Connecticut Books

I love this book about my many times great grandfather. It is very well written (although deep) and tells the story of one who is never really appreciated outside of CT (and Dorcester, MA)

Quarter-Acre Of Heartache is a history of the survival of the Golden Hill Tribe in Trumbull Connecticut told in the words of Chief Big Eagle, spokesman for the oldest and smallest Indian reservation in America. In order to survive, Big Eagle and the tribe have endured many daunting legal, social and physical challenges. A history of injustice unfolds in the words of Big Eagle. Will it continue or will it be reconciled? The victory of building a traditional log cabin on the site of the Golden Hill reservation only comes after incredible legal and personal challenges and delays and more delays. Many black and white photos enrich the biographical text taken by Claude Clayton Smith. In the afterword by the author, it is stated that the entire " question of jurisdiction has been reopened with a new intensity, and the Indian tribes of Connecticut continue to squabble among themselves, as they did over three hundred years ago, while trying to unite in the face of the white man's rule (p. 168)." For varied audiences.

This is a excellent book. Bought after recently buying a kayak. New to kayaking. The book made me want to go to the local lake right then and there. Very descriptive of ponds and lakes with maps. Wish it had a few more entrys. Although I do agree with the authors selection process.

Well, I wasn't joking. One of the quilts in this book is from my family.This book is very personal to me. For sometime, I have been trying to see the family quilt. But due to the age of, it wasn't a good idea to pull it out of storge. I was unable to see it person.

But now, I am so glad it was put in this book. And I now know what it looks like. I understand now,why heirlooms need to be sheared with others.This is part of American History that needs to be sheared with everyone.

This book is not a "how-to" book on quilting. This is like a "text book" on the History of quilts and quiltmakers in Connecticut.

This is real "Americana" quilting shown in this book. The stories are wonderful that go with each quilt,and lots, and lots of color pictures. A quilter's must, who loves Historic quilt designs. As you can see I love the book. :o)

There are now more than 13,00 miles of open rail-trails across the country. The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is an organization of more than 100,000 members and a leading advocate for trail and greenway 'recycling' of obsolete railroad corridors and rights of way. The official guidebook of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, "Rail-Trails: New England" is a thoroughly 'user friendly' guide to railroad related trails in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. Profusely illustrated with maps, as well as black-and-white photographs, "Rail-Trails: New England" is the perfect planning guide for biking or hiking along pathways created from unused railroad corridors that have been converted to recreational use by the public. some rail-trails are paved and run through scenic parts of New England townships, others are unpaved paths through scenic countrysides. Enhanced with detailed maps for every rail-trail (plus driving directions to trailheads), "Rail-Trails: New England" also features icons indicating each trail's use, along with succinct descriptions written by truly knowledgeable and articulate rail-trail experts. If you are planning to avail yourself of the recreational and exercise opportunities of rail-trails anywhere in the New England region, then begin with a careful browse through the pages of "Rail-Trails: New England"!

I love the Easyfinder laminated maps from Rand McNally. They are extremely durable, meaning I won't have to repurchase a map that gets torn, spilled on, or just plain worn out. Even better, I can mark my routes & destinations on them with dry erase marker, then just wipe off when no longer needed. Great for local tag sale bargain hunting or longer trips. Map detail is top notch, as you would expect from Rand McNally. 5 stars, definitely my favorite maps. From Wooster Square to Lighthouse Park, from East Rock to West Rock, this is the map that goes with me.

We've all heard the old saw that those who ignore the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them. As we face growing environmental crises throughout the globe at the outset of the 21st century, it's critical for those who hope to maintain our planet's delicate balance to understand the history behind environmental movements of the past, and where reformers have succeeded and failed in their efforts to confront a rapidly changing society's impact on the natural world.

In Reasonable Use, Cumbler, an environmental historian at the University of Louisville, traces the dramatic shift New England experienced between the Colonial era and the pre-World War II period. Focusing mostly on the 19th century and the impact of industrialization, overfishing, deforestation and the arrival of dams and cities along the Connecticut River during that time period, Cumbler describes not only how states like Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire reacted to increased pollution but also the characters who drove the responses and how each of the major players reflected broader themes and approaches to humans' role in the natural world.

The major players - people like Henry David Thoreau, Henry Ingersoll Bowditch, George Perkins Marsh and Theodore Lyman - represented the range of elite thinking during that time. The questions they faced regarding the value of fish to an ecosystem, the effect of pollution on populations, the problem of waste disposal and - most important - the comparative merits of industrial progress versus a clean environment, are all questions that we still confront today. Though the unobservant reader may miss it, Cumbler also offers particularly pointed commentary on the critical lessons those who hope to effect environmental reforms today should learn from the failures of those who sought to go up against the entrenched powers of industry in 19th century New England.

So while the casual observer may mistakenly assume that this book will appeal primarily to those with a regional interest in the area and era, in fact Cumbler offers a wealth of judiciously documented thoughts on the nature of the relations of power, paarticularly as they interact when the object of the struggle - the environment - cannot speak for itself.

Also, besides delivering an engrossing and thoughful historical document, Cumbler additionally weaves a compelling tale that maintains the readers interest, even as he shares scientific data regarding such esoterica as the composition of dissolved oxygen in a water system or the workings of fishways in a dam. The book is well-written and deserves a broader audience than merely environmental history buffs. We can all pick up a thing or two from Henry Bowditch et al, and John Cumbler makes the lessons easy to learn.

Covering hundreds of Revolutionary War veterans of Fairfield, Connecticut, this book contains abstracts of pension records that were originally on file at the old Pension Bureau in Washington, D.C., including soldiers' and widows' applications, bounty land warrants, and rejected pension applications. Packed with information--much of it deriving from affidavits provided by friends and relatives in support of the veteran's application for a pension--the abstracts include some or all of the following data: name of pension applicant, place and date of birth, age, dates of enlistment and discharge, service record (sometimes very detailed but always interesting), place of residence before and after service, distinguishing characteristics, name of spouse, date of marriage, names of children, and names of parents and other family members. Technological advances notwithstanding, nowhere else can the researcher find so much information so quickly on Fairfield's Revolutionary War pensioners.

In addition to the pension abstracts, this work also contains an exhaustive collection of muster rolls of Fairfield soldiers in the militia and Continental Army. Roll by roll, Fairfield men are identified by name, rank, and dates of enlistment and discharge, and occasionally by other details such as company, regiment, engagements, injuries, and pay. With references to about 7,500 individuals, the muster rolls and pension abstracts give a comprehensive picture of Fairfield's contribution to the war effort. Both sections of the book are completely indexed, with soldiers set off in a separate index.

Readers may be surprised to learn that this work was originally published in 1932 as Volume III of Donald Lines Jacobus' History and Genealogy of the Families of Old Fairfield. Unlike the first two volumes of that famous compendium, however, it has never been reprinted. Not a compendium of family histories but a collection of source records, it stands completely independent of the first two volumes and is available now as a separate and distinct contribution to Revolutionary War genealogy.

This CD contains a massive amount of information easily searched from the software on the disk. The over fourteen thousand pages contain enough facts and information to keep me busy for a long time to come. If you have roots in Connecticut prior to 1850 I would definitely recommend this CD.

I liked the first two Dr. Risk books very much and kept waiting ... and waiting ... for another. Then I decided to do a search and, shazam, found The Risk of Fortune. Lucky me. Good for Bob Berger for having sufficient faith in both his character and his writing talent to go the print-on-demand route.

Publishing has become a crazy business and too often authors rise or fall on computer numbers. In recent years any number of good writers have gone the way of the dodo bird because of those computer numbers. And that's a pity, because someone as good as Bob Berger deserves to be read.

Risk of Fortune deals with the pithy issue of Indian-owned gambling establishments. In this outing, the Bearforest Casino stands in for the thinly disguised Foxwoods in Connecticut. And James Denny's dad has a bit of a gambling addiction, which brings James --aka Dr. Risk -- to the rescue. In an effort to regain a big chunk of his parents' pension funds, which Dad has blackjacked away, Dr. Risk signs on with the casino to determine the who and why of the recent murders of two Pelard natives. In a tribe with only 350 members, two violent deaths represent a significant reduction in their number.

Dealing with the much-discussed issue of the morality of native-owned gambling establishments, of gambling addiction (and its effects on the family), Berger writes with gentle good humor; spare prose and a scary cast of villains (bikers, white supremacists) along with a fine feel for pacing add up to a very entertaining narrative.
Highly recommended.