Maryland Books

I enjoyed this book very much. Couldn't put it down. Loved the different characters, motivation and storyline. If you like magic and suspense, this book is for you.

I enjoyed this book throughly. Filled with suspense, and exciting characters. If you like magic, riviting mystery, this book is for you.

The book is a blend of occult mystery and suspense and it incorporates a rich melange of magickal ingredients - from amulets, past lives and elemental beings to shape shifting and modern magickal ritual--to show the subtle ways psychic phenomena can intrude into anyone's life and influence even the most "rational" of people.

Rian McGuire owns a New Age book shop. One day a disturbing man leaves an old book in her shop, and when he begins to invade her dreams she starts on a bizarre journey into the arcane. Her friends and family gather psychic forces while Rian finally discovers the Rag Bone Man's identity. But will she able to harness her own magickal power before the final confrontation?

This book has a good plot, full of intelligent and well-researched occult references. The mystery itself keeps you on your toes. However, some choppy sentences, cliches, and weak dialogue here and there detract from the overall enjoyment of the book. Characterization is also weak. Despite all this, the book is still worth a read.

This book is a thoughtful and highly readable text about two thoughtful and deliberative members of the U.S. Senate. It would be very useful for any government class interested in learning how the system really works and interested in learning how two honorable men conduct their work.

This book is an excellent comparison of two very important men in American politics, a definite buy.

Mr. Lamb's elegant expose of the sordid social and political lives of two U.S. senators deserves high praise. Who would've known that two of our country's most distinguished luminaries are afflicted by a neurotic obsession with cheese? Who would've suspected that two of the hottest stars on the contemporary political scene exhaust valuable office time smearing each other with various dips and sauces. Between you and me, they're partial to Hollandaise sauce, but that's all I'll say. I don't want to let any more cats out of the bag. There is, though, a final kitten that I will set free. Buy this book. Next to my collection of Charo biographies, it's about the neatest batch of words I could hope to come across. Ciao. Foofy McDougall

I would highly reccomend this book to the medical community because it tells of how the first Shocktrauma unit got started. It especially hits close to home because of it being set in Baltimore and I live 3 hours away from Baltimore. It talks about how the MD State Police and this Shocktrauma unit essentially initiated the program that MD stil has in effect to this day. This is a great book and I would definitely reccomend it to anyone with and interest in EMS or medicine. Definitely worth the out of print service!!

A really entertaining book, showing some of the pioneers in the trauma medicine field, written in an unusually entertaining fashion- the book had me checking to make certain it was not a work of fiction! While it focuses on the work of one doctor, the methods that were used previous to his work are more frightening than most other books! (when treating an accident victem, there was not much that could be done except waiting by the roadside for the victim to expire and record the time of death) And, as with many pioneer books, the ideas that were considered and thrown out, such as the idea of putting trauma wards onto tractor trailers and shuttling them about the country going to patients as an oversized ambulance. Scary to see how far we have come in only 20 years!

If you are an innovative manager, or involved in the politics of funding government bureaucracies (EMS, Fire, Police, ER, etc.), or are or have been one of the rank-and-file providers (ER or ICU nurse, law enforcement officer, firefighter, ambulance EMT, etc.) this book should appeal to you.

This book will also appeal to anyone who loves reading and to any non-fiction writer because it is one of the best written non-fiction books of the twentieth century. Author Jon Franklin received the Pulitzer Prize for its original run when it was published as a newspaper series. Revised into a book "Shocktrauma" is remarkable.

I compare this book to Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" insofar as SHOCKTRAUMA tells the history, politics, management, and personal stories of an important, innovative, and ultimately successful but unlikely project. In fact, as readers of "The Right Stuff" and "Shocktrauma" will understand, going to the Moon was easier than getting our nation's Shock-Trauma centers and programs started.

People reading this in 2003 or later who are accustomed to calling a three digit number (911), and then witnessing a coordinated response by a team of well-trained emergency personnel, with first responders and ER personnel all cooperating, may be shocked at learning that only a quarter-century ago this system was fought against, and fought hard and bitterly, by the medical community, fire departments, ambulance services, and hospitals.

I have been working in the emergency services system since 1975. I was a certified Ambulance EMT for 17 years, worked 2 years full-time in an ER, was a firefighter for 9 of those 17 years, have been an attorney for the past 10 years, and was politically involved with these issues much of this time. This is a book that should never go out of print because (1) it is a wonderful read, (2) it is valuable to anyone at any level in the EMS system, and (3) it is a wonderful model for anyone aspiring to learn to write non-fiction well.
(See also Jon Franklin's "Writing for Story")
Highest recommendation.
Robert M. Beattie, JD (former Firefighter-EMT & ER medic)

Not being a native of Worcester County and having worked in Snow Hill for the past 12 years, I found this book fascinating. I have admired the architecture of the churches and older homes I have seen here and this book gave me an insight of the history behind the town and the culture. This pictorial history of this small town makes it an interesting and easy to read book. If you have never been to Snow Hill the book is enticing enough to make you want to visit. I found it interesting that Snow Hill boasts one of the largest concentrations of historical church and commercial buildings still intact in the state of Maryland.
Joyce of Maryland

If ever a book describes a small, historic town settled during the dawn of the American colonial period (1684), it is, "Snow Hill." I've been to Snow Hill and through the book, I revisited the town streets lined with their stately homes and found the revisit just as colorful and accurate as I recall them in my mind's eye. Happily, it is a photographically intensive book which makes for easy reading. I believe that "Snow Hill" will fit quite comfortably and quite authoritatively in the Arcadia Publishing's series, "Images of America." If you are interested in an excellent documentation of a small, colonial town that grows up, down and up again into the 21st Century, read "Snow Hill." It's a must for any library on Americana.

Antonio Granados

I live near Snow Hill, Maryland, and this pictoral history gives a real insight to the early days of this charming town. It's worth the price for anyone who has visited or plans to visit the lower Eastern Shore of Maryland.
Luis Granados

Classic and authoritative. Buy it and keep it for your grandchildren.

This book is a very good ECONOMIC history of Colonial America, focusing on the Chesapeake Bay region. The "down-side" is that it reduces all the colorful, interesting, tragic events of that period (pirates, revolution, famine, slavery) down to their impact upon the economy (imports, exports, balance of trade, etc.) and could be very "dry" reading. The book tends to focus on maritime issues, simply because that was the major transportation mode at that time. If you are interested in Colonial America, particularly the Chesapeake Bay region, I recommend reading this book simply to give you an understanding of the economic forces that had so great a role in shaping this region.

This is one of the best books on the eastern seaboard from the earliest of times. Easy to read and terrific research. If you are writing anything about this time and place, this book is a necessity.

This book list every type of diesel locomotive that was owned and used by the Western Maryland railway, with photo's and drawings. Just some the the information supplied in the book is date purchased, quantity purchased, road numbers and disposition. The book also covers the prime movers from the various manufacturers and M.U operations. Chapter 12 is very helpful for tracing ex WM power by unit number, and in my opinion chapters 13 goes above and beyond as far as painting and lettering with actual painting diagrams. Chapter 14 has color examples of the different units used by the Western Maryland Railway. All in all this is a very well done book on the Western Maryland Diesel locomotives and A must for all Western Maryland models, and railfans alike.

It is the best book on the Western Maryland's Diesel locos that I have read. I also had the pleasure meeting both authors down at Cumberland, Md. during Railfest' 97.

Well researched book including numerous B&W (75%) and color (25%) pics of WM diesels throughout the diesel era at WM and afterwards. The back cover is more beautiful than the front cover. I keep a copy as part of my Western Maryland Railway (& Railroad) collection. Includes WM diesel roster with Chessie and CSXT renumbering, ALCOs, Baldwins, EMDs, GEs and homebuilts, route maps and more. ISBN 1-883089-24-7

This guidebook to wild flowers in North Carolina has about 500 species illustrated, each with a description and a small photograph of the flower and plant. The guide deserves high marks for the number of species included and the scholarship which went into describing each by location, blooming date, and other information. Brief tidbits concerning medicinal uses, edibiity, and folklore of the plant are included in many descriptions. Indexed are both scientific and common names of each plant.

However, the guide is nearly worthless for the field identification of flowers. There needs to be some sort of key or pattern to help with identification. There seems no rhyme nor reason I can discern with the order in which the flowers are described. It would be a lot better if the flowers were grouped by blooming date and color, e.g. yellow flowers that appear in May should be together as should purple flowers blooming in September.

So, if you want to go into your backyard and identify what is blooming there you will need a field guide, not this book.

Smallchief

Excellent reference book for use in describing flowers growing in North Carolina at certain times of year.

This is a good book to bring along on day hikes. Clear photos and identifying information. It is not about gardening wildflowers.

This book takes a look at the years prior to the American Revolution and then into the war from an original and not often used point of view...that of a teenaged free black who lives an isolated life on a Quaker farm in Maryland. He hears about the struggles and the disagreements between the colonies and England but it really doesn't affect him much. Until he is banished from the farm for kissing the daughter of the farm owner, helps a slave friend escape from a neighboring farm, then goes south to join up with Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment. This regiment was made of ex-slaves and free blacks who wanted to fight on the side of the British. I disagree somewhat with the previous reviewer who says Massie offers facts through a black and white lens. I found the book very balanced...should a free black fight for the British? Should he fight for the Colonies? Does he have a stake in fighting at all? The story was not interjected with author feelings but rang true as coming from the turmoil in Caleb's own mind. An excellent book for classrooms while teaching the Revolution as it addresses a little discussed population at the time. It has lots of accurate details of the time period. Also an excellent book for teenagers or adults looking for an adventurous tale set in historical America.

Over all, this is a good book. It's narrative is written very well, with a slight but no over bearing of cynical humor to it.
Basically, it's about this free black boy during the Revolutionary war. His close friend, who is a slave is nearly beaten to death by his master. Fortunately, our hero saves his friend. Unfortunately, in the process they make themselves wanted men. They run off to join the British army, being as our hero's friend believes this is his only way to freedom. I won't spoil it for you but this book had me near tears a few times. Typical of Massie's Young Founders series, it is pretty opinionated and I found myself agitated by her constant almost black and white picture of the revolution. But if that doesn't bug you that much. As a matter of fact, I highly recommend this book, esp. if you have a book report to do for History class

For those with an interest in the early history of the U.S. Constitution and the key federal case that largely determined the future power balance between the national government and states.

This book also will be of great value to those desiring a better understanding of the country's first banking system and the economic issues present as our country took wing. Actually, this effort is more about the Second Bank of the United States than the legal proceeding of McCulloch v. Maryland.

Professor Ellis downplays the contemporary importance of this famous case while also, I think, undervaluing the contributions of our greatest Chief Justice, John Marshall.

This book is a sophisticated reinterpretation of a critical court case in the early national period. McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) has been one of the two most cited cases of the Marshall Court, enforcing the implied powers of the national government over those of the states. Ellis turns that fundamental result on its head and asks what the immediate repercussions of the decision might have been. He finds that immediately thereafter the ruling was largely ignored, even widely criticized. He also offers a counter to the dominant position about Marshall's nation-building theme, by suggesting that if we move beyond the Chief Justice's nationalistic perspective alternative positions were appropriate but largely ignored by the decision.

The case was really about the constitutionality of the Second Bank of the United States, a public/private partnership that some believed represented a gross overstepping of legitimate federal power. At a fundamental level it represented a debate over national prerogative versus states' rights. Marshall ignored in his opinion many of the points that seemed to be of the most concern to the defendants. Those included the propriety of the federal government chartering a private, profit-making national bank, that bank's authority to conduct its business wherever it wished, its imperviousness to taxation and regulation, and a host of other concerns. Looked at in this manner, the state of Maryland had an important matter for resolution that Marshall decided not to address.

Instead John Marshall reemphasized the power of the federal government to the exclusion of the rights of the states. This important contention would consume national/state relations through the Civil War era and some might say that it is still far from settled. "Aggressive Nationalism" is a good title for this book as Marshall defended that to the exclusion of any sense of state prerogative.

If your family history research leads you to Maryland and some of the original European settlers, then this book is an excellent source book. The Ark and Dove were the first ships to Maryland; i.e. Maryland's Mayflower.
The Ark and Dove Society (present day) provides the reader with a short history and then the genealogy of the original settlers. Source documentation is provided in the footnotes.

In November 1633 the 358-ton Ark and the 26-ton Dove sailed from the Isle of Wight in England, transporting some 125 colonists to settle the Proprietary Province of Maryland. This new work, The Ark and the Dove Adventurers, is the first comprehensive account of these original Maryland colonists, and it contains compiled genealogies of their descendants to the fifth generation when possible, much like the five-generation project of the Mayflower Society or the six generation project of the Order of First Families of Virginia. It is an authoritative and significant contribution to early Maryland history and genealogy and places Maryland "first families" on a par with the first families of Massachusetts and Virginia. Because there are no recorded passenger lists for the Ark and Dove, the compilers have mined alternative record sources in order to reconstruct the rosters of passengers and crew and establish the genealogical links and vital statistics that make up the heart of this book. These sources include the Maryland Land Patent Books; the minutes, proceedings, and records of the Maryland Prerogative Court, Chancery Court, Provincial Court, and the Assembly; the land, probate, court, tax, and other records of the original counties; the registers of the earliest churches; and Harry Wright Newman's The Flowering of the Maryland Palatinate. Countless other sources are cited in footnotes. Edited by noted Maryland genealogists George Ely Russell, former editor of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, and Donna Valley Russell, both Fellows of the American Genealogical Society, the work is divided into three parts:

Part One is devoted to Sir George Calvert (Lord Baltimore), the founder of Maryland, and his descendants.

Part Two, which comprises the majority of this work, presents biographical accounts of passengers known to have had families, plus genealogies of descendants, extended to the fifth generation.
James Baldridge
Major Thomas Baldridge
Anam Benum
John Briscoe
William Brown
Leonard Calvert
Thomas Cornwallis
Ann Cox
William Edwin
Cuthbert Fenwick
Captain Henry Fleete
Richard Gerard
Richard Gilbert
Thomas Greene
John Hallowes
Nicholas Harvey
Richard Lowe
John Neville
Richard Nevitt
John Price
Robert Smith
Ann Smithson
Robert Vaughan
Robert Wiseman

Part Three describes the passengers who are not known to have had descendants. Also included are some later arrivals previously and erroneously claimed as 1634 settlers, and some spurious or doubtful claims of descendants.

In addition, the book contains a comprehensive Index, compiled by Jane Fletcher Fiske, FASG, naming approximately 6,000 individuals, with women listed under both maiden names and married names.

About The Society of The Ark and The Dove
In 1910 some descendants of the Maryland pioneers, headed by George Norbury MacKenzie, gathered in Baltimore and formed The Society of The Ark and The Dove ­øto perpetuate the memory of the first families of Maryland, and to provide opportunities for fellowship for all those who trace their descent from Lord Baltimore and from those who came on the Ark and the Dove in 1634 to settle the Proprietary Province of Maryland.­ The Society continues to encourage research in early Maryland history and promotes its goals through a variety of programs and publications.