Massachusetts Books

The series of volumes encompasses a full range of information from historical data to specific piece identification. Research & depictions are quite clear & detailed. A must-have reference for collectors. Information is impeccable, both authors exceptional. Reasonable investment.

The "Handbook of Massachusetts Evidence" is now in its seventh edition, and it only gets better each time. Brodin and Avery have done a fine job of updating this survey of evidence law in Massachusetts. In particular, their review of the law governing experts is particularly helpful at a time when experts are becoming central to many cases. Organized in a logical manner with an easy to use table of contents and comprehensive index, this is an excellent quick reference or starting point for research. Given the Commonwealth's reticence to enact rules of evidence, this handbook is the next best thing.

I purchased this title as part of an effort to understand what happened to my family when my father was fired and was subsequently unable to replace his job. The book was almost unbearably sad to read, but it rang absolutely true to the way I remember this crisis and its effect on my father and our family, especially the overwhelming sense of shame we all lived with. Mr. Cottle lists his research and statistics in the first chapter, and then he simply tells stories of trauma experienced by the various men he interviewed. The stories haunt you long after you've put the book back on the shelf. They make you wonder how to really help these men and their families. And you're also left with a more compassionate view of the long-term unemployed. They aren't lazy, useless folks to be disposed of, but human beings with souls who have experienced what amounts to a life tragedy. They need our compassion, not our judgment.

This book gives the reader a vivid sense of life in another time and place--in this case the mid-nineteenth century in a rather special part of New England. You are told how Lenox, though hardly more than a village, became the center of an extraordinary convergence of money, art, and intellectual power.
The story is presented through histories of more than a dozen prominent families and of the houses they built--houses that, while less grand than those built in Lenox later in the century, were notable for taste and style.
Among memorable figures of this "Tanglewood Circle" were the novelist Catharine Maria Sedgwick, whose books drew admirers to Lenox from all over the world; the "boisterous and burly" Henry Ward Beecher, a minister famed nationally for his rousing sermons; and the legendary English actress Fanny Kemble who gave Shakespearian readings at the courthouse and was known for her daredevil riding exploits.
The lead actor on the Lenox scene was Nathaniel Hawthorne, who lived for a year and a half in a little Red House on the Tappan family's Tanglewood property. During this time he wrote two of his classics, The House of Seven Gables and The Wonder Book, to which he would later add Tanglewood Tales. His stay was not long, but he left the permanent stamp of his strange, reclusive personality and fascinating imagination on the town's history.

Richard Jackson, Heartwall (University of Massachusetts Press, 2000)

I have a thing for difficult books. I have never been sure why this is, but the books that rank among my favorites every year are often those that I find well-night impossible to get through. Case in point: Heartwall, Richard Jackson's slim (sixty-eight pages) volume on which I spent a total of thirty-seven days.

The language here is clear, precise, and exceptionally thick. This is not a book for casual reading. But like the best difficult books, the reward for picking your way through the verbal forest is often immense, and wending your way through a Richard Jackson poem, especially in this volume, is never less than pleasurable:

...Occasionally, you can hear
the whispers of mollusks, the air in the hawk's wing.
How is it possible to describe any of this?
Fish dream of a moon that rests on the water
like a lily pad, and that moment is enough.
(--"Possibility")

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It will definitely be on my top ten reads of the year list for 2005. **** ½

This book was published by the Massachusetts Historical Society in 2005 and complements nicely its issuance this year of an important annotated and corrected version of Henry Adams' "Education." The MHS hosted a conference on Adams in 2001 and the book consists of the published papers that originated at that conference. Like any collective effort, some papers are outstanding and others not so much so. Generally speaking, though, the caliber of essays is quite high, and students of Adams should rejoice in its publication. I enjoyed especially Ormond Seavey on HA and Henry Cabot Lodge; Richard Androne's examination of "John Randolph"; the late Charles Vandersee's discussion of HA's "Unwritten American Travels"; and J.C. Levinson's stimulating piece on HA, Grant, and "Practicing History in the Age of Darwin." But almost without exception, each essay is superbly done and written with clarity and insight into Adams. While it helps to have a solid grounding in HA and his activities, I think even those who are new to this fascinating character will find the book of interest and value. For those more deeply conversant with Adams, the book becomes a true intellectual feast.

The 22nd Massachusetts Infantry was raised through the efforts of Republican senator Henry Wilson. It met its first trial by fire at Yorktown. Later, the regiment suffered tremendous casualties at Gaines' Mill. The regiment, part of the Fifth Corps, was engaged at Malvern Hill, Shepherdstown, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. At Gettysburg, the 22nd Massachusetts and the 2nd Company Massachusetts Sharpshooters, which was attached to the regiment, were engaged in the wheatfield, near the Rose woods. In 1864, the regiment served in the Wilderness and Spotsylvania battles, losing a large portion of its rank and file. Due to its heavy losses throughout the war, the 22nd Massachusetts Infantry earned the distinction of being one of Fox's "Fighting 300" Union regiments. Included is information about the 2nd Company of Massachusetts Sharpshooters and the 3rd Light Battery, both of which were attached to the 22nd Massachusetts.

Like the book My wife and I like going to new places for a weekend .

This series stands out from other hiking books for its organization and informational approach. Best feature: for each hike there is an elevation graph which displays a line which represents a cross-section of the trail. The line rises and falls with the elevation of the hike. This feature alone is worth the price of the book, as you can tell at a glance how steep your hike will be. The book also has a generous helping of maps and photos, and generous informational sidebars (where to eat, schedule, fees, surface, who owns the land, what other trail users you can expect, and more more more).

One of the best books of poetry written. As entertaining and reflective as it gets.