Vermont Books

Noted historian David Pietrusza has added another gem to his impressive body of work, this time compiling and editing the words of one of his favorite subjects, the underrated Calvin Coolidge, who deftly presided over an unprecedented growth of American commerce and prosperity. Noted primarily for his brevity, this book proves over and over that Coolidge possessed a native eloquence that may be unmatched by any of our presidents save Lincoln.

Each carefully chosen quote or anecdote is a treasure, and the longer pieces still fascinate more than 80 years later. Pietrusza wraps it all together with some pretty decent prose of his own, as is to be expected from the author of "1920: The Year of the Six Presidents" and the soon to be released "1960" which I had the pleasant opportunity to review in a late draft.

This is a book you will want to keep by your reading chair, to take down, ponder and enjoy for many years to come.

Excerpted by permission from the Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society, this unusual work lists the names of nearly 6,000 Revolutionary soldiers buried in Vermont, many of the soldiers having emigrated there from other states during the years immediately following the Revolution. The names were gathered from a variety of sources, but the largest number by far was extracted from a rare list of Vermont Revolutionary pensioners, a list embracing invalid pensioners, pensioners under the act of March 18, 1818, and pensioners under the act of June 7, 1832. Supplementing the lists is a section devoted to anecdotes and incidents of some of the Vermont soldiers in the various campaigns. The soldiers are listed alphabetically by county or town of interment.

You're running faster and faster. Pop you hear it getting closer and closer, BANG! Now you're in full throttle you see the school your sanctuary, having the one and only, the splendor that that takes your breath away. Exciting twists and turns, flips and spins, that is what Robert Newton Peck demonstrates in Soup 1776.
THE overall idea of this brilliant masterpiece is that to put two kids trying to make the best play that ever hit LEARING. While they're trying to put together this work of art, constant delays keep happening.
Happenings occur that the teacher does not want to work on the play and nobody wants to do the play. See what Soup and Robs remarkable ideas and events are.
They also encounter difficulties like bullies, parents and people against the play. The overall ending is remarkable and breathtaking. It is unbelievable at least from my point of view, but what does your point of view say?
In every book there is a twist and the twist in this book is pretty horrific. The main character is sick now, no one wants to star in the play. See what Soup and Rob think up. Well the theme in this book is, well I think it is don't do things you can't handle.

I read this with my 9 year old daughter. What a great adventure! We could not put it down. This book should be read by all middle school children. Lots of laughs. What a grand childhood this author must have had!

Growing up in a very conservative family I new little of my great uncle Alex. Just that he had been a communist and that that was why my father always argued with him. All I remebered was that he was this happy man that looked to me like a more bald version of Einstein. I later discovered this book and learned what an important and amazing man my great uncle was. If you are interested in cellular biology, jewish american history, communism in america, or the McCarthy Era, then you should read this book. It is the story of a man who was a pioneer in both biology and cancer research that was systematically fired and black listed due to america's paranoia of the time. An interesting history of a dark time in our society

Haddam repeats a holiday here (Christmas was previously covered in _Not a Creature Was Stirring_, the first volume of the series). The events of _A Stillness in Bethlehem_ take place immediately after _A Feast of Murder_; at a minimum, you should try to read that one before reading this one. This is one of the few Demarkian mysteries that *don't* involve poison. (The recurring use of poison makes sense, actually, since Gregor made himself an expert on poisons during his tenure at the FBI.) You'll also be treated to a varied menu of conspiracy theories of one sort and another, but nothing so ordinary as Oliver Stone's. :)

Since Armenia declared independence only a few months before, Cavanaugh Street has been inundated with refugees, and Father Tibor has worked his fingers to the bone organizing food and shelter, and sending supplies back to Armenia. (For a couple of books, everyone on Cavanaugh Street put up a few refugees until they got on their feet - after all, you never know who might be a 3rd or 4th cousin. Changes phased in gradually after that: the neighborhood expanded a bit, and Tibor's church had enough kids to have an Armenian Orthodox parochial school, and so on. But that's in the future at this point in the series.)

Soon after Bennis and Gregor get home from the Thanksgiving fiasco in _A Feast of Murder_, Tibor collapses from exhaustion and from not eating enough. ("I'm still furious...I mean, I'm rich, Gregor. Tibor doesn't have to starve himself to feed a lot of refugees." "I think you got that across to him in the long run, Bennis." "I should have been able to get it across to him in the *short* run.")

Anyhow, Gregor and Bennis are now checking Tibor into a hotel in Bethlehem, Vermont, for a much-needed rest. Why Bethlehem? Tibor's always wanted to see the Christmas pageant held there every year. He first heard of it in his early days as a refugee in Israel, before he immigrated to the U.S. And Bennis, whose connections put Gregor in mind of a spy ring, managed to get hold of some good hotel rooms, even though it's the height of Bethlehem's tourist season.

The ACLU, of course, has a standing offer to sue the town over the pageant, but nobody's bitten so far. The pageant, after all, turns such a profit that Bethlehem's budget for the year doesn't need too much in the way of higher taxes. Nobody wants to be first to complain, certainly.

Until now, that is. Patricia Feld Verek, a writer of true-crime novels and a spiteful woman, has moved to Bethlehem with her husband, Jan-Mark (an artist in the most offensive modern mode). She's working on a book about children who commit murder, with case histories; he's spending his time having affairs with various local figures, both male and female. (Some are prominent, some aren't.) Tisha decides to take up the ACLU's offer - not because she cares about the pageant, but because she has a taste for a bit of drama. She gets more than she bargained for - she's shot to death before she can actually see her lawyer. But was the lawsuit the motive for her murder?

Gregor happens to have arrived not only after Tisha's recent murder, as well as that of gentle old Dinah Ketchum, expert quilt-maker; the local paper has been running a 3-part series on his most recent case. So he's asked to consult by the local police department...

There are more subplots and interesting characters than I can list here; Gregor himself is having trouble keeping track by the end. Don't worry about Tibor; he perks right up when he finds out about the newspaper series on Gregor, then becomes obsessed with the idea that Bennis might be trying to go on a diet. (He has an interesting conspiracy theory about diets.) Candy Spear, who has the role of Mary in the pageant, is in an abusive marriage, but she's been gaining confidence from her work on stage, so that story has a satisfying ending. Bennis made the mistake of giving Gregor a book about J. Edgar Hoover as an early Christmas present; he now has a kind of anti-conspiracy theory that's driving her crazy.

A few final things I should mention. If you're a big fan of contemporary art (e.g. the kind that seems designed to get into controversies over public funding), or of true crime writers, etc., be warned that the Vereks are not nice people. The woman who is Bethlehem's Episcopal priest is into New Age fads of various sorts; she's not a sympathetic character either. (All of these characters are handled well enough, as far as I'm concerned, but a reader who's into these sorts of things might be miffed that Haddam doesn't take them seriously.)

The 44 pictures shown in this booklet are the work of the Late Roy F. Heinrich and Herbert Morton Stoops, the present artist. Both of these men achieved fame among the best American illustrators, and their work has been seen in both books and magazines. All of the historical episodes portrayed in this series are drawn from a study of Vermont history. Both artist, after graduating from more commercial forms of art, have taken a keen interest in illustrating this series and have been painstaking in their research to make costumes, characters, and all points of the historical background in accurate accord with old times. The drawings are mainly of Early American Government, Settlers and Indians.

Dr. Pitkin presents a warm and nostalgic image of a Vermont childhood in the 1920-1930's. The book includes descriptive reminiscences of her parents' backgrounds in more remote areas of Vermont. In spite of some inaccuracies in names of people (Miss Welch, not Miss Walsh), and churches ( St. Francis De Sales and Sacred Heart are two churches in Bennington), the author develops a warm and pleasant account of friends, activities, and school and church life in small-town Vermont. The reviewer hopes that the author will continue with memoirs of her high school years.

Barbara Morgan Adams, BHS, class of 1943

Christopher Kimball brought tears to my eyes as I read this book. I had one child, and was pregnant with a second one and it made me smile, laugh, cry, and cherish the moment no matter how crazy.

This book was great fun...and so true. I'm a small town girl who ended up in the country. This will give everyone an insight into living in the country, and learn the 'rules' of country folk.