Massachusetts Books

...by far his best and most ambitious book to date and one of the best of last year....Vogelsang has found an interrogating voice at once dissembling and direct -- and by direct I mean free of any rhetorical reference that doesn't lead us immediately to his moment. Much of the time the speaker in these new poems is close to Swiftian in his cagey unreliability....Under the surface of the voice, however, is a kind of moral indignation, a menacing anger that is sometimes self-directed. All in all, Vogelsang has created the rare sound of dark, Juvenalian complaint in a lyric sequence whose satiric target seems to be absurdity itself. The tone, in fact -- and this is a power in the best of the poems -- feels barely contained, the ardent big talk almost too big for the imagination asked to hold it. "Big" also applies to the size of the heart in these poems, their ability to find and/or magnify the emotion suddenly, instantaneously.

A LUSTY TALE OF GOVERNMENT AND UNITARIANISM ON THE MASSACHUSETTS FRONTIER: The new bodice-ripper by Mashhood Rassam has everything a reader could wish for: shifty political shenanigans, bloodthirsty fanatical Unitarians, and (most of all) Governor Hinsdale, the barrel-chested iron-jawed studmuffin of political reform. While the author's slight over-reliance on the adjective "deliquescing" might cause shortness of breath and palpitations in the faint of heart, most readers will be left panting by the virility of Mr. Rassam's muscular prose. Having enjoyed this book so much, I can only say that my heart's all a-flutter for Mr. Rassam's next book, "The Plague in Colonial Philadelphia."

In his most recent book, Civil War Boston, Boston College History Professor Thomas O'Connor illuminates how America's most devastating war impacted and changed the lives of Boston's citizens and its political climate. Although O'Connor's book is rife with detail and scholarship, he never losses sight of the great story he is telling. The author achieves a perfect balance of detailing the war on a national scale while reflecting on its impact in Boston. If you are tired of dry narratives of the Civil War, read this book and learn about the personal side and the dramatic change wrought by the divisive conflict.

Who on earth would have thought that reading court records could be such fun?! Witness drunken brawls, teenaged boys setting their bare bottoms on the neighbor's loom, slander, etc., all the way to much more serious and heart-rending cases.

This is worth the price and the wait.

Coloring Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket by James Owens is a delightful book. I have given many copies as gifts to both young and old, as the artwork is superb and of a much higher quality than your average coloring book. It also presents a fun way to learn about Cape Cod history by including text with pictures such as: Thornton Burgess, The Aquinnah Cliffs and The Judah Baker Windmill. I would highly recommend this book as a gift for young children or for anyone convalescing and needing an engaging activity.

My wife bought this book for me, wow what a great book. If you are a lover of Colt SAA's or any of the Colt products for that matter, it's covered in here. This book includes dates of production and numbers produced. It also has beautiful pictures to illistrate some of their finest work.

I had to do a 100 page portfolio project in this book saved my life. It was easy to read and follow. The pictures were amazing and I loved the book. It was filled with so much information about our history and the history of art.

I really like this book a lot! It has a great deal of information on Oxford and Dudley, as well as explanations as to how a small community went from a farming town into a mill town. Great buy!

This book is a fascinating look at the people and times of America circa 1892-1893. The letters and other correspondence of Hosa Knowlton,Prosecuting Attorney of the Southern District of the Commonwealth of Mass. draw a vivid picture of people from all walks of life and their opinions and reactions to the murder of the Borden family. Anyone who has been drawn into the mystique of Lizzie Borden and her times will not regret the time spent with this book.

Whether legal professional, historian, or one curious as to what the laws "were like" before our notions of "modern" came into being, this volume is a standard in the field. Originally published in 1836, the scholarship, though perhaps equalled, has never been surpassed.

Those "only" curious as to the sorts of things that were regulated for public safety, or prohibited, this reads as if an interweaving of the unexpected yet obvious and familiar, and the not-quite-real, as if a work of fiction -- that is how strange some of it is.

Were the Pilgrims "Libertarians"? Is it true there was no regulation of such dangerous substances and objects as alcohol, tobacco, and firearms, before the advent of "Liberals"? Or were the colonists, despite beliefs in superstitions, and prohibitions against witchcraft and other "wrong" "religions," otherwise sane -- "Liberal" -- thus actively concerned with public safety?

How did the laws concerning Indians differ from those concerning non-Indians? What were the penalties for fornication? For "stubborn child"? What were the sources for the crimes and penalties to which the death penalty was applied?

And what of such mundane matters as marriage and divorce, out-of-wedlock children and "welfare," real estate transactions, penalties for trespass, adultery, swearing and cursing, drunkenness?

All that and more is here, as one witnesses a small group of humans, in a strange wilderness, slowly establish rules -- laws -- by which they will manage their affairs, and then elaborate on those rules as the community grows and expands.

Recommended especially for those who believe they know the history because they saw a movie.