5 comments about Cape Light: Color Photographs by Joel Meyerowitz.

1. Ansel Adams said that this book was his favorite book of color photographs (the reason I bought it, long ago). Meyerowitz's use of little contrast, incomparible colors, and unusual subject matter makes this a must MEMORIZE book for all serious photographers. If you don't go nuts over his photographs, you don't like photography as much as you thought you did.......

   john in texas




2. I first saw this book while i was looking through the photography section at the University of Guelph library. This book probably influenced my photography more than any other. Unfortunately, it also made me start doing shots with my nikon that are better suited for a large format system. The introductory interview with the photographer is possibly the most interesting discussion on the topic of light and photography. If you plan to become anything more than an amature photographer, PLEASE get this book NOW.



3. I love the pictures of my old haunt. Ptown has some of the worlds most beautiful light.



4. Having been to Cape Cod a lot of times, I'm intrigued by the nature. I read the reviews and thought the book would be special, with a focus on nature of Cap Cod. This was not the case. Most of the pictures could have been taken anywhere in the world... I'm not a professional photographer, but have to say that the compositions was not very exciting, quite boring actually.



5. I don't know what reviewer "K Raustol" (a couple reviews down)has been smoking, but this work, along with Ansel's body of B&W work is to my mind the finest large-format photography ever produced. This book is ALL about composition and capturing the subtle naunces of the changing light, and this book represents that concept better than any other published color work that I've ever seen. As another reviewer mentioned, if you're serious about photography, this book in an absolute MUST.

5 comments about Spooky New England: Tales of hauntings, strange happenings, and other local lore.

1. It was wonderful to read these spine-tingling folktales from New England. The historical stories from the Colonial period were especially fascinating to me. The fear of being "witch-ridden" came up more than once (in The Witch-sheep and in Old Betty Booker). It appears to have been a very real terror for the New England folks once-upon-a-time.

   My very favorite story was Tom Dunn's Dance, in which Tom changes from a wild young man to a model citizen, all because of a certain, terrifying experience one night on top of Rag Rock.

   A very enjoyable collection.




2. This great short story collection made me sleep with the light on! My husband came home late one night while I was reading the Telltale Seaweed (the first story in the book), and when he slammed the front door I nearly jumped out of my skin! I was sure the ghost had arrived to get me!

   The things I like best about this collection of spooky stories are that the stories are all based on the oral tradition from New England, that they are told phenomenally well (Books on Tape should record this collection; it just begs to be read out loud), and that many of the stories make you think: "That could really have happened".

   I found these stories more insidiously spooky than some of the Stephen King novels, which are not too realistic. If you think suspense/thriller films vs. horror flicks, you get the picture.

   Can't wait for the next book!




3. The book was a good read. The stories move quickly and are well told. I especially enjoyed reading Mary's Flowers to the grand children. All the stories are presented in a realistic fashion and you are able to identify with the character's in the book. You end up asking yourself could this story really be true. The story entitled The White Deer seemed like it was talking about a real event involving real people. I enjoyed reading the book very much. Some of the stories can be read many times and seem to retain their freshness.



4. The book sounded great but the stories are very lackluster; they lack the proper description to make the stories frightening. The stories take place in New England but the author fails to bring any local flavor to the stories; they could take place anywhere at all!
   
   Plus, truth be told, the stories are not scary at all. A guy sees a dog and the next day he trips on a mountain. Wow, what goosebumps!!!
   
   Finally the author fails to tell us how she gleaned the stories or provide any background.
   
   The one star is for the moody drawings which are well done.



5. Spooky New England isn't your standard book of true accounts of ghostly encounters that you see so often today. Rather, as explained in the introduction, this is really a collection of myths, legends, and local folklore from various parts of the New England landscape. These are the tales that kids told each other around the bonfire at Summer camp and that locals regale tourists with as they visit their small towns. It's America's folklore that is fast fading from the memory of present day people. Thankfully this book helps keep alive these chilling tales from America's oldest and original settlements. New England has always been brimming with ghost stories, told by some of our greatest early writers like Nathaniel Hawthorne and Washington Irving.
   
   Retold by S.E. Schlosser, you'll read tales from the coast of Maine to Massachusetts and a more perfect book for entertaining guests for a Halloween party you couldn't hope to find. From Martha's Vineyard read about the mysterious Blue Rock where phantom pirates buried a secret treasure long ago. Then there is the ghost of Elvira Blood, wife of sea captain Sam Blood. While Sam drank and feasted with his buddies at the local pub, his poor wife and their children were left with watery soups until Mrs. Blood finally got wind of her husband's deeds. Even after she died, there would be no more feasts at the Mariners Club, as her ghost would tip over the table and spill the food all over the floor!
   
   There is the tragic tale of the "Wraith in the Storm" about a young man who went out to sea just as terrible storms struck. His young sister then would see a spectral funeral march towards their house carrying a casket but it soon disappeared. Yet days later the family would receive word that their son's ship sank and there were no survivors. In other tales you'll read about The Devil's Hole, the Loup-Garou, and the Black Dog of Hanging Hills.
   
   The stories are scary, but not too potent that young ones will need to hide under their beds. There's a great amount of charm in them as well and it's a wonderful collection of almost forgotten American folklore.
   
   Reviewed by Tim Janson

No comments about Backcountry Skiing Adventures: Maine and New Hampshire: Classic Ski and Snowboard Tours in Maine and New Hampshire.

2 comments about Tall Trees, Tough Men: A Vivid, Anecdotal History of Logging and Log-Driving in New England.

1. This was a great little book packed with history of the lumber business in America. The content was easy to read and educational. The stories of hardship and true grit of the early pioneers of New England was very entertaining. A good read for those interested the outdoors, early America and the lumber industry.



2. After visiting the Great North woods of New Hampshire for the last 12 years, and learning of my ancestors involvement in the logging industry, I decided to purchase this book and was greatly impressed by the varied stories of life in the lumber camp and on the drives. Though the different jobs were skimmed over in description, it gave a good look into the past. Oh to be a fly in the woods in those days. Very enjoyable reading.

2 comments about Early American Country Furniture: 22 Woodworking Projects Inspired by 18th- and 19th-Century New England.

1. This book reflects the best qualities of the furniture it beautifully documents. It is elegant in its simplicity and thoroughly meets the needs of functionality. The photography is well done and shows clearly the nuances of the various pieces in authentic environments. The accompanying descriptions are brief and to the point. These points alone would make this a valuable book to own but the best part comes with the detailing of the components that make up this furniture. This covers everything from metal hardware and how it is made and used, through tools, paints and finishes, wood types and components and more.
   The part of this book that most impresses me is the illustrative method for the various projects. Speaking as a retired technical illustrator I can only say "Well done!". The projects are clear and show the proper sequencing of steps without restraining the design. This means that a project can be fitted to the materials available and the needs of the user, much as the original furniture was made. Along with this are well executed illustrations for jigs and setups for modern power tools. The details for mortise, tenons, and traditional effects using modern tools are outstanding. I would treasure this book for this aspect alone.



2. I bought this as a gift for someone, but they already had it. that goes to show it's a wanted item. I gave it to another friend instead of returning it and they love it. The illustrations are awesome. it's great for beginners and advanced. i love how it shows you the final product and also the step-by-step, color, illustrated directions. it gives info on hardware, stains, wood types, etc... i highly recommend this book. you just need some tools.

3 comments about Rat Bastards: The South Boston Irish Mobster Who Took the Rap When Everyone Else Ran.

1. I saw this book and was interested because of the movie The Departed. I saw it in the theatre, and then got the DVD when it came out. Because I am from the area, I knew The Departed was about Whitey Bulger, more than some movie remake of Internal Affairs.
   
   Up until now I had resisted the other books about Whitey and the Irish mob in Southie. This one just looked more interesting, and hit me at the right time.
   
   I have read the other reviews for the hardcover, especially those who are from Southie. It seems people either love it or hate it, and him. I am more lukewarm about the book. I don't have any inside knowledge to tell if he was telling it straight, or making it up.
   
   I thought the writing was ok, not great, but not awful. I imagine his writer was trying to keep the tone and structure true to how Shea speaks. It was a quick read, and a bit engaging, though not a real page turner to me.
   
   I thought that there was a real lack of self-reflection from Shea for the most part. He was just as brash in his story as he was in life. He says this is what I did, this is the surface reason why, deal with it. Very rarely does he dig beneath that.
   
   Other than the prison stories he is very vague about what he did, or what his activities were for Whitey. As he says he followed Whitey's advice about never letting someone else have anything to hold over you. But even without that you shouldn't expect anything specific from him in the book because: 1.) Anything that didn't come out in his trial, he could probably still be prosecuted for; 2.) He says he is not a rat, and so he won't tell anything about anyone else, that isn't already known; 3.) he doesn't want to get those who are guilty in trouble with the law, or make them feel a need to come after him.
   
   What you do get is the sense that he never really grew up. He does want to prove continually how tough he is, and after all the others ratted out, that he is not a rat, but better than the others. He comes from that odd group of males who think that they still should act like teenage jerks, even when fully grown. By choosing to be a perpetual child he also throws away any chance for a real happy life, when he won't commit to Penelope. He gives up a wife, a family, and a home. He is probably too scared of that type of work, and risk. Rather he wants to follow the movie image of the tough-guy gangster, and take the easy way out. Its an empty image that he has opted for, rather than a real life. Its actually sad.
   
   Yes what he did in terms of selling drugs, and being a criminal is bad. He doesn't really care, and he never says he is sorry. He feels bad for the accidental innocent people he hurt, but he never considers the families of his marks/victims/customers, as innocents whom he hurt all the time.
   
   I think the book says just as much about him indirectly as it does with his input. It was a quick, interesting read. I wouldn't buy it in hardcover, but think paper is ok, and maybe borrowing from the Library is the best.



2. John "Red" Shea spends his life making sure he is a "man." To him, this means beating up anyone who doesn't conform to his macho teenage code learned on the mean streets of Southie. One would think Shea would have learned a few lessons about maturity after 12 years in federal prison. You don't get that impression after reading his memoir, which is one of several by members of Whitey Bulger's former gang. Shea takes pride in being the only one not to 'rat,' an act akin to him of the lowest human order. His tale will be glorified by Mark Wahlberg in an upcoming film, evidently. It will make a good movie. But as real life, it's just a waste. The book is a decent read, not as good as some of the others in this genre. It doesn't really take off until the middle when he finally reaches the stage where he becomes Whitey's "protege," as a drug dealer. The prison section is interesting, too. If you like tales of human depravity and bleakness, you'll eat this one up.



3. Shea can say honestly that he is not a rat because he never turned "states evidence" and plead guilty through plea bargaining.He was a "soldier"in Whitey Bulger's Irish crime mob.His job was as a protector and volume drug dealer. There are no murders or "hits" described in the book,whether because Shea doesn't want to be a "rat",or because he never participated in any.The reader is left to speculate whether Shea was a contract killer or not. Certainly from the level of violence he maintained it would be a possibility.Despite it all he seems as if he has a Dr. Jekyll side,at times a warm,sensitive personality.
   He found out too late that "rats" are everywhere in the criminal world,as a matter of fact that is whom "the life" attracts.A code of honor as professed by Shea is a liability.So maybe the criminals' best move is in the words of Forrest,is to"get there firstest with the mostest",that is be the first rat with the most info for the Feds.You can soak up the summer sun with a summer blond. The others can be reviewed on Amazon in regard to their prison memoirs, complete with accounts of homosexual assaults and prisongang riots.Whitey Bulger just outsmarted all of them and that's why they're so angry at him.The criminal needs to be aware that the government always uses "badguys" to get other badguys.Shea needed to realize this when he went into a life of crime.Rats are part of the crime world,a calculated risk so stop bellyaching when one pops your balloon.

No comments about The Twelve Seasons of Vermont.

2 comments about Best Bike Paths of New England: Safe, Scenic and Traffic-Free Bicycling.

1. This book was a nice introduction to some of the bike paths in New England. The path descriptions, for the paths I have ridden, were very accurate. The only thing missing were detailed maps of the trails themselves.



2. This book is excellent. It really enhanced a recent visit to Cape Cod by decribing the various trails in a way that I thought was very accurate, and provided many details which allowed us to effectively plan our bike rides.

No comments about New England Patriots Team Logo Cooler Bag.

5 comments about The Business of America: Tales from the Marketplace - American Enterprise from the Settling of New England to the Breakup of AT&T.

1. I so enjoyed this book I didn't want it to end. Please, Mr. Gordon, write another. My normal read is gory mystery thrillers, so this was quite a departure. I saw Mr. Gordon on C-Span and thought "The Business Of America" might be interesting. This book went far beyond interesting; it made the history of dull finance be as exciting as my normal gory thrillers!



2. I rank this book as a solid four star book. I didn't rank the book with a five star rating because it didn't cause me to have a "paradigm shift" or see the world from a different perspective. However, those interested in American History or economic history should thoroughly enjoy this book. I loved reading the book because Mr. Gordon's work clearly shows his in-depth knowledge of American history and his excellent storytelling capabilities.

   These 47 articles, gathered from Gordon's 10 years as an American Heritage columnist, cover the post-Revolutionary period through the 1950s. Each article is written, as the title portrays, from an American perspective. Mr. Gordon talks, for example, about the railroads and the characters behind them in the American boom but rarely does he specifically address who invented a product / technology, unless an American did. Additionally, I found that little attention was given to air conditioning, as it has impacted migration patterns dramatically in the U.S.

   ...




3. Ten years' worth of writing, these forty-seven essays capture illumuniating anecdotes about economic history, captured in the stories of people, ideas and moments in time. Booms and depressions, clever inventions and failed plans, tough competitors and grandoise government schemes all receive their due.

   There is the story of King Cotton and how the gin made it profitable. Gordon reports on the California Gold Rush, the first television syndication (that's how Desi Arnaz earns a cover picture on an economic history book), war economies, the decision to build the World Trade towers (an eerie story to read today), steamboat races, railroad competition and more, each in pithy, five-page synopses of major historic studies or records. Brief as they are, there is not always a full story, but the histories leave the read impressed and engaged.

   Gordon highlights well-known phrases, e.g., "The business of America is business," "The public be damned!" and explains how they came about (and the myths around same). Before we spoke of people "going postal", Gordon writes about the now-lapsed term, "postalization", another idea entirely.

   In "The American Game" he shows how baseball is unique in that it was a business and not just a sport from its early years. A strange business, yes, where today "semiserfdom" of ballplayers has produced average annual salaries of $2.38 million and an industry prone to "work stoppages" and seemingly on the brink of disaster.

   The better stories are of the visionaries who made and managed business in America, including the man who spent his personal fortune to make milk safe to drink for millions and the unsung heroes who saved businesses from failure. This is a good education for those who don't understand or who doubt the power of free markets, an idea whose time has come, or simply the American dream as it has been lived.




4. We love stories. Since the time human beings crawled out of caves, stories have been the way that we pack lots of information into a digestible package. John Steele Gordon is a great storyteller, and this book is full of great business stories.
   
   If your idea of the business book is the macroeconomics text that you slogged through when you were in college, the Business of America will come as a pleasant surprise. You'll find yourself engaged with the material and learning a lot about the history of American business and how business is done that you simply wouldn't get any other way.
   
   Gordon writes the "The Business of America" column for American Heritage Magazine, and the stories that he tells there are the stories he tells here. He has divided the books into several sections. There are stories of the early days of the American dream that focus on the first years of Europeans on this continent up through about the Civil War. Other sections are divided into topical areas, such as Farming and Food, Manufacturing and Mining, Transportation, Banking, the Business of War, Business and Government, Retailing and Real Estate, and the Telegraph, Telephone, and Television. The final section is called After Hours.
   
   Each of these sections includes several stories. There wasn't a single one of them where I didn't underline something or put an exclamation point in the margin, or write a note to myself. These stories are insightful, because Gordon understands the basics of how business works and the oddities of the human condition.
   
   There are several stories that deal with how technology, in this case the cotton gin and the sewing machine and the steam engine, transformed whole industries. Gordon backs up his stories with facts.
   
   For example, in the section called, "King Cotton," Gordon tells us: "Only five hundred thousand pounds of cotton were spun into thread - all by hand - in 1765. Twenty years later, sixteen million pounds were spun, by machine, and the price of cotton cloth had dropped from the caviar range to the mere smoked salmon bracket.
   
   That illustrated the effect of the power loom on the spinning of cotton, but later in the same chapter, Gordon comes up with another statistic and description to describe how Eli Whitney's cotton gin transformed the cotton industry still further. "Whitney's machine could be built in an hour or so by any competent carpenter and worked by a single laborer, increasing his productivity fully fifty times. In a stroke, Whitney had reduced the labor cost of ginning from the dominant component in the cost of cotton cloth to a mere triviality. And the cost of cotton cloth dropped, as a result, from the smoked salmon range to the fish and chips bracket."
   
   That's how of Gordon works and writes. He includes the stories and the statistics and the conclusions in a wonderful mix that delights, entertains, and informs.
   
   If you are a businessperson, this book is for you because you will learn about how others before you have faced some of the same challenges that you face. You'll learn about how the economic wheel tends to revolve and good times follow bad, and times of great change follow times of stagnation. You'll be a better and more effective businessperson after reading this book.
   
   This book is also for you if you think business is boring. Those of us who are in business know that it's endlessly fascinating and filled with things to learn, as well as with opportunities for profit. But the media as a whole tend to reduce business to the stock market and ignore the true human drama of what goes on. They miss some of the best stories, because they start from the assumption that the most interesting things in the world have to do with almost anything but business.
   
   That's a point that Gordon makes at some length in the chapter called, "No Respect." It opens with this line, "If Rodney Dangerfield weren't a comedian, he would probably be an executive. Executives don't get any respect, either."
   
   From there, Gordon goes on to point out that many famous inventors were not the people responsible for the changes in society brought about by their inventions. Alexander Graham Bell, invented the telephone, and has a giant entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica. But it washis father-in-law, Gardiner Greene Hubbart, who put together the system that became A T & T; and, not only made a lot of money for himself and Bell, but also changed the shape of the country.
   
   In that example and dozens of others throughout this book, Gordon shows us the romance that goes with the business of America.



5. This book details the heros and oddballs of American economic history and their various innovations and inventions that have shaped the development of America's economy over the history of our nation. From the man who invented the "Graham Cracker" to the founder of the Bank of Italy(Bank of America) the book illustrates what, and who, made this country great.
   This is one of the greatest books I have ever read, bar none. The only down-side is that when you finish it you'll feel depressed because it's over. But that's OK, you can just read it again!