Rhode Island Books

RhodeIslandiana is a humorous satire of Rhode Island. It is a contemporary and historical miscellany written as memoir. The incidents have been collected from more than thirty-five years of observation. The book is a roast of Rhode Island with the serious intent of reform of a culture of corruption but in which humor predominates---and expressed in a drollery that befits the state. All the episodes are true and really happened. Rhode Island is a funny place. This is not known among the states of the Union. Some Americans doubt that it is legally a state, and suppose it to be an aprocryphal small place. RhodeIslandiana resolves the issue with panache.

TR Cattan knows his subject matter. Interesting read with some historical tid bits thrown in for good measure.
Whether or not you are from the State you will enjoy the humor poking fun at Rhode Islanders being Rhode Islandiana's.

As I first started reading Where I Want to Be, I was almost 100% sure that this was going to be similar to the author's other National Book Award finalist, Sons of Liberty. No interesting characters (the only one being your run-of-the-mill tomboy), so-so story, and ho-hum writting with a few glimpses of inspired greatness thrown in. I was wrong.

This story isn't exactly one that hooks you from the start. I struggled through the first thirty pages, until finally becoming interested in Jane's character. Jane is a character that I felt sorry for, but at the same time she was fascinating. Some people might compare her to a car wreck (seriously, no pun intended...yikes) and in a way she is. She's shy in front of her peers, and has a close relationship with her grandparents. She hears voices, as do all characters like herself do, but she isn't a caricature. Author Griffin really did well with her.

But then there's Lily. I really dislike characters like her. Pretty, but not too pretty. Smart, but not the top ten in her class. This girl has no distinguishable features. Nothing that makes her any different from any other female character in teen lit. Well, except that she has red hair. It could be worse, I guess. Her name could be Jessica. She could have brown hair, and hazel eyes. Her boyfriend isn't much more interesting to say the least.

It was the final chapters of this book that really tugged at my heartstrings. I was almost to the point of tears during the final act, in which Jane's breakdown occurs. Jane lives in a world full of changes, but she simply stays the same. She dislikes these changes, but knows there is nothing she can do. She escapes the only way she knows how. Reader beware: this one is sad. I just wish that the final chapter could have been JAne's. The party scenes with Lily seemed so unnecessary.

R, your friendly neighborhood reviewer.

Jane and Lily are sisters who have always shared a vivid imaginary world. Jane, the elder sibling, was always able to create games her sister Lily loved. But Lily wants to grow up. She starts making friends at school and gets her first boyfriend, while Jane seems stuck in increasingly violent fantasies.

The family comes to realize that Jane is mentally ill. She is put on anti-psychotic medication, but even with the aid of medication Jane realizes she will never be the same kind of normal as her younger, popular sister. An accident separates the sisters, and the story, narrated from opposite sides of the grave, is about the two sisters --- one living, one dead --- still trying to make peace with the life they shared together.

Adele Griffin is the author of a number of psychologically insightful thrillers for young people. Previous books include THE OTHER SHEPARDS, about two young people haunted by the death of the elder siblings they were born to replace; SONS OF LIBERTY, about brothers banding together to overcome their controlling and abusive father; and AMANDINE, about a girl who becomes enmeshed in a dangerous and manipulative friendship. Griffin is a master at blurring the line between what is real and what is imagined, making her books truly spooky.

Mental illness is a popular subject within novels for young people. The teen years are when many mental illnesses begin to appear. WHERE I WANT TO BE is an insightful portrait of living with mental illness, but it never reveals what illness from which Jane is suffering. It is not alone in this omission. Most fiction on this subject never makes a diagnosis. This does an enormous disservice to the reader, and encourages people to look at mental illness as one large disease rather than a variety of different disorders, all with different causes, symptoms, and treatments.

Nevertheless, readers are likely to enjoy this story about a sibling rivalry that continues into the afterlife. WHERE I WANT TO BE is a late-summer teen gothic about ghosts that drive VW bugs, pick strawberries, and lounge in the dusky twilight by the pool.

   --- Reviewed by Sarah A. Wood

This book is based upon a "large picture collection of the aftermath of the 1938 hurricane on Coast Guard facilities in New England." It is another fine publication of the Images of America series and contains many pictures which have never before been published.

If you want an inside view of what it is like teaching at an inner city school, "Against the Current" will do it for you. The amazing part about this book is that the director of the program is a quadriplegic. I thought John Hockenberry's book, "No Highway" demonstrated a paraplegic with grit-The Urban Coolaborative Program director, Rob DeBlois, is an amazing individual and educator. As a 25 year middle school educator, I had a difficult time grasping the background of the middel school kids DeBlois and his staff had to deal with. If you want to learn about true poverty, Providence city schools and stellar educators, pick up "Against the Current."

This year marks the 217th anniversary of the beginning of the Great French Revolution with storming of the Bastille on July 14th. An old Chinese Communist leader, the late Zhou Enlai, was once asked by a reporter to sum up the important lessons of the French Revolution. In reply he answered that it was too early to tell what those lessons might be. Whether that particular story is true or not it does contain one important truth. Militants today at the beginning of the 21st century can still profit from reading the history of that revolution.

Professor Lefebvre's two volume account of that revolution is still a good place to start. Although scholarship on various aspects of the French Revolution has mushroomed since his books first appeared, especially around the time of the 200th anniversary of the revolution, most of that work has been very specialized. After over 40 years these volumes still set the standard for a general overview of the convulsions of French and European society before the rise of the Napoleonic period.

The French Revolution, like its predecessor the American Revolution, is covered with so much banal ceremony, flag- waving, unthinking sunshine patriotism and hubris it is hard to see the forest for the trees. The Bastille action while symbolically interesting is not where the real action took place nor was it politically the most significant event. For militants that comes much later with the rise of the revolutionary tribunals and the Committee of Public Safety under the leadership of the left Jacobins Robespierre and Saint Just. Their overthrow in 1794 by more moderate members of their own party, in what is known as the Thermidorian reaction, stopped the forward progression of the revolution although it did not return it back to the old feudal society. The forces unleashed by the revolution, especially among the land hungry peasantry, made that virtually impossible. In short, as has happened before in revolutionary history, the people and programs which supported the forward advancement of the revolution ran out of steam. The careerists, opportunists and those previously standing on the sidelines took control until they too ran out of steam. Not for the first or last time, the precarious balance of the different forces in society clashed and called out for a strongman. Napoleon was more than willing to be obliging when that time came.

The values of the Enlightenment- the believe that human beings can more or less rationally order the way they organize society in the interest of social justice and human dignity, are under extreme attack today. These Enlightenment values are reflected in the successes and failures of the French revolution. So what can militants of the 21st century gather from those tumultuous experiences as we try to extend the gains of that revolution and defend Enlightenment values against the `bully boys and girls' of this world? The most obvious is that the very fact of the French revolution changed the whole nature of political discourse by the creation of a civil society. Today, that task may seem of little importance. However, at the time the vast majority of the population was treated by the old regime as a brute, silent herd. And was suppose to like it, to boot! Seem familiar.

The French Revolution also highlights the need to defend the revolution against both active internal counterrevolutionary elements of the old regime and foreign powers opposed to the new order, the new way of doing business in society. This necessity also occurred previously in the English revolution where continental powers allied with segments of the old royal establishment tried to use Ireland and Scotland as bases to return the Stuarts. Later, in the Russian revolution that same phenomenon occurred with the White Guards and a seemingly world-wide array of hostile powers. In short, the old order will not give up without a fight. We should have that lesson etched in our brains.

Probably the greatest service that Professor Lefebvre provides in his volumes is to encourage an understanding of the above-mentioned relationship of forces. That is, the policies of the various post-1989 governments in reaction to the various forces in Europe, particularly but not exclusively the British, that most certainly were trying overthrow the revolution and either return to the previous status quo or make France a subordinate client state. In fact, this writer argues that one cannot understand French domestic governmental policy in this period without an understanding of that interconnectedness. The various revolutionary governmental forms, culminating with the Committee of Public Safety under Robespierre, were increasingly charged with defense of the revolution by putting France on a multi-front war footing. That meant both raising troops, one way or another, and assuring the support of the sans-culottes and small peasant landowners by appropriate measures. Whether those governments did that well or poorly is up to the reader to decide. In any case, thanks Professor Lefebvre.

This book was great for helping us get around the interstates and highways. It doesn't have much in the way of smaller town road maps making getting around in small New England towns a bit more cumbersome. But I do recommend the book for anyone planning a trip to multiple New England states.

The maps in this book are very localized - Boston, the Berkshires, mid Maine Coast. So depending on where you are, you either get a bunch of rides or none at all. Only Vermont is really fully represented.

The maps are clearly drawn and good, and work well in conjunction with a GPS. The directions are broken out by consecutive mile, which is the way I like it, but they should also provide the "miles to next leg" information too for people who prefer that.

The book offers thorough information on dress, etiquette, food and more. It suggests you take it easy - "don't be goaded by others into riding a tour that you feel unprepared for."

Good challenging rides for those who want to drive out and do a 50-100 mile ride somewhere beautiful. Again, because of the length and the fact that you're probably going a distance from home, I definitely suggest bringing a GPS and scoping out which businesses are still in business for food and other necessities beforehand.

This is a good book from the perspective of practicing physicians. The book presents a good example of what physicians being tried (inappropriately or appropriately) probably go through up to and during trial. It is written very conversational and is a very easy read. The author's cynical attitude pervades the novel bringing an entertaining, comical twist.

Caty was the young wife of Gen. Nathanael Greene. Not content to stay home with the children, she joined her husband in winter quarters at Monmouth NJ (where she gave birth to one of their sons) and Valley Forge PA. The author wrote this biography based on their letters.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I live in the same town as the high school profiled and I enjoyed reading about teachers and students I am familiar with. This book gives an indepth look into American schools. I recommend it to everyone. A must read!!