Connecticut Books

Just finished reading this book. Great! The idea of buying the "wrong house" and what it can signify is a really good story!

The author really shows some sides of our humanness that can't always be expressed. She shows an example of wanting something from our partner which we are not even sure of. Her character then gets the recognition that she needs from an unlikely source.

There are some really good characters in this book, both female and male.

It's a good read!

This map is awesome! Super easy to read, and points out everything. Has an enlarged section of downtown that is amazingly accurate. Absolutely loved using this map on my vacation.

What I love about this book is that you don't need to read it from front to back. Just flip it open and start reading. A collection of over 50 different alarms telling us to wake up and look what's happened to our country. Lets get out of bed and take it back!

This book was a great read! I started reading and couldn't stop until it was finished. Mark Fuhrman is a top notch author, he really constructed an excellent book here.

Be careful not to do too much research about the Moxley case before reading this book, it may ruin the ending for you.

This is an okay book. Furman repeats alot of the info over and over. I didn't even finish the last few pages as they started out the same as everything we already read.

The problem with this book is that Heir Furhman takes the credit for solving the crime. This couldn't be further from the truth.

If you want to read the most factual account of this murder, read "Conviction" by Len Levitt.

However, I believe that if Mr. Skakel can't recall if he committed the murder, how can anyone else be so sure.

Let's face it, Mark Fuhrman is not somebody that I consider reliable. Dominick Dunne, another old man bent on revenge over his daughter's murder, goes after the Kennedy family. Okay, I'm not saying that Michael Skakel did it or not because he was convicted of the crime but the story's not over until the case was done in the court of law. I believe the book came well before the guilty verdict which was too soon and judgmental. Yes, the Kennedys have a lot of power and money but Greenwich is still a place where people drive expensive cars, live in mansions, and are completely out of touch with reality. I don't believe Fuhrman anymore than I believe Dunne because they're totally ready to convict based on little evidence, hearsay, and gossip.

My book is called Murder In Greenwich and it is about a murder of a 15 year old girl named Martha Moxley.The book is written by Mark Fuhrman.The case was never solved but i think its an excellent book because it gave alot of details.It also show pictures of where the murder occurred and also of Martha Moxley.The author is also an excellent writer.I recommend this book if u like Mark Fuhrman books or mystery books!I would not recommend this book to people that dont like murders or blood. ~~~~BY TORI SORIANO 16 YEARS OLD LINCOLN CITY OR!!!~~~

I picked up REVOLUTIONARY ROAD because I found it in a bookstore for $4 and remembered seeing that this was being made into a movie starring Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet (and Kathy Bates is also in it... Titanic lovers rejoice!) and directed by Sam Mendes of American Beauty fame. Hmm.. a movie about suburban life starring two of the best actors currently working and directed by the man who directed the quintessential suburban movie? I had to check the story out, especially after seeing the rave reviews on Amazon.

The rave reviews are all deserved. This book is truly spectacular. I expect the only reason this book is not enormously popular today is that it takes such a devastating look at a time most Americans prefer to look at with nostalgia. The basic story is that of one couple, Frank and April Wheeler, who as a young couple looked very promising but after they had children before they were ready to, they slipped into this sort of suburban limbo. They are beginning to realize their lives are slipping into the boring suburban life of their neighbors that they constantly complain about. The story is about them, each now about 30 years old, trying to revitalize their boring lives of which they hate. Richard Ford puts it best in the introduction when he says that author Richard Yates "brought us - through art - near enough to life's palpable details that we can recognize our own lives, yet preserved for us a distance from which we can exercise judgment and be relieved that the Wheelers aren't us". Indeed, the Wheelers aren't simply your average suburban couple. They are in fact unique people in unique situations. While parts of their rocky relationship will seem familiar and hit home with many who read it, there is always that feeling that we are not in fact the Wheelers. This keeps this very grim novel from being too depressing.

Yates really does make all of his characters very intriguing, and their relationships with each other are very carefully constructed. His dialogue is very real, but it isn't the dialogue that really shines in this book, but rather Yates' extraordinary ability in articulating the thoughts of each one of these characters. This is what makes this book very hard to put down and ultimately makes it a true masterpiece. This may make it hard for the movie to truly capture Yates' brilliance, but I'm still crossing my fingers. If you are also someone who thought the movie sounded interesting and have a chance to read the book, I highly recommend you do so.

This is an awesome book. If you're a fan of AMC's Mad Men - Season One and the sordid underbelly beneath that era's bright-eyed exterior, then you're in for a treat. I really, really liked this and it prompted me to pursue his other books as well.

Even though it was written about 40 years ago, I suppose the subjects are always up to date. Richard Yates describes human faults, such as
prejudice, conventions, male chauvenism, dishonesty, insipidity etc.

Notwithstanding, he has a gift of telling a story, describing situations and composing reliable monologues. Revolutionary Road is a book which one reads with suspense, and keeps thinking about it after he finishes it.
Highly recommended!

'Revolutionary Road' is a fascinating yet rather depressing look at suburban American life in the 1950s. A young couple, a precursor to yuppies, with a pair of kids have the car, the home, good looks - the works. However in their eyes everything seems distorted, confused. They discover that although they might be living the American dream it wasn't THEIR dream. And the couple also find it hard to remember what they ever saw in each other. To keep up appearances and perhaps hold up their marriage they come up with lofty ideas and endeavors which fail from the get go. Unsurprisingly, unlike in Grimm's fairy tales they don't live happily ever after.

'Revolutionary Road' works beautifully on many levels. The characterizations are drawn flawlessly. The prose captures the suffocating existence of the main characters as well as the generally dysfunctional supporting characters. The overall tone is subdued and understated.


Bottom line: the false promises of the American dream surface prominently in this deceptively clever novel. Strongly recommended.

Richard Yates is a writer's writer. Every paragraph, every sentence, every punctuation mark seems relentlessly perfect. His unusual, unnerving realism, which has captivated Andres Dubus, Richard Ford, and so many others, lacks the fireworks of a DeLillo or the intricacies of a Pynchon, but offers the accessibility and the density of an American Tolstoy.

Revolutionary Road is a classic account of America's historic infatuation with joining in, but distancing from, the middle class. Yates give us a perfect book that proffers chills as well as thrills to any reader who has the fortitude to give its middle class characters a fair hearing.

No American writer has made occasionally unsympathetic, always unexceptional characters more interesting or more intelligible.

Not merely scary good, but truly scary great.

My family is from Sarasota, FL, where the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus had their winter quarters for many years. My great-grandmother on my mother's side used to watch some of the circus kids while their parents trained, and my mom had heard stories about this fire, and then when I was younger, I had heard the same stories. We had known Merle Evans, and he told us about that day.

I had not known about this book until reading about it in a thread on LT, so I thought I would give it a try and learn a little bit more about that awful day. O'Nan presents what is clearly a well-researched, if not always well-written, history about that day, and the events that (may or may not have) led up to it, and the circumstances that followed. After O'Nan introduces each person, he continues to write about these people as if the reader is as familiar them as he is due to his researching them. If you can let go of trying to keep track of who is who (there is a huge number of people involved) and simply read the book and accept the facts as they are presented, you will have a better chance of getting something out of this book. I kept trying to keep straight in my head who was who, but after awhile I simply gave up on this and just read.

Due to the nature of the tragedy, I don't know that it's possible for O'Nan to write this without some sense of sensationalizing the facts, but everything that he writes clearly gets across the horror of the day. The accompanying photographs help you visualize exactly what happened during the fire. The book itself suffers from some writing errors throughout, and these probably could have been fixed with a stronger editing, but they are not overly distracting.

O'Nan clearly researched his facts, and while he tries to present some possible explanations to the cause of the fire and circumstances surrounding it, he doesn't try to present these as fact. He relies on the established facts that have been proven, and draws on these to present the story as best he can. This book won't be for everyone. It was a horrible day, and O'Nan doesn't try to sugar-coat the events or what happened to the victims of the fire. For those that are interested in learning more about the fire, however, this will prove to be an interesting read.

Having grown up in this area, I was very much aware of the fire and it's consequences. But ... nobody ever really wanted to talk about it. This is a very good account. While reading, though, I grew frustrated because I forgot who was who, where in the tent they were, seemed too much space in chapters before they were mentioned again. But then again, that it reflective of what it was like under that big top. Chaos. Where was everyone in your family or party?

Also good documentation of the investigation. Sometimes a little bit too detailed, but then again, that's what investigations are.

O'Nan did well with this book. Too bad more people in that area refuse to read it. Guess time doesn't always heal pain.

I have owned this book for several years and have read and reread it several times. Before picking it up, I had never heard of the fire in Hartford. After reading it, I wanted to find out even more. The best books about historical tragedies and disasters tell not only the story of a single event but convey the mood and atmosphere of the times in which they occurred. Mr. O'Nan does that very well here I think. This is not just a book about a fire but a snapshot of a specific time in American history. I appreciated that he did not shy away from depicting many of the more gruesome details of the fire and its aftermath in detail. To airbrush the details for readers would have shown an utter lack of respect for the victims of the fire as well as the survivors. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys learning more about American history by studying influential events. The Hartford fire, like the Triangle fire and the Iroquois fire, were great tragedies which created ripples across the entire American landscape. They lead to changes in our values, our workplaces, and our amusements. They are worth remembering, not only to honor their victims but as a part of understanding our American story.

Having read Stewart O'Nan's novel A Prayer for the Dying and loving it, I decided I would give O'Nan the opportunity to tell a true story of life and death.

As a word of warning for those who come after me, if you are expecting a story centered around 5-10 "main characters," you will be disappointed. This is a story about the Hartford Circus Fire of 1944 and in telling that story, O'Nan attempts to tell the story of EVERYONE who was connected to it. It requires the reader to accept a large "cast of characters" who is willing to follow several threads of the "story" at one time. O'Nan's frenetic, peripatetic telling of the story gives the reader a sense of what it may have been like under the Big Top when it caught on fire.

In telling the story of the Hartford Circus Fire, O'Nan also tells the story of "Little Miss 1565." "Little Miss 1565" was perhaps the most well-known victim of the circus fire. She was named after the number assigned to her body at the city's makeshift morgue. The debate over her identify rages on to this day. O'Nan does refute the contention of Rick Davey and Don Massey's contention that Little Miss 1565 was, in fact Elenaor Cook. For more on Rick Davey and Don Massey, you can check out A Matter of Degree: The Hartford Circus Fire & The Mystery of Little Miss 1565.

Whether Elenaor Cook is properly or improperly identified as "Little Miss 1565" does not change the fact that she died in the Hartford Circus Fire. In telling the story of "Little Miss 1565" O'Nan is really telling the story of those who survived the Circus Fire and those who died.

Dick Hill's narration is utterly breathtaking. He handles O'Nan's frenetic narrative with both style and grace. The only quirk in this production occurs in the one instance in O'Nan's narrative is where a dialog is recounted. Rather than using voice inflection to differentiate the speakers, a production effect is used in which the lines of the opposite speaker are slightly muffled as if Dick Hill is delivering the lines with his hand slightly covering the microphone. Otherwise, Hill's narration is flawless.

Good books on historical events usually tell of events before, during and after the occurence. Some much more so than others. What is striking here is how O'nan manages to refer to everything related to Hartford's fire over a fifty year period! Everything is included. We are told of circus fires and accidents back in to the 19th century, circus mishaps in the years after the fire, other disasters of interest, and of the personal lives and fates of those involved. I have extensive knowledge of historic catastrophes, and can attest that nothing of any interest was left out. The author has said the book was a lot of work to write, and this is clear given its detail. There is no other book quite like it.

But the book's strength is also its weakness. So much is included that the writing suffers some. We are constantly introduced to new characters and sub-stories, interrupting the flow, and creating a kind of 'literary turbulence' that is disturbing at times. But don't let this stop you from buying, and reading, this tale of a circus tragedy.

I was honored to hear the voices of these women. The book was filled with turmoil, pain, hopelessness, redemption, and everything in between. The women should be commended for their courage to tell their stories so candidly to the public. Much thanks to Wally Lamb for assisting in the making of this book.

Can't put it down since it arrived. already on the waiting list for the follow- up. Great stories written without excuses , just explanations about how and why they got to this point . If you've never felt any sympathy about someone being incarcerated , this might make you feel differently.

GREAT. I thought Couldn't Keep It To Myself was the best book I have ever read. The second greatest is Correctional Institution.... I am sure that I have read nearly 10,000 books in my life but this is best author and I lend my book out and then call people to see where they are and I keep reminding them to not lend it to anyone else without my permission. So good that I bought a second copy just to make sure that if the first one gets lost, that I will always have a copy.

I purchased this book on a whim and after reading the reviews of others, and after reading it I would recommend the book as well.

This is a compilation of a number of different stories written by women at the York Correctional Institution (and one teacher). What I found most interesting was what each woman chose to write about. Some wrote about their childhood or other history, others wrote about their time in prison. Those that wrote about their childhood gave us a glimpse into what "went wrong" that led to their crimes. Others that wrote about prison, opened our eyes to what these women must endure now. In some cases, prison was a safer place for them.

The only thing that I thought lacked from the book was the crimes and what made the women commit them. Lamb explains why these aren't included in the book, but still it left me wondering. For the women that killed their husbands, what one thing set them off the edge?

I was completely captivated by this book. As you read, you feel so many emotions and become absorbed by each inmate's story and experiences. Most of all, I loved the books humanistic perspective. The stories allow you to see these women for more than just crimes they committed. They are woman, mothers, and sisters who were shaped by abusive childhoods/relationships, drug/alcohol addiction, poverty, racism, self esteem issues, pain, etc. I loved the photographs that were in the book of each inmate. Most were baby pictures, so you get to see them in their innocence, before society and societal pressures took hold of their lives. I felt a deep connection to this book and highly recommend it to others.

This book is called Hannah's Winter of Hope, also by Jean wan Leeuwen, the third book of the series. It is the winter of 1780 in Fairfield, CT. While she is worrying emotionally about Ben, she is also worried that the British will return to steal their cow and chickens. The year before, the British had burned her house down. Her life is difficult because it is cramped in her father's clock-making shed where they are now living.

Hannah is eleven and not that much different than before, except that she is smarter and has more patience than in the first book. She has more patience and is smarter because when her brother got hurt, she looked at her Grand-ma's book (her Grand-ma was a healer) and patiently wrapped Jonathan's burned hand with the poultice made out of beech leaves. She is smart because she read Granny Hannah's book and helped Jonathan feel better.

The British have captured Hannah's big brother Ben and are holding him on a prison ship. The conditions are very bad. The wood of the prison ship is rotting, and Ben and the other people on the prison ship are treated very badly. They get bran cakes made to feed horses, they sometimes get fed bits of pork, they mostly get fed moldy biscuits, and they sometimes get no food at all for DAYS!! Ben really is brave to go through all that.

The theme of this book is Be hopeful and brave. I would recommend this book for eight and up, because it is easy to read. The text is medium size and the nine chapters are sort of short and easy. This book gave a good description of what life was like back then though it wasn't action packed.

Ben got captured and got put in a prison ship. Hannah was sad
because her bother got captured. The British burned down Hannah's
house. T hey have to live in the dad's shop. My favorite part
was when Ben got to come home.

the name of the book is called Hannah's Winter of Hope.
This is a great story, it's about a girl named Hannah that had her brother caught and her house was burned down. She has a mother, 2 sisters, 2 brothers, and a friend. The cool part about it is that they are in the Revolutionioary War.
,But you know what Ben got captuerd said the store keeper.this is a good book you should read it.

you should read this wounderful book it takes place in the revaloshary war Hannah's house is burnt doun by the Brith they have to sleep in there father's clock shop. They start bilding the house. they found out Ben is captured will Ben excape read and find out!

In Hannah's Winter of Hope I got scared when Ben got captured by the British Red Coats. But Hannah kept up her courage that Ben would come back some day and she talked to her dog Captian about it. And just when they didn't expect it one of Ben's friend's came with some news but to find out what kind of news it was read this GREAT book.

I enjoy reading memoirs- idk why, I just do. So, at the first chance I read Girls of Tender Age. The first half of the book was a memoir of Tirone-Smith's childhood in a silent house- her older brother, Tyler,was autistic and could not stand noise of any kind- laughing, crying, and dog barking, to name a few. If Tyler heard such noises, he would knaw at his arm. We also are told of Tirone-Smith's family history, which is quite interesting, as well as a background of a killer. The second half consists of Tirone-Smith's attempt to recall, make sense of, and write about a murder that occured when Tirone-Smith was 10. Her classmate, Irene, was strangled to death with her own scarf. Despite what the bookcover says, Irene is not Tirone-Smith's neighbor or even friend. She was only a quiet classmate, and the book falls apart after her murder. I was disapointed, because up to that point I had been throughly enjoying it. It became quite uncomprehensible.

just finished this book. i liked it very much. it was touching, funny, sad, tragic and a lot more. Well written. would recommend it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Even though it was a very sad but true story it was choreographed perfectly. I couldn't put it down. Having grown up in Hartford, Ct. I was very familiar with the setting of the book. It enabled me to really place myself in their footsteps and know the surroundings, without trying to create a picture them in my mind.

I had a hard time putting this book down. I was sorry when the book ended. Mary-Ann developed all the people in her book very well that you felt by reading it they were part of your own family..and if not family member someone that that you knew a lot about. I thought this book was very good on many levels. Thank you for writing such a powerful memoir. Barb :)

No one locked their doors. Few mothers drove cars. Kids walked to school, church, and the neighborhood grocery, and played under street lights at dusk. On the surface, Mary-Ann Tirone Smith's 1950's childhood was idyllic. But scratch that surface, and it quickly becomes apparent that nothing could be further from the truth. First, there was her remote mother, always on the verge of the then fashionable nervous breakdown. Then, her older brother, a manipulative, tyrannical child who never received an education or treatment because no one knew quite what was wrong with him. Mary Ann's first ten years were spent doing normal childhood activities but walking on eggshells and suppressing her own needs at home. Her description of American culture in that post war era are priceless, and she does it with humor, touches of sarcasm, and dead-on accuracy.

Then, all at once. on the day of the 5th grade field trip to the electric company, a classmate of Mary-Ann is brutally murdered by a pedophile. True to the times, no one discusses the tragedy, and the kids are left to wonder about every facet of that terrifying crime. And to cope with its psychological consequences entirely on their own.

Ms Tirone Smith wrote this memoir as a memorial to her friend, having summoned the courage to face the grief and the issues she had buried for decades. She traces the course of the apprehension, trial, and punishment of the killer in clinical detail. And she has succeeded nobly, writing with grace and distinction. Readers of Girls of Tender Age will long remember theheartbreaking story of little Irene with the "Loretta Young eyes."

A gripping well written book. Hands down the most scary book I have ever read. It will have you looking over your shoulder.

I didnt pay but $16.95 for this book new I cannot believe the rip off charges for it. It is an excellent book and yes it is a true story. You can contact Ed & Lorraine Warren about it or visit there web site. This book should be a movie!!!

For some reason, when reading this book, you get pulled in so much that time passes by.
All I just could say, read it!!!

In this book, derived from the experiences of Ed and Lorraine Warren (who are well respected, self-proclaimed Demonologists), with regard to the Snedeker family, the reader is brought into the realm of the unknown and seemingly impossible, world of demonic possession. Through this compelling saga, one is tranported into the horrific lore of the Snedeker's reality. A family of seven persecuted maliciously by a group of apparitions that catapult the family into an incubus of acopocolyptic proportions. The demons manage to invade the very core of the Snedeker's family, trying desperately to destroy their familial bonds. The devilements of these omnipotent, devilish demons increases more and more as they gain control over the Snedeker family. Not one member of the family is left untouched by these oppressive entities. This book leaves the reader in awe of the potential danger of the unknown realm of spiritualism and demonic possession. Whether you "believe" or not, it is a truly compelling story worth putting some effort into reading.

I found a copy of this book a couple of years ago after watching the documentary version of it, "A Haunting In Connecticut" on the Discovery Channel. The TV show was one of the scariest I'd seen, and the book tracks the film pretty closely.

The premise of the book is that the Snedeker family needs to move closer to where the oldest son, Stephen, is being treated for cancer. The family thinks they have found the answer to their prayers when they find a large home that has just been remodeled that is being leased for a very reasonable price. However, they soon learn the reason for the bargain. The house is a former funeral home. However, with the expense of the son's cancer treatment weighing heavily on the family budget, the Snedekers are unable to afford breaking their lease and moving to yet another house. According to the book, demons invade their domicile - or they invade the demon's domicile, depending on how you look at it - until the supernatural detectives, the Warrens, are called in and with the help of an exorcism, restore peace to the household.

Just as much as fright, though, I felt a great deal of anger at the Snedekers as parents. For one thing, Mr. Snedeker seems to believe that the size of his electricity bill is more important than the mental health of a child recovering from cancer since he removes all of the light bulbs from the basement bedroom so that Stephen can no longer sleep with the lights on. Then he forces the boy to continue sleeping in this bedroom in spite of his tales of horror of being tormented by apparitions coming from the former embalming room adjacent to his basement bedroom. He does this in spite of the fact that he and his wife have both personally been the victims of attacks and witnesses of various manifestations of the house's spirits. Afterwards, in despair, the boy just gives in to the demons' collective will, manifesting in more and more bizarre behavior until he finally attacks a visiting cousin. How Mrs. Snedeker could have invited this young niece into her home in the first place just because she wanted the companionship and help around the house, having witnessed firsthand the mayhem that the house's demons can cause, as well as her son's deteriorating mental state, is a wonder to me.

I have read an interview with the author, and he paints both the Warrens and the Snedekers in a very unflattering light in that interview. He basically says that he does not really believe the Snedekers' stories, since even the Warrens themselves told the author that they think that all of their clients are crazy including the Snedekers. Plus, apparently there was considerable drug and alcohol abuse going on in the Snedeker household and the family members would never tell the same story twice. The author only went through with writing the book because he was already legally obligated to do so. However, even if the account is total fiction, it is well told and frightening fiction and I highly recommend it if you can find a copy. If not, the next time the documentary comes on TV, you should watch it. Also, there have been rumors this story is going to be made into a feature film to be released some time in 2006, but I haven't been able to find any other details on this alleged movie.