2 comments about A Time Before New Hampshire: The Story of a Land and Native Peoples.

1. I feel lucky to have found this, and at such a great price! The book was perfect, and the arrival time more than prompt.



2. Among other things I do, I sell fossils and minerals part time, and at an agricultural fair this past summer, my friend Gary lent me his copy of this book. I can not tell you what a pleasure it has been reading this work. The book covers from earliest geological times through the 1700's. Michael Caduto has done an excellent job of outlining all facets of NH history as best it can be reconstructed without benefit of written cultural history. If I could, I would give this book 5 stars for a fascinating read, 5 stars for creating a believable description of what life was like for our native peoples, and 5 stars for the resource information at the back of the book, which includes listings of NH museums, native language pronunciation, wildlife present during the times described, and so on. Thank you Gary for a great read, and, even more, thank you Michael, for all your extensive research on the subject.

1 comments about New Hampshire Street & Road Atlas (American Map).

1. Finally a comprehensive map book of all of New Hampshire. Like all American Map products, it is well put together and easy to read. Important tourist destinations are highlighted. Now if American Maps can just do one book for all of Ct. all will be convered in New England.

2 comments about Among the Isles of Shoals (Revisiting New England).

1. I had trouble putting this book down. I only did to make it last longer.
   Celia totally loved her garden. She wrote about the flowers she planted, the birds who came to visit, and her battle with slugs. How I pulled for her to defeat those slugs!
   This book had me itching to work in my own garden. I plan to read it every spring.
   If you find it interesting reading about other people's exploits with their own gardens then you should enjoy this delightful book.



2. Well written. had to keep reminding myself this was written in the 1800's. Good overview of the islands and reflections of life in those times.

No comments about Embassy Guide Rhode Island Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

No comments about Backroad Bicycling in New Hampshire: The Best Routes for Road and Mountain Bikes in the Granite State.

5 comments about The Terrible Hours: The Man Behind the Greatest Submarine Rescue in History.

1. This is the story of the rescue of The Squallus in 1939, near NH. I of course have heard of the Squallus, and though I worked at Bupers for almost 10 year, I had never heard of "Swede" Momsen, who headed up the rescue. This is compelling reading. My Aunt felt this book was better than the "Perfect Storm" (At least the ending was happier). This is very compelling reading.



2. May 22, 1939, merely a few months before Germany invaded Poland and the world decried the clarions of war, a submarine named Squalus (pronounced `skwaylus') sunk onto the Atlantic floor during a test dive with 58 crew members on board. 33 people survived and waited in darkness and silence, save for the hammering of morse code to let whoever might be on the surface know that they are alive. Peter Maas tells the story of these terrible hours as only a master storyteller can with such great wielding of the language that everything seems to come alive, the people, the vessels, the ocean. Even the cantankerous pontoons make the central character of the story Charles "Swede" Momsen look like Ahab.
   
   If you think of the ratio between the length of the submarine and the depth of Ocean it sunk under was like walking in the swimming pool with water coming up to your chest. But if humans had left the submarine, it would look like ants trying to crawl up from your toes. Humans aren't nearly as lucky as ants in such circumstance due to the nature of our respiratory systems, as well as the chemicals that sustain are being. They all go haywire, so we learn from Maas, and most likely die. Unless we have help from people like Momsen and live.
   
   I picked up Maas' book primarily because the awe and respect it kept mentioning toward a single person, Momsen, in its back cover (how's that for judging the book? ;) and of course because of all the favorable reviews in Amazon on its behalf. Being a student of people I wanted to know more about Momsen and I was not disappointed with his character and everything he did so well: He saved lives. He saved lives while constantly fighting off bureaucratic intransigence. He is one of those few people you meet in life who seem to do well anything they work on; one of those few people you can depend on. These people are not without failure but with abundant perseverance: Learning to overcome failure with an open mind and science, which opens the mind--success awaits to achieve whatever goal. This has been the main theme of all great people of the past, present, and the future.
   
   To have a little bit more appreciation for Momsen's work, I learned that Germany lost 1000 lives (peace and war time combined) in submarines since 1774. In contrast, the United States lost 75 sailors. After having read Maas' book I can safely say this is largely due to Momsen because the number one reason for submarine accidents is due to poor design. Incidentally Squalus's sinking was precisely due to the design of levers and their placement. The very nature of this problem is not far off from modern software problems with poor GUI design. And Momsen's single greatest reason for success was testing, testing, and more testing.
   
   You may ask why I related Momsen to Franklin in my title. Because aside from the scientific, military, political acumen this great man had, he even fixed the Navy's postal service.



3. The story if Charles "Swede" Momsen is another one of those that few people know of, but should. This book is really more about the life of Momsen and not just the rescue of the Squalus. Though it was one of the crowning achievments of his extraordinary life, and perhaps his proudest moment, the rescue of the Squalus started well over a decade before the ship was even built. Momsens tenacity in developing diving, and submarine rescue devices for years before the sinking is what made the rescue possible at all. The Terrible Hours does an excellent job at informing you of the history of the development of the tools and techniques that were used by Momsen and his crew to rescue the 33 survivors of the doomed (without Momsen) sub.
   
   Not given near the coverage of Squalus rescue, but propbably an achievment that saved much more than 33 lives, was Momsen's work on torpedo exploders and submarine attack techniques that had to have saved hundreds or thousands of American lives in WWII.
   
   The book is an excellent read and I highly recommended to fans of submarines, diving, and rescue. If those things don't interest you, the humanity of the story will.



4. I have been a (US Navy qualified) diver since 1958. Momsen has been a household name for years but I had never heard his story. This book filled that gap. Great story, well told.
   
   I suspect most anyone would find this a good read but divers will find it facinating.



5. I love reading these type books and hearing these stories, but "The Terrible Hours" was difficult to get thru and was more of a tribute to Swede Momson than the actual rescue of this doomed submarine. I found myself skimming thru pages of technical mumbo jumbo about Momson's experiments in order to read about the actual rescue itself.
   
   And the lack of a few diagrams of the interior and exterior of the Squalus, made the book all the more difficult to really understand and grasp the entire story.

2 comments about Native American Place Names of Maine New Hampshire and Vermont.

1. This is a spare but informative little volume that will inform you about the origin of many place names in the nation's three northeasternmost states. Originally published in 1909, the book begins with a preface respectful of the region's aborigines and an introduction that discusses the principal tribes of the area; these are articulate and thoughtful, and a real pleasure to read. There are chapters for each state (Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont) with brief, alphabetically-arranged entries of Native American names, many translated, for cities, towns, rivers, streams, lakes, waterfalls and islands.

   The book concludes with a list and short descriptions of the regional tribes, a list of Abnaki words and a bibliography.




2. If you are interested in Maine, New Hampshire or Vermont history,then this book is for you. It was fun to see some of the places listed and know where the name came from.

No comments about Nature Walks along the Seacoast: Southern Maine, New Hampshire, and Northern Massachusetts.

4 comments about New Hampshire Off the Beaten Path, 6th (Off the Beaten Path Series).

1. Spent a week in the White Mtns and used the book extensively. Most interesting was "discovering" the old Mineral Springs resort in Conway. Book was well written, concise maps and directions were very clear. This book, combined with a good road map and a general guidebook make touring NH very enjoyable.



2. This book gives very concise and complete directions to the locations of the places listed. Not only was I able to find every location that I wanted to see and with little or no problem, but also there were good places to eat and other things to do along the way.The accuracy in the distances from the starting points to the destinations is so good that with care there is almost no chance of getting lost. Obviously the authors took great care to be accurate in their discriptions and directions and have written a book that is a real joy to use. I look forward to using other guides by the same authors as I know the will be correct in their information.



3. This book gives very concise and complete directions to the locations of the places listed. Not only was I able to find every location that I wanted to see and with little or no problem, but also there were good places to eat and other things to do alone the way.The accuracy in the distances from the starting points to the destinations is so good that with care there is almost no chance of getting lost. Obviously the authors took great care to be accurate in their discriptions and directions and have written a book that is a real joy to use. I look forward to using other guides by the same authors as I know the will be correct in their information.



4. This is the best series of travel books about New England that I have found. It is easy to read with information I haven't found in other travel books. The New Hampshire book didn't disappoint. It is up to the standard I expect from this series.

No comments about The Butterflies of the White Mountains of New Hampshire.