2 comments about Unwelcome Americans: Living on the Margin in Early New England (Early American Studies).

1. This book is really informative, it presents cases from wonderful unpublished and untapped sources, like the Providence Council Papers, different town clerks' papers, etc.

   For genealogy in Rhode Island, MASS and CT, this is one great book to have. The author presented all the challenges on these families very well. It really is well done, wish she'd come out with another one. The service getting this book was fast.




2. Dr. Herndon has produced a magnificent collection of narratives that have been derived from a variety of primary source documents. Her book is a must for any serious student of colonial history, and would be quite useful for someone doing genealogical research.

   The author has done a commendable job of balancing research and art; unlike many books from this genre, the book is both academically challenging and eminently readable.

   Dr. Herndon has given life to voices who would have otherwise remained silent for eternity. The individuals and families in the narratives had a story to tell, and the author has provided a magnificent vehicle for these compelling micro-histories.

1 comments about The Twisted Sword: A Poldark Novel.

1. The eleventh Poldark novel takes place entirely within the tumultuous year of 1815, and while not all of it concerns war, the conflict on the continent is certainly central to the telling of the tale in this penultimate book in the series. While the apparent surrender of Bonaparte is celebrated across Europe, the French tyrant plots to break his word and return from exile on the island of Elba. Unaware of the imminent re-appearance of this foe, the Poldarks, like their countrymen, mark the coming of peace with parties and gladness of heart. Geoffrey Charles reflects on his years in the army and speaks of his pride in having seen the war through to its conclusion. Even Jeremy, stationed across in the Low Countries, returns home to Cornwall and at last is married to his great love, Cuby Trevanion. Ross and Demelza are overjoyed for their son and wish him and his bride the deepest of happiness. All seems too well, and it does not last, of course. As England rejoices, Bonaparte sneaks back into France and reignites his adopted nation in vicious anti-British militancy. At the head of an army bent on revenge, he marches north, and now the English scramble to again field a force to meet him. The newlywed Jeremy abruptly leaves a shocked Cuby behind, and is accompanied to the front lines by his veteran cousin Geoffrey Charles, as they begin a hasty journey toward destiny at a Belgian town called Waterloo.

3 comments about My Neck of the Woods.

1. Having read many of her books about her life in rural Maine, I was disappointed with this one. It is written in the same simple style which is enjoyable to read but the content was not as good. Most of this book is about the various people who lived near the author. Discussions on their personality quirks and the mundain details of their lives are not really all that interesting. The stories are only intersting to those who know these people. I enjoy reading books like this to learn what life is like for others is situations different from mine. I learned nothing new with this one. I am glad I did not read this book first or I never would have read her others.



2. Louise Dickinson Rich was one of a kind and this is one of her best. This is one of those books that makes you a part of her fascinating and down to earth world.



3. After two wonderful books (1942 & 1946) largely about herself and her relationship with the northwoods of Maine, Louise Rich was wise to shift her focus to the strong character, ethics and coping skills of her remote neighbors. My Neck of the Woods is a real treasure.

5 comments about More and More.

1. In the past, I have read a number of Ms. Cameron's contemporary novels and enjoyed them. Preferring historicals, I picked up More and More, but I just could not get into the plot. There were many times I was so frustrated with the writing style that I was tempted to not finish the book at all. I persevered, hoping it would get better, and it didn't. There was very little cohesion between paragraphs, let alone chapters. I found myself jumping from place to place, trying to figure out what happened or was currently happening. The relationship between Finch and Ross also confused me. Hot, cold, professional, lovers and all within a few days. True, they had known each other for a few months, but only in passing. Their relationship only grew in the few days which the story takes place. Virtual strangers who partake in some pretty hot, explicit sexual preludes, but when the time comes to make love, he carries her off to his room....and awaken the next morning. From what preceded this scene, I was vastly disappointed.

   One redeeming feature to the story is the structure of the characters themselves. Finch and Ross are fairly well developed and we get to know each one, their motivations and indecisiveness. Finch is refreshingly open about herself and her feelings, though I can't help to feel that she is a late 20th century woman plunked into the early nineteenth century. Her behavior is not well suited for the setting of the story. Although we learn what makes Ross "tick", I never feel like I get to know him. Whereas in most books I feel like I know the lead characters, am somehow become their friends, that feeling of familiarity is lacking. The secondary characters, those at number 7, number 8, and Hayden add spice to the story and compliment it well.

   I thought our narrator of the story quite an interesting twist, but once again, disjointed and uncomfortably written. You never quite knew what was going on until the end. Who was this disembodied voice? The author, a character, and how did they know what was going to happen? Though a fascinating literary device, I did not like its execution. All in all I do not recommend this book, stick to some of Ms. Cameron's other novels.




2. At 29, Finch More is considered "on the shelf" in Regency England. She is a spinster whose time for love has come and gone. She has made a life for herself as the co-owner of a shipping firm with her brother, and has rooms in a former glorious mansion located at 7 at Mayfield Square and finding simple pleasure helping him run an import business. As the book opens, however, Finch finds herself in trouble, accosted by a strange man issuing oblique warnings. From the moment Ross forces her to tell him about the encounter, their fate is sealed. Ross's work may have instigated the danger, but Finch and her brother are right in the thick of it, and Ross and Finch will have to work together if they want to keep Finch's brother, and themselves, alive.

   Ross, Viscount Kilrood, a mysterious and handsome troubleshooter who takes on commissions for foreign Sultans and the like. He's sworn his allegiance to a cause that allows no room for family or love, no matter how interesting he finds his neighbor's sister. He becomes a customer Finch has no idea how her simple spinster's life will change. Suddenly, mystery, intrigue and a passionate romance are on the horizon.

   More and More is a quirky, passionate historical romance which Cameron fans should adore. Ross and Finch are sharp, intelligent and funny. The dialogue is crisp and witty, and the passion is fiery. The addition of a meddlesome ghost is quite funny, as are some of the predicaments in which Fitch finds herself. A charming and funny romance which fans should love.




3. I thought that this book was pretty good. It had a developed plot and I could easily tell what was going on. The characters also had a visible personality, it's easy to fall for them. I found myself reading the book a couple of times. True, the love scenes are all alike, but there is more to the book than that. I enjoyed the conversations Finch had with her friends at Mayfair 7. They were always worried about Ross taking advantage of her, which she always denied.

   This is the best Stella Cameron book I've read so far. I recommend the other books in the Mayfair series.




4. I have loved all of Ms. Cameron's Mayfair Square books and highly recommend the series as a whole, but I had to work to finish this one. In her other stories she creates passion that is also romantic, but this time the sex scenes ( I cannot call them love scenes, as that emotion is notably absent) felt forced on the reader, and the characters hardly more than lustful strangers. And after wading through all the foreplay, she glosses right over the true consumation. Badly done, Stella!



5. Wow - this book was so boring, the heroine so childish and the hero, well, what was he doing with her?? I could not finish this book!! I tried so hard but this whole mess of a book, outside of some of the renters, was bland and silly. Don't waste your time with this wreck. Perhaps the book would have gotten better but really, who cared anyway? If the h/h do not grab your attention early on, than it does not matter if one finishes or not.

No comments about Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras (Images of America: Massachusetts).

1 comments about Nature Walks In Southern Vermont: Nature-rich, Easy-to-Moderate Walks in the Green Mountain State.

1. Don't let my "3-star" rating fool you, this is an excellent book. But don't bother if you plan to hike the Deerfield Valley - there is really only two (maybe three) routes in what is known as southern Vermont's hikers' paradise.
   But if you plan on hiking around the Connecticut River Valley, this guide may be just the thing for you. It includes detailed information on flora, fauna, and even some historical and archeological information. Well worth the price, no matter where you plan to hike.

5 comments about The Love of Stones: A Novel.

1. I have to admit I did not finish this book. I slugged through the first three-quarters over about three weeks then skipped ahead to the last page, decided it wasn't worth the effort and put it away. I'm sorry, but I wouldn't call this book "riveting" or "thrilling" (maybe I just gave up too soon). Like other reviewers I didn't find Katharine particularly likeable though that didn't bother me much. She just wasn't all that interesting. The brothers, Daniel and Salman, were only a little more interesting. Actually the most interesting "characters" in the book were the stones themselves. Two stars for the stones.



2. The Love of Stones is a real-live treasure hunt, the story of a 25-year-old woman searching for The Three Brethren, a long-lost brooch of jewels. It's a fascinating read, terse and intense, going from one century to another, following the stones through the ages and following Katharine Sterne, the main character, in her search.
   
   Katharine is strange, tense, obsessed, uncaring. We never see her fully, but then, we don't really have to. It doesn't matter what she looks like. We never really learn why she is so obsessed to find and possess this jewel, but I think I understand. She is driven by the same thing that makes someone climb mountains, and another person paint.
   
   There are unanswered questions - where does she get the money to finance her five-year search? How did she learn of the jewel in the first place? Who were the people following her? Then, what happened after the narration stopped? Did she go see her sister & niece? Did she find Hikari? Was she content?
   
   The work feels incredibly... authentic, real. As if this really did happen, as if there really is a jewel called The Three Brethren that many people are searching for. Tobias Hill obviously did a great deal of research for this. He clearly lived in the places he wrote of - Turkey, Japan, England - or seriously immersed himself in literature and academic information from the area. And his knowledge and description of jewels and the jewel trade - in depth, believable.
   
   I wish the author had included a timeline. It got VERY confusing as to what happened when, and where Katharine was, and who had the jewel at what time. It would have been a nice reference to review as I wound my way through the story.
   
   The writing - amazing. Terse, descriptive. I could smell, see and feel the places described in the book. The author also did a great job of showing, not telling - for instance, we know that the brother, Salman Levy, is addicted to his opium, but never in the book does it actually say that. When Katharine was in danger, my heart rate increased.
   
   This book is very different than typical literature. Highly recommended.



3. I couldn't finish it! Too slow and the main character was dull, depressing and rude. The stryline was alittle confusing as chapters jumped back and forth between times and characters. I loved the premise of the story, but would have enjoyed it from a more historical view rather than from the present day -just my own personal preference.



4. The minute you think of ancient stones, history and chase...you (watching too much TV as a youngen) expect ...well some lust, a lascivious love story interplaying all these chases.
   
   Nope- nothing. Maybe that's why Katherine came across as a bitter middle-aged woman.



5. Previous reviewers have commented on Hill's intelligent writing and use of language. While I did agree that he was quite crafty in his word usage, I found it tedious for a plot that was altogether disappointing. Plus, our main character Katherine, on the quest to find the legendary Three Brethren, is shallow and unsympathetic. Her wayward search seems unfounded and unnecessarily tedious. The only part I remotely enjoyed was her stay with the reclusive German pearl collector, whose quirks were funny and somewhat charming in their own ways. The parallel story about the Iraqi brothers was decent, but distanced. It was written in third person (Katharine narrates in first person during her plot) but I still felt too much distance to the brothers to have any deep feelings toward them. Other peripheral characters that came and went were seemed irrelevant and out of place.
   
   The history of the Three Brethren itself is fascinating, but the plot involving Katherine's search was pretty excruciating and I was so thrilled when I finally finished. I was hoping for more history, but what I got was Katherine's tiresome obsession. Not to mention a pretty anticlimactic and unsatisfactory ending.

2 comments about New Year in Cuba: Mary Gardner Lowell's Travel Diary, 1831-1832 (New England Diary Series).

1. I first read this journal in its original format: a handwritten, early-19th-century document now kept in the archives at the Massachusetts Historical Society. I loved it on the first reading--Lowell is an articulate, insightful writer who recorded this journey for her friends and family back home in Boston. (Just as we take snapshots of a trip, 19th-century travelers wrote journals.) Now we can all read it without making a trip to the research library in Boston.

   A well-educated, well-read woman, Lowell drew on a wealth of knowledge and considerable skill as a writer, but she was also somewhat more irreverent than she should have been, according to the conventions of the time. She took note of the local gossip, the scandalous histories of some of her hosts, and the harsh treatment of slaves on the sugar plantations. It makes for an engrossing read.

   Professor Robert's introduction provides the historical context for the journal, covering the Boston background as well as the Cuban information.




2. Ably edited for a contemporary readership by Karen Robert, New Year In Cuba: Mary Gardner Lowell's Travel Diary, 1831-1832 recounts the journey of a twenty-nine year old wife, her young son, and her husband on a journey to the island nation of Cuba. Mary Gardner Lowell's astute observations are peppered with gossip, humor, criticism, scandal, and stories of arrogance and danger. New Year In Cuba is highly recommended as being an engaging and vivid transport through time and space in a yesteryear travelogue adventure.

1 comments about Connecticut Off the Beaten Path, 6th (Off the Beaten Path Series).

1. I bought this for my parents as they had recently moved from California to Conn. They love this book as it has allowed them to find some great bedroom communities nearby.
   A true review would be from someone who knows the area, but for outsiders this was a great purchase.

No comments about Boston: City on a Hill: An Illustrated History.