Massachusetts Books

Robert Wolff confronts Marx's most demanding writing, the development of the value form in the first chapter of Capital, that even the most serious commentators shy away from. But Wolff's real revelation is that Marx's writing can be fun. Wolff turns the dialectic into a Jewish joke 'Mrs Feinshmeck's blintzes', to help the Germanic medicine down. For all that, Wolff's treatment is up there with the most serious exegetes of Marxism. Most pointedly Wolff explains that Marx's style is not contradictory in itself, but an attempt to capture the essence of a contradictory world

If it's a survey of eleven determined Massachusetts women which is needed, choose Lura Seavey's regional set of biographical sketches More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Massachusetts Women, outlining women who launched scientific and culinary revolutions in their fields, navigated clipper ships, and participated in war. Included in each sketch are controversies in truth and history as well as surveys of lasting contributions by these remarkable women.

Morgy Makes His Move is a really good book, so when Morgy Coast to Coast came out I was eager to read it. It lived up to and surpassed my expectations. Sequels have a way of dissapointing, but this one is actually better than the first one.

The thing I love about Morgy is the realness of him and his world. The author perfectly captures the talk of Moms and aunts and the everything-happening-at-once atmosphere of a family with three kids. The book is filled with perfect details about ordinary things like elementary school, babies, dogs and cats, New England, and being a kid. They're so accurate that they make me see those ordinary things fresh in my head, with a vividness that is rare and welcome in any novel. The clarity of her descriptions made me smile in recognition, and sometimes laugh out loud--parts of this book are really funny.

Another thing that I really like about this book is its realistic goodness and insight. Often, goodness in kid's books is made to look boring or preachy or weak. Those are problems that both Morgy books avoid beautifully. Morgy is fully human--there's no doubt about that--and part of being human is wanting to be good. In Morgy's world, as in the real world, good is normal and interesting.

This book is a terrific resource for those who want to learn more about Ma Rainey and the Classic Blues. Well told, comprehensive biography of an eccentric, controversial singer. Filled with anecdotes and well-researched, I recommend this book highly.

Here, set quietly and with understanding are the phenomena of American rural living: the personality of tractors, the ins and outs of keeping warm in winter, fall fairs, spring sugaring, a young veterinarian's marvelous skills, the pleasures of watching a well-trained herd dog, the ways of planting corn, slaughtering pigs, milking cows, the extraordinary (and, alas, unusual) success story of a group of organic farmers known to their neighbors as "the chicken s**t people," flashbacks to the farming past, a glimpse of barn swallows defending a weak sister from the attack of a hawk, a country cat earning his keep, old timers' farming lore, the facts of life for city people who want to move to the farm.

All is told, first hand, with enjoyment and humor, with sadness and compassion. Here's the good and the bad of it. Read...and you are down on the farm.

I bought this book at a book sale simply to read on a long ferry crossing in 1993. I was so enthralled that it's never been too far away from my side ever since.

It covers the 57th Mass from the days in late 1863 and their formation, and follows them through their training and their departure from Camp Wool for the front as part of Grant's "Overland Campaign" in 1864/65.

Once they set out on their march, the journey is described in such graphic detail that the reader becomes almost like a member of the regiment marching with them. Reading the stories of the battles, you can feel the pain that the author manages to convey as he describes how the soldiers are blown away at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, Petersburg and the Crater until at the Weldon Railroad there are only 30 soldiers left standing.

Not only that, Wilkinson includes a detailed account of soldier life, life at Andersonville, and has painstakingly researched the military life of every single one of the 1038 soldiers that made up the regiment in such detail that he has corrected many errors that seeped into common knowledge after the war, including some in the regiment's own history of 1896.

In May 2005 I was lucky enough to have a few days free in Virginia during a business trip to the USA, and so, armed with a rental car and this book, I traced the route of the 57th from the Germanna Ford to their final and climactic appointment with fate at Fort Stedman. Thanks to this book, it was one of the most enlightening and informative journeys I have ever made.

I recommend this book to anyone, and consider it essential reading for any Civil War buff.

I was pleasantly surprised to find this book so readable. This issue is a concern for all parents, educators, youth group leaders, and others who care about raising responsible citizens. Drs. Prothrow-Stith and Spivak write as if they are talking to you over a cup of coffee and explain the multi-faceted, grass roots, common sense approach to understanding why violence is so much a part of American society. While the statistics are frightening, the over all tone of the book is positive. They describe what can be done and encourage us to do it.

I would have given this book four stars, but the Ninth Mass.
Battery is one of my favorite units at Gettysburg. This book is
not only a fine collection of letters, it is a MUST for anyone
interested in the Ninth Massachusetts Battery. A bargain at any
price!

Michael Dumanis's My Soviet Union is relentless, in all the best ways. It has the sort of obsessive energy that I admire, feeling more forged than constructed. Smelted, not carved. Anyway, it's a swinging for the fence book, and I'm enjoying that. The book reminds me, more in its power than in its voice, a bit of Mark Strand.

This is a great, insightful short novel. The political events of the time are brought into the story with their relevance made clear. The gruesome murder is such a bizarre anomaly for Martha's Vineyard. I kept thinking the other shoe was going to drop and there would be a happy ending but, as reality goes, there was no resolution. The author does a great job following all the leads that were (seemingly) forgotten and revealing how the turn of events turned into a dusty mystery from long ago. I applaud the author revisiting the mystery and asking the questions that should have been asked years ago.