Vermont Books

I enjoyed this amusing story of a town that has lost their muse. Not only has Maude lost her muse to paint but other members of the town have lost their muse to do creative endeavors like building birdhouses, writing poetry, knitting,playing the sax,loving and dancing. I loved the characters and the wonderful resolution.

Pawlet, Vermont, is a bucolic community that not many readers will know. But then, as anyone with ties to rural America looks through this book's black and white photographs, the people on the pages will be familiar. Readers will recognize someone from years ago or see the similarities to relatives now gone. It is impressive that one small town could have three such sensitive photographers over the course of a century to capture the details of a fading way of life in a working-farm community. Their "visual census" and landscape views record the strengths and beauty of this place, but on a larger scale they represent all little farming communities from Maine to Minnesota, and north to south along the Appalachian Mountains. Neil Rappaport's photographs are dramatic and telling. He had a talent for capturing expressions that may have been fleeting but spoke of a lifetime. The short transcriptions of oral history collected by Susanne Rappaport add to our understanding of the photographs. This is a book to savor and return to again and again.

This book is a short account of the history of the Morse family of Calais, Vermont, and of maple sugaring in New England. The book begins with the history of the Morse family, from their first ancestor in America (Samuel Morse, who arrived in 1635), to the first to settle in Vermont (James Morse, born 1782, and settled in Calais in 1814). It continues through Harry Morse, who founded the Morse Farm sugar shack and store in East Montpelier, and his son Harry "Burr" Morse, who runs the Morse Farm today. It also provides a brief overview of developments in the maple sugaring industry, from Native American traditions of slashing the trees with axes to modern practices using permanently installed plastic tubing. Much of the book focuses on Harry and Dorothy Aiken Morse and their early lives together. Harry describes daily life when he was a child growing up in Calais, and Dorothy relates how she trained as a schoolteacher and met Harry while teaching in Maple Corner, a village of Calais. At the end of the book is a short section of recipes featuring maple syrup and other Vermont delicacies. The book is illustrated with a selection of black-and-white photographs and drawings.

The book is an easy read, providing an interesting insight into the history of a prominent local family, as well as an idea of everyday life in rural Vermont during the early part of the Twentieth Century. The recipes include some Vermont classics such as raised doughnuts (for sugar on snow) and sour cream maple pie. While the book describes the procedure for making bean-hole beans, unfortunately, Dorothy wasn't quite willing to part with her secret recipe for bean-hole beans in this book! Guess we'll just have to get our bean fix at the annual Morse Farm bean hole dinner.

If you're interested in this sort of thing as I am this book could be of great value however the price is unreal. I have a CD that does much the same for the entire country at a third the price of one state however this book is MUCH more accurate and shows county boundaries that only occured for as little as three days. The CD is also easier to use. That said I'll likely ask for the book as one of those Christmas presents I wouldn't buy for myself.

In this ninth installment in the Reid Bennett series, Ted Wood offers up a new location but lets his readers continue to enjoy the same well-written main character.

Reading about Reid and his interactions with both his dog and his friend is a real pleasure. The plot had numerous twists and turns, although I found that a few of the events stretched reality a little bit in that they were very convenient. This is easily forgiven because of his witty dialogue, suspense and character development

Pretty good. It's near Valentine's Day and everybody's in love. Even Janice Riker. Like the other ones though Rob always gets in trouble by listening to Soup. (By the way, did you know that Rob has the exact name as the author?)

I thought that Soup on Ice was a good book but there were some parts that got really boring. But overall I liked the book. I thought the beggining was good, middle was boring, and the end was fun. I liked the beggining when Soup made Rob shovel and was acting like he was a shoveling coach. The middle was kind of boring but I liked when they sang songs together. I liked the end when Soup, Rob, and Mr.Dubinski were on the sleigh. I liked it when they ran in to the Christmas tree, I thought that was funny. This book is good and it's one of those you don't want to put it down. I liked this book and would recomand it.

Using the old, and politically incorrect, story of Little Black Sambo as her controlling metaphor and the inspiration for her title, Gilman provides a look at the hidden racism within the white community, specifically a college community in rural Vermont. Students, deans, and faculty all examine their attitudes and behavior when Simon Brick, one of the few African-American students on campus, finds a hate note tacked to the door of his room. Dean of Students Sarah Daniels, in whose office the action takes place, is quick to respond with outrage, as is the politically correct faculty and administration.

Though all have good intentions, everyone has an agenda, and the on-campus dialogue they hope to establish becomes increasingly emotional. As in Little Black Sambo, the "tigers" soon begin to chase each other furiously around the tree, until they spin themselves into a pool of butter. The characters are painted with a broad brush, and for each one we know only what will further the message or provide humor to leaven the didacticism. Sarah Daniels's on-campus affair provides plenty of opportunities to hold male characters up to humorous examination for their sexual biases. The administration wants to keep the racial incident out of the press. The Dean of Humanities proposes innumerable campus meetings where students and faculty will publicly examine and confess their attitudes and biases.

A student founds Students for Tolerance because it because it will look good on his law school application, stating, "Where I'm from, I do not think people are racists." Conflicts within the administration rise to the surface, and Sarah's good intentions of securing a large scholarship for a minority student, if he will declare himself "Hispanic" or "Puerto Rican," rather than "nuyorican," backfires.

Though this play was written in 2000, it feels more like something from the 1970s. During the past thirty years, college campuses have dealt with so many demonstrations about race and bias that administrators are, by now, universally sensitive to these issues. As a result, this "message play" feels dated, treating familiar issues of racism as if they were new, but offering few new insights into them. Because the characters here are shallow, there is little sense of audience identification to give universality to the conflict or a sense of catharsis to the "surprise ending." The important, and still relevant, subject of bias is hidden within a play which seems unsure of whether it is serious, absurd, or both. Mary Whipple

After using this book as background reading in the recently released, A Union of Voices: Accounts of the Union Institute & University and in Utopian Colleges, I had to recommend it.
After being a teacher at Goddard in the Graduate program in the seventies, I enjoyed reading about Royce Pitkin and his progressive educational dream.

I get hungry whenever I refer to this wonderful book! The writing is lively and full of interesting facts, and the descriptions help to differentiate between related cuisines. If you are a picky eater you'll be able to tell what kind of food appeals to you just by reading about typical ingredients, cooking styles and nutritional trends. Simple recipes are included, excellent for someone who is first trying to cook an ethnic cuisine at home. A "How to Eat" section advises on customs and protocol, but as the authors say, if chopsticks aren't for you you can always ask for a fork! Use this book to prepare before you try a new kind of restaurant and you'll be familiar with the menu terms and be able to order with ease!