New Hampshire Books

This book was a good, quick read. While I wouldn't endorse all the activities of the author from a safety standpoint it's nice to see at least some kids and young adults actually get away from their TV's and video games and explore the outdoors.

It was a pretty good book I am glad it wasn't any longer than it was because I was really losing interest.

Blos, Joan W., author. A Gathering of Days. (1979).
A Historical Fiction Chapter Book. This is my 7th chapter book reviewed.
Winner of the Newberry Honor
Time Period and Setting: New Hampshire: 1830-1832

Written in the form of a journal, it is a story about a thirteen year old girl who finds courage within after her mom dies. In her journal, Catherine tells of her experiences in keeping house for her father and sister, the events of living in pre-civil war days, and the changes that take place in her life. She discusses many of the historical events of the time period.
On the "Author's Note" page at the front of the book, the author writes, "I worked with documents and books and newspapers of the region, visited museums and small collections, and even explored old graveyards in search of further clues" (page unnumbered). It is with this care that the author is able to present a largely authentic story. Unveiling the time, settings, and events appear to be done with care. It is a way for readers to understand more about "Young America."
Late elementary and early middle school students would find a personal connection to the story through its "journal" form. The entries are intriguing and they build up each other. In as much, students would find connection socially and personally to the character, Catherine. Some of the events in the story are much discussed. Looking at the world from her viewpoint could advance student's discoveries and help them to gather their own personal opinions of the valuable circumstances.

It was an ok book. I think that it takes a very special talent to write a historical journal and this author didn't have it. With a journal you are suppose to write your personal feelings and thoughts. But this author never really wrote Catherine's feelings, which misses a big opportunity to relate to the character. Also with journals normally that have one big problem and then small every day problems. The one big problem is resolved at the end of the book and the small problems are resolved in about a week. A Gathering of Days didn't have every day problems and had three some what big problems that were never drawn out. It is a quick read and great if you are doing a lot of research on that time period with other books. If you are reading this for fun don't bother its not entertaining.
~Kenz

I read this book for school. It is the journal of a 13 yr. old girl.
Why is it "not the best book"?
1. The story is fairly dull. Most of it is about her everyday life (some people might find that interesting, but I didn't AT ALL)
2. The most exciting things that happen in the story, aren't that exciting.
3. There is not really a "climax" to the story.
4. Sometimes, she starts to write about an event in her journal, but never finishes it.
5. It is written in 1800's style English, making it hard to understand sometimes.
6. It abruptly ends; there isn't really a "conclusion" or a wrapping up of her thoughts.
These are the reasons that this isn't the best book. I would NOT read it again or for pleasure.

I did not enjoy reading the book, A Gathering of Days. The entire book uses odd phrasology that detracts from the overall effect of the story. The word choices throughout the book make it very difficult to read and understand. The story is fine in and of itself but I was unable to enjoy the story because of the heavy word usage and poor sentence structures.

I found the book "A Gathering of Days" interesting and filled with small pieces of history, but it was hard to comprehend and hard to read. The format of the book, journal entries written by a young girl, is neat, but her usage of out-dated words is odd and it takes time to grasp her meaning. Although this book was directed to a younger audience, I believe that older kids would better understand the phrases and words used. If you are interested in reading and seeing for yourself how life was and how people spoke in the 1800's, this book is perfect. The story was sweet and descriptive, but in my opinion, it is a one-time around book, and did not leave a huge impact on me.

I decided to give this book a chance, but wish I hadn't. The author has a hateful attitude toward animals that is simply offensive. That, combined with his extreme cynicism, really prevented me from enjoying the book. Not recommended.

I picked up this book thinking I was going to get great inside dope on the secret service and a compelling plot. While Costello certainly includes some great nuggets here and there, overall he's more concerned about trivial, everyday occurances that don't advance the story. By the end of the book, I was left with a big "is that it?" feeling. Skip it or borrow it.

Note: this is not an action/adventure tale about the Secret Service. I suspect some of the reviewers here were expecting that, and "Big If" is not that kind of book.

It is a neat, unusual novel. It's fun and funny. I live in Washington DC and know New Hampshire--and the book is set in both of these places--so I particularly appreciated how well the author captured the sense of place. He also draws his characters well.

I got the feeling reading this book that Costello started and stopped writing this book several times over a number of years, and eventually updated it and got it published. As a result, it's rather uneven. For example, the Secret Service member characters hail from the Carter and Reagan eras. They are protecting an unnamed VP who is running for president. It seems--given the frequent mentions of Carter and Reagan--that the VP would be Gerorge Herbert Walker Bush, but it isn't, since the book is supposed to take place in the present or recent past. Characters have cell phones and surf the web, But no mention is made of 9-11,al Qaeda, or Muslim terrorists--and I imagine Secret Service focus, protocols, procedures, and culture and have shifted since and been shaped by 9-11. That's not a deal-breaker for this book, but possibly noteworthy for some readers looking for realism.

As said, Costello develops his characters nicely; however, he dives first into one character, their foibles, troubles, thoughts, musings, background, family life, and related plot--and then jumps to another, dives into their situation etc.--then jumps to another character. This can be an effective device, but it felt like Costello was reaching. The transitions were rather abrupt, and I was slightly impatient to return to the plot line involving the character who had just been fleshed out. But Costello ties it all together at the end pretty effectively.

If you're big on dramatic plotlines and/or suspense, "Big If" won't be for you. Costello seems to have fun delving into the minutiae of everyday thoughts, life, the ins and outs of the workday. And if you're into going there with him, you'll enjoy "Big If."

I read the first 20 pages of this snorer and couldn't continue. NOTHING happens! Why would I consider reading on? What's the first rule of writing a compelling novel? GRAB THE READER ON THE FIRST PAGE! This book never did. I'm not sure how people can rave about the great writing - it just isn't there.

One can easily go schizoid reading the reviews on amazon. I just finished this book a month ago and the reader who said he'd never want to read it again astonishes me--I'm keeping it handy so I can, yes, read it again and soon. This book has everything I look for--insider dope, laugh-out-loud insights, brisk pacing, brilliant comic timing, stunning moments, great characters and a very real sense of the pulse of life as it's lived. People bemoan lack of plot, and yets it's exactly the seeming aimlessness of events that roots them in reality and then betrays the secret interconnections among these fascinating characters. Meanwhile, the writing itself and the pacing keep the reader hustling along at a breath-taking pace. And readers who called this "cold" simply missed some of the richest moments I've read in a book lately--read the scene between Gretchen and her son in the batting cage and tell me that's cold. Bunk. I love this book and love this writer and have been telling all my friends to pick it up and his first novel, Bag Men, which I also thought was an utter kick. And no, I'm not a friend of the author's.

I try not to read another book till I've finished the one I am reading. This book took over 6 months to finish. It just lacked something and didn't get me hooked.

Horrible, horrible. This turned out to be a poorly-written, sloppy, trashy 5-cent romance novel. The author loves the words "glory" (which she tosses in enough times to rob the word of any meaning) and "evocative" (which she manages to use about 5 times in 2 pages). Ugh, get a thesaurus already! So, the plot: a famous painter, Gerrard, is to paint a 23-year-old woman, Jacqueline, and, by way of the painting, prove that she is innocent of both her mother's and her fiancé's murders. Ridiculous. Of course, said girl and guy fall hopelessly in love within days, and the painter knows she is "the one," and vice versa. Everyone thinks she's guilty, even her dad! Oh, also, the painter and his friend work with the lady and her aunt to conduct a whisper campaign, persuading the public to change their minds about her guilt in the murders. It's so silly. They show up at a bunch of balls and afternoon teas, and say, "No, it wasn't J. We've concluded it was someone who was in love with J!" like they're just dishing about the latest in Paris fashions. So weird. And, if we're supposed to believe that this is set in the 1800's, then, why is this unmarried lady allowed in the painter's presence alone, why are they allowed to wander through the gardens for hours on end, unsupervised, and how does she make so many midnight visits to the painter's bedchamber without being reported to her father by servants?? It's too unbelievable. Don't go here. Incredibly lame.

I have to say--having read everything by Laurens so far, and at times getting a bit bored with the repeat plot-lines--this was a breath of fresh air. I was expecting the same story, different verse, but this story was much more. The mystery was truly and FINALLY engaging! I was debating up until the last few pages as to WHO the villian(s) could be and when the mystery was solved, I was blown away! The hero's artistic side also shown through in the way he viewed the heroine. Most of all, I loved the fact that in this story neither party was pretending that they DID NOT want a relationship. So many of Laurens stories revolve around one or both lead characters fighting to NOT get involved, whereas this story was all about love and passion between two people who had real chemistry and were not afraid to show it. A definite keeper!!!

I have read several of the classic Cynster novels, but The Truth About Love is one of my favorites by Laurens. The chemistry between Michael and Jacqueline is amazing; you can feel it leaping off the pages. The characters read each other so well, and they don't need words to express anything.
This book is all about feelings and their struggles with the concept of love. I fell deeply in love with both of these characters and this book.
Laurens is an exceptional writer, and this novel portrays that.

I usually adore the Cynster novels by Stephanie Laurens and buy them as soon as they are released. This one I really could have done without reading. What is really strange is I am not sure why. The story sounds interesting, but it really wasn't. The plot dragged on and was unrealistic. I did not like the characters and could not even finish the book. I have never read a book this bad by Stephanie Laurens before. I'm only giving it two stars because occasionally there was a few funny sentences in the sections that I did read.

If you read James Wood's review in the New York Times, you would get the wrong impression of this novel. The reviewer, I think, completely misunderstood it. The book is a attempt at a genre novel, notably a gothic romance where the main character hides away in an isolated mansion and behaves in a somewhat crazy fashion, at least in the view of her family. Drabble writes in the fashion of a 19th century omniscient author who intrudes and comments on the action; to return to the fashions of long ago in this case is an experimental approach to the work. What she's trying to do, I think, is jolt us into seeing contemporary England much like the 19th century writers like Dickens offered a social critique of their times. Woods calls Drabble's characters caricatures, but unlike Dickens' portrayals, these characters are not types nor are they exaggerated. They are indeed individuals, but we see them more from the outside than the inside. There are many characters in this short novel; thus they can't be as well rounded as Drabble's usual characters.

The main character, the so-called witch, is not insane as Woods says, but merely eccentric. She alone seems to escape from the strictures of modern English society and finds a meaningful kind of freedom. Her grown children do not understand her or appreciate her because they are too caught up in the necessities of contemporary life in England: the materialism, the busyness, the indulgence of children, etc. The generation in the prime of life (her grown children) has forgotten all about endeavors to reach a just society because they are too well off and are distracted. Discussions concerning a just society are just a game to these people who have every material advantage, but something very essential has been lost and only the "witch," Frieda, has any idea what that might be. The novel is a sophisticated critique of contemporary life among the upper middle classes in England. This novel deserves to be read. Mr. Wood finds cliche where there is none in this unique work.

This novel is written in third person present tense (like reading stage directions) with a fly on the wall perspective. I made it through three family dinners where the family intermittedly discusses the possiblity that their possibly just overly flamboyant mother may be insane and social philosophy (all the while bemoaning the position that most of the middle classes and superior cannot truly divest themselves of their self importance enough to discuss it objectively).

The third dinner was all that I could take and I quit about a hundred pages in. This won the Los Angeles Times award so it's somebody's bag, but not mine. I found absolutely no resemblance between Drabble's writing style and Dickens', as has been suggested. I can think of no other author to compare it to except possibly Fitzgerald or Conrad (without the descriptiveness).

Margaret Drabble is guilty of self-indulgent dribble. Her characters are lifeless at best and her story tiresome. The dialogue is unnatural, her descriptions needlessly wordy.

I dislike most modern fiction and seldom read anything written after 1900. For a few writers, I make an exception. Margaret Drabble is one of those. As Emerson said, If eyes were made for seeing, then beauty is its own excuse for being." Enjoy Drabble for her writing. If her stories were completely uninteresting, she could be forgiven just on the basis of her wonderful prose. Read her slowly. Appreciate her ability to capture the scene, to paint the characters visually, to be inside the minds of her different characters.
But there is the story, and she never fails to create a fascinating one. Why? Because she absolutely observes people in their habitats as a biologist might study a species.
She is also an intellectual. Horrors. But the fact is, if you are not particularly well read and intellectually curious, you can enjoy her books but will miss a lot. She is a thinking person and writes about other thinking people and the issues of the present.
In some ways she is an old fashioned writer--telling a story. But her detached pauses, when she steps back and reminds you that she is a writer in control of the story with the ability to tell you what she wants to tell you--and not to tell you what she doesn't--is very postmodern.
Her characters may be unfamiliar to some. If you've never envisioned a better society or contemplated life without a VCR or considered paring life down to simple, solitary existance--or if you've never had a mother who might possibly decide to chuck it all in and do as she pleases late in life, you may not identify with her people, but you can still enjoy them, for running through Drabble is always a sly sense of humor, a feeling for irony, and the irristible impulse to show that for all our modern navel-gazing, we are almost always complete strangers to ourselves and each day is potentially a surprise.
Can we ask for more? Read all of Drabble's books and live a fuller, more considered life.

If i worked in the British Tourist Office, this book would be in the "Never Recommend this Book to a Prospective Tourist" list. The characters are despicable. The Witch, Frieda, is the most endearing character of all, and that is sad. Although she did a horrible job raising her children, she acknowledges no responsibility for how screwed up they came up to be. Ha! She plays both sides of the deck, claiming to be "green" and then profiting from industries that destroy the environment. Her son-in-law is a pretty boy politician, her favorite grandson has been brainwashed to believe he is the cat's meow, her own son is a self-important idiot who can't see beyond his own nose... Read it if you want to feel relieved at how your own family is not that bad after all.

This book was difficult for me to read not because it wasn't compelling, it was. I found myself getting more and more angry and wanting to jump into the book and take on Red Sizemore myself. As an avid outdoorsman it was very interesting to read the observations of the woods, the different "survival" skills that the characters employ. This is not a feel good, but certainly worth the read.

I found this book to be very entertaining. Red is an interesting villain with almost supernatural abilities. I began to wonder if he was going to be like Jason and not be able to be killed. The interaction of Bill and Claire is good, especially when he watches her after she has been kidnapped by Red. The book has a little bit of everything, romance, sex, violence.

Stay away... go watch the USA network movie of the week instead. This bomb of an adventure novel starts low (stalked women) and sinks lower (blowing away the bad guys private parts). How creative! Come on, I've read some really bow wow books in my time but this doesn't even attempt to be the least bit creative in its narrative. I've read more involving writings in the classified sections of travel magazines. Stay away, spen your money on the Everest non-fiction adventure "IN THIN AIR" instead. Compared to this "Survival Games" truth IS Stranger Than Fiction......

If this book had Stephen King's name instead of Charles Gaines, it would have sold a million plus copies. I haven't read a thriller this engaging in quite awhile. Since I spent a good deal of time around the New Hampshire area he writes about, I enjoyed it even more. On the surface, this novel is a suspense thriller, but farther down, it has a lot to say about couples, friendships and relationships. Red Sizemore is one sick character, but we understand why he is the way he is from Gaines' characterization. The author spends more time on Bill and Claire than he does on Dray and Portia, but I don't think that detracts in any way from the book. Survival becomes the central point of the book as the two male characters made their fortune by starting a survival games company years before the book opens. When two men kidnap their wives, they have to call upon these wilderness skills to get them back. While a bit gory in parts, the stalking parts of the book are fascinating. I can't believe this was not made into a movie -- it would be easy to capture on film. A thoroughly enjoying read from cover to cover.

Primarily a history of an impressive project to analyse the layers of snow fall on the Greenland ice cap, the book suffers from lack of focus and from unfortunate efforts at being easily approachable and topical. It is strongest at revealing the influence of variation in earth's orbit on local Greenland (and nearby North American) climate, but even here the information is presented hurriedly and one comes away knowing little more of the various climaticaly significant orbital changes the data reveals.

At it's weakest point however, there is a sad attempt to relate the ice core data to global warming. This could be parodied as "there is no evidence of recent dramatic global warming in the ice core data, therefore global warming exists." To be kinder, the author feels "since I know global warming exists from other sources, the lack of data supporting global warming in my ice cores means this must be an entirely new sort of warming." There clearly is an easier explanation.

If you're interested in global warming and climate change, you're probably aware of how politicized the area has become, and how much hot air has been spewed by proponents and opponents of the idea that we humans are changing the climate, perhaps to a dangerous or catastrophic degree. In The Ice Chronicles, climatologist and arctic explorer Paul Mayewski and author Frank White bring cooler heads and cold, hard facts to the controversy.

The book, published in the fall of 2002, centers on the findings from the two-mile long ice core that Mayewski's team pulled from the center of the Greenland Ice Cap. This ice core, labeled GISP2, allowed scientists to track a wide range of climate variables in exquisite detail over the past 100,000 years. It produced many important findings that can help clarify the highly politicized climate controversy. The core reveals that Earth's climate is far from steady. Even without any contributions from manmade greenhouse gasses, ozone-depleting chemicals or particulates, regional and global conditions have swung from hot to cold and wet to dry many times, often with dramatic suddenness. Mayewski repeatedly makes the point that the climatologically calm, benign Holocene--the time period during which human civilization appeared and has developed--is a myth. The ten millennia or so since the end of the most recent ice age have been marked by two large global climate shifts, the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period, and many less drastic but still potent changes. He also presents intriguing evidence that some of these changes contributed to the downfall of several ancient civilizations, including the Mesopotamian Empire around 1200 BC, the Mayan Civilization around 900 AD, and the Norse colonies in Greenland around 1400 AD.

My only real criticism of the book is that it may present more of the nitty gritty history and findings of the GISP2 project than most readers want or need. Still, most of this is put into boxes which readers can dive into or skip as they choose.

While the research findings and their implications are fascinating, perhaps the most important contribution the authors make is their perspective. The data Mayewksi himself uncovered show that the climate is a complicated and sensitive system, pushed from regime to regime by a variety of natural forces. But Mayewski is equally clear that human activities, most notably the marked and well-documented increases in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses, have joined the party, and must be considered in order to understand current conditions or predict future climate change. And he is clear that unless we take sensible steps to reduce our impacts on the system, we risk not just global warming and whatever changes that would bring, but increased climactic instability and unpredictability. To the authors' credit, they attempt to bring some calm into the climate debates by propounding ten realistic, commonsense principles. The reflect that, "No matter what we do, the climate will change." But they also admonish, "We should strive more for climate predictability than control," and "If we cannot have global control of climate policy, we must at least have global cooperation."

The Ice Chronicles is well worth reading, both for the hard-won scientific facts it presents and explains so clearly, and for the constructive, down-to-earth perspective it provides.

Robert Adler, author of Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation. (John Wiley & Sons, September 2002).

I liked this book! It is a balance between a personal history of involvement and the scientific results obtained. The book provides an overview of the Greenland ice core/climate project and results obtained that point to long time climate variation, the mechanisms involved, and geologically recent warming. Important chapter references are provided for a scientifically oriented reader who might wish to examine details of the research and findings in more technical papers. After documenting climate change, the author explores human contributions to global warming in relationship to those caused by natural earth-sun systems, and discusses policy choices that we might make in the face of the new evidence about the history of earth's climate.

Very usefull. Could be a little clearer. You must read carefully. May not be for the novice.

For those of you who are used to the exacting descriptions of the AMC trail guides, beware. This book has a few shortcomings. No maps except regional ones. Maybe that's asking a lot but the route I selected (Contoocook River in NH) had BAD advice on a spot to take a canoe or kayak out. The recommended location was private property with an very ornery owner. Maybe the rest of the book is better researched, but you'd have to prove it to me before I relied too heavily on some such details.

This is not light reading. This is a historical overview of the physiology, use and research at a site with evidence of inhabitation in 2000 BC. The authors go out of their way to avoid committing to *who* was building an astronomical calendar out of stone in southern NH 4000 years ago. Instead, they concentrate on weaving different threads together to show where current research is and why they pursue that direction.

If you've been there. this is a good follow-up to what you've seen. It is also excellent background material prior to a visit. If you have any books by Salvatore Trento, Barry Fell or David Hatcher Childress, this is probably one for your library.

While an interesting review of all the activity that has occurred on Mystery Hill from the time the Pattee family owned it, don't look to this book for any enlightenment whatsoever on the ancient origins of the site itself.

Mr. Goudsward is still too blinded by the bigotry so common in New England scholarship over the centuries. He resurrects a saying so common among 19th Century historians when he writes on page 17, "These cliffs became shelters for wandering Native Americans."

Mr. Goudsward, there was a thriving civilization here with artists, artisans, astronomers, agriculturalists, and more. They developed a lifestyle in harmony with their environment. They moved to winter encampments and then back to summer villages to best take advantage of natural resources. They did not, "wander."

On page 44, in explaining away the Native American origin for the Mystery Hill site, Mr. Goudsward says, "but the theory that natives built the site would actually be more controversial than those suggesting European origin - the current professional dogma is quite adamant the New England Indians did not build in stone."

That is because, Mr. Goudsward, the current professional dogma is filled to the brim with racism and bigotry against Native Americans. There is more than enough proof in the historical records to show that Native Americans of the Eastern Woodlands not only built in stone, but did so for spiritual purposes. They often worshiped on hilltops, particularly rocky hilltops with caves, shelters, splits, clefts, holes, seismic activity, and/or quartz, near springs, waterfalls, or swamps. Rain water that collected in rock, for example, was considered to have medicinal qualities and was often important to ritual.

But Mr. Goudsward didn't learn all of that. Because he follows the current professional dogma.

This is one of my favorite books ever. The writing is outstanding and story is simply magical. Is it possible to fall in love with a book? I did. It's a smart novel and I can't wait to read more Kathryn Davis.

I read Kathryn Davis' book The Thin Place and fell in love with her writing style, wanting more of her work. When I received Labrador in hardback, I could not wait to dive back into her writing style.
As much as I enjoy the so-called "intellectual fiction", this novel was too much of that style. I tried to read at least the first 50 pages but felt myself drowning in her too in-depth work. I know that this was her first novel, so I am willing to overlook it and read her other work. However, I was deeply disappointed in this novel.
I still think she is one hell of a writer and as stated before, I will be reading her other works very soon.