Maryland Books

My mom baught me this book because I go to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton School. I love to read about St. Elizabeth and her children. When I started to read this book, I didn't want to stop reading the book. My favorite part was when Mother Seton's daughter made a new friend. I really liked the book because it was about the two girls' friendships and the times they had together. I learned more about St. Elizabeth and her children.

The title King's Reach and 17th Century Plantation Life by Dennis J. Pogue appears to suggest activities in which people engaged. I had expected to find information regarding the daily activities of 17th century plantation life at King's Reach but I was pleasantly surprised while reading this brief compact book that it revealed investigative techniques which archaeologists employed. The book contained historical information as well.

Even though excavation destroys the area around artifacts, Pogue explains how careful excavation methods are used to recover artifacts. By analyzing these artifacts, clues relative to the site's activities are gained. Location of myriad artifacts enable archaeologist to determine many characteristics about the environment as well as the inhabitants. Pogue shows how seemingly meaningless or insignificant objects reveal a plethora of historical information.

The book is well organized and fluid. The sentence and paragraph structure facilitates reading and comprehension. The word choice is appropriate for the audience and the subject matter. Because of the cohesiveness the reader will have no difficulty understanding the author's points.

This book is a must read for individuals interested in delving into the cultural past. The book deals with Calvert County, Maryland but the techniques can be applied to any given geographical area.


Plato Zuno Moore

Wayne S. Cole is well-known as an influential and significant professor-author in the historiography of American foreign relations. In this book, we see a different side: a careful and reflective memorist who has pondered on the significance of his life and the times that he lived through. And what times they were: Depression-era America, World War II, the challenging years of the Cold War, the onset of campus unrest, changes in the nature of the family and societal patterns. Cole lived through it all, and observed carefully the world around him, with a shrewd and often unsparing bluntness and honesty. In this book we learn what it was like to grow up in a rural community in the 1930's, how the war affected him and his colleagues (he became a skilled and indeed gifted flight instructor), and how he adjusted to the postwar world, embarking on a career that would see him rise to the pinnacle of academic recognition in the field of American foreign affairs. Cole's book is at once thoughtful and insightful, without being maudlin, sentimental, or detail-obsessive. It is strongly recommended to anyone with an interest in social and cultural history.

In the early morning, psychologist Abby Franklin is awakened by an hysterical telephone call from a former patient. Fearing for the woman's health, unable to contact her from the information in her records, Abby contacts one of the family members in the woman's file. Her brother, Derrick Claiborne, reveals that his sister Sharon made the call from a hospital where she has been confined for a few weeks due to a psychotic break following a problem with drugs. Abby is shocked and disturbed by this information, but as there is nothing she can do, she tries to assure herself that Sharon is receiving the care she needs and to put it out of her head. She is shocked to read, a few weeks later, of Sharon's suicide.

Also shocked is Sharon's other brother, Steve Claiborne, who hasn't seen his sister in the last few years. He puts his gun-running and smuggling in the Far East on hold to fly back to the States for the funeral and answers.

Steve and Abby get off to a rocky start when he accosts her at the funeral, accusing her of malpractice, and later when he steals her file on and session tapes with his sister. He discovers that Abby has a lot of information about him that he'd rather she didn't, and he's about as uncomfortable with that as with the knowledge he was wrong about her. Despite their reservations about each other, they share the same goal of finding out the circumstances leading to Sharon's death.

While the story in itself is pretty straight-forward and even somewhat predictable, there was something about the characters... The book gets 5 stars for producing an emotional throat-tightening response in this jaded reader-more than once.

This is York's [pseudonym] first novel for Intrigue, and the beginning of the very long-running 43 Light Street series. I've read and enjoyed a few of the later books in this series and wanted to start over from the beginning. 43 Light Street is the address of the building which houses Abby's office. Other characters at the same address include a crusty superintendent with a gambling problem, a soft-hearted lawyer with a troubled marriage to an ambitious doctor, and a spunky female PI who plays a big role in helping uncover the secrets surrounding Sharon's death. I'm so looking forward to more that I've hunted down and ordered most of the books in the series that I don't have. I'm now looking forward to #155 Shattered Vows, ISBN 0-373-22155-X.

Solid author. Good read. Recommended.

This book tells of the adventures of Barbara Anne, a young girl livin in Maryland during the American Revolution. Barbara is lost in the woods when she stumbles upon a secret meeting of Patriots. Even though she is a Patriot they take her for a Tory spy. Barbara Anne keeps their secret so they can let her go home. Later she becomes friends with the daughter of one of the men. The reason this book didn't get a 10 was it could have been a little better.

LOBLOLLY HOUSE: ELEMENTS OF A NEW ARCHITECTURE features a different award-winning house design: an adjustable double-skin facade situated off the coast of Maryland's Chesapeake Bay. Its integrated systems offer minimal impact to the site's ecosystem, and it's actually more than an experimental model: it's a step towards element-based mass housing and promises much for architectural change. This monograph examines KieranTimberlake Associate's creation and considers its impact on further prototypes of revolutionary design choices.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Donald Shomette's Lost Towns Of Tidewater Maryland is an engaging and informative history of ten representative communities of the 130 towns or ports of the tidewater area of Maryland founded in colonial days. Of those original 130 sites, less than a score continue to exist today as cities or towns of any note. The others gradually disappeared into oblivion, destroyed by the tumultuous events that shaped Maryland's history. The ten communities forming the basis of this history were individualistic in the circumstances of their creation, flickered into existence against the odds, matured, and then finally expired. More than a story of abandoned towns, buildings and wharves, Lost Towns Of Tidewater Maryland is an fascinating story of the freemen and slaves who created these communities, lived and worked in them, defended them, and died with them. Lost Towns Of Tidewater Maryland is a unique, superbly written and presented contribution to New England history in general and Maryland's tidewater development in particular.

This is an excellent book for those interested in doing research on american loyalists who served in any of the loyalist regiments. It consists of copies of the loyalist muster rolls, which musters were taken approximately every two months. It will sometimes also provide a little bit of biographical material on individual loyalists, such as where they came from, where they went when they left the regiment, whether they were absent due to being a prisoner, having been killed in action or out wounded.

Carla Golembe has written a Picture Book about the state of Maryland, and her illustrations make it even more beautiful. This book would be a perfect teaching resource, or an entertaining read. I am very impressed with "M is for Maryland" and look forward to the next book she publishes!