3 comments about Plymouth Colony: Its History and People.

1. In doing research on my own ancestor who was a passanger on the Mayflower and one of the original Pilgrims, I have used over 50 books. This one is by far the best. Very readable, this book provides an excellent narative of many of the events of the first 70 years at Plymouth, and detailed descriptions of many of the Pilgrims. For anyone interested in this era, this book is a must.



2. There are hundreds of books out there about the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving and all that goes with the subject. But the majority of these books are written either in a stodgy, encyclopedic (read: Boring!) format, or they are written for children. Well, now I have one that is actually written for adults, as well as in an easy to read manner. Written mainly from a genealogical stance, the author, Eugene Aubrey Stratton, did his "putting flesh on the bones" research; that is, he sought out how the pilgrims lived their daily lives in all aspects of their time and place. Instead of the cartoonish figures we all see come November, Mr. Stratton actually gives an authentic look to these early Americans. He makes the reader feel that they now know the pilgrims, not only through their historical prominence in our early history, but by name, and we feel their hardships, especially of their first winter here. After the first time reading this book, I re-read it, only this time I read the 'Biographical Sketches' section, located toward the back of the book, first, THEN I went to the beginning. My advice to the first time reader is to do the same. You will then know who you are reading about as names are mentioned.
   This book is, simply put, the best of its kind. Maybe more genealogists should write our history books! At least they bring history to life!



3. My husband & I are both descended from The Mayflower - He from William Brewster & Stephen Hopkins and I from William Bradford. This book has added so much information for our Genealogy. I cannot tell you how many times I have used it to add information to our family history file. It has many years of use.

5 comments about The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England.

1. this book is an historic unforgettable learning experience on witchcraft.



2. I am reading this book for a comparative essay I have to write for school. So far it is pretty interesting.



3. This book arrived on the projected date and is brand new. No problems to report! GREAT service!!!



4. I absolutely loved this book. Carol F. Karlsen is a great writer and this book was easy to read and informative. She focuses on the fact that many women were accused and also doing the accusing.



5. I purchased this book to review for a college course project. I found it to be an accurate and factual perception of how women were persecuted in Colonial America because of their gender under the male dominance of Puritan society and the cultural idealogies that immigrated to the New World from Europe which resulted in the witchcraft trials during the 16th and 17th centuries.

5 comments about Knights of the Round Table (A Stepping Stone Book).

1. I agree that this is not the finest book written on King Arthur, but it is one that can be read aloud, and easily enhanced by a grandmother anxious to read these legends to a second grader---- finding something appropriate for a young listener has not been easy!



2. In addition to the ham-handed telling of the story, the writing in these Bullseye books is just terrible. Half-sentences. Written like this. Or this. Part of the value of such books is that young readers will learn to read "chapter books." But the English and grammar in these books is so abysmal as to render them useless for this task. I was very disappointed.



3. This book was one of three Bullseye Classics we bought for my son's second grade English class. He picked this one up as soon as the box arrived and had it read within an hour. He loved the stories and was able to re-tell them to his little sister. I hadn't heard the stories about "Big Hands" or "What do women want?" This collection really got his imagination going and he wants to read more about King Arthur.
   
   To tell you the truth, I didn't notice the problems with sentence structure, etc...I was enjoying the stories too much.



4. My seven year old daughter and I loved this book. It had humor, valor, and a good moral throughout.There is a theme throughout about not being mislead by appearances. At this point in my childs education I am endeavoring to build a good moral foundation so I appreciate a good story that reinforces values!



5. This is like a condensed version of Malory's L Morte Darthur, the standard bearer of Arthurian subject matter.

5 comments about The Bookshop.

1. This is a perfect novel. Fitzgerald, whom I was only recently introduced to, writes with precision and grace. In The Bookshop she exposes the small-mindedness of people in provincial places. In Hardborough the townsfolk are cruelly reminded of their relative irrelevance and, rather than stretch toward loftier horizons, they take aim at the book's protagonist and quash her dreams. A piercing stab at all that is colloquial, this book is also a funny satire of small-minded people. I'm surprised Fitzgerald is not more widely read on these shores (U.S.). What a talent.



2. I was very happy that I read this book. I work at a used book store and it caught my eye one day. I didn't know anything about this author but I'm glad I took a chance on her. Her characters were so real you hurt for them and the ghost descriptions were vividly frightening. Florences' feelings of failure at the end is something everyone has felt at one time or another. I can't wait to read more by her.



3. I'm not sure what I was expecting when I picked up this book, but reading this after midnight into the early morning hours on a day I had to go to work wasn't one of my expectations. This isn't written like a riveting page-turner. The characters don't do anything you or I couldn't do, nor does the writer seem to show off any spectacular writing ability. And perhaps that's what made this simple story so enjoyable. I could easily have met these people and have lived in this town. Somehow, despite the everyday small-town reality Fitzgerald depicts here, she makes the most of it, efficiently letting a good and simple story tell itself well.



4. "The Bookshop" is set in the Suffolk seaside town of Hardborough, ostensibly fictitious but in fact clearly based upon Southwold where Penelope Fitzgerald herself once lived. The plot, which takes place in 1959/60, is a simple one. Florence Green, a middle-aged widow, purchases the Old House, a mediaeval building in the town, and converts it into a bookshop, the town's first. At first Florence's enterprise prospers, but she is finally thwarted by the malice of the town's most influential citizen, the wealthy Mrs Violet Gamart, who has taken a dislike to her and who has ambitions of her own to turn the Old House into an arts centre. (The real Southwold, in fact, has several bookshops and has always struck me as a rather literary and artistic place; it counts among its former residents not only Mrs Fitzgerald but also George Orwell).
   
   One reviewer complained that this was "more of a vignette than a novel". There may be some truth in that observation, but I would think of it more in terms of a novella or long short story. I was reminded of some of Balzac's "Scenes de la Vie Provinciale". It is a book where atmosphere is more important than plot, and Mrs Fitzgerald excels at conjuring up the often melancholy atmosphere of coastal Suffolk (an area I know well). The town is damp, mist-shrouded and surrounded by marshes; she describes it as "an island between sea and river, muttering and drawing into itself as soon as it felt the cold". The Old House is ramshackle, leaky and haunted by a poltergeist, or "rapper" in the local dialect. Florence's main ally in her struggle with Mrs Gamart is Edmund Brundish, a member of a distinguished old Suffolk family. The Brundishes, however, have been supplanted as the leading family in the neighbourhood by the parvenu Gamart outsiders, and the elderly, shabby, reclusive Edmund lives alone in a crumbling manor house, the descriptions of which add to the general mood of decline and decay.
   
   Like some other reviewers, I found the ending rather abrupt as Florence's hopes suddenly collapse in the space of a single chapter. Although Florence is the main character, she is not as vividly drawn as some of the others. I wished the author had paid more attention to the devious and obsessively spiteful Violet Gamart, clearly a much stronger character than her hapless victim Florence and more potentially interesting. Legal affairs play an important part in the book, but the author's knowledge of the law is not always certain. An "indictment", for example, is a document used in criminal proceedings, not civil ones which would be started by a writ or summons. I found it difficult to believe that a local authority would be able to acquire a property compulsorily without paying compensation; the acquiring authority would be obliged to pay the market value of the land, with allowance made for any defects. Seen as a piece of atmospheric writing, "The Bookshop" is a fine work. Seen as a piece of storytelling it is perhaps less accomplished.



5. The Bookshop is the first Penelope Fitzgerald novel I've read--to my shame, I didn't even know her name a scant two weeks ago--but it won't be my last. She's an author with genuine talent, all the more remarkable for the fact that she only began writing late in life.
   
   The Bookshop is the human comedy as it plays itself out in a rather dreary, damp, foggy, and nearly forgotten East Anglian (and aptly named) tidal village of Hardborough. Florence Green sets out to bring a bookshop to the town, and immediately finds both the local powerbrokers--bankers, solicitors, and the formidable dowager of the village, Mrs. Gamart--aligned against her. The white collar opposition is bred largely by inertia: any change in Hardborough is suspicious. But Mrs. Gamart's hostility is born of envy: she wants to be the area's only patron of the arts and learning, and she enlists a particularly oily character, Milo North, as well as a rather stupid nephew who happens to be an MP, to sabotage the bookshop.
   
   To make matters worse, poor Florence naively stocks her shop with Nabokov's just published Lolita, a book she hasn't read. This instantly "taints" her establishment in the minds of the locals, who weren't all that enthusiastic about a bookshop coming to their village to begin with. Provincial stupidity small town jealousies are a powerful force, and Florence eventually loses everything.
   
   There's nothing especially novel about this episode in the on-going clash between the powerful and the powerless, the idealistic and the cynical, mammom and art. What makes Fitzgerald's re-telling of it is her understated style. She gestures, creating a mood with just a few words. We never read, for example, about the community's freezing her out because of Lolita. All we're told is that copies of the book are arranged as a window display, and allowed to infer the rest. In a certain way, her literary style is reminiscent of the cinematic style of Robert Bresson--the expected, conventional follow-through from one scene to another often gets missing. It makes for an exciting read.

No comments about Classic Starts: The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Classic Starts Series).

4 comments about A Building History of Northern New England.

1. Tremendous amount of scholarly work by Mr Garvin detailing construction of buildings in an important area of New England history and culture. Highly recommended.



2. Finally, a book that focuses on New England building history. This book should be read cover to cover for a complete understanding of the evolution of construction and to understand the important details often overlooked. I thought I had a pretty good knowledge of old house construction, but I learned something on every page. Excellent photos demonstrating the point discussed in the text. Should be on the bookshelf of every old house person.
   
   Chester, Vermont



3. Scholarly and comprehensively researched! The most impressive overview of the cultural landscape of New England yet published. It integrates research from a wide variety of sources and academic fields. A must read for anyone interested in the cultural landscape and material culture of this region.



4. This book is an invaluable resource for understanding and dating early buildings in all of New England.

3 comments about Boston (City Guide).

1. I went to Boston in the middle of winter over the long-weekend. Without this book, I would have probably been lost and much colder than I was. This book covered the things I looked at and much more... and has given me the chance to think about going back to Boston in the summer or fall.
   
   The details on the hotels, the areas, the closest metro stations and the Boston in X days features are common to Lonely Planet books and are very useful.



2. Every time I travel, I have purchased Lonely Planet Travel guides. They offer accurate and "real time" facts about the place you're visiting, as well as the most complete information in comparison to other travel guides. The best travel companion.



3. This guide is great as an overview to this fabulous city and accurancy for the more permanent tourist attractions (Freedom Trail, for instance!) is good - but several restaurants have already shut down/changed names/management so be wary of those reviews.

4 comments about A New England Town : The First Hundred Years : Dedham, Massachusetts, 1636-1736 (Norton Essays in American History).

1. Lockridge, a new socialist writer, bases his text on wills, deeds, and other hard evidence. This makes for an acedemically full but un-interesting read. He does do a good job of showing how the Puritans failed by succeeding. For anyone looking for the most complete view of early New England, this is it.



2. "A New England Town" is a fascinating exploration of the evolution of Dedham, Massachusetts, from its founding as a haven for English Puritans in 1636 over its first century. An example of the local historical investigations in vogue during the latter 1960s, in which the author teases out details about an individual community but effectively draws linkages to broader concerns and themes, Kenneth Lockridge offered a compelling portrait of colonial life, society, economics, and politics in New England. Lockridge is a follower of the French Annales School most identified with Marc Bloch, Lucien Febvre, and Ferdinand Braudel which seeks to shift the focus from conventional historical themes and methods toward comprehensive human activity and large-scale social change over long periods of time.
   
   "A New England Town" carries out this task quite effectively. Most importantly, Lockridge explodes the myth of the democratic New England town in which resolute Yeoman farmers and common tradesmen made the laws in a consensus manner. What we find is that while Dedham started as a utopian, communal experiment, it quickly evolved into something else as competing world views demolished Puritan hegemony. In that conflict all parties had to ensure that the rights of the minority were not trampled upon. In an irony too great to ignore, Lockridge documents how political conflict fostered the rise of democratic institutions as bulwarks against oppression. It was the second and third generations of Dedham's inhabitants who created this system, and ensured minority protection, not the original Puritans who founded the town.
   
   I first read "A New England Town" in graduate school in the latter 1970s and was impressed with what seemed its exceptionally fresh approach, both in terms of methodology (heavily demographic), and perspective (the Annales school). Having just reread the work, I find that it remains an important benchmark in the historiography of colonial North America and Puritanism. I recommend it as a foundational work on the subject.



3. Double descendent of founders. No doubt distressed given current antithesis to their strict mores.
   O tempora! O mores!



4. Kenneth Lockridge's "A New England Town" is the most informative book I have read in several years. I bought it because it chronicles the founding and development of Dedham, the town in which my ancestors settled upon their arrival in America in the late 1630s, and where my particular forebears lived until 1736, when they moved from Medfield (originally part of Dedham) to Sturbridge. Some descendants of my forebears may yet live in Dedham. The book shows the utopian, corporative, and authoritarian beginnings of the town and their slow (and not always obvious or totally harmful) disintegration over the first one hundred years of its existence. It makes clear the reasons that finally forced younger people to leave the town and why my ancestor moved to Sturbridge -- which some of his descendants left years later for the same reasons: land and opportunity. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the development of New England and the slow move of our population to the West.A New England Town : The First Hundred Years : Dedham, Massachusetts, 1636-1736 (Norton Essays in American History)

No comments about Hidden History of New Hampshire.

No comments about A View from the Booth: Gil Santos and Gino Cappelletti-25 Years of Broadcasting the New England Patriots.