Connecticut Books

I took this book with me on a 60 mile trip of the Connecticut heading through central Vermont/ NH and was sorely disappointed. The maps were okay but the book lacked an all encompassing map of the entire river that would have helped in the original planning stages of any trip. The text of the book was strictly written for people interested in watching birds and not serious river travellers. The text about landmarks and towns were fluff and had a description of one town with "congenial air, pleasant surroundings, and plenty of restaurants." When I stopped, a thorough exploration revealed no restaurants. And what does "congenial air" and "pleasant surroundings" mean? How about something substantive if I'm going to stop somewhere. A lot of the text is filler, just like this. It would be nice to have listings of stores and directions within the riverside towns and not pointers on where to find choice spots to watch birds. The author of this book could have done us all a favor by labelling it "Birdwatching on the Connecticut River for amateur river travellers and lightweights." The individual maps were acceptable.

This is an admirable book, and Ann Colson has done a great job putting it together. The written trail descriptions are concise and to the point. But I recently pulled it off the shelf for the first time, looking to hike a bit of the Appalachian Trail in the northwest corner of CT, and I took a good look at the trail maps (of which there are many). There are several problems with these:

1) The contour lines are drawn at 10 meter intervals;
2) But the contour lines are unmarked -- no indication whatsoever of elevation on any map, anywhere, except at...
3) The peaks, which are marked in feet, and so are not easily correlated with the metric contours.
4) None of the many side trails are indicated for the Appalachian Trail (though they are mentioned in the textual descriptions).

I bought this book looking for a guide to the idiosyncrasies of buying a home in Connecticut. Instead, I got a short, generic book written for a national audience, with filler in 80 of its 160 pages.

More specifically:

This book does not accomplish its advertised purpose. I bought it thinking it would give me home buying information specific to Connecticut, since laws and customs on buying a home vary dramatically by state. For example, people in California rarely use lawyers when buying a house, and people in Massachusetts use strange deeds (quitclaims) that people shy away from elsewhere. I was looking for similar information for Connecticut. Instead, I got a book written for a national audience by a Colorado realtor, who franchised the book by state.

The Connecticut edition has a total of two pages on Connecticut, covering the rules on realtor-customer disclosures. Left dangling: Are most Connecticut buyers pre-approved for a mortgage? Is it customary to waive contingencies when making an offer? How binding is an offer in the state? What type of information does Connecticut require sellers to disclose to buyers? How are the customs different in Fairfield County, New Haven or Hartford? You won't find out here.

This is a slip of book at 158 pages, with half the book taken up by filler. The authors start counting page numbers from the first page of the book. So, pages 1-16 include the table of contents, acknowledgements and prefaces. An introduction and a historical section that's not relevant to today's homebuyers take up pages 17-36. Pages 37-122 are the meat of the book (that's 85 pages out of 160), geared towards a national audience with copious real-life examples taken from Colorado and none from Connecticut. The book has two appendices, on pages 125 to 138. The first is a generic, non-Connecticut, sample purchase contract. If there was one place where Connecticut-specific information would have been handy, it's here. The other appendix is a glossary. The authors save the best for last: pages 139 to 156 are BLANK (for "notes"). That's over 10% of the book. The last two pages are an order form for more books (no thank you).

Shapiro and Deshaies use college essay puffing techniques like oversize font and strategically placed blank pages. Also, the authors start each chapter with testimonial paragraphs from satisfied clients from their realty business. The testimonial paragraphs don't contain anything useful, and make the book read like advertising for its authors.

If you want to spend about twenty dollars for generic, non-Connecticut information, you're better off buying a generic, non-Connecticut book like Homebuying for Dummies, which I bought at the same time as this one. That book has 328 pages of useful information written in an engaging style. What it doesn't include is seventeen blank pages at the end for "notes."

I'd be genuinely curious to hear from Ken Deshaies (the main author, a Colorado realtor) or Lonnie Shapiro (the Connecticut sub-author) if I'm missing something here.

This is NOT a "book" and in my opinion it should've been listed as a *pamphlet* not a "paperback". If you know your birds well enough (you wouldn't need this), it would make a decent quick-reference guide. But if you're looking for any detail (at all) about the species of birds in CT, their habits, diets, etc., then this is NOT for you. I do find it handy when I notice a new bird because it's easy to scan quickly, but for any informative detail, try elsewhere.

The Editor's Review of this "not a book" paperback book called it an indispensable guide. I'd consider it so dispensable as to be tempted to toss it in the garbage.

First, it is NOT a paperback book. It is a laminated, folded card (very large, but still a card) with side view illustrations of many species of birds along with their genus and species name. There is no other text whatsoever. First, I dislike illustrations of wildlife very much. Photos are much more reliable. From this card you cannot possibly tell the difference between a House Finch and a Purple Finch, for instance. It would be useless for identifying many other birds as well.

Unless you already know birds fairly well and simply want to carry this card along in your pocket (because it's probably waterproof and you could write on it with grease pencil or dry erase marker), then I recommend you find other reference material.

The author claims to be a life-long resident of CT. Wrong! She lived in L.A. while searching for a husband. To write about life in Connecticut is very strange for someone who grew up in Greenfield Hill (Ffld.) and got a free education at Fairfield University. The author never spent a single moment actually going to the locations mentioned. She collected marketing information from each attraction and just did some editing. It's sad. Connecticut deserves better than to have promotional hype dribbled by the writer of childrens books. The author should stick with what she does best, make up fantasy stories for the little ones. You are better off buying the AAA Motor Club Travel Guide than to waste your money on this lemon in it's third re-write. Save a tree, don't waste your money. Visit Connecticut and experience it's treasures on your own.

I did not find this guide very helpful. The binding was of poor quality and the book fell apart after only a few days of use - travel guides should be durable to last at least a week long vacation. The information was not all that useful either.

Trying to navigate across the state with this is impossible. Rather than a standard atlas - where the end of the page helpfully says "continued on map xx", this is organized alphabetically by town - and in many cases the map doesn't even hint at where you should look as your road runs off the page. Strangely, although owned by the same parent company - American Maps uses this poorly organized way, while Hagstrom Maps are easy to follow and use.

This is full of great info on Connecticut and although its 18 years old now, its still fairly relevant and still accurate. Its very readable and is an absolute must for every active Connecticut citizen. It's like a phone book for our state government.

However I give it a poor rating because the so called "League of Women Voters" which published the book is actually not "non-partisan" as they dishonestly claim.

They are in fact VERY PARTISIAN and speak at every hearing either for or against every kind of bill you can think of. They are unusually good at hiding their support for liberal legislation. They won't go out and talk to the papers; they just act as lobbyists inside the capital where you can't see them. I don't know how they get away with calling themselves "non-partisan" when they clearly aren't.

I got into an argument with one of these chicks via email about proposed campaign finance changes on the federal level they favored and help get passed. I thought their legislation was a terrible affront to First Amendment free-speech rights.

These ladies are not who they pretend to be.

There isn't another supplement available, so I guess you can only be so critical of this book.

The reader must be aware that the book is very out of date and in some instances is just flat wrong.

The book is replete with errors. For example, Connecticut municipalities revalue real property for local tax purposes every four years according to a speccific schedule. The book says every 12 years and fails to mention the schedule.

The Landlord-Tenant section has so many Summary process eviction error that I don't know where to start. For example, every single one of the time constraints in respect to a Notice to Quit is wrong.

The list goes on.

I give this book a qualified recommendation because there is no other Connecticut Supplement out there.

I'll have to write my own.

Quote from Connecticut's Heritage Gateway:

In 1887 Elias B. Sanford published A History of Connecticut (Hartford S. S. Scranton) "in order to tell the story of Connecticut in a way that would be interesting to young and old. We trust it will meet with the approval of the teachers in our public schools, who have felt the need of a history of the State suitable for use in the classroom." (p. v) The book is marked by extreme philiopietism, state and national chauvinism, and the optimism typical of the Gilded Age in which it was written. ... "The fathers and founders of the State endured hardship, but found peace and happiness in a good conscience, and the development of a character marked by morality, and devotion to noble aims. Only in this path of integrity and righteousness can be found the way of life and enduring blessing. Will the children of this latter generation walk therein?" (p.295) Researchers and teachers will not find much reward for their effort in seeking this book.

While Nichols has obviously made an exhaustive effort to document all the climbing routes in CT, many of the newer routes mentioned in this book are not worth repeating. The route descriptions and approach directions are accurate, but there are no cliff drawings. In a climbing area like CT where the climbing routes are so densely packed, line drawings would be helpful. Plus he wastes a lot of space descibing the origin of the route names. While interesting, maybe he could have saved the space and included drawings instead. His criticisms and pot shots of people he doesn't like make him seem very bitter.