Vermont Books

This is by far Jodi's most paranormal book, encouraging the reader to have an open mind. In short, it's a ghost story, one that involves a seventy-year old murder. Luckily, we have on hand a paranormal investigator whose experience is quite convenient, plus a cast of other characters who very willingly except their town haunting, rose petals snowing from the sky, and other unexplainable peculiarities. Upon beginning the book, I was a bit bogged down by the sheer number of characters. It's a pretty large cast that spans the two storylines, one in the 1930's and the other in the present. The first third of the book introduces us to the town, the characters and the plot, but is suddenly interrupted for another third of the book to tell the first person account of the dead woman who is responsible for the present haunting. Then back to the main plot again for the final third of the book.

This is a very multi-layered book that explores how lives are intertwined and how the past dictates the future. It is it about death and its impact on life, even decades later. It is written in the style I have come to love about Jodi and with the mystery she presents as she unfolds the plot. Unlike many of her other books, this one does not include lawyers or courtroom scenes, just the haunting story of love, life, death, and destiny.

Not quite as good as other Jodi Picoult novels, but I haven't put it down yet either.

I truly enjoy Jodi Picoult novels but this IS the best. The characters are unique but very well defined; the action is absorbing; and the ending fascinating. I highly recommend this novel to all Picoult fans.

For anyone who has read a book by Jodi Picoult, it is no surprise that you are completely wowed by the ending of the book, Second Glance was no exception. Second Glance is a fantastic mixture of love, sorrow, history, and ghost stories. Every time I thought I figured out the ending, Picoult threw in a new twist. I felt like I got to know all of the characters and every time I read about a ghost, I felt like one was in the room with me. She made me believe that spirits live on and you never know when you might meet one. The description on that back of the book doesn't even begin to tell the story that Picoult embarks on. Second Glance brings the reader into another world and takes you into a dark spot of America's history. Once you pick up the book, you will not be able to put it down and if you do, you just might feel a chill in the air.

I read "My Sister's Keeper" by Picoult about a year or so ago and came away not a Picoult fan. I saw this book on sale in the clearance section of my local grocery store and needed a book to read so I gave it a chance. I'm so glad I did!

First off, I love a good ghost story and this novel definitely has that. The only negative to this book is that it's one of those that starts off with so many different characters and their own stories that it's hard to keep them all straight. The author acknowledged this as a risky move in the Q&A section at the end, but it worked out and came together nicely.

The characters are a little over-the-top in that they each have extreme personalities. One's totally suicidal; one's totally into vocabulary words; one's totally a non-believing scientist. There's no average character who doesn't just possess a few quirks which I feel would have made the story more plausible.

I do recommend this book.

Is gender basic to personal identity, or is it peripheral? In the continuum of sexual behavior does culture define sex roles, or do sex roles evolve from ones assigned sex? Do situations have a bearing on sexual orientation? Why do imprisoned heterosexual males sometimes act out homosexual behavior when they have no access to women?

Trans-Sister Radio deals with the deeper question of gender identity--transsexual and transgender issues. Chris Bohjalian's Dana Stevens, a male professor, is a transsexual waiting for reassignment surgery. After taking a class from him, Allison Banks, a divorced elementary school teacher, falls in love with Dana. They date, enjoy each other, and have sex before Dana tells Allison his future plan for surgery. Allison, clearly in love with him, wonders whether his/her sex change will make a difference in her (Allison's) affections. She promises to see him through the ordeal of the operation. Will Dana be the same person after reassignment surgery, or will he/she be a different human being? We are back to the same question: How basic is gender to personal identity?

When Allison's daughter, Carly Banks, and her ex-husband Will get involved with Dana, they have their own questions to struggle with. Once the townspeople and Allison's students' parents hear she is living with a transsexual many are outraged.

Bohjalian allows each character to speak in separate chapters. Each one battles with upset gender relationships, and tries to set personal boundaries. The author creatively weaves a PBS radio interview through the narrative. Carly, having been mentored by her father, who is the manager of Vermont PBS, interviews a variety of people, including a sex therapist, and Dana to get to the heart of gender identity problems.

Although Bohjalian paints Allison as an authentic character, some of the other characters are not as well delineated, which makes the book not entirely believable. That said, the wok is well researched, and brings the psychological and social implications of transgender to light. A good read for anyone interested in human experience.

The subject matter is perhaps avant-garde, and treated more sensitively than any hundred authors before him. And unlike most transgender fiction I have read, the focus of the book was not on Dana; rather, it was on how Dana's change affected the people in her life. This is already a good sign; however, that does not save the whole of the work.

The book is at its best when it's focusing on people other than the core couple (Alison and Dana), and instead on how her family, friends, and the community at large reacts to her change, as well as (most of) the segments from the fictional NPR program. These elements are the best part of the book, and are the most enticing. However, the problem is that these are side stories -- Alison and Dana's rocky relationship is central, and is not particularly well-written. It is hard to find any understanding of Alison or Dana as you read through, as their personalities shift to suit the chapter. It's confusing and it continually distracts.

There are a few other problems to note. On one hand, you have the often well-researched but all-too-dry (or excessively titilating) explanations of the specifics of a gender change, which always jars from the moment whenever. On the other hand, there is a horrible spoiler right before you even open the book: the title. "Trans-sister radio" is a multi-level pun on the story's events. It's almost as if Mr. Bohjalian wrote that title, and all other plot elements were secondary to the convoluted ways that the title pun could be referenced. By the time you notice this, the rest of the book is predetermined; even the 'twist' ending is predictable if you take a common Harlequin romance novel ending and switch the genders.

In the end, I can't reccomend this book to anybody. Not even to transgender readers, or their family, those who you would think would get the most out of this book. Recently, I lost this book in a move, due to a storage container being misplaced -- and I have no plans on replacing it.

I thought this was a good TG book, It was Dana Stevens transition story, written by a third party. It had a surprising ending (at least if you didnt already know what actually happened to her). It didn't cover as many details about the transition, as it was more about her interaction with another family, and how it affected them.

I enjoyed reading this book. In my opinion it is important to see the prospective from the social envorment around a transexual. Looks to me that is very difficult to be accepted if you are different. That's the reality.
In general, our society force our public image to fit in the role of male or female we must play. For most people that role is determinated by their fisical gender. But Jung, like Freud, felt that we are all really bisexual in nature. When we begin our social lives as infants, we are neither male or female in the social sense. Almost immediately -- as soon as those pink or blue booties go on-- we come under the influence of society, which gradually moulds us into men and women.
In all societies, the expectations placed on men and women differ, usually based on our different roles in reputation. Women are still expected to be more nutring and less aggressive; men are still expected to be strong and to ignore the emotional side of life. But Jung delt these expectations meant that we had developed only half of our potential.

I was a Midwives fan and so thought I'd give this book a shot. I was so disappointed. I hoped to explore the soaring passion and power of transcendent love that lifts you out of any sense of time and space -but found the author to be limited in his ideas about gender and identity as well as love. To feel trapped in a body IS the hell of human existence. We all long to be seen and known for who we are in truth, and the culture-bound definitions of sexual identity used in this book don't provide me with enough to fall in love, either with the characters or their experiences. Much of it was too "clever", too shallow, too physical...too predictable...

This book had enough action and enough human interest to keep me involved. I thought the author did a fair job telling the story though the lens of the various characters. Character development was enough to create empathy but not quite enough to "get into their shoes". Therefore, it did not touch me as deeply as it could have. It seemed that the women were a little too histrionic and the men were too removed. But then, who knows how a mother feels when her children have died, how a father feels in that same situation, how a young unwed pregnant woman feels, how a husband feels when he is displaced by a child, how a foster kid feels after being abandoned and passed along to different homes? I suppose those thoughts and questions are the benefits given to the reader by the author.

I felt that the weakest part of the book was the Buffalo Soldier tie in. The title really did not seem to fit with the book. I tried to understand how the WPA journal entries and old letters interjected into the chapters connected or even illumined the plot, but I was left dry. If they were absent, the book would not have suffered.

This was a story that seems unlikely, but for that very reason tends to ring true.
We have all heard of tragedies that seem almost overwhelming in other families,
situations so dreadful that no author could imagine them.

Bohjalian does. This is a story of a family tragedy that becomes a life changing, and loving situation for a boy that starts out as a stranger and becomes a son. Twin daughters are swept away in a flood in the first pages. The town rallies to console the family in the early days, but as is true in real situation of this sort, support falls away as people realize that there is nothing that they can do to assuage the grief following such loss.

This family finds its way out of darkness into the light and in doing so, the lives of an elderly neighbor and a young foster child are changed along with theirs. The ending is absolutely heart stopping, and was for me, unexpected. This is a compelling read with all too real characters. It is a can't put it down book, like all of Bohjalian's books.

Normally I enjoy slow, deep character development, but these characters just did not seem all that interesting. The plot was PAINFULLY drawn out, like watching grass grow, and then all of a sudden it turns into an action movie ending. Very strange. First of his books I have read, and it doesn't make me interested in trying any of his others.

NEGATIVES
1. no quotation marks for dialogue; forced me to reread things, which irritates me
2. melodramatic, yet I was caught up in the weather happenings
3. the author's favorite word is "moreover"
4. abrupt ending, and wrapped up too neatly

POSITIVES
1. a change from my usual reading
2. from Alfred's perspective, I learned something about prejudice
3. I enjoyed the relationships between Alfred/Mesa and Alfred/Paul

SIDE NOTE
I was expecting pedophilia after Russell's grabbing of Alfred, followed by Terry's outraged reaction. That could've added to the melodrama and given it even more of a Danielle Steel flair.

So, as you can surmise, I'm not glad I read it. If I weren't reading it for my book club, I wouldn't have finished it. (Sometimes I DON'T finish them, but this book wasn't horrible, and I was eager to finish it after I got to the part about flooding and icy roads, which was near the end. However, I felt dissatisfied when I finished it.)

I LOVED this book. The story line and character development where very well done. You could truly feel each character's personality and plight. I also enjoyed how history on the buffalo soldier was weaved throughout the book. Great read -- kept my attention from start to finish. In fact, I was sorry to see it end, but did very much enjoy how it ended.

My nine-year-old girl loves this book and I've enjoyed reading it with her. We all know people like those described in the book that are over-critical, grumpy about everthing, never satisfied or loners. Pollyanna applies her charm and glad-game to each of them and melts even the iciest personality. The vocabulary of older writing appropriately challanges a young reader. Short chapters make for easy stopping places when it's time for lights out.

I think the Pollyanna novel is a book we should all read and learn from. Life is always hard, and we should be grateful for things that we have. Pollyana, a young girl who has just lost her father, does that in a soft way that encourages people to be glad, without completly condeming them for their bitterness. This "glad game" is not just for kids, its for adults as well.
Being thankful for the little things: family, freedom, and others is important, and we always take that for granted in America. I would recommend that you not listen to the nay-sayers about this noval, they seem like embittered happless people. They don't seem to understand that this book is teaching a vaulable lesson. Overlook them and read the book for yourself, you won't be sorry you did.

i think this book is wonderful i`m sure that anyone who reads this will really enjoy it

I grew up with Walt Disney's story of Pollyanna. I still have the LP record album of the movie soundtrack. But I was pleasantly surprised to read the original story and find such depth of character and meaning. I highly recommend this delightful book.

This was part of my cultural icons search. I wanted to know what people meant when they called someone a 'Pollyanna.' I loved this hopeful, Christian character. She changed so many people's lives, and turned so many hearts just by thinking about things for which to be grateful. The book is much better than the Disney movie. I also loved Pollyanna Grows Up (Puffin Classics)

These books definitely belong among my 10 favorite children's books of all time.

This book is awesome! I love Howard Dean and I really do wish that he would have ran against Bush instead of John Kerry. I think that Dean would have had a better chance of beating Bush.

This book is a great intro to Howard Dean and its a fun quick read.

Howard Dean is a man that actually makes sense. His politics are based on simple proven principles that would really make a difference in this Country. Too bad regular americans didn't take the time to really listen to what he has to say. Get the book and learn something. It is worth it!

Dean makes a lot of good logical arguments on how to turn the country around. He is not the loose cannon that the conservative press makes him out to be. We need more free thinkers like Howard Dean. Sure, he is not perfect, but he adds a great deal to the national debate on important issues like health care, education and national security.

Jeffrey McAndrew
author of "Our Brown-Eyed Boy"

This is an EXCELLENT book, I was actually quite surprised to discover. I didn't expect the Governor to come across well in written words ... I thought the book would be just a ghost-written, watered-down version of the campaign speeches ... sort of like a book you might expect from G.W.B. I should've known better. Instead, I found the book to be very inspiring; quite easy to read ... and in complete harmony with the truth I know.

You'll read it more than once.

This is actually a great book if someone is interested in the man and how he came to be and why he holds the beliefs he holds and I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of Howard Dean after reading the book.

Ironically my husband had looked forward to voting for him in California's primary but died a few days before. I considered for a moment sending in his ballot marked as he would have voted, but I'm bad at forging his signature and not being a registered Democrat I couldn't vote for Dean myself.

In reading the book I wondered what the outcome would have been had more Americans had access to the book, because the man is so middle America and not the nut case the right suggested and the media projected. So in that respect I am saddened.

Loved reading of his upbringing, wife, kids, community and his hands on concern for all of his state when he was Governor, and not simply for the 'haves'.

The later part of the book should have been longer, since he barely touched on issues that I consider important. Hopefully he will write another book. Am proud that he was so anti-Iraq war from the get go and that he had the gutts to question Bush when so many others were to trusting.

A very good read for anyone who dreams of ditching the rat race and living a more relaxed life that is in harmony with nature.

From what I've been able to piece together Helen and Scott must have been a couple of outcast university professors that were scorned for their anti-establishment (socialist?) teachings. I think they must have been what would later become beatniks (and later hippies).

Throughout their book (actually 2 books) they forecast the social disintegration of the US.

They believe people should only work 4 hours a day and play the rest of the day. To me they actually seem lazy.

They say that when they feel a cold coming on they do as the neighborhood dogs and cats do, they quit eating until they feel fit again. To me, that's a very silly way of treating a cold. When animals quit eating it's because they don't feel like eating. They don't say, "I must be sick so I shouldn't eat." Ridiculous.

They preach about not using animals for food or labor. They also refer to milk as a food not for adults but for baby animals and talk about being vegetarians. Then in one chapter they talk about 3 girls down the road that regularly deliver milk to their house (contrary to their teachings). There is also a photo of them using horses to plow a field and another photo of Helen driving a pair of horses (two more examples of them not following their own teachings) on a snow covered road while she's riding in the wagon or sled (can't tell which since the picture is taken from in front of the horses). ??? Were they hypocrites? Did they eat shrimp cocktail and prime rib on Sunday afternoons?

There is a lot of information that is repeated in the book.

This book is way overrated. It's more of a 'do as I say, not as I do' book. I got very annoyed at the often repeated refences to America's 'disintegrating society'. (Here were are fifty years after the first of the 2 books were written.)

I felt that they may have been frustrated by not being able to establish a large following (as prophets?) so they could create a large commune. Instead, people seemed to come and go from their homesteads.

It seems to be more of a treatise against capitalism and self motivation than for homesteading and self sufficiency. They simply wanted to barely get by. Were they lazy? (People that visited were talked out of working more than 4 hours a day.)

I'm reading it for the 3rd time in 25 years and it is enjoyable to read. There are much better books out there for those considering homesteading. If you are considering homesteading then read some books that are more up to date and don't have such political influences.

This is a fairly well written and somewhat entertaining book (actually 2 books in one) but it's worthless as a reference book for homesteaders.

I am profoundly grateful that the Nearings took the time and trouble to write this book. I am trying something similar in North Central Florida, and while their conditions in New England were quite different in some ways (a shorter growing season, and the availablity of stone are examples), their advice, enthusiasm and encouragement across the years are a great comfort, as well as a good read (by oil lamp!). This is an American Classic, and should never be forgotten.

They didnt fit in urban society and when they moved to the vermont woods the natives thought they were whacko's .Okay so they were communists/marxists but they were very interesting people,learned, avante guarde and diverse, helen was even into UFO research.In this book you will see there experiment was basicaly a failure even they admit it at one point.the mistake i believe they made was there constant building projects and basicaly what became makework in my view. they brought into the woods there modern urban assumptions such as the view of work for works sake ,they even buy a rock quarry and start mining so they can get more rocks.Hauling stones around and garden food did keep them in shape but they were terribly dependend on trucks ,draft horses and had constant maintanance work[something early on they vowed never to do}. Seems like alot of work for subsistance living,very engrossing read though.

These books have inspired me to start my own farm and live a life of simplicity and hard work. I share some of the strong principals that Scott and Helen Nearing had. I only wish I had their courage.

Once you have read their books do some research on Scott and Helen then you will learn why they were the way they were. Scott was a real Pain in the *** to a lot of folks prior to the great depression. His ideas on child labor were way ahead of his time. Helen was his soul mate and partner and a darn good writer in her own right.

They both lived long lives Scott 100, Helen 91 she was killed in an auto accident. With their strong beliefs and not always endearing manners they weren't always appreciated by their neighbors and friends.

However, they were right about so many things and inspired so many people they became cult heros during the sixties and beyond. These books are about them as much as about their farm.

I have read this book. Ireally enjoyed it, especially the scenario of a member of aroyal family who runs away to America and meets the man/woman of his/her dreams. That's what I call a remake of Roman Holiday. Nora Roberts writes great love stories.

This was the first Nora Roberts I have been able to read all the way through. It was better than I thought it was going to be. Usually I can't take what she writes seriously. But this time I don't think she was taking it seriously, so it worked out well.

Its the usual undercover royalty storyline. I don't quite understand how a princess, who is clearly very good at being a princess is able to turn into a domestic goddess. She cleans and cooks like an army of Martha Stewarts, it seems.

And the little plot twist at the end is pretty silly, but I liked it, though clearly the male character was more than a little annoyed by it--as it is something that does not fit him or his family very well. It was a bit forced on Roberts part, a twist like that would have been better with a bit more foreshadowing.

However, the relationship between the main characters is pretty interesting. And it isn't a bad read.

I am a huge Nora Roberts fan but this book was not my favorite. I just couldn't get into the characters. I liked Del...but couldn't get a solid picture in my mind which doesn't happen very often when reading Nora's books....Cam was ok but typical....it was a fast read and I really liked the ending...the characters fought throughout the book...but it was a very romantic ending! It is worth the time but not her best work....

Courtesy of Love Romances
http://www.loveromances.com

Camilla de Cordina was tired of being a princess. She needed a break and took a few weeks off to experience life as an ordinary girl. After 10 days of her happy adventure, her car broke down in a storm and was rescued by a broken-armed archaeologist, Delaney Caine. Delaney stayed in Vermont trying to recover from injuries that happened during an archaeological dig in Florida. Vermont seemed to be the perfect place for Camilla to hide from the press. She was running out of money, so when Del asked her to work temporarily as his assistant and housekeeper in return for her lodgings in his cabin, she could not refuse. Camilla soon realized that Del was a brilliant archaeologist and fell in love with him. She wasn't sure if Del felt the same with her so she decided to seduce him. Would Del be able to resist this royal beauty?

CORDINA'S CROWN JEWEL is the extension of the Cordina' Royal Family series. As usual, Ms. Roberts has delivered another mesmerizing story of Royal romance. Camilla and Del are the princess and the knight in shining armour from two different worlds and backgrounds. Camilla is well liked by the public, well educated with social grace, where Del is bonehead with terrible manners and an outrageous temper. Camilla lives most of her life in luxuries and Del spends his life in sites recovering ancient bones. What brings them together are the passion and their interest in archaeology, and a little magic by the author.

Another winner by Nora Roberts.
Camilla needs some time alone, time to not be a princess. So off she goes on a trip alone. She gets a job working with an archeologist and thus begins the adventure of a lifetime. Del is interesting, sexy and in need of a feminine hand. As the sparks fly, Camilla learns to accept who she is and becomes ready to step into her role as leader of her country. Del has to come to grips with the fact that he has fallen in love and then with the information he has fallen in love with a princess.

A true romance and a true joy to read. It is short enough to read in a long night or a day. I enjoyed every minute of it and was sorry to see it end.

Enjoy.

A game with trolls, ghosts, ogres, and elves that you get to play with your best friend. The catch? Your best friend is your opponent. Brian Thatz and Gregory Buchanan are best friends, yet polar opposites. Gregory gets invited to his "Uncle's" mansion and is told to bring "a companion for your amusement, as long as he be of solid reputation and respectful and unspotted demeanor." Once they get to Gregory's uncle's mansion they are swept into the game. They are deciding whether two ancient colonies of people, from another world, will win the war. With a game board, Gregory and Brian play to win. This book was very confusing, and I would recommend it to people who like reading a book that takes a while to get into. But, then again, i don't like fantasy, so I'm not a good judge of literacy.

The Game of Sunken Places was very random, until the end when everything was put together. Gregory and Brian had to start playing the game as soon as they got to the mansion, without even as much as an explanation of the game or rules. Gregory and Brian woke up from sleeping outside playing the game, and there was a mountain made of metal, that they had to get inside. As Gregory and Brian were scaling the mountain to find somewhere to get in, they came across a village of elves. An elf started talking to them and told them that everyone was fake, they were all robots, he told them that the "Speculant" was going to take them away, and that they were going to be disqualified, yet they did not do anything wrong.

The Game of Sunken Places was very far-fetched. Brian and Gregory come across a troll that, despite his appearance, is very nice, has spirits come into his house and eat his food, has seizures whenever he gets near the ceremonial mound, and can't read but has an outstanding imagination. Gregory and Brian have to unknowingly sneak pass an ogre that is twenty feet tall, blind, has a very good sense of smell, and excellent hearing. But they, can't see anything and have thirty-pound sacks on their backs, and must sprint one hundred yards, while trying not to get themselves killed. Gregory and Brian come across two boxes with their names on them that, if they push the buttons on the boxes, they can go back in time to get a crown from an emperor, yet the button only allows two-minute increments back in time.

The Game of Sunken Places made you think outside the box. To pass the troll's bridge, they had to answer a riddle. Generic, right? But this time, to answer the riddle, they had to take the answer, like if the answer was "box"; they had to bring a box. So Gregory and Brian had to scale the mansion's roof, the mansion being a hundred feet tall, and get the weather vane off the roof. Gregory and Brian had to go underground, to a lake, and ride in a boat, but the boat didn't have a propeller. So Gregory and Brian searched all over for a propeller. When the game had started, Uncle Max gave Gregory an iron pinwheel, and told him that it would come in handy. So they used the pinwheel as a propeller. While Gregory and Brian were looking for the crown. A man named Jim Stimple came after them and started to run after them and was trying to kill Brian. As Gregory was putting the crown on a statue, Brian realized that Jack Stimple was an opposer, and was technically the "bad side", and wanted the bad side, or the Thusser, to win. Gregory was, unknowingly, the pawn for the Thusser side. Brian was the pawn for the "good" side, or the People of the Mound of Norumbega. So Brian, with the help of Gregory, fought off Jack Stimple, and won the game.

The Game of Sunken Places was an action-packed book, with far-fetched fantasy, randomness, and outsider thinking.

B. Rimando

Searching for a fantasy book with non-stop action and adventure? Then you're looking for The Game of Sunken Places by M.T. Anderson! This book is about 2 boys, Brian and Gregory, who, after receiving a strange letter from Gregory's Uncle Max, are lured to Max's strange mansion in Vermont. Did I mention that Uncle Max is strange nonetheless? Brian and Gregory are suddenly stuck in a dangerous, real-life board game called "The Game of Sunken Places." They face riddle-talking trolls, warring kingdoms, and chubby dwarfs. I like how M.T Anderson puts the characters through lots of action, then lets something funny happen while still keeping up the adventure. I would recommend this book for fantasy lovers, ages 8 and up, who aren't afraid of a good scare. I would highly recommend The Game of Sunken Places.

This book has about one or two mildly interesting parts, but it reminds me too much on Jumanji. This book was recommended to me by a friend, and after reading the book, i wanted to hit him! This book was hideously boring and confusing as times. Once i put it down, it fealt like i was taking a VERY heavy burden off of my shoulders. I reccomend that you do not read this book.

I'm 11 and I really enjoyed this book. It's a really good book for kids and adults. Anyone who's interested in science fiction mystery with some humor will love this book. There's really nothing I didn't like about it, it's the best thing I've ever read. It's kind of depressing that not many people know about it. Read it! This summer! Or else!

The Game of Sunken Places
By: M.T. Anderson

I am a 6th grader from New York. I recently just finished reading the book The Game of Sunken Places. In my opinion I think it was a very good book. This book is a fantasy book written by M.T. Anderson. The whole story is mainly about two boys, Gregory Buchanan, and his best friend, Brian Thatz, visiting Gregory's cousin and her adopted dad, [Gregory's uncle.] The two boys travel all the way to a huge mansion deep in a forest where Gregory's cousin and uncle live. It is a very old mansion and the uncle seems to like old stuff because he dresses in clothes from the 17 to 1800s! After the two boys get to the mansion they find an old board game called The Game of Sunken Places. After that Gregory and Brian go through many obstacles and find out many surprising secrets. Out of 5 stars I would give this book 4 star. I would give it 4 stars because I found the ending a little disappointing because it felt like the author cut it short. By that I mean he didn't explain things as well as I hoped. I hope M.T. Anderson comes out with a sequel to The Game of Sunken Places then I think he would tell you what I think he didn't tell you in the first book. My favorite part of the book was near the middle to the end of the book. I can't tell you it because that would ruin the whole book for you! I would recommend this book to someone who likes fantasy books. Overall I think the book was a very good book.

I found this novel to be a play of two concepts; that of Amish life and shunning, along with that of camp life and community. The juxtaposition of the two concepts went well throughout the novel. Making relations between the amish life and the summer camp was interesting. Overall I found the main character a little creepy, albeit that's what made me appreciate the author more; since the main character is very flawed. The story seemed a bit contrived or perhaps overdone, but I think the way it was told was new and original. I was surprised to see it end as it did, but the message of avoidance became much more prevalent when the ending was considered.

It's almost a typical tragedy story, but it has some interesting twists. It was well written, though some larger words popped up here and there that seemed superfluous, the idea that it was being written by a man working on a degree shone through. It wasn't really for me, but I liked the emotion it brought out in my mind.

As an aside, I didn't really see this as "gay fiction". The whole thing seemed like a big misnomer to tag it as in the first place. It's as if gay is being equated with child molester, which is as far from the truth as you can get. I understand the main character's struggle with his sexuality in the context of the story, but still, it's more of a story of molestation and shunned behaviors than anything else.

okay...so i pick up this book on amazon.it got great reviews from the customers. it got a decent review from publishers weekly. but gay fiction is often predictable and trite.there.i said it. while the characters and plot are interesting to me,particularly,the amish subplot, the language seemed stilted,especially when max would talk in 'teen speak'. i actually flinched in the bathtub reading it.then i read it out loud and started laughing.for all the wrong reasons. its been a few months and i dont feel like finding the book to transcribe the offending passages but i will say that it was a disappointment.i felt like michael lowenthal had the recipe for a very good novel and it turned into a lifetime movie starring tori spelling and chad allen.

For me this complex and compelling drama can be summed up in one word:CHOICES
It shows us that any choice a person makes,is, what they feel is the correct choice. But we don't know it is the right choice in life until the consequences of the choice has fully evolved into circumstances.
The Amish man who sought the world of the 'English' was his choice.
For Jeremy Stull, his choice was always Ironwood summer Camp and then as a young man, working there in the summer. He will later examine this choice and it's consequences.
His choice was also to study and live with an Amish family and learn about them and specifically the BANS; in order to write his doctorate.
But he had to make the choice of a lifetime when a 14year old camper, called Max attends camp.Max is a street-wise,young man with attitude and a seductive charm that affects Jeremy in unexpected ways.
Jeremy had to confront his own desires regarding Max. He became besotted with Max, looking for him, wanting to know all about him..waiting for an opportunity to touch him.
Jeremy Stull made a choice that impacted not only his life, and everything he thought he knew about Ironwood.
There is so much in this story it is hard to pin it down to readable synopsis.The surprising turn of events in the camp always juxtaposed with the Amish woman, Beulah and her life now. Consequences of choices.
Lowenthal manages to convey to the reader the desire,the want the sexual urges that Jeremy had toward Max.
In the end, Jeremy made many choices regarding Max, the camp and those that he grew up with. Ultimately he made the choice of a lifetime.Was it right or wrong? Was it correct or ill-fated? Only time will tell.
I ached for Jeremy. I ached for Max. I ached for the camp.I ached for Beulah, the amish woman who also made a choice.
Excellent story! Detailed writing but never boring.So much to think about! Kudos to Lowenthal for writing about a sensitive subject in a brilliantly!

Make no mistake about it: this is a story about child abuse. Physical and mental. However beautifully written (and it is), it is about child abuse. Three major characters engage in it and one even manages to get away with it. (Jeremy has never before acted on his impulses but what about Ruff and Charlie? One has spent decades and the other years in a summer camp for boys. It seems highly unlikely that they only did this once.)
Layered over the shenanigans at Camp Ironwood is a second storyline about Jeremy's thesis on the Amish. While I get the author's parallels, I found the whole Amish angle somewhat extraneous. So that leaves Max, the 14-year-old who has led a really hard life, but who becomes the star of this story. He is precocious and adorable. Overall, this is an engrossing read, but it treats adults who diddle with young teens a little too easily.

Absolutely outstanding. This novel is a work of brilliance on so many levels: unique, effortless prose without pretension; three-dimensional characters who deftly creep inside your mind; a beautifully constructed, poignant tale that is tense, powerful and thought-provoking. The sort of novel that is deemed 'controversial' and 'provocative' by the mindless masses, 'Avoidance' deals with the conflicts between love and reason; between sense and sensibility; between loyalty to the inner-self and the self that is presented to the outside world.

A postgraduate student in his late-20s, Jeremy is Assistant Director at a summer camp for boys - a camp which he himself attended as a child. At first curiously asexual, Jeremy's passion and inner-conflict erupt upon the arrival of 14-year old Max at the summer camp. Brash, enigmatic and alluring, Max seduces everyone with his roguish charm and sweaty-adolescent sexuality (everyone orbits around Max, "as the sun from which they fear losing warmth"). Clearly, trouble lies ahead, and the tension mounts excruciatingly as Jeremy is tormented by his own desires - and those of others.

The exceptionally apt background story (of Jeremy's term-time research into the Amish people, and specifically into those members who have been expelled by the Amish community) serves to illuminate the conundrum that he must now attempt to resolve: "Can you be loyal to your old self but also to the new? To outside laws and also inner ones?" This is the truly haunting aspect of the novel: its potential lose-lose scenario; the loneliness of the decision that must be made - and the complete absence of any possibility of compromise.

An incredibly engaging work, (seemingly) effortlessly penned by a tremendously talented author, Michael Lowenthal's 'Avoidance' climbs easily into a small clique of novels (such as Rod Downey's 'The Moralist') that will quietly take up residence in a corner of your mind forever. Exceptional.

"Not only are we going to New Hampshire, Tom Harkin, we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico, and we're going to California and Texas and New York ... And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan. And then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! Byaaah!!!"

This is a must have for anyone who loves America and is doing their part to strengthen it. Howard Dean has had all the answers all along and even if you aren't a Dean fan, you will love his insight and point of view on the problems we face daily. Dean is hard on Dems as well as Rebublicans and wants us to know that power is ours, now we just have to use it. This book reads easily and is worth every penny. A must have.

"We need to restore the balance between corporate power and the ballot box."

HOWARD, YOU ARE PANDERING A LITTLE TOO MUCH TO THE CORPORATE POWERS ARE EVIL LINE?

"We need to restore the balance between corporate rights and citizen's rights." TRUE, CITIZENS RIGHTS ARE IMPORTANT, BUT HE DIDN'T ELABORATE SUFFICIENTLY IN THE BOOK TO MAKE ANY STRONG POINTS IN THIS AREA.
"We need to narrow the wealth gap to show people that capitalism works for them." HOW DO WE DO THIS? HE NEVER TELLS US.

"We need to always stand up against the politics of division and fear, whether we are progressive or conservative or in the middle." I TOTALLY AGREE WITH DEAN HERE. THIS DIVIDE AND CONQUER PHILOSOPHY IS NOT PERSON-CENTERED.

"We need political institutions that people can believe in." AMEN HERE. TOO MUCH APATHY IN THE POLITICAL PROCESS!

"And we need a media willing to perform their watchdog role and hold politicians accountable for telling the truth.... "
YES INDEED, BUT HOW DO WE HOLD POLITICIANS MORE ACCOUNTABLE? HOW MUST PEOPLES' BEHAVIOR CHANGE TO ENABLE THIS DRAMATIC CHANGE?

"We need campaign finance reform." OLD WORN OUT LINE

"We need more corporate accountability...." YES, I THINK WE HEARD THIS ONE TOO MUCH OVER AND OVER IN THE BOOK. TELL US HOW WE MORE EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATE WITH CORPORATION LEADERS THEN.

The inspiring words of the man who is now the Chairman of the entire Democratic Party. This book is a must read!

Dean wrote this book after John Kerry won the Presidential nomination, but before the 2004 elections. Dean show's real class by working to unite the Democratic Party, even after he was denied the chance to run for president.

His words make you believe that we can still bring an end to the corruption in American politics. And he gives clear and specific ideas about how we can do it as well. This book is part political strategy, part autobiography and part self-help. But all of it is an impressive work written by an impressive man.

Howard Dean is proving himself to be one of the Democratic Party's more enduring leaders. Not yet 60, he has already served as Governor of Vermont, head of the Democratic Governors Association, a Democratic candidate for the party's 2004 presidential nomination, head of the political action committee Democracy for America, and since, February, 2005, Chairman of the Democratic National Committee. With the Democrats poised to make big gains in 2006, Dean's future relevance is likely to continue for some time.

I am not a neutral observer. I was a Dean delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 2004--his only delegate from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or the Mid-Atlantic states. And I have actively participated in Democracy for America and urged Pennsylvania's members of the Democratic National Committee to support his candidacy for this position.

Dean's ascension to the Chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee from the ranks of unsuccessful Presidential candidates is unprecedented. Most Democratic National Committee chairs have been fundraisers and/or political technicians. Dean is the rare Democratic National Committee with a visible policy platform and a coherent set of ideas.

This book is a summary and integration of Dean's views in a variety of areas: public policy platform; critiques of the Democratic Party (including Bill Clinton and the Democratic Leadership Council), the Republican Party (including George Bush, Newt Gingrich and the radical right), the media (including coverage of him and coverage of President Bush), a mix of moral exhortations to get actively involved in the political process, and pragmatic suggestions on how to strengthen the Democratic Party and why doing so is absolutely necessary.

This book is also an excellent summary of how his two decades in Vermont's state government have shaped his worldview; he is a strong patriot for Vermont as well as for America. "Ours is a very nurturing state with a sense of neighborly obligation. You typically see this in rural states, where communities had to band together because they were relatively isolated and self-supporting. There's a strong ethic that says we're all in it together; and it translates into an almost ingrained sense of collective responsibility and a deep commitment to public programs that tie people together...."

Dean's signature programs as Governor of Vermont were business tax cuts, an expansion of social welfare programs from the poor to the middle class by raising income eligibility requirments, parenting training programs for low-income families, offering home visits from social workers and nurses to mothers of newborns, annually balancing the budget, and saying no to undramatic traditional government spending in order to be able to finance some bold initiatives.

"All because Vermonters believed that our community of like-minded, stable, middle-class citizens could be expanded to draw in people at risk. In other words, we really tried to help everyone enjoy the kind of security and stability that in much of America is now reserved for the upper reaches of the middle class and the wealthy. We rejected social Darwinism....

"We did what Republicans and Democrats in Washington have never been able to do: bring health care and child care supports and good public schools and help with higher education to those outside the upper middle class--without breaking the bank.

"We made our ideals about community and social responsibility into reality without getting caught up in overspending or spiraling debt."

It is probably the best book ever written by a man on the cusp of becoming Democratic National Chairman. Written with the brevity, incisiveness and passion that has characterized Dean's public persona, it helps answer the questions of who Dean is, why he has a national constituency, what he stands for, and why both he and the Democratic Party are likely to have a long and successful future.

The last chapter provides a good summary of his public policy beliefs:

"We need to restore the balance between corporate power and the ballot box.

"We need to restore the balance between corporate rights and citizen's rights.

"We need to narrow the wealth gap to show people that capitalism works for them.

"We need to always stand up against the politics of division and fear, whether we are progressive or conservative or in the middle.

"We need political institutions that people can believe in.

"And we need a media willing to perform their watchdog role and hold politicians accountable for telling the truth....

"We need campaign finance reform....

"We need more corporate accountability....

"We have to reempower labor....

"We need to increase voter turnout....

"Voting is not enough....

"Politicians can't solve our problems for us...."

Dean makes clear that he is a genuine centrist who believes in balanced budgets and not a liberal in the 1960's free-spending sense of the word. He supported Jimmy Carter over Ted Kennedy for the 1980 Presidential nomination, and somewhat defines himself by that choice. In today's right-wing dominated climate, of course, the distinctions between Carter's centrism and Kennedy's liberalism have generally paled into insignificance.

This is a great book for those seeking an introduction to Dean's beliefs, the Democratic Party's beliefs, and the public policy differences within the Democratic Party and between the Democratic and Republican parties. It is also a good book for those deeply enmeshed in the political process who would benefit from a good summary volume. There are far more detailed books, however, on all these subjects, as well as on the 2004 Presidential campaign and Dean's role as a leading opponent of the war in Iraq.