Vermont Books

We were fortunate to stay at the Round Barn Inn several years ago and enjoyed the chicken satay so much while we were there that we bought this cookbook. Once I started branching out into the other recipes in the book I realized what a wonderful collection of recipes it is. I have yet to make something that we haven't adored. From lemon blueberry pancakes to spinach salad with carmelized onions, it's all in there. The directions are straightforward and the ingredients are generally pretty common, but the results are fantastic!

I was fortunate enough to receive this wonderful cookbook as a gift...I have enjoyed making a number of the incredible recipes ~ particularly the salmon fillets in puff pastry and the Boston salad with pears, blue cheese and walnuts. What perfect items for a dinner party ~ easy and a beautiful presentation. My guests think I've been slaving in the kitchen for days! Thanks to my dear Vermont friend for sharing this little gem with me!

I was in Vermont. I could smell the smells and see the land. I could taste each recipe. This is now my favorite cooking tool. I cook and my family reads from the book. Thank you for this wonderful treasure. I will visit!

The Round Barn takes us back to the days of the great american novel by authors of the past. Ms. Wizowati really gets the characters lives of their own and tells a good story too. Very few novels stay with you long after reading, this one does. I think we will be hearing from this author for a long time to come.

A wonderful story set in Vermont. Ms. Wizowaty introduces a rich, varied cast of characters - artists, students, loners, lesbians - but they never become cliches. The reader is pulled into the story by the author's excellent storytelling skills; she manages to weave together several disparate sub-plots in a compelling, cohesive manner. I hope to see more novels from Ms. Wizowaty in the future!

The story centers around a museum in rural Vermont that acquires and relocates a historic round barn (the scene of moving the silo with a helicopter is wonderful). However, this is really a character-driven novel. The author successfully braids together half a dozen different storylines (featuring characters young and old, gay and straight) into a satisfying whole. The author has thoroughly imagined each of the characters and presents them with great skill and sympathy.

Philip Ginsburg has done it again! Like Poisoned Blood, I could hardly put this book down. Shadow of Death is an in-depth look at a series of murders and the investigations in New Hampshire and Vermont in the 1980s. As I read, I experienced the frustration and the urgency of the detectives and the profiler to catch the killer (or killers). Although the murders remain unsolved, it wasn't for lack of trying. Philip Ginsburg has done a remarkable job in relating the murders, and detailing the victims, the psychologist, and the detectives, to the point where you know them well. Truly one of the best books on a serial murder investigation.

I've reread this countless times. I have ties to the area and was amazed at how little public play this got while it was happening. I still need to know the answer of "who" but it is without a doubt one of the best true crime books ever written

When you first read this book you will probably think this is the best book ever written, I did! I live in New Hampshire and when I read it I was so entriged by the wording that it just pulled me into the book and I thought I was one of the FBI officers working on the case with them. If you like to read Supense Thriller and Murder books you will diffently want to add this book to your collect like I did. I hope you read this book, and enjoyed it as must as I did. Well, I actually know you will love it so much that you will log on to Amazon.com and order the book as fast you can! ....

Terry Osborne's coming-of-self narrative is brave, honest, and poignant. I have recently left New England after seven years, and Osborne's careful and tactile descriptions truly stirred me. But even for anyone who's unattached to a Vermont landscape, there's an important lesson here. Osborne shares with us his very personal journey to the discovery of how deeply our environment can inform our sense of self - in Osborne's case, how the complex "mosaic" of land, water, and air reflects the contours of his struggle with depression. Even now, living so far from all the swamp-and-peaks nature of Osborne's journeys (I'm a Paris resident), Sightlines has inspired me to explore my surroundings with a renewed energy and curiosity - to understand how much self-discovery can unfold through such an investigation. For that - and for his pure, graceful prose - I thank him!

Every so often a book reminds us of why we seek out the woods for solitude and comfort. "Sightlines" accomplishes that considerable feat with resounding success.

But it doesn't stop there. This elegant and deeply human narrative about the contours of landscapes (both inner and outer) lets us walk several paces behind the author and view his journey through years of depression even as we pause to lean against a nearby birch tree and admire the surrounding beauty of his rugged New England. The book is a remarkable achievement for combining these two storylines--and very often it is downright mesmerizing.

Osborne's writing--understated and controlled, what you'd expect from a Vermonter--soars to its greatest heights when framing the smallest things: a seemingly uprooted tree, a dark swamp, a river sand bar. Those images, and many others, stay vibrant long after the book is done.

Terry Osborne writes a fascinating, powerful and touching account of his travels through the Upper River Valley and the travails of his own battle with depression. Candid, personal and touching, we join the author as he explores the natural phenomena of the Vermont landscape, while at the same time he struggles courageously against his inner demons.

If you have suffered from depression, if someone dear to you suffers from depression, or if you merely wish to be inspired by the battle of one person to overcome depression, Terry Osborne's perceptive and insightful book will give you strength and solace.

After gazing at the stunning vistas of nature transposed by Blake Gardner,I realized what a meditation these photos became for me. I was immersed in the depths of colors,shapes ,forms and the sensation of being there,standing next to this inspired artist,silent in the wonderment of the beauty and ancient stillnes that has been captured.
Every photograph is a unique tribute to Vermont,our earth and the talent of one who sees.

I'm really impressed by Blake Gardner's new book Untamed Vermont for several reasons. First and foremost, Blake's photos of the Green Mountain State are outstanding. With his large format camera, he captures both grand scenic and intimate landscapes of Vermont's forests, mountains and lakes - everything from fiddleheads pushing themselves up through the oak leaves of a recently thawed ground to the sweeping vista of the Mountain State from atop Camel's Hump which adorns the cover of this book.

The second reason I like this book is that the photos are accompanied by some excellent text. Senator Patrick Leahy himself, whom has been a US Senator from Vermont since 1974, writes the Foreword. He not only takes this opportunity to boast of Vermont's "inspiring colored leaves in autumn, the rivers and lakes that dot the countryside, and the countless hiking trails that weave up and around the Green Mountains." He also takes this opportunity to tell of the importance of protecting Vermont's wilderness areas. "It is important to preserve Vermont's Wilderness for our enjoyment and that of generations to come," he writes. "Vermont's first-rate quality of life is partly due to the accessibility of open lands, mountains, lakes, and rivers. Being surrounded by nature offers a time for solitude and reflection, recreation and quality moments with loved ones." I can't agree more.

Most of the book's text is written by Tom Wessels. Tom is an ecologist, writer, and founding director of the Conservation Biology Program at Antioch New England Graduate School. Of course Tom's going to get points because Antioch is my wife's alma matter, but he also has written a beautiful narrative text which manages to add an additional layer of satisfaction to this great nature photography coffee-table book. The book is full of interesting facts about the Green Mountain State and it's ecology.

I have been visiting Vermont since the late 60s -- and every arrival is a fresh falling in love with its landscapes. Blake Gardner's new book, "Untamed Vermont," is an extraordinarily powerful evocation of the place at its best. It roams around and finds both the grand vistas and the quiet, small miraculous patches. Gardner's compositions are stunning. One of my favorites is a photo of wild grapes in the Big Branch Wilderness that has the serene lushness of a painted still life. Another one in the same woods: a portrait of a warbler's ground nest, half-hidden by ferns and browned leaves. He captures a forest coated with rime ice in the Camel's Hump area -- a wildly intricate, hypnotic vision. Though it's obvious that Gardner has hiked and climbed to some pretty remote spots to make these photographs, he also shows places that anyone can visit. If you're addicted to Vermont -- or wild lands anywhere -- you'll want to own this book.

What a refreshing way to learn! Quite different from the often boring textbook approach so common with marketing books. This semi-autobiography reads like a novel, but teaches direct response advertising through example and life experiences.

Just starting out, in his second project, he acquired over 450,000 customers! (and those are repeat customers at that). He knew what he was doing. Plenty of wise advice in there. You can learn from his mistakes and successes.

I plowed through 1/2 the book in no time. By then I realized that the reading experience would be over too soon. So I shelved the rest of the book for a treat later on. (So technically this review is only for the first 1/2 of the book). This book is like candy. I got to ration it out before it's gone ;-)

I read the book for the first time several years ago. Since then I've kept in on my desk to refer back to for practical advice about starting and running my internet business.

Much of Lyman's wisdom and insight into the mail order business is directly applicable to developing e-commerce sites for business customers: writing copy that stirs the reader to take action, measuring and testing the results of each ad, starting small and growing the business out of the profits it generates are a few of many gems he practiced.

In the book, his passion for doing what he loved, from a place that he loved, with people that he loved was inspirational to me. When I met him in person, he was also a great encouragement to me.

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in in "Making a life" while making a living.

Here's the wonderful story of a man who set himself a goal--to live in the country--then figured out a way to earn a GREAT living to support that goal. Lyman Wood is (is he still alive?) a direct marketing/mail order pioneer who spent 60 years or so selling everything from $400 Roto Tillers to PRAYERS by mail. He also worked as an advertising and marketing consultant from his rural home. The stories in this book are inspiring AND instructional. This is a book filled with passion. It's not just biographical, it's "how-to." And best of all, it's FUN to read! I recommend it very highly to would-be entrepreneurs and to those frustrated entrepreneurs who occasionally need a "lift."

Budbill keeps you honest. Perhaps you don't live in a mountain cabin far from the bustle of humanity, but it turns out the issues are the same for you as for him -- and he has more time to think about them. Aging, death, ambition, the lure of solitude and the simple life, but also the lure of city lights and society. He has his own companions and interlocutors among the Eastern poets; make this Western poet one of yours.

these poems are delightful and thoughtful musings about life as David and all of us live it. they are mostly simple reflections about daily live with quotes from a chinese writer who is long gone yet current in its impact. i like rereading these because i can go deeper and find the humor.

I rarely, if ever, read poetry but this book jumped out at me while browsing Elliot's in Seattle. I think it was the cover that first attracted my attention but then I was pulled into the stories that the author relates, the journeys on which he goes, the ideas that begin to be dislodged from far corners of the readers mind, the sadness of our world, the happiness in his life even on Judvine Mountain, the resignation of age and yet the joy of experience and discovery. The last poem in the series certainly sets it all up though the reader will find many others throughout that will capture the imagination. I liked the concept of following in the footsteps of earlier chinese poets and longed for the ability to discriminate among types of writing. It's a good read, over, and over, and over.

Many books about the past in rural areas fall into the trap of painting the past as a perfect time when all was right and good in the world. Hill spares us that disservice by showing us the real Vermont he grew up in. Along with the fun and adventure of youth are the day to day worries and hard work that helped to make life what it was.

The people are portrayed so well that you might well expect to met them if you were to go to his home town. Hill is also a master of building the story and wrapping the reader into it. He delivers the local dialect accurately and amazingly enough even the cadence of rural Vermont.

Like his FETCHED UP YANKEE this book isn't only entertaining it is a window into the past. Like Hill, I was raised in rural Vermont. Much of what he tells about had begun to go by the way when I was a child. Almost all of it has gone now. Sadly, in Vermont like the rest of the country, local culture has faded as the culture of the mass media grows. Read this book and have a view into another time in an America that is fast disappearing.

This is a book I found hard to put down. It describes one summer of a boy growing up on a Vermont farm in the thirties, when farmers still used horses, housewives canned all their food, and boys and girls walked to school. Lewis Hill tells of his boyhood with wry humor and vivid detail, and the reader is right there with him building shocks of hay with a pitchfork, chasing after the family's cats to keep them away from the mower, and wondering with almost unbearable excitement how to spend his thirty cents at the Barton Fair. This book is a wonderful companion to Mr. Hill's previous reminiscence of life on a Vermont farm: Fetched Up Yankee.

Lewis Hill grew up in the northern farm country of Vermont during the 1930s. The town of Greensboro, Vermont was then, as it is now, a mecca for vacationers from the cities who have own summer homes there and a fascinating mix of local Yankees, French Canadians and Scots who tilled the hard soil for a precarious living. Hill, a highly respected local historian, recounts in fascinating detail life in this hybrid New England community in the years that made up the heart of the depression before another World War changed life in Greensboro and America forever. Hill allows the reader to relive those days. YANKEE SUMMER is written in almost a lyrical manner that is great fun to read and hard to put down. This work is a "must" for any student of American history.

CDaniel Metraux, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, VA 24401

This is a fine beginners guide to identifying the tracks you might find while hiking in New England, whether you're in an urban area or on a wilderness hike. While not comprehensive, you will find the more common animals from your environment -- 34 mammals (including mice, squirrels, rabbits, snakes, skunks, frogs and toads, fox, coyote, porcupine, raccoon, deer, moose and bear) and 9 birds (including grouse, crow, duck, owl, heron and eagle).

The book begins with a preface of enouragement followed by an introduction on how to use the book and where/how to look for tracks, continues with 2-page species entries, and concludes with a short suggested reading list and an index.

Entries are ordered roughly by size, and a 5-inch ruler is printed on the back cover. Each entry has a couple of descriptive paragraphs on the lefthand page and b&w line drawings of typical tracks on the right.

This little book is surprisingly informative and quite compact -- a perfect introductory book for kids or adults who are interested in the wildlife around them.

I use this book everytime I go hikin

This is a delightful little book. The talents of both Sabra Field and Jenepher Lingelbach meld superbly to portray that special feel of northern New England through the seasons. A great gift for anyone who appreciates this part of the world.

Simply put, the book, BEFORE LIFE HURRIES ON, is an elegant, stunningly beautiful marriage of poetry (Jenepher Lingelbach) and art (Sabra Field) that celebrates life, nature and Vermont. It does this with spare lines that have profound meaning. This is not just another good book by regional artists, it is a classic book with meaning for anyone who loves rural people, their communities, the land they work and the essence of nature which both surrounds and touches them. If there were more stars in Amazon's rating system, this book would use them all up.