New Hampshire Books

The absence of Lisa Carver is a glaring and disappointing omission in this otherwise fine book. She is easily one of the most creative, intelligent and influential artists to come from New Hampshire (Dover, to be exact)in the last century. If you are unfamiliar with her, she recently penned a memoir called "Drugs Are Nice: A Post-Punk Memoir." Read it and discover an incontestable New Hampshire talent!

This is a treasure of interesting stories about the colorful people of New Hampshire.

Peter Randall has outdone himself once again. This riveting book shows the "before" of many the scenes we are familiar with in the New Hampshire that all of us love. While Peter complained to me that too many trees had grown up since the original image was captured, I think we are a much improved place since the mid-1800's, instead. Going to any historical presentation of the Granite State in the past will confirm that. We need the trees to be the New Hampshire of today that we all enjoy! This Grand and Magnificent Place: The Wilderness Heritage of the White Mountains (Revisiting New England: the New Regionalism)
by Christopher Johnson, should accompany this book for the historical references we need to see our passage to the present. Buy both as Amazon suggests. We have preserved ourselves quite well and keep getting better.

The book has great illustration with a short history on the company or site shown. I think the background history could be a little more detatiled. There is also a typed mistake on the binding. The word "publisher" is spelled incorrectly. I was giving these as gifts and a person that had received it noticed the flaw. That is the only dissapointment to the book.

"Old Sam's Thunder" is a wonderful story which becomes a real page-turner, and it is filled with wonderful New England characters. This book is a wonderful read, and is a worthy sequel to "Big Fish."

This book was very entertaining, the author was very well informed on the area. the tale told was amusing.

This book is a captivating non-fiction that reveals a chilling ghost story that really happened to a young family of four in the 1950's. The book turns into a suspenseful murder mystery as it traces back in time to discover what really happened on the "haunted" property in 1916. The courtroom drama that follows is both riveting and interesting from an historical perspective. But what makes this well written tale so intriguing is that it is a true story.

of Mr and Mrs. Small, the prosecutor and the defense attorney as well as the cottage(or what was left of it). I found myself very disappointed that the author did not include these photographs and because of this I felt the book was incomplete. The story itself was very well written from beginning to end. A very unusual true crime tale. Next time, please use photos to augment a fine story.

I used this guide while mountain biking in the White Mountains. It provides very detailed descriptions of a variety of off road trails and logging roads, as well as many road rides. The ratings help to determine whether you can handle the conditions of each ride, and the very complete directions minimize the loss of time searching for trail heads. A very well written guide that is small enough to be taken along in a shirt pocket.

1.From Marty's descriptions of routes I could visualize the roads he was describing. I've hiked the Whites for years and was familiar with many of the roads but never cycled on them. 2.I planned a week tour in the Whites before getting Marty's guide. Many of the loops covered the same roads I planned on using. The basic route was Marty's triple notch century with lots of loops. Marty's rides were an excellent check on my routes and improved my routes. 3.Marty's descriptions are filled with yellow from my highlighter as I took advantage of his experience with cycling in the Whites. His book was a great resource in planning my routes.

After reading "Less Than Zero" I was excited to give another Bret Easton Ellis novel a try, and this turned out to be one of those books I never wanted to end. Every page was full of something interesting and thought provoking and what at times seemed shocking also seemed like the harsh, honest truth. And this has become one of my favorite novels that I know I'll read over and over again.

The events are intriguing, the use of different narrators is great and very effective, and the writing style is perfect. Ellis really knew his characters well and had me believing these were real people.

And as always in the three Ellis novels I've read (Less Than Zero, The Rules of Attraction, Glamorama), I felt some disgust towards the characters' actions yet admired them at the same time and part of me wanted to live their wild and eccentric lives.

The characters in "The Rules of Attraction" all use alcohol and drugs without a second thought, sleep with the most convenient person available and have no idea what they want to do with their lives. Not only are the main characters of Sean, Lauren and Paul aimless and careless of searching for a purpose in love and life, but the entire school of Camden seems to be exactly the same way. While Ellis may go a bit overboard with his portrayal of existential ennui at American colleges, there is more than a grain of truth in what he shows us about this country's young people. I would recommend this book for any kid about to go off to college so they know how *not* to be like while they are there, and for any adult who has bittersweet memories of their own college experiences.

this book was by far, one of ellis' most breath taking novels. "the rules of attraction" took on what is now modern day college life and what happens in college. it is full of disturbing, funny, violent and dark image that you will think of over and over again. when you read the book and get to the ending you will wish the book never ended and be angry how it ended. Rock and roll

Many people dislike this book and deride its lack of cohesion and unsympathetic characters. However, like most of Ellis' work, The Rules of Attraction uses snippets of characters' lives to tell the story of a community, or at least of a group. This book does not have the obsessiveness of American Psycho, and it is somewhat subtler, but it again uses the shallow desires and thoughts of it's characters to paint a picture of a group of college kids at a small liberal arts school, and it allows the reader a glimpse into parts of the mind not usually devoted to in novels. If you are a fan of Ellis, you will like this book.

If you were a WASPy, spoiled, vacuous student of a liberal-arts college in the mid-'80s and you jumped from one empty relationship to another and mulled obsessively over every mundane detail in your aimless life while thinking in run-on sentences, this book was written just for you. But I can't imagine possibly being interested, much less intrigued, by The Rules of Attraction. Ellis' second novel is only notable for being almost entirely unexceptional.

Most of this story is recounted in a first-person narrative by central characters Paul, Lauren and Sean, among a handful of other friends, relatives and acquaintances. They spend most of their time ingesting all manner of drugs, legal and otherwise. They jump into bed with whoever looks good at the moment. They usually avoid anything resembling responsible behavior by habit. And when they aren't whining over every minor misfortune that befalls them, they're trying desperately to fool themselves (and us) into believing that the few positive aspects of their lives are so much more engrossing than they actually are.

In terms of accuracy and structure, there isn't anything particularly objectionable about this story. What exists of the plot was cunningly conceived, and the dialogue is entirely authentic. Ellis possesses a very keen wit, but it's utilized far too infrequently; for every hilarious incident that's depicted here, there are a half-dozen that very nearly put me to sleep. These characters are realistic, decadent, impulsive and thoroughly boring. The story moves along at a lively pace, but these people are so self-absorbed and their respective tellings of each sequence are so pedestrian that slogging through this rather short book is quite a chore. Even contradictions found in comparison of any two self-serving, entirely subjective accounts of a common episode aren't terribly engaging.

The most frustrating aspect of this story is that the only interesting characters here are confined to its periphery: flighty Victor, fastidious Patrick (Bateman, the titular antagonist of the much more entertaining "American Psycho") and Eve, Paul's emotionally estranged mother. If these characters had been afforded a greater share of the narrative, this book might have been a much more engaging read.

Setting aside the minutia of this critique, it must be noted that this entire genre of popular fiction has been rendered obsolete by the Internet. At any time, I can access a wealth of blogs scribed by self-obsessed wretches who are every bit as dysfunctional as the spoiled brats of this banal, miserable volume, most of whom have much more intriguing exploits to relate. I can read about and laugh at their pathetic lives for free and this book doesn't convey anything profound either, so of what use it it?

This is one of Piccoult's best books. My only complaint was it was a little long, in my opinion. One thing's for certain about the author: you think you have an opinion on certain things in life and she challenges them!!

Very interesting read and keeps you in suspense. Shows both sides of the picture in a rape case. Shows what can happen when someone is wrongfully accused and also shows the effects of a real rape on the victim.

I'll keep this short and sweet. This is my first Jodi Picoult book. I loved it and I am going to read more! I was in suspense until the end. Fabulous ending too! Makes you go back and think about what you read. :) buy it!

This was yet another great Jodi Picoult book. Jack is released from prison after serving time for statutory rape. One of his students had accused him of having an affair with him, and the plea bargain he settles for seems to confirm his guilt. Once released, he wants nothing but to start a new life far from the community that put him behind bars. Settling in Salem Falls and accepting a meager job at a diner, Jack soon learns that his past will always follow him, no matter how discreet he tries to be. When rumors start to spread in Salem Falls, he immediately becomes a pariah, and a target of violence. He also becomes the target of Meg, a teenager with some serious issues, straight out of The Crucible. When Jack does not respond to her advances, Meg will do whatever it takes to make him pay, including turning his life into a scene from the Salem witch trials.

This book had everything a Picoult fan could expect: a budding relationship between Jack and the diner's proprietress, an alleged violent crime, a thorough criminal investigation, and a dramatic trial. I loved the trivia aspect, how Jeopardy shaped Jack's life and how knowledge was his savior. I really liked the incorporation of witchcraft in the plot, both the scheming and spell-casting of Meg and her friends (think "The Craft") and the use of quotes from The Crucible and references to the Salem witch trials. A great and entertaining read that will keep any reader captivated.

One of the qualities I most value in the writing of Jodi Picoult is her ability to bring human relationships to realistic life. Her plotting is generally superb. Therefore, Salem Falls falls way short of Picoult's potential because of its predictability. Her prose is great, but the story is same old, same old. A guy falsely accused of rape, then it happens all over again. Some bored teenaged girls dabbling in witchcraft. So what do you suppose will happen? This book came highly recommended, but it's definitely not up to par. It's OK, not a bad read, but lacks the powerful punch of most of Picoult's exceptional work.

What can I say, it is the script to Our Town. I have found a couple of places where it differes from the Samuel French script by a sentence or two.

One VERY GOOD difference is that THIS script also has a lot of background on Thornton Wilder and the times that the existed when the play was writen and first produced.

I don't understand why people are saying bad things about Our Town, because it is a very wonderful play with three acts, centering around a small town, Grover's Corners in New Hampshire and the lives of two families, the Gibbs family and the Webb family.

It is a very wonderful play about life in small town before cars and electronics and how they lived. It is a beautiful play that is very excellent and everybody should read it, for it is a quick read, but a very delightful play.

Thorton Wilder's short play, "Our Town," follows the lives of two close knit families, experiencing the different stages of life: birth, childhood, adulthood and death. I recommend anyone to read this play just so they can have the opportunity to read about the phases that others go through. For example, the story mentions the common worries, concerns and yearnings of parent Mrs.Gibbs, who wishes to take a break from the stressful life of being a mother yet she is held back by the contrasting wishes and aspirations of her husband. "Our Town" is filled with amusing yet relatable events of being disciplined by your parents, which remind us of our childhood, such as when George is admonished by his father. Another interesting tale unfolds as we witness a young relationship between George and Emily flourish into a marriage. Their entertaining anxieties while dating, and even getting married, are humorous and thought provoking for young readers. Unexpected turns of events and sudden losses conclude the story, leaving an important message for the reader which is, care and treasure your loved ones while you still can.

One significant feature of this play is its simplicity in both plot and props. While it carries great meaning throughout, the story does not feature any extreme, earth-shattering events. Instead, it presents the plain, daily occurrences in a normal small town, allowing the reader to follow the story in a simple context. In addition, although the reader undergoes a different experience than the play-goer, it is evident to all that the conspicuous lack of props is a prominent element that further emphasizes the simplicity of the story.

In three acts, Our Town presents a complete view of three different stages of life: daily life, love and marriage, and death. The play focuses on two families, the Gibbs and Webb families, yet it gives a panoramic view of many townspeople's lives in Grover's Corners. More specifically, the play follows the relationship between Emily Webb and George Gibbs. We first witness them in their youth, as they realize their passion for each other. The story then skips forward to their marriage and finally to Emily's death, as she is finally able to witness her life without actually worrying about daily demands. When she is finally allowed to witness life in her town pass by as a spectator, Emily falls into a heavy regret at her wasted life, as she realizes that nobody takes the time to truly look at each other.

Stressing the importance of the simple, daily wonders of the world, Thornton Wilder underscores the appreciation of life due to both its brevity and its inherent beauty. The third act is truly epochal, as it presents the general purpose of the play through the death of Emily; as she relives her 12th birthday, she realizes that no one cares to really appreciate each other or their own lives. Emily, as with every other citizen in town, is too concerned with her own life that she is unable to see the beauty of it, and she ends up missing the most seemingly trivial of things afterwards, such as sleeping and taking baths. Wilder, by contrasting Emily's life with her death, demonstrates the consequences of falling into a state of content and complacency with one's life; instead of blindly following a routinely schedule everyday, Wilder teaches the audience that they must be grateful for the daily wonders of life, as they may be gone the next day.

This is not a good book for those seeking entertaining and action-packed plots. Truthfully, I did not enjoy reading this book until I understood the meaning in the final act. At first glance, the play seems to drag on, depicting the mundane lives of ordinary people. Yet when I got to the third act, I realized that this is exactly how Wilder wanted us to feel: bored in the first two acts at the seemingly simple things in life, yet remorseful in the last act due to the intrinsic ungratefulness of our lives. Anyone looking for play with a relevant, significant message to everyone's lives should pick up this book immediately.

By most accounts Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) considered himself a teacher rather than a writer--a curious situation given than he won numerous literary awards, including three Pulitzers. Among these prize-winners was OUR TOWN, first staged in 1938. It is generally considered to be the single most famous play written by an American author, and Samuel French Inc., which holds the amateur performance rights, states that it is performed at least once a day somewhere in the world, as popular abroad as at home.

The play is perhaps most widely known for the way in which it is staged. The stage is bare. A few chairs, stools, tables, and ladders are used to indicate a kitchen, a bed room window, a soda fountain, a cemetery and other locations; the actors mime use of imaginary glasses, plates, bowls, satchels, and boxes.

The story is equally simple. The first act introduces us to the town, Grover's Corners in New Hampshire, seen in the early years of the 20th Century--and most particularly to the Gibbs and Webb families, who live next door to each other. The second act finds boy-next-door George and girl-next-door Emily marrying, and a flash-black shows the audience how their romance began. It is a simple tale, full of details of small town life, church choir on Wednesday night, milk delivered fresh each morning, breakfast to be made, chickens to be fed--and slowly, as the action moves forward, we are drawn into this simple way of life and its seemingly endless and trivial repetitions.

Wilder swirls a number of themes throughout the work, themes that are simple yet profound, details of the particular and the universal--and these gather suddenly, unexpectedly in the third and final act, which comes as a shock after the charming ease of the play. Emily has died in childbirth and she takes her place in the cemetery among the dead, all of whom patiently wait and watch for something which is not yet clear, the minutes passing one by one into eternity, their memories of life fading into nothingness, a portrait of darkness that is yet somehow still seeded with light. It is here that Wilder makes his ultimate statement: who are you when you have been shorn of all earthly details and devices? Where do you exist within the mind of God?

Many non-theatre people find playscripts difficult to read, and in truth playscripts are a blueprint for directors and actors and not intended as reading material for the general public. This is preface to the very basic statement that some plays "read" well and some do not--and that this is not necessarily an indication of how the play actually performs. On the page, OUR TOWN reads a bit flat; it seems a shade obvious, a shade ordinary. On the stage, however, it easily one of the most delicately beautiful constructs imaginable, a play which demonstrates the beauty and value of each life--no matter how ordinary it may be. Remarkable stuff and strongly recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer

I am so sorry I watched the movie before I read this book. It mostly ruined it for me.
I actually thought that the weird stuff in the movie were a director going ''artistic'', but it turns out all of it is in the novel.

Although most of the novel is obviously fictional (no way would there be a woman in a bear costume or brother and sister getting over their sexual desires like they do , etc) - I found it wonderfully written and believeable in its own world.

Like many Irving novels, The Hotel New Hampshire interweaves growing up in Austria, the inevitable loss of a parent, dancing bears, american lit, and the need to "keep passing the open windows."

How can you put down a book about rape and forbidden love, about long-lost brothers - and a long lost sister too, - about a boy so vividly american that it makes you wonder if you, like he, are a realist in a family of dreamers, doomed to never be adult-enough for the world? Bildungsroman and Irving in its highest yet in 20th century lit, each and every reread brings something different to the table. The Hotel New Hampshire easily sits in the top ten of the best american books of the 20th century.

John Irving is a master of his craft. The Hotel New Hampshire is easily one of his greatest works. Your feelings will be going through a roller coaster. One moment the story is hilarious and at the next it's sad. Then we're treated to heartfelt moments. The book has everything. From a dysfunctional family to all the strange and bizarre happenings that occurs throughout their lives.

The Hotel New Hampshire is told from the perspective of John Barry. The son of a hapless dreamer and laid back mother. John is the middle child in a series of five children. There's his brother, Frank, a homosexual. His attractive sister Franny who he becomes attracted to, and then there's Lilly, his younger talented sister and then there's Egg. To compliment the cast of characters are also a handful of supporting characters. From Freud (not THAT Freud) to a series of prostitutes. The story is told from the view point of John Barry. Who chronicles the lives of his family as they live in three hotels throughout their lives.

There's nothing quite so complicated about The Hotel New Hampshire. Despite the bizarre happenings in the novel, Irving manages to make all his characters entirely believable and lovable in their own way. Each character is distinct. The novel is filled to the brim with humor, both light and dark. When characters meet their end or when something terrible happens to them, you care.

In the midst of his excellent character development, the narrative flow of the story is just right. Because of how bizarre some of the events in the novel are, you won't be able to put it down. It is not a book, however, for those easily shocked or offended by sexual themes. The book has it all.

Never the less, John Irving's "The Hotel New Hampshire" is a fantastic story filled with just about every emotion possible. But most of all, it's full of heart. When you're finished with the book, you'll find it hard not to flip to the very first page and begin reading it again.

Poignant, brilliant, bizarre - you name it's there. Anything with German language, bears, motorbikes and bears, hotels, bizarre deaths, the old lesbian or brother/sister unnatural love is going to go down well, isn't it?
Five stars and counting

I love this book. I've read about 1/2 of Irving's novels and this is my favorite, though I haven't been disappointed by any. This book is entertaining, compelling, devastating... I could go on and on. He mercilessly kills off characters the reader has developed a fondness for, but somehow keeps us reading. Irving writes with an often dry sense of humor and treads some odd line between realism and absurdity, and it simply works.

Common Irving obsessions pop up -- rape, prositutes, bears, motorcycles, Vienna. A lot of the same stuff from Setting Free the Bears, but he is a more experienced writer here and not afraid to be American and doesn't have the same young man's individualistic bravado that characterized that novel (my least favorite). He writes about the glory and the tragedy of the (inevitably thoroughly dysfunctional) family, which is really what he excels at, I think.

In short, read it. But don't see the movie if you loved the book; despite some perfect casting (e.g. Jodi Foster as Franny), it is horrid.

This is a book you pick up and don't want to put down. The town is described as such a beautiful place and the people are charasmatic and thoughtful. Not you suspected ignorant bunch of recluses. This is a damn fine book!

What a great book... It had it all... The cute picture perfect town, the sweet town people, the villian, the twisted love story, and the revenge! Yes.... How exciting this book was for me. If you need a good book with it all read this!!!

I slipped easily into the peaceful scene in the opening pages of LAKE NEWS. Descriptions of the lake lulled me into the story, especially the Loons calling through a foggy cocoon of morning dew, savoring the sanctuary of solitude.

Characters immediately began rooting themselves into my mind. I identified with John Kipling's wallowing in the Lake's ambiance, and was properly disgusted with Terry Sullivan. Terry's ugly character was exposed early in the story, through John's memories of him prior to accepting, and during a phone call from Terry. The telephone ambiance was an ingenious preface for cringing through Lily's buying into Terry's nice guy routine, exposing how con artists worm in, not just to the young.

At first, Lily came across to me as painfully naive, probably because I've been there and don't want to recall that vulnerability. Her situation leading up to and through the Boston Post article was dramatized so well my stomach was in nauseous knots. Unfortunately, I was out to breakfast with my husband at the time, anticipating a steaming Denver Omelet with melted American Cheese slithering over caramelized onions and green peppers!

Drooling over the first heated bite, "Yum" released tension as curiosity surged, "How would Lily handle this traumatic situation." I was hoping she wouldn't leap from raw gullibility to a bitter mistrust of journalists. When she met John, she might collect the sum of her sour grapes and dump them onto John's puzzled head, "WHAT'D I do???"

I was hoping John wouldn't mistrust Lily as well, smelling some of the contrived miasma around her aura.

A too frequent situation for budding relationships, learning to determine who and how to trust is a worthy subject for a novel. Trust is a sensitive, potent issue. Even people of the highest integrity can let us down, sometimes having no choice. Maturity seems to solidify after a candidate realizes this; the richness of the human character has capacity for even the best intentions to err and be redeemed.

In a comment posted on her web site, Delinsky notes that only one of her characters was so dark as to be irredeemably evil, which had me wondering which bad guys would be Phoenix-ed from skillfully developed character trash.

In spite of the angst-ridden ride, I wanted to continue; the characters had me hooked; how would they handle the bad raps and smudged reps and grow through them.

Lily had been tossed into a stagnant pond without a pad! The polluted fringes in the political and religious establishments leaped out to protect themselves, abandoning Lily thoughtlessly, heartlessly, and unequivocally. Hoping Lily would eventually submerge smelling like a "rose," I trudged through the dramatically decorated swamp of character assassination by the media.

If LAKE NEWS had been tagged a work of "Good Literature," Pulitzer Prize stuff (which like many people, I can't force myself to pick up), I would have dropped the book into the coal stove, because I'd guess that everyone would come out smelling like the swamp they'd be stuck in, having grown "wise" and deciding to accept the stench as "That's all there is," or "That's REALITY."

Give me a break! (And a chimney sweep.)

Thankfully, Delinsky provided refreshing breaks throughout LAKE NEWS. (Though, I doubt she gives out bonus brooms instead of T-shirts.)

Some novels are solid "live ins." Others are just good entertainment. LAKE NEWS is intense "live in" entertainment. That's part of the reason I craved returning to the town and residents. Of course any plot like LAKE NEWS, relating to issues of writers will call to me, as long as the characters have any life in them at all.

What is LAKE HENRY? The idealized small town atmosphere captured me (and obviously a lot of others), even though I also enjoy big city and exotic settings.

LAKE HENRY's an esthetically appealing, small town to nestle into, with warm, vulnerable characters to live with. Detailed dynamics of personal relationships evolve there with an engrossing ease.

Especially the conversations and unspoken exchanges between John and his father are realistic, telling, rich, and intriguing. Those passages expose Delinsky's instinctive awareness of psychological machinations which she weaves warmly beyond cold conclusions of textbooks. She seems to have lived viscerally, at a level where the phony fear to tread.

LAKE HENRY has it all, including short sensual statements which make the novel's world breathe. As an example among hundreds:

"The sun fell steadily toward the western hills, silhouetting the evergreens that undulated along their crests, spilling shadow down the hillside, and still she sat."

The word choices of "steadily, silhouetting, undulated, spilling shadow" are luscious paint brush slides of oiled color over perfectly cracked canvas. Delinsky's an artist in so many ways.

I loved the way Delinsky began painting the town around Lily's drama. Willy Jake's warning to a reporter from Rhode Island was an inducement to leap into cheerleader mode:

"Signs say no huntin', no fishin', I add no badgerin."

Of similar cheering effect was Charlie's announcement to a cluster of people that DATELINE NBC was in town. No one would have an easy time slithering around behind the scenes in LAKE HENRY, what with the enormous spotlights everyone was slinging around, shining synthetic sunlight on any hint of potential slime getting a foothold on the slippery shores surrounding the lake.

LAKE NEWS characters spew jewels of sentences packed with meaning, or highlighting right ways to balance ambitious goals with the command to "Stop and smell the roses.":

"... fall was definitely in the air. It was worth lingering over, and he would do that, but not just now."

Most readers past 30 know what it took for John to grow to easily make that choice (at the opening of the novel) with just that awareness, a honed instinct sensing what to do now and what to do later. The reader knows he'll deal with that particular "later" at just the right moment.

LAKE NEWS is an emotionally rich, satisfying story, hospitably providing calm spaces of healing within every enthralling storm. The good guys are engaging, absolutely lovable, and real; the bad guys are almost too real, yet their edges soften somewhat as the reader learns their history, seeing how the dark can etch away and overwhelm natural needs to love.

This novel delivers a full-bodied complexity of families, friends, and communities as they labyrinth toward the simplicity of easy intimacy, rooting itself as wounding secrets are released.

In LAKE NEWS journalism was perfectly and simply portrayed at its worst and best. I applauded that accomplishment, as I enjoyed the escape of the reading ride. The medium of newspapers and magazines holds a key to something magical; it's idealized it as a special venue for viewing the world; sometimes it accomplishes the promise of elevation of the art of life.

This book was as refreshing a read as an unexpected brush of coolness into the white heat of an apex summer day, as solstice crests and edges slowly toward fall.

Linda G. Shelnutt

The heart of this story is about the power of media influence in our society. Journalism is heavily influenced by many factors. LAKE NEWS brilliantly presents a story of the misuse and positive influence of journalism. The believability of the story, the characters, and the setting all add to how enjoyable this book is. Being a NH native I can attest to the truth of attitudes and language presented in the story. I love Ms. Delinsky's smooth writing style; it's effortless to read. A super summer reading choice.

It struck me as mature, very mature. The protagonists weren't falling in love on the first encounter and into bed by the third, the scandals weren't half-hearted, and the promises of hope and reconciliation weren't fulfilled in a hurried way.

The nature scenes in no way compared to those of my favourite book, "Swamp Angel," by Ethel Wilson, which truly made me feel like I was fly fishing in Vancouver, British Columbia, and I didn't really get into the loons, but... that aside, what really makes the novel are the relationships that develop. Being a city girl myself, I was provided with a strong look into what a sense of community was, as well what family meant.

No big love scenes, no passionate dramas to finish the novel off with a flourish, but all throughout, there is the mature satisfaction of a story well-told.