Connecticut Books

Gilpin et al. aptly depict and identify what has made Yale's workers and the movement they have created so vibrant and strong. This book is all the more pertinent given last month's strike of all four unions.

I had to read this book for a US Labor History course at the University of Colorado. It was absolutely incredible. The authors trace the events leading up to the strike but, more importantly, they describe how the community of New Haven came together in order to defeat "Corporate Yale." I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in labor history and the struggles faced by American workers.

I ever read. I am stunned that it has gone out of print. This book got me hooked on perennial gardening as a recent college grad with a postage stamp yard. Frederick McGourty is a devoted and experienced gardener with a wit. He is funny and very informative and the photos of his Connecticut borders are wonderful. He talks about plants as one would discuss neighbors, family, acquaintances and close friends. I have been recommending this book to friends and family for 10 years and own two copies, neither of which I allow out of my sight for more than a few months. If you are a new gardener, track this book down and it will save you years of frustration. If you love to garden, buy this book, don't lend it out, and treat yourself to a great winter read which will recommit you to a rewarding pasttime. If Mr. McGourty ever writes another gardening book I will snap up two copies in a second. He is a national treasure.

On April 27, 2006, Fred McGourty passed on a few months short of reaching his 70th birthday (October 26). I initially met him in September 1954 and was his roommate at the University of Pennsylvania. We remained lifetime friends. After college, Fred spent almost 20 years at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens as editor of what became the highly respected Handbooks series. In 1978 he won the American Horticultural Society's coveted G. B. Gunlogson Award. Shortly thereafter, Fred inherited a 5-acre plot of land in Norfolk, Connecticut, which, with the help of his wife Mary Ann, started Hillside Gardens specializing in perennials. At one time the gardens had over 2,000 varieties and achieved a national reputation. It became a tourist-sight visited by thousands of horticultural enthusiasts. Fred was known as the "guru" of perennials, designed many gardens at various prestigious estates in the Northeast, had many speaking engagements and appeared on television being featured in "Great Gardening" and "Victory Garden".
In 1989, the hardcover edition of "The Perennial Gardener" was published which was so successful; a paperback edition soon followed in 1991 and remained in print for over a decade. (It is hoped that another reprint will soon be made). The book displays the enormous amount of knowledge Fred acquired during his decades of study and practical experience. His personality and dry wit shine through. He also tries very hard to explain concepts in a clear and understandable fashion. I love the perceptive and enthusiastic review by reader Susan McLaughlin (see below). Fred touched many hearts and minds of people and was one of those rare individuals who combined talent, wit, intelligence, kindness and a caring for others. Yesterday, I attended a Memorial Service at a rain-drenched Hillside Gardens. I was not at all surprised that hundreds of his neighbors and friends braved the weather to attend. All of us are privileged to have known him. Fred was indeed "a national treasure".

Matt Matsuda's uncanny historical imagination has achieved something no modern historian, French or foreign has been able to do: an analysis not only of the key moments of France's modern history, but also their hold on the popular imagination. He seems to realise that there can't be peace this year

From the outset, the reader of Matt Matsuda's The Memory of the Modern notes a departure from traditional historical texts. Matsuda begins his study of memory with a powerful set of images which serve to illicit historical memories, and set the stage for his foray into the cultural manifestations of memory in France at the fin de siecle. Matsuda calls his approach a general history owing to the familiar topics of politics, economics, cultural and social developments, and by limiting his focus to images from the Paris Commune of 1870 to the outbreak of continental war in 1914. The novelty of Matsuda's work stems from the modernistic framework of memory which the author uses to adeptly weave together the many disparate locus of memory and history into a coherent narrative. From monuments to mnemonic devices, from the Tango to scientific testimony, from the cinema to the stock market trading floor, Matsuda traverses the cultural landscape of late nineteenth-century France. This calvalcade of diverse memories presented by the author challenges traditional history by obviating the use of a sequential narrative.

Starting from Braudel's call for histoire totale, through Yates, Bergson, Nora and others, Matsuda argues for the centrality of memory in history. For Matsuda, memory in education is revealed when "a child pronouncing Latin grammer manifested the living soul of the ancients by stirring up the timeless power of language," while memory and criminality evinces itself as "an atavistic criminal, a living prehistoric relic, imprinted in his body with the savage traits of his ancestors." Even the Tango, when viewed through the prism of memory history, demonstrates that " a fashionable dance [can be regarded] as both glittering entertainment and a pagan rite to the passions of the body...".

Armed with new terminology Matsuda next defines modernity and the apparent acceleration of memory and history. Technological innovations produced a cultural shift in memory and the perception of the past equal to the shift from oral to written traditions. Photographic and phonographic inventions "exteriorized" memory, challenging the perceived inviolable nature of time. In addition, technology and the new view of memory formed a novel role for history.

Positivism in history stressed the scientific approach to research and writing, empirical data, and the certainty of historical truth. The incorporation of memory into historical study invalidates the positivist formula for historians. Postmodernist histories in the same vein as Matsuda demonstrate (as he argues) that "history as a positivist or liberatory narrative gives way to a history of mnemonic traces...the past is not a truth upon which to build, but a truth sought." Viewed in such a manner, the individual images which Matsuda focuses upon each bolster his arguement for the re-historicization of memory while also standing alone as critical memory objects of the fin de siecle.

Thus the varied themes expounded upon by Matsuda, by the nature of his memory approach, fuse together to form a valued addition to the emerging field of memory history. The "constellation of memory places" charted by the author represents a step further in the evolution of this new historiography. The historian Patrick Hutton has argued that Matsuda's approach, as well as that of other memory specialists, "signifies a powerful reaffirmation of history's possibility as an art." If we accept this notion then perhaps we can also speculate on a future of hisoriography of a less dichotomous nature (battling between history as science or art) but rather a dialectical relationship--a reconciliation of science and art in the spirit of the Renaissance. For much in the same way Renaissance artists fused the new science of perspective with the aesthetics of art, history could benefit by integrating the critical and rational objectivity of science with the novel approach inherent in the art of memory.

I loved the stories, especially about the dog hair wearables. I've seen some of them over the years on WTNH and the book has the same local feel. Diane was our guest speaker at the Connecticut Junior Women's Spring conference and was wonderful. She is a natural storyteller & I'm looking forward to a follow-up book!!

This book tells us a lot about what is wonderful about living in this part of country. Smith finds people like a man who make wooden toys for sick kids in local hospitals, a personal trainer who volunteers his time to the elderly, the "Nut Lady" who runs the state's only museum dedicated to praising the Nut, etc. She also covers stories over a number of years, something that's rare in news: the New Haven society that started over 10 years ago to erect a monument to the slave ship Amistad; and the retirees who got together to restore a vintage "flying boat".

This is an excellent book for those yakers who are looking for an escape from motor boat laden waters. It is well illustrated and has helpful tips on where to put in and what to expect as you traverse the water ways.

we live in broad brook, connecticut and this is the first year we've had kayaks. in the early summer we met a woman on the scantic river near the somersville dam and she recommended this book. best tip of the year. there are so many great paddles in here that you'd never know about just by looking on a map. we'd been driving around, shooting in the dark, and mostly being disappointed by what we found. every paddle we've taken out of the book has been excellent. can't recommend it highly enough.

After reading Amy Meade's first two books (Million Dollar Baby and Ghost of a Chance) I was looking forward to Shadow Waltz and Ms. Meade did not disappoint. The characters, plot, and humor made Shadow Waltz a great read cover to cover. It was well worth waiting for and I am already counting the months, weeks, days,...until Ms. Meade's fourth book is released. I would recommend Ms. Meade's books be read in the order they were published, it will add to the reading enjoyment!

It is 1935 and the nation remains buried in the Great Depression, but author Marjorie McClelland and her rich fiancé Creighton Ashcroft barely feel its effects. They are making wedding plans when an interruption comes in the form of a knock on the door. Elizabeth Barnwell, who read about this couple solving two murders (see GHOST OF A CHANCE and MILLION DOLLAR BABY), begs them to find her missing husband Michael who vanished two days ago. They agree to help her; she tells them she found a mysterious key and a piece of paper with an address on it in a pocket of one of his pants.

They go to the address and find the butchered body of a woman whose face is smashed in, and her four extremities cut off. The house belongs to Ronnie Carter and a witness describes her lover as that of Michael. Marjorie and Creighton find him at his parents'' home where he proclaims his innocence. He is taken to jail. Marjorie learns that the victim's lover before Michael, Trent Taylor, is now a widower who made a fortune collecting a life insurance payout on his wife's death. Before she died, Ronnie accused Trent of poisoning his spouse; an autopsy proves his late wife had a deadly amount of arsenic in her system. Case closed except Marjorie thinks someone else has set up Trent, but her sleuthing almost gets her shot.

Since everyone in Ridgebury, Connecticut wants to get involved in the wedding, Marjorie buries herself into the investigation to avoid dealing with definitive decisions that people demand of her. Readers will feel like they are in the middle of a Tracey-Hepburn movie to include campy dialogue, misleading assumptions, and plenty of action. SHADOW WALTZ is a thoroughly enjoyable historical mystery that takes its audience dancing into a bygone era.

Harriet Klausner

For somebody who cannot even spell SIKORSKY Jack, maybe you should read the book and judge the author for the books content and not his personal life! Man what a jerk some people can be.

Get a life!

This book was written by Igor Sikorsky's son (who was also the V.P. of Engineering for a while). It is more of a photo album then a book but it is great. There is a brief write up of each era in his father's work describing the main challenges. There is also a good photo of each aircraft that was built (including experimental aircraft). The caption for each photo explains why the craft was built and its historical significance. I am currently an engineer at Sikorsky and my copy of this book has been circulating around engineering. Everybody enjoys it.

Here's the story--well told and illustrated--of modernist art in the U.S. Lots of revelations here--the woman who was the driving force behind the movement; the breadth and scope of the many, many artists who were part of it; and the amazing number of talented women who produced some incredible art in this context. The book is well researched and organized and is destined to be an important reference work.

I recently attended the Societe Anonyme Exhibition at the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angles. The accompanying catalog is outstanding both in terms of the essay material and many photographs. I have a large collection of museum art catalogs and this one rates at the top. For anyone interested in the history of an important era in early Twentieth Century American modern art this monograph is a wonderful place to start.

This is yet another wonderful book in the "Images of America" series. My only regret is that this book (and others in the series) is not twice the size. I was looking for memories, nostalgia...and I got much more than that. Scenes forgotten, buildings and views I've been talking about for years and wanting to share with people who never saw them; page after page of mood and memory. Very special for me were childhood pictures of people I knew as adults, when I myself was a small child. And, best of all, I had always heard about the woman for whom my grandmother worked as a domestic when she came to Southington from Germany as a young girl. It's part of the family story that this woman helped my grandmother make her wedding dress. In the book, there is a lovely portrait of the woman herself; a piece of our family history which we had never before seen. This book, like others of the series which I've seen, is beautifully and thoughtfully done, though it did leave me feeling somewhat frustrated that there wasn't more.

This book is great. We live in Southington and we love seeing the old pictures of the streets and town as it was before all this development.

The two women writing to each other here are great friends, share a deep love of country (call themselves 'countrywomen') and aren't embarrassed to savor the smallest available joys. Anyone who has loved "The Delicacy and Strength of Lace", the letters between James Wright and Leslie Marmon Silkoe should read this collection.

A wonderful collection of letters from one year of a friendship between two long-time friends. A wonderful book to share with a great friend. I longed to be part of the world these two women share and grieved the realization that they have been dead for so long. The beauty they saw and shared, their loving pets, children, partners. I wished to be there, their writing was so inviting and dear. Beautiful illustrations were done by Barbara's husband and Gladys' editor "ED".