Connecticut Books

A good buy for those with affection for Yale, book publishing, and/or libraries.

After a somewhat slow start, this volume picks up when its talented author is able to interview people with direct ties to the Yale University Press. Such interviews save this anniversary effort from being merely a dry listing of past editors and forgotten volumes.

Nicholas A. Basbanes wisely keeps this fond institutional history short while using the opportunity to bring readers up to speed on the current condition of university presses in general. While clearly supportive of their continued need for an educated society, he provokes thought on their future viability, especially given the introduction of e-books and other computer related means to scatter information.

Mary Higgins Clark is by far one of my favorite authors because of her easy going and suspenseful writing style. This book is no exception. There are two main female characters, one a women on parole from being incarcerated for killing her husband and the other is a journalist. MHC does a great job developing both characters and provides a quite entertaining story. The twist and turns are many and there is never a dull moment.

First of all, it's hard to figure out who the heroine is, since there's two of them - Molly and Fran. It seems like Molly is the heroine, then suddenly it's Fran. Then it's Molly again. Even though she's weak and insipid and can't wait to kill herself.

The start of the book is fake, with Molly getting out of jail and returning to a house that somehow was paid for and maintained miraculously for 5-1/2 years while she was in jail. Everything is spic and span, no problems whatsoever, house was never broken into, appliances are all working perfectly, there's hot water, furnace works great, etc. No 3-foot high grass in the yard either, or piles of junk mail or rodents nesting in the house. And of course somehow the utilities are all turned on. Some of this was done by the previous housekeeper, who just happens to be sitting around available with no job even after 5-1/2 years and who no doubt doesn't mind putting all the utilities in her own name, paying the deposits, etc.

The rest of the book was ok, with a kind of convoluted plot that was overall sort of interesting. I never could like Molly though, she was such a weak spineless wimp. Of course, even though she was completely boring and lifeless, everybody wanted to visit her every day and she usually had about 19 guests over. Like nobody else had a life of their own but just existed to worry about Molly.

Anyway, I liked Ms. Clark's earlier books a lot better.

Some years ago I was discussing reading habits with a friend. I told him that I enjoyed Stephen King, Mary Higgins Clark, P.D. James and a few others. He told me, "I don't read mainstream fiction".

I couldn't understand the man. We were a similar age. I did not consider him to be intellectually superior to me. Why then would he turn away from books read by millions of people?

The answer, I found, lay in the pages of books like "We'll Meet Again" by Mary Higgins Clark. Many times reading this book I was tempted to toss it across the room. The writing was just bad - simplistic, no character development, too many unimportant details such as catalogue descriptions of every bit of clothing worn by every character in the book.

As is my usual habit, I was reading another book while I read this one. That book - "Promise Not to Tell" by Jennifer McMahan - was an enjoyable read. McMahan's book is also a mystery but her book is well written. Her prose is rhythmic and sensory in its detail. If she describes what someone is wearing - "She wore a stained pink T-shirt with the same corduroy pants she'd had on for days." - it is done to help develop a character not just to pad pages.

I will finish "We'll Meet Again" because I find myself unable to leave a book unfinished once I start it. But in the future when somebody asks me what I read, like my friend, I will reply, "I don't read mainstream fiction".

MHC happens to be one of my favorite writer. I find most of her books fast paced, packed with interesting characters and of course a good mystery. Therefore I couldn't agree with one of the reviewer when he couldn't detect any mystery in this book. The story takes place 6 years after when Molly is out of jail on parole. She asks her friend Fran to investigate the murder of her husband. As Fran's investigation progresses, many hidden secrets began to surface. The ending was good too because I couldn't guess who the killer was till the final chapter. In my opinion this book deserves 5 stars.

I have always enjoyed Mary Higgins Clark's books, and this one is a real page-turner. But the audio version is a different story. It is hard to concentrate on the story as so many words are mispronounced. Greenwich, CT is not "Green-which," but "Grenn-ich." "Brusquely" is not "brooske-ly." And "been" rhymes with "bin," not "bean." The list goes on. (And then there is the reader for Sara Paretsky's Chicago-based mysteries who pronounces Chicago Cubs icon "Harry Caray" as "Harry Cuhh-RAY. Sheeshhhh......)

Twain spoils a promising premise with bloated preachifying, colorless prose, and an uneven, nigh-absurdist plot arc.

I have always received the best service when I have placed an order from you. Outstanding!!!!!

With each Twain novel I read, I am amazed at how he can be so funny while packing such astute insights about life. This novel is no exception as Twain strikes the balance between the two again here. The premise for this novel is perhaps Twain's most original idea (when did Tom Sawyer ever time travel?) and the story and characters satisify at every turn. While this isn't Twain's best work, I think that some of his funniest moments are in this novel. I recommend Tom Sawyer as the place to begin reading Twain, but if you are already a fan then this book is a must-read.

Although I usually enjoy Twain's writing style, and his sense of wry humor, there was something about A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court that was less than satisfying.

Some of the situations that the protagonist gets himself into are "classic" Twain. When the narrator is transported back to the time of Camelot, he begins to speculate about rituals, customs and general style of life. There is one part where the townspeople are convinced that he can perform great magical feats (he actually has Merlin as his rival), and when they corner him about performing one, he has to think of a way to please them or face punishment. He realizes that he can remember when an eclipse is going to come, and there is the way out of his situation. There are many adventures, where the narrator becomes critical of their ways, as a time warp will do. He is a fish out of water in many ways in this new world, not understanding, for instance, their need to have extravagant adventures: "Hardly a month went by without one of these tramps arriving; and generally loaded with some tale about some princess or other wanting help to get her out of some faraway castle where she was being held in captivity by a lawless scoundrel..." Because of his ability to perform great acts, he becomes known as the Boss, and helps to free some poor peasants from terrible punishments.

Maybe what made this less of a story was that it became too "preachy" and filled with social commentary. Although this is what usually makes Twain's novels, here it seemed to detract from the over all story. I was much more interested in hearing about the next adventure, but the narrator continued to rattle on and on about what he felt was wrong with this society. You get the feeling that Twain, not the narrator, is speaking after awhile. In the end, I guess it wasn't really the book I expected it to be. Still, it has its moments, and there are some parts that will have you chuckling to yourself as you read.

I consider Twain to be one of my favorite authors, but this is one of his lesser achievements.

I have always loved Mark Twain since reading Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer as a kid. At one point I had even memorized "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" as a seventh-grader in Catholic school. Twain has always held a sentimental place close to my heart, so when our book club chose to read and discuss A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, I was all for it.

I had heard vaguely of Twain's atheist mindset and his antagonism toward religion in general. But until I read Connecticut Yankee, I had no idea how much irrational and unfounded antipathy Twain had for the Catholic Church in particular. The pervasive theme in Connecticut Yankee is that our modern enlightened world is far superior to that which went before and that the "bad old days" of slavery and oppression were almost completely the fault of the Catholic Church. This anti-Catholic sentiment can hardly be denied as Twain himself urged reviewers not to mention it when the book first came out. "Please don't let on that there are any slurs at the Church," he told a sympathetic reviewer in the Boston Herald. "I want to catch the reader unawares, and modify his views if I can."

So Twain engaged in what we know today as the "last acceptable prejudice." By way of a simple comparison, let us imagine that, instead of Catholics, Twain had chosen Jews, Mormons, or Evangelicals as the villains of Connecticut Yankee. Would it still occupy the exalted position it does as an American classic? Or would it be relegated to those dusty shelves where reside other scurrilous works or racist manifestos to be studied as a historical curiosity of a meaner age?

For me, the most annoying aspect of Connecticut Yankee was Twain's almost total ignorance of history--or, perhaps more accurately, his decision to turn history on its head to better fit his polemical aims of blaming all the ills of society on the Catholic Church. This is a classic example of what happens, I suppose, when a journalist with a wide breadth of knowledge but no depth attempts to novelize about a historical subject. To address some of Twain's errors:

1.) Slavery in antiquity was in no way the fault of the Church. That pernicious institution long predated Christianity and was endemic to classical pagan societies. Indeed, the Church has a long history of making the lot of slaves more tolerable and being among the premier abolitionist institutions in the world.

2.) The idea that the Church suppresses intellectual freedom is a fable made up during the Protestant rebellion, though it is heartily embraced by Twain. Far more erudite scholars than I have examined this fallacy in detail, so rather than address this topic in detail here, I would point the reader to Tom Woods's excellent book, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization.

3.) Twain writes naively of democracy, putting in Hank Morgan's mouth the notion that "Where every man in a state has a vote, brutal laws are impossible." One wonders what Twain would have made of our modern America, where not only every man, but every woman has a vote, and yet the ghastly practice of abortion is not only legal, but enshrined as a human right. Democracy of itself does not ensure enlightened government. Without the temper of religion, democracy is as likely to produce brutal and repulsive laws as the worst monarchy. De Tocqueville understood this. It's a wonder that Twain did not.

There are many more, but this review is already more prolix that I had intended.

As always, Twain's writing sparkles in Connecticut Yankee and his lampooning of the style of Mallory is very funny. His characters, however, viewed 120 years later, are crudely drawn. Hank Morgan is an Alger-esque self-made man whose compendious knowledge of all subjects is just a little too convenient. The legendary Arthurians are all soulless pawns that Twain moves around to further his polemic. No insight is offered into their characters at all. They are all cruel and completely self-serving--as they must be in Twain's mind because they belong to the aristocracy. The story ends on a bizarrely depressing note for a tale that was predominantly a humorous satire for the first seven-eighths of its length.

In short, this is not a book I will be reading to my kids as a bedtime story. For me, it is to be considered a shameful period piece, written at a time when it was acceptable and even laudatory to be a Know-Nothing and make up slanders about the Catholic Church. That it is a cleverly-written slander is only another mark against it. Amusing slanders are pleasing to read but have the potential to do real harm both to the target and the reader.

I think that this book could have been a great cautionary tale for teenagers that are too into chat rooms, and meeting people online. Even though it's more accepted now, people still need to take precautions (watch: To Catch A Predator) Back in 1995, when chat rooms were first introduced, even I used to stay on for hours, "chatting" with whomever came across my path.

The unfortunate part is the fact that this book is not written well. It took a couple of chapters to get to the part where she first met "Mark." Even though she seemed very grown up for 13, I think that a lot of the details could be tied into one chapter. She went on and on about how the area in which she lived is very into appearances, and everyone had a lot of money. Okay, we get it. I think if you are going to write something in a memoir, it should have some connection to the story. I didn't really care that she was trying to figure out what her Christmas presents were or the very detailed information about her swimming on the team. I just didn't think that she was a very good writer.

Even still, this is a very important book to be out there. Some reviewers have said that if she just didn't go to meet him, she would be fine, and someone else said, "She wasn't even raped." I think that people need to be educated on that topic and what it is. She was touched where she didn't want to be, she was manipulated by a man more than three times her senior, and I do feel sorry for her, and everyone else that this has happened to.

Some have been critical of the author, but keep in mind, she was only a teenager, and it is told from her perspective. I enjoyed the story, and it is a quick read.

Plot: 14 year old chats with older guy on AOL...they meet in person.

Pros: Engaging, quick read, no big words, appeals to teens, adults, parents. The mother and stepfather come off as jerks, and I love reading about messed up folks

Cons: Ending wasn't enough of a "conclusion" for me, I would've liked to know more and was kind of let down.

Other Thoughts: Although the title did catch my eye, it is essentially a lie as no .com figures into the story and the book isn't about a specific web site. The book reads like it was written by a teenager. Granted it was written by a teenager but the writing made me very aware of this fact. While not badly written, the prose is unimpressive

Regardless of the content of this book, the publisher Penguin has deliberately 'hijacked' the katie.com domain from its legitimate UK owner - Mrs Katie Jones.

They have ruined her small online business by deliberately naming the book and an ensuing TV program "Katie.com" even though they knew the domain belonged to someone else. So a hard-pressed mother gets thousands of often unpleasant emails, while the 'heroine' of the book enjoys TV celebrity.

Please don't support this type of greedy commercial behaviour. Buy another book.

This book was poorly written and plain old boring. It's like just sitting there going through a teen girls email inbox. I could do that for free. None of the characters are likeable and you really can't feel sorry for the protagonist.

Jane Green is one of my favorite authors, but she spent too much of the book describing the characters lives before they switch places (the swap didn't occur for over 200 pages in the book which is more than halfway!). The lives of the women are interesting yet the time in which they swap needed more substance, more detail. I felt like as soon as they swapped, Green shared a few stories and then they switched back quickly.

Jane Green seems to keep on writing roughly the same book: a woman goes through an internal crisis of some kind, somehow manages to step outside her life so that she can gain perspective, gains some self-confidence, and everyone lives happily ever after. I don't mean this as a complaint. I bought the book because I was in need of a quick mindless read, and I got exactly what I was looking for.

In this book, we've got Vicky (30-something editor of a fashion magazine, never married, desperately wants to find Mr Right and settle down) and Amber (30-something mother of two, living the cliched lifestyle in the McMansion). After whinging about her life for too long, Vicky's magazine sets her off on a swapping lives adventure so that she can walk for a month in the shoes of a married woman who has everything that Vicky says she wants.

The story is just as predictable as you might expect. Amber loves working again and realises that her keeping-up-with-the-Joneses lifestyle isn't the one that she wants, Vicky realises that she has a fantastic life and deserves a great guy instead of a series of doomed-from-the-start relationships.

Was this a good book? Goodness no, not by any means. But it wasn't bad, either. It's the literary equivalent of junk food. Junk food is nice to have every once in awhile, but I can't stand a steady diet of it, and I can't stand a steady reading diet of books like this.

I usually give chick lits a three-star for various reasons; they're easy to read and it doesn't take much mental energy to read them; they're predictable; they're usually the same, where woman meets boy, falls in lust and gets her heart broken or captures her prince; it's always about single women. I love them. I really do. They used to be my secret ... after all, what serious reader wants to admit she reads them? Well, this one does.

And this one really is fun. I am a married housewife with two small children and though my house is not a McMansion and nor do I wear fancy designer duds, I relate to the peer pressure that is among the women here and always worrying about how the kids are coping in school and so on. I don't always miss my single days but I do remember the feeling of freedom on occasion. So this book is fun. It's fun to read about Vicky, the single girl suddenly transformed into the worst of America (those Stepford wives? They are my personal nightmare!), a Stepford wife, without the sex, of course. Then there's Amber, a mom of two young kids and happily married to Richard, who is a Wall Street guru. She misses her single days and thought the swapping would be fun ... what mom hasn't dreamed of leaving the kids and hubby for a few days just to relax and not have to worry about spit-ups or dinners or rushing all over town for errands or heaven forbid, to keep up with the Suzys. (You just have to read this book to understand the Suzy reference.)

So kick back and relax. This book is definitely fun. If you can't swap lives with someone else, this is the next best thing ... ok, to be honest, it's better than the next best thing. Most of us really don't want to leave our kids and hubby, so it's safe to say that it's fun to imagine for a few hours, "what if I did ..."

9/26/08

I just don't get it. The cover is great and it ends there. I can't think of a more boring superficial story. I am on page 65 and I am not sympathetic to either main character yet. It is kind of like describing a TBS edited version of Sex and the City. Not my cup of tea, this one is off to the recycling bin or the library donation.

This was my first Jane Green book and I think it will be the last. I was just looking for some easy reading, fun and maybe a little sarcasm. I did not get any. I finished the book because I was hoping for a twist, a sarcastic ending for a very boring book.
The flaws abound and sometimes the book does not make sense at all.
(A few spoilers...)
Within two pages, after the swapping, Vicky says that the kids are "sweet", then impossible, just to be sweet again and terrible once more.
Even tough Amber loves Richard more than anything and Richard cannot live without Amber, they seem to be able to "make love" only once a week, on Sundays, because Amber goes to bed to read at 9 PM and when Richard goes to bed she is asleep .
There is this constant need for Amber to tell herself that she loves Richard so much, that he is the one and only man in her life. The repetition seemed to hint that she wasn't really sure about her feelings.
I could go on and on but there are so many blunders...
The book is plain boring, the story never takes off.

I play poker at Foxwoods. I'm glad it exists and that Skip Hayward was successful in his deceptive efforts to build this casino. So I'm biased.
Jeff Benedict does an excellent job of explaining the history of Foxwoods and the tribe that formed it. It is, to be sure, not a complete tale, however, as there are clear gaps in the narrative. The "founder" of Foxwoods, Skip Hayward, clearly has a story to tell about his tribe. It's omission is a glaring one. Benedict explains this by noting that Hayward refused to be interviewed. Even so, I wanted some greater balance in the telling of the tale. It left me curious about the other side of the story.
The bottom line is that Benedict does an excellent job of telling the story of Foxwoods conception that rests dirty and unseen beneath the glitz, the profit and the popularity. he tells it in an engaging and persuasive manner. Now, when I sit for hours playing poker I have something to think about other than the folded cards.

Jeff Benedict, you have done some amazing research in putting your book together. My husband and I, FULL BLOODED NAVAJO INDIANS, even read the bibliography. Completely familiar with government issues, we can see how these non-Indians fell though the cracks to become what they are today. It is embarassing to hear people call themselves American Indian when they are not. Our people have 4 directions, have come through 4 worlds and have 4 sacred mountains, and to that effect, have 4 grandparents contributing to the culture of each of us. Past the 1/4 "blood quantum" one need not be considered a Navajo. The same should be true of all American Indian tribes. If you are 1/16 Indian, you are 15/16 something else. You cannot contribute to our people. You do not know what extreme poverty is like. Your "reservation" is to you a tax-free haven. Whereas ours is also tax free, it is for many a prison of unemployment, alcoholism, abuse and depression. I am not saying that you need to experience these things to be an American Indian, but you do need to understand what many of us come from and live through. I implore Congress to look into the geneology of these people. If these "Pequots" have made a false claim, I hope that they are made to return what they have wrongfully taken.

An absolute tour de force!!

If you really want to see how "our" government really works, you owe it to yourself to read Mr. Benedict's book.

An historical account, full of details and documentation, of how a number of imposters, steadfastly supported by negligent and naive legilators and judges were able to create an enterprise that just boggles the mind.

I dare anyone to read this book and walk away with anything but disgust over how State and Federal governments operate. I defy anyone to believe that the Ledyard Pequots have any right to claim they are a tribe, based on clear criteria described by the Federal Government but never applied in this case.

Kudos to Mr. Benedict on this masterpiece.

As a writer I was at Foxwoods on that day in February '92 when they opened their doors, covering the event for WIN Magazine. As a poker player living an hour away I have been there countless times since. I thought I knew more than most people do about Foxwoods, but this book opened my eyes quite a bit. Is it all true? Or even largely true? I will wait until another "tell all" surfaces to decide. In the meantime this is a fascinating read about an incredible happening, both in gambling and in government. If Benedict writes a sequal, or a new edition of the original, I would appreciate better documentation . . . particularly where he quotes people or tells us what they are "thinking".

When I tell people I live 25 miles from the worlds largest casino they think I must live in NJ or Nevada. No. Right here is Connecticut the Pequot nation has built a facility that is really hard to believe.

This beautiful structure seeps out of the earth and towers over the surrounding hills. It is pretty. It is unique. It is a smashing success. But everyone in CT wondered and now everyone everywhere wonders if this business is legit or not. Jeff Benedict has certainly planted a seed of doubt in this book.

Although much of the book is bogged down with more details than you may want to know the basics are pretty easy to understand. Are they really Indians? Do they deserve what they have? Can it happen in other places? Who knows.

The Mashantucket Pequot tribe has a reservation of some 2000 acres. Twenty years ago this area was woods. But can a group of self proclaimed Indians claim this area and build what has become the largest casino in the world? Yes because they did it. But how it happened will probably infuriate you. A collection of screw ups, political favors, politicians with no sense of ethics and fear of turning down yet another minority group finally got the Pequots what they want.

Read this and other books about Ledyard CT to be totally disillusioned with government on a local and federal level.

For me, Peter Straub's most interesting phase was the Blue Rose short stories and novels (including "The Buffalo Hunter") which culminated in The Hellfire Club. Don't get me wrong, The Hellfire Club doesn't belong to the Blue Rose series, but coming after it, is able to utilise its dense and imagistic style. The Hellfire Club is the best type of experimentation - it's a great story which also creates a series of stories-within-stories in an absolutely authentic way. So Straub is able to ventriloqise a Djuna Barnes-style poetry in "Unwritten Words", mimics a frustrated housewife's gargantuan roman a clef written partly on hotel stationary and bar coasters from around the world, and most pivotally creates a pastiche of Lord of the Rings in a "talking trees" fantasy trilogy which inspires insane cult devotion and a whirlpool of litigation and pre-Internet Internet-style exegesis. It's also the best serial killer novel that doesn't feature Hannibal Lecter. The more I try to explain this book, the more convoluted I seem to make it. But it's hilariously funny, deadly serious, deeply emotional, scathingly satirical, is a fantastic mystery with an endangered and endearing female amateur sleuth (think Rosemary's Baby - piecing together a tapestry of clues while in extreme danger), and has some beautiful and lyrical descriptive writing that makes scenes spring to life. While Hellfire Club sets up its main characters in the first hundred pages, and we grow to know and like Nora Chancel, the book goes completely ballistic when Nora is kidnapped by Dick Dart, a DIY surgeon (he's not a serial killer - that's libellous talk!) with some refreshing and not altogether wholesome social philosophies. When Dart first explodes on the scene, there is a long section of the novel which I think is one of Mr Straub's most incredible achievements.

Straub has written some fine, atmospheric thrillers. This one was tough to like. The villain is over-the-top evil. The heroine maddeningly endures the indignities of her nasty in-laws and her spineless husband. It was a relief for her to be kidnapped. And the Hellfire Club? Didn't seem to have much to do with anything.

Every fine writer is entitled to lay an egg now and then. I hope this one never hatches and reproduces.

Well, I was convinced by Stephen King's endorsment on the back cover, where he says, 'Dick Dart alone is worth the price of admission'. I'll take King's reccomendations with a grain of salt from here on. Dart was certainly the highlight, and I was looking at my watch waiting for him to appear, because the rest of the book didn't have all that much 'zap' to it. It's a novel that does all the little things right: plot fits together, characterization is competent, prose is okay, though nothing special. It does these technical things well, all the 'platform' things, but never really delivers much payoff. I was waiting for this secret hellfire club to become relevant - maybe Davey's in secret league with Dick Dart and so on - but it's just a chunk of backstory that never really comes into play. Oh well, I only paid $2 in a second hand book store, no great loss.

This was decent, i guess. Haven't read a lot of Peter Straub - only Koko (which I thought was marginally better than this), and his collaborations with the great Steven King (The Talisman, Black House). I enjoyed The Hellfire Club overall, but Straub's dialogue (in this and Koko as well) just isn't completely believable for some reason. And I had a hard time really accepting Davey and Nora Chancel (and Dick Dart, for that matter) as real, fleshed-out characters. Again, I enjoyed the book overall, and if a friend asked me about it, I would recommend it, but I don't think I'll ever regard Mr. Straub as one of my favorite authors. Good story-teller, though; if I was huddled around a campfire listening to him spin some spooky ghost-story, I would most likely be delighted. I'll definitely read more Straub in the future (hopefully more creations with Steven King, who I suspect must handle all the technical guts of their joint efforts: dialogue, character development, etc.). One last thing, not a big deal: how many times in one book do I have to read "..she padded into the kitchen," or "she padded into the living room," or "she padded back into the kitchen," or "she padded upstairs." ugh...quit "padding" around and just walk once in a while. Anyway, if you're thinking of buying and reading the book, I say go for it. i don't think you'll be dissapointed, but I don't think it will change anybody's life, either.

I was hoping Straub would treat us by tossing in a few mentions to Floating Dragon, since the setting in this book, wealthy Connecticut suburbs of New York City, was about the same, but nope, no such luck.

The title of this novel comes from Straub's version of a certain infamous Yale fraternity, only in this case he dubs it the Hellfire Club. The main character here is Nora, a Vietnam veteran and a woman suffering through menopause (no joke). Nora has, at the novel's start, been falsely accused of kidnapping a frumpy loser of a neighbor lady of hers who basically makes the claim up to add excitement to her life. While at the police station sorting through the charge, Nora, is herself abducted by a wisecracking millionaire serial killer called Dick Dart. Dick (it comes clear later that the nickname is not without reason) takes Nora with him on his flight from justice. He brags to her about his life, deeds, how he never makes love to a woman under sixty, even his secret motive for killing a number of rich local women (they were all connected to his father's law firm as clients, and the negative publicity and client-flight should ruin the old man, whom Dick Dart hates). Nora is a shrewd woman who holds her own against the arrogant, oddball Dick Dart, son of one of the wealthiest lawyers in town. She presents herself as one criminal relating to another, and Dart buys her act and is amused by her show of toughness. They drive through New England, steal cars and lay low, have discussions about a Lord of the Rings-like novel they both love, and Nora manages at one point to escape, but since she's a suspect in a kidnapping back in Connecticut, she cannot go to the police.

Dick Dart eventually catches up with Nora again, but she trades some information she's obtained about the secret meaning within the Lord of the Rings-ish book in exchange for Dart sparing her life for the moment. The pair make their way to a famous writer's resort called Shorelands, where Dart enters a comical meltdown stage, takes hostages (a group of women, whom he makes strip naked...a bit lurid Mr. Straub) and.....well...the rather flat novel does finally reach its conclusion with order being restored and everyone getting about what they deserve.

This book would probably never have gotten published by a first-time writer and were it not for the lingering fame of Straub as writer of some fine horror novels back in the day, this wouldn't be on bookshelves now. I know that's a stinging comment but it's true and I'm out of patience with Peter Straub for a few too many lackluster books like this. I mildly regret the time I put into The Hellfire Club (by no means a short novel) and wouldn't recommend it to anyone except die-hard Straub fans or those with major amounts of time on their hands. I know that's a little mean but I think Straub could do better than he has with his books since Koko.

I've read two of Tom Savage's other novels: Valentine and Scavenger. I own Precipice, and will probably read that one soon. Valentine was very clever and so was Scavener. Both had endings that genuinely shocked me. But, The Inheritance is different. It's not as good. There are some interesting twists, but these twists don't redeem the mediocre writing and stagnation of suspense in the middle. One thing is certain: Savage has a twisted mind.

Speaking of twists, I was able to guess many of them. I shouldn't say "guess." To guess is to pick blindly. I had plot evidence; so it was deducement. Or is it inducement? Either way, I knew what was coming much of the time. A couple of things did genuinely throw me for a loop. But cleverness can't be credited, only slight of hand. The biggest problem I see in the book is Savage's propensity to have guilty characters act innocent even when they are alone. A related problem is the seemingly out of the blue personality changes. At the end, I felt cheated and dissatisfied. While Valentine and Scavenger have unexpected but inevitable conclusions, The Inheritance's ending seems like Savage just decided to come up with something to shock the reader despite betraying the story and characters he spent the entire book building. Even after finishing the book, I still don't know how much was an act and how much were genuine emotions, actions, and thoughts. Was there one innocent moment for any of these people?

I'm amazed anyone actually read this POS, and once again have to wonder, How on Earth Did This Get Published????? On the first page, paragraph three, "From a distance is an excellent way to view it (the house)." Could the author POSSIBLY write in a more passive voice? He started no less than three sentence with "From..." on the first page alone! I read to page five and gave up. From the other reviews here, I was smart not to waste my time.

Sometimes I listen to books that I won't read in print form. I had several audio books on request, but needed something on hand in case my sporadic insomnia came calling. So I browsed the shelves before I left work recently and came across this gothic novel. I haven't read gothic novels since I was a young teenager; I thought I'd revisit the genre.

The plotline is quite simple. An adoptee learns that she is really an heiress and heads off to claim her fortune. When she arrives at the stately mansion in Connecticut that is her newly inherited home, she discovers quite a cast of characters. There's the gorgeous chauffer who chases rich women, the chauffer's mentally ill sister who repeatedly buries a baby doll, the sickly sweet but secretly sinister aunt and uncle, the silent boy and his dog who wander the grounds and the physically deformed chess player who never comes out of his room.

But not everything is quite as it seems.

While most of the book is mildly entertaining, the last few chapters will make you feel like you've just seen a horrific accident. If you listen to the audio book in the wee hours of the morning, don't plan on going to sleep during the final cassette.

Tom Savage has become my new favorite author. I just wish he'd come out with a new one soon! Inheritance was a nice, easy read until you got to Chapter 13. If you can't dedicate yourself to finishing the book once you reach Chapter 13, put it down until you can. There was one shock after another. My husband thought I was having heart problems because I kept gasping!! Make sure to read the rest of his book; they are just as suspenseful!! Please, Tom, come out with another one soon!!!!

What a great book. I read this after it being suggested by our school's library assistant and couldnt wait to read it after classes (I'm a teacher). Luckily, my students and I have silent reading time every day, so I was able to finish it within a week. I've never read any Savage books before, but plan to read another very soon.

This book, written by someone who claims an Italian-American background, follows a model that often is used by other Italian-Americans who wish to recount their personal stories as persons who grew up in a household that one might regard as alien to the standard "middle class, white, non-ethnic" family.
The other reviews of this book, as entered on this site, nicely capture the kinds of things that are said about such books.
As one can see, the reviews are quite varied....
Why? Why do the reviewers on the one hand regard the writing in this book as revealing, "accurate," perceptive, insightful, but on the other hand as demeaning of the parents in the family, and one sided.
My analysis of this kind of writing leads me to a conclusion that I reached long ago as I reviewed one after another book that attempts to discuss growing up in an Italian-American family.
If I were a publisher, I would not publish a book of this type unless the writer first gave a thorough account of the history of his/her parents.
Italian-Americans need, before they write memoirs, to develop a context in which they can interpret their family.
It is a simple fact, is it not, that not every family is a middle class, white, well-educated family.
So, to take off after one's parents as if they somehow were ignorant, intolerant baboons because they did not espouse the values of middle class, white, well-educated parents does something of an injustice to those well-intentioned, hard working, committed people.
There is an old saying -- "You can't know your future if you don't know your past."
No Italian-American should try to write about his/her family without exploring the history of the family in the pre emigration Italy... without knowing the ways in which Italians were treated when the major waves of immigrants came to the USA .. and to the ways in which the descendants of the immigrants were subjected to the "Americanization" process.

And the most negative feature of books such as this is to be seen in the reviews in which the reviewers say that the writer "accurately" portrays his/her family. How would a reviewer know whether or not the portrayal is accurate? Does or does not not this kind of statement, especially when made by a non-Italian-American, indicate that the reviewer is assessing accuracy in terms of his/her stereotype? And from where did the reviewer get the stereotype?

As I say, we should call a moratorium on publication of books such as this.

There are very fine books about growing up in Italian-American families. In my estimation, those fine books first make an effort to set a context for the discussion of experiences in an Italian-American family.

This book was beautifully written, although sometimes a bit confusing. You really felt for the characters. My biggest problem with the book was that I read the back cover and expected something light-hearted and happy to read when I was sad. After reading the book I felt even worse. It was really depressing and made me feel somewhat hopeless. The book definately made you understand how the character felt. Now I'm going to have to read two fluffy books to feel better! Maybe I'll reread the Shopaholic series!

I was very disappointed - there was no humor in any of these stories. There was not one character that was balanced or that I could even like. Italians are affectionate and they laugh at family gatherings - there was no warmth or laughter in this book.

This book isn't really about an Italian-American girl rejecting her ethnic family for a more standard, Anglo-Saxon life. This book could have been about a girl of any ethnicity. It's about a girl rejecting family in her passage to womanhood.
Ask any girl, Italian-American or not, if they were ever embarrassed by her mother in the grocery store. As I was reading the first chapter, I never imagined that the girl's mother was really as embarrassing or odd as she portrayed her to be. We are seeing the mother through her daughter's eyes. The craziness, the quaintness, the ethnicity is magnified by the eyes of an awkward adolescent.
Ignore the reviewers who want this book to be the definitive picture of the life of an Italian American family. That's not what this is about. To expect that is unfair to this book.
If the author lived this life, then this is her honest expression about it. We don't have to know the history of the parents or their Italian heritage to understand this book. We have to know how it feels to move from being a member of a family to being an individual adult person.

I really didn't enjoy this book. I am half Italian-American, and I've read a few books about growing up in an Italian-American family in an effort to learn about my roots. I have also read several books about 2nd generation Americans struggling to find their identities while caught between what is "normal" and their immigrant parents. I normally enjoy such books, but not this one. I know that life wasn't always a bowl of cherries for these familes, but this book makes it seem as if it was absolutely horrible. Yet, I couldn't find anything about the daughters' lives that are really that bad or even different from many people's lives in this country. Where is all the anger coming from? I really don't know. This book is dark and depressing. Some say it is funny at times, but I didn't think so. I couldn't even bring myself to finish it.

I have read many, many books in my life, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, e.g., Stendhal to Sheldon (Sidney, that is), but I can't remember reading a book this bad in many years.

The book has two major flaws, either one of which should have prevented it from being published:

1. The writing is woefully bad. Ever hear the phrase "purple prose"? This writing goes well beyond the color spectrum into putridicity. (Not a word, I know!) Goodness, anyone who has taken Creative Writing in high school could make mincemeat out of this overblown stuff. I guess we shouldn't expect too much from a cub reporter for the silly Greenwich (CT) Times, but can't we be spared this stuff?

2. Now that the trial and appeals have been concluded, it is well past the time for the author to start apologizing for all the people he defamed. Without any real evidence, a number of upstanding people are skewered and the only ones who escape the sword are the Moxleys. The book is so generous to them that it is difficult to believe that their money was not behind the publication of this book.

All in all, a worthless piece of trash that should be consigned to the garbage heap. In fact, that is where I got my copy; a resident of my town left a box of unread books at the dump and being the book hound that I am, I picked up the box and threw it in my station wagon. I'm going to list it on Amazon and if anyone pays more than .10, they wuz robbed.

This is my favorite book on the tragic Moxley case. Dumas writes about a sad case in an absolutely beautiful way, causing me to tear up many times. His story reminds me of an episode of "Cold Case". It is written with great sensitivity. Contrast that with the Furhman book, which is written in a very matter-of-fact style, without much emotion, and is more like an episode of "CSI," complete with gory details. Dumas leaves out the extreme gore, which is refreshing. However, Dumas also leaves out some of the horror of the crime, such as what Michael Skakel did while standing over Martha's body. You might not hate Skakel nearly as much after reading the Dumas book as you would after reading the Fuhrman book. Still, if you want to read a *story*, written in excellent prose, rather than reading a mere "lab report" (which is how I would describe the Fuhrman book), then I would heartily recommend Dumas's book. It also includes a number of touching photos of Martha's childhood and family life. I hope this book has not gone out of print-- it deserves to stay in print forever!

Not at all like the movie based on the true story written by Mark Fuhrman. I was expecting some familiar link and there was none. Tom Dumas is not a true crime writer, my friends.

Just read copy of Sunday Mirror (Copyright 2004 MGN Ltd), dated November 7, 2004, Sunday.

Section: Eire Edition News Pg 23

Length: 146 words

Haedline: BOOK HITS AT SKAKEL

BODY:
KENNEDY cousin Michael Skakel confessed to being covered in blood on the night his pretty 15-year old neighbour was nurdered, a bombshell new book claims.

Skakel who is currently appealing against his life sentence for the brutal slaying of Martha Moxely, is said to have made the comment to a counselor at a reform school in Poland, Maine.

In the book "Conviction: Solving the Martha Moxely Murder" by Leonard Levitt, Skakel's priest, Rev Mark Connolly, says "The counsellor said Michael told him there was blood all over the place."

Levitt's book could not come at a worse time for the 43-year old Skakel, whose appeal is due to be heard in Connecticut in the next few months.

Skakel,the nephew of assassinated US Senator Robert F Kennedy, was convicted in 2002 of beating Martha to death with a golf club in Greenwich.

Load-Date: Novemeber 7, 2004

This book had me up through the night reading! I literally could not put it down. But, even though the pace was like a fighter jet, it was the insights into the town and its people -- the wealth, greed, and circling-the-wagons mentality -- that made it special. The author gave us so much more than the case itself. By the time I was done I felt as though I had known the girl, as though I had visited many of the same places, had been snubbed by some of the very same people. The author made me see and feel everything! By contrast, afterwards I picked up Mark Fuhrman's book, and was astounded at the emptiness of the text -- that book was so embarrassingly bad and self-serving I could not finish. I would recommend A Wealth of Evil to anyone interested in a great read and a stirring social commentary.