Maryland Books

Three for three, the Battle of "Antietam" just like "Manassas" and "Shiloh" were given space at the end of the story. This book's focus is on two of the brothers Will and Mac. However, there is an interesting romance with Titus and Polly. This is an easy and fun read. You will like it if you don't mind the way the author treats "Antietam." By Ruth Thompson author of "The Bluegrass Dream" and "Natchez Above The River"

Writing as a Small BusinessQualifying Laps: A Brewster County NovelSins of the Fathers: A Brewster County NovelTravelersThe Bluegrass Dream: A Wilderness Adventure of Early SettlersNatchez Above The River: A Family's Survival In The Civil War

Antietam continues The Civil War Battle Series. As a long-time owner and rider of horses, I particularly enjoy the way Mr. Reasoner writes the relationship between Mac Brannon and the mysterious wild gray stallion which Mac has "captured". Man and horse have formed an incredible bond, almost thinking as one. For anyone who knows and loves horses, Mr. Reasoner has captured those feeling beautifully.

And, the war continues to disrupt the lives of the Brannon family, pulling them further and further apart. Combine well-written characters with well-researched and depicted battles, and you have a winning historical novel.

The main problem with James Reasoner's "Antietam," Book 3 in "The Civil War Battles Series," is the same as its companion volumes. The book is not ABOUT the Battle of Antietam, but rather it ENDS with the Battle of Antietam. Ironically, of all the battles covered in this volume--Stonewall Jackson's campaign in the Shenandoah, the Battles of the Seven Days during the Peninsula Campaign, the Second Battle of Manassas--Antietam probably receives the least amount of space. However, with the Civil War in full swing "Antietam" certainly offers more war and less soap opera than the first volume, "Bull Run." The happenings back on the Brannon family farm in Culpeper County, Virginia is fitting reduced to a minor subplot, although the romance between Titus Brannon and Polly Ebersole takes some surprising turns. More intriguing are the feeling of Cordelia's beau, Nathan Hatcher, who refuses to join the Confederate army and fight for a cause he cannot support. But the focus of Reasoner's novel are the two oldest Brannon brothers, Will and Mac.

Reasoner takes full advantage of these two siblings in terms of where he positions them to allow us to watch the war in 1862. Will is a Captain, commanding a company in the Stonewall Bridge, part of Jackson's fabled "foot cavalry." In "Antietam," Mac finally joins up with Jeb Stuart's cavalry, where he has the fortune of being the aide of Fitzhugh Lee. Consequently, the Brannons have a chance to witness many of the pivotal moments in the Eastern Theater of the War. These books do not have a lot of historical detail of the sort that would warm the hearts of Civil War reenacters, but Reasoner certainly provides a swiftly paced narrative. The soap opera elements that overwhelmed the first book in the series has been modified, although there is still a chance encounter on the battlefield and a hint of something extremely wrong between Polly and her father. This is not a great novel of the Civil War, but it is reasonably entertaining and certainly integrates the events of 1862. The section on Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign is probably the best in the book. I am looking forward to the rest of the series and wondering how many of the Brannons will make

Amazon lists eighty-four titles under Antietam. Try any of the other eighty three, as this one is not worth reading. As two other reviewers note, scant attention is paid to the battle at Sharpsburg/Antietam. Rather, Reasoner uses this title as suberfuge to take the reader riding all over Virginia from March to September 1862. Even the dust cover is misleading. Twelve pages of over 350 have anything to do with this battle, which is grossly oversimplified and underdescribed.

Reasoner seems intent solely on telling one chapter of an eight-part life of the Bannon family, a cliched and boring Southern family if there ever was one. The plot is plodding, the characters are stereotypes. Even with an accurate title, there would be little here worth reading. The editor and publisher should be ashamed.

And one more thing: Although this is a novel, the reader deserves at least a map of Virginia with each of the numerous towns and battles mentioned in the book shown on the map. Unless you know Virginia geography intimately, you'll be more lost than some of the commanders who, as Reasoner notes, suffered from poor maps. He doesn't offer any assistance. Better yet, some of the larger engagements merit detailed battle plans. One map would be worth five thousand words.

My only consolation is that I borrowed this from the public library. And, in this case, my Amazon recommendations were way off the mark.

Sorry, but I can't agree with other reviewers who say this is a "great" book. Of 358 pages, only 12 actually deal with the battle of Antietam, the bloodiest single-day battle of the Civil War. I'm no historian, but I know something of that battle and think that, even for an historical novel, Reasoner treats Antietam with too little regard for what it meant to the whole of the war.

While the book is a good read, its title is misleading.

As someone who grew up as a "county boy" around the same period as this book there was a lot of things that I could relate to. I saw myself and my childhood and my relationship with my father at times when reading this book. Though my experiences were not quite the same I do share a lot of similarities with the author and how he was raised.

An excellent read as well as a great insight on growing up in a city that forced you to be hard even if you were not built for that.

Truly one of the most powerful, lyrical memoirs I've read. The reader aches with recognition and hope in witnessing the struggle of one young man with the force of his parents' absolute determination that he will not be lost to the streets and the dark allure of releasing his own grip and allowing the river of hopelessness, self-abandonment, and despair sweep him along and ultimately drown him. Coates' honesty is remarkable and his triumphs hard fought and hard won. The writing itself flows with the same power that is found in skillfully written poetry - it surges into the unconsciousness in almost wordless images that speak to the vulnerable and struggling part of all of us. HIGHLY recommended.

Some stories are petit fours perfectly placed on dessert doilies and chased with chamomile tea. This story is not. This is a heartfelt center cut penned in rhythmic motion to the beat of Mr. Coates own djembe. I savored every word, marked passages that gave me goosebumps, and feared missing the next course if I put it down. Though I would've liked to know a bit more about the mother figure in this struggle, it is an aptly named triumph for both reader and writer, and in the end I dipped my biscuit in the gravy and smiled. Score one for us Mr. Coates.

While the author is a talented writer -- and his blog is a must read daily -- his total lack of personal insight mars an interesting story. Much of his life with his father is not amusing, but abusive, and it is shocking how much Mr. Coates does not see this. It is to be appreciated that he does see the contradictions within his father (a man who is known in Baltimore to be a total rip-off artist for writers wishing to self-publish), but a reader is left wondering if he ever got the point. Instead, one could see his son repeating many of the father's mistakes. Isn't the point of a memoir to show personal growth?

You know, as one escalates in age, but in particularly, in maturity with a little dose of wisdom and a touch of discernment, you begin to look at your parents as multi dimensional people. You realize, no they were not put on this earth to make your life miserable and without even consciously realizing it, the life lessons they taught you, the pitfalls they tried to keep you from falling into, become your reality. Ta-Nehisi Coates has penned a memoir for the hip hop( the ORIGINAL hip hop) generation. What I appreciated about Mr. Coates recollection of his childhood and coming of age tale was the fact that he didn't try to explain, defend or deny his father. He simply opened the door to the portals of ones mind, so that we can see the trials and triumphs of an american family. I appreciate Mr. Coates forth rightness about his father's inability to me faithful to any one woman, and how that may or may not have affected him. One of the most humorous passages of the book is when the elder Coates has enlisted Ta-Nehisi to go through the labyrinth of books and pamphlets in the garage and he proceeds to write line by line what Ta-Nehisi did or didn't do even down to Ta-Nehisi playing with his younger brother! That was classic! A heart wrenching passage is when the younger Mr. Coates shares with the reader his fathers utter disappointment and advising him of how he has shamed the Coates name. I will never forget, Ta-Nehisi advising the reader that no matter what you have heard about black men/boys, they do not want to fail or be deemed as a failure. This to me is one of the best memoirs for our generation and generations to come. I look forward to hearing more from this man.

Now in a fully updated fifth edition, Allison Blake's The Chesapeake Bay Book is a comprehensive and thoroughly user friendly: guide to all the great getaway adventures to be found in the Chesapeake Bay area of Maryland. Maps, indexes to the best places for lodging and dining, recreation opportunities by locale, and much more, enhance this superbly presented travel guide which is ideal for anyone planning a local day trip or an extended vacation in the Chesapeake Bay environs.

Now in a fully updated fifth edition, Allison Blake's The Chesapeake Bay Book is a comprehensive and thoroughly "user friendly: guide to all the great getaway adventures to be found in the Chesapeake Bay area of Maryland. Maps, indexes to the best places for lodging and dining, recreation opportunities by locale, and much more, enhance this superbly presented travel guide which is ideal for anyone planning a local day trip or an extended vacation in the Chesapeake Bay environs.

This book, now very-dog-eared, is indespenible for our weekend and holiday sojourns to the Bay area. It is well thought out and organized in a manner that allows us to plan our getaway, and all the details - from finding the best crabcakes and quaint inns to the selection of our tranpsort of choice - the sailboat charter or kayak - with a minimum of fuss. The author is thorough in researching the details and finding the Bay's may hidden treasures, so all that we have to do is enjoy this gem!

a college friend invited me to spend a few weeks with her in annapolis, but, when she got a job she couldn't refuse just before i arrived, i had to fend for myself entertainment-wise. thank heavens i wandered into a local bookstore and picked up this book. i didn't know a thing about the area. nor did my friend really. (i'm from texas, and she just moved there from connecticut.) but, with the help of this guidebook and a rental car, i wandered happily throughout the back roads of the chesapeake region. i found great little towns to stop in with its help, deliciously fattening restaurants to eat in and cool things to see. if you're a newbie there, i highly recommend that you pick it up!

You know the author has actually been to a place when she offers details like that. And Blake does, on page after page - and topic after topic. The book's history sections are comprehensive, then - voila! - great info on recreation and right-on reviews of restaurants. It seems obvious that not only does she live in the region, but plays in it, studies it, embraces it. As a complete novice to the area, I used the book when exploring my Chesapeake roots, and found it was about all I needed.

I thought this book as with his last book started off slow and VERY detailed. Toward the middle of the book it picked up and started to become a good read as with his other book Sympathy for the devil. I thought the book could have been cut down by some chapters and less some of the details. One of the Chapters I had to go back and re-read to make sure I didn't miss something. Overall I will read another Angela Bivens novel by this author because I like mysteries.

I loved this novel. I liked the way the author went 180 degrees from the crime-suspense-sleuthing theme in Sympathy for the Devil, to this thriller. Formulas get tired, and I'm glad Chambers is switching up on us--with the same characters! Great for summer read by the pool.

I got about two chapters into this book before quitting in disgust. The writing is obvious and is a mix of cliches and 'product placements.' Too much detail for no purpose. Everyone is the best of everything or the worst. The characters are caricatures. This is blaxploitation writing.

In A Prayer for Deliverance, Christopher Chambers resumes where the debut novel, Sympathy For the Devil, ended. FBI agent, Angela Bivens, is back in action as an inspector called in to investigate the murders of prominent African American leaders. While her superiors think the murders are the work of a well-known hate group, we find Angela dallying in the supernatural to solve the murders and bring the true assassins to justice. Specifically, she is pulled into a dark underworld of Zulu "magick" to substantiate her theories and enlists the help of a rookie sidekick (and Wicca witch) to assist in the investigation. As in the first novel, she is both supported and hindered by the FBI staff and must deal with the political powers of the agency and the bureaucracy of the Washington elite. To complicate things further, she stumbles through a newfound romance while struggling to overcome the emotional scars from her last boyfriend, a psychotic sociopath who was the evil perpetrator of her last case.

As one can imagine, this book is multi-dimensional and filled with numerous plot twists and turns. There are so many characters with ulterior motives that this reviewer literally had to keep notes on who was who, their relationships to one another, and their relationships within the FBI hierarchy.

This novel is extremely well written and very well researched as evidenced in the passages about South African culture and politics. However, this reviewer felt that at times the plot tangents obscured the essence of the mystery. In an attempt to make this a well-rounded novel, the author repeatedly lost this reviewer in the minutia and the surreal, dreamlike episodes that were scattered throughout the book. Angela Bivens, earmarked as an FBI super sleuth, seemed bewildered and clueless at times which elongated the story and damaged her characterization as an ingenious, diehard super agent. There were some segments in which she appeared to be as much of a victim as the targets. Perhaps this was intentional, to show her vulnerabilities, however it came off as Angela being the luckiest detective alive instead of one of the sharpest. Nonetheless, this reviewer persevered to see how the novel would conclude and was not disappointed. Overall, this was a compelling mystery and proved to be entertaining.

Phyllis
APOOO BookClub, Nubian Circle Book Club

After reading the first Angela Bivens book I had high hopes for this one. For the most part the book works but there is just too much in it. The story goes off in so many directions it's like looking at a pot of spaghetti thrown against the wall. The heroine is essentially Cleopatra Jones with serious emotional issues and some of the stuff she does makes not a lick of sense but if you give this book time you'll find a pretty good read for a rainy afternoon.

STINGER is a solid, satisfying read. It kept me pleasantly diverted during a long morning waiting for my car to be fixed.

Like many good thrillers, the plot and the characters are somewhat familiar but with a few unique elements of their own. The two key characters are Cavanaugh, an FBI agent who is a bit of a rogue and a closet idealist, and Melanie, a black female doctor. STINGER follows their search for the source of an epidemic of strokes among black people. They make an unlikely but ultimately effective pair of buddies.

STINGER is not great literature, nor even the best thriller I have ever read, but it is very good. If you want solid thrills and a plot that keeps you wondering until the very end, this is a good pick.

Maryland, USA. Are we dealing with an attempt to wipe out the black population by a biological weapon? Dr. Melanie Anderson of CDC thinks so. Malaria reading, named after Malcolm Peter Reading, a black Senator from Pennsylvania and a presidential hopeful, who died after suffering a stroke in the middle of his speech, continues to spread rapidly. What made Dr. Anderson so sure about the genocide attempt is that the disease seems to attack only t hose with sickle-cell trait, a predominantly black population.

Let me start by saying that I'm not a fan of medical thrillers; to me, they tend to fall into two categories--overly technical labyrinths that have Tom Clancy Excruciating Detail Syndrome, or they get carried away into panicky melodrama.

"Stinger," however, is a great read. It's well-plotted, with authentic characterizations, and a basic premise that is both plausible and engaging.

Ms. Kress is to be commended for maintaining a balance among three very different worlds: government bureaucracy, police procedure, and epidemiology. Her descriptions of each of these worlds has enough detail to lend authenticity, but she still manages to keep the story moving briskly along.

The story unfolds in a way that both entices and rewards; we quickly come to care about the lead characters, and can identify with their internal conflicts that arise from a situation that is at first alarming, then horrifying, then paranoia-inducing.

The resolution of the story is clever and satisfying; at no point did I find myself gagging on contrivances or oversimplifications. In fact, I found myself admiring her ability to resolve a tricky setup.

Most importantly, this book makes me want to read more works by Nancy Kress.

Ms. Kress turns out a competent work of mystery here. The story is good, and we don't find out "whodunit" until the very end. My only complaint is that the characters were a bit cliche. Dr. Melanie Anderson was just about the angriest character I have ever seen. In my own humble opinion, I don't see how she could possibly have risen to a position of responsibility within the CDC with some of the know-nothing convictions she holds. Agent Cavanaugh is the quintessential "man afraid of commitment"

Read this book and be entertained for a few hours.

Nancy Kress has taken a bold step. She's an award-winning science fiction writer who is universally recognized as one of the best in the genre. With `Oaths and Miracles' and now with `Stinger,' she has proven that she can stand toe-to-toe with the best of the thriller/suspense writers as well.

`Stinger' begins with Senator Malcolm Peter Reading, a presidential hopeful, collapsing during a speech. Reading, an African-American, dies in a matter of minutes. It is discovered that he had contracted malaria. Others quickly begin dying of malaria. Nearly all of them are African-American. Then the epidemic begins.

FBI agent Robert Cavanaugh and Dr. Melanie Anderson of the Centers for Disease Control quickly discover that the deaths are not accidents. Someone...or some country...has reintroduced malaria into America. The cards appear to be stacked against them: they have few clues and little time. To complicate matters, both Cavanaugh and Anderson are faced with personal and professional crises just as an answer is beginning to develop.

I have always appreciated two things about the writing of Nancy Kress: fascinating characters and scientific ideas a clod like me can understand. Cavanaugh acts exactly the way we think an FBI agent should - logical, methodical thinking, going through the proper steps at the proper time, etc, but Kress shows us that while the agent has everything together on the job, that doesn't necessarily mean every aspect of his life is in order. Melanie Anderson is an African-American woman who is mad as hell at what is happening. She's not perfect, yet we identify with her, hurt for her, and cheer for her. Two great characters.

`Stinger' is a great thrill-ride all the way to the very last page, but it is also chilling in another aspect. Although this book was published in 1998, it has some frightening parallels to the events surrounding Sept. 11. A real page-turner...and a real eye opener.

303 fast-moving pages

I live in Rockville and have always been both fascinated and confused by the location of the Fitzgeralds' graves. It's so utterly bizarre and incongruous, something that I shouldn't be stumbling upon on my way to pick up the laundry. What an interesting plot thread.

The Talking Heads' song ONCE IN A LIFETIME comes to mind while reading ROCKVILLE PIKE. Janie is not quite sure how she came to be living in a huge house, working at her husband's family store, and trying to connect with her increasingly distant husband. In addition to the humor and pathos in this tale, there's an odd sense of menace. Who is Delia underneath her makeup and flirty clothes? What is Tracy, the lawyer/scrapbooking consultant, really up to? Where did those old bones found under the store come from? Characters and conflicts come and go, many not really explored or resolved, which is a bit frustrating; there are actually about three potential novels that could come out of ROCKVILLE PIKE. Overall,however, Janie is quite likeable and you want to keep reading in the hope that everything will turn out for her.

This is a very nice book -- Except, WAIT -- I think it is about MY LIFE! Ha.

I guess I could really relate to the dismal, suburban setting and the odd suburban characters. I loved the Goth son and his rich friend. The husband was, well, in many ways, pretty typical! Janie manages to rally, but you can see why it wasn't easy for her.

If you are wondering how you ended up in suburbia you'll be able to relate to Janie too.

Rockville Pike is told from the perspective of a middle age suburban wife and mother who finds herself living a less than satisfactory life. She works at her husband's family's furniture store in Rockville, Maryland and is the mother of a teenage son recently turned Goth and vegan. This book chronicles her realization that her marriage is floundering, the furniture store is hemmoraging money, and none of this is even similar to the life she once planned to lead. This novel follows her comical and introspective search for answers and the decisions she is faced with regarding how to improve her lot in life.

Susan Coll does an excellent job of capturing the feelings of the disgruntled suburban soccer mom caught in a life that doesn't seem her own. The characters are very well developed and easy to relate to. It is not at all difficult to believe Jane Kramer, the narrator, and how she feels about her husband, job, and child. The downside is that this book drags at times and is occasionally boring. This disappointment is tempered with other sections of the book that are extremely entertaining and funny. Another reason this book is fun for some readers is the references to Rockville, MD and other localities related to this DC suburb.

Overall, this book is mediocre, but portions of the book save it and result in a novel worth reading.

Angst-ridden and unhappily married Jane Kramer helps her husband Leon run his family's discount furniture store on Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland. Coping is difficult for Jane as she tries at the same time to keep an eye on Delia (a store employee to whom she suspects her husband is attracted), supervise her 16-year-old Goth son who was just suspended from school, and assist fellow soccer-mom Tiffany in running a scrapbooking business.

At the same time, a mystery ensues. Money is disappearing from the store's funds. Who could possibly be taking it? It's not as simple as it sounds.

How Jane deals with all of these problems makes for one hilarious read. The author's hard-hitting, sarcastic humor is timed just right to provide a truly laugh-out loud reading experience.

I absolutely loved the Rockville setting since this city is my hometown. The author did a fantastic job of bringing some true-to-life local color into this story. She used not only the quirky character of the city but also references to F. Scott Fitzgerald who is buried here in Rockville.

Rockville Pike is a fun story with very interesting characters, many of whom you'll be sure not to forget. This is an excellent novel for everyone. No, you do not need to live near Rockville Pike to really enjoy it. I highly recommend it for everyone who likes to laugh.

I thought this book was very interesting I first saw this story on A haunting on the discovery channel.
Nancy tells us about living in this house for ten years. and how her and her family got through it until they could move spooky stuff!
a good read if you like ghost stories.

This bizarre and well-documented book covers the scary phenomena which plagued a Maryland family for ten years. The Stallings moved into the impressive old home on Evergreen Avenue thinking it would be the perfect place to raise their large family. Before long annoying knockings in the walls and unexplainable electrical disturbances escalate to sightings of apparitions, ghostly voices, and much more. The Stallings try without success to oust the demons with help from the religious community and famed ghost hunter Dr. Hans Holzer. They finally succeed in selling the house, apparently with the help of the entities, and you don't want to miss the new family's comments. There are some intriguing photos including two of eerie ghostly hands flipping light switches and reaching for an investigator's clipboard. A few of the incidents seem incredible, but overall this book's pretty good.

I was totally disappointed in this book. I'm a hometown fan. I love most everything about Baltimore. And this book makes us look stupid. Not the content. It's a ghost story. And some of the images are really funny - my favorite was the wiccans cleansing the house. But the presentation of the material is so poor that it makes it hard to attach any seriousness to the tale. Noble House has spellcheck and grammar check on it's computers, don't they? English is not a second language to Nancy Stallings, is it? The family priest set up an "alter" rather than an "altar". Nancy "shuttered" rather than "shuddered". The evil ghost viewed the family as "pray" rather than "prey". And the medium helping these poor folks out admitted to having visited the "Marilyn" Institute once rather than the "Maryland" Institute. The new ghostbusters have presented talks to "Mensia" groups rather than "Mensa" groups. "So mote it be" became "so move it be" as the parapsychologist tried to remove the ghost. I especially liked the term "ancient witchcraft" being applied to Wicca. Wicca was created in the 1950's by it's founder Gerald Gardner. I was also created in the 1950's and am hardly "ancient". I'd have had no trouble with this presented as fiction, but if you want to call it fact, go to the trouble of checking facts and proofreading.

A friend recommended this book to me. I love books about "true" hauntings, but I was really disappointed with this one. The narrative is truly confusing, with much skipping around,seques that have nothing to do with the story, and misuse of words, which at times, make reading quite hilarious. (I'm not obsesssive enough to list them here).

This would be a great book if someone who could write would do so. As it stands, it is strictly an amateur effort.

This book was ok, but the author skipped around so much that you did not know if it was the present or the future that she was referring to. I would check it out at the library instead of spending the money on it.

this book has alot of potential but some of the stuff i know of personally and the book fabricated a story around it. like the west street walker.
and it didnt give exact locations to some of these sights. i want to know where the space ship houses are. and it just says delmarva which is the entire eastern shore.
but if you can get this book for under $10 its worth it

This book, at least it's title, gave great hope for an interesting exploration of the lesser known places in Maryland. Sadly, it was just hockus pockus-- what a pity!

Ordered along with Weird NJ Vol 2 (NJ is state of birth). Love it! Very comprehensive. Arrived on time and in flawless condition. Thanks, Jim

This is a great book. Everyyone in the family is fighting to read it at once.

As a lifelong resident of the Washington, DC area, I thought I knew how weird the state of Maryland was, but this volume has been a real eye opener! Maryland, my friends, turns out to be one of the weirder places in the known universe. Case in point: Our very own Count Gore De Vol launched his award winning horror host program , Creature Feature, from the hallowed halls Channel 20, a UHF television station that beamed its signal from Bethesda, Maryland to horror movie fans located in and around DC Metro for more than a decade. You'll find Count Gore's superbly crafted and cannily concise biography opposite a full-page color photo of Count Gore (with a gorgeous blonde on his lap) on Page 100! I'm very proud to say that this enthralling account of Count Gore's fabulous and flamboyant rise to horror host fame was written by none other than Creature Feature's own High Priestess of Weirdness, LadyBoneYard, also known as Donna Mucha! Kudos to LadyB for a truly magnificent article! Of course, you'll find other weird folks lurking in these pages, some more renowned than others. For instance, we all know of Count Gore De Vol, but have you ever heard of the Snallygaster? Or the Goat Man? If you haven't, you'd better watch out, because they stalk Maryland's back roads, just waiting for naïve travelers. Also included is information about the region's infamous Bunnyman, a hatchet-wielding maniac whose authenticity I can vouch for, having myself encountered that particular nut-job way back in the seventies. And then there's that demon-possessed kid who William Peter Blatty made famous in his novel, The Exorcist, which was followed by the blockbuster movie that scared the bejeezus out of all of us. Yep, Maryland's got its share of weird folks and bizarre creatures, but there are also a number of haunted houses, haunted cemeteries and my personal favorite Maryland locale, the abandoned and horrifically haunted Glenn Dale Hospital, a former mental asylum filled with miles of corridors that used to be home to patients who were rumored to have been tortured, experimented upon and murdered. I've been there, and it's a truly harrowing experience, I can tell you. On the lighter side, you'll meet strange denizens of the state who drive cars shaped like spaceships and other unusual objects, find odd, whimsical museums that cater to unusual tastes, see photos of tiny houses built for little people and a tavern with a shark's head sticking right out of the front façade. It's no wonder that Baltimore was home to Edgar Alan Poe, because even the Baltimore bar district is said to be haunted (and believe me, I've seen some strange things there after about 2AM!). And the very best thing about Maryland, I'm sure you'll agree, is that Count Gore De Vol is our own local hero--and to prove it, he's been given another full-page frontispiece photo that heads up the chapter entitled, "Local Heroes and Villains"! This book is packed with enjoyable weirdness and bizarre information, and you certainly don't have to be a Marylander to enjoy it. I know you'll want your own copy, because--listen to this!--if you click on the graphic, you will be offered the opportunity to purchase a copy of this gorgeous, oversized, hardback volume--personally inscribed to you from Count Gore De Vol himself! You can't get a Count Gore De Vol signed volume of Weird Maryland anywhere else, and when the Creature Feature bookshelves have run out of books, you won't be able to get one at all! Be sure to click on the cover and order your copy NOW!

The Melanie Travis series has been fun to follow and enlightening with regard to the details of the "show dog" world - from a "real" person's perspective (Melanie)with the bonus of fun mysteries. This book was fine for what it offered, but was not one of the more challenging mysteries in the series. It did update the reader on the lives of the main character and her family - and added a twist to info. on the dog world - creating and advertising a "new" dog food (not obviously an interesting pursuit, but essential to this plot). I think the author had a good time writing this book and offered an easy read - for dog and mystery lovers.

The true appeal here was dog-related. All the dog information was fascinating and her descriptions of her herd of Poodles (particularly Faith) were priceless.

Unfortunately I question the mode of murder. At the risk of spoiling the plot, I wonder why someone would push Larry down the stairs while he was holding the (hopefully) winning dog - and risk injuring said winning dog (particularly considering who the murderer is finally revealed to be and why she considered Yoda the winner). And if he wasn't holding the dog when pushed, then why didn't the murderer pick up Yoda after doing the pushing? I just couldn't make it work in my mind. (As an aside, I noticed the gender of the dog kept changing throughout the book - first referred to as she, then he, then she again.)

And the constant references to pregnancy were just grating on my nerves. How Melanie could put up w/ the constant intrusions into her privacy (and her uterus is about as private as it gets!!) is just unbelievable. Good grief. If someone hounded a friend or sister like that I'd hope they'd reply with, "If you're so determined to have another child in this family, why don't YOU adopt one? I'll gladly supply you with a letter of reference." Hopefully once this kid gets born, all such intrusive references will be a part of the past.

This was my first exposure to her work. I'm looking forward to further novels full of dog stories.

Each of the Melanie Travis books takes you to her delightful life in Greenwich. The author quickly gets the reader involved in the world of dog shows and sleuthing.

Unfortunately, the books are such quick reads that you are left out in the cold again, and craving the next in her series.

Hurry up and write more, Ms. Berenson.

Everybody needs to laugh and everybody needs to think and this book makes you pee your pants laughing while trying to solve a mystery.
My hats off to Ms Berenson for making me turn the pages of this book faster than the last 4 books that I've recently read.
I highly recommend any of the entertaining Melanie Travis Mysteries.
My sincere hope is that the author is working on the next installment as I type this!

Melanie Travers can't quite bear to disappoint her son when he enters her poodle in a pet food competition and she becomes a finalist, but she doesn't really want to win. Which makes her completely unlike the other finalists. Every one of them seems intent on winning at any cost. When one of the contestants (the owner, not the pet) falls to his death on the stairs of the pet food company, Melanie finds herself in the familiar position of having to investigate what might be an accident but certainly looks like--murder.

Investigating crime is far from Melanie's major job, however. Although school may be out for the summer, she's still getting adjusted to her recent marriage, putting up with relatives urging her to start producing more children, showing her standard poodle at dog shows, and jumping through the many hoops that the contest judges have set up.

Author Laurien Berenson continues her Melanie Travis series with another look into the world of dog shows, and the unusual and colorful people who make these shows their life. These characters, especially Melanie, her aunt Peg, and gay groomer Terry bring the story to life and keep the reader interested as Melanie puts herself in dangerous situations to discover exactly what happened to the unpleasant Larry--and whether she just might be the next to fall victim.

The author gave a birth of her daughter in ' 89, so did I deliver my third kids . This may be only one common thing to share between her , except both are Shubertian.
Jewish and Japanese are often compared, and they are conspicuously differnt in the spiritual distance of each individual from the history of their own people. We , Japanese ,are genious of forgetting and we could change the attitude toward US so dramatically that Ruth Benedict couldn't help studying Japanese war captives. Whereas Jewish people,language wise, music wise , are trying to carry on the tradition, even though great constraint between the host country culture and also between generations of their own people.
And 'an die Music'. Tan Dun, a Chinese composer living in NY,once said,' Western music develops horizontally'. I also admit, music are differnt in East and West, maybe because of Eastern ear VS Western ear. But when lyrics intermediate sounds and internal reality that words evoke , what type of ears you may have, you can enjoy music of differnt culture. So many operas, lied, Italian songs and hymns apperared in this books have told me so.

"A Joyful Noise," Deborah Weisgall's serious and brooding memoir, is far from a fluffy celebration of music and Judaic heritage. Its subtitle, "Claiming the Songs of My Fathers," more accurately captures the sense of conflict and struggle which permeates the life of a talented, tormented and frustrated young woman, who at once soars with the rich musical background of both her father and grandfather but simultaneously is denied participation and validation because of her gender. "A Joyful Noise" elicits both compassion and anger from the reader; one senses that had the author been born some twenty years later she would have had much more direct access to both her own talents and her clearly-articulated love for her heritage. The author does not disguise the central theme of her memoir. After a disappointing experience at a Passover seder, Deborah expresses her yearning to join her father and grandfather as full participants in both music and heritage. "I hummed the songs as quietly as I could, aching to get them right, afraid that my father would hear my wrong notes and correct me. They ran perfectly through my head but not from my mouth. I loved them. I wanted them." Yet, she understands that her ambition does not correspond with the very heritage she so deeply desires. Segregated, minimized and isolated due to sexist traditions and practices, Jewish women have had to sublimate their otherwise honorable ambitions into other avenues of expression. Sensing that possibility, even as a child, Deborah laments: "My desire was as strong as theirs; my voice was not. My breath stalled against my vocal cords, and the back of my throat throbbed from stopped-up songs and angry tears. I wanted to sing. I wanted to be heard." Weisgall's quest for authenticity, for voice, occurs during a period of national affluence and cultural indifference in the 1950s and on the cusp of our nation's profound social revolution of the 1960s. Deborah comes of age in a tension-riddled family; her non-religious mother, Nathalie, is indifferent to housework, and her beloved father, Hugo, consistently produces operas which are artistically gifted but critical failures. The Weisgalls constantly move from their Baltimore roots, whether it be to Maine for summers, or from college town to another, where Hugo can sustain his family's material needs while he tries to fulfill his own battered expectations as an artist. Deborah realizes the discored in her family is real; her mother's physical beauty cannot hide her bitterness just as her father's rapture with musci cannot hide his own frustration with failure and betrayal. Looming like a dense cloud over the family is the Holocaust, whose disruptive horror has created a permanent sense of dread and loss. In a desultory search through her parents' closet, Deborah discovers a shoe-box stuffed with raw and brutal photographs of cocentration camp victims. She understands in a visceral sense the impact of genocide on her father, who directly witnessed the horrific scenes while he served as a translator for the liberating United States Army during World War II. The Weisgalls are derivative survivors, having lost their past, their roots, their culture through the Holocaust. The author is able to trace the genesis of family friction to this loss of place. Nathalie, a lover of beauty, flounders in America; Hugo, linked in memory to his childhood in Czechoslovakia, wrestles with his own struggle to match his father (Abba) without the support of cultural stability and identity. The memoir is not without its faults. Unless one has a solid grasp of opera and classical music, Weisgall's detailed descriptions of her artistic passion tend to overwhelm the reader. Deborah's ultimately successful climb to identity occurs too abruptly, as well. Her ultimate chapters, which recount her experiences as Radcliffe and her emergence as an independent, secure woman, appear rushed and lack the elegant detail so prevalent throughout descriptions of her childhood. Nevertheless, this serious and introspective work deserves the critical praise it has garnered. "A Joyful Noise" deftly interweaves music, religious heritage and family into a tapestry both instructive and inspiring.

I LOVE this book! Before I read this book, a family friend of mine read it and highly highly recommended it. When I started this book, I couldn't put it down, thats the kind of book it can be for certain people. The reason why this book was a huge page-turner for me, was because I felt relate to the author in many different levels. (...)This book isn't just text on a few pages to me, it is guidence for my life.

The author gave a birth of her daughter in ' 89, so did I deliver my third kids . This may be only one common thing to share between her , except both are Shubertian.
Jewish and Japanese are often compared, and they are conspicuously differnt in the spiritual distance of each individual from the history of their own people. We , Japanese ,are genious of forgetting and we could change the attitude toward US so dramatically that Ruth Benedict couldn't help studying Japanese war captives. Whereas Jewish people,language wise, music wise , are trying to carry on the tradition, even though great constraint between the host country culture and also between generations of their own people.
And 'an die Music'. Tan Dun, a Chinese composer living in NY,once said,' Western music develops horizontally'. I also admit, music are differnt in East and West, maybe because of Eastern ear VS Western ear. But when lyrics intermediate sounds and internal reality that words evoke , what type of ears you may have, you can enjoy music of differnt culture. So many operas, lied, Italian songs and hymns apperared in this books have told me so.

"A Joyful Noise," Deborah Weisgall's serious and brooding memoir, is far from a fluffy celebration of music and Judaic heritage. Its subtitle, "Claiming the Songs of My Fathers," more accurately captures the sense of conflict and struggle which permeates the life of a talented, tormented and frustrated young woman, who at once soars with the rich musical background of both her father and grandfather but simultaneously is denied participation and validation because of her gender. "A Joyful Noise" elicits both compassion and anger from the reader; one senses that had the author been born some twenty years later she would have had much more direct access to both her own talents and her clearly-articulated love for her heritage. The author does not disguise the central theme of her memoir. After a disappointing experience at a Passover seder, Deborah expresses her yearning to join her father and grandfather as full participants in both music and heritage. "I hummed the songs as quietly as I could, aching to get them right, afraid that my father would hear my wrong notes and correct me. They ran perfectly through my head but not from my mouth. I loved them. I wanted them." Yet, she understands that her ambition does not correspond with the very heritage she so deeply desires. Segregated, minimized and isolated due to sexist traditions and practices, Jewish women have had to sublimate their otherwise honorable ambitions into other avenues of expression. Sensing that possibility, even as a child, Deborah laments: "My desire was as strong as theirs; my voice was not. My breath stalled against my vocal cords, and the back of my throat throbbed from stopped-up songs and angry tears. I wanted to sing. I wanted to be heard." Weisgall's quest for authenticity, for voice, occurs during a period of national affluence and cultural indifference in the 1950s and on the cusp of our nation's profound social revolution of the 1960s. Deborah comes of age in a tension-riddled family; her non-religious mother, Nathalie, is indifferent to housework, and her beloved father, Hugo, consistently produces operas which are artistically gifted but critical failures. The Weisgalls constantly move from their Baltimore roots, whether it be to Maine for summers, or from college town to another, where Hugo can sustain his family's material needs while he tries to fulfill his own battered expectations as an artist. Deborah realizes the discord in her family is real; her mother's physical beauty cannot hide her bitterness just as her father's rapture with musci cannot hide his own frustration with failure and betrayal. Looming like a dense cloud over the family is the Holocaust, whose disruptive horror has created a permanent sense of dread and loss. In a desultory search through her parents' closet, Deborah discovers a shoe-box stuffed with raw and brutal photographs of cocentration camp victims. She understands in a visceral sense the impact of genocide on her father, who directly witnessed the horrific scenes while he served as a translator for the liberating United States Army during World War II. The Weisgalls are derivative survivors, having lost their past, their roots, their culture through the Holocaust. The author is able to trace the genesis of family friction to this loss of place. Nathalie, a lover of beauty, flounders in America; Hugo, linked in memory to his childhood in Czechoslovakia, wrestles with his own struggle to match his father (Abba) without the support of cultural stability and identity. The memoir is not without its faults. Unless one has a solid grasp of opera and classical music, Weisgall's detailed descriptions of her artistic passion tend to overwhelm the reader. Deborah's ultimately successful climb to identity occurs too abruptly, as well. Her ultimate chapters, which recount her experiences as Radcliffe and her emergence as an independent, secure woman, appear rushed and lack the elegant detail so prevalent throughout descriptions of her childhood. Nevertheless, this serious and introspective work deserves the critical praise it has garnered. "A Joyful Noise" deftly interweaves music, religious heritage and family into a tapestry both instructive and inspiring.