on this hot topic, see _Kissed a Sad Goodbye_) mingle with the tang of traditional cheeses from the open market by the cathedral and the wacky/wonky lives of the fringe business people who flourish in spaces between the run-down and the rave restaurant review.
   
   Crombie's characters are equally vivid, not only the series stars, but also the agoraphobic in her doll's house and the oddly honest self-made politician. The characters are given dead-on details that call them to mind for the reader, even after an absence of many chapters. Yet Crombie never falls into the grey-page plague of prose. She uses her omniscient narrator's voice and swaths of unforced dialogue to convey both news and nuance. Her skill at plotting really shines here, as she moves among three sets of self-absorbed characters and the police, never once making the reader feel that "now for something completely different" sense of dislocation.
   
   This is a mystery worthy of a re-read - first class!



4. 'In a Dark House' is my first foray into the world of Duncan Kincaid/Gemma James and, mostly likely, it will be my last ... which is strange because the book has all the hallmarks of a good detective/mystery series. The author has obviously done her research on the story's setting (Southwark section of London) and criminal investigation procedures. And the story, an interwoven affair involving arson and murder, has surprising yet plausible plot twists. But why is "In a Dark House" so forgettable?
   
   Well it strikes me that the characterizations, especially of our investigative duo of Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James, are just a bit too manufactured. It felt something out of EastEnders (a UK soap opera) rather than anything realistic. I also felt the author, who is obviously a talented writer, played too safe in her narrative. I wanted high drama, conflict, and the tangible feeling of suspense ... and I didn't find any of it.
   
   
   Bottom line: a competent mystery perfect for the beach but certainly the sort of book you won't want to keep on your bookshelf afterwards.



5. We came into this series from the back end. Then purchase preceding works to catch up on the story line as the characters were compelling enough to warrant further reading. Deborah Crombie's Inspector's Kincard and James is such a pair. Their personal lives intermingle with their cases. As readers, we root for each installment. Her stories are keepers as we weed our shelves to make room for new favorites.
   With "In a Dark House," Ms. Crombie apply demonstrates her ability to rank with Martha Grimes in creating the stark and brutal side of human relations. Knowing how the personal issues evolve, we concentrated on the deftly plotted case and the steps taken to reconstruct the crime from almost non-existent clues in this great police procedural.
   Nash Black, author of "Qualifying Laps" and "Sins of the Fathers."

3 comments about SEVEN FOR A SECRET.

1. Thirteen year old Frederica (called so she tells us because there were many in her family line but she prefers to be called Fred) lives in what she calls "genteel poverty" with her mother and two maids. All questions about her Father are meet with a stone face and very little information from her Mother....the first secret surrounding Fred.

   Soon Fred's Mother becomes so ill she has to be sent to a nursing home and Fred is sent to live with her Mothers sister in Wiltshire. Fred quickly makes friends with two of her new classmates. Rachel, quiet and reserved and Tamarisk, just the opposite! Other new acquaintances include Tamarick's much older widowed brother, who, much to Freds dismay finds her, at 13, plain. Fred dislikes him ....though she can not seem to stop thinking about the dark man. Also to be found here is Lucy Lane and her unbalanced (why she is this way is yet another secret) sister Flora. This is where Fred becomes reaquainted with the old child's rhyme One for sorrow Two for Joy Three for a girl Four for a boy Five for silver Six for gold and seven for a secret never to be told.

   As the three girls grow to womanhood Fred finds there are many secrets surrounding their lives. When the truths are finally revealed will Fred be able to move past them and find happiness or will she be forever reminded haunted by them?

   Many people complain that Victoria Holt's books are too alike. I think this is what keeps bringing me back. You can always count on a brave heroine, egnimatic love interests and of course a gripping story. "Seven For A Secret" is no exception. I found it a very interesting book. At just under 300 pages it is a quick and consuming read! If you have never read Holt it is a great book to start with... if you are a fan and somehow missed this book what are you waiting for?




2. Don't believe what's written in the editorial review from Publishers Weekly. Read the book and find out for yourself how good it is. As one would expect from Victoria Holt this book is yet another winner. All of her books are easy to read, and she spins an interesting yarn. I agree that her stories tend somewhat to follow a pattern but as the other reviewer has already pointed out, this is what brings readers back to her time and time again.
   This book is as good as any of her other titles to start on if you haven't previously tried this author. You may also be interested to know that Victoria Holt wrote over 200 books (under several different pseudonyms). All I want to say to Publishers Weekly is - if the books are as bad as they say this one is why would a publisher have printed so many of her titles, and why would the author remain (to this day) so well-beloved to many readers all over the world. At the time of this review several of this author's books under the pseudonym of Jean Plaidy have just been reprinted. The Jean Plaidy titles are magnificent (if you like historical fiction) & they too are very easy to read.



3. It has been years since I last read a Victoria Holt novel--and then that opinion was that of any teenage girl desperate for a little darkly romantic fluff. And hey, it still is. That's how Ms. Holt intended it to be and that is why her large assortment of novels are so popular.And that's that. If you want suspense, intrigue, and romance minus all the sex and plus some interesting characters, this is fun."Seven for a Secret" holds all the great stuff: orphans who grow up together despite romantic triangles, sexy brooding heroes, and lots of murder.I liked the romance, but it's the mystery that intrigued me. And I guess I'm a sucker for all these feminist girls stuck in a Victorian world.Suspenseful fluffy goodness at its best.

No comments about Black Yankees: The Development of an Afro-American Subculture in Eighteenth-Century New England.

No comments about The Sacco and Vanzetti Case: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture).

2 comments about A Polite and Commercial People: England 1727-1783 (New Oxford History of England).

1. First, a few words to place my remarks in context. I'm not a historian (I'm an economist), but I've long enjoyed reading general histories. Indeed, I've read the entire 15-volume Oxford History of England, a series now being replaced by the New Oxford History of which, I believe, "A Polite and Commercial People" is the first volume.

   Not being a specialist, I'm in no position to comment on whether or not Langford's book is representative of recent thought on the period. He'll sometimes set out a position with which he disagrees, and then explain his reasons for coming to a different conclusion. In these instances his may or may not be a minority view, but at least he has set out the opposing position with what seems like clarity and fairness. I'm not sure I'd want him to do much more in what is, after all, a book for the general reader.

   The "general reader" of old was, of course, notoriously well-read, and at times Langford takes advantage of this assumption. I don't actually have the book handy just now and so can't check chapter and verse, but I think it helps if, for example, you've already heard of Maria Teresa. The author doesn't have time to explain, and a few times I found myself having to make an educated guess but, in 725 pages, this happened quite rarely (a tribute to the author's organisational skill, not to my own reading).

   Traditional political history takes up only three chapters which Langford spreads throughout the book covering, respectively, from the accession of George II to the fall of Walpole, to the end of the Seven Years War, and to end of the American War of Independence. I've no idea how innovative or otherwise Langford was in choosing categories for his other chapters, but he manages to make concepts such as "politeness" interesting and coherent enough to serve as their themes. It strikes me that, when political history first began to fall out of favour, it was replaced by rather dull stuff that focussed excessively on, say, education or the poor law. Yes, these topics are dealt with thoroughly in Langford's book but, somehow, he manages to organise and interpret his material in such a way that it has all the narrative virtues we old-fashioned "general readers" used to like in those political histories. (I know that must sound naive to a historian, but these reviews are meant to be helpful to others who might share my failings. Another naive confession: I can't resist drawing a great many parallels between the period Langford describes and, on the other hand, our own times.)

   Throughout, the author's style is elegant, varied and energetic without ever seeming affected in the slightest. It is direct, but capable of considerable nuance. I'm a surprisingly slow reader for a person who reads so much, but this really was [cliche alert] a page-turner [/cliche].

   Now that I've finished it, I still might not be able to pass a pop quiz on the Gordon Riots, say, or the War of Jenkins Ear. Still, I've been entertained and--if I can put it like this--enlightened by this first volume in the new Oxford series. Bring on fourteen more!




2. In 1934, Oxford University Press published the first volume in the "Oxford History of England" series. As subsequent volumes came out over the next 31 years, they came to serve as indispensable surveys of English history, the natural starting point for anyone interested in England's past and a powerful force influencing our understanding of it. Yet as the state of historical scholarship evolved, gradually the volumes became outdated in terms of their presentation and interpretation of the past. In response, Oxford launched a "New Oxford History of England" series, of which Paul Langford's book was the inaugural title.
   
   In it Langford presents a wide-ranging history of England from the accession of George II to the loss of the American colonies. He presents the era as a chaotic one, with the country still coping with the consequences of the Glorious Revolution, which let a deep impression upon politics and society. Though the aristocracy remained the dominant group in many respects, the author sees the middle class increasingly coming to play a vital role in English life as the century progressed. In an age of commercial prosperity, their"polite" values increasingly contested with those of the upper class, setting the stage for their gradual assertion as the dominant segment of society in the century that followed.
   
   Langford's book is an outstanding survey of Hanoverian England, one that draws upon an impressive range of scholarship. Though his main focus is on the politics and society of the period, very little escapes his coverage, as economics, art, and literature also are addressed within its pages. Though he presumes that his readers possess some prior knowledge of his subject (the mini biographies of people offered in footnotes in the old series are absent here), his analysis and arguments are clear and forcefully made. The understanding he provides of the era makes his book a critical resource on the subject, and a worthy successor volume to those from the venerable old series.

No comments about Easy Reader Biographies: Squanto: A Friend to the Pilgrims (Easy Reader Biographies).

5 comments about Dynasty's End: Bill Russell and the1968-69 World Champion Boston Celtics (Sportstown Series).

1. As a native Bostonian, I can say that a book on the Celtics' most enduring triumph is more than welcome. Anyone who grew up in Boston in the 1950's and 1960's knew that the Celtics were just about at the end of their championship run. After Philadelphia ran the Celtics out of the 1967 playoffs in five games, it was clear that a power shift of major proportions had taken place between the two teams, with Boston on the "down" elevator. The 1968 title was, at the time,their most improbable, their defeat of the 76ers after trailing in the East Finals 3-1 an unprecedented achievement. Their 1969 title dwarfed the noble 1968 entry, and Thomas Whalen has submitted a welcome and long-overdue work on the subject. As an African-American, having attended regular-season and playoff games at the Boston Garden, I can say that Mr. Whalen, if anything, muted the issue of race in Boston. The Garden could be quite an unhospitable place for people of color, not only for spectators, but for visiting and Celtic players as well. Boston's entire history of race relations was prologue for the city's Ragnarok in the 1970's when the buses rolled into the "wrong" neighborhoods. Boston was a tense place after Martin Luther King's assassination, an event which figured largely in the early stages of the Celtics-76ers' playoff series between April 5-19, 1968. The 1968-69 Celtics seemed worn out, a Frank Sinatra opening the show for someone else. Mr. Whalen does a commendable job of taking the reader through the successive stages of the playoffs. I wish, though, that he had devoted more space to the Boston-New York Eastern Conference Final, especially the nerve-wracking sixth game. The Celtics' reward was to be an historic pairing with the "greatest team ever assembled": the mighty Los Angeles Lakers with Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, and Jerry West. How could L.A. lose? An entire chapter devoted to the great seventh game would have been the cherry topping on the sundae. The flaws in the book may be relatively few, but they are, unfortunately, glaring. On page 114, the author writes that the pass stolen by John Havlicek which elevated him to icon status on April 15, 1965 "was intended for [Wilt] Chamberlain." That's a major error of fact. The Celtics were leading the Philadelphia 76ers 110-109 with just four seconds showing on the clock. Hal Greer's pass was intended for Chet Walker. Chamberlain was posted along the baseline, guarded by Bill Russell. Philly had basically four options on the play, including a return pass from Walker to Chamberlain for an easy, series-clinching dunk. Mr. Whalen also writes that the Celtics' late-season 108-73 humiliation to the Lakers occurred at the L.A. Forum; wrong: it was at Boston Garden, where the 14,171 who showed up jeered the Green mercilessly. The mis-spellings of names [Bob Pettit and Dave Gavitt are two] should never occur in a major work; it's the kind of carelessness which forces the casual [or dedicated] reader to wonder if the author is as conversant with his subject as the book's jacket implies. Another drawback is the overwhelming use of footnotes. They are the scholar's tool, but forcing the reader to keep two places in the book, constantly jumping from the text to the source and back again, severely hampers one's reading enjoyment. After more than 100 pages, I simply gave it up and stuck to the text. I also found the writing derivative, lapsing into the "sportspeak" of the 1950's and 1960's magazines, like Sport and Sports Illustrated. It is probably unfair to compare Mr. Whalen, an academic, with David Halberstam, a professional historian, who, in my opinion, has written the two-finest books on pro basketball: "The Breaks of the Game," and "Playing For Keeps." In the latter, Mr. Halberstam crafted a splendid account of the Chicago Bulls' final NBA title without the benefit of a promised interview with Michael Jordan. Mr. Whelan interviewed only one-third of the 12-man Celtic roster; why not the others, or, at the very least Russell, Sam Jones, and Havlicek, plus Red Auerbach? For those who remember that grand spring of 1969, however, the book is more than a worthwhile read, and for the millions of Celtic "fans" who weren't aware of the team before Larry Bird hit town in the fall of 1979, this book can serve as a gazetteer about the NBA's whistle-stops in its early manifestation; an on-point but far-too-brief analysis of an unhappy city and its tortured history of race relations; and a documentary about American sport's most majestic team as it stared down its Gotterdammerung in an epic struggle in a seventh game far, far from the Boston Garden, on May 5, 1969.



2. In an era when the NBA is about individuals (Kobe, Shaq), reading a book about a true team is very refreshing. To a man, the players on the 1968-69 Boston Celtics talk about defense, rebounding, and meshing their abilities with those of their teammates. Not one of them is concerned about how many points he scored on a given night, only about whether the team won. It's also very interesting to read about an



3. For those of us who were lucky enough to be around New England in the 1960's the incredible championship run of the Boston Celtics was a wonder to behold. Imagine winning 11 World Championships in 13 years! I really don't think many of us truly understood the magnitude of what was being accomplished. And needless to say, it's a pretty safe bet that there will never be anything like it again in professional sports.
   "Dynasty's End" recalls the incredible accomplishments of Bill Russell, Sam Jones, John Havlicek and the rest of the cast that completely dominated the sport for more than a decade. While the focus is ultimately on the Celtics improbable 1968-69 championship season author Thomas Whelan has done a nice job of filling us in on the history of this storied franchise. It is really quite stunning when you realize that for many years the Celtics were winning championship after championship on a shoestring budget and were rarely able to sell out the building. You begin to understand just how smart Red Auerbach really was. Whelan also recalls great fondness longtime Celtics radio announcer Johnny Most. He truly was one of a kind and really was an intregal part of the Boston Celtics story.
   While Whalen gives us the lowdown on all of the significant Celtics players of the period he hones in on Hall of Famer Bill Russell. Here was a multi-talented player with an extremely complex personality who toward the end of his storied career would have the distinction of becoming player-coach of the Celts. Some of the stories and anecdotes about Russell are absolutely priceless. Whalen also profiles many of the Celtics key adversaries of the day including Elgin Baylor, Bill Bradley, Billy Cunningham and of course Bill Russell's arch-rival Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain. Suffice to say that Russell had his way with the 7'1" Chamberlain more often than not.
   "Dynasty's End" is a well written book destined to be enjoyed by history buffs and basketball fans alike. It is a snapshot of a different era in the country as a whole and professional sports in particular. A worthwhile read!



4. I feel the book's strength is that you receive in-depth portraits of many of the star's who played for the Boston Celtics in addition to their announcer Johnny Most. In addition we are also provided with descriptions of Wilt Chamberlain and other NBA stars during this time period. Chamberlain, by the way, acquired his nickname "The Big Dipper" by having to often duck when entering through a doorway. However, the title suggests a concentration on the 1968-1969 season, and only the chapters on the playoffs at the end of the book provide us with this information. I enjoyed the book, but I found much of the same information in Bob Cousy's book and Red Auerbach's recent book. In addition, former St. Louis Hawks' superstar, Bob Pettit, the first man to score 20,000 points, had his name spelled incorrectly both times it appeared in the book and also in the index. If you enjoy the Celtics I'm quite sure you will enjoy the book, but I found it to be repetitious in what I found in other books. It is, indeed, unfortunate that this great Celtics team often played before a half empty Boston Garden before fans who really didn't appreciate what they had representing their city.



5. THIS IS ABOUT THE FINAL YEAR OF THE GREAT DYNASTY OF THE BOSTON CELTICS FROM 1950'S THRU THE 1960'S. ALONG THE WAY THE AUTHOR TELLS A LITTLE ABOUT EACH PLAYER INCLUDING GM RED AUERBACH.ONE OF THE HIGHLIGHTS DISCUSSED ARE THE RACISM GOING AROUND NOT ONLY IN BOSTON BUT IN JUST ABOUT EVERY MAJOR CITY IN THE USA. I ALSO FOUND THE COVERAGE CONCERNING RUSSELL VS WILT VERY WELL WRITTEN AND TO ME THE MOST INTERESTING PART OF THIS VERY GOOD BOOK. IT CENTERS MOSTLY AROUND BILL RUSSELL, AS WE FOUND OUT THAT HE IS INDEED VERY HUMAN ALONG WITH BEING THE ULTIMATE TEAM PLAYER. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS FOR ALL BASKETBALL AND ESPECIALLY CELTIC FANS. WELL WORTH READING.

1 comments about Big Screen Boston: From Mystery Street to The Departed and Beyond.

1. Former Herald and Improper Bostonian film critic and native Bostonian Paul Sherman has mined his multi-decade career to put together a comprehensive look at just how Boston has figured in the movies. Written in a breezy, conversational tone, the book is of note for both its Hollywood insights and historical perspective as well as being a heck of an entertaining read.
   
   The book's intro discusses Hollywood's love/hate relationship with Boston (including several amusing anecdotes) and just what the author is calling a 'Boston movie' (it must be at least partially shot here, which, for example "Legally Blonde" was not). Boston's contribution to the independent scene is particularly interesting - I hadn't realized we had our own movement, the 'Beanstreets' movies of the 1970's.
   
   Although there was some Massachusetts location shooting done earlier (as far back as 1922!), Sherman fixes 1950's "Mystery Street" as the first Boston shot film. The book's main section features eighty alphabetical listings of films that primarily take place in the state. Paul gives brief synopses and commentary on the film's value as well as stories about the shoot. He follows each with a listing of shooting locations, whether the Boston accents cut the 'muhstaad' or not and whether the film has true local color (Paul particularly loathes films that refer to Boston Common as 'the Commons' - these do not rate, but a references to Kelly's does.) Where applicable, Sherman also notes local celebrity and 'before-they-were-stars' appearances. "Brief Visits, Day Trips & the Rest" list a whole bunch more films in brief but there are many cool nuggets to be mined there as well. And just to make sure you've been paying attention, the book closes with a Boston movie quiz.
   
   From troublesome teamsters to local comedians who seem to pop up in an awful lot of movies, "Big Screen Boston" has plenty of color of its own and is sure to educate even the most Boston savvy filmgoer. The author's pick for the best Boston movie, "The Friends of Eddie Coyle," has never been available on home video or DVD. Here's hoping "Big Screen Boston" has a part in changing that.