Connecticut Books

From the author of a Separate Peace follows a little tale of Yale, New Haven, and romance, with classic scenes including polo horses in dorm rooms. A must read for anyone who has an interest in Yale or John Knowles, but perhaps a little too light for serious novel-goers.

Its a solid story that makes you want to keep reading. One problem is that it has some chronology problems. HIppy beatnicks in the wrong era. But if you want something to read, pick it up.

It is fairly obvious that John Knowles tried to capture the same success of "A Separate Peace" with this novel: New England, war time conditions,adolescent boys, maturity, and school life. But "The Paragon" falls far short of "A Separate Peace." The same emotion is never quite there. Instead, I felt like I was reading the script to a Sunday night made for TV movie. The thoughts of the main character,Lou Colfax,are overstretched and unintentionally humerous. I almost felt sorry for Knowles at one point in the book. He describes a character as being a worn out writer who only had one successful work attributed to his name. I'll give you a little pity John--2 stars.

John Knowles does a good job of developing Lou Colfax' character, only to waste it with a rushed, so-so resolution of this man's troubles in the end. He does present good insights about war, life in New England, and early 20's angst. The various characters around Lou are also very interesting. It was only at the end that I felt let down.

The Paragon is an in-depth look at the life of Yale student Lou Colfax as he travels throuh his sophomore year. Lou is a complex young man who is battling with love and his desire to make chanes in the world. You will become more -tune to the human character and you'll find yourself pondering the ideas of Lou -- most of which ou've probably never considered before! The book also provides valuable insights into the life and times of fifties North Eastern USA.

I am a ghosthunter and can appreciate what Eno has accomplished in his long career. Psychology is the main weapon in fighting parasite cases and negative type hauntings. The multiverse theory is fascinating.

But why was this book so short?

The face in the window on the cover of the book was very interesting.

James Kelly

I have a pretty good idea of what "Spine Tingling" means and it is most definately not "Faces in the Window".It was hard to even keep interested while reading.
Come on now, time to tell the truth so here goes... Do not buy this book not even if it is on sale !!! I'm a person with a pretty vivid imagination and though I looked pretty hard at the cover picture and I guess one could see a nose kind of, sort of. Even in the pictures of scenery it was hard to see anything resembling anything except what I was looking at.. Well, this is my first review and sorry it is a negative one but really , is this person promoting himself or what?

I've been reading ghost stories for maybe 40 years or so, and have experienced a whole lot of paranormal phenomena personally. I don't think I'm that hard to please as a reader, either; if it's a good story, I'll probably enjoy it. And yes, some of the five stories were good. The "pick of the lot" so to speak was definitely the Bridgeport Poltergeist incident. Fascinating account, well documented.

But here's the thing. First of all, the entire book comprises reprinted stories. There's nothing new! OK, if they were all great accounts, then it would be worth it, but at least in my opinion a couple of the accounts were very cursorily covered. The account of Connecticut's Village of Voices for example, didn't impress me at all as solid research. If the photos reprinted are as high quality as the originals I have to say that the "faces" and "dagger" Eno points out are dubious at best. Old stories, not many of them, and some are less than substantial. Here's the thing that really gets me, though. On top of everything else, the total page count is 100, and that's including what I feel to be "padding"; an index, a section on "disappearing ships of New England" (sorry, ships hit by rogue waves aren't ghosts, and even reading the author's review of the occurrences, only one of the disappearances even seemed that mysterious), and a two-page "glossary" containing a grand total of ten words. You get less than 78 pages of actual ghost stories!

Not to be overly denigrating, but I have a very strong feeling I just bought something the author threw together from old research to get a little more publicity and another "book" under his belt. Seriously, there's a reason why larger publishers won't touch a manuscript under 80,000 words, and this has to be barely half that. I'm really not at all happy with this book, and I'd recommend you pass on this one. There are a ton of great books out there on the subject, keep looking.

What a wonderful book, Paul Eno sure knows how to tell a story, He starts off his stories with a slow tapping and follows up with a big bang, I have not forgotten one story in this book, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to read First hand accounts of Paranormal phenomena, From poltergeist's to Vampires its all here... A must have for the paranormal genre collector... This is the real thing.... No fiction here...

The book would be great if the author had really experienced the place written about. I've lived here all my life, and spent most of my advanced years visiting and supporting these various tourist sights. I was very disappointed that the author left out so many of the wonderful places available to mom's and their young. Of course these places are available to interested fathers also. Take the time to be with your kids ( forget the kitchen, it will be there when you get back)and enjoy Connecticut. But, go to a visitor center for a listing of the Hot Spots for Kids! This book is an entry level look at Connecticut from a busy mom's rushed experiences. Not bad. Just not the authors best work.

If you live with kids anywhere within travel distance of this beautiful state, this book should be in regular use in your home. You can't beat the honest, personal and informative way this book will make your trips a pleasant memory.

Doe Boyle's Fun with the Family in Connecticut is exceptional. The text is enjoyable to read as well as informative. It is clear she personally visited many of the sites. It is rare that a family travel guide is written so well. I've found tons of things to do with my family after reading her book. The book is so well done I read it cover to cover simply for pleasure. Family adventure guide is simply fabulous.

I happily read many of the descriptions in this book and was excited to take my three children to some of the wonderful places described. However, the descriptions are not realistic - time after time I ended a day with disappointed children, feeling frustrated myself. The book is well written, but the descriptions are often exaggerated and result in disappointed children and frustrated parents. The author does not seem to understand what it is children like to do. My recommendation would be for families visiting CT to try a different guide.

I read the earlier version of this book, "Katie.com." The book starts off slowly and I was getting bored with it for a while. I just couldn't relate to this teenage girl from an upper middle class family. In my opinion, she was too obsessed with designer clothes and with her swimming team. The book eventually gained my interest when she started talking to a guy that she met online who was going by the name of Mark. Their relationship and the legal case that followed are the only things that piqued my interest. I'm glad that I read the entire story, but I'm very glad that I spent so little to buy it. This book is well worth the few bucks that I payed for it. I found it to be very mild. I do recommend it--even for other teens.

The story, at times, drags on but you want to keep reading it just incase something happens. Its a book yous should read if you have alot of time on your hands.

I do not recomend this book to a preteen. There are parts in this book that are explicit ie: talking about oral sex (but not using the term oral sex!) along with other things that a preteen doesn't need to be subjected too at such a young age. The less prude person may say parts of this book boarder on soft porn. If you want to read about a girl getting mixed up with a 41 year old man, than read this book. I hope that this book does not end up in libraries at our schools.

I loved this book and think that every parent, preteen and teenage person online should read it. It was well written and gives you insight into what she was thinking and feeling in her world around her. Highly recommended and well written.

I enjoyed the book but had hoped that it would have more of an American perspective on the Gurkha soldiers, with whom I am familiar. Instead, the book presents an interesting narrative of the way in which an American became an officer in the Indian Army, with a Gurkha regiment. (An American officer with Gurkhas was a significant surprise for me, as I'd not assumed it had ever happened.) Additionally, there is a significant portion of the book written on parts of the Burma campaign against the Japanese.

While I had hoped there would be more reflection on the Gurkhas as soldiers and people, and perhaps a different view than that of the typical British officer, I do recommend the book for any with an interest in the India/Burma components of WWII. I'm sure I'd enjoy sharing a cup of coffee and some tales with the author.

In all the books that have been written on the Burma theatre of operations, this is one is perhaps not so stark and vivid as John Master's, "The Road Past Mandalay" or George Macdonald Fraser's "Quartered Safe Out Here."

It is noteable in two respects: It details the training involved in making one an officer in the Ghurkas and it also gives a good account of some of later fighting around Arakan and final push against the Japanese in Burma. It is a vital memoir but it pales in comparison to, Michael Calvert's "Days of Hope" or Bernard Fergusson's "Beyond the Chindwin."

I very much enjoyed reading this very well written, interesting, and compelling war memoir!

I initially purchased the book to read about the author's experiences with the American Field Service in North Africa. Manned by mostly-well educated individuals from almost every state in the nation, the AFS consisted of young volunteer ambulance drivers who served with the British Eighth Army in North Africa before the United States entered World War II.

Those volunteers not only drove ambulances but also carried stretchers and served as medics for wounded British, Commonwealth and French soldiers fighting the Germans in North Africa. A few of them, such as Scott Gilmore, the author of the book, volunteered to join the British Army after their one year contract tour with the AFS had ended.

Gilmore went on to fight the Japanese in Burma with the 8th Gurkha Rifles. The author faithfully recorded his impressions of every aspect of military life and especially Great Britain's loyal Gurkha soldiers. The result is an excellent World War II memoir.

This book is recommended for anyone interested in the roles of the British and Indian armies in Burma during World War II and Gurkha troops and formations.

I have'nt read the book but what I have read in the summary I know I will not read it because it is not the truth. First of all the mans name they claimed to be the head of the white hats was not Al Ross IT IS ALLEN MOSS... He was not Mayor of Cairo at that time and was not a NEO-NAZI Yes he was a white hat they were a group of people who were only trying to protect our white neighbors. Yours truly. The one who lived through it.

I don't remember how I heard about this book, but I remember reading it--several years ago soon after the paperback edition was published. It is a model of how to write about changes and crises in a particular place. I am a book author and editor, journalism professor, newsletter editor, and former newspaper editor and publisher, who usually does not read books like this one. The best and only connection I have to this book is that I am interested in historic preservation of "main streets." Yet I read this book carefully and thoroughly, enjoying nearly all of it. The section on Cairo, Illinois was better than the section on Connecticut, but that's no real complaint. Highly recommended.

Hamilton spent less than three years researching the 39 lighthouses in this book. If you have ever researched any historical site, you'll know that he could not have been very thorough. His research skills are suspect (as he continues to display in articles for Long Island Boating World), and he does not delineate between fact and folklore at times. He even lists the Latimer Reef Lighthouse as being in Connecticut (it is a New York light). There are plenty more errors, but I won't bore you with them.

I wouldn't recommend this book to serious lighthouse fans. It's not up-to-date (1987 publication date - much has changed since then) and the information inside cannot be taken as absolute.

This is a first rate book describing the lighthouses of this region. Each lighthouse is given a chapter with good descriptions of the station and it's history. There is also an very good explanation of fresnel lenses and modern optics which lighthouses use. I highly recommend it for any one who loves lighthouses.

Lee Dickenson is one of those increasingly rare prison guards who manages to survive in the institutional setting with his humanity intact. The Sounding Tree is a powerful collection of vignettes on the numbing senselessness of prison inhumanity. It should be read by everyone concerned with the real cost these concrete bunkers­­popping up like mushrooms after rain across the country­­are having on our nation. -Daniel Burton-Rose, editor, The Celling of America: An Inside Look at the U.S. Prison Industry.

As a person who has known Lee Dickenson for 12 years and has worked at two of the facilities that he talks about in the book (as a matter of fact, I'm "James Young" in the "Numbers, Not Names" chapter) I found that although he did not outright lie, he left out enough information in many incident to alter the facts. In the Chapter "Hector Rodriquez" chapter, he implies that all an inmate has to do is request to be transferred to a new facility and it's a done deal. That is simply not the case. And, to collude with an inmate to throw a trash can in order to get transferred is insanity. In "Numbers, Not Names", he calls me "Lt. Infanti's yes man." No problems there. When a lieutenant gave me an order, the answer was "yes." Lee expects obedience to his orders now that he is a lieutenant. The inmate in that situation was in posession of contraband. He was putting the wire up in front of me. I took the contraband and refused to return it to him. I'd take it again. It's called, "doing your job." The character, "Chuck Daniels" is cited as being one of the best officers that Lee ever met. The real "Chuck Daniels" was promoted to lieutenant and then promptly demoted. His friend, Sal Christaldi was and is a nice guy, but his nickname at Niantic CCI was "The Marshmallow" because he was so soft on the inmates, a quality that Lee despises. I could, but I won't go on and on about the half truths in the book. All of us have felt frustation from time to time but Lee tends to find more frustration than most of us. My son, who is a correction officer asked, why, if Lee is such a terrific lieutenant, has he left almost every facility that he has ever worked at under a cloud and why is he always in trouble. That is a valid question. Everyone gets in trouble once in a while, but Lee seems to be looking for the world's indoor record. This department has more problems than it deserves. Those of us who succeed know that this is not a perfect world and that this is not a perfect department and we adapt. Lee needs to learn how to choose his battles. He loses most of his battles, and his victories all seem to be Pyrrhic victories.

Spunky Etta, 11, has had enough of the foster homes. She runs away from her last hoping to find a place that she and her brother and sister can be together. That dream of being a family once again keeps Etta's spirit going. She finds an old foreman's cabin that has been squatted by Walter, 12, who is hiding out from his father, the town drunk. Together, with their friend Jake, they make a home for themselves and Etta finds herself belonging to a different kind of family. Hurst drew me in from page one with Etta's humor and non-stop chatter. The dialogue was good, description great, and the plot interesting enough to keep me turning the pages. Although some parts were predictable and I thought there could be a bit more tension with her brother and sister and if they would be coming to live with her or not - it was an enjoyable read.

I was anticipating a book full of vivid descriptions of life and scenes in the Pioneer Valley during the 1800's. Instead, this book is a series of unimaginative and uneven dialogues between woodenly uninteresting child-characters. Too bad, given that there are few stories written in that setting. The story begins in an abandoned foreman's house along a minor canal system. The lead female character, Etta, is in the house eating the nuts she has found there when the lead male character, Walter, a boy who is living in the house, finds her. Written in Etta's voice, we hear the flat dull thoughts as they go through her mind, or as she expresses them to Walter. She is an orphan with siblings. She needs a place to live. Walter, who has his own problems, tells her she must leave, but changes his mind without reason. A third child character enters, but the dialogue goes on in the same dumbed-down way, sprinkled with the odd modern idiom, as they plow through the story trying to find employment and stability. I found it difficult to sympathize with the plight of the characters, and reading the story became a chore rather than a pleasure. The best part of the book comes at the end: A few historical notes give us some background. This brief afterward reinforced the disappointment I felt in the story; given the lush and interesting setting, it could have been a much better story.

In this work, the author considers his professional life through reminiscences of his academic acquaintances. In this way John Rodgers presents the rarified world of academia in general and the study of geology in particular, though very few workaday details are recounted.

He repeatedly writes things akin to, "Later in August I visited Dr. Nabholz for two days in his field area, in the mountains around the head of the Vorderrhein. Those rocks had a good deal in common with those that Bearth had shown me and indeed provided a small test of my hypothesis, favorable as it turned out." And he essentially leaves the description of the encounter at that. We don't learn much about what Rodgers really studied and we don't hear descriptions of the areas he visited. Norway could be the basically the same as China for all we know based on the sparse descriptions he gives.

Having majored in geology as an undergraduate myself, I enjoyed reading the book for the reminiscences that the book called up for me. But it occurred to me that someone who has not participated in a geological field trip would not know what really went on during such an excursion, or what the real objective was, after reading this book.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the book is Rodgers' story of how he contributed to helping the Japanese people just after World War II. They were in danger of starving and, as a civilian employee of the U.S. government, Rodgers toured the Pacific Islands in search of a source of mineral fertilizer so the Japanese could grow rice.

So, in short, if you are an academic or a geologist, you may enjoy reading this book. For one, it gives a taste of how academia has changed over the years. It is also a small picture of the life of one gentleman geologist.