Vermont Books

After using this book as background reading in the recently released, A Union of Voices: Accounts of the Union Institute & University and in Utopian Colleges, I had to recommend it.
After being a teacher at Goddard in the Graduate program in the seventies, I enjoyed reading about Royce Pitkin and his progressive educational dream.

I get hungry whenever I refer to this wonderful book! The writing is lively and full of interesting facts, and the descriptions help to differentiate between related cuisines. If you are a picky eater you'll be able to tell what kind of food appeals to you just by reading about typical ingredients, cooking styles and nutritional trends. Simple recipes are included, excellent for someone who is first trying to cook an ethnic cuisine at home. A "How to Eat" section advises on customs and protocol, but as the authors say, if chopsticks aren't for you you can always ask for a fork! Use this book to prepare before you try a new kind of restaurant and you'll be familiar with the menu terms and be able to order with ease!

This is a good, solid book about Major General George Stannard, given the fact that the author did not locate any primary sources written by him other than military reports. Although the author did conduct research in Special Collections at the University of Vermont, he did not consult the William Wells Papers; Wells hand a great hand in replacing Stannard as Collector of Customs for Vermont and Wells was very open in his correspondence why Stannard must be replaced. This action tarnished Stannard's reputation and led to his bankruptcy and self-imposed exile from the state.
Stannard is most important for his role as the commander of the Second Vermont Brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg and for conducting a flank attack the helped to destroy Pickett's/Pettigrew's assault on the third day of the battle. Stannard's military career climaxed with his capture of Fort Harrison outside Richmond in September 1864. He was there wounded and lost an arm, which ended his military career. Stannard is the highest ranking Vermonter to fight in the Civil War (Baldy Smith was a Regular) and his career is familiar to those people interested in the state's participation in the war and particularly with those interested in Gettysburg. This is a long overdue biography and is capably done, given the dearth of primary sources.

This is a wonderful book full of beautiful pictures, but the binding is so cheap the pages started coming loose almost as soon as I received it. I ended up having to buy another one to replace the first one because it's in over a dozen pieces now. You won't be sorry with the quality of the photographs though!

Not necessarily helpful in finding the trailheads but this Long Trail map does help one keep the length of the trail in perspective and can help you match up your hikes with the legs of the LT. (So that if you (like me) are not "through hiking" the LT, you can mark off the stretches that you hike, as you hike them...)

Six housemates are sharing a condo on a ski slope in Vermont. They have never met before this ski season, so conflicts of personalities are bound to be a problem and, yes, this includes the mandatory lust/love frustrations, which begin to stir even before the central character, Eliot, makes it to the first meeting of this coed household.

Eliot is a rampant blogger, focusing on himself and his life. Ultimately, then, he blogs about anyone and everyone with whom he comes in contact, i.e. his housemates. Most of the gang is cool with it, but not the mysterious Chad, whose angry outbursts about the blog heighten the mistrust and tension in the condo. Jenny is pretty, and it seems that she doesn't have a lot of motivation to build upon skills that do not involve her physical attributes. Isis is a snowboarder, and she takes the sport extremely seriously, to the point that being friends with a skier like housemate Eliot may be impossible. Dolce is from Brazil, and is determined to show her boyfriend that she can make it on her own in a new country--thrive, even. Last but not least is Frank, the peacemaker of the bunch. Frank does his best to keep all of these different personalities from clashing, which is good, because if they are going to make it through their intended three-month stay, they certainly are going to need a referee.

This lighthearted romp through the snow is written from the point of view of all the characters, with each chapter starting in a new voice. While the majority of the work is written in traditional prose form, it is broken up with some of the story being told through instant messages, some through email, and, of course, the reader gets to peek at Eliot's blogs, to see what is causing all the fuss on the slopes.

On the plus side, it is a fun book, and I think adolescents will enjoy their time on the slopes with these characters. On the minus side, it is a stereotypical book with a forced "mystery/lesson" that ultimately doesn't resolve itself in a way that makes all the pieces suddenly pop together and make sense. Overall, however, it will get kids reading, and reluctant readers will enjoy the way the pace is broken up by the IMs, emails, and blogs.

Reviewed by: Mechele R. Dillard

I refer to this book quite frequently to try and identify various wild flowers in my area. I wish it had more pictures of the foliage, esp when not in bloom. That is the only reason for the 4 stars.

This book is an exploration into the factors behind the suburbanization of an American farming community. When I first picked up this book, I did a double-take as I read the blurb on the cover "The story of Jericho and Underhill, two traditional Vermont communities in transition-from dairy farms to the suburbs." Since my arrival in Vermont ten years ago, I had always thought of Jericho and Underhill as rich suburbs of Burlington, and never had an inkling that these communities had been rural just a short time ago. In this book, Rawson, a first-generation New Yorker, interviews her Vermont relatives, the last generation in her family to make their living on the land.

Over the course of 3 years (1985-1988), Rawson observes the development in Jericho and Underhill. She talks with her relatives, their neighbors, and local politicians to try to understand why farming seems to be on the way out in the area. The reasons for the agricultural decline are myriad. People coming to work at the IBM plant need housing, and their demands have increased land values. Increased land values make for increased property taxes, which are a greater burden for farmers than others because farms require larger plots of land than single-family houses. Technological improvements over the past 40 years have greatly increased farm efficiencies, but require much higher capital and maintenance costs. As a result, farms have to be bigger just to break even, but bigger farms require hiring outside labor. But with large employers like IBM in town, it's next to impossible for farms to find people willing to do tough farm labor for low farm wages.

Residents and politicians alike shake their heads in dismay. They want to see farms continue to form a substantial part of the landscape, but they don't know how to successfully address the problems. Meanwhile, the farmers are getting on in years, and their kids either aren't interested in farming or they can't afford to buy their way in. As the farmers reach an age at which they can no longer actively farm, they need money for retirement, making developers' outrageous offers for purchasing their land overwhelmingly enticing. It's hard to see a way out of this quagmire that doesn't involve seeing farmland become suburbs. Land trusts make a valiant effort to save some of the land for farming or conservation, but their resources are limited.

For the most part, this book is quite well written. Rawson does an admirable job of introducing us to the people in the area, explaining their backgrounds and motivations. In a few places, she gets bogged down in detail, but mostly the story flows rapidly from page to page.

The author of this book is my sister. However, the book is a delightful, imaginative romp on a poor sidehill farm in Vermont. It describes a farmer at his wit's end for lack of money for his family. A miraculous rolling hay "tumble" or drying pile gets him out of his tough times, believe it or not by helping with the chores, and the world suddenly looks better. It's a tale that youngsters all over Vermont have loved when my sister gives presentations at one-room and larger elementary schools around Vermont.

The title of Mary Emma Allen's little reference, "Writing In Maine, New Hamshire & Vermont" indicates a very narrow focus. It would be a mistake to assume that this book is not useful for any freelance writer or writer living outside these states.

Although it is true that many entries are useful and/or available only for residents of this tri-state area, the percentage of these restricted entries is not large.

For those of us who live in the other 47 states there is plenty of information that we can use. The really amazing thing is that much of this information is not found in periodicals that most of us use. like Writers' Markets.

This little volume makes an excellent addendum to any book an author might presently be using as a resource. There are lists of bookstores and contests and publishers and grants and markets, and colleges and...you get the idea. I'd be willing to bet that most of these sources are not in the average writer's Rolodex.

Sooo...what are you waiting for?

Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of "This is the Place"