Massachusetts Books

A Genius for Place, the latest work by noted landscape historian and preservationist Robin Karson, offers an illuminating look at a number of noteworthy American landscapes of the Country Place Era, including the du Pont estate at Winterthur and Naumkeag in Stockbridge, and weaves together the historical, cultural, esthetic, and personal influences on landscape designers such as Warren Manning, Beatrix Farrand, and Fletcher Steele. Speaking of illuminating, the lavishly illustrated volume features stunning photographs by gifted landscape photographer Carol Betsch. A Genius for Place is an impeccably researched, beautifully written book, accessible to both scholars in the field and the garden variety reader alike.

The process of selling your home can be a very emotional and stressful one, while the process of choosing the RIGHT realtor can also be confusing.

This book helps avoid costly mistakes made by many homeowners, who attempt to sell their most valuable assest on their own, or who don't have enough information on how to choose the best realtor for them. This book gets the point across of how the NET return is the most important number to the seller(finally!), highlighting a common mistake many homesellers make by focusing only on the commission charged.

Written by two very experienced agents, this book outlines the important tips for gettting the MOST money for your property in any market, and how to avoid common pitfalls made by inexperienced homeowners and/or agents.

Using real-life case studies, this book demonstrates how empowering yourself with information can make all the difference to your bottom line, as well as the level of stress involved in the selling of your home. I would highly recommend to anyone thinking about selling that you read this book first!

I read this book once in the 9th Grade and again when I was a Junior and It just gets better every time I read. I was almost a little sad that it isn't one of the top sellers under the medical catagory. The reason I liked this book so much is because A. It is a real story, so all these heart breaking and emotional stories are true B. It was told by the doctor himself, because only he can describe the trials and tribulations of aspiring to be a doctor. Anyone that wants to be or who has ever thought being a doctor should read this book.

Jean McMahon Humez' "Gifts Of Power" collects the writings of Mother Rebecca Cox Jackson, whose career as preacher and Shaker leader spanned from 1830 until her death in 1871.

Though the book contains a lot of detail some might find superfluous, the whole story Rebecca Jackson gives of her life and the spiritual experiences that shaped it is most interesting to read. One sees that at the beginning of her career Rebecca, a black women from Philadelphia, was a part of the Methodist Episcopal Church in her youth and was involved in "Holiness" prayer meetngs during the 1820s.

This part of her career is particularly interesting for the way in which we see that Rebecca, as a result of the Holiness movement's highly participatory nature, was able to write down detailed visions of the coming of Heaven and the Day Of Judgement. These are blended in a facinating way with imagery taken from a woman's everyday life in Jackson's time. Many of her early visions realted closely to Jesus's miracles, but there was also many dreams of such mundane things as quilts, cakes, rain, and deaths of her relatives. Rebecca's writing style was immediate, dramatic, and intensely touching.

Later, she decribed the strains preaching was having on her married life as she moved into intense prayer as Methodists criticised her ministry as a black woman preaching a false doctrine. In response, we see that Jackson focused clearly and sincerely on trying to live the life of Jesus, especially after visiting the Shakers in 1836.

The next part of "Gifts Of Power" deals with the way in which Rebecca, though troubled, found the Shakers. This part of the book is mystical in focus, but is really close to the heart and passionate about how Rebecca's conversion to Shakerism was really based on spiritual visions and dreams stemming from her experience with other Sisters at Watervliet. Her actual entry is likened, indeed, to the Resurrection of Jesus in fiery, yet simple language, and McMahon-Humex does a wonderful job of explaining exactly what Rebecca Jackson was doing in these densely narrated pages.

As a Shaker, Rebecca Jackson did not cede that mystical, fiery character of her early writings, but her later writings have an epic tone lacking in previous letters. She saw during her residence at Watervliet a desite to do missionary work among blacks, which is seen in visions of herself travelling long distances or of the arrival of Native American seeking help. Later still, Jackson appeared to be able to see the whole of the globe, and she described her desperation in explicit and dramatic tones, notable during her brother's last illness.

In Philadelphia, Jackson's drams became focused on early events in her life, and she would dream of being united with her brother as she went on a long pilgrimate to develop a Shaker community for blacks. Her work during her second residence at Watervliet and with the Philadelphia Shakers was indeed seen by her as "going to Zion", in terms that make one clearly understand what she saw of herself like few other texts of this type. She saw herself as revealing the Kngdom of Heaven in her labours with the people of Philadelphia, and she never was afraid to conceal her feelings through her life.

Jean McMahon-Humez adds fitting notes that make unraveling and interpreting the texts very easy. I do not find that these notes detract in any way from the fiery, yet touching quality of Rebecca's texts - and the glossaries make "Gifts Of Power" a true historical documents. "Gifts Of Power" is a must-read for those interested in women's biographies.

If you're interested in either boats or photography, GLASS PLATES & WOODEN BOATS: THE YACHTING PHOTOGRAPHY OF WILLARD B. JACKSON AT MARBLEHEAD, 1898-1937 is for you. It provides both a history of yachting and a history of the yachting photography of Jackson, with full-page black and white photos packed with classic sailing vessels gathered from an archive of over a thousand glass plates images. There's more than the 75 images Murphy has gathered, too: Murphy adds commentary noting nautical facts and history to round out the photos,

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Book is a good photocopy of the original and an interesting challenge to read it as it was written - uncorrected. I saw strains of Manifest Destiny taking shape as early as 1620.

This booklet is an outline introducing the Bible to young people from a New Church (Swedenborgian) perspective.

Contents

1. Bible Origins
2. The Growth of the Book
3. Translations
4. A Literal and a Spiritual Understanding of the Word of God
5. "The Law"
6. "The Prophets"
7. The Psalms
8. New Testament Literature
9. Daily Use

Was amazed to find a book on such an osbcure subject as missionaries from Holden, MA. My interest is personal. My ancestors were missionaries to Hawaii from Holden. I expected some mighty "dry" reading given the topic, however, Ms. Neale's style of writing is anything but dry. She tells the story almost as if she were a participant. I felt as if I were seeing this great adventure thru her eyes. It was quick and easy reading. Even family members not interested in genealogy found the book good reading as a history of the times....a must for anyone concerned with Massachusetts/Hawaii/Missionary history.

This is one of several translations of an ancient (date disputed) compilation of summaries of stories of the gods and heroes of Greece (but not Rome), based, where it can be checked, on excellent sources. If the name of the author is correct, he cannot be the "Apollodorus the Grammarian" to whom the work used to be attributed, but given the lack of fraudulent internal claims, the bare name seems to me better than "Pseudo-Apollodorus". Given the huge amount of classical literature that has been lost, and the primary sources to which this compiler seems to have had access (whoever and whenever he was), it is even more regrettable that a portion of "The Library" survives only in an abridged form. (Fortunately, part of the re-summarized material is Homeric; unfortunately, some of it is not.)

This translation features extensive commentary giving detailed comparisons to other classical versions of the divine and heroic stories, combined with surveys of modern literary uses of the stories. The latter is now dated, of course, and Sir James Frazer (of "The Golden Bough") gave even more information from ancient sources in his commentary (with translation facing a Greek text) of 1921 (two volumes in the Loeb Classical Library). But Michael Simpson is clear, and, on the whole, well organized. Some readers seem to have found the language too American for their taste. It should be remembered that the author, whoever he was, used a kind of "international literary Greek," which probably seemed fairly up-to-date to his well-educated readers. Whether academic American English is a good substitute is certainly arguable.

The index is not nearly as comprehensive as that in Keith Aldrich's rival version of 1975 (now out of print), but it usually helpful, and Aldrich does not discuss other ancient versions in any detail, or refer to modern literary versions. A recent translation by Robin Hard also has a better index (several, in fact), and is fairly good on ancient variants, but likewise avoids treatment of modern versions of the old stories. Simpson's commentary appears as endnotes to sections of the main text, which makes for frequent interruptions, but I have used this edition for a quarter century with considerable enjoyment, and frequent enlightenment about other ancient works.

Simpson's translation lacks the textual notes and apparatus of Robin Hard's 1997 translation, and Hard's introduction and commentary show both a later stage of classical studies and a more sophisticated view of the structure of "The Library". The two translations meet different needs, and it is good to have both available. If Aldrich was reprinted to join Frazer's more expensive translation (with Greek text), one might have to make a hard decision about how many versions can be afforded, and how much shelf space they deserve. As it is, the serious student and the lover of ancient literature may want to have both Simpson and Hard at hand, or in a convenient library; Frazer's edition can be consulted on-line at the Perseus site (but is rather difficult to read as presented there).

The Leonard Baskin illustrations are, in my opinion, an attractive feature; Aldrich's translation was also illustrated. However, a good selection of ancient art portraying (or possibly portraying) some of the stories or characters would also be welcome. But an edition "Illustrated from Ancient Monuments" would introduce another set of problems; for which, see Timothy Gantz, "Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources."

George Caner, one of the most forceful and articulate trial lawyers practicing in Boston over the past forty years, has written a wonderful account of some of the most challenging (and notorious) cases he has handled over that time period. I rank this book right up there with Louis Nizer's classic, My Life In Court, and believe that it is essential reading not only for any trial attorney seeking to improve her/his skills, but also for any person who delights in the workings and insights of an extraodinary mind.