Vermont Books

All of Archer Mayor's books have a gripping story line. Although the stories are first class, the pictures drawn with words as the story unfolds are the best that I have ever encountered. The magnificent metaphors can create, in less than one sentence, images that may take other authors pages. Although each book is independent in and of itself, I enjoy reading the stories in sequence. There is a steady progression in character development and interpersonal relationships as we go from story to story.

If you are a mystery fan, I am sure that you will enjoy the entire series as much as I have. If you are a student taking a course in creative writing, I don't think that you will find a better word artist than Archer Mayor.

Archer Mayor is steadily turning out first rate mysteries with a strong sense of place. Set in Vermont, Mayor's books capture their setting beautifully with quirky local details. But better still are Mayor's wild (yet plausible) plots. In this, his latest, the police find a frozen body with several missing parts (which broke off when the body was dropped from a plane). They quickly determine that the body belongs to a Canadian gangster, who disappeared fifty years earlier. The plot brings detective Joe Gunther to Sherbrooke, Canada, and involves delving into the history of a suicide-mission World War II commando unit, the product of a joint Canada-U.S. effort. One of Gunther's sidekicks -- the growling misanthrope Willy Kunkle -- brings a lot to these books as a character who evolves from book to book.

Just marvelous.

Former Brattlesboro police chief Joe Gunther knows that finesse and politeness are critical if the newly formed Vermont Bureau of Investigation (VBI) is to succeed. Joe, being a former town cop, knows that the locals will not appreciate outsiders from the state. As a matter of truth, the VBI has been mired under bureaucratic inertia until the Governor, answering a reporter's question, publicly assigns its first case even if the Stowe police chief has not asked for help.

The body of Canadian Jean Deschamps has been found frozen on the side of Mt. Mansfield. Someone with surgical skills amputated his feet and an arm, and punctured his heart. To Joe, the victim seems more like a frozen fossil since he has been iced for over five decades. As Joe and his crack team investigate the homicide, he also needs to massage the egos of the local law enforcement team, the Canadian liaison, the media, and the public expectations of the VBI's capabilities. At the same time, the threat of gang warfare in Jean's home province of Quebec increases the pressure to expeditiously solve the case.

The eleventh Gunther mystery is a dramatic change in the star's role as he switches from local policing to state law enforcement. The change is smoothly done as Joe's inner values and methodology remain the same, but the type of case and the political implications have moved to a higher level. THE MARBLE MASK is a strong police procedural that will excite fans of the series with its fascinating plot that combines a solid investigation with puissant external interests hampering the inquiry. Taking a risk, Archer Mayor continues to be a leading light of the New England regional mystery.

Harriet Klausner

I have to say, A reader from South Berwick, Maine, sums it up perfectly. But I'd like to add this to it by saying it is a yet another "can't put it down" book. Mr. Mosher has captured the area he writes most about. When you read this book, you will be taken there.

This novel covers one woman's struggle to survive in the harsh environment between Quebec and Vermont at the turn of the century. You can't help but admire her strength. For anyone interested in Franco-American culture in northern New England as well as Mosher fans like me

In his eponymous novel Marie Blythe, Howard Frank Mosher proves again why he is one of my favorite writers. French Canadian Marie, the book's heroine, is truly a remarkable woman. She survives the loss of her parents, life with a clan of gypsies, an unmarried pregnancy and loss of her child, and near death by exposure to change her identity. Over time, she goes on to learn to read, go to normal school, and become a teacher. Oh, yes, she is nearly murdered in the end by her crazed ex-lover. While all of this may sound somewhat melodramatic, it is not; Mosher makes it merely the stuff of a captivating, totally engaging story. Set, as all of Mosher's books are in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom, Blythe vividly evokes both a time (post-Civil war to early twentieth century) and place (Vermont village of Hell's Gate). Above all, though, this is a novel of character, and Marie's combination of bullheadedness, naivete, energy and faith carries the day. Recalling the French Canadian priest who counseled her as a child, Marie in a time of crisis "remembered his advice to maintain a little faith in something, if only in fishing." Mosher, for his part, renews my faith again in great writing.

Skiers, romance and mystery lovers, get this one. Only a real skier such as Hilferty could describe the gut-wrenching, yet exhilarating sensations of powder skiing and World Cup racing that form the backdrop of this mystery/romance. Unlike mystery writers who rely only on plot twists, Hilferty creates multi-level characters that grab your interest as much as the plot does.You'll find yourself cheering for a character in one chapter and booing him/her in the next. And the plot? The prologue opens with a frozen dead skier riding a chairlift. You spend most of the novel trying to figure out which character is the body and why it wasn't discovered in time. Warning: don't start this novel at bedtime. You'll be reading past 2 AM!!

The tale begins with the frozen body of a skier riding to the top of a ski lift in Vermont. After a typically wicked blizzard the night before, it is no wonder that the man froze to death. The question is, what was he doing on the lift after it had been cleared for shut down?

And then we begin the examination of the life of Ethan Atwood, World Cup skiing athlete. Taking the world by storm on the Italian slopes, embracing the joy of the hometown mountains in Vermont and paying homage to ski gods of the Colorado Rockies all comes naturally to Ethan. Coming out of his personal shell is another matter. He is somewhat shy and very much focused on what needs to be done when he straps on the skis. When a fan club invites him to dine, he cannot refuse, and the wheels of fate are set in motion. After a terrible accident, Ethan finds a twisted comfort in one fan's attention. This time in his life will have drastic affects on his future, and dealing with the injury he sustains is only the half of it. Will the love of his life see him through?

This novel so immerses the reader into the atmosphere that is Vermont. I cannot praise the author enough on this aspect of the book. Vermont weather is not simply put up with, it is experienced, and it is obvious that the author lives in it. The intensity that is downhill racing is sent to the reader's mind in images so vivid you will feel the rush of wind and ice crystals on your cheeks. The feel of the ski town comes right off the page and is as real as it gets in a novel. The descriptive writing here is absolutely well done. Characterization, plot and pace are all masterfully executed in John Hilferty's, "Moonlight in Vermont, a Novel." From the very beginning, readers will be hooked and the last few chapters will not allow you to out the book down.
Review by Heather Froeschl

There really should be a decent review here for John Hilferty's Moonlight in Vermont. It certainly deserves one. I read it even though I have never skied and do not usually read romantic novels. But it's more than that. There's the skiing, the training and the races. There is the camaraderie among team mates and the rivalry among contestants. There are lots of geographical locations and romantic relationships and all the ups and downs that can put you through. And then there is a little case of who's responsible for a frozen corpse. It's not just racing down hill here...there are a lot of twists and turns. I enjoyed it and hopefully someone will write a better review than this.

I pulled this book from my waiting stack after reviewing Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency While all that we do wrong is rooted in corrupt politics such as Dick Cheney represents so well, I wanted to get away from the personalities and focus on the underlying truths of the greatest challenge facing all of us, preserving the planet for future generations.

This thoughtful careful author from New Hampshire has created a really special book, small, readable, and packed with fact (superb footnotes). He gives all due credit to his predecessors in the field--Georgescu-Roegen, Meadows, Dalay, Hawken et al.

He brings out the nuances of complex systems and how our linear reductionist thinking, and our false assumption that technology will resolve our waste creation and earth consumption issues, combine to place all that we love at risk. I was personally surprised to learn that even if we fund 100 water desalination or decontamination plants, and resolve our shortfalls of clean water, that the energy required to do so would result in entropy and further losses.

The author brings up the need for better metrics (see my reviews of "Ecology of Commerce" and "Natural Capitalism" as well as my list on "True Cost" readings. He points out that the GDP does not reflect the non-cash economy or the degree of equality/inequality in the distribution of new wealth. I would add to that the importance of counting prisons and hospitals as negatives rather than positives.

A good portion of the book (a chapter for each) is spent discussion the three fundamentals: the limits to growth; the second law of thermodynamics (entropy); and the nuances of self-organization and what happens when you reduce diversity.

The author lists the attributes of complex systems as being emergent properties that arise from the interactions (i.e. the space between the objects); self-organization, nestedness, and bifurcation into either positive or negative consequences.

The bottom line for the first part of the book is that in complex systems, especially complex systems for which we have a very incomplete and imperfect understanding, "control" is a myth, just as "progress" is a myth if you are consuming your seed corn.

The author excels at a review of the literature and demonstrating the flaws of economic theories that are divorced from reality and the "true cost" of goods and services (e.g. a T-shirt holds 4000 liters of virtual water, a chesseburger 6.5 gallons of fuel).

I have reviewed a number of books on climate change, in this book the author makes the very important point that the annual cost of weather disasters has been steadily increasing, and is the annual hidden "tax" on our reductionist approach to clearing the earth, losing the forests and mashlands, and so on.

He points out that concealing or ignoring true cost does not make it any less true, it simply passes the cost on to future generations. In the same vein he is optemistic in that he believes that if we take positive action now, however small, the benefits of that action as the years scale out, will be enormous.

This is actually an upbeat book for two reasons: first, it makes it crystal clear that the classical economics that have allowed corporations to pilage the world, bribe dictators and other elites, and generally harvest profit at the expense of the commonwealth; and second, it ends on a note of hope, on the belief that we may be approaching a dramatic cultural shift that embraces reciprocal altruism, true cost calculations, equitable wealth distribution, and so on.

He cites other authors but gives very positive insights into public ownership (by stakeholders, not the government), essentially repealing the flawed court-awarded "personality" of corporations, and re-connecting every entity to its land-base and the people it serves. He recommends, and I am buying, David Korten's "Post-Corporate World." By restoring the populace to the decision process, we stamp down the greed that can flourish in isolation.

The book ends hoping for a cultural shift from consumption to connection. I believe it is coming. Serious games/games for change, fed by real-world real-time content from public intelligence providers including the vast social networks from Wikipedia to MeetOn to the Moral Majority, could great a wonderfully distributed system of informed democratic governance that implements what I call "reality-based budgeting," budgeting that is transparent, accountable, and balanced.

This is a much more important book than its size and length might suggest. It is beikng read by and was recommended to me by some heavy hitters in the strategic thinking realm, and I am disappointed at the lack of reviews thus far. This book merits broad reading and discussion.

See also:
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress
The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
Escaping the Matrix: How We the People can change the world
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents)
Imagine: What America Could Be in the 21st Century
The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
The Average American: The Extraordinary Search for the Nation's Most Ordinary Citizen

This will no doubt be one of those rare books I read over and over again. If you believe that profligacy holds empty promises; that we are spiralling on a downward course of natural resource depletion and want to go out into the world armed with a message of hope inspired by nature and supported by scientific principle then this is the book for you.

Tom Wessels uses excellent examples to support his arguments in Myth of Progress. He has a writing style that is fluid, understandable, enjoyable, and uplifting. If more people read this book we would be on our way to a sustainable future with an environmental ethic.

Like many other professional disciplines, architects and building designers have their own sometimes-indecipherable jargon. I still remember my student architect colleagues during college casually throwing around terms that went right over my head. How wonderful, then, that our Valley's own Bob Ferris, executive director of Yestermorrow Design and Build School, has just published a new book entitled Natural Building: Creating Communities Through Cooperation, printed by Schiffer Publishing and available locally, as well as through online book stores.

Here's the back story. During summer 2007, eight Yestermorrow students and ten instructors gathered in Warren to build a single structure over the course of eleven weeks. They settled on designing a garden shed called the Folly, comprised of hand-hewn timbers, earth, straw and other natural materials - you can witness the structure just a few feet from the covered bridge in the center of Warren village.

Ferris and his colleagues decided to provide a written account of the process, as well. "Our book is one part how-to primer on natural building, one part commentary on group dynamics, and one part soul-enriching eye candy," explains co-editor Ferris. "Natural building is an oeuvre that needs to be examined thoughtfully in these challenging times. While maybe not the whole answer, its message of using local materials and living more simply is certainly part of the answer."

Their book boasts a number of wonderful features. The photographs - rich, colorful, and, in many instances, sized as a full page - convey a vivid sense of the process of making the Folly. The book, in this sense, functions almost as a coffee table text, though the images are very much about technique, as well - close ups of chisel and mallet cuts, for example, balance out wide-angle establishing shots of the group at work. And the collection of images covers the whole process from start to finish, from "laying a good foundation - the boots of a building," through the niftily titled "mental and philosophical punchlist." Even the photo captions are intriguing, from simple one word tags like "stone," to detailed descriptions of the construction process. Mini-bibliographies entitled "On The Bookshelf" list texts for further exploration, so interested builders can do more research into various aspects of the work. Rounding out the book are mini-biographies of each student, and a reflective afterward by Ferris, in which he summarizes the problems and rewards of the process, and the inherent challenges that come with building as a team. As Page Houser eloquently states: "You start a-stompin' cob, you soon realize it's the cob a-stomping you."

Ultimately, the text is an inspirational tribute to natural building techniques, which Yestermorrow explains as "a philosophy and practice emphasizes socially,culturally, and environmentally responsible building. This is typically realized in the use of basic, elemental materials (e.g., earth, wood, stone and straw) that require little or no processing and are found on-site or locally sourced. The methods of natural building are often
labor intensive but not capital intensive. Because natural building espouses an approach that preferentially uses materials that are processed less and travel fewer miles, they tend to contribute less greenhouse gases than their conventionally-built counterparts. In addition, naturally-built structures tend to be smaller, better sited to take advantage of the interplay between solar radiation and thermal mass, and occupied by folks who have the inclination to examine and minimize their carbon footprints."

Veterans of natural building who might dismiss this book as little more than a primer would do well to remember that every structure has a story, and, as the age of cookie-cutter corporate industrial housing wanes, all of us will find much to learn in this engaging, visually attractive and hopeful book. May the community-building continue.

As one of the editors of this book, I am pleased that you liked what you saw and read. We had great fun documenting all that went on during that first Natural Building Intensive class at Yestermorrow Design/Build School and the magic that went into that building and the students. We are also pleased that all of the author proceeds from this book are going to Yestermorrow ([...]) to support its non-profit mission.

Bob Ferris

This book is part technical how-to guide to building with strawbale, clay and timber-framing, part beautiful coffee-table photography book, and part good old-fashioned story telling.

The story is about the bond that was created between the students and instructors in the class with the natural elements used to create this funky little building, and the deep connection that developed with the piece of earth and natural surroundings at which the "folly" was built.

At first I didn't understand what a "folly" is - a whimsical architectural creation - or much about the aspects of natural building. This book is easy to read and beautiful to look at. I wish I had been there to take part in the creation of this wonderfully imaginative structure.

Once again Crist-Evans has dealt sensitively with a difficult topic. His beautiful words and keen understanding take us on a young boy's journey through loss and rediscovery of family and self. Crist-Evans makes poetry accessible to young adults in a way few others are able to.

My 14-year old daughter couldn't put it down. The neighbor's boy snagged it before my 21-year old son could get his mitts on it. My wife and I both read it. It's moving and compelling and reads like the wind.

Between poetry and prose, this book not only gives voice to the deepest, most personal feelings about abandonment, but also introduces young readers to poetry that talks to them about real things that can happen in life. Just as Crist-Evans did in Moon Over Tennessee, he has made poetry accessible to contemporary young readers.

I read this book when I was a very young child and it had a profound effect on me. As a child of carribean immigrants it clued me into a whole different type of life in America at that time. The racism that I had been shielded from was exposed. The things I suspected had been proven out in this book, but with gentleness, hope, and humor. In these sad days of denial, I encourage "liberal" parents to have their children read this book, as they sit behind their gated walls

I first read One Summer In Between many years ago as a child in a Reader's Digest Condensed Book from about 1967. The story stuck with me, and I was glad to find it has been republished and is now available once more.

This book is interesting on several levels. First, Harriet Brown, the young African American college student who goes north to work for the Daleys, an eccentric Vermont farming family, is very appealing, as are most of the rest of the major characters. Secondly, the book was written during the 1960s civil rights movement and it does a good job of depicting the struggles of that period. For example, Harriet arrives with a large chip on her shoulder. She doesn't want to be condescended to or patronized, and she can't figure out what the Daleys want from her. The Daleys themselves are obviously liberal minded and welcoming, but they can't understand Harriet and her background any more than she understands them. The third reason to buy this book is that this dilemma is appealingly worked out and is at least on the road to being solved by the end of the book. Finally, I like this book because it reminds us of the positive side of the 1960s: the idealism, the certainty that people of good will can solve their problems by listening and seeking understanding. Its a good book to read in this cynical day and age.

I so enjoyed this novel. The story takes place in the 1960's in the glorious state of Maine. When a young southern African-American woman comes to Maine as a summer helper she is amazed at the differences between her southern life and her northern experiences. This is a heart warming story. I recommend it highly as a story about racism, the 60's and coming of age. Excellent writing.

Yes, this was a hilarious book. I grew up in Vermont, and while I'm a little young to get all of the references I got enough of them to be thoroughly amused by the story. Anyone with "Vermont Pride" is likely to get a kick out of this book.

Mares and Bryan present a hilarious tale involving the small, rural state of Vermont taking on the United States government by seceding from the Union. Great insights and extremely funny humor are laden throughout the book. A must read for all true Vermonters. Beware all "flatlanders".

Mares and Bryan present a hilarious book, which sets up the premise of the small rural state of Vermont taking on the United States government by seceding from the Union. Great insights and extremely funny humor is laden throughout the book. A must read for any true Vermonter. Beware "flatlanders".

Rosalie's best friend, a gentle Morgan named Major, is bound to be sold. Rosalie's father went to fight in the Civil War, and her mother is left with three children and a farm to care for. When she cannot pay off the morgage, she goes to plan B. "We have to sell Major." Rosalie can't believe her ears, and tries her hardest to think up a plan to keep her horse. The 10-year-old that she is, it seems impossible...when she strikes up an idea. Will her plan work and will Major be able to stay?

Rosalie is determined to keep her family's horse, Major, from being sold. But how else can Rosalie's mother pay the mortgage on the family's Vermont farm with Rosalie's father away fighting in the Civil War? But then Rosalie comes up with the perfect plan to keep Major and stil be able to pay the mortgage.

Since this was my favorite Treasured Horses book I'll give it a 10. Anyways this was about Rosalie Goodman, a daughter of Vermont farmer. But it's 1864 and her father took his horse Captain, with him to the Vermont Calvary to fight for the Yankees. Rosalies family, her sister Mathilde and her brother Albert, and her mother have to raise the farm themselves. Luckily they have a little help from Ed, the farmhand. But soon Mrs. Goodman doesn't have enough for the farm's mortgage. She lets Ed go and now it the plan is for the children to stay home from school and work on the farm. But that still doesn't bring in money. So Mrs. Goodman can only think of one other thing. Sell Rosalie's precious horse, Major. Rosalie must find a plan or a compromise to keep her horse, and what about her father? Will he ever come home? Will they be able to keep their farm? Read and FIND OUT!

I have read many of the reviews of Reading the Mountains of Home--both before and after I studied the book itself--in various magazines and newspapers, and, while many of them summarize accurately and manage to convey fairly clearly its complex and compelling structures, the musical grace of the sentences, the unique of John Elder's vision about the interlinking of language and place and time and family, of Robert Frost's "Directive" and of the concept of wilderness in America. There is a sense also in which he has taken nature writing--a broad genre forever in evolution--and brought it to new heights through this creative interweaving.

But what I notice most is the book's quiet heroism. By this I mean simply that the author exhibits the courage to put all of his deepest convictions, his most strongly held beliefs, the raw stuff of his very life in a place for all to see. One does not see this very often in books. We need more writers like John Elder. We need people like John Elder, people who have the courage to write from the deepest parts of themselves for the greater good of all of us and the larger home we call earth. If there were six stars I would give it six stars.

This is an unusual book. John Elder has written a book that blends the rhythms of life with the rhythms of nature.

Using Robert Frost's poem "Directive" as a springboard, Elder guides the reader through a series of year-long hikes that provide a rare glimpse into the writer soul, family and surroundings. His musings transport the reader from the glaciers that shaped his the plateau for the Village of Bristol, VT., the farmers who struggled and more often than not, failed to scratch a living from the rocky soil that surrounds his adopted home.

He carries us from broken china to Abenaki settlements, meditating on family relationships and deeper relationships with the land.

This is a beautiful example of nature writing, a work that draws a balance between the machinations of civilization and the beauties of wilderness. By inviting the reader to follow the last line of Frost's "Directive," to "Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.", Elder creates a sense of hope that Vermont's balance between nature and culture can speak to the rest of the nation.

I learned much about New England from this fine book -- and about Robert Frost.