Maine Books

First I should mention that this is the 5th Parker mystery written by John Connelly and I highly recommend you read the 4 previous installments before tackling this hefty page turner. You will need the back story for this novel to be truly enjoyable IMO. And all of the previous novels are all worth your time anyway.

The Parker series has dabbled in the supernatural since book one but in this novel Mr. Connolly really brings it out into the open yet still manages to hide it under the surface in his honeycombed underworld.

The writing style and prose are still top notch. And the characters are as witty and fun as ever. I've never laughed so hard at a group criminal anti-heroes so hard in my life. A few people have mentioned that Mr. Connolly tends to go off on a tangent from time to time giving comprehensive back stories to minor characters as well as insane amounts of details to the history and setting of the Black Angel itself. But I did not feel that this detracted from the story at all but rather added a new depth to the characters. It is a hefty read to be sure for this type of fiction but don't let that stop you from a great dark thriller.

I love to hate all of the Parker Villains, they are very nightmarish and seemingly very real. And I hope we continues to see more in the future.

John Connolly's integration of private eye and supernatural is excellent. This book is a very good example of his art. My only regret is that he doesn't go further into the "angelic" aspect of his hero.

I love all the Charlie parker books. They are a great fun read. I love the characters, the angst, everything about them. Wonderful fun books.

THE BLACK ANGEL is John Connolly's fifth novel featuring Charlie Parker, a former NYPD detective with a troubled past who now lives in Maine and works as a PI. As in previous installments, BLACK ANGEL is a hardboiled crime novel with supernatural elements, (mostly) told in first-person narrative from Parker's perspective. Also as in previous Parker books, Charlie gets assistance along the way from an interracial gay couple of semi-retired criminals: Angel, a white thief, and Louis, a black hitman.

In this book, Parker gets involved in helping Louis find a missing prostitute/junkie cousin named Alice, who has disappeared under malignant circumstances. Their search leads them to an occult group known as `Believers' who are searching for an ancient relic with supposedly demonic significance. One of Connolly's trademark deformed villains - in this case a corpulent, goiter-stricken, foul-smelling man with the wonderfully incongruous name of `Brightwell' - is among them.

To be honest, I liked this Parker novel slightly less than its predecessors. The main reason is that there are too many slow exposition/backstory/flashback segments. It seemed like at least half the book wasn't even told from Parker's perspective - Connolly's normal SOP is to use these scenes sparingly, but this book almost felt like it should've just been written entirely in third-person.

Much of the backstory was told in the form of flashbacks (often with page after page of italics, which bothers my eyes) to medieval times and World War II. However, I felt that much - if not all - of what was revealed in those flashbacks could've been told or summarized in the `present' story setting much more concisely. This might be a rare case when telling actually does beat showing. (Kind of like Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes story, "Sign of the Four," if you're familiar with it - you can read the book while skipping over the backstory without losing anything.) Also, there was at times simply too much character exposition for minor characters, such as Alice's pimp, G-Mack, among others. I'm sorry, it just wasn't necessary to the story. All in all, I agree with several other reviewers that this book would've benefited by having fifty or a hundred pages sliced out by a ruthless editor.

Despite what may sound like harsh criticism, a lackluster Connolly book is still miles above a `good' novel by many other writers; also, I must stress that BLACK ANGEL only suffers comparatively when held up against its predecessors, which really raised the bar for me. The last third or so of the book did read more like a typical Connolly book: mostly first-person from Parker's perspective, and fast-moving. I really do like the fallen angel mythology, which had been in the background in some other Parker books, but which leaps front-and-center in this one; I also liked the fact that, despite the supernatural element's prominence here, Connolly still treats it somewhat ambiguously - we're never 100% sure just how much of the fallen angel stuff is actually true.

I just finished reading BLACK ANGEL for the third time because I got started re-reading the entire Parker series in order while awaiting my pre-ordered copy of the latest installment, THE REAPERS (which just arrived a few days ago.) Despite this story being a touch under the norm for a Parker tale, it's still a good book and an important part of an excellent series that I highly recommend to fans of hardboiled crime and/or supernatural thrillers. Just one bit of advice: Read `em in order - they'll make a lot more sense that way. (I suspect many of the reviewers who absolutely hated this book hadn't read its predecessors.)

The stories keep getting a little more supernatural as the series continues, and for those who have read his previous books, you won't be disappointed! One of the most entertaining authors I've read.

I bought this book after seeing a review on another site that indicated it was an interesting look at life for women in the late 1700'- early 1800's. The story is extracted and told from the journal of a midwife, Martha Ballard, who lived during that period. The journal contains entries from the daily life of Martha Ballard, from which the author attempts to tell a story. Unfortunately, the author's style of writing tends to be somewhat unorganized, uses a very dry recount of daily life and leaves little room for any story to develop. A very boring and disappointing book.

This book is probably a dream to history buffs of that era. I, however, am reading this book for a college class. I am on page 91 and so far it is one of the most boring and dry books I have ever read. The diary entries are not so bad. The massive amount of commentary surrounding the diary entries...that's what's cooking my goose. Too much long, boring, redundant, dry commentary.

I greatly enjoyed this book, which gave a truly unique and rare perspective into female life in early Colonial New England. Thoroughly absorbing the chapters is truly co-dependent on simultaneously reading through the footnotes at the back, so know in advance that there will be a lot of flipping back and forth, but that this will enrich and enhance the interpretation and absorbability of the diary. I love firsthand historical accounts, and now have a renewed appreciation for early colonial life, particularly that of the female voice in this era, and even moreso women in childbirth in rural Maine in the winter (!). It almost seems voyeuristic to read Martha's diary, knowing that she likely never intended for it to be read by anyone else, let alone 220+ years later, but her voice is fluid, peaceful, humble, and dutiful to her family and her society. If you enjoyed this, also rent or buy the PBS documentary video of it by the same name, which has period re-enactments, and live narration by the author as she explains the journey of putting this work together. A fabulous read, ripe for discussion particularly in examining the parallels between this life so long ago, and our own today.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's A Midwifes' Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 demonstrates that an ordinary person's life can shed light and produce a more rich historiographical picture of a time period than solely focusing on prominent figures and events of history. The main thrust of this work is to debunk previous opinions of the diary that found the work not very useful in presenting important matters of historical interest of colonial times such as historian James W. North's comment "brief and with some exceptions not of general interest" or Charles Elventon Nash's comment ""trivial and unimportant...being but a repetition of what has been recited many times" and concluded "Like many diaries of farm women, it is filled with trivia about domestic chores and pastimes." (pp. 8,9) Ulrich debunks these previous interpretations of Martha Ballard's diary by showing that the diary exposes the social history of not only women in rural colonial times but addresses the bigger picture of colonial life in general through the daily activities of herself, her family, and neighbors in the community. Ulrich compares Martha Ballard's diary with three other documents from the community and time period Martha Ballard lived in. These documents were specifically from Daniel Cony who was a medical doctor, William Howard a wealthy businessman, and Henry Sewall who was the town clerk. She uses these documents to fill in information not mentioned in Martha Ballard's diary and also as a counterbalance of the men's perspective of events in Hallowell and what they felt was important to document verses a women's perspective of what Martha Ballard thought was worth documenting in her diary. Ulrich then extrapolates from these sources an interpretive picture of colonial life. On the one hand the heavy interpretive nature of this book forces the reader to wonder if this interpretation is close to the mark of accuracy or flawed in someway. On the other hand Ulrich heavily used other documented evidence to support her interpretation which lends credibility to her interpretation. An amateur historian would have a difficult time painting this picture of colonial life; however, Ulrich seems to do this with great expertise and eloquence. The expertise and eloquence is obviously derived from her academic career which has focused on the social history of women during the United States colonial era.

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's academic life has consisted of previously being a professor of American history at the University of New Hampshire and is currently a Phillips Professor of Early American history at Harvard University. Ulrich's main research area has been in the fields of early American social history, women's history, and material culture. Some of Ulrich's work in this area include Good Wives: Image and Reality in the Lives of Women in Early New England, 1650-1750 (1982), A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812 (1990), In The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Making of an American Myth (2001), and Well-behaved Women Seldom Make History (2007). Ulrich certainly has over twenty years of research in the area of social history in the colonial era to make her an authoritative author on the subject and this is demonstrated in her work A Midwife's Tale in which she not only used evidence from documents from that particular community in the time period, but also used her historical imagination, (sometimes used to heavily), to interpret the diary entries to give a vivid depiction of both Martha Ballard's life and colonial rural life in general.

Ulrich formatted each chapter by presenting excerpts from Martha Ballard's diary and then spent the remainder of each chapter comparing these entries with the other written accounts from that time and using an interpretive approach to decipher what the significance of Martha Ballard's entries meant with regards to the life of Martha Ballard and the community she lived in. Ulrich didn't include the entire diary of Martha Ballard in her book and selectively pulled excerpts from different parts to illustrate the different social factors playing out in the daily life of Martha and the Hallowell community, but did include other entries from the dairy within her evaluation to support her interpretation. Obviously Ulrich could not have included all the entries of Martha Ballard's diary and analyzed all sections due to the constraints a book length imposes, however, some interpretations were based on an entire reading of the diary and the reader is not privy to this broader context of information. Ulrich acknowledges this fact when she stated, "Someday the dairy may be published. What follows in no sense is a substitute for it; it is an interpretation, a kind of exegesis." (p. 34) Ulrich admittedly states this is only an interpretation in which Ulrich seems to read in between the lines and/or provides an interpretation based on what was not said verses what was explicitly said due to the fact the entries were brief, mostly lacked an opinionated tone, and were mostly matter of fact daily details. Even though the other sources of evidence backing her interpretations were thorough there is no true way to know if Ulrich's interpretations are mostly correct, somewhat correct, or completely flawed unless the reader had read the entire dairy and other documents she consulted herself. This leaves the reader to just take Ulrich's word for it that her interpretation of the diary entries are as accurate as they can be. Ulrich in some cases may have used her historical imagination a bit excessively, but overall she presents enough evidence from other sources to make her interpretation for the most part as credible as it can be and never the less very enjoyable to read.

Please disregard the 2 stars in the rating. It is a 5 star book. The system automaticaly put 2 stars and would not let me change it.

I can't say enough about how wonderful this book is and how much I enjoyed reading it. This book would be a wonderful gift for anyone in the medical profession. It is a fascinating account of an amazing woman facing the challenges of life in early Maine as well as the every day facts of life necessary for survival. She contributed immensely to life itself as she was the midwife to hundreds of, if not more, women and the birth of their children.

For myself, I used it as a genealogical tool because that is the area of the country where all of my ancestors came from. It is facinating to know the trials and tribulations as well as the joys of our ancestors.

Priscilla Paul
Memphis

The author has a beautiful command of the English language.I found this a slow start but I rapidly became engrossed with the characters involved.I find myself thinking about the people and the quality of their lives. It is a powerful read addressing losses in peoples lives and how they cope. I will keep this book and reread it again. I will also reread certain passages in the book...I thought they were very wise and a personal challenge to look at my own life.
I liked her first book but this is a deeper study of people and the meaning of their lives. It stimulates great book club conversations.

This is a bittersweet novel of a pastor dealing with the death of his wife. His wife was not really "cut out" to be a pastor's wife, and she struggled with that role - and their marriage suffered because they didn't know how to look honestly at their struggles/challenges. And learning to look honestly at others and one's self is what the book captures best. It also conveys well the sense of life being puzzling.

It's a bit of the "academy award" winning, very deep kind of book - and has a significant focus on feelings. I tend to appreciate faster moving books - and ones where there is less sadness in the pages of things gone wrong. Nonetheless, there is hope in the book and winsome humour, nonetheless, and I'd definitely recommend it.

A novel that ponders some very deep questions -- One's relationship with God -- God's relationship with a community and the world. "That the world was now coming of age and needed a new understanding of God."

This novel sneaks in great advice such as "being fretful so often that joy seemed impossible". Much more than "a chick novel".

but that doesn't necessarily mean they will comfort you, but that they will instead heap gossip and pressure upon your grief. This book tells of a man whose career, whose very purpose in life, is to heal and help. But when he is the person in crisis, there is no one to cover his duties or to help him find solace.

Midway through the novel, I knew this story would make my personal "best-loved books" list. Abide with Me is a lyrical, mesmerizing depiction of a small-town minister grieving the loss of his wife. Strout tells the story through several characters, threading together the experiences of grieving minister Tyler Caskey and his young daughter Katherine with the motivations and reactions of the people in their small town and church. We see five-year-old Katherine's confusion and anger at a God who would take away her mother, then shift perspectives to watch the reaction of the prim Sunday school teacher when little Katherine, at the end of the Lord's Prayer, announces, "I hate God." The story is lovely but deeply sad; as I grew to care more and more about the characters, I was so afraid their story would end tragically. Instead, it is lovely and surprising grace. Abide with Me: A Novel

Alexandra "Alex" and Mitch are both archaeologists.They have been on many dig sites but none of them have been as exciting as this latest dig at never the Great Sphinx at Giza in Egypt. Alex and Mitch discover a chest. Hidden inside of the chest are some cylinders. One of the cylinders contained a book filled with paintings and writing in as well as many other artifacts, dating as far back as 12,000 B.C. This is a great discovery for Alex and Mitch but there is just only small problem...these artifacts should even exist, so what does this mean? Strange things have started happening. Alex's dreams are filled with people, she doesn't know, living in another world. Alex and Mitch try to figure out how these artifacts came to be here as well as what Alex's dreams are trying to tell her. These are the types of questions Alex and Mitch will try to answer in Secret of the Sands.

Authors Rai Aren & Tavius E. both share a common love of ancient Egypt and archeology. It shows in their first novel Secret of the Sands. It is always a great thing when you can read a book where an author incorporates their interests into the story because than me as a reader senses this in the storyline and the characters, which in turn gets me really excited to read that book. Secret of the Sands mixes mystery, ancient Egypt, romance, and as well as paranormal elements to make a fascinating novel. I am sure authors Rai Aren & Tavius E.'s sequel Destiny of the Sands will be just as good if not better.

The story line was good but, I felt like I was reading a Junior High book.

Sorry I bought it.

After reading all the glowing reviews I was a bit disappointed at first. I felt the modern day characters were stereotypical and predictable and I could complete the dialog without going to the next page. The worst thing was, however, the lack of any sense of legitimate archaeology. They ignored all well known procedures. Those are my objections. The ancient civilization, however, did come to life for me and the characters were more believable. After struggling through the first third of the book I decided to ignore the bad archaeology and just enjoyed myself. When the sequel comes out I will read it with interest. I just hope they do a little more research in the meantime and take away some of the Nancy Drew feeling of the modern day characters.

The story opens up 10,000 years into the past, to a time during a war. Two young priests are being pursued by soldiers. Within their possession are scrolls of knowledge. They hide the scrolls in special metal tubes and place them within a very special chest, which is located in a temple near a very large lion monument. A blue flash is seen, destruction and all goes quiet. Modern day, present, Alex and Mitch are young archeologist and best friends working at a dig sight near the Sphinx in Cairo, Egypt. Through visions that come to each in a dream, and Alex's accident prone tendencies, they discover an unusual chest with metal tubes that contain scrolls. This metal shouldn't exist and the scrolls are written in a language that predates what they know of ancient Egypt. With the help of their lab friends, Jack and Bob, they learn that the scrolls are 12,000 years old. They must hide their find from the professor in charge of the dig sight for he's out to ruin them and take all the credit.

The story unfolds by flipping back and forth from the past happenings that will eventually lead up to the modern day happenings of Alex and Mitch. Both tales are intertwined and reveal the truth behind what led up to the war in the beginning of the book, the truth of the Sphinx and what secrets it hides deep beneath it. Alex and Mitch uncover a power of untold abilities, but only those pure of heart may have access to it. What is this ancient power? How was it meant to help the people? How was it to protect when it destroyed? The story ends open-ended, allowing for continuation in a sequel. However, the power contained beneath the monument was never truly explained in the story and left me a bit disappointed.

The authors have successfully woven a story based on archeological events mixed with their own ideas of what happened to the Sphinx and the mysteries surrounding it. The story moves at a good pace, revealing only what the authors want the reader to know as the story progresses. There's good suspense and the characters are well developed. Even though there are several words missing and a few misspellings, it didn't hinder the flow of the story, or the interest of the reader. I would recommend this book to ages 18+ and I give it 4 Stars.

Reviewed by TJ Perkins, author of mystery books for tweens and YA

This book begins 10,000 years ago with two priests running for their lives during a war. In their possession, are very special scrolls, and they must hide it before the enemy gets it. They bury them in a special chest near a very large lion monument.

Present day, two archaeologists (Alex and Mitch) uncover an artifact, but not just any artifact. One that has evilness with it and if it gets into the wrong hands, things will get very ugly.

This book will bring you humor and keep you on the edge of your seat. I read it fairly quickly because it kept me intrigued. I normally do not read novels about ancient artifacts or anything pertaining to that measure, but this book has mystery and suspense built into it that will keep you reading until the very end.

There were a few typing errors and you must pay attention to what you are reading as you are taken to past Egypt and then back to present day Egypt. The novel goes back and forth.

Caroline B. Cooney, Fog (Scholastic, 1989)

Fog, the first of the Losing Christina trilogy of novels, is somehow my first exposure to mega-bestselling kidlit author Caroline B. Cooney. Probably not the best place I could have started, as the novel gets off slow, slow, slow. Since it' the first in a trilogy, though, I cut it some slack. This turned out to be a good move.

The story centers on Christina, a girl from Burning Fog Island, off the coast of Maine. The one-room schoolhouse on the island only goes up to sixth grade, so Christina is headed for school on the mainland at the end of the summer. All seems well and good-- Christina has been dreaming about getting off the island-- but when they get over there and move in with the principal and his wife, an English teacher, Christina finds that all is not nearly as well as she had imagined it would be. In fact, if she turns her head and squints just right, it seems quite like the couple are trying to drive Christina's friend Anya insane. And if Anya succumbs, might Christina be next?

A great deal of setup at the beginning for such a slim novel, but once it gets going, it gets going good. The characterization is a bit shallow, but I'm always willing to give a little leeway to series novels where this is concerned, as the author has a lot more room to build complex characters than we see in one book. Not a bad start; I'll certainly be reading the rest of the trilogy. ***

Christina has lived her entire life on a tiny island off the coast of Maine. She loves it there and is happy with her life. This year she is especially happy, as it is the first year she will be able to attend the junior high and senior high school on the mainland. She will travel there in September with eighteen-year-old Anya, sixteen-year-old Benj, and fourteen-year-old Michael, the only other island children old enough to need to go to the mainland school. All four will board at an inn that has recently been bought by the new principal of the school and his wife, the seventh-grade English teacher.

Things are bad right from the beginning. The principal and his wife seem needlessly cruel to the children, especially Christina who can't seem to do anything right and who argues with rules she thinks are unfair. Little by little she notices, though, that there is something truly sinister about the couple they are living with. They seem to take pleasure in humiliating children and breaking their spirits. Christina suspects that they are behind Anya's mental collapse, and she feels she may be next unless she can convince someone of how dangerous these people are.

I liked the strength of Christina's character. She said what was on her mind, stuck up for herself and for others, and was never afraid enough to give in. I didn't like that Christina's parents didn't believe anything that she said. It seemed as though they should have at least listened to her and thought about her point of view.

I almost had a hard time believing this could be possible. It's actually a good sense of horror as it shows the influence whether good, or bad adults have on children. Parents the fact that you're doing everything possible to have the best for you children doesn't necessarily mean that they will have the best. We as parents can only remember to look within ourselves, and make sure we're doing everything to let our children know we love them, and want to do right by them. This shows parents looking outside of themselves by sending Christina to school on the mainland of Maine, and entrusting the Shevvfords to care for her while she goes to school there on the mainland, but as soon as she gets there weird things begin to happen. Christina is with 3 other children, and they are 17 year old Avra, 16 year old Benj, 14 year old Michael, and Christina's 13. Avra's almost convinced the the sea wants to take one of them, and Christina's convinced that Shevvford's are up to no good, but due to New England stoicism, and the fact that the Shevvfords are that good at convincing the world that they have nothing but the best intentions for the children Christina has a hard time finding an audience, and for the most part not being able to fit in. It's not that they don't believe her it's just that they're so busy with thier own lives that they don't want the stress of finding out the truth, or if that was true about the dead bodies, and disappearance of 2 other students, and not to mention getting people to believe what's being said. I know that children getting to get parents to slow down, and realize that everything is not all black and white, but more complex, and children need to be believed when they speak the unbelievable, and etc. etc. I just look back on this, and can certainly feel the parents were in the wrong by not listening to their children. This is something that all parents can take n note of.

The book Fog, by Caroline B. Cooney, is about a group of kids, Christina, Anya, Ben, and Michael,that are taken up by a mainland principal to go to school. They are from an island on the coast called Burning Fog Island. The mainland kids don't like islanders very much. Everything seems to be going well until Anya starts to lose her mind. Christina knows that the principal and his wife are behind it. They try to force Christina towards the same fate but they fail. Christina also saves Anya from her mental and physical death. She convinces Anya, at the last second, to turn away from the principal and come towards her friends. This book was great because of its very suspenseful pages, perfect story, and very realistic characters.

This book was extremely suspenseful and seems to beg you to turn the page. Every word seems more grabbing than the last. For example, when Anya is about to jump off a bridge to "sacrifice" herself to the sea, which is also an example of how she almost physically died and how she is going insane, you couldn't wait to see what happened next. Another example, is when you actually discover that Anya is going insane. You are so interested that you want to read what her fate is.

This book, also, seems to have a perfect storyline. Everything molds together when you discover that the principal is behind all of this. It also leaves you wondering how they did it. This encourages you to read the next book. The storyline, also, is very interesting. Especially at intense parts, such as the bridge scene.

Lastly, I liked this book because of its very real characters. It almost seems like the characters are popping out at you because they do realistic things. Another thing, is that the setting blends with the characters' personalities. For example, the main characters are from an island, so they are very tough and stubborn. Some kids from the mainland seem to get everything they want so they are mean to those who don't. Even the kids that are teased are always depressed and don't talk to others.

My final reason for liking this book is because of its position in good versus evil. It shows this when Christina ruins the principal's plans and "defeats" them. It also shows this when Christina "handles" the bullies at her school. I would recommend this book to anyone. I liked this book because of its position in good versus evil, realistic characters, suspenseful pages, and almost perfect story.

C. Copeland

The book starts out confusing, uninteresting, and poorly written and remains that way throughout. Charachters are completely undeveloped and poorly executed. I would not reccommend this book to anyone.

This debut novel is so incredibly lyrical and poetic that I keep going back to it and just opening it up at a random page and reading a passage here and there. It's so evocative of Charlotte Bronte that I'm sure the author must have been influenced heavily by her, which would make sense anyway because Blake has a degree in Victorian literature. Indeed I believe her intent is to reinvent the classic Victorian novel in the tradition of Bronte or Radcliffe, and she really does an admirable job.

This story is set in 19th century America, on the wind-swept coast of Maine, as 17-year old Maisie Thomas and her parents return to Grange House for their usual summer holiday. Although Maisie has been coming with her parents to Grange House every year all of her life, this is the year that the secrets of Grange House and of her own family begin to emerge, and Maisie makes some truly earth-shaking discoveries about herself and her family. On top of all that she must struggle mightily with her own conflicting desires as she approaches womanhood and tries to find a balance between the intellectual stimulation and experiences she craves and the conventions of the times in which she lives.

The summer starts off inauspiciously when a pair of runaway lovers are found drowned in the sea nearby, one of them a serving girl from Grange House, and Maisie is drawn into the veiled, convoluted ramblings of Nell Grange, the woman to whose family the house once belonged and who still resides in the upper rooms of the house, roaming above the guests' heads like a restless shadow. A lone, sad grave in the woods hints at a history still untold, and Maisie soon learns that, willing or not, she will be the one to tell it.

Don't let the young age of the protagonist put you off. This is not a young adult novel, although it would be perfectly appropriate for teens (in fact, if teens want to get a taste of what true, talented writing is (I won't revisit my unkind thoughts on certain people in the YA market calling themselves `writers' *cough cough*), I highly recommend it. At any rate, it is definitely a mainstream adult novel and I would compare it most closely to a modernized Jane Eyre in style and feel. Blake certainly has the gothic Victorian atmosphere nailed, complete with fog, rambling old houses, secrets and muttering old ladies in attics, but without the more overwrought, eye-rolling dramatics. Maisie is a protagonist any woman can be proud of, too - and that's saying something coming from me, because I generally dislike more female protagonists than I like!

The sheer beauty of the language is more than worth the read, as well. It was like reading poetry in long form, or listening to a perfect melody. Blake spins out the story slowly, almost tortuously, and I was on tenterhooks until the very last page. Ask my husband! For the last 10 pages I literally had to get up and walk around the house, reading as I walked, because I was just so tensed up and tormented about how it was going to end! I'm such a sucker, but that only speaks to the talent of this new voice in fiction. I'm all over this Sarah Blake now and will be watching closely for her follow-up.

I cannot recommend GRANGE HOUSE enough! What a wonderful story, so well written. I savored every paragraph, and as someone else mentioned, I enjoyed reading it slowly, because of the style in which it was written. The most well written book I've read in ages, despite the fact that I almost put it away after the first 5 pages because it didn't grab me immediately. I'm so glad I stuck with it for one more page! So rewarding an experience would have been missed, indeed. This book is not a love story, not a ghost story, and certainly not your typical fare. It is many things; it is a story of growing up, of fear, of decisions, of loss, of joy, and discovery. I hope you enjoy it was much as I did.

I could not wait to pick up this book, a story of love and ghosts. Grange House sat forever on my shelf until the right moment... Wow. Not sure why I waited so long. My expectations were high. I was mildly disappointed.

Grange House was a little slow to get into. The beginning seemed to drag, in both content and writing. I will admit that I am not a huge fan of victorian writing; Grange House was written in the victorian writing style.

The parts of the book that I absolutely loved was the relationship between Maisie and Ms. Nell Grange. The setting, along the coast of Maine, was breath-taking in description. If you have ever been to the coast of ME, you too, will love this book for that alone. The mystery and ghost stories of visions is also enough to hold the interest. The story line picked up about 1/4 of the way into the reading, and it was enough to keep me wanting to find out what was on the next page, yet, still once completed I was not left with a feeling of "wanting to tell someone about this book". So...
I'd say 3.5 out of 5

This book has so many great plots and surprises! There wasn't a day that went by without me addicted to this book. It's about a girl named Maisie who every year travels to Grange House. She loves it there. This year is very different than any other. Maisie finds herself falling in love with two handsome young men. She discovers that the owner, Ms. Nell, is very ill. Ms. Nell is suddenly very interested into conversing with Maisie and sharing her secrets with her. Suddenly, a mystery comes into plot through Ms. Nell's diary and ghostly happenings at Grange House. Many people die and Maisie soon finds out that she's not who she thinks she is. I loved this book. It had everything, romance, adventure, horror, and a little history, though I don't know how true it is. I found this book looking for historical fiction, I got a little of that but so much more. I would definitely reccomend this book. Let me warn you though it has high vocabulary, and some mature subject matter. Yet, I still loved it greatly.

I picked up this novel to read during October, feeling in the mood for a little ghost tale. I didn't expect the fun bit of romance, the touching family story line, and good plot developement.

While I was hoping for a good ghost story, this isn't exactly that. It has 'ghosts' and other strange things which Maisie is 'gifted' enough to see, but it is not exactly scary. If you know this going in to it, you will make a better choice. Like I said earlier, it is touched with romance, eerie plot routes, sad deaths, and family issues as well, so it is much more then a simple 'spooky novel'.

Sarah Blake studied victorian literature, and to me this is the strong point of the book. Her writing is true to a style long forgotten, and she does it well. She takes you to the grange house, to the graveyard and hillsides, and weaves her story in a beautiful way. If you enjoy classic books this one is a modern version that will not let you down. If you like those coming of age tales where a young woman looks for love but really finds herself, with a twist of a haunting tale, this will be a great journey for you.

Murder mystery that is is done by an amateur. So many things in this book made me roll my eyes in disgust or disbelief. The narrative jumps from thoughts of one person, to another (including the murderer). The murders don't make any sense whatsoever. Many things are very far fetched, the deductions by the heroine are pathetic. Too many coincidences. You need to be a giant of a man to break a neck of a young woman? What?! Just stay away from this, I will never read anything else by this author. And the main mystery of a backstory was rather lame and poorly told.

This is a first class historical mystery. It's also a gorgeously written novel. Extremely atmospheric. I admired and respected the heroine. This book truly opened my eyes to the reality of the birth of America. It's a real stunner. Not for the weak-hearted. The sequels are quite good as well.

A really good book, but a few of the scenes were lifted staight out of the movie "Platoon." I hope this is a chance thing the author hasn't seen it.

The first couple chapters in I thought I was really going to enjoy this book. I thought it had some of the most beautiful writing I had ever come across. I thought the heroine had potential to be interesting, the side story of an adulterous affair, an illegitimate child, and the accused pining after the heroine, all seemed to point to a really good story.

Then somehow the beautiful prose began to overshadow the actual story. Half way through I had a hard time concentrating on what was actually going on and had to force myself to pick up the book to read it. I realized that I really didn't care "who done it", I just wanted to finish the book.

It may be that it just wasn't really a book for me but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad novel. However, since I rate books based on my enjoyment of them I had to give it only three stars. You may enjoy it more than I did though.

I recently read Hearts and Bones by Margaret Lawrence, on
the recommendations made by my book group. I enjoyed it as an historical mystery, but I do have one important problem with the novel as a whole. Much is made of Hannah and some of the other women characters as being patchwork quilters. The problem is, the time frame of this story is late 18th century America. Most textile authorities agree that patchwork as a quilting form did not begin in this country until around 1820, when printed fabrics were becoming available and affordable to the masses due to industrialization. Ordinarily, I'd regard this as a small flaw, but in
this book, it's a pretty important theme. The image of women in the
wilderness doing patchwork is a myth mistakenly disseminated during
the Colonial Revival era around the turn of the 20th century. A flaw of this magnitude serves unfortunately as a distraction and mars the quality of the reading experience.

I received my copy of the following book last week. It has been
very hard to put it down. I highly recommend it.

A very good read for anyone who dreams of ditching the rat race and living a more relaxed life that is in harmony with nature.

From what I've been able to piece together Helen and Scott must have been a couple of outcast university professors that were scorned for their anti-establishment (socialist?) teachings. I think they must have been what would later become beatniks (and later hippies).

Throughout their book (actually 2 books) they forecast the social disintegration of the US.

They believe people should only work 4 hours a day and play the rest of the day. To me they actually seem lazy.

They say that when they feel a cold coming on they do as the neighborhood dogs and cats do, they quit eating until they feel fit again. To me, that's a very silly way of treating a cold. When animals quit eating it's because they don't feel like eating. They don't say, "I must be sick so I shouldn't eat." Ridiculous.

They preach about not using animals for food or labor. They also refer to milk as a food not for adults but for baby animals and talk about being vegetarians. Then in one chapter they talk about 3 girls down the road that regularly deliver milk to their house (contrary to their teachings). There is also a photo of them using horses to plow a field and another photo of Helen driving a pair of horses (two more examples of them not following their own teachings) on a snow covered road while she's riding in the wagon or sled (can't tell which since the picture is taken from in front of the horses). ??? Were they hypocrites? Did they eat shrimp cocktail and prime rib on Sunday afternoons?

There is a lot of information that is repeated in the book.

This book is way overrated. It's more of a 'do as I say, not as I do' book. I got very annoyed at the often repeated refences to America's 'disintegrating society'. (Here were are fifty years after the first of the 2 books were written.)

I felt that they may have been frustrated by not being able to establish a large following (as prophets?) so they could create a large commune. Instead, people seemed to come and go from their homesteads.

It seems to be more of a treatise against capitalism and self motivation than for homesteading and self sufficiency. They simply wanted to barely get by. Were they lazy? (People that visited were talked out of working more than 4 hours a day.)

I'm reading it for the 3rd time in 25 years and it is enjoyable to read. There are much better books out there for those considering homesteading. If you are considering homesteading then read some books that are more up to date and don't have such political influences.

This is a fairly well written and somewhat entertaining book (actually 2 books in one) but it's worthless as a reference book for homesteaders.

I am profoundly grateful that the Nearings took the time and trouble to write this book. I am trying something similar in North Central Florida, and while their conditions in New England were quite different in some ways (a shorter growing season, and the availablity of stone are examples), their advice, enthusiasm and encouragement across the years are a great comfort, as well as a good read (by oil lamp!). This is an American Classic, and should never be forgotten.

They didnt fit in urban society and when they moved to the vermont woods the natives thought they were whacko's .Okay so they were communists/marxists but they were very interesting people,learned, avante guarde and diverse, helen was even into UFO research.In this book you will see there experiment was basicaly a failure even they admit it at one point.the mistake i believe they made was there constant building projects and basicaly what became makework in my view. they brought into the woods there modern urban assumptions such as the view of work for works sake ,they even buy a rock quarry and start mining so they can get more rocks.Hauling stones around and garden food did keep them in shape but they were terribly dependend on trucks ,draft horses and had constant maintanance work[something early on they vowed never to do}. Seems like alot of work for subsistance living,very engrossing read though.

I enjoyed this book because of Jewett's turn-of-the-century language and simply accurate descriptions of the people living in a fishing town. Although some may wish for a more detailed plot (or any plot at all), "Pointed Firs" is an escape to a seemingly more innocent time. The characters struggle with many of the same issues we do: relationships, war, disease, and death. However, their sense of community, faith, and attitudes toward the sea form and strengthen their relationships with each other. Jewett is worth a read, merely for the beautiful way she creates a picture with the English language.

This book is full of timeless short stories that can either be read as a whole story or separately.

Sarah Orne Jewett's THE COUNTRY OF POINTED FIRS is a visitor's tale. Set in the fictional Maine coast town of Dunnet Landing where the author/narrator has settled for the summer to write. As a visitor, the narrator inevitably recounts only the pieces of history she comes in contact with through her landlady and the people she meets in the community. The stories are portraits, bits and pieces, of lives that exist outside the narrator's brief visit. As a result, the reader feels like a companion on this holiday. The novella moves at the pace of a quiet seacoast village, and is refreshing to read for that very reason. Like a vacation, outside cares fade while focusing on the lives, habits and landscape of this place. The writing is finely wrought. A real affection for a place and people one knows briefly shines through the work and makes one wish for a time and place when travel, life and writing unfolded at a the speed of a long walk.

Some editions incorporate other stories written about Dunnet Landing into the body of the novella. This can lead to a change in the narrator's voice that is incongruous with the rest of the work. Look for a version that preserves the order of one of the early publications with other short works in a separate section.

Jewett's Country of the Pointed Firs seemed like a good choice for reading while summering in Maine. Indeed her character who narrates the book is a woman author spending the summer in a small seaside Maine town.
Sara Orne Jewett gets a mention in American literature classes as a local color writer. This book demonstates her style with its descriptions of the Maine countryside, village life in the 1890s, and insight into the lives of island dwellers and retired fishermen and sea captains.
There's not much that would be considered a plot, just casual meetings with interesting characters in the area. To glimpse life in coastal Maine more than a centruy ago, this is the book for you.
I look forward to visiting the author's home in South Berwick. It's a national historic site.

This is a beautifully written story. The author provides the reader with words that one can sink his teeth into. The characters are so well described that I would know them if they walked in my door. A beautiful escape from everyday life !!

Sal Erickson is awakened in the middle of the night by Bobby Swift, his lifelong friend. Bobby convinces Sal to take a walk by the river behind his house, where he begins to talk about their friendship. Bobby asks Sal who he trusts, completely, implicitly. Sal answers, "Myself." The conversation ends abruptly. Bobby dies suddenly the next day, leaving Sal to reflect on the strange conversation, little realizing that he will soon be forced to answer Bobby's question in order to save his own life.

You see, Bobby has been keeping secrets from Sal. Eight years ago, Bobby fraudulently obtained an illegal three million dollar business loan. A year later, he declared bankruptcy and defaulted on the loan. But Bobby didn't spend the money--he stashed it in a bank in the Cayman Islands. To get their hands on the money, he, his sultry wife, Noel, and the town undertaker, Elliot Wicker, concoct an elaborate scheme to fake his death. It seemed foolproof, if only he could trust his co-conspirators...

Undone is a solid tale of suspense, very much in the tradition of Double Indemnity or Body Heat. The reader, hip to most of what's going on, is forced to watch helplessly as Sal, a very likable protagonist, is sucked further into the vortex in each succeeding chapter. Kimball keeps the action intimate and unfurls his plot at a leisurely pace, increasing the reader's anxiety and frustration.

The novel contains a variety of pleasures, but the greatest is Kimball's rendering of the characters who inhabit the small town of Gravity, Maine. Like Stephen King (apparently a potent force in Kimball's career), Kimball really makes you care about the people who populate his novel. From Alston Bouchard, the Columbo-like town constable, to the less than savory Jerry Royal, Undone is full of memorable characters who threaten to take over the book at any given moment.

Maine writer Kimball's dark and riveting second novel is pure noir.

Bobby Swift has come up with the perfect plan to get his hands on the millions he's scammed from the government. He'll fake his death, his wife will dig him up, and off they'll go to the Cayman's.

But Noel Swift has a different plan. Hers doesn't involve Bobby.

Enter Sal Erickson, Bobby's best friend, and an earnest family man with a demon - alcohol. Sal thinks he's beaten it, but Bobby's sudden death has unnerved him. With a little nudge from Noel he takes a plunge that costs him his job and his marriage - and gains him Noel.

But strange things are happening in this small Maine town. The undertaker who schemed with Bobby is found dead in the grave and Bobby's coffin is empty.

Did Bobby escape? Is he watching Noel and Sal, biding his time for revenge?
Kimball ratchets up the psychological tension with terse byplay between the characters, all nurturing their own agendas, except for the hapless Sal and the canny town constable whose contributions are dismissed by the Staties.

And when the tension threatens to flag, Kimball pours on the action, raising the stakes with the knowledge that some people will go to any lengths, no matter how horrific, to get what they want.

Kimball's writing is charged with atmosphere and tension and his pacing is electric, right up the to explosive ending. A winner.

Imagine a combination of "The Premature Burial," "Double Indemnity," "The Postman Always Rings Twice" and "Body Heat"..that's what you get in this incredibly good thriller. Michael Kimball weaves a complex plot of betrayal, seduction, incest, murder and blackmail, and does so with such finesse one can hardly believe what they're reading.
Bobby Swift and his deliciously gorgeous wife, Noel, have a perfect plan: fake his death, bury him, dig him up and off they go to the Cayman Islands to spend the two million dollars he extorted from one of his associates. Add a wizened and weasly mortician named Wicker and you have a seemingly perfect plan. Enter Sal Erickson, Bobby's best friend, who becomes embroiled in the plot in the most despicable of ways. He's an alcoholic, who has tried to reform, but alas, can't stay away from the bottle. Sal is so bad that on many occasions, he has gotten so drunk that he can't remember what he did...hint, hint. Add his wife's sex-crazed brother, Jerry Royal; a couple of cops and detectives; Sal's wife who harbors a dark secret; and all hell breaks loose. Just when you think you've got it all figured out, Kimball adds another twist that keeps you guessing.
A tense, compelling and quite enjoyable thriller.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Description from back of the book:

Late one night, Sal Erickson's best friend calls him outside for a walk by the river. "Who do you trust?" he asks Sal. "Who would you trust with your life?"

It is this fateful question that will send Sal's precariously balanced life spinning out of control--propelling him into a strangely irresistible arena of passion and violence. For Bobby Swift and his stunningly seductive wife Noel are planning the scam of the century. And Sal, against his will, is about to be entangled in their plans.

It is a meticulously crafted scheme, one that Bobby and Noel have pieced together for five long years. Now they are ready. Bobby will use ingenious techniques to fake his own death. The small town doctor will be fooled. The greedy undertaker has been paid off. Bobby will be eulogized and buried alive until Noel can come to dig him up and they can run away together forever. They've got two million dollars hidden away in a bank in the Cayman Islands, and if they pull off the scam, they'll spend the rest of their lives basking in the Caribbean sun.

But the plan contains hidden twists that are yet to be revealed, and lurking at its heart is a betrayal of monumental proportions. Before he knows it Sal Erickson will be drawn into a web of seduction, lies and deceit-the like of which the small town of Gravity, Maine, has never before seen. Soon Sal will be fighting for his very life.

* I absolutely hooked on this book & it was near impossible for me to put it down. There was so much suspense & action going on that makes you want to finish it in one day. My only negative about the book is that it left me with several questions unanswered. What name was on Nell's plane ticket? Why did Iris dislike her mother? What was up with Sal's parents? & What really happened to his brother? I would've liked some of these answers but it didn't take away from the excellent story. I highly recommend this book. I'm now off to find the other Michael Kimball books out there. He just may be one of my new favorites.

This book had me hooked from page 4 until the end....a page turner that is very tough to put down. First time I read from this Author I will look for other Books from this Guy...great job!!