5 comments about Curious New England: The Unconventional Traveler's Guide to Eccentric Destinations.

1. I liked this book because I'm always bored and searching for something different to do. If your into New England culture like I am then you'll appreciate us eccentric Yankees! Some of this stuff I wouldn't drive out of my way for but it's enjoyable to read about it. Having grown up in the Boston area I already knew about most of these places(and lots that didn't make the book!)but if your planning to be in the area it's well worth your while to check out this book.



2. My wife and I structured our honeymoon this month around this book, and we had a grand time touring its recommended destinations in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire. As we both work in horror publishing, we particularly enjoyed places like America's Stonehenge and H.P. Lovecraft's grave.

   Buyers of this book should be forewarned to call ahead to every place they plan on visiting. We discovered that although this book was published this year, some of its information is already out-of-date. For instance, the aliens apparently beamed-up the UFO Museum two years ago. In some cases, the information was incomplete (e.g., the Occult Museum is only open to tour groups of 10 or more), or vague (e.g., road directions to the Bow Wow Villa (now no longer called that, by the way) and the Museum of Bad Art).

   Overall, though, the book has lots of interesting information, and our vacation wouldn't have been quite as nice if we hadn't read it.




3. If you like the path less traveled, then this book is for you. If disneyland, and the flashy theme parks are the forefront of the American psyche, then this is the back roads. To my mind infinitely more interesting, I only wish he could chronicle the whole of the US, not just New england.Not to be missed!



4. This is a terrific resource for those who will be travelling in New England and who are interested in seeing the more unusual sights the region has to offer. The book is divided into six chapters, each devoted to a state: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, and a map at the start of each chapter locates the cities covered. Each chapter contains entries listed alphabetically by city, and each entry contains a description, address, phone number, location, hours and sometimes a b&w picture. Entres include cemeteries, haunted houses, odd museums, unusual homes, monuments, etc. This book is lots of fun, contains great information and is well-written.
   
   Terrific resource.



5. Never did I know that there where so many odd places to visit in New England. This book goes state by state and lists places to visit that are famous and infamous. Man now I wish I had a GPS to find them! Get this book!!

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.

4 comments about Day Trips with a Splash: Northeastern Swimming Holes (Day Trips With a Splash).

1. This book will be popular with hikers and anyone wanting to discover new nature sites. I found out about it from Reader's Digest. The author lives out of his truck and travels around searching out these places. He has 4 books out already.
   This brings back memories of swimming in the creek as a kid.
   He used icons to denote if it's an easy hike or a 3 hour expert trek to the spot. Other icons alert you to which ones are suitable for the whole family, if it's crowded, if you can take your dog, or if it might be private enough for skinny dipping.
   Here's how he ranks the sites:
   Fair - A swimming hole rated as fair just makes the basic requirements of being reviewed -- at least six feet deep and no man-made structures visible. It probably has a low expectation of privacy.
   Good - This is a place that, although it has merits, it's also got some liabilities like heavy visitorship or little vertical description.
   Excellent - To get an excellent rating a swimming hole must have some compelling vertical feature like a fall or a jumping rock. Privacy is likely, which suggests the most you would expect to find is one other group.
   Classic - This is a place that possesses the Holy Trinity of height, depth and privacy. Tall, vertical rock gives a sense of enclosure above the waterline and produces a fat deep end.



2. A great guide revealing some of the best of the last uncrowded places in the Northeast. I've been to about thirty of the swimming holes in the book, and it amazes me how often I'll have these incredible places to myself.
   
   The quality of the book is pretty good. Pictures give you an honest picture of the quality of the swimming hole, and each one is rated on a scale by the author, which helps to easily identify the cream of the crop.
   
   I own the other Day Trips with a Splash editions as well (California, Southeast, Southwest, etc.). All very good.



3. The title is misleading. For a book that claims it provides trails for the North East, it does not include the following states: Mass, Conn, RI, NJ, DE, and MD.
   
   Secondly, pages numbers in the index are incorrect. Some of the referenced pages do not exist.
   
   The format of maps are inconsistent.
   
   The poor is poorly organized and information is not provided in consistent manner.
   
   Overall, the concept is good, but the execution is poor. I'm surprised the editor and/or author did not catch mistakes that I noticed in the 1st 10 minutes of opening the book.



4. I loved the idea of taking our family on a few day trips to swimming holes in our area (central Mass). Sadly not a single place listed is less than three hours drive from here! Not one swimming hole is listed in Mass., Conn., R.I. (I wish I had read the reviews more carefully as another reviewer mentioned this!) There is a lot of water here in Mass, and I have to think it shouldn't be a six hour round trip to find swimming hole!
   
   The maps are terrible! They are black and white - which in itself would be fine except that a good portion of the background is dark gray so you have to read the black topographical lines on the dark gray background. They give GPS coordinates and little else to guide you. Many of the maps have no labeled roads.
   
   The book covers a large geographical area (from southern W. Virginia to Maine), but not very thoroughly. My guess would be that no matter where you live, at most 8-10 of the 100 listings are a day trip for you.

No comments about River Guide: Maine, 4th (AMC River Guide Series).

2 comments about Washington Irving : History, Tales, and Sketches: The Sketch Book / A History of New York / Salmagundi / Letters of Jonathan Oldstyle, Gent. (Library of America).

1. [I recommend this anthology specifically for "Diedrich Knickerbocker's History of New York," which was not listed by amazon.com as a separate title.]

   Irving is best-known for his short stories, which are excellent examples of folk literature (and not likely the sole product of Irving's imagination). "History of New York," however, is what established his reputation in his own lifetime. It was the first real American bestseller and the first American novel to garner critical respect overseas. Irving's ingenious marketing scheme for the novel (placing a series of letters in New York newspapers concerning the disappearance of the book's supposed author, Diedrich Knickerbocker) was the first instance of off-the-book page publicity in America and its success (it created a veritable frenzy upon the novel's publication) would not be duplicated for many, many years.

   The novel itself is funny, acerbic, charming and illuminating. Working in the tradition of European satire, Knickerbocker's History is nonetheless distinctly American. Some knowledge of early American history will enhance your understanding of the novel (by helping you recognize which American public figures the Dutch governors are standing in for), but it is not necessary to an appreciation of the novel on its own terms. The book was published in several (revised) editions. I recommend seeking out the 1809 or 1812 edition, as Irving toned down his political arguments in later versions (though the comparison between early versions and the 1848 edition is also worth noting). This anthology contains the 1809 edition of the novel.




2. with his Jonathan Oldstyle stories. And I skipped most of the Salmagundi stories, they were boring me. But now the history of New York is very funny and very amusing. It's very long and takes most of the book. There is a total change of style from pompous to light which is very refreshing.

5 comments about Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do.

1. Michael J. Tougias, Ten Hours Until Dawn: The True Story of Heroism and Tragedy Aboard the Can Do (St. Martin's, 2005) ***
   
   After the runaway success of The Perfect Storm and In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, I rather expected there to be a flood, pardon the pun, of nonfictional tales of derring-do on the high seas. It never happened; Sebastian Junger turned his attention landward, Nathaniel Philbrick has only released a single book since, and the rest of the literary world seems to have met this possible developing trend with a thundering silence. Until, that is, Mike Tougias released Ten Hours Until Dawn, set in the same basic space of The Perfect Storm, but a number of years in the past, during the Blizzard of 1978, a storm that will long be remembered by anyone who happened to be living in the northeast at the time.
   
   Ten Hours Until Dawn was written by a journalist, which is not normally a bad thing. The downside to it is that journalism makes for great half-pagers, but across two hundred-odd pages, it can get a little dry. Tougias has a very worthwhile story here, and tells it competently; however, it could have been told a bit better.
   
   It's the story of Frank Quirk and his pilot boat Can Do, based out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. When the Global Hope, an oil taker, runs aground a few miles south of Gloucester, the harbor patrol sends a couple of boats out after it, and those two boats get caught in the Blizzard of '78, which roars out of nowhere. One gets lost, and the Can Do goes out after it. Eight hours later, the Can Do, also lost, makes its final radio transmission. From the radio transcripts and the aftermath of the storm, Tougias weaves the tale of what may have happened aboard the Can Do that night, as well as the tales of what happened to those two Coast Guard ships (both of which made it back to port) and the Global Hope. There are a number of times during this narrative where Tougias' journalist style serves it well; the simple just-the-facts-ma'am delivery adds a depth to the action. It stumbles, however, when the subject is the humans themselves; even when Tougias is relating the worlds of the survivors, the prose seems oddly wooden in spots, as if the goal is to check in, get a quote, and get back to the action.
   
   Don't get me wrong, it's a good book, and an incident that certainly deserved to be enshrined in the national consciousness. Pick it up, give it a go. ***



2. As a former active Coast Guard sailor (Korean War) I found this book reading at it's best. Tells the life Coast Guard people, along with the harbor pilots, fishermen and others that "Go Down To The Sea in Ships" can encounter.



3. A very well researched and documented story. As a member of the USCG and having been stationed at Gloucester Station and having been born and brought up in the area of the story I found the book extremely interesting. Highly recommend this book to any persons interested in the true story of the men and women of the Coast Guard.



4. This is a compelling story about real people doing what most wouldn't think of doing. It's infuriating that the captain of the freighter was so thoughtless. If he had been anything but a complete waste of time, Can Do would still be here. Read this book carefully and learn what is happening out there. The media ignores fishing and the ocean unless something bad happens. Your life is affected by the ocean and you should know how.



5. I think the author really is a good writer and researcher, and enjoy the book where it is telling the story which is promises to tell. The book shows evidence that Tougias didn't want to take the time to rewrite the plot progression as he discovered critical new details after the book was half written. Also, there are not enough "interesting" details of the story to fill a book which can be sold for a standard book price, so the author and editors saw fit to fill it up with digressions, side stories, and over-the-top speculation.
   
   Side stories: No problem with a side story or two with a close association to the primary story, but many of the stories have no relation to the Can Do at all. These stories are interesting in themselves and I'd like to read them in an anthology of nautical disasters. But when story-after-story like this are inserted between chapters of a chronological story, it massacres the suspense and the flow. For those side stories which are justified, instead of setting them up chronologically so you learn to love the characters, they are thrown in where the author happened to be at when writing the book (author says that he had already written the first two chapters when he found out about... )
   
   Digressions: Lessons about nautical history, emergency survival, survival psychology, and any many other topics would be fine if they were short enough to not stop the flow--- but they are very distracting here because they are very long and very frequent. If I want to learn all about emergency survival for mountain climbing, I would much rather find an "expert" on that topic on the web or in a dedicated book than reading the haphazard and distracting summaries here.
   
   Speculations: A little speculation may be necessary when covering an event with no surviving witnesses, but some of the late chapters are 95% fanciful speculation about what each crew member may have been thinking, and even how they looked at each other. One egregious speculation which totally conflicts with the other speculations, which praise the determination and pertinacity of the principals, is that they may have discussed the cowardly option of killing themselves with Frank's hand gun.
   
   Subjectivity: It's apparent to anybody who reads this book that the author lost all objectivity by the time he wrote the later chapters, probably from the close and emotional relationships he had formed with surviving family members by then. Every single incident discussed attributes the most noble sentiments and impulses to the primary characters, and to the author's friends. It's funny that at the time of the accident, each character with a family had a perfect family life. Frank was the perfect family man, though he slept on his boat instead of at home most of the time. A suicide occurs late in the book, but it somehow happened in spite of the perfect family environment, with no influence of drugs, loneliness, or romances... of course it was the inevitable outcome of a death in the Can Do 4 years earlier.
   
   Childish mysticism: I put this last, because most people in the US do prefer to pretend that guardian angles protect people, that dead people visit and help survivors, that the dead float around in heaven chit-chatting with people who died years earlier, and that ghosts serve as muses for writers. However, it annoys educated people when adult writers start with the assumption that these fictions are true, and apply no skepticism when, for example, an alcoholic reports waking up in the middle of the night to a visitation, then goes back to sleep. A responsible adult must at least consider the possibility that in the middle of the night people may dream about what they wish for. Suggestion for Tougias: Grow up.

3 comments about Searching for Thoreau: On the Trails and Shores of Wild New England.

1. Great stuff. The author is a good writer armed with an intimate knowledge not only of Thoreau's prose and philosophy, but also Thoreau's terrain. People who are hikers and climbers familiar with New England landscapes will especially enjoy this volume.



2. This book was well written and offers some beautiful pictures of Walden Pond and the mountains, Lakes and streams of New England. The author's discriptions of the wilderness areas in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Vermont made me want to go back and enjoy the places that Thoreau wrote about. It was refreshing to read that most of the places were still identifiable and produced a longing to go back and see for myself.
   
   Allan Odell, Redding, Ca.



3. 19th Century writer and naturalist Henry David Thoreau has had an impact on the public imagination that endure down to this very day. The former editor of 'Vermont Life Magazine' and a student of Thoreau's writings from three decades, Tom Slayton has written and compiled seminal essays arising from his travels to the places associated with Thoreau. These deftly written, articulate, engaging commentaries are published collectively as "Searching For Thoreau: On The Trails And Shore Of Wild New England". The individual essays include Walden Pond and 'Walden'; A Walk in the Concord Woods; A Day on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers; The Mountains of Hme; Katahdin Means Greatest Mountain; Northern Main: Big woods, Big Question; Walking Cape Cod; Mount Washington, Two Times; and Conclusion: What's Left. Enhanced with a 'Chronology of Thoreau's Travels'; 'When You God: Tips on Tracking Thoreau'; a Bibliography, and a Sources list, "Searching For Thoreau" will aptly serve as an instructive guide for readers who would like to make their own way to those outdoor New England wilds that so inspired Thoreau in his time. A 'must read' for the legions of Thoreau fans, "Search For Theoreau" is enthusiastically recommended for personal and community library collections, and as an addition to academic Thoreau Studies supplemental reading lists.

3 comments about The Story of King Arthur (Dover Children's Thrift Classics).

1. I've always been fascinated with all things Arthurian and so I picked up _The Story of King Arthur_ by Tom Crawford. Included in this book are stories of the Sword in the Stone, the Round Table, Sir Lancelot, Morgan le Fay, Merlin, Guenevere and much more. I feel this book would be a nice way to introduce children to the legend. It contains just enough magic and daring exploits to keep them interested. It would also be satisfactory for older children or adults who want to reacquaint themselves with the tale. Though certainly not the best I've seen, the illustrations were nice and used in such a way as to bring the story to life while not taking from it. All in all, a pleasant, quick read at a great price.



2. While the aurthian content is there, I can't imagine a worse job of trying to write for children. This is the ultimate in talking down to kids. I could barely get through it because the writing was so uninspired. There is nothing of the glory of the legend here, it is all merely plot and badly done at that. I bought it, then threw it out rather than give it to my kids.



3. The book I read is about many kings, queens, and knights. The greatest of all time was Sir Lancelot. He never lost one battle. He was a great and noble knight. He knew a queen named Guenevere who got very sick. Could Sir Lanelot get there in time to see Queen Guenevere before she died? If he didn't he would probably feel very bad. The Queen died and Sir Lancelot was a half an hour late. After that emotional blow Sir Lancelot had no reason to live. He stopped eating and died. Many knights wept and wept. THE END!!!!!!! My connection is that I have lost a loved one too.
   
   by JK

No comments about Water Trails of Western Massachusetts: AMC Guide to Paddling Ponds, Lakes and Rivers.

1 comments about Indian New England 1524-1674: A Compendium of Eyewitness Accounts of Native American Life (Heritage of New England Series).

1. What an excellent book! The editor deserves much praise due to the fact of the excellent editing and focusing on interesting observations of the North East Native Americans by early settlers and explorers of North America. From the first recorded encounter by the Dutch, English and French to later observations by settlers and villagers each observation of various Indian Tribes (Huron, Mohawk, Alganquin, etc) is described in an interesting and easy to read prose, no doubt due to the excellent editing by the editor Ronald Dale Karr.

   It is excellent that a book finally describes observations of Native Americans and their way of life in the Northeast by explorers and settlers. At first very friendly relations between the two cultures (Europeans and Native Americans) flourished, but unfortunately the greed and exploitation of the Native Americans sealed their fate in the Northeast and eventually spread west and south to all Native American Tribes.

   This is a book that vividly describes the customs, clothing, ceremonies, and types of food the Northeast Indians had during Colonial America and I learned alot more and wish that they were still here is the U.S. so we could respect and learn from them and ultimately ourselves.

   Highly Recommended reading to all U.S. History/Native American Historians.