5 comments about The Cocoanut Grove Fire (New England Remembers).

1. Like the author's other book "Boston On Fire," this story is almost impossible to put down once you start reading it. When you read the details of that tragic nightclub fire, it's difficult to believe it could even happen, much less happen so fast that hundreds were killed. But the recent fire at the Station Night Club in Rhode Island is so similar it's scary. Everyone likes to think they would figure out a way to escape such a fire, but some blazes, like the ones at the Cocoanut Grove and The Station Night Club move so fast that they are more like explosions. The author makes the reader feel as though they were actually in the fire. She also goes into the shady history of the nightclub's mobster owner and why so many exit doors were locked. The reader will never again look at revolving doors in the same way and they will always check out the locations of the nearest exit to where they are seated. This is a great read, but maybe not for just before going to bed. The struggles of some of the survivors bring tears to the eyes of the reader. The fire did prove many new techniques for treating burn victims worked. This book makes one believe in fate, luck and just plain good fortune.



2. Excellent research presented in a very readable format. It's not too long, but still has a lot of content. Well done!



3. Book came in the time frame and in the condition specified.



4. This book is short, and lacks much in the way of substance. If you want to read about this historic disaster find a book better suited to the topic.



5. I grew up hearing my parents talk about the Cocoanut Grove fire but never knew the whole story until I discovered this book.
   The real facts of how the fire started will never be known but the causes have been narrowed down and, as with so many tragedies, medical breakthroughs in burn treatment and building safety have resulted from the disaster.
   This book draws all the known facts together without speculation. It's an intense, terrifying and sorrowful story.

5 comments about Home Landscaping: Northeast Region: Including Southeast Canada (Home Landscaping) (Home Landscaping).

1. Home Landscaping: Northeast Region is a very informative book filled with beautiful photos. I don't think I will need another book while doing our landscape planning. Landscaping designs, expected sizes of plants and trees and shrubs, different colors and species, how to's, this book will cover all your landscaping needs if you live in new england.



2. A neighbor showed me her copy and I had to get one for myself. Great layouts, great plant selections, this book offers great ideas and variations and is FULL of information! I showed another neighbor the garden I am planning and now I'm buying her a copy as well. We are going to have a GREAT looking street!!



3. I recently became interested in gardening (now that I have a yard in which I can plant). This is one of my favorite books on gardening and landscaping. Great resource for those of us living in the northeast. Full of wonderful photos, explanations and illustrations. It gives many ideas for addressing certain areas of your yard (i.e. front entryway, patio, rock wall). Explanations are excellent; I learned a great deal from this book. Very well written. Highly recommended.



4. It's great the way these books are customized for each individual climate area here in the U.S. Saves a lot of wasted planning with the wrong plants and materials.



5. I have so many landscaping books that I never opened again after the first week I bought them. This is not one of those books. It's by far so much better than most of the other ones out there. It's well organized for info, and the plans are numerous and easy to follow. Not just for beginners. a really great book!

5 comments about Dishing Up Maine: 165 Recipes That Capture Authentic Down East Flavors.

1. This book brings you all the fresh flavors of Maine: not just seafood, but fresh produce as well. The recipes are clearly written and not too high on the difficulty scale. They are flavorful and creative, but the accent is on the fresh appearance and taste of the food itself, rather than on the elaborateness of the preparation or the showmanship of the chef. Dozens of beautiful color photographs supplement the flavors and aromas to bring a little of Maine into your kitchen, where ever you are.



2. There are plenty of unique recipes here that the home chef can easily (and should) try. We are seafood eaters and are always looking for new ideas. Useful, with imaginative presentation, at an affordable price. Highly recommended.



3. Covers classic Maine foods: lobsters, mussels, blueberries, and baked beans with some old style recipes and modern variations.
   
   More interesting are numerous sidebars touching on various aspects of the growing Maine "foodie" scene. New restaurants, growers, stores, and farms are highlighted.
   
   A few maps would have been nice,and some of the recipes might be too far from convention for traditionalists.
   
   A must have for any "Maine-o-phile"-native or those who wished they were. I found it simply "pleasant" to read. Do yourself a favor: get some mud from the seashore, throw some sea-salt in the air, turn your TV to "Scenes of the North Atlantic," and read this book.



4. My family visited Maine last summer and absolutely loved all the fresh seafood. Being that we live in Indiana, we don't get spoiled like all the Mainers with their fresh Halibut and lobsta!
   Since we can't just pick up and move to Maine (we would love too!), we have to rely on bits and pieces of Maine. This is where this book comes in!
   These are very "easy-to-follow" recipes that have ingredients you can find in any store.
   We love the lobster rolls! And just can't pass up the chowder!
   This really is my new favorite cookbook, and I love the first part of the book, "Why has Maine life become so irresistable?". It lists all the reasons why we (and any other sane person) would want to move to Maine.
   Great job Ms. Dojny! I've already ordered your other "clam shack" cookbook!



5. This book confirms Brooke Dojny's authentic place among cookbook authors who have tried to capture, create, and preserve regional cuisines. Her New England Cookbook, with it's totally reliable and delicious recipes, should be on everyone's shelf, regardless of where they live. This book should be too, but it's more interesting to those of us fascinated by the food renaissance taking place in Maine -- which is exciting. As always with Dojny, the recipes are impeccable. They also are true to their heritage, both old and new, and perfectly translated for the home cook.

3 comments about New England Waterfalls: A Guide to More Than 200 Cascades and Waterfalls.

1. Quite simply, this is the quintessential reference to waterfalls in New England. The guide provides a rating, description, detailed driving directions, and advice on the hike (if applicable) to 200 different waterfalls in Conneticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and the 1 waterfall in Rhode Island.

   Having used the book to visit a few waterfalls, I can attest that the directions are fairly accurate, and that I went to waterfalls I simply could not have found any other way. The state maps at the beginning of each section make it easy to plan trips that visit lots of waterfalls, or to "check" to see if you're going to pass one on your road trip.

   I look forward to using this reference for years to come. I thought the ratings were fair, the information accurate, and it was all presented in a useful and readable format.




2. I used this guide extensively on a recent trip to New England. While it has a good deal of information in it, the guide could be greatly improved by changing a few things.

   The organization of the book could be improved by using a sequential numbering scheme to identify waterfalls that are close to one another rather than the current scheme of numbering them alphabetically. Because of the current method, it necessitates a lot of flipping between huge ranges of pages to decide which waterfall to visit in even a very small area.

   The guide includes photos for a large number of waterfalls, but it doesn't include photos for all of them. I found several highly ranked waterfalls that were missing photos, but some waterfalls which were ranked much lower did include photos. The best solution would be to include photos for all the waterfalls included in the book.

   I appreciate the effort given by the authors to include driving directions because I wouldn't have been able to find most of the waterfalls without them. Unfortunately I found that there were times when the directions are confusing & there are also errors in some of the directions. In addition, directions are written less clearly than they could possibly be.

   One final suggestion would be to include the best time to view each waterfall and which direction does each waterfall face. Some of them have eastern exposure so they would be best in the early morning. Others have western exposure and would be best in the late afternoon. A choice few are situated perfectly enough to have southern exposure and they are good all day long. For the photographers in the crowd it would be great to find this final bit of info in the guide.

   Overall the book makes a good start to what could be the ultimate New England Waterfall guide.




3. I like waterfalls. I don't know why. I just do. So I liked this book as I found a bunch of them I had no idea exsisted. A great guide to this part of the country.

1 comments about Michelin the Green Guide New England (Michelin Green Guides).

1. This is actually standard Micheline guide
   You can use as well as attraction descriptions as tourist paths

5 comments about The Rector of Justin: A Novel.

1. This book surprised me by having a lot of substance. This multiple-narrator novel provides a shifting portrait of a fictional New England Episcopal boarding school headmaster - a legend in his time. It's like a Tom Brown's School Days for early 20th century New England, from the point of view of the headmaster. There is no TGI whatsoever, but the book provides an interesting contrast to the English Public School novel. Among its questions: what does it mean to be a church school? How should we educate boys into men, and what is a man? Ultimately, it examines the uneasy tension between the idealistic, fervently faithful (and rather Puritanical) founder and the materialistic boys, parents, and board that make up the school.



2. Although _The Rector of Justin_ is considered by many as Auchincloss' best novel, I didn't like it as much as some of his other books. It uses six narrators to tell the story of the Reverend Francis Prescott, D.D. -- founder and rector (headmaster) of Justin Martyr, a fictional school for boys in Massachusetts. The narrative structure seems contrived to me; Auchincloss used it better in later books like _The House of the Prophet_. You never get to know Prescott well enough to decide whether you like or dislike him, although maybe it is Auchincloss' intention to create the uncertainty. None of the narrators arouses your sympathy (the main one is just plain annoying), and the book has no trace of sentimentality in it. In Auchincloss' autobiography, _A Writer's Capital_, he says the character of Prescott is based more on Judge Learned Hand than on Endicott Peabody, the headmaster of Groton where Auchincloss went to school.



3. Louis Auchincloss recommended The Rector of Justin to me as a starting point, as I was unfamiliar with his writing. Then he chuckled and said that he doesn't claim that it's his best, only that it has enduring popularity and is the most commercially successful of his novels. The story portrays the fictional biography of an exclusive New England prep school's willful headmaster, Francis Prescott, and it portrays, too, the characters who "live under the shadow of the Prescott legend." The story is related through six persons in that shadow. They are a former student, Brian Aspinwall, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, David Griscam, an old friend, Horace Havistock, his youngest daughter, Cordelia Turnbull, her common law husband, Charlie Strong, and another student, Jules Griscam, son of the above-mentioned trustee. Each relays impressions of the great man which derive from their own association with him. These glimses portray Prescott's multifaceted character, yet the portrait which emerges leaves the reader unsatisfied, as with a puzzle in which there are not only missing pieces, but also duplicate pieces. Auchincloss' writing is creative, and very clever, and there are hundreds of sentences which beg to be re-read, and which are every bit as fresh on the return leg. Another characteristic of the author's prose is numerous references. He invokes authors, their characters, and countless others: Omar Khayyam, King Lear, Meissonier, Parsifal, Steinbeck, Tom Brown and Arnold, Marlowe and Webster, the Count of Monte Cristo, Anne Boleyn, Rupert Brooke, Mrs. Browning, Billy Budd, Walter Gay, Tannhauser, Freud, Molvina Hoffman, Plantaganet Palliser and Lady Cora, Joseph Andrews, Henry Thoreau... And here are a few examples of the author's craft: "I am the youngest child of a marriage of June and January, and, alas, I cost June her life." "He had all the jauntiness, guile, and charm of a papal bastard in the Renaissance." "We became well-known hosts to the floating expatriate world that made a fetish of disillusionment." "I had not expected that so little oil would settle such troubled waters." "He was uneasy with children, for like a dictator visiting a free country, he knew that his power was suspended." "He knew that his God was as mean as himself, and would never let him get away with anything as easy as that." Unfortunately, though, the story's denouement fails to resolve its creative tension. The eclipse of Prescott's power, in his old age, is portrayed as dramatic and illuminating, but it is neither. Prior to the conclusion our protagonist is a self-absorbed demigod. In that conclusion he becomes yet more self-absorbed, though mortal, and simply fades away. A God as mean as himself, however, would not have let him get away with anything as easy as that.



4. This is #6 on the bestsellers list in 1964, the year I was born. I had a hard time at first getting into the story but it was magnificent! Auchincloss is a tremendous writer and probably, in my humble opinion, one of the best writers in the 20th century. He has a unique writing style. This book is unusual in the fact that it is told by 6 different individuals. This is the story of a man from schoolboy age to his death at age 85.
   
   Frank Prescott was a man of God and of honor. His calling to be a minister and of a teacher was fulfilled and he was very successful in building his dream of a Christian boy's school, although it was not exclusive to that religion. Dr. Prescott had respect for any boy of any religion. He was diligent, proud, and yet humble. He was willing to admit his faults and apologize for his mistakes. A respected man like this is very hard to find in this day and age. Dr. Frank Prescott was revered by any who met him, even if they disliked him.
   
   This was my favorite line & one of the last: "Dr. Prescott was greater than the school which he created and by which he was ultimately disillusioned, and it is my ambition to distill for future generations of Justin boys some bit of the essence of that greatness."
   
   I highly recommend this book to anyone who has lost someone in their lives they truly admired; it will open your heart to the sentiment of greatly appreciating those who have gone before us to set a pure example of respect & honesty.



5. This is writing at its most elegant. It has everything: poise, lucidity and an outstanding ability to create athmosphere.

4 comments about The Granite Kiss: Traditions and Techniques of Building New England Stone Walls.

1. This is a wonderful book...it's about stone walls, and about building stone walls, and all the things stone walls have meant and done for 350 years, and what it feels like to live and work in a place where just past the urban sprawl every one of those 350 years blends with this one (and if you look out the corner of your eye there're older times than that hiding in the shadows.)

   It's not a homeowner howto, though it's got everything you can learn from a book. It's a book for masons who love their craft, New Englanders who love their home place, and anyone who likes good work. Whatever that means to you.




2. Of the half-dozen books I bought in preparation for recycling some of the old stonewalls up through the woods on our farm into a new retaining wall, this is my clear favorite. It is more detailed than John Vivian's Building Stone Walls, particularly when it comes to retaining walls. Because it is not as glossy and illustrated as Haywards' Stone in the Garden or David Reed's Stonescaping (which are, by the way, both excellent in their own right), I'm not as wary about taking it out to the project with me.

   The text is clear and concise, and includes a healthy dose of stone philosophy and the index is detailed enough to help the do-it-yourselfer find what he needs, but short enough so that he can find what he wants, even if he does not know the proper name for it.

   However, the main reason I like this book so much is Gardner's assurance that anyone who puts his mind to it -- which includes me -- can build a stone wall. While his respect for old stone walls and the art of building them is obvious, he also has a healthy dose of practicality. "The notion that all, or even most, of the old stone-work we see around New England is the result of concentrated applicaion of arcane skill," he write, " is demonstrably false." Once that sacred cow was out of the way, my confidence level went up and anything seemed possible.

   The black & white drawings that illustrate the text are clear and very helpful.




3. The Granite Kiss is an endearing look at the practical and esthetic aspects of creating and repairing stone walls. The book has an artistic quality with its extra wide pages with pen and ink drawings of walls under construction or old walls still standing. There are no photos.
   
   There is a feeling of working alongside the author while he idly rambles about the task at hand and jobs he has completed in his career. I especially enjoyed his nicknames for the various rock shapes likely to be found in any imperfect rockpile and the relationships the shapes may have to each other in a completed wall. All in all, stone wall building is a task of patience and persistance - which the author relays in topics such as: spreading the "good" rocks out; working with rocks that are not perfect blocklike shapes, time management; and what is likely to stand the test of time.
   
   This is a book to get you into the slow and methodical, but contemplative mood for learning and practicing this dying art.



4. I surprisingly enjoyed this book. I purchased a few other stone wall books with the intention of building my own wall. I originally did not buy this book because other reviewers indicated not any pictures & a few drawings (this is true). But it is a easy read & tells of the pleasure of building in addition to techniques.

5 comments about A Journey into Dorothy Parker's New York (ArtPlace series).

1. This book is an unusual creation, equal parts "coffee table book" and truly informative resource. It's well laid-out, with plenty of direct and indirect information and trivia available in well constructed sidebars.
   
   Mr. Fitzpatrick's gifts are such that the book is one that will appeal equally to the Parker scholar and to the those who have just stumbled over her reputation for the first time.
   
   I recommend it!
   
   Eileen Forster Keck
   Director, Robert Benchley Society



2. There are no places or points in time like New York in the 20s. Dorothy Parker wrote about it, and now we write about her. I wish I could slip into a time machine and drink a martini while spying on the Round Table. Amazing. I would love to take the tour.



3. (A good book for a novice,like me, wanting a nice introduction regarding the life of Dorothy Parker---with photos)
   
   This is a well-written and well researched book about Dorothy Parker.
   This book is very compact and therefore this is a wonderful introductory book about the famous writer.
   
   This book is filled with photos of all the places that Dorothy Parker lived throughout her life. Dorothy moved ALOT & therefore the author had to research all the places that Ms.Parker frequented & resided at during her entire lifetime. Also, the author interspersed information about Dorothy's life ,the famous places she loved to visit (eg: THE ALGONQUIN)and all the people that she associated with (eg: Hemingway, F.Scott Fitzgerald,etc...).



4. You hear the words "Dorothy Parker" and you think of New York.
   I really enjoyed this book and it was a pleasure reading about Dorothy's apartment's and frequented locations. I knew a bit about Dorothy, from her works and "What Fresh Hell is This", but did not know about New York - I did not know where Uptown was or where Downtown was (I think NY is the only place that has both) but now I do. Plus with all the other interesting items and photographs makes this an essential book for a Parker enthusiast to have and use on their visits to New York.



5. This book provides an armchair walking tour of the meaningful places for the writer Dorothy Parker in NYC. It is also an excellent accompaniment to the Portable Dorothy Parker.

2 comments about Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tales (Norton Critical Editions).

1. This is very well edited and prepared collection of Hawthorne's tales. It has everything what a critical edition needs. But the real value of this book are, of course, Hawthorne's tales themselves. For a long time Hawthorne was almost forgotten author, forgotten for common readers I mean, and he was only a name from literary history. But he did not deserve that. His place is among his readers. His tales are among the finest allegories ever written. "Wakefield" is maybe the only real predeccesors of Kafka's works. "Young Goodman Brown" reminds of "Twilight Zone". Hawthorne's tales are great and exceptionally and surprisingly modern.



2. This Norton Critical Edition of 21 of Hawthorne's
   tales and sketches (arranged chronologically according
   to date of publication -- from "My Kinsman, Major
   Molineux" [1831] to "Feathertop: A Moralized Legend"
   [1852]) is a truly wonderful anthology. But the editor,
   James McIntosh, in the excellent Norton Critical
   Editions manner, has also included the major "Prefaces"
   from Hawthorne's collections of tales ("The Old
   Manse"-- from _Mosses from an Old Manse_ [1846];

   "Preface to the 1851 Edition of _Twice-told Tales_";
   and "Preface to _The Snow-Image_), as well as
   Letters, excerpts from Hawthorne's notebooks, and
   finally, an excellent series of critical essays,
   extending from Hawthorne's own time up to 1980
   [among these is a full inclusion of Herman Melville's
   wondrous essay of praise and idolatry, "Hawthorne
   and His Mosses" -- first published in _Literary
   World_ on 17 and 14 August 1850.].
   Even though one might have one's own reasons for
   having bias against Hawthorne the man, still the
   quality of literacy and the insight into human
   psychology and feelings is of such an exceptional
   artistic and genius sort that one must leave those
   qualifiers outside the temple when one comes inside
   to ponder and meditate upon the spirit and wisdom
   of this artist.
   The best words in speaking of him, of honoring him,
   perhaps come from himself and from others who knew
   him and read him and were influenced, in whatever way,
   by him.
   * * * * * * * * *
   "Lightly as I have spoken of these old books, there
   yet lingers with me a superstitious reverence for
   literature of all kinds. A bound volume has a charm
   in my eyes, similar to what scraps of manuscript possess,
   for the Mussulman. He imagines, that those wind-wafted
   records are perhaps hallowed by some sacred verse; and I,
   that every new book, or antique one, may contain the
   'Open Sesame' -- the spell to disclose treasures,
   hidden in some unsuspected cave of Truth."
   --Nathaniel Hawthorne; "The Old Manse."
   * * * * * * * * *
   "When a new star rises in the heavens, people gaze
   after it for a season with the naked eye, and with such
   telescopes as they may find. In the stream of thought,
   which flows so peacefully deep and clear, through the
   pages of this book, we see the bright reflection of a
   spiritual star, after which men will be fain to gaze
   'with the naked eye, and with the spy-glasses of
   criticism.' The star is but newly risen; and ere long
   the observations of numerous star-gazers, perched up
   on arm-chairs and editors' tables, will inform the
   world of the magnitude and its place in the heaven of
   poetry, whether it be in the paw of the Great Bear, or
   on the forehead of Pegasus, or on the strings of the
   Lyre, or in the wings of the Eagle. [from Norton
   footnote: Constellations, here representing -- rough
   power, dynamic inspiration, musical grace, lofty
   majesty.]
   --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow; from an unsigned
   review of _Twice-Told Tales_, 1837.
   * * * * * * * * *
   "No man can read a fine author, and relish him to
   his very bones, while he reads, without subsequently
   fancying to himself some ideal image of the man and
   his mind. And if you rightly look for it, you will
   almost always find that the author himself has somewhere
   furnished you with his own picture. For poets (whether
   in prose or verse), being painters of Nature, are like
   their brethren of the pencil, the true portrait-painters,
   who, in the multitude of likenesses to be sketched, do
   not invariably omit their own, and in all high instances,
   they paint them without any vanity, though, at times,
   with a lurking something, that would take several
   pages to properly define."
   -- Herman Melville; "Hawthorne and His Mosses."
   * * * * * * * * *
   Wondrous praise for this Artist of the Beautiful
   and Insightful -- Revealer of the Heart and Mind...

5 comments about Elegance.

1. I have found the book interesting but do not agree that this is a hilarious or even funny book. I think, perhaps, the first two chapters are the most humorous in the book. It's sort of like when you rent a movie that's labeled a comedy (like Barton Fink)& can't quite appreciate it, like you should, the first time around, because you were expecting it to make you laugh, & it's not. So, if you buy this book, don't buy it expecting lots of laughs like in Bridget Jones. It's about Louise shaking up all aspects of her life up by not only dressing better but realizing the deep seated issues that brought her to her current unhappy frumpy state. But on a lighter note -- I just LOVE the cover.



2. This is one of my favorite chic-lit novels set in London and I love it all the more because it's about an American in London and her search for true style, and in doing so - her search for her true self. Love it!



3. I wanted SO MUCH to like this book. Here's what I did like: (1) The cover. (2) The premise. (3) The excerpts from the vintage French style book.
   
   That is, unfortunately, where it stops. Tessaro begins with some promising ideas but the story descends into one depressing, over-long, and unlikely scenario after another (after faithfully studying the style bible, would our heroine REALLY enter the Ritz dressed like a hooker? Would she really be able to afford a closetful of La Perla?) I read this book a few years ago and the only part that really stayed with me was the (disagreeable) description of her digestive problems from a natural-foods regime ("Oh, go off and have a sausage, egg, and chips already" her doctor told her--I am paraphrasing--but I won't even go into how exasperating I found Tessaro's message about healthy eating and weight issues.)
   
   Worst of all, the heroine is totally unlikable. I would rather have read about her female artist roommate, who had some great qualities.
   
   I agree with one reviewer who said that this is ultimately a sad story, not a humorous one. If you want brilliant and entertaining chick lit, proceed without stopping straight to Bridget Jones. Give this one a miss.



4. I really enjoyed the first few chapters and then the language got bad and the story worse. Didn't even care to finish it.



5. "Elegance is the privilege of age." That basically sums up this surprisingly thoughtful book about a mature woman going through some very real growing pains while referring to an old-fashioned etiquette book for help over the years.
   
   I collect etiquette books and the cover was attractive so I gave it a go and I'm glad I did. I could relate to the heroine's wish to become Audrey Hepburn-like in contrast to a life of disappointments and confusion. Without spoiling the plot, I will say she learns elegance is not about using the right fish fork. While there's plenty of humor, those looking for blithe chick lit (not that there's anything wrong with that!) may be nonplussed.