Connecticut Books

The dreadful, heartbreaking toll exacted by teenage violence blackens newspapers, clouds TV screens, and is shrilly proclaimed by faceless radio voices. The familiar tale is especially poignant in the hands of Geoffrey Douglas as he recounts a true story.

Christian Prince, a white 19-year-old Yale student born to privilege and promise, was shot in the heart as he returned home from a party. Son of a prominent lawyer in Washington, Christian grew up among the clipped shrubs and servant tended homes of Chevy Chase, Maryland. Four generations of his family attended Yale; skiing vacations were routine. An all-American athlete, Christian was also an honor roll student.

Duncan Fleming, an underprivileged black 16-year-old with a history of minor infractions was accused of the crime. Dunc's mileu was the ghetto, streets where weapons, drugs and violence were the norm. He saw his first killing at ten years of age, joined a gang at 13, and walked with a limp from a bullet through both legs.

Through the author's research we are privy to conversations with the families and friends of both boys, as well as vivid descriptions of their lives. This book merits our attention, although it offers few answers and no panaceas. It is a well crafted segment of 20th century social history.

- Gail Cooke

A very interesting look back at the state of affairs during the period leading upto and after the American Revolution. Worth the purchase.

The work is basically a catalog of outstanding pieces of Connecticut hollowware and flatware plus a few pieces of different types with silver as part of them such as swords, pepperboxes (pepper shakers), and one pair of shoe buckles . The paperback edition is the same as the hardcover put out in 1970 with the addition of the Introduction by Eisenbarth. In this new section of about 25 pages, Eisenbarth gives background on the early American silver and profiles of the leading silversmiths.

The pieces are shown in photographs one per page except for a few smaller items such as the pepperboxes which are two to a page. The factual information provided below each photo is just what collectors and researchers and the like are interested in. Such information is identification and date of the piece, the silversmith who made it, description, inscription, maker's mark, dimensions, and lastly in italics the current owner of the piece, in most cases a private collector or a museum. The descriptions provide the basics of the design which might not or can not be known by the photo alone; such as "round, tapered body, slightly everted lip, flat bottom" for one of the silver beakers, and "oval bowl, narrow handle stem flattening to pointed, downturned end" for the 1792 serving spoon facing it. Combined with the dimensions of height, etc., also noted, one gets an accurate and useful image of each item.

Although the catalog includes only Connecticut silver of the period covered, it serves as a catalog and reference for all early American silver, i. e., of the Colonial period and the first decades of the American republic after the Revolutionary War. At this time, Connecticut along with Massachusetts and to some extent Philadelphia and a couple of other isolated spots were the centers for high-quality silver pieces. Moreover, there was not that much variation in the kinds of pieces or their styles. The photographs make an ideal visual reference. Collectors, antique dealers, historians, etc., will appreciate especially as well the 45 notes to Eisenbarth's Introduction, the biographical notes on the Connecticut silversmiths, and the five-page selected bibliography. The 15-page Index of Marks with close-up photographs of numerous silversmiths' marks capturing the details of them is yet another aspect making the book a top work for readers in its field of collecting and early Americana.

This book was an interesting history of Ct. geology and the human history associated with it. Many interesting factoids about Ct's history and how geology shaped it. You see geologic processes and human history combined.

Keith Jones does a fantastic job of re-telling the stories and events of the Battle of Ridgefield in Connecticut during the American Revolution. My only negative thing to say of this book is that when it ends it ends abruptly and leaves one looking for the rest of the story... Otherwise definitely worth a read for the history buff.

After the title, the cover mentions 150 destinations... While the information contained in this volume is accurate for the lights that I am familiar with, at the same time, the volume is not nearly as comprehensive as the recently published "The Lighthouse Handbook - New England" by Jeremy D'Entremont, which also lives on my bookshelf. Elinor's book is a nice companion to Jeremy's and it is certainly worth having both. Elinor has information on when individual lights are open, telephone numbers, etc. broken out into colored boxes, which makes this information readily spotted, whereas Jeremy's Field Guide has the same information contained in the text pertaining to each light.

This book was really good for what its worth, you should buy it if you want to learn about those areas, see ya later.

When Henry King, former chief of the national security council, moves to Newbury, Connecticut, he buys the Zarega homestead and turns it into a country estate, Fox Trot. Mr. King's land is right where he plan to build a lake. King's next door neighbor, dairy farmer Ron Butler, leases a piece of land that the ex-statesman wants to buy but the two men can't come to any agreement.

King asks the town real estate agent Ben Abbot to try and mediate the dispute but Mr. Butler is a stubborn man who just wants to be left in peace on land his family owned for three generations. When Henry throws a house party, an explosion occurs and the man-made lake is destroyed. Killed in the blast is Mr. Butler's son and the state police believe that the former, an expert in setting explosives, set the bomb. They arrest him and Ben is hired to help his lawyer find some evidence to clear his client because if Mr. Butler isn't released from jail soon, he is going to go insane.

After writing HARDSCAPE AND STONEDUST Justin Scott took a hiatus from the Ben Abbott mysteries until now. Ben Abbot returns in FROSTLINE and this novel is even better than the first two books in the series. This is not a pretty novel and for the most part the characters aren't likable but it is a very interesting and colorful amateur sleuth tale starring a hero who did time and turned his life around. Using misdirection and red herrings Mr. Scott keeps the reader guessing about the identity of the bomber until he chooses to reveal it.

Harriet Klausner

Perfect for reading to oneself or sharing with the whole family. Hastings manages to bring alive the past, sharing tales of a long-ago culture. My only complaint with this book is that I wished there'd been a bit more dialogue and less description. Do try the recipe for old-fashioned baked beans - it was popular in our house.

It should be noted from the outset that this book is not primarily on the Hartford fire itself, although it is covered in the first chapter. It is on the legal and financial fallout from the disaster. The authors explain that an out of court agreement was reached whereby the circus would be kept running while its owners paid out claims. The receiver for the case refused payment until all claims had been handled. Litigation arose only when it came time to pay the receiver, and he asked for $175,000. Had the circus declared bankruptcy as expected at first, claimants would have gotten next to nothing. The authors see this as a model settlement for mass disaster claims.

When I first picked this book up, I expected it to be a legal bore and almost returned it. But it was actually quite good. It presented a perspective on the Hartford fire and on disasters in general one rarely gets from most books. It is especially recommended for trial lawyers and litigants. Still, those interested in more standard accounts are urged to look at other books on the fire.

The authors are right to applaud the Hartford settlement and encourage alternative dispute resolution, but two questions are raised. First of all, as they admit, the fact that everyone was reasonable and efficient in 1944 during the war does not mean they will act that way today. Secondly, I fear that lawyers may use the threat of expensive litigation to coerce innocent defendants into paying up during mediation, sending us all back to square one.