1 comments about New England Gardener's Guide.

1. This book is great! I love the photographs (especially nice to look at in the dead of winter!) and the simple and concise way the information is conveyed. I refer to this book over and over again!

5 comments about Francis Parkman : France and England in North America : Vol. 1: Pioneers of France in the New World, The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century, La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, The Old Regime in Canada (Library of America).

1. Parkman's (multi-volume) account the of the struggle of France and England for North American dominance remains the classic history. It is commodious in scope, majestic in vision, and equal with Thucydides in tragic magnitude. Parkman describes what North America once was (with invaluable discriptions of natives), and what still lies below the surface of what we've become.
   
   There are other valuable sources. Morison [The Northern Voyages 500-1600 (1971), The Southern Voyages 1492-1616 (1974), Samuel de Champlain (1972)]. Anderson (Crucible of War) and Eccles (The French in North America). None are as eloquent as Parkman, though Morison's Voyages are equally worthy.



2. Parkman is thorough and comprehensive, but the amount of information that this throws at you is almost overwhelming. Reading his books makes War and Peace seem like a quick read...lots and lots and lots of information.



3. Francis Parkman is one of the most talented writers of our country's history that one will read. He writes as if he is hovering about the situation and describes it so you feel as if you were there, not bogging you down with details. This is a must read for all history buffs.



4. Parkman's magisterial work on the role of France in the New World must surely rank as one of the high points of 19th century American literature. Certainly the editors of the highly-esteemed Library of America made that determination when they selected the complete set of Parkman's works to be included in the ongoing Library of America series. Only a partial read is required to understand why this multi-volume work, written over a thirty year time frame, is regularly compared to Gibbon's "Fall and Decline of the Roman Empire," for Parkman's mastery of narrative historical storytelling pours forth from the earliest pages in prose that is rarely seen in today's written works. This is truly a monumental work, and should likely be considered a critical component for anyone trying to truly understand the development of the New World from the European perspective.
   
   Parkman begins his saga with the founding and settlement of the area we now call "St Augustine" in Florida, arguably the oldest continuous settlement in the United States, and routinely billed as the "Oldest City in The United States." To visit St Augustine today is to make Parkman's narrative come to life, for there we visit and see Ribault's monument, the Castillo de San Marcos, Fort Mose, and the so-called "Fountain of Youth." To those who are more familiar with US colonial history in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and in greater New England, this is a story that greatly predates the Revolution, and unfolds the stormy rivalry between Spain and France's claims in the New World. It is often a brutal epic, but also contains the awe and wonder of Europeans who for the first time explored the unknowns found therein after the long trip across the Atlantic.
   
   After this difficult early series of episodes, the story turns to LaSalle and the many other French explorers who explored and settled in the area of the St. Lawrence Seaway, and the issues and battles that ensued as these early explorers met the indigenous peoples of the region. Any map of the United States will yield an abundance of French names through Illinois, Michigan, and all around the Great Lakes (the word "Illinois" itself is a great example, and "Detroit," actually "d'étroit," or "of the straights"), bearing witness to the history of French exploration and settlement in these early years.
   
   Parkman's narrative is superb, a example of historical writing at its best. His source documentation is so thorough that the work can serve as a primary resource for a seemingly endless series of derivative studies. But whether you are a historian or not, Parkman brings the story alive, and lets you be a virtual guest through the centuries. Make sure you get both volumes.



5. This new edition of Francis Parkman's early American history is a first rate republication by "The Library of America" and what a book! Parkman writes history like he was there when the events took place . You can see the Indians war paint and hear the great orator Pontiac as he stirs the tribes to follow him . Watch as the The British army learns hard lessons in the American wilderness . Watch as pioneers begin to spread across the Appalachian mountains . Parkman walked many of the trails he describes and much of his details come from eyewitness. His books are heavily footnoted with not just the source , but quotes verbatim in support of his writing . His histories are written in the style of the great epics of old like Romulus and Remus . This book goes to the passions of the participants , both sides . To be sure he writes from the veiw point of a Proud American but that does'nt mean he ignores the other sides veiw point and thankfully these were written before political correctness became to dominate veiw point . I have read no modern history better written or more in depth as to its subject. I recomend all his histories . This one in particular as it covers a little published time in American history .

5 comments about The Prince and the Pauper (Bantam Classics).

1. In Mark Twain's classic historical novel, Tom Canty, a poor boy from the London slums, and Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales, unwittingly swap places. Because they bear an uncanny resemblance to each other, no one believes them when they announce who they really are. So their adventures begin ...
   
   I recommend this book to just about anyone, especially historical-fiction fans. I adored it. The novel is humorous, witty, adventurous and has a lot to say about the human folly of judging people by outward appearances. Plus, it's a classic that's actually a quick read!



2. Wow! What a story this was. Twain was a great story-teller in his own right with the ability to inject his own feelings into the book. This book is very much a satire attacking the life under a tyrant. And although the book was written in a good-humored state, one can see the sourness behind it all.
   
   The book started out with a prince and a poor lad, who really looked alike, switching clothes. They soon found themselves into very uncomfortable positions as the two had to step into the life of the other. The pauper was very much uncomfortable with all the regal etiquettes imposed and followed in the royal court. And the Prince flowed into the streets, still believing and telling everyone that he was the Prince of England. This only made himself look like a clown, soon the Prince found himself in the company with a bunch of thieves, gangs, and pickpockets. He even drew a spanking from the pauper's vogabond father, who believed the Prince was his son Tom Canty. The two's lives would soon come to at a criss-cross at the coronation of the Prince, and many interesting things ensued.
   
   Overall, this book was well-written, well-told, and well-described. I give it a four stars instead of a five because there are small segments in the book that are quite boring, but nothing major that lasts more than 5 pages at a time. This book is definitely a classic that is worth reading.



3. Mark Twain classic "The Prince and the Pauper" has ever been so excitedly ever told tale of two look-alike boys; a tale of the rich and the poor. No wonder, this has ever been the best educational pick in the classroom as kids would love to dive into imagination and get the moral of the story. Two different worlds and Tom Canty and Edward Tudor shared the same birth date and same features. Fate brings them and they decide to change clothes for few minutes. This leads to the adventures beyond wildest dreams. He pokes fun at the old upper class in England and showed how wrong it was to judge people by outward appearances. Born in November, the author's other famous Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer were my fav too. A good Pick for all ages.
   
   - ilaxi



4. The Prince and the Pauper is a classic tale of switched and mistaken identities when two young boys who are similar looking in appearance happen to meet each other and decide to change appearances. Despite the fact that the two look similar, the two boys have led quite different lives--one boy living a poor, destitute life with an abusive father, and the other, living a life of luxury. Once the two boys decide to switch to see how each other looks, they seemingly do not know that it will be hard to switch back. Mark Twain's ability to establish a children's story with a sense of royalty and fantasy intermixed is clearly attributed to his forte as a great versatile writer, both of satire and comedy, as well as fantasy. While the story has a simple idea and basis for its course--the idea that two boys must learn how to live in the "others" shoes for awhile--the greater strength and stability is to depict a strong moral in the story, which is that we often do not know or appreciate how hard things can be for someone else in life.
   
   Another fun aspect of this work is simply the trademark satire from Twain. He has a way of making fun of the idea of royalty in a dignified and subtle way, and has fun once the two boys are in the "others" world. Not only this, but he has fun "overdoing" some of the scenes for both boys. Tom Canty is distressed at the process of how much trouble it is to do anything without the "Royal Court" helping him with an everyday task, from taxing to simple. The king is ashamed at the ill treatment he receives from mean citizens of the town, and despite his protests of being a king, no one listens.
   
   Each child gets himself in unwittingly bad circumstances that he wishes himself out of, and each must find ways at adapting to their new life. For instance, Tom Canty cannot believe the power that his words has in the court of law, and he is both shocked, and impressed, by his ability to literally change the course of those condemned to death. Although frightened at first, he learns to manage his new station in life. Meanwhile, the poor king has to life an unaccustomed life of poverty, and must deal with all the malevolent allies of poor Tom's father, despicable individuals who rob, cuss, steal, and are vulgar. Generally, he struggles, but is aided by a generous man named Miles Hendon, who helps him through all the difficulties.
   
   Perhaps another moral evoked from Twain's tale is that of not thinking yourself better than another person, despite your or their station in life. The boys seem to have to deal with this by the book's end, and learn their ways, having a greater and deeper appreciation of the opposite point of view.
   
   There is plenty of adventure, imagination, and humor to keep you entertained in this book. At times, several scenes do get a little confusing, but overall it is a rather quick and simple read. The Bantam Classic edition also has footnotes to explain terms in the index, and fairly big print easy for reading.



5. One of the most persistent themes in American pop and literary culture is the switched identity plot. Movies like Garfield 2, Face-Off, Big Business and Double Dragon have been based on this trick. Where did it all start? Probably with this children's classic by Mark Twain. Set in Renaissance England, it tells the story of two boys who look exactly alike, except one is a prince and the other is a poor boy. The two meet each other, exchange places, and have loads of fun. All ends well as they each regain their proper places with more wisdom and friends than before.
   
   The text of the book is readable by most elementary school kids, though the length is quite long for a children's work. The dialogue is English, and might make hard reading the first time around, and the comedy might be dry for those not used to it. But the book is enjoyable and totally appropriate. I highly recommend it.

No comments about THE BOYS OF BROOKLYN: THE PARADE GROUNDS: BROOKLYN'S FIELD OF DREAMS.

5 comments about The Abbess of Crewe.

1. I was about nine years old when the Watergate scandal broke, and I must confess that I don't know much about it beyond our national mythology of bugging, break-ins, erased tapes and G. Gordon Liddy. Is this satire fair to Nixon and his gang? I don't know, but I suspect that it is. At any rate, it remains a witty parable of hypocrisy in high places and, given the rate at which our technology is improving, its comments on surveillance are bound to keep this book topical for quite some time to come.



2. If this book were written in a serious tone, I fear it could be taken as very offensive slander. Instead, it is a brilliant send-up of Watergate and similar abuses of power. It centers on the election of a new abbess.

   Candidate 1 recites her favorite (Protestant) English poetry rather than the Psalms, supports a strong sense of societial class, and uses electronic eavesdropping as a mere extention of listening to convent gossip as a way to maintain proper order.

   Candidate 2 is compulsive regarding order in her sewing box, maintains an all-too-public liaison with a young Jesuit (outdoors rather than linen closets), and leads the sewing nuns to dreams of freedom.

   Add to this a missionary nun using Machivelli to deal with cannibal and vegetarian tribes, young Jesuits bungling break-ins, a nun cross-dressing to deliver hush money ... and you have an absolutely hilarious study in justification of means to insure one's "destiny".




3. -- unquote the most formidable of my university tutors, declining to follow up my recommendation that he should see The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie).

   I had the presence of mind to answer 'Well so have I' but not the gall to say to him 'How about you?' Really she only has a 'bad' mind in the sense we all have bad minds -- there are thoughts we do not lightly own up to. What makes Spark so unique is that the thoughts are so diverse and fanciful. She is all over the place in the best sense, she is as light-footed as a Mendelssohn scherzo, and there is never a demeaning touch in all her writing. I never really know where I am with her. She deals with senility (Memento Mori), satanism (The Ballad of Peckham Rye), fascism (Brodie), epilepsy (The Bachelors) and sexual situations too various to list (passim) like the shallop flitting silken-sailed in The Lady of Shalott. They never become issues, they never become themes and there is often an overlay of the outright fantastic, as when Mrs Georgina Hogg in The Comforters, who has no private life, disappears when she closes her bedroom door behind her.

   The Abbess gets 4 stars from me because it is one of her slighter efforts compared with the novels mentioned above and certain others. Anyone getting to know Spark's work could start as well with this as with those, or indeed as well with those as with this. If you can get her wavelength at all this book will not 'lose' you as The Hothouse by the East River might do. I have seen it described as 'a wicked satire on Watergate', a plonking, insensitive characterisation -- you do not pin Spark down like that. Any fool can see what might have suggested the election campaign for Abbess between the sewing nun and the electronics nun, and the repeated question to the foreign missionary nun when she rings in from various parts of the globe 'Gertrude, do you have a cold?' is an obvious reference to Kissinger but fantasy not satire. Dame Muriel was Jewish by birth and a convert to Catholicism, with which she is obviously fixated in her own strange way. I have never understood what its special attraction was for an author who has an affair going on between one of the nuns and a local Jesuit, but I don't think this author allows us that kind of insight into her thinking. This book is even more of a gossamer effort than usual and you will get to the end before you know it, at which point you will be hit out of the blue by the sudden and startling poetry of the last sentence.




4. Muriel Spark's The Abbess Of Crewe (1973) is a brief comic meditation on the forms and abuses of power in the Anglo Saxon world. Partially inspired by the events and the political repercussions of Watergate, The Abbess of Crewe transposes the narrative to a Catholic convent in England, where a small cabal of elitist nuns, blinded by power and a foolish faith in their own impervious superiority, has seized control of the abbey through a startling and inventive series of Machiavellian maneuvers. The novel is complexly shaded, and thus mischievous Alexandra, the abbess of the title, and her scheming cohorts, Walburga and Mildred, are the novel's protagonists despite their gross cruelty and self-centeredness.
   
   Looking forward to today's world of continuous public video surveillance, Alexandra and her inner circle have, regardless of the fact that the convent observes medieval standards, wired the entire facility so that there is no place in which the other nuns cannot be eavesdropped upon or monitored. Hilariously, the abbess and her inner circle enjoy pate and champagne in their sumptuously decorated observation room, while the rank and file members of the order, whom they privately hold in gleeful contempt, endure meals of hot water, boiled nettles, and cat food without complaint or awareness. Spark is unsparing in her depiction of both Alexandra's sense of superiority, which approaches the predestined, and the mindless idiocy and gullibility of the common nuns in the pew, who clearly represent the average man, ripe for manipulation, exploitation, and programming.
   
   Like Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1962) and The Takeover (1976) among others, The Abbess of Crewe is another extraordinarily deft examination of political and personal power struggles and the methods in which politics really operate within ostensibly gentile, mannered, and "correct" hierarchies. Alexandra and her confidantes are blissfully aware that they are capable of the very vices they publicly decry in the "vulgar" "common" nuns; but serene deportment, assured speech, personal charisma, and effortless presentation are, in their eyes, inherent manifestations of individual and spiritual nobility, and not only take precedence in all situations, but firmly override the possibilities of sin and wrongdoing in the elect. Alexandra's outrageously barbed and salty language behind closed doors--"A Jesuit, or any priest for that matter, would be the last man I would elect to be laid by. A man who undresses, maybe; but one who unfrocks, no"--is one of the highlights of The Abbess of Crewe.
   
   Interestingly, the corrupt and delusional Abbess appears to lose control of both "history and mythology" as the narrative winds to a close, going so far as to throw her co-conspirators to the wolves when the need to do so arises. But Alexandra never loses her regal bearing or quiet sense of self-justifying divine grace and privilege, and, Spark hints, probably never will.



5. Spark said this was a dig at the Bush Administration, but read it now for a new perspective. The line-tapping nuns of Crewe feel just as much like Bush's NSA as Nixon's plumbers.
   
   Who's Alexandra? Personally, I think Bush is the model for Winifrede... Read this for some laughs and some razor-sharp cuts at the "paranoid style" of government that Richard Hofstadter warned us of 40 years ago-- boy oh boy, did he know what he was talking about....

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1 comments about When the Prisoners Ran Walpole: A True Story in the Movement for Prison Abolition.

1. America: less than 1/6 of the world's population - more than 25% of the world's prison population.
   
   The 1971 Attica massacre shocked the world into awareness of the pervasive violence perpetrated by state authorities in our prisons. In Massachusetts, voters pledged to prevent such slaughter from ever happening there, and the governor agreed. The reform initiative that resulted led to the prisoners at Walpole's Massachusetts Correctional Institute winning control of its day-to-day operations.
   The prisoners, working with 1530 civilian volunteers, won control of the operation of a maximum-security prison. The book, authored by a prison abolitionist, reveals what can happen when there is public will for change and trust that the incarcerated can achieve it. In the months before they took over running the maximum-security facility in 1973, prisoners and outside advocates created programs that sent more prisoners home for good, reducing recidivism 23 percent and decreasing Walpole's population by 15 percent.
   When guards protested the changes they saw as choking their livelihoods, finally refusing to run the prison, the prisoners stepped ably into the void--and all-out peace ensued. They shrank the prison murder rate from the highest in the country to zero. Even more significantly, they worked hard to bury racial antagonism and longstanding feuds so even "lifers" with no hope of going home could find ways to live together, learn, and grow--to regain, finally, the humanity that the system intended to squash.
   Critical to the work of prison abolitionists and transitional reformists alike, this groundbreaking history offers a real-life example of a prison solution many see only as theoretical. It not only reminds us why people seek to make prisons obsolete, but also recalls a time when we were much closer to these abolitionist goals.
   
   The history of Walpole, at its grittiest, shows that we do not need a police state to 'help' us live our lives, and that, in the final analysis, we'd be better of without the so-called 'security' measures provided by the state and the entities of enforcement which under the pretense of 'justice' enforce the inequities resulting from the disregard of human value which must be overcome if we are ever, ever to live peacefully in this world. A history and an argument which could not be more timely and appropo. Rather than trusting in the almighty dollar, or the strength of institutions, recognition of our fellow humanity seems like the best place to begin.