Maryland Books

The writer walks us along the Gwynns Falls as it winds its way through northwest Baltimore to the harbor. During the process, he and five other contributors discuss the social and cultural developments along this stream valley over the past 400 years.

It's a short book packed with overlooked details, best used with a $1.95 copy of the Gwynns Falls Trail map. It's also well illustrated with photos, although I would have preferred more detailed maps in places.

A great buy for those interested in local urban American history!

I love this book so much I got on my bike last Sunday and explored the many sites along the Gwynns Falls Trail covered by this book in both stories and photographs. This book walks you through 400 years of development as Baltimore City expanded west and amazed me in both its breath of coverage and the many new facts I learned. This greenway envisioned so long ago by the Olmsted Brothers and brought to life recently with efforts to restore this stream valley ecosystem has now been captured in this book which explains why so many people love it so.

This book is a wonderful portrayal of the history of the Baltimore City park system and the people that worked to create the green spaces the city has today. As someone who grew up near, has lived in, and currently works in Baltimore, I truly appreciated the detailed descriptions of Baltimore's past, both from an ecological perspective and a social perspective. A perfect read for any lover of history and anyone who grew up in or has ever visited (or plans to visit) Baltimore!

Mr. Powell, I respectfully disagree. It is a historical event that weaves itself into todays events. To understand that impact, you need the details the author lays out. Add the current case between Spain, Odyssey Marine (and now Peru), in which this case has been cited, and it brings to life the current ongoing drama. I can't believe what has happened in the court cases discussed in the book and how it may throw a monkey wrench in this current one - fascinating!

The book was way too long and overrun with facts that the average reader does not need. The title was what prompted me to buy the book as I am an Easten Shore native and have known about the horses for over 70 years. However, the book was MORE about the author and his problems than how the horses got to Assateague Island. I'm not sure that I would recommend it to someone who wanted to know about the horses....

Tom Powell

"The Hidden Galleon" is a magnet that will draw readers through its wonderful historic "connect the events" content......this beautifully illustrated adventure is detailed with archival maps and drawings and pictures that brings the reader into a fascinating adventure of the last days of the Spanish warship La Galga to its final resting place in Maryland's Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.
Author John Amrhein takes the reader on his lifelong journey to prove that the wreck of La Galga in a terrible hurricane in September, 1750 included the descendants of Chincoteague Island's pony population that attracts tens of thousands of tourists yearly to Maryland.
As a native of Baltimore, Maryland and a high school US History teacher here in Virginia with 40 years of classroom experience, I found that the book was impossible to put down and a delight to read. In truth, it brought back wonderful memories of the pony pennings that I loved so much to see whenever we traveled to Maryland's eastern shore in the 1950s.

The Hidden Galleon brings the thrill of many years of treasure hunting right into your own living room and makes you want to continue reading as you participate in the progression of the hunt. The final conclusions are rewarding and exciting.

This book is without a doubt the most informative and entertaining about the history and life of the canal prior to it becoming a park. I've recently fallen in love with the C&O Canal trail and this book truly has made a profound difference on how I view the trail and its history. The true-life accounts contained therein are priceless and give the reader a real feel of how life on the canal really was.

I am somewhat partial to this book. My grandfather J.P. Mose is in this book and I have Elizabeth Kytle to thank.
You will read several accounts of what life was like boating and working on the C&O Canal from those that lived the "Good hard life".
One of the greatest parts of this book is reading these accounts and Elizabeth Kytle keeps the wording exactly how these people speak, which makes it that more appealing to the reader.
They all have great stories to tell and it leaves you with a new appreciation for generations that have gone before us.
She gives you an excellent look into the history of the Canal and brings to life the importance of preserving our heritage.

I am using this book to research my Civil War novel, which takes place, in part, along the Canal. The book has proven quite valuable both for its medium-detail history, and for its first-hand descriptions of the Canal's function, and the lives of Canal families. (The Canal functioned in much the same manner throughout its history, so the first-hand accounts provide a good window to earlier days.)

The book is well-written, clearly a labor of love for the Maryland author. It is a good historical source, and a fun read for those planning a visit to the Canal (now a National Historical Park.) There are also some funny, sad and astonishing anecdotes, giving the reader a good "feel" for the lives of the Canal folk.

Paul M. Bauer

Belmont, MA

The plot and the writing of this book was so good, you would want to keep on reading. I loved the dialogue between Victoria and Robert. They were very comical. Victoria has a mouth on her; she does not take mess from anybody. I was so intrigued by the first chapter that I knew this was going to be a good book. The mystery and the suspense added interesting twist to the book. If you want something new in a romance book, this is the book to get.

This story was a refreshing story. A well written book with suspense about an arsonist and black on black prejudice.
The romance was developed rather slowly, but thinking about it some more, it was more believable that way.
I recommend that people read this book by Ms. Girard. Superbly written and entertaining.

Victoria Spenser has a past and a psychic ability to detect fires that she's trying to leave behind. A native of Jamaica she is forced to move to America to the only relative who will claim her, Aunt Janet.

Aunt Janet works for Robert Braxton, an arson investigator with a painful past of his own. When Victoria goes to work for Robert as his maid she thinks she may have finally settled into a real life. But then the fires start and she goes to the police with her visions to offer help. Robert doesn't believe in psychics and is outraged that he is employing a woman who claims to be one.

Ms. Girard delivers a refreshing story with Illusive Flame. A wonderfully researched and executed suspense centering around an arsonist and the prejudice of people who don't understand true psychic abilities. At one point, the intense storyline had me checking my own smoke detectors.

The romance was very slow moving for me, seemingly forgotten sometimes as the desire to catch the arsonist took precedence. However, Victoria and Robert's relationship did develop into a believable joining at an extremely emotional time. I myself fell in love with Robert on page 247!

Kudos to Ms. Girard on a very entertaining read that I would definitely recommend!
Reviewed By: AC Arthur, Black Butterfly Review

What a wonderful experience it was to turn the pages of this book. Imagine seeing your high school after many decades or being reintroduced to foods, customs, and places that you have long forgotten about. Each page brought the return of memories of my life growing up, or reviews of people and places before my time that had an influence on my life. There were many pictures of people in my family (especially those of older generations)and I will look forward to sharing this family tree with my children. I even learned some new things about my family and my birth city. Memories abound.

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At the moment this book on "Jewish Baltimore" is most popular in Baltimore (#1) and Pikesville, MD (#3). Little wonder it should be selling well in Baltimore and Pikesville, a suburb adjoining Northwest Baltimore, part of the Greater Baltimore Jewish ghetto.

In "Jewish Baltimore" Gilbert Sandler recounts the long, slow trek of Baltimore's Jews from East Baltimore (where my father was born) through Northwest Baltimore (where my parents first lived after they married) to the neighborhoods of Forest Park and Park Heights Avenue (where my grandmother Julie lived) on to Pikesville (where I grew up) and even further northwest to Owings Mills.

"Many of Sandler's essays invoke famous names in Baltimore history," says the blurb on the book's dustcover. Included among the "famous names" Sandler invokes is my family's name, which never seemed famous to me when I was a child (or thereafter).

The book has two main features: essays and photographs. A number of the essays are based on columns Sandler has written over the years for the Baltimore Sun newspaper and for the Baltimore Jewish Times. The book is subtitled quite aptly "A Family Album. " It is a photo album of all of Baltimore's Jewry. The photos are superbly chosen and the captions are well researched, nicely written, and enhance the excellent pictures.

Historically, Jewish Baltimore was decidedly not a single community. There were separate German Jewish and "Russian" (really Central and Eastern European) Jewish communities. And they were truly separate. The German Jews had come first to Baltimore and they looked down on the "Russian" Jews.

This book is bittersweet for me. It brings back some wonderful people to me, some who are now dead. But it also brings back to me the feelings of discomfort, even pain, I felt about the highly segregated situation in which we then lived where the "colored people" lived separately from the "white people," where Jews lived separately from those who were not Jewish, and where German Jews lived apart from the "Russian" Jews. All of these and other ghettos around Baltimore were based on "restricted housing" covenants and on the ingrained narrow customs of prejudice.

Gilbert Sandler evokes with warmth the history of Jewish Baltimore and he neatly skirts most of the less warm and cozy memories some of us have who lived as members of Jewish Baltimore.

A lovely "Family Album" it is. An account with balance between the bitter and the sweet it is not.

This is a book that could describe my life in pictures.

I was born in Pikesville and had lived there all my childhood. I grew up living nearby my grandparents on Park Heights Avenue, grew up knowing every place of Reisterstown Road. And I grew up as a Jewish girl who went to Camp Louise every summer of her life and spent those lazy summers on the White House (Camp Louise) lawns making friends with girls who even now I still keep in touch with.

It's a book that'll describe your life. Trust me: it described mine.

I saw this book at Oatlands Plantation during the holidays. I think it's a great guide for someone just visiting the area or someone who lives in our historical state.

This is not your usual travel book. No five-star hotels. No "Night-Life" section. What it is, is a practical guide to exploring one of most interesting and historic stretches of road in this country. It is a guidebook inspired by the Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership. This group describes itself in its website as follows: "The Journey Through Hallowed Ground Partnership is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising national awareness of the unparalleled history in the region, which generally follows the Old Carolina Road (Rt. 15/231) from Gettysburg, through Maryland, to Monticello in Albemarle County, VA. From its communities, farms, businesses and heritage sites, we have an opportunity to celebrate and preserve this vital fabric of America which stands today in the historic, scenic and natural beauty of this region."

The guide is a combination of basic history, introductions to historic sites and other points of interest, and recommendations of places to stay and to eat along the way. It provides the information needed to spend some time poking around one of the most fascinating sections of the country.

The Old Carolina Road (US Route 15) has more history along it than almost any region in the US, and this great travel guide through its words, photos, and maps takes the visitor back into that honored history and out again into the thriving towns and villages that anchor it. The book is a thorough guide to all the exciting historic sites, natural beauty, friendly people,and great places to eat and shop from Gettysburg to Monticello.

Not out of print. Reprinted in 1991, 1998, and 2000 by Clearfield Company, Inc., by Genealogical Publishing CO., Inc., 1001 N. Calvert Street, Baltimore, MD 21202.

Good resource if your family line is there. Found some information on Ninian Beall, his father and grandfather. They were weavers in Scotland! A confusing marriage date is listed in the book but no information on my line through Ninian's Rachel.

This book is not out of print. You people need to get yourselves updated. There is a new, 1998 version, in two volumes for sale and I can't seem to find a price for it. Please Update Yourselves!! You might make a sale!!!

This book contains no fewer than five of my family lines and was so well researched, I found my own name and the names of my seven brothers and sisters, who were listed in the correct chronological order and with correct dates of birth, with only one very minor mispelling and one name reversal. I was already familiar with ancestral lines about five generations back and was able to determine Ms. Doliante was quite accurate and thorough in all details. The entire book is extremely well documented, citing land grant records, wills, Bible records, census records, birth, death, and marriage records, court records, and personal interviews to back up all lineages. I found photographs of my ancestors, both some that I had seen before and some that I had not seen, as well as photocopies of Bible records and wills. The book is an absolute gold mine of information for anyone whose family surnames are found within its pages. I was just thrilled to find it!

Sidney Offit is a writer's writer. In this elegant memoir of his father the bookie, Offit has evoked the sense and sensibility of his Baltimore childhood and his father's shady dealings with a fresh and often surprising grace. It's a great read for the details and texture of time and place, but it's also a truly fine piece of writing. A very under-appreciated book by a writer who really should have written something great by now, and perhaps he still will.

I ENJOYED THIS SHORT STORY. AS I WAS ABLE TO RELATE TO MY CHILDHOOD AS MY FATHER WAS A JEWISH CHARACTER SIMALAR IN A WAY TO THE CENTRAL CHARACTER IN THIS BOOK. WOULD LIKE TO DROP A NOTE TO THE AUTHO. HOW DO I DO THIS?

Very entertaining book that details the family life of a bookie and his two sons (one of whom narrates the book). Interesting dichotomy between the son (now a professor at NYU) and his father who left school after 4th grade but had a Ph.D from the school of hard knocks. Dialogue between the family members is especially memorable.

Read all the editorial reviews on this book. They are comprehensive and a fine introduction. The book (paperback) is loaded with black-and-white drawings, maps and photographs.

To begin: 1804 was a very lousy year. It was decided by the politicians to export criminals and miscreants way far away outside (then) city limits. The first thing they did was set up buildings. The idea was to break even financially with inmate labor producing goods for sale. Oh, yeah, reform - that, too.

"Colored" prisoners were sold south if they came back a second time. There was no parole and there was no good time. One thing this book is invaluable for is the development of the classification system. (At the beginning, it was criminal, juvenile and insane.) Another is the never-ending debate as to dormitory and single- and double-cell housing. Another is the frenzy to build additional structures until space and budget ran out or was disapproved.

The author relied most exclusively on the transcripts of investigations so some of the day-to-day torture, forced labor, mutilations, whipping with cat-o-nine tails, and bed bugs so severe as to bloody mattresses sometimes shared by five.

The author reveals that three years after a particularly corrupt and sadistic warden (Weyland), a Bureau of Prisons was formed in 1916. This was the precursor of the Division of Correction which eventually grew to comprehend the cabinet-level Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Thereafter, the book loses strength because what was going on were building programs elsewhere in the state, such as Hagerstown (e.g., the "old jail" - MCIH). At this point, the author is relying on newspaper clippings and interviews with people including "old-guard" people that really didn't know about the really olden days. There are some famous escapes, comments on integration over the years, expansion to the "Supermax" across the street, etc., but the changing role of the warden is not made clear.

For personal reasons, I am not going to say any much more at this time.

This book gives an overview of the Maryland Penitentiary System over the past two hundred or so years. A fascinating look at some of the pivotal characters of Maryland's storied past within the penal system. RIVETING!

Having grown up as the daughter of a warden, I know first-hand how difficult it is to convey to an "outsider" how complex prison life, and Prison management can be. Mr. Shugg goes to great lengths to research and understand his topic. The readability of this book is to testimony to his great success. My father, who was interviewed for this book, has enjoyed reading it immensely. He has highly recommended it to all. It brought back many memories. He started as a guard and ended his long career as warden of the Maryland Pen. He "walked the walk" and Mr. Shugg is allowing his readers to do the same.

This is a worthwhile book. The history is well reserched, the photos are good, and the writing is smooth. Good deal. I loved the pictures. The book makes me want to visit Ocean City. It's sequel, Ocean City Vol. II, is equally good.

I'm not much for reading pictorial histories but this one got my attention. Ocean City Maryland is nicer than most resorts and has a good blend of commercialism to solitude, and wonderful activities, even at Christmas. It's a family resort, and my family and I like that. I thought this book was well written with finely tuned info and outstanding photos.

This book addresses the eternal quest by Americans to learn their beginnings, to reflect on the past, and dream of good times when life was simple. I enjoyed the book even though I was born in the 60's. I look forward to volume II.