Connecticut Books

This book is false advertising and the name should be changed. Prosek is capitalizing on the name recognition of a classic. Walton's book is about fishing, respect for nature, and ultimately about how these parallel Christianity and Christian virtues. Prosek's book is about a privileged college student fishing in highly restricted areas in England, on someone else's nickel. Worst of all, Prosek makes it very clear that he does not believe in an afterlife, that he is not a Christian at all, and that fishing is his religion. Not a mention of ethics or conservation. Even if you are not a Christian (like Walton) it is clear that this book is an agnostic's attempt at flowery language, baseless earth worship, and self-fulfillment at other's expense. Walton would consider this book absolute bologna and consider Prosek a spoiled, self absorbed, pseudo-intellectual heretic. While reading Prosek I continually wondered how he could completely miss the point of the original. Walton's book is about fishing and how it parallels Christianity, Prosek's book is about fishing and how he does a lot of it at other's expense.

I give this book two stars for two reasons. First, it elaborates to the reader the current state of the classic waters in Walton's book. Unfortunately they are in a sad state of being enjoyed only by the super rich. Second, by reading this book maybe some will be encouraged to read the real item.

James, I love you man but please stick to painting.

I enjoyed this book. I was one the people who had heard (quite a bit, actually) of Izaak Walton's "Angler", but had not read it. Prozek's work was the motivation for me to dive into the 17th century for a few hours and read the book. So, if for no other reason, I'm grateful to Prosek. There is a lot here to remind the reader that this is an effort made at the beginning of a literary career; some undisciplined gushing here; a bit of bragging there. But it's hard to deny that there was real effort involved. Prosek has worked on understanding both his subject and himself enough to win me over, even though I'm jealous that he (at least by his account) catches way more fish than I do.

Having read Prosek's other two books (and having thoroughly enjoyed them, and given copies as gifts), I really look forward to reading this one - long anticipated. This young man has unusual talents, and (at least as of a couple of years ago) possesses another rare quality today - humility and politeness.

Let's face it, this is not a very good book. There is a tendency among those who fly fish to readily accept any ink put to paper as elegaic, contemplative and downright superior. Young Mr. Prosek is a fortunate lad, having pulled the wool over the eyes of the academic sachems at Yale to bless his fly fishing vacation in England as the subject of his thesis. He wraps the proposal in the esteemed pages of Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler, the most purchased and least read book in the history of print. Prosek forces us to wade through a number of English rivers and some tedious prose, and in this respect he does resemble Walton. His constant comparisons of himself to Walton tend to bog down his writing. He ruminates on how he is standing in the same water that Walton once stood, the worst kind of conceit. You don't even stand in the same river yourself when you happen to be standing in one! The only redeeming feature of this volume is that it is beautiful book, with Prosek's watercolors generously peppered throughout. He is a gifted painter and his first book is one of my favorites. This volume, however, has more of the red herring about it than the noble trout. I admire a good con job, I just hate it when it's pulled on me.

This book tries very hard to be "deep" and insightful; it is neither. This is not a book about the human condition; it is a book about a privileged young man fishing with privileged old people.

Prosek does lovely paintings, but the bottom line is that his writing lacks maturity. He violates many rules that should have been drilled into his head during "freshman comp" class. He doesn't show, he tells. He overuses flowery adjectives. And he can be melodramatic to the extreme.

There is no shortage of books about flyfishing that are filled with overblown prose, books that try to make flyfishing something it is not. This book is one of them.

Comparisons to Izaak Walton abound. This gets old after a while. So do the many "characters" Prosek fishes with, who we are told are very interesting and "quite delightful," but most seemed to be pompous, bland individuals.

For some reason, the trip itself bothered me. He got to fish many rivers only because he was a young man of privilege. Everyone he meets is awed by him, mainly because he is an Ivy Leaguer with the right connections. He then makes sure we know that the class-obsessed people he meet complimented him on his "class" and "character." He seems to revel in this, never examining his privilege. Many times I wanted him to quit rhapsodizing over trout and start examining his own life.

I was very disappointed in Prosek as a writer. It lacks the depth of a good travel book (like Fen Montaigne's "Reeling in Russia"). And he can't compare to sporting writers like McGuane, Bodio, Tom McIntyre and Robert F. Jones, all writers whose books reflect fierce joy, love, pain, conflict, and ambiguity.

I understand Prosek is now writing about love. Be very afraid.

Everyone knows that "Josh" obviously works for one of the following competitors to College Prowler:

1. Princeton Review
2. US News
3. The Fiske Guide

These corporate giants can't handle students taking over the college guidebook industry.

At first, I hesitated, because I'm a bargain shopper. This book is priced a couple of dollars more than the Princeton Review and Fiske Guide. Could it be that much better?

Well, let me tell you this, if I was comparing it to the Princeton Review or Fiske Guide, I would have paid hundreds of dollars for this book.

Simply put, my daughter was not excited about the college selection process. When I brought home the Fiske and PR guides ... I found them in a closet with our old phone books.

I then heard about College Prowler from the NY Times, and immediately bought the guide to New England, as well as some of their single-school guides ... I'm in love with the single-school ones, but this guide to New England was the perfect book for my daughter to begin the college selection process.

When she flipped open to the middle of the book, and read a student testimonial about how attractive guys are on campus at Northeastern, but to watch out for players ... she was hooked.

The book sits at our dining table, and she blurts out random student reviews from different schools ... we get quite a laugh. Not only is the book tremendously funny, but it dissects the campus culture at each school. You get a feel what students are actually like, and where you'll fit in best. The new way to choose a college, is to choose one that's right for you, eventually, these College Prowler guides will be the industry standard, if they aren't already.

Sadatay.

I would like to recommend College Prowler's New England Colleges book to all sr. high school students. I'm from the Pacific Northwest, but was accepted into 4 elite schools, 3 of which are on the East Coast (Brown, Wesleyan, and BC). Fortunately for me, I ran across this guide in a local bookstore, and just a quick glance though its pages gave me the impression that this was no ordinary college resource, pamphlet, or biased review that I've been encountering in my extremely difficult task of evaluating which school is right for me. The most impressive aspect of this book is that it lets the students-from each individual college-tell their stories about what they really think about their school. There are a ton of student quotes on each school on just about every factor that a student like myself would be interested in: safety of campus, campus facilities, campus parties and organizations, local bars and restaurants, and more.

When I met with my academic advisor to discuss the college guide books I had been reading, she warned me that College Prowler is considered a reputable source of information by neither her nor any of her colleagues in academe.

Sure enough, when I came to Amazon just now to sell my two used College Prowler books, I noticed that shortly after each book had been published, a single person had submitted a five-star review for both books. In one review, he stated he's "from the East Coast," and in the other review he stated he's "from the Pacific Northwest."

It looks like my academic advisor was correct about College Prowler.

Let me start by saying that other reviewers seem to be in the process of choosing a college, so they do not realize how inaccurate these guides are. I am a junior in college, and when I saw my little brother reading this guide I decided to see what it said about my school. Not a single one of the categories was even close to the truth. And I'm not just complaining that my school got too many poor remarks, it got graded high in areas it shouldn't have and vice versa. Being from the New England area, I have friends that go to many of the colleges listed, and most of them say that their school is wrongly represented as well. There are a lot of other (cheaper) guides out there that are way better and that list more schools.

I have read all of Emily Grayson's books and I absolutely loved them....except Night Train to Lisbon. I think Ms. Grayson is a very talented author and her other books really touch my heart. But this latest novel lacked characters that I could like as people. At best, Carson is a charming girl who is stubborn and willful. At worst, she comes off as a rich, priviledged girl who is spoiled rotten and does not bother to concern herself with how others around her feel. Her beau, Alec is also hard to like. He is pushy and helpless and appears to prey on innocent girls. He is a fast mover and seems all wrong for Carson. As for the other characters in the book, Carson's parents and aunt/uncle are boring.

I was really quite disappointed in this book. I would suggest that if you read this book or want to read this book, just don't judge the author by this book alone. My favorite book of hers is The Gazebo, followed by The Fountain.

I'm a big fan of Emily Grayson and in my opinion, this book did not disappoint. I loved the characters of Carson and Alec and I loved their story. There's also an interesting twist in the end that really surprised me but at the same time didn't.

While I enjoyed this book, I did not finish it thinking, 'Wow, what a great book!'. It was ok...nothing more, nothing less.

Carson is a privileged young woman in 1936 Connecticut. She travels abroad to spend the summer with her Aunt Jane and Uncle Lawrence, and while on the night train to Lisbon, she meets Alec. They have a whirlwind romance, and she spends every minute she can spare with him over the course of the summer.

Long story short, she loves him, then finds out he betrayed her...she goes home, is miserable but tries to get on with her life, then finds out he may not of betrayed her after all, and there's the finale of the book...with a surprise twist at the end (which was odd because it seemed like it was just thrown in there, it really made no sense to add that last surprise).

In the end, it was likeable enough. The main characters were only somewhat developed, but the secondary characters were hardly developed at all. I recommend this if you have it laying around the house (as I did) but don't go out of your way to read it.

Since I read Emily Grayson's first book, The Gazebo, and than went on to read her other titles, I have long thought she is a highly underated writer. Her books, which are reminiscent of Nicholas Sparks' themes, describe both the spirit and emotions of people falling in love. In Night Train to Lisbon, her newest book, she presents her readers with two star crossed lovers at a time in the world's history which proved to be both passionate and tragic.

In 1936, Carson Weatherell, the daughter of wealthy parents is looking forward to a suumer of leisure after her last year of school. The young man who is fond of her is going to Yale in the fall and it is assumed that they will become engaged and married within a few years. Carson isn't quite sure what she will do with her life and wonders if marriage is all that she can lookforward to. Coming from a sheltered society which expects nothing more from the daughter of wealthy parents to marry the right man, an opporunity presents Carson which will prove to be the adventure of a lifetime for her and those in her midst.

Sailing to Europe meet her aunt and uncle, Carosn is going to spend the summer with them whiel talk of war is everywhere. Carson is accompanied by a chaperone but still has plenty of tiem to think about her future. She is alomst ripe for something out of the ordinary when on a night train to Lisbon, she meets Alec Breve, a bristish physicist who is also spending part of the summer in Lisbon. Carson and Alec are immediately attracted to each other. And they see one naother in Lisbon there love for each other grows stronger and strnger. But during this whirlwind romance, Carson is told some rather unsettling news about Alec when her uncle suggets Alec he may be someone other than the British physicist he claims to be.

The book unfolds from here with a tale of intrigue, unconditional love and a startling revelation at the end. It is a sentimental read which goes by much too quickly. If I had one criticism about the book it was that it wasn' tlong enough since I so enjoyed reading it.


I hughly recommend this book and other titles by Emily Grayson which include The Gazebo, The Observatory and Waterloo Staion, also set during WWII. If you're looking for books which will take you away, consider readign these titles. I think you will find as I do not, only a good author, but pleasing and comforting reads as the pages turn.

An attempt at a comprehensive guide book of Greenwich, Connecticut compiled by a Greenwich Real Estate firm. The only entry in the Real Estate Category for a real estate firm is the publisher's own Real Estate Company. I don't think I would buy another edition of this book since most of the information is readily found either at the Public Library, on the internet or in other places in Greenwich for free. Why pay $12.95 (price on the book's back cover) for incorrect and outdated information? The cutesy illustrations and commentaries are not worth the price, in my opinion. For restaurant reviews I would stick with the Zagat Survey. The other sections of the book can be found entirely online.

While the 5th edition was current - this was the best Guide imaginable! But now, the 6th edition (totally updated) is now available. I couldn't live in Greenwich without it!

The Guide is now in its 6th edition. You need to search for it by its exact name: Anderson Guide to Enjoying Greenwich. For some reason, only the 5th edition comes up when you search for the "Greenwich Guide" The praise we have received for our Anderson Guide to Enjoying Greenwich is overwhelming and warms my heart. The talented Glenville Maverick Cheerleaders are on the front cover of the 6th edition. Jerry and I are grateful to so many Greenwich residents for their support and for their enthusiastic appreciation for providing the town of Greenwich with a useful guide. The Greenwich Library continues to order copies. They keep copies at the information desk and at community answers to help people with their questions. The Historical Society has the copies of our past editions in its archives. We are pleased to be documenting our town's many events, restaurants, shops and tips about Greenwich way of life.

The Guide is a list of our favorites...simply that. It is not a book of advertisements. No place mentioned in the Guide had any idea that it would be included. Establishments and programs are listed because we like them. Although the Guide is about Enjoying Greenwich, you will note many selections are outside of Greenwich's town limits. These easy to reach places complement our many in-town resources.

Initially, many years ago, our first Guide was prepared for our real estate clients. Then the calls came in-their friends needed a copy. The owner of Just Books saw it and said we must publish it, and that is where it started. Our initial reason for writing it has not changed. We know finding favorite spots takes awhile. We have lived in Greenwich for many years, and we hope the resources in the Guide will help everyone moving into town feel right at home.

The new 6th edition has over 160 restaurant reviews. Jerry and I anonymously visit each one at least two times before we write the review. We are looking at the whole experience-food, ambience and service. If a restaurant is disappointing in too many ways, we do not include it. Restaurant reviewing is a professional responsibility. We have a great deal to do with a restaurant's success or failure. Jerry and I have extensive food and restaurant backgrounds. I am the author of the Complete Book of Homemade Ice Cream and several other cookbooks. I am a cookbook addict with over 4000 cookbooks in my own collection. For a number of years we owned and operated a small vineyard. Tasting foods and wines and knowing how they are prepared is greatly helpful in reviewing quality. I am an interior designer, a professional member of the American Society of Interior Designers; and before devoting myself full time to real estate, I designed restaurants-two in Greenwich. Many people remember the popular restaurant, Morgan, open for many years in Greenwich that I designed. Knowing the requirements of good restaurant design is helpful in reviewing. We love finding new discoveries in dining, and we hope our readers of the Guide will enjoy them too.

this book was very interesting in that one could explore the eIvertyday goings on of a time that we're so far removed from.I would like to have seen many more photos. You can identify much more with the characters in this way. from a historical point of view it was quite enlightening to see how black americans took a hand in their own destiny what with all the odds staked against them. we can see the format that is used even to this day. another interesting point is that there is noting new under the sun. It seems some of the everyday occurencess still prevail today under different circumstances. Though at times the letters were a little boring and written without prpoer punctuation, it helped to bring out the true personality of the writer. All in all for me it was a trip back into time.

Farah Griffin, editor of last year's "A Stranger in the Village: Two Centuries of African-American Travel Writing" has done it again with "Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends." This wonderful collection of letters between Rebecca Primus and Addie Brown allows readers to enter the world of nineteenth-century black American life. Through the correspondence of these "ordinary" women, the reader gains invaluable perspective on the social, political,economic and religious concerns of blacks around the time of the Civil War. In addition, the correspondence between these two loving friends is a welcome addition to all the historical collections of letters, diaries, etc. that document so well the white American experience while neglecting the experiences of black Americans and others. This collection is important and timely and I applaud Professor Griffin's achievement of giving voice to these two women and the world in which they lived.

Very disappointing book. This is not "co"-respondence--it's two separate sets of letters that don't speak to each other; thus there's no dialogue. Further, the editor did not do her job of cleaning out the underbrush, so the letters are unflaggingly boring in their ungrammatical microdomesticity. Only now and then is there a flash of insight into the broader historical/sociological picture. This book is merely an assemblage of transcriptions interspersed with short bursts of mostly redundant editorial comment. With maps, historical timelines, sidebars, and incisive editing, this book could have been much more. As it is, it reads and feels like no more than a senior high school term paper. Shame on all concerned.

Melanie, Melanie, Melanie,

What is going on here? You are on your summer vacation, and instead of enjoying life at the beach with your son and your paramour, you actually manage to get asked by a murder suspect to help in finding the murderer. You try to beg off, but Alicia insists and you are such a sucker that you take over for the police (speaking of which, were are they in this story?) and start asking questions at each dog show that you attend over the coming weeks. This leads directly to another murder and then you solve the mystery after being threatened yourself. What a way to spend a summer vacation, eh?

This story line plods along. There is no excitement and nothing seems to happen except for descriptions of dog shows and what happens at them plus a few descriptions of some unusual dog breeds plus a lot of conversations with people who are part of the dog show scene. There are some red herrings that the sleuth falls into chasing and some mildly interesting twists in terms of how sexually active the professional dog handlers appear to be (everyone is having affairs with people who are NOT their spouses).

The mystery, when it is eventually solved, involves someone who is determined to get his way and develops this really strange and really weird method of getting the people he is interested in to convert to his way of thinking. To my way of thinking, this was a very weak point for this book as it was so convoluted and unbelievable!

In other Melanie Travis books there was always some humor and some interesting twists in her virtual life that raised the overall book score. This one is totally bereft of anything like that. Too bad.

I am hoping that this is a momentary aberation and that future volumes will be better.

I love this series of books! I'm not a dog person at all. But these books are written in such a manner that you can not help but drawn into a world which is like no other. I wowed my friends this year when I started talking about Standard Poodles during the Westminster.

When I read this author for the first time I was looking for a writer who writes like the Cat Who series. In Laurien Berenson, I found a writer who is more serious, better prepared, and knows the show dog world. I think she is getting better with each book.

I wish I could say I liked this book. But, it's slow, arduous and painful depictions were as agonizing to me as Tom's death. The only saving grace was the actual hatbox letters.

Kate's feelings, her view of nature and the world around her were very real to me.
I felt her loss, her frustations and finally her coming to terms with the hand that she had been dealt.
Looking forward to another great novel by this author.

On Canada's Atlantic shore, over a year has passed since her fifty something husband Tom suddenly died of a heart attack, Kate remains mourning and feeling all alone. Her adult children are long gone and having no Tom to age gracefully with. This makes for long days and longer nights. Only piano lessons during the day provide any relief from the solitude.

Her sister arrives with hatboxes filled with aging yellowing letters that she brought down from the attic of their grandparents' Shepton, Connecticut home. At first Kate ignores the boxes but finally begins to read the correspondence and is stunned. Apparently Grandfather Giles courted her grandmother's sister, who died from diphtheria in 1915. Kate learns more about her ancestors and begins seeing an old family friend Gregory Stiller, who just returned to the province following his son recently committing suicide. As Gregory pushes Kate to go out more, she misses Tom even more while on the other hand the letters make her feel nostalgic and remind her that her family will think lovingly of her and Tom.

THE HATBOX LETTERS is a fabulous character study that showcases a delightful protagonist still grieving the loss of her partner though one year has passed since he died. Kate is a fantastic individual, who makes the story line work as she slowly changes from constant loneliness to middle aged acceptance of the inevitability of life. Over time (and the course of the plot) she begins feeling better as her memories of her grandparents enhanced by the correspondence emphasize that nostalgia is good for cleansing the soul knowing that the next few generations will fondly remember you.

Harriet Klausner

I am a history buff, especially regarding clowns and circuses and I have long had an interest in what came to be know as "The Day the Clowns Cried", the circus fire in Hartford CT in 1944. As such I was really looking forward to reading this book. If the story had not claimed to be fiction that is based on fact, I'd have given it a great review. Unfortunately, the author does what several others (Lloyd Douglas, author of the Robe and The Big Fisherman, comes to mind) have done. She doesn't even care to get her facts straight. This is even more shocking considering she is actually from the town where the real fire took place.

Clown Emmett Kelly was not late; he was on his way to perform on schedule (he and another clown did a comedy routine while the Great Wallendas performed), not as the book suggests an act to keep the audience's attention away from the wild cats being removed from the ring. The entire big top was not coated with parrafin and gasoline, only the roof (although the stitching that held the tent together was easily flammable dry hemp). I could go on and on. My point is this. If you want an accurate picture of what really happened, read "The Circus Fire" by Stewart O'Nan. If you don't care about the historical accuracy and are simply looking for a good mystery book with a shock ending (also not remotely based on fact other than that experts today seem to agree the circus fire was arson), then by all means, enjoy the book. The author really is a good storyteller; she just doesn't care to get her facts straight and should probably steer clear of historical based fiction.

I read this after reading Stewart O'Nan's vastly superior book, "The Circus Fire." Otherwise, the the novel that is the subject of this review would have made little sense.

The problem is that things just seem to happen willy nilly. The fireman casts aside a girl he's about to marry to take up with a scarred survivor of the circus fire. Why? Why was the first girl even introduced? And the novel just goes on from there.

Most irritating, perhaps, is the daughter, Martha, whose only reason for being seems to be to explain to the dumb reader the psychological workings beneath the surface. I got to the point that I just didn't care. Martha reminded me of Scarpatta's niece in a Patricia Cornwell thriller: smarmy, irritating, and ultimately a pain in the you know what.

The denouement of this novel is just too, too pat. Still, it's an improvement over the middle third of the book, which is where we are treated to all the pop psychology. Alas, this could have been so much better if it had been thought out better.

This book springboards from the real-life fire 50 years ago that killed hundreds of people and destroyed the Ringling Bros. circus when it played in Hartford. One child survived, grew up and married a mysteriously solicitous fireman. This is the story, not only of their marriage, but of the secrets that, like one layer of an onion after another, peel off and reveal, finally, the unguessable ending. I couldn't stop turning the pages

One of my gripes with modern "great literature" is the omnipresent dysfunctional family. Well, this book is seventy years old and goes to prove that wacky families are nothing new in literature. It includes the last of the Oakes clan - early Yankee settlers who are now running away to the circus, crazy or simple. They can't farm their own land so enter the Polish immigrants. What follows is a clash of cultures, bigotry and a little romance.

While the plot could be part of contemporary fiction, it is the tone and style that sets this book apart. Some of the writing would not pass any political correctness test. Still, in other ways there is a gentle and calm quality that makes this book quite readable.

The good/bad part of the book is that my book group all agreed on it. We found it a pleasant window into a world that was fairly interesting. Still, it didn't incite much passion in any of us, let alone providing any juicy meat for disagreement.

"True" Baldwin, an aging millionaire, is ordered by his doctor to get out of the Chicago after the 1929 stock market crash takes a toll on his health. His daughter takes him for a drive to Connecticut to visit his birthplace. When True last knew the place, it was a rural farm land that was known for its crops of tobacco. Still having money, he is interested in purchasing a farm house and taking up farming.

True remembers his lost love, Judy Oakes. The Oakes were a historic family -- having owned the largest plantation in the county. However, Judy is long dead but her majestic house still stands. Ferber takes the reader into a long journey into the past concerning the history of this domicile. The story starts in 1700, with some of the first Americans to settle in the area. It covers the growth and struggles of the people there: their interaction with Indians, the harsh winters, and taming the land.

Ferber has done her homework and appears to know the ins and outs of tobacco farming. She also knows the mores and living conditions of the Polish farmers. The primary focus of the book is a love story set in the late 1890's. Judy's adopted niece (a reincarnation of an Oakes who died from exposure in the 1700's) and her hired Polish man, Ondy, fall in love and try to continue the Oakes' family line.

The book was interesting and I found myself absorbed. The characters are colorful and add charm to this book. It certainly wasn't action packed and there wasn't much as far as suspense, but it caught my fancy. I think the book has historical and social interest and I learned about what it must have been like to live in the late 1800's on a Connecticut tobacco farm. The title appears to come from the appreciation of all the events that went into making the Oakes' mansion. Ferber's clear writing is similar to Ellen Glasgow without the feminist overtone.

This would be a good book for someone that was only interested in carriages. We were looking for information on sleighs and the book proved to be a great disappointment since it only had three illustrations of sleighs. The title is very misleading.

Includes a wide variety of carriages for all uses, all presumably once available for purchase. Also includes catalog descriptions of each model, somewhat useful in learning about features on each item. Illustrations appear to be stylized a bit, very attractive. No photographs. The best book of its type I have seen so far.