Massachusetts Books

I purchased 'M is for Mayflower' and 'C is for Centennial' for my niece. After reviewing the books, I found that they have several different levels of learning within the illustrations and text that will make these books readable for years to come for her. She seems to like them, and is attracted by the colorful illustrations. Because I live in MA and she lives in CO, she is eager to learn about the place where her auntie is. These books are good, fun learning tools that will help prepare a child for elementary social studies classes.

I purchased 'M is for Mayflower' and 'C is for Centennial' for my niece. After reviewing the books, I found that they have several different levels of learning within the illustrations and text that will make these books readable for years to come for her. She seems to like them, and is attracted by the colorful illustrations. Because I live in MA and she lives in CO, she is eager to learn about the place where her auntie is. These books are good, fun learning tools that will help prepare a child for elementary social studies classes.

Advancead students working in Renaissance literature, especially English (though there is a chapter on Montainge, and a glance at Cervantes) will find the information quite helpful. The final chapter on Browne is particularly memorable. The theme of an aesthetic of anamnesis (drawing on Neoplatonic understandings of knowledge being predicated on memory)are presented "performatively," in a lively way that mirrors the content being discussed, thus involving the reader in the Baroque flow of ideas. The author serves as a tour guide in the hall of mirrors reflecting the other side of being.

This book, to borrow from the jacket blurb by Arthur Kinney (series editor and founder of Massachusetts Center for Renaissance Studies), combines the history of ideas with the history of consciousness in early modern Europe. "Engel has produced a groundbreaking study that is boldly original, richly penetrating, and revolutionary in its implications. No student of early modern culture can afford to overlook this extraordinary work."

This "rich and varied work," so termed by Tom Conley (Harvard University, Professor of Romance Languages), makes use of the critical work of Benjamin, Heidegger, Derrida, Baudrillard, and Eliade, to uncover subtleties of design in works ranging from Elizabethan broadsides, to Milton's epic poetry, to the essays of Thomas Browne. And yet, as the Review of English Studies noted, neither the wide range of topics nor the conjunction of old texts and modern critics should be read as merely fashionable gestures towards current academic obsession, "for the closely argued thesis has an overall cogency and a local subtlety."

Basically the book argues that early modern "metaphorics" was essentially mnemonic and emblematic.

George Rousseau in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine wrote: "Engel implies that an aesthetic of mortality lurked beneath the surface of the skin, so to speak, in that fierce world in which the death of the literal body was life's greatest certainty."

MARTHA'S VINEYARD: HOUSES AND GARDENS ALLOWS THE READER TO EFFORTLESSLY VIEW A MOST UNIQUE ISLAND. THE WELL THOUGHT OUT TEXT COMPLIMENTS AND HELPS ONE ENJOY EVEN MORE THE BEAUTY OF MARTHA'S VINEYARD. LISL DENNIS'S PHPOTOGRAPHS CIRCUMNAVIGATE THE ISLAND IN PICTORIAL SPLENDOR. THE AUTHORS OF THIS WORK SHOULD BE COMMENDED FOR THEIR ABILITY TO CAPTURE THE BEAUTY AND ESSENCE OF A VERY SPECIAL PLACE CALLED MARTHA'S VINEYARD.

This was the most beautifully written and photgraphed decorating book I have seen. I own dozens of such books, and I seldom read all of the text, but I read this one from cover to cover. It made me want to lounge in the gardens and explore the house. I highly recommend this book for lovers of home decorating and gardening books. It is exquisitely warm and funny!

As a former resident of Mass. I bought this book as a kind of keepsake of some of the beauty of New England. It certainly does contain great pictures. The reader is taken from the capital, Boston all the way to the Bershires covering just about everything in between. All the history and unique areas are covered. If you're interested in learning more about the state or just want to appreciate all it has to offer you need look no further than this book. Highly recommend and very reasonably priced.

We ordered this book right before moving away from Massachusetts in anticipation of being a bit home sick. We placed this book on our coffee table and look at it often. It is great. There are plenty of pictures, some text. The book is good size. I would highly recommend -- and have purchased more copies of -- this book to give as a gift.

This book contains lots of color pictures as well as histories and travel directions. I found it extremely useful as a guidebook and it has made a nice souvenier of a recent trip to some of the lights featured.

This book is an excellent resource to take on the road with you to Massachusetts.! Great pictures with easy to follow directions. I personally used it on a trip last summer and saw most of the lights in the book! Highly recommended.

I worked for a Divorce Attorney who used to recommend this book to her clients - I give the book to my friends, both female & male, to read before they act on Divorce and during their Divorce. Atty Jancourtz says it like it is and the book has a neutral tone, not favoring either male or female. I strongly recommend to anyone contemplating Divorce - read this book!!

The title of Ms Jancourtz's book is a bit misleading. The book is a concise and accurate guide to divorce law and procedures in Massachusetts. If both husband and wife are talking and anywhere near rational, the book can serve as a step by step guide to a self help divorce.

-Items covered include: -What are each parties rights in most cases. -How would a judge rule. -Where to go for protection or assistance. -Templates and sample forms..how to fill them out..where to file them. -Formulas and worksheets for calculating child support that conforms with state guidelines.

I used the book, and I'm a guy. When my ex-wife and I used this book with the assistance of a mediator, I took a draft of the separation/divorce agreement we put together to a lawyer for review. The lawyer was incredibly confrontational in his approach and I could see the dollar signs in his eyes. When I asked him up front what the letter of the law said about each issue he brought up, it turned out that Jancoutz (and the terms of our agreement)conformed with what a judge would probably have ruled. I consulted another, more rational lawyer and made only minor changes to our agreement. My impression is that if paid lawyers start butting heads its just the lawyers who come out ahead. Jancourtz gives a couple the tools they need to understand the law.

If your using mediation, hiring a lawyer, or want to do it by yourselves, Jancourtz provides an excellent tool.

Book was in perfect condition. Was sent in timely manner and was just as the seller described it. I was very pleased.

The ever-wonderful Penguin Classics brings together the distinguished father-son scholars Thomas and Nathaniel Philbrick to edit a small anthology of the earliest documents of American history. Son Nathaniel used these documents to create his National Book Award-winning MAYFLOWER; Dad Thomas no doubt taught the works in his English courses at the University of Pittsburgh. The selections provided elegantly elaborate and support the bare bones knowledge most Americans have of our first colonial forebears. Some may find the writing in all its 17th and 18th century archaic funk to be difficult, but to those who persevere, much like those colonials, the works reward generously. Represented here are William Bradford, Edward Winslow, Thomas Morton, Benjamin and Thomas Church, and, with all appropriate obeisances to multi-culturalism, the fascinating account by Mary Rowlandson of her captivity during King Philip's war. This collection not only complements and supports Philbrick's book on the Mayflower, but also the earlier Penguin Classics EARLY AMERICAN WRITING. Both of these would make excellent textbooks, but are also great reading for those of us who still love the challenges posed by a younger, perhaps more complex language.

Anyone with an interest in history, medicine, women's studies, or childbirth (mothers, fathers, doctors, etc) should read this book. Kass does an outstanding job of synthesizing the perils of one man who was standing on the cusp of medicine as we know it today. Walter Channing was a prominent physician in Boston during the 19th century who was a pioneer in the use of anaesthesia during childbirth.

I found this book interesting not only because Kass brought an influential (and often forgotten) figure into the limelight, but also because she tied together threads of the social world in Boston and in medicine. Once you finish this book, you almost feel as though you understand what life was like and how difficult it was to provide "high quality" care to patients, particularly women in the 19th century.

This book would be an excellent addition to any course in the history of medicine, but I would also highly recommend it to the lay reader as well as it is accessible to a broad audience.

As a reader who is not well versed in medicine or in American history (don't tell my mother!) I found this to be thoroughly enjoyable and a fast read. Walter Channing lived a rich and long life, and Kass wonderfully captures the medical, social, family and spiritual life of this man and 19th century America. Channing was one of the great men (and belonged to one of the great families)of early Boston, and his accomplishments and efforts to improve the lives of women and newborns were great. And yet here is also a wonderful story (often sad though sometimes with touching humor)of a very real and inspiring person.

I have read a number of biographies recently--Gallileo's Daughter, A Clearing in the Distance(Frederick Law Olmsted) and this belongs in that group of complelling and thoroughly researched stories.

Loved this book. What a great read. I want to learn more about the characters, especially Mingo and Olivia. Wish I could travel to this place and time. I'll read it over and over, again.

Set in 1771 on the Massachusetts coast, Lenice U. Strohmeier's Mingo is the picture book rendition of a tale handed down through the generations, about a young girl named Olivia who remembers the words of Mingo, her father's slave and her friend: "Freedom is freedom, and I'll take it any way it comes." Moving color illustrations by Bill Farnsworth add an exquisite touch to this heartfelt and memorable story.

Dizard continues to educate and explore hunting in America. A wonderful writer in a family of gifted writers and educators, he offers us the gift of greater understanding and contemplation of these issues. Again, another terrific book from this author.

Great writing by a brave person willing to attempt to make sense of an aspect of our culture everyone thinks they understand. One will find it difficult to take pleasure or refuge in their prejudices after reading this book.