Vermont Books

I love cookbooks and have a lot of them. This has truly become a favorite. I have made 5 recipes from this book and have enjoyed and marveled at everyone. The chicken with apples and roasted sausage with cider dressing was unbelievable. The apple blackberry crisp is a new family favorite. It is such a fun read. Makes me feel very connected to my food.
It truly makes you want to go to Vermont to visit the farm. A real pleasure you won't be disappointed.

This cookbook made a perfect present for those living in Vermont. My daughter living in Vermont really appreciated this gift.

Always on a search for a good apple pie recipe and WOW I found one here. It was fast, easy and delicious. It even looked like the photograph in the book.

I bought this for my wife after eating at the Gatsbyesque Shelburne Farms Inn this summer (at which Chef Gencarelli is the head chef) and must say it is fabulous. The recipies are both incredibly delicious and beautiful, as well as approachable; with the emphasis on local ingredients you don't have to order the book from Amazon and then half the ingredients from "obscurefoodstuffs.com" or the like. We have both loved making recipies from it. You will love this book!

This is a beautiful cookbook! The recipes are a great mix of rich and complex to earthy, fresh and simple. There are also wonderful pieces between the recipes on Vermont farmers and artisan food makers and the featured local ingredients which are fun and informative reading. I might add these recipes are certainly not just for the local Vermonter as I'm out in California and easily able to cook the recipes by occasionally using a suggested alternate ingredient. I've made a number of recipes from the book already and can't wait to make more, some will certainly become standards in my house.

Much as I love novels, there are times when short, pithy, engaging non-fiction is exactly what I feel like reading. And I am well aware that there are damned few writers in the world who can claim mastery of both forms. Chris Bohjalian is one such writer, and "Idyll Banter" is a wonderful little book that illuminates an artistic paradox: that the act of sharing what is personal and private somehow irises the experience open into deeply touching universality.

I have long admired Bohjalian's work--"Water Witches" and "Midwives" are among my favorite novels--and I recommend "Idyll Banter" unequivocably. His brief, concentrated accounts of births, deaths, weddings, dances, and dinners in a very small town engage the reader in ways not immediately apparent. I've never spent time in Lincoln, Vermont, but I feel that I know these people, somehow. It isn't a rich place, or a perfect one, but it is genuine, and it is beloved, and, in Bohjalian's deft hands, it comes alive: complex, unexpected, deeply rooted in history and advancing winningly into into the 21st century.

The best examples of this sort of book creates a sort of envy, a wistfulness, a longing to belong, however briefly, to the place described. Bohjalian manages to create the feelings that we, too, all of us, might have a welcome share in a fulfilling and happy life in this community. And if not to Lincoln, then encouraging us to look again at our own neighborhood and our own families with newly opened and appreciative eyes. Really well done. Really well-written.

It is a pleasure to read such an upbeat book..I'm ready to pack and move..I want to live the simple life too...

This is a delightful collection of short essays focusing on the community of Lincoln, Vermont, where Bohjalian lives with his family.

Readers from New England will recognize and appreciate the many typically New England elements that Bohjalian observes in his essays: the woes of septic tanks and mud seasons, the black flies, the sometimes contentious town meetings, the uncanny quiet and stillness after the first winter snow. But while Bohjalian writes very specifically about Lincoln, Vermont, introducing us to his neighbors, his church, his country store, his subject is really the larger one of community and what constitutes a good life. Bohjalian does not idealize small-town life; he is well aware of the economic realities of rural America and writes movingly, for example, about the disappearance of Vermont's dairy farms. Nevertheless, his abiding love and affection for his town and its inhabitants make Lincoln, Vermont-and towns like it-seem like the ideal place to live, work, and raise a family.

Although these are occasional pieces, written, Bohjalian notes, as a break from his regular work as a fiction writer, these are tightly crafted, acutely observed essays. There is never an excess word, but at the same time, the pace feels unhurried. Bohjalian manages to strike just the right balance between humor and poignancy. He is especially funny when writing about his limitations as a handyman. Other pieces, especially the essay about the destruction of Lincoln's library by flood and the elegies (for people as well as a cat and a horse), are genuinely moving. Because the pieces are short, interesting, and self-contained, this is the perfect collection for dipping into.

For most people, Chris Bohjalian is best known as a novelist with books such as THE BUFFALO SLODIER and MIDVIVES to his credit. The people of Lincoln, Vermont and the vicinity probably best know Bohjalian as a columnist for THE BURLINGTON FREE PRESS. Now readers outside of Vermont can read and appreciate his reflections in small town life in IDYLL BANTER, a collection of these columns.

Bohjalian is hardly the first person to leave a major city and find a different pace to life in a small town. He is also not the first writer to explore life in a small town. The essays do not include tried and true clichés but rather give an honest and refreshing look at life in general. Most of the essays are upbeat and thought provoking. Bohjalian is involved in each of them, yet the book is not about the author and his family. Rather the author and his family give perspective to Bohjalian's observations. Perhaps the most moving passages in the book can be found when he talks about the Church where he worships and the his reflections on the town cemetery

The book will appeal to a wide variety of readers, but it is my guess that people involved in teaching and public speaking will probably find the book useful. People involved in preaching and ministry will also find in the book excellent sermon and homily starters.

This book had me laughing out loud one moment, and sighing wistfully the next. The characters in it seemed so real -- probably because they are real! Anyway, I was very, very moved by the people in this strange and quirky little town. There are some touching and poignant stories in here -- and then some, like the one about the outhouse races, that are a scream.

Archer Mayor is a new discovery for me and I am SO glad I stumbled across a couple of his books. This was the first that I read and it was fabulous. Since Mr. Mayor lives in Brattleboro, he makes Vermont come alive in a way that someone who doesn't would not be able to do. I have never been to Vermont, but I could vividly see the scenes in my mind.

This novel creates a mystifying mix of murders, each level becoming more complex - it is beautifully done and Joe Gunther is a terrific character - complex, insightful and full of the sort of off-beat stuff that makes a good cop character. As he tries to solve first a mysterious fire that resulted in five deaths, then a brutal stabbing, then yet another horrifying death that seems to disrupt the entire flow of the investigation, he is stymied at every turn by members of a group of people who belong to a sect of "back to nature" worshippers, who have rejected all modern conveniences - and refuse to interact with those who do not, even by talking to them. To make matters worse, members of the community who lived there before their arrival resent them and feel they are a cult - there is a lot of tension simmering under the surface.

But, don't want to ruin it for you! Just go out and read the book - you won't be sorry!

As a frequent visitor of Brattleboro Vermont, I can tell you that Mr. Mayor knows the town and it's surrounding area like no one else. However, the real reason this novel and all his subsequent works are so gripping is because of his excellent characterization and ability to build suspense. All his characters are well drawn, but his protagonist, Joe Gunther is so real, that I have trouble believing he is fictional. A great read for all who appreciate realism in a mystery.

Lt. Joe Gunther is having a crisis, and decides the best way to deal with it is to runaway to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont to where he spent his "idealic" summers as a young boy. Well we all know that you can't go home again, because thirty years later home doesn't exist anymore. Your lucky if it hasn't been turned into a Wal-Mart.

In the case of Gannet Vermont, the opposite has happened; the town is slowly dying when it is injected with 'new' money by a sect known as the 'Natural Order'. But like any two edged sword, the Order has now become a problem for it's neighbors. While in Gannet, Joe becomes involved in the investigation of a fire in one of the houses owned by the Order, where five people died.

Joe is led, a merry chase by the leader of the Order, and by the murder of a parent of a member and the murder of an old childhood friend (who was the main suspect in the first murder). In the end, the solution to all of your questions will be answered; and the answers will be reasonable (not pulled out of the air at the end) as to what and why things happened.

All of Archer Mayor's books have a gripping story line. Although the stories are first class, the pictures drawn with words as the story unfolds are the best that I have ever encountered. The magnificent metaphors can create, in less than one sentence, images that may take other authors pages.

Although each book is independent in and of itself, I enjoy reading the stories in sequence. There is a steady progression in character development and interpersonal relationships as we go from story to story.

If you are a mystery fan, I am sure that you will enjoy the entire series as much as I have. If you are a student taking a course in creative writing, I don't think that you will find a better word artist than Archer Mayor.

Joe Gunther needs to escape from Brattleboro. The pressures of his job and his deteriorating relationship with his girl friend have become too much so he takes a temporary assignment in Gannet, Vermont. Gannet is where he spent many happy summers while growing up and he hopes the atmosphere will help him get back on track. However, a mysterious fire that leaves five dead, a strange cult, a missing young woman, and a murder blamed on his boyhood friend Rennie, all place Gunther right back in the hot seat as he tries to unravel who killed who.

As in all Gunther novels the police work is believable and the characterization is strong. Gunther is not a fiery detective but he is methodical and eventually puts all the pieces together. I didn't feel that this novel was as strong as "The Skeleton's Knee" or "Fruits of the Poisonous Tree" but it is still a good read for mystery lovers.

...this is one of those few books that i could randomly open to a page,-any page- and be thoroughly satisfied. It is that well-written. I was transported. I think that is one of the best compliments you can give to a work of fiction. I literally felt like i left my immediate surroundings and was with her on all her adventures.

One of the most grabbing, well written books I've read in a long time. It was especially intriguing as I read it while on holiday in Zanzibar! A definite read for anyone going there, and for anyone interested in a really good read.

If the shape of a life is determined by what one chooses to notice, maybe its trajectory is determined by what one fails to notice. In a world where nothing and no one are what they seem, Marcella D'Souza, intelligent, beautiful and determined, flees the haunted shores of her native Zanzibar to build a new life amidst an ad hoc family of ambitious immigrants in London. In this politically volatile, multi-cultural landscape where no one truly "belongs" Marcella finds love and an unexpected sense of belonging. The life she designs is satisfying and successful, but ultimately falls prey to the hidden designs of others. Multiple schemes, misapprehended systems and coincidence conspire, collide and explode into chaos. But Roger King, through his intriguing protagonist, seems to be saying that even chaos is illusive. "Disorder is only order we can't see, and coincidences are the evidence." Once betrayed, imprisoned and presently living in quiet exile, Marcella is once again reinventing herself in a foreign world, this time as a professor of Multi-cultural studies at a small Vermont College. From this temporary sanctuary she explores the graceful havoc of her personal history in a voice both poignant and utterly devoid of self-pity. "I had failed to read the signs. I had looked up and out when I should have looked down and in. I watched my front when I should have watched my back. I only noticed that...I failed to correctly evaluate... overlooked... misheard...mistook...I had only myself to blame." But personal responsibility, like personal history, is not so easily traced in a world of blurred borders.

Roger King is an adept magician weaving an intricate web in time. Marcella's tumultuous history casts sticky threads into an uncertain future and her present is delicately balanced between the two. The drama that unfolds when timelines meet is powerful -- it's unpredictable and yet somehow manages to deliver a mysterious sense of inevitability. Along the way, King's complex assortment of characters, all enchanting and unsavory in varying degrees, are rendered with profound compassion and insight. It's deeply satisfying reading.

The writing style is accessible and smart; complex without being confusing; insightful and reflective without weighing heavily. A great read!!!
What makes reading this novel so enjoyable is the adept weaving of history -- Zanzibar has a complex history, and it is told through the stories of the narrator, a young woman -- as well as via an insightful grasp of the contemporary condition -- of mobility, of otherness, of migration; it is both the tale of an individual, and the story of millions.
The author Roger King uses a wonderful method, of the narrator thinking about both past and present -- to bring us the careful, reflective details of an individual's life while at the same time painting a picture of the complex past (and present) difficulties of Zanzibar (particularly relevant given recent international press attention to this island archipelago off Tanzania).
The narrator, a young Goan (Indian and Portuguese descent; many settled in Zanzibar) woman who has recently come to the U.S. to teach, relates both delightfully concrete details of her life in Vermont and her past in Zanzibar, all the while revealing a very reflective story of personal changes and growth, wrangling with her past and present, as an "exotic" immigrant to the U.S. The weaving of past and present, of concrete and cerebral, make this a wonderfully rich story, both intensely personal and more broadly historical.

The wanderings of Marcella D'Souza, the protagonist of Roger King's brilliant new novel, have begun in her native Zanzibar; taken her to the bustling, multi-ethnic streets of Bayswater, London; and finally deposited her in a quiet college town in snowy Vermont, where she has been assigned to teach a vaguely-defined course in "multi-cultural studies." Looking back on her odyssey, she has this observation: "I think I have the making of a new theory here. Maybe these days, everything is so international, there's always an advantage in being from somewhere else. What is important is not local knowledge, but foreign knowledge. If the whole world is in motion, then the world's displaced are those who stay at home." "Those who stay at home" have had little role to play in Marcella's world. As a naive, ambitious newcomer to London--the New York Times calls her a "modern-day Candide"--she falls in with a group of equally peripatetic friends, people whose racial identity, national origin, and even religious affiliations can only be expressed via a long series of adjectives: "I've got it," an earnest British friend remarks of Marcella herself, "You're a Goan Indian Portuguese Arab African of Catholic Moslem parentage." This group of friends, living a hustling and often exuberant existence in the immigrants' netherworld of Thatcher's England, contains elements that the reader rightfully suspects will pull Marcella into dangerous waters. And indeed, from the novel's first page we know that she will end up serving time in prison for an unnamed crime. But the novel unfolds with such luminous grace, effortlessly moving us from scenes of the past, into the present, and back again yet more years, that we surrender to its shifting timeline without impatience. Instead, our knowledge of Marcella and her world becomes more richly layered. Our deepening understanding makes the novel's final revelations far more satisfying then if they had been disclosed earlier. A gloriously enjoyable novel, and one that adds to the reader's perception of a world that exists, if below the radar, in the most ordinary corners of the U.S. and Europe today.

Have you had to redone, redue, redo something over and over again? You're at the end, but go back to the start? If you have, then you know just how the main character in The Hero of Ticonderoga feels.
Therese is a 5th grade girl from Vermont and her teacher has to leave for two months, and gives instructions for the sub to announce an oral report assignment the class has to do on Vermont. One lucky student gets to have the privilege of doing their project on Vermont's Revolutionary hero, Ethan Allen. As you may have thought, Therese gets picked to do the "fabulous" project. She doesn't want to do the project like someone doesn't want a wet donkey in a fourth of July parade. But now has to do it in front of the class. She doesn't get to do it just once, but 4 times. Now that's ridiculous!
Therese at the end realizes that she is more than just a good oral reporter, but a good actor! She also finds friends who she thought could never be. And enemies she thought were her friends, but stabbed her in the back like a little kid spits out spinach.
You might think that this book is a girlie book, but it's about someone finding out who they really while going through friendship obstacles, mean teachers, and family.

Presenting an oral report can be an adventure! Ticonderoga tells about a girl in school who gives an oral report of Ethan Allen, the first leader of Vermont's Green Mountain. This book is packed with historical events that will amaze you!
A girl named Theresee isn't happy about the way she looks and her life. Theresee never got invited to parties, and she never liked her parents. One day when she went to school she had to do a report about a leader called Ethan Allen. When her substitute teacher Mr. Santanggelo told her to do the report, all of her classmates gathered around her desk as if they wanted to trade with her. They wanted to trade because they thought her person would be easier to research. It turned out, it was hard to find a lot of information on Ethan Allen, but Theresee didn't give up. She learned a lot of facts about Ethan Allen and became a shining star in her class. She finally felt good about herself.
This book thought me a lot about history. I never knew anything about Ethan Allen before this book. This book is a good book for an older student or an adult who likes history.

More than simply a book about an unlikely heroine -- a girl, who succeeds despite all expectations (even her own); more than simply a biography (once removed) of an unlikely hero -- Ethan Allen, who led the green mountain boys to an unexpected victory against the British; this is a wonderful tale about the unwritten laws, of ethics and valor, of friendship and family.

The Hero of Ticonderoga is an important book for children of all ages to read. It teaches us that if we work hard, w ewill start to like what we are doing in school.

Tessy is an engaging character and it's easy to root for her as she tries to avoid flunking the sixth grade by giving a great report on Ethan Allen. The author certainly knows her history and her geography, and how to write a book that will win over young readers, but her most sterling achievement is that she finesses material that could easily turn pedantic in less sure hands.

Bruce Coffin provides a wonderful picture of the Woodstock, Vt. of his youth in the 40's and 50's. What's more, he allows us to share in his struggle to deal with the phenomenon of memory. There are two kinds of memory, he points out: voluntary and involuntary. He allows us to read into his mind as he explores the involuntary side of memory - those that are triggered by a long forgotten taste or smell, or a name which randomly pops into ones head, and the chain of memory and vision thus triggered.
It is often said that one "can't go back". However, Coffin claims that "sometime around middle age we discover our past as a new and well-furnished addition to our lives". Coffin makes the point that we have brought it all along with us, and that is what we are today, and there can be joy in recollecting it. He has done much research and contacted many old friends and former neighbors to fill in the gaps in his voluntary memory of what once made up the small town of his youth.
This gentle and thoughtful read aids us in finding those sweet spots of our own past. What an opportunity!

As a student of Bruce Coffins, i have gone throughout my highschool years listening him read us a christmas story each year, and listening to him teach about the things that he loves. he also has told us childhood memories which this story brings to life in a whole new way. i appreciate him as a teacher and an author.

Mr. Coffin is an excellent visualist who shares his ideas and memories through a fluid notion of writing that can only be compared to his story telling at Christmas. I am trying to use my best grammar here, and truth is I have not yet read this book- but I know without a doubt that it will be great, because Mr. Coffin is the one who wrote it. With a mind like his, nothing but genius can result.

The Long Light of Those Days

Review

Bruce Coffin has an eye for exalted moments and an ear for the language in which those moments live again. He has reclaimed much here, and further, he has done so with such generosity that we feel our own histories in his stories and descriptions of the people, bicycles, stores, ball games, homes, and mountains and woods of Woodstock, Vermont. This book, an act of unusual piety, brings a village to life in such a way as to reclaim something in us as well. Mr. Coffin's re-collections of Woodstock in the middle of the last century suggests our way home.

If you like Wendell Berry's ability to transport you back in time, to simpler days, and to make you feel like you grew up in a place you've never even visited, read Bruce's book about a very special place and a very special time.

I'm saddened to see far too many people pigeon-hole Howard Frank Mosher as a 'writer of regional interest' -- maybe only those who live along the Mississippi should read Mark Twain, then. True, Mosher's books all take place in Vermont -- but these are such well-written, absorbing stories, the characters so unforgettable, that any one who appreciates fine literature can thoroughly enjoy them.

This volume collects 6 of Mosher's short stories along with the title novella -- the latter being possibly his most well-known work, having been made into an exceptional film with the amazingly-talented Rip Torn in the role of a lifetime as Noel Lord, Mosher's cantankerous ex-lumberjack. Lord is mentioned in some of the other stories, as well as in some of Mosher's novels -- and other characters make appearances in more than one work as well.

Set in 1927 Vermont, 'Where the rivers flow north' takes the familiar theme of the rugged individualist going up against the evil, unfeeling corporation, and breathes new life into it. Mosher's flowing style, combined with his incredible ability to bring to the printed page all the nuances of his characters' personalities -- warts and all -- give this and all of his works the finishing touches that only a fine craftsman can give. Noel Lord's Native American housekeeper/wife, Bangor, is one of the most memorable characters you'll ever run across. She and Lord have a classic yin-yang relationship that, most likely, neither one would acknowledge. A reader from any part of the nation can get inside these people, can feel and experience everything that happens to them -- and any time we can do that, we can learn and we can grow.

The characters in all of the stories here are, as in all of Mosher's works, vividly drawn -- Alabama Jones, the innocent-but-worldly aspiring carnival performer -- Burl, an old woman lying in a nursing home waiting to die, looking back at her life with a combination of bitterness and longing -- Eban and Walter, brothers, neighbors, at odds in their life over things large and small, but brothers -- a man dying, clinging to life through a kept peacock -- a boy passes through a coming-of-age event, a flood, which changes forever the way he views both his brother and his father -- another man, Henry Coville, makes some painful recollections and decisions as he feels the end of his life approach. Mosher paints them all with the deft brush strokes of an artist who intimately knows his subjects and the landscape in which their lives are played out.

Howard Frank Mosher is an immensely talented, always entertaining writer -- he deserves to be widely read, and what a treat is awaiting those who read him for the first time...!

I made my way to Howard Frank Mosher via Edward Hoagland, another Vermonter and writer of considerable talent. Hoagland mentioned Howard in a few of his essays on Kingdom Country and apparently the two were friends and competitors. Since I find Hoagland so good, I figured any writer he considers a peer must be worth a gander. After having read Where the Rivers Flow North I see that the two are peers and competitors. This book consists of six short stories and one novella of just over a hundred pages.

Starting with the short stories. They are quiet salient, well-crafted works that succeed universally, as literary stories about men and women grappling with the weighty issues of life, and as quasi-historical vignettes that pull back the veil on an interesting region of our country. None of them exceeds fifteen pages, but within that short space Mosher packs a lot of action, intrigue, humor, and drama. Nearly all of the characters are of a low social economic class, men and women struggling to eek out a living in the north woods, either as farmers, bootleggers, gas station attendants, loggers, aspiring race?car drivers, prostitutes, deer hunters, wardens, or what have you. Mosher knows his world well - and it's a harrowing world at that. Nature - the woods, the mountains, the snow and cold -becomes almost another character in these stories; but it's not just beautiful. Any tourist could write about the beauty of a landscape. Mosher is so talented because he takes you, with his well-crafted characters, into the heart of the landscape, to learn what it feels like to wrestle with it from inside. The nature of Kingdom Country that Mosher conjures up is vengeful - there is no surface level sentimentality here - this is the real deal. Nowhere is this felt more than in the novella Where the Rivers Flow North. This story perfectly brings together Mosher's strengths - intimate knowledge of nature, memorable and nuanced characters, local history, and a compelling story line rife with metaphors.

If you are on the fence about this writer, I urge you to take a chance. If you like Stienbeck and his California, you'll like Mosher and his northern Vermont.

I am a hypercritcal reader and I love it when I pick up a book I cannot stop reading. I have subsequently ordered all of Mosher's books and cannot wait to read them. Mosher is not a good writer he is a great American writer. He builds character and place like the master he is. Thank you Mr. Mosher.

After I found out that former my in-laws knew Howard Mosher personally and my ex-husband had him as a teacher and coach in school and hung out with Howard's kids in high school I HAD to read a book written by him. This is the first book I read by Howard and I can't wait to read more. What a great illustration of Vermont in the early 1900's!

I read this every November, when the days start to get short and the first snow flies. This collection portrays a lost and disappearing Vermont, a way of life on the verge of extinction.

Though I never thought of Vermont's role in the war against the South, except related to their Heavy Artillery, the price was right and I bought it on Amazon. When I finally opened it to read, I found a really good treatment of Grant's Overland Campaign, with excerpts from Vermonter's letters about ferocious combat, horrendous casualties, hot and dusty forced marches and night marches - all that can make you feel some of what it was like to be involved. I recommend this even for Sons of Confederate Veterans like myself! There is little of the usual propaganda about who was justified, and the author's writing is very pleasing.

I did not quite know what to expect from this book considering it was published by a non-academic press and written by a political bureaucrat, but I was pleasantly surprised by its quality. Battered Stars is well written and informative, adding a new fresh perspective to an over-studied portion of the Civil War. I have read over a hundred Civil War books and I have seen many second rate efforts by non-professionals, but Battered Stars is highly recommended. My only wish is that Coffin had used professional footnotes to show exactly where his quotes were coming from, but most sources are nonetheless clear.

A powerful historical account of Vermont's role in the Civil War, The Battered Stars: One State's Civil War Ordeal During Grant's Overland Campaign by American Civil War historian and expert Howard Coffin (himself a sixth generation Vermonter with four ancestors who served with the Vermont regiments in the Overland Campaign) is founded on a wealth of primary sources and archival materials, including wartime letters, diaries, and newspaper accounts. The state of Vermont paid a toll in blood from the strife of the war, and the brutal battles are explored in detail as well as the resolve of those who stayed at home and did their best to keep the wheels turning. A welcome and much appreciated contribution to the growing field of Civil War Studies, The Battered Stars is a powerful, fascinating account highly recommended for civil war buffs, as well as anyone native to Vermont who wants to immerse themselves in the gripping saga of a watershed time of civil war.

Howard Coffin has established himself as the premier authority on Vermont and the Civil War. He has exhaustively researched Vermont's historical records including countless letters and diaries from the actual participants. He allows them to directly share their personal, heroic, sorrowful and inspiring stories and insights. It is difficult today to appreciate the pain and suffering which was brought home to every Vermont family during this Campaign. Mr. Coffin does honor to their memories and has provided a valuable research source for those interested in this period.

In the Preface, the author, Howard Coffin, states "I doubt that any northern states suffered more sever losses during a limited period of time than did Vermont during the Overland Campaign." Page 20 notes "In the great eastern battles of the last spring and early summer of 1864, no northern state, certainly on a per capita basis, would pay a higher price than little Vermont." The Vermont Brigade was unique it that it had been formed entirely of the regiments from a single state.

Coffin provides an excellent narrative of the brigade's combat experiences in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, North Anna River and Cold Harbor in the Army of the Potomac's 40 day Overland Campaign. Here, the Vermonters suffered distortional high casualties. For example, in defending the Wilderness crossroads "The killed and wounded of the Vermont Brigade numbered 1200" as they "suffered one-tenth the entire loss of Grant's army in killed and wounded in the Wilderness." Extensive use of soldier's letters and diaries greatly adds to the narratives with family correspondence giving insight into wartime life in small-town Vermont. Most interesting is Chapter Eight's account of the treatment of the wounded in hastily organized field hospitals and later treatment at Fredericksburg and in Vermont.

The narrative of fighting in the trenches at Cold Harbor is most fascinating. The author states "The Confederate victory (Cold Harbor) had been the most one-sided of the war." There were no big attacks but rather "day by day the killing went on while night by night, the works were dug deeper and became more complex." WWI Trench warfare was reminiscent of this campaign and with only a change in army names and location, Cold Harbor would describe a 1917 battle on the Western Front. The text contains a brief but interesting account of Grant's evacuation from Cold Harbor, the crossing of the James River and the initiation of the siege of Petersburg, Virginia.

Finally, the text deals with Vermont's substantial combat losses and the post war Vermont public reaction to the Civil War. The total loss of the state of Vermont in the Overland Campaign approached 3000 men. "Among the fallen were some of the bravest and best."

As prominent Civil War historian James McPherson states on the book's dust jacket, "This is Civil War history at its best."

I grew up in Castleton Vermont, where this story is set. I never realized that it was so well-known, I always thought it was only a locally known book, but it's a story that's always been dear to my heart. If we could all learn to sing the song of the river, the whole world could be as beautiful as our little town.

This book made me laugh and made me cry. It also did something that very few books have done before, it gave me hope. The book demonstrates how a love of honesty and beauty affect the lives of different people in different ways. It never falters or leaves the reader hanging. The best read in a long time!

I read this book when I was eight and it was one of my favorites--something magical and yet so real about this blue cat and its quest. Yet it was The River's Song that was the most compelling part of the book for me...the need to find one's own song, to create beauty in one's life and work, not directly to seek riches and power. I would credit it as one of the influences in my choosing writing children's books as a career. Over 60 published books later, I am stilll happily trying to sing my own song. Thank you dear spirit of Catherine Coblentz for your gentle guide to living. This book is a treasure for those who find it.

I read this book in 4th grade. The reading level is about 5-7th grade, not for babies or toddlers. The plot of the book is based on a number of items in the Metropolitan Museum of Art which all hale from a town in Vermont called Castleton. One of them is hand-woven carpet with a blue cat depicted on it. Another is a pewter teapot. Around these artifacts and the small amounts of information that could be gleaned on their history, the author has built a charming tale of a blue kitten in search of a home. Since he was born under a blue moon, the kitten can only find a home and a hearth in the house of a human who knows (or can be taught) the River's Song. The River's Song is the Song of Creation, of the making of beautiful things. The kitten encounters many inhabitants of Castletown in his quest and finds them falling under the dark spell of Arunah Hyde, whose whole interest is speed and wealth. The kitten himself nearly falls under the same spell, but escapes at the last minute. His quest seems doomed to fail, however, until he crosses the path of a lonely, ugly girl. This is a book that does not deserve to be out of print. It could easily be used in the classroom as a lesson in early American culture and history, but is also a just a very enjoyable and moving read.

I read this book as a child and still love it at 60. The book speaks about what it means to be an authentic human being through a parable about a special kitten who must find his way in the world on his own and triumphs over loss, disappointment, and exploitation to find self-realization. "'Sing your own song,' said the River, 'sing well.'" It is never too late to sing your own song, if your heart will let you. How the cat learned to do this is worth learning at any age. Now this is how I interpret what goes on in the story in today's vocabulary, not how the author puts it, but my point is the book is just as relevant today as when originally written. The experiences of this cat will hit home with all too many people today, both children and adults. The book is beautifully written by Catherine Coblentz, a lady who by the way spearheaded the establishment of the Cleveland Park branch of the D.C. Library, where there are etched glass drawings from the book. If kids today would buy in to a book like this and Wordsworth's Happy Warrior, they would have a better chance of growing up whole.

Helen Husher does a great job writing about the nature of the horse and her descriptions of horse behavior will bring a thrill to all riders who will recognize their own experiences with lesson horses and barn life. I really enjoyed this book and wish I could ride at such a barn.

What more is there to say? This is a book that operates, both for the writer and the reader, on a number of different levels at once. Through her depiction of her relationship with the horse, Prince, you felt you saw into the author and into human relationships as a whole. Yet, if you are a horse lover just looking for that kind of story, you find that here as well.

This was my first Husher book after having her name recommended to me more than a few times. It definitely won't be my last.

Bravo!

A former Vermonter, I received this book for Christmas. I've been around horses quite a bit, although I'm no expert. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Husher is full of insight into herself and horses. She has fun with unique phraseology throughout the book, and I laughed aloud several times. I was having fun reading, but also learning. You hear a lot about that "special relationship" between horses and people, especially in fiction works. This is the first time that I've heard about communicating with horses from a real world person who claims no special expertise. In fact, she is quite humble. It was fun to hear her insights into horse psychology. I'm sure the horsey set will enjoy this more than those with no interest in horses. But if you've never been around a horse and would like to, or are just plain curious about what they're really like, you'd enjoy this book.

A wonderful book for anyone with even a remote interest in the world of horses. I originally bought this book for my girlfriend who has two horses herself, but I ended up reading the book myself before I had a chance to give it to her.

On one level this is familiar turf. Cowboys, schoolgirls, whispering trainers, jockeys ... everyone has a story about communicating with a horse. What sets Husher's apart is her increasing growth as a wordsmith. She has blossomed into one of Vermont's finest writers, and fine writing always trumps well-trod subject material.
"Conversations With a Prince" is loaded with fine characters--most equine, some human. Husher is not afraid to put herself under scrutiny as well, and my guess is that she learned a great deal about herself in the writing of this book. She knows she's a little off the deep end on this subject, but that's exactly where she wants to be. She's a playful writer who is not afraid to take chances. As a result, she is never boring.
She's at her very best when she gets right into the mind of the horse, such as by explaining how vulnerable horses are to their riders who sit in the one blind spot where an ancient tiger might attack. This, in turn, explains how one horse, Bones, became addicted to the symbiotic company of a dog who would patrol the perimeter on "tiger alert." Who knows if this is a correct interpretation of what's going on in a horse's mind? The point is, Husher's treatment is so well done that the reader never questions the believability.
You will enjoy "Conversations with a Prince" whether or not you are a horse person. If you are a horse person, however, you will just enjoy it more.