Connecticut Books

A great read for those of us who labored and persevered in getting our degrees at public universities. This book should be read by everyone ten years after finishing school just so to remind ourselves that the, "good `ole days" of college and graduate school weren't always so good.

My only question is, Mr. Akey - When is your next book coming out?

How can someone write this well and not be nationally known? This book reads like James Dickey, pure poetry. The words are meticiously crafted. The story is both painful and exhilarating. Steve Akey has a story to tell that virtually any of us can relate to. I loved this book. Come out with another, please.

Steven Akey writes of his time in college in a way that made me relive my own (less painful, thank goodness) but largely forgotten college experience. His feelings of lonelieness and alienation are intense, and yet related with a sense of grace and humor that I found irresistable. I'll try to get my college-age kids to read this. I am sure they will find it highly entertaining, and I think they will also come away knowing that even the most pathetic and nearly invisible geek they may encounter is also liable to be a real, breathing (suffering) person different only in small ways from themselves.

Whether I am at home or on the road, books like this one provide this traveller with a lot to do without having to go very far. Personally, I view Connecticut as one of those often overlooked states which gets unfairly dissed because of its close proximity to NYC.
In my case, I was abandoned by my husband who was attending a business conference. I wandered into a book store and found this little gem in the local interest section. On the way to Mystic Seaport, I checked out a few locations. Had a lot of fun and enjoyed myself thoroughly. My only regret was that I didn't have more time to cover all the locations cited in this book. However, even that was o.k. because I now have the impetus to return and check out other interesting places.
Travel books like these are a real treat for locals as well as visitors because they educate and also provide a sense of familiarity to often strange and/or unfamiliar places. They provide a different way of looking at a specific state or region.

If you want to explore interesting things in Connecticut, this is the book to start with. My son and I often do interesting things on Saturday mornings. Part of it is just "bonding time", but part of it is that mom works every other Saturday, so those days we have special freedom to do interesting things. And we do. During warm months, an emphasis is on hiking and outdoor activities. During cold months, if we are not sledding, we try more indoor activities.

Many of the things that we have done are in this book. I was pleasantly surprised. I bought this as a present for mom so that maybe she can join in more often (she does better if she has a picture in her mind and this book is full of pictures).

Explore Connecticut by visiting "everyday" places you might not have noticed. These are the kinds of places that out-of-staters might ask "have you been there" but the residents do not even know they exist -- right next door. Definitely worth taking a look at.

This guidebook to all the fun, out-of-the-way and quirky people and places of Connecticut is a great way to learn more about what makes the state so great. Even as a lifelong state resident, I learned new things; I use this as a means of picking fun daytrips.

Pick up a copy; it'll make you wonder what else you don't know about Connecticut!

I have the first 2 volumes of Connecticut Fire Apparatus in my collection and I had to have Volume 3. Once again Mr. McKeon has done an excellent job of conveying his enthusiasm for the subject matter by providing exceptional photographs and interesting narratives about each piece of apparatus. I highly recommend this book and the previous 2 to be added to your collection.

I come from a long line of firefighters in my family, so I bought 5 additional copies to give as gifts!

Being a volunteer firefighter, and being interested in all aspects of the fire service, I decided to buy this book.
There are lots of pictures of fire trucks from all over Conn.
The author did a great job with the pictures and wrote something about each truck.
The book is a great value for the money because all available space from cover to cover was filled with fire truck pictures.
I highly recommend this book, it is very well done.

I am not a fireman, but I do like photographic collections.
I especially like photographs of classic cars and trucks.
This book obviously took a lot of time and effort to compile the photos and write about each individual fire engine.
I never did see the first two volumes in this series, but I
am happy to have this one.
It will go on my bookshelf with all my other transportation
books.

Connecticut off the beaten path is a great book to keep with you in the car for those spontaneous trips. Lots of ideas in all four corners of the state!

Good book. Shows a lot of places to see and a lot of things to do in a very small state.

my family and i just moved to CT and i bought this book to give us a better idea of things to explore and check out. lots of great tidbits and a ton of stuff to do all over CT. must have!

This book looks like it's going to be a GREAT asset in my mineral hunting! I like the way it's set up, by state and then by county within the state. It lists the various sites, tells what has been found at each site and (by a code explained in the front of the book) where in each site the minerals were (in a field, in a mine, in the water, etc.). There are directions of varying degrees to each site. That's the one thing I'd quibble about -- some of the directions aren't that precise. But I understand that some of these sites are private lands, or not completely documented, and he can't come out and say, "Go fifty feet past the blue house, down a ravine, and to your left." In general, the directions seem good enough to get you close, and after that it's up to you.

He lists the rocks and minerals found at each site and gives some information about the quality at most places, including size of crystals found, color (and quality of color), and so on.

My only regret? I don't know if I'll have time to visit each site he has listed! So many rocks, so little time........

Although light reading, the text serves as a functional guide; lean and concise requiring the reader to become involved in cross reference.

One of a fantastic series of 4 chuck full of informational volumes dedicated to a particular geographic area. A must for any rock hound weather you travel or just live in the geographic area of the volume. If you can afford it, get all 4 regional volumes. Start with your area. The location information brake down of the minerals to be found in each state counties is so valuable you can't do with out it. Saves time, eliminate barren hunting grounds and it's so detailed as to where and how you find the minerals. This is just one of a fact full accurate guide series you'll want to have in your rock library. Don't settle for an older printing, this one is reprinted and has been updated.

Although he is almost forgotten today, Kingman Brewster who was the president of Yale from 1963-1977 was in fact an important figure in recent American history. One reason for this was the fact that he ran Yale in such a way that the university almost completely escaped the tumult that wracked other campuses during the Vietnam War. Another reason is that he revamped the admissons policy at yale so that poorly achieving students at prep academies such as Andover could not get in Yale over high achieving public school graduates.

It was in this area of expanding the elite educational experience at Yale to all Americans, not just members of the WASP elite that Brewster did his most signal public service. Brewster was truly an agent of change. This was most interesting in light of the fact that Brewster was born to a comfortable upper class family, which is precisely the sort of background one would think would spawn conservative thinking. Brewster's activism began back when he was a big man on campus as a Yale undergraduate.

Interestingly enough, Brewster was also one of the founders of the America First Committee that many Americans today regard as being a right wing outfit. Actually, as the author of this book points out, America First was originally a left-wing group and many of its most prominent members were left wing activists. After America's entry into World War II, America First dissolved and Brewster wholeheartedly took up America's cause against the Axis Powers.

It may surprise many Americans today that the Republican party used to have a strong left wing and Brewster was both a stalwart liberal and Republican. It was for this reason that Brewster was never offered a position in the Kennedy Administration.

As university president, Brewster initiated a wide body of reform on campus. Unlike most campus administrators of his time, Brewster did not resort to repression of dissent during the Vietnam War. In fact, Brewster publically sympathized with the radicals on many issues. After resigning from the presidency of Yale in 1977, he became the U.S. ambassador to Britain. After leaving the diplomatic service, he retired from public life and passed away as the 1980's were drawing to a close.

Kingman Brewster was an important American who held an important position as Yale University president. Geoffrey Kabaservice has done a public service in writing this book about a forgotten man in American history.

Many of us who came of age in the 1980s and '90s forget that America used to be a much more liberal place, and that there was a time in recent history when Republicans aligned themselves with issues like civil rights, meritocracy, affirmative action, and the problems of the inner city. We forget -- or never realized -- that in the '60s and '70s there existed a significant faction within the Republican party known as "the liberal establishment." These were men who, on the one hand, undeniably represented the Establishment: "old wealth" Yalies and Harvardites who had attended the best prep schools and summered on Martha's Vineyard; advisors to presidents, board members of the biggest corporations, leaders at the helm of the nation's academic, philanthropic, and religious institutions. On the other hand, they were extremely progressive, regarded as "traitors to their class" for pushing forward policies that were considered radical at the time. THE GUARDIANS recalls an era when Republicans were not all in thrall to populism and the agenda of the religious right, when they were just as likely to be seekers of peace in foreign affairs as rabid hawks. There's a quote from Elliot Richardson in this book that's an eye-opener: "Most people don't really get the fact that the Nixon administration was to the left of the Clinton administration. Even the Eisenhower administration was to the left of the Clinton administration."
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in modern American history.

This is a very interesting, but quite long, book which focuses upon Kingman Brewster and other members of the so-called "liberal establishment" that shaped national policy during the 1945 through 1970's period. In addition to Brewster, long-time Yale president, the author discusses the Bundy brothers, Cyrus Vance, Elliot Richardson, Bishop Paul Moore, John Lindsay, William Sloan Coffin, and even William F. Buckley. While most attention is devoted to Brewster's tenure as Yale's president, including the infamous Black Panther trial and May Day riot that did not occur, I found the discussions of the Vietnam war and McGeorge Bundy's period as head of the Ford Foundation extremely interesting. In some ways, the method of analysis is similar to "The Wise Men," who also, incidentally, make appearances in the book (especially Dean Acheson). Accordingly to Buckley and other critics, the "Establishment" consisted of old-line WASP families, of a liberal political orientation, usually well to do, with superior secondary private educations gathered at places such as Groton and St. Paul's, and then onto Yale or Harvard undergraduate, and then usually Harvard Law School or Harvard administration (such as McGeorge Bundy). This led to appointments in the State Department, Justice, some cabinet designations, and involvement in various presidential staffs, particularly JFK and LBJ. In short, a network of individuals, exerting tremendous influence on government policy, who knew each other over long periods of time and who could promote the careers of their fellows. This group also constituted the liberal-centrist wing of the Republican Party (yes, Virginia, there once was a progressive wing of the GOP), that was gradually displaced from leadership as the party headed toward the radical right. The author's research is truly monumental, consisting of archives and, particularly, dozens of Oral History interviews gathered by various collections. One does wonder, though,whether the so-called "establishment" ever exerted as much influence and power as the author suggests--what is clear is that no similar group exercises much influence in the era of Reagan and the Bushes.

Shaken baby syndrome, abusive head trauma, shaken impact syndrome, however it is described, this book was an excellent account of what may have been going on in the minds of not just the perpetrator but the parents as well. It is a fantastic read. I recommend it to anyone who wants some insight into the physical abuse of children but especially for medical trainees. The language was straightforward, powerful and suspenseful as well. A very interesting read!
Leena S. Dev, MD
Child Protection Team

A great read! I very much enjoyed this book. My son was a victim of Shaken Baby Syndrome and I've often wished that there was a book to further educate the public on the harm shaking a baby causes. Despite all my research on the matter, I was unaware of the history behind how SBS was discovered and this novel brings that to light. Every high schooler should be required to read this so they would know to never shake a baby!

One of the most professionally challenging problems facing those of us who seek to protect children from abuse and neglect is abusive traumatic head injury, otherwise known as Shaken Infant Syndrome, Shaken Baby Syndrome or Shaken Impact Syndrome. Regardless of what one chooses to call it, the reality is that frustrated or angry people who unleash these emotions on infants will, as part of this, shake them. Theyt may slam them or otherwise impact their heads, but they do, indeed, shake them. Prior to John Caffey's descriptions of the Whiplash Shaken Infant Syndrome in 1972, this was not widely known. It was well understood that by impacting the infants head with an object or impacting the head onto an object, you could cause serious head trauma. John Caffey "put it all together" and a major part of how he did this was the confessions of Virginia Jaspers.

"Lilacs In the Rain" is the riveting story of Ms. Jaspers and the infants that she abused. It describes how she became a notorious child abuser, and how the system at that time was blind to the abuse. Most of all, it describes how individuals, sometimes working against the system, can make a real difference in the welfare of Children. It puts into perspective the period of time when the protection of children was dawning on the medical profession.

James Peinkofer, who is a recognized expert in the field of Shaken Baby Syndrome, has done an excellent job in piecing together the puzzle of Virginia Jaspers. All protection professionals, as well as concerned parents, would enjoy reading about his important piece of our history.

Stephen Lazoritz, MD
Co-editor, "The Shaken Baby Syndrome: A Multidisciplanary Response"
Co-author, "Out of the Darkness: the Story of Mary Ellen Wilson"
Co-authot, "The Mary Ellen Wilson Child Abuse Case and the Beginning of Children's Rights in Ninteenth Century America"

Ronald Fernandez did an outstanding job on this book. It is very obvious the level of research he conducted in completing it--at times very daring research. Besides that, his writing style is compelling, and each subsequent chapter pulls you deeper into the story, giving the reader insight into the events and forces that came together to make Victor Gerena the man he became.

I would love to see this book published as a 2nd edition, updated to include the events from the 90s and early 21st century, including the Clinton pardons and the unusual circumstances that lead to the death of Filiberto Ojeda Rios on September 23, 2005, a day that independentistas on the island and abroad celebrate the anniversary of El Grito de Lares.

This book is a must for those who want to understand Puerto Rico's political situation. In a straightforward way, Ronald Fernandez presents the political and economic aspects of Puerto Rican society. He concisely explains how the island, as a 500-year old colony, evolved through history to acquire its actual form. In this book the reader will find more than the official line. Using the legendary robbery by Los Macheteros (The Machete Wielders) to the Wells Fargo in 1983 as an epicenter, Fernandez presents the story behind the scenes, and explains why Puerto Rico is "an island that handled ignorantly, could easily become America's Northern Ireland."

Fernandez provides a detailed and knowledgeable analysis of an often overlooked political faction in Puerto Rican politics and analyses one of several acts of "terrorism" attributed to the Macheteros. Fernandez also provides the reader with a brief, yet enlightening, history of Puerto Rico and its relations to the United States and in doing so lays the groundwork for an explanation of the motives that lead the "Macheteros" to advocate independence for Puerto Rico by any means necessary. A must read for anyone interested in the hypocrisy of U.S. domestic (foreign to the macheteros) policy and for those interested in finding out some of the history behind the release of the Puerto Rican political prisoners several months ago.

I grew up in New Haven and was in my late teens when the events that Paul Bass and Douglas Rae describe so well occurred. As a college student living in Washington, D.C., at the time of the murder, I realized as I read the book that I had missed a lot of the important details of the terrible crime and its aftermath, including the trial and the organized protests by the Black Panthers, Yale students, and other assorted demonstrators. But the authors do a wonderful job at recreating exactly what was going on in New Haven. They unfold a very compelling story in a fair and balanced manner so that the reader will come away feeling sympathy for both the victim of the crime, Alex Rackley, and for the perpetrator, Warren Kimbro, a man who worked hard to redeem himself. For those of you who lived through the late sixties and early seventies, this book will remind you of what that time was like; and for those who did not, Murder in the Model City will give you a true sense of a turbulent era in our recent past.

Bass and Rae do a terrific job of capturing a moment in time when people were becoming "revolutionaries" as easily as they changed hair styles.

What comes through most forcefully, for me, is the easy embrace of "radical chic" by so many who must, in hindsight, be somewhat embarrassed by their seventies selves. The book also serves as a vindication for Kingman Brewster, the Yale president, whose diplomatic handling of a potentially incendiary moment in his institution's history has been widely misunderstood and vilified.

It is also sobering to realize that the crucible of poverty and disadvantage that forged the Panthers still exists in New Haven and in so many other American cities and that the long climb out of despair continues even for many of those, like the book's protagonist, who seem to have escaped the ghetto.

MURDER IN THE MODEL CITY: THE BLACK PANTHERS, YALE, AND THE REDEMPTION OF A KILLER begins in 1969 and follows four members of the Black Panther party who committed murder in Connecticut and fled. Nine Panthers would eventually be tried with crimes from that night - and activists of all denominations descended on a small New England city to protest. Paul Bass and Douglas Rae recreate events, politics, and social issues during the stormy period, bringing to life the sentiments of all sides. A 'must' for any who would understand 1960s black activism and its lasting legacy.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This delightful book is filled with scenic watercolors, cute rhymes, and lots of state information. Each page - or two - features a rhyme corresponding to a letter of the alphabet and telling something about the Connecticut's history. There is more information about the fact in the rhyme at the side of the page. Famous residents such as Mark Twain and Noah Webster appear along with state nicknames (Nutmeg and Constitution) and symbols (state flower, tree, bird, etc.). Several historical anecdotes and state trivia are included for an interested reader, but the rhymes well be easily memorized by younger children. Even adults may find information they didn't know about Connecticut! I think every child who lives in Connecticut, was born here, or is studying the state should read this book. I can't wait to see the others in the series!

N is for Nutmeg is a wonderful book for teachers in Connecticut to help their students learn about the state they live in. The illustrations are beautiful. In addition to beautiful the illustrations, the text is written in two different formats: one in poem format for lower readers and then in expository format for higher readers. It is a great book for all ages whether you are a teacher or not.

Also look into the rest of the series of books. M is for Majestic, A is for America, E is for Empire, etc.

Picture book format history of Connecticut with an alphabet format. Text is very short with rhymes for reading to younger readers, and each topic also has 2-3 paragraphs of longer, more detailed and educational information. The subjects are the state bird, state flower, state tree, famous places, and famous people from Connecticut. A sampling of the topics are P.T. Barnum, Groton where the first nuclear submarine was built, composer Charles Ives, the first law school: the Litchfield Law School, Amelia Simmons, author of the first American cookbook, Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe. I was a little surprised that Y was not for Yale, but instead, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" with an unknown author and not a unique to Connecticut link was selected.

The illustrations are in watercolor and are beautiful!

This is one in a series of books on individual states in America. Note there are different authors and illustrators. I feel the illustrations in this book are superior to some of the other books (although perhaps this is tainted by my love of watercolors).

This book is appropriate for every child who lives in Connecticut and for any child who is learning about Connecticut. I believe every child should know about the state they live in. This book is nice to look at and the content is not too long, so it will appeal to many children. I am impressed by the quality of the content of the books and plan to use each of the books in the series when teaching my children about each of the States.

This would make a great gift for a child, and a copy should reside in every public library and in every school library. I also feel that public libraries should have the entire series in their collection!