Rhode Island Books

An interesting read on how the law was used to keep a vicious predator in jail. Emotionally, I sided with the community and the state authories, however, the legal methods used to provide justice could easily be seen as railroading. While the crime committed by this young man was beyond brutal, and his guilt beyond doubt, given other circumstances an innocent person could be treated the same way and then it would be considered unjust and tragic. Chilling how a community and state were determined to protect others. This book is not about a typical juvenile killer.

As a fairly avid reader of true crime, I am used to the formula of "crime discovered - background of players - investigation/confession - court case - aftermath" so this was a different formula. The horrific, senseless slaughter of two women and a family by a kid barely in his teens is just the beginning as cop Ken Collins and his community mount a campaign to change the circumstances of how juvenile offenders are treated in Rhode Island. Released at age eighteen! Interesting is the side story of Collins' deterioration in his private life as he becomes consumed by his obsession to try and make it right for the memories of the victims. I also would have liked to have had a better sense of the victims themselves instead of the extensive description of the slayer and his life. The book is methodical and factual, not a "keep you up biting your nails and checking the locks" kind of read and occasionally becomes rather plodding at times. yet the story deserves to be told and I did finish it. I gave the book three stars, yet I give the town and the participants who worked toward keeping a killer behind bars a solid five.

I was very surprised to see this book in a local book store. To my knowledge it is the first, and only, book written about the tragic murders committed by Craig Price in Warwick, RI when he was in his early teens. Mr. Price brutally murdered two young women and two young girls for no apparent reason(s). This book describes the brutality or "overkill" inflicted by Mr. Price, but focuses primarily on the efforts of the Rhode Island legal system to keep him in prison past his 18th birthday, as he was a juvenile when he perpetrated these totally hideous murders. I found the book a bit slow moving even though I am very familiar with the Price case. It is not the type of book that grabs one and keeps one reading into the wee hours. At times it tends to drag, in fact. Was the system manipulated in order to keep Mr. Price imprisoned? Without question, in my mind. Was this justified? Again, without any doubts. Mr. Price is a textbook anti-social personality disorder. To my knowledge as a mental health professional with 20+ years experience in the field, there is no treatment or "rehabilitation" for people like Mr. Price. At least no empirical evidence to support such a claim. Mr. Price could be the "poster child" for supporting the death penalty -- certainly he should never, ever be paroled as it is a given that he will once again engage in violent behavior. He deserves life without any possibility whatsoever of parole. Ms. Lang does an admiral job of outlining the positions of both sides, but her writing style can become "boring". Nevertheless she is to be commended for writing about this serial murder case and how it has influenced other states to enact legislation regarding juveniles who committ such horrific crimes. Mr. Price is scheduled to come up for parole in 2005, I believe, although his sentence, based on subsequent convictions for other offenses "should" keep him behind bars until 2018, when he will be approximately 44 years old. A frightening and sobering thought, one that all Rhode Islanders must never, ever forget about.

I highly recommend this guide to anyone who will be traveling in the Northeast as well as Canada. This guide gives you everything from upcoming events for the year to where to stay & eat. The maps are easy to read and follow. I have been a reader of the Mobil Guide for many years and it is continuing to give the most accurate, up-to-date travel information. This is the MUST-HAVE for the Northeast traveler.

The book gives a good overview of the areas with many addresses. Anyhow I found it a bit too black and white. It gives useful maps, but no coloured pictures from the areas, which would make it a bit more pleasant to read.

This was one of my favorite childhood books, so much so I pestered my parents into buying me a hardcover copy that I still own, over 30 years later.

Phyllis Whitney was my favorite children's mystery writer. This story, set in Greece, had all the elements of of a good mystery. Exotic locale, mysterious people, hidden treasures, and bumps in the night.

I'm looking forward to having my sons read it, but I think I'll let them only borrow my copy, because I'm not ready to give it up yet!

I did not like the book becase it was not exciting. The book was not funny.

This is a well-written and entertaining article, but beware--it sometimes plays loose with the facts. For example, it says that "Yosemite" means "some of them are killers". This is a unsupported myth that was started in 1977 by an untrained Ethnologist in the park. "Yosemite" really means "they are killers" and it was what the surrounding tribes referred to the people in Yosemite. The Yosemite people called themselves "Ahwahneechee" or "People of Ahwahnee". Ahwahnee means "gaping bear's mouth," after the gaping shape of the valley walls.

I noticed someone has used your article about the name, definition or meaning of Yosemite in Wikapedia. The definition of Yosemite IS NOT "Some of them are killers". That is false. That definition was created in 1978, by one writer working in Yosemite to explain why the Miwoks were afraid of the Yosemite Indians. That definition is not correct. I am a Yosemite Indian and I know that definition is incorrect. The real meaning is "They are killers" or "Grizzlies", not "Some of them are killers".

Aging, declining powers, guilt, and death are the big issues in THE WIDOWS OF EASTWICK, just as they were in Exit Ghost (Vintage International) and Everyman, two recent novels from Philip Roth. In Updike's case, the personalities exploring these concerns are Lexa, Jane, and Suki, three women near or beyond 70 who in their wicked thirties were divorcees in the New England town of Eastwick. There, they had a wanton effect on many men and corrupted the sacred vows of several marriages, a story Updike told in The Witches of Eastwick, which is nothing like the movie.

In WIDOWS, Lexa, Jane, and Suki have recently lost their husbands after successful second marriages. WIDOWS begins with Lexa, the maternal presence in this friendship, killing time with travel, where awesome nature and inappropriate men fail to fill the void left by her husband's death. She is in the "the last life stage, a sprint to the grave in widow's weeds."

What Updike does in WIDOWS is to show Lexa and her old friends restarting their motors, indirectly facing death through travel, and regaining momentum in life. Then, they return to Eastwick, where Lexa feels guilt for her behavior as a divorcee and single parent and where Suki tries, in her lustful way, to regain her past. It's a great story and I finished WIDOWS in just a few days, fast for me.

I think with all Updike novels, the reader has to adjust to his style of lyrical and brilliant apercu. Here, Updike will have a character say or do something. Then, he follows with an amazing mini-essay that expands the moment. Here's an example from 227:

>>> "You were nicer," he said stubbornly. He was still a young man in the way his conversation didn't branch, didn't send out probes and amusing side shoots, but stuck to the same few thoughts, the same limited asexual agenda. He couldn't have lived with Darryl, that ramshackle magus of jubilant digression, very long. <<<

The difficulty in this approach is not that Updike explains the character; instead, his approach tends to overwhelm characters, with his pages given over to great insight, not his people. If you believe in creative writing dogma--where you show, not tell--it looks like Updike is breaking the rules. But in novels such as WIDOWS, my reaction is: So what? The brilliance more than compensates for his narratively overmatched characters.

This style is clearly a choice that Updike makes. In WIDOWS, the proof lies in pages 185-226, where the witches have a coven. Then, you are there, in the moment, watching as this unruly trio casts some spells. These pages are absolutely riveting, similar to the pages in Terrorist: A Novel, where Ahmad seeks the white truck. My point is that Updike can show his characters as well as anyone. He just prefers his own style.

WIDOWS is not a flawless novel. Updike never convinced me that the widows and Chris Gabriel have witch/wizard powers that inflict harm or can do good. And, the positioning that characters sometimes take in conversation is too full and deep for real life. Once again, this is the author taking over. Nonetheless, I greatly enjoyed WIDOWS and recommend it.

This is written with usualUpdike literary brilliance and tells of a revisited trio

of characters who are aging realistically and faced with the foibles of old age and the reality of their mortality.

I have to say this was depressing but well written and I recommend this to all Updike readers.

Having not read the previous books I was a little lost. Although I have read Updike before and I like his descriptions etc. So I found it a good read.

My title sums it up. Some, even much, is deliciously written; but ultimately Updike fails to make us care very much about his aging widow witches.

Alexandra, Jane and Sukie, the former sexy and wild witches, are back in Eastwick, Rhode Island. Now, however, they are 'elderly' ladies and recent widows, ready to move on to the next stage of life. They have lost contact with each other, for the most part, over the years until an email reconnects them. The first third of the novel is a travelogue of sorts. Alexandra travels alone with a package tour to the Canadian Rockies to contemplate her newly widowed status. Alexandra and Jane travel to Egypt to discover the ancient Egyptian approach to death and reconnect as friends. All three visit China. Finally the decision is made to return to Eastwick, the scene of their crimes 30 years ago, where their coven may or may not have caused a death and other sorts of mischief.

Some of the Eastwick residents remember them and their misdeeds. A few, injured by the witches those many years ago, might just decide to exact revenge. There isn't much in the way of plot, but what we do have is Updike's beautiful meditation on aging and death and a richness of gorgeous writing which is always astute in its observations, which makes for a worthwhile read.

I've read dozens of books about great hockey teams, coaches, and players and there is tremendous variety in their quality. I actually found Pride on the Mount to be very enjoyable to read with a good amount of action and personal information. What I found disappointing, though, is how old this material was. Written in 97/98 you can almost hear the threatening phone calls from Gillooly's publisher to get this thing finished seven years later! If you thought those seven years were spent proofreading and checking facts, you would be very wrong. The typos and grammatical errors are the worst I've seen in print since spell-check became available. As others have pointed out, there are also a lot of technical errors.

Still, though, I thought the book was worth reading and certainly recommend it for anyone involved in amateur hockey. I don't understand the concerns expressed here by a Mount parent as I thought the account was overall pretty positive. Anyone in youth hockey knows that even the most storied programs have warts. I frankly would have been turned off if the book hadn't addressed them. I'd be thrilled if my kid could participate in the program I read about!

As a Woonsocket native living away for almost 30 years, I enjoyed the book because it brought back memories of the WHS-MSC rivalries of the 60's, and of playing hockey on the rinks at Cass Park growing up.

I found the constant degradation of the City of Woonsocket as pretty crass.

I was extremely dissapointed with the number of typos contained in the book. Numerous words stuck in sentences where they did not belong, misspelled words, words used in improper context, etc. They became a distraction in reading the book.

I am a parent of one of the 1998 MOUNY hockey team menbers. I have written a detailed letter to John Gillooly which expresses my anger for what he has done to the glory years of my son and his teammtes. For purposes of edification and space limitations for this review, here are my closing two paragraph which sum up my feelings, as well as the feelings of many other parents and players, of that great year in MOUNT hockey.
"It was my son's intention to give me a copy of MOUNT PRIDE, autographed by coaches Bill and Dave, as a Christmas present, However, after he read many of the misquotations and inaccurate information about himself and his teammates, he asked my wife not to ever let me get my hands on the book. He knows how passionate I am about his years at the MOUNT and could foresee my discontent if I were to ever read it. I imagine that someday I will calm down and read it but, as for now, all I feel is that you have taken the glory years from a great group of high school kids and tarnished them all with misinformation and misquotations, using statements and events out of context, your own anti-MOUNT perceptions and opinions and, in my estimatiion, filled 302 pages with yellow journalism bordering on libel, the mortal sin of any writer.
I am certain that each opposing player, every parent of those players, and every ex-MOUNTIE who transferred because he couldn't endure the pain for gain MOUNT mentality, will gloat over reading this book. For us MOUNTIES, Mr. Gillooly, you have done us a grave injustice. You took a rare, behind the scenes opportunity to truly glorify MOUNT hockey and turned your findings into a supermarket scandal sheet filled with page after page of misinformation and personal opinion. Shame on you."

I greatly enjoyed Mr. Gillooly's portrayal of Mt. St. Charles hockey. I am a teacher and high school coach, and I can relate to much of the story. As an American of French-Canadian descent, I appreciated the demographic information he shared. Despite my overall positive reaction to this book, I found numerous errors that proved distracting. For example, Gillooly misspelled the names of at least two people , the Minnesota North Stars' Lou Nanne and NHL forward Mike Grier. In addition, he referred to the New England Independent Schools League as a league of older players. In fact, as a teacher/coach in the ISL, I know that these schools do not have PGs. He referred to Belmont Hill School as "Belmont High" and "Belmont Hill Prep", and St. Sebastian's as "St. Sebastian's Prep". Also, regarding Catholic Memorial, Mr. Gillooly states that the school is located in West Roxbury, a "suburb of Boston". In fact, West Roxbury is part of Boston. In addition, in the epilogue he refers to JFK Jr.'s death in the summer of 2000 when it actually was a year earlier.

A great read about how a coach has motivated a generation of young players to give 100 percent every day, not just on game-day. It's a book every high school sports coach should read. I'm using it for my sports psychology class.
There's also an interesting sub-story on how the parents of a high school superstar, who are concerned about their son's education, deal with professional agents who want the kid to turn pro right out of high school.

As a mystery-lover, I was excited about potentially finding a new character series to follow, but I had no success with this book. Carter's style is tiresome and contrived -- I found both the heroine and the plot cliched, overdone, and generally mediocre. It's rare that I read a book and think to myself, "Wow, this is really awful," but that's exactly what I was thinking throughout the entire read. I won't be investigating the sequel or any other Carter creations.

'Rhose Island Red' had been sitting on my bookshelf for about two years (all avid bibliophiles have such backlogs), but it was worth the wait. Charlotte Carter gives us Nanette Hayes, a fresh new voice in the world of detective fiction.

Nanette Hayes may be smart and sassy, but she's rather directionless. Armed with a master's degree in French, a love for Paris, a taste for Rimbaud, a refined palate on a beer budget, and a true love affair with jazz, she spends her days playing saxaphone on the streets of a New York that Ms. Carter captures so lyrically.

This novel reminded me of the seminal French film 'Diva', with all the plot twists and unusual characters - crooked cops, $60,000 stashed inside a saxaphone, an elegant yet aging criminal who worships Charlie Parker, and a no-nonsense exotic dancer with a taste for Wall-Street investments. Oh, and a gay lower-level mobster who becomes Nanette's confidente of sorts.

The story centers around the urban legend of the Rhode Island Red, a saxaphone that was supposedly given to Charlie Parker from a mobster as a bribe to play at a wedding. A saxaphone that was reportedly filled with heroin.

Charlotte Carter writes in the breezy rhythmic style of a jazz musician, and the book was a joy to savor. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book, 'Coq Au Vin'. Our heroine goes to Paris...ooh la la!

A weak plot and a protagonist I didn't care about made for an unsatisfying read. Carter's hero, Nanette, came across as far too contrived a character for me to get in to. She's a jazz freak, who's got a master's in French and passes her days busking with a sax on the streets of New York, and her best friend is a stripper--ooo, neat. The murder of an undercover cop in her apartment kicks things off, but it never goes anywhere that interesting. Might actually be better as a movie.

Can anyone get a book published today? This book gives proof that this is so. This is a terrible mystery novel, the writing is awful and plain lazy. The author barely moves from scene to scene without giving any background. It's just a complete boring mess. I hated the whole thing and wished I had never read it.

This book was good in that Nanette Hayes' character is one we haven't seen before. Any weakness the author shows in regards to plot are more than made up for with Nanette's character.

Hamilton spent less than three years researching the 39 lighthouses in this book. If you have ever researched any historical site, you'll know that he could not have been very thorough. His research skills are suspect (as he continues to display in articles for Long Island Boating World), and he does not delineate between fact and folklore at times. He even lists the Latimer Reef Lighthouse as being in Connecticut (it is a New York light). There are plenty more errors, but I won't bore you with them.

I wouldn't recommend this book to serious lighthouse fans. It's not up-to-date (1987 publication date - much has changed since then) and the information inside cannot be taken as absolute.

This is a first rate book describing the lighthouses of this region. Each lighthouse is given a chapter with good descriptions of the station and it's history. There is also an very good explanation of fresnel lenses and modern optics which lighthouses use. I highly recommend it for any one who loves lighthouses.

The maps are easy to read, clear, and accurate, so far as I can tell. My one complaint is that it doesn't list which streets are one-way, which is essential to know in Providence.

This is an excellent review of the history surrounding the burning of the British revenue schooner, the HMS Gaspee in Rhode Island waters in June of 1772. This incident was of great importance to the American Colonies in that the British attempts in finding the culprits were frustrated by a union of spirit amongst the Colonists not to cooperate with the investigation. This led directly to the formation of the Committees of Correspondence, and furthered the Revolutionary ideas for independence.

Originally written for the Providence Gazette in 1845 by William Staples. Forward by Richard Deasy, Professor of History, Providence College.