Massachusetts Books

This journey of Jewish song and identity draws the best of both to comprise an inspiring book that is both a good read and a good listen. It will leave the reader singing and praying.

My nine year old daughter virtually consumed this biography. This is the 3rd book she has read in this series, and she has asked for more. I have read them along with her--they are appropriate for 8-10 year olds, interesting, accessible, but never condescending or preachy. Based on my knowledge of the subjects, they are only marginally fictionalized. In a world of pop singers and barely literate actresses, it is a pleaseure to be able to provide real heroes and heroines that modern kids will enjoy and be inspired by.

Being an avid firefighter history fan, and memorabilia collecter I had to pick up this book. Lowell, Ma being a big fire city and one with some of the oldest industrial structure and biggest canal system in the US I thought it would mkae for an interesting read. Author Jason T. Strunk took great care in writing this book, and while all the photos are not his own he picked some of the best photos that I have ever seen to help describe old time Lowell firefighting. Absolutley amazing book, if you are a firefighting aficionado I highly recommend that you pick up this book and learn something.

What was it like for women in the early 1800s? Many in New England were finding farm and agricultural work to be scarce, and money even more scarce, so families sent their young women up to Massachutsetts to work in the mills. The Lowell Mills were unique in that they had boarding houses, a hospital and a dining hall. Eventually, women moved on, and the Mills became more and more mechanized, as well as laws were passed to limit workdays and ages.

The book is divided into several chapters, each focusing on a different aspect of being a Mill Girl, including types of jobs in the mills, education and boarding house life. The pages are filled with photos/drawings, documents and maps. The end of the book contains a timeline, important people list, a "want to know more?" section and an index. This is a well done book, filled with information, but not overwhelming. You can easily pair this with Lyddie (Paterson) or The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire (Crewe).

One wonders if an author clever enough to come up with a title as witty and intelligent as Lulu Incognito could ever fail to produce a masterpiece. The answer so far? No.

Kennedy chooses his elegant yet familiar words so carefully, he might well be the Martha Stewart of literary writers. Kennedy, while clearly aspring to grand literary gestures, never truly manages to leave behind his pedestrain persona, and so manages to create works that read like collaborations between John Waters and Barbara Kingsolver.

Tacky? Yes. Faux-intellectual? Certainy. Camp? Oh, without a doubt.

Yet, somehow Kennedy's numerous and painful failings as a writer always seem to mesh, like the tuneless voices of talentless folk singers, into a flawed dissonance that amuses if not inspires.

Buy this book. It's a great laugh and a reliable cure for constipation.

This book has no similarity with other books in mechanical vibration field. As the author is the father of Statistical Energy Analysis, this book sometimes looks noise and vibration phenomena from the viewpoints of energy generation and transmission. This view will surely provide readers who are fed up with conventional structural vibration theory with new idea of solving the problems they have at hand. Some topics in the chapter 8, "Advanced Topis in Diagnostics", is worth reading for even very experienced engineers in this field. What I regret is that almost all the examples lack in-detail descriptions. To read this book, readers are recommended to have electric circuit theory, knowledge of statisticsTheory and Application of Statistical Energy Analysis and digital signal processing.Digital Signal Processing

I am a resident of Magnolia, Massachusetts. I have loved it here for years and have searched the internet and asked people I knew if they knew anything of this little village, and people seemed to know bits and pieces, but not enough to satisfy all of my curiosity. Well, when I picked up this book, I was fascinated and could not put it down! It answered all of the questions I had about my town, how it was formed, and other interesting facts. I highly recommend this book!
Michele - Resident of Magnolia

This compilation of lectures given two years ago is a handy reference for those who wish to understand something of the design process in an architectural office. O'Gorman notes that it is "collaborative" in nature. One could also add that it hardly static. The illustratons (too few from my perspective) show the evolution of this building from its competition stage to the one built at Copley Square. Even Richardson wondered why his firm was chosen to handle the commission. The book tells us in many ways about his Harvard connections Brooks and Paine.

The chapters on the women contributors and the Maginnis changes to the chancel in a 1937 competition are very useful. I, for one, am glad that the Maginnis competition drawing (neo-byzantine) was not executed. The tie rods were exposed and all of the Richarson era vaulting was removed to be replaced with a single dome. The executed work is distinctly Art Deco with a stencil diaper pattern. Maginnis fondness for Betram Goodhue's St. Bartholomew's Church in NYC is pointed out by Milda Richardson.

There is scant reference here and there to Charles Coolidge (Richarson's successor firms: Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge; then Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch). This is unfortunate since it was under his hand that the west porch, the choir pews and their sandstone railing, the pulpit and rector's stall were exectued. The bronze base of the menorah shown in the elevation of the altar by Maginnis were from an earlier remodeling by Coolidge. (They are extant).

The book is very useful to students and practicioners of architecture. One name be associated with a building, but this book helps explain that there it is a large undertaking with many hands and minds making the decisions.

This is a wonderful book, if you are interested in 19th century France. A must-read for anyone interested!

Raised in Marblehead, and having since moved from there, I remain enthralled by this small, historical village on the shore North of Boston. It is full of history, including tales of pirates, the birthplace of the American Navy, the inspiration for the famous painting the "Spirit of Seventy-Six" (which hangs in its city hall), the birthplace of an early Supreme Court justice (Justice Story) and Eldridge Gerry (the progenitor of the famous "gerrymander"). This volume provides an excellent history of the town told through its more famous lore, legends, and tall tales. For anyone planning a visit to Boston, Marblehead is well worth the side trip, and this book is a terrific primer.