Massachusetts Books

This book is a model for a relatively concise but thorough biography of an under-appreciated historical figure. The writing is skillful, and the text benefits immensely from extensive quotations from Wright's voluminous letters. Wright's voice is lively and witty and she makes very good company for the 7 or 8 hours required to read this book.

In the eyes of history, Wright has been overshadowed by her older sister Lucretia Mott and her contemporaries Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. But her central participation in both the woman's rights and anti-slavery causes secures her a place as one of the giants of the mid-19th century. Wright believed strongly in the benefits of free expression and complete tolerance even of shocking views expressed by others. She thus anticipated many intellectual currents of the late 20th century.

This book is very much worth reading.

I am a descendent of Martha Coffin Wright and I had not know about her illustrious history before I read this book. I felt compelled to educate myself about her and her daughter Ellen who is my great grandmother. I had received a call from the National Park Service to ask me how I felt about being a relative of Martha Coffin Wright and did I know about the National Monument at Seneca Falls, New York and that then Mrs. Clinton would speak at the official celebration of the signing of the Women's Rights Manefesto. I was ignorant of the association of my family with the signers of the Document as I had been blinded by the weight of my patriarchal lineage from the Garrison side. I was thrilled to learn of the depth of the involvement of Martha Wright and Lucretia Coffin Mott, her older sister, and her daughter Ellen and their many adventures with the Underground Railway, especially through their deep connection with Sojourner Truth.
I have since met James Livingston and connected with him about our relationship and I enjoy being open to a whole new aspect of my family history.

I concur that this is indeed the best edition of Walden. The editing by Mr Cramer is superb, as well as his Afterword. The format of the book is better than any other I have seen. I am glad I bought it. You will not be sorry you did.

Beautiful, affordable, and edited by an undisputed expert on Thoreau's writings, this is by far the best edition available of this classic work. I cannot recommend it too highly, especially to anyone who, like me, re-reads WALDEN on a regular basis. Good size to fit into a bag or purse yet large enough for ease of reading, Cramer's scholarship is worn lightly so that the beauty of the words can shine through. This will be the standard edition for years to come. Buy plenty of copies--one to keep for yourself, the others to give as gifts.

This is the best book that the United States of America has produced. America has failed to the extent that it has fallen beneath the level of these practical ideals. But it is never too late to put them into practice.

Thoreau masterfully analyzes his in its purest form, he does away his all superfluous details. He forces the read to question his own existence. He forces the reader to imagine life without technology, commotion and anything unnecessary. Besides his analysis in Walden, he takes a stand for the maverick, for the individual, for the non-conformist. Lastly his social commentary especially about slavery shows how wrong our coutry had been.

I took the author's course on land making at Harvard Extension School and have read her book on the sane subject. This easily portable book is full of salient facts and diagrams which neatly summarize the history of the area in which the walk takes place and does so in a very easily understood way. For anyone interested in this suject or someone who enjoys walking and learning the history of the area in which they are walking I would highly recommend this guide. The book is well organized and is a bargain at the price

Boston is a city with an extremely rich history; Baedeker's 1909 United States Guide called it "the city with the greatest amount of historical interest in North America." Almost one hundred years later, Nancy Seasholes has performed the city a tremendous service with her illuminating, entertaining, and informative guide to Boston's made land.

Unique among American cities, Boston is a city with so much "made land" (i.e. landfill or artificial land) that a guide to made land essentially constitutes a guide to the city itself. Readers of Seasholes' book will find the history and buildings of familiar districts like the waterfront, Faneuil Hall, Beacon Hill, and Back Bay described as they have never been before- as constructed pieces of the Boston cityscape- as well as equally interesting (and beautiful) areas like Charlestown, the Leather District, and Bay Village that are a bit further from the tourist trail. The section on the South End, in particular, is rich in detail and provides an entirely new perspective on this urbane and diverse area of the city.

Not since the AIA Guide to Boston, published in the 1980s, has the cityscape and urban design of Boston received such an informative and entertaining treatment. Those interested in the built history of Boston, and in the city's ever-changing relationship with its waterfront and rivers, will find no better guide than Seasholes' book. Best of all are the puzzled looks you will get from passers-by as you examine a seemingly innocuous rowhouse or section of wall that once absorbed the waves of Boston Harbor or the Charles River a hundred or more years ago.

Jack Driscoll, Wanting Only to Be Heard

reviewed by David LeGault

Jack Driscoll has painted a dark, isolated landscape that his readers can not help but become engulfed in. Throughout his 1991 award winning short story collection, Wanting Only to be Heard, Driscoll manages to paint the desolate scene of northern Michigan, a region with a harsh climate matched only by the reality of its inhabitants' lives. Whether it is the cold and lonely winters or the intensity of baseball season, Driscoll has shown us that northern Michigan life can be brutal, although morbidly fascinating.
Wanting Only to be Heard primarily deals with the tense relationships between fathers and sons. Although this theme may seem limiting when you consider that there are eighteen stories in the book, Driscoll manages to keep every scenario fresh and poignant. In one story, Driscoll writes about a father's violent reaction to being stood up on a date, his son witnessing the entire scene: "I felt the whole house shake and thought then of passionate killing, my father's phrase for the quick and merciful execution of what we had raised in the sties and coops of the farm." Although the single parent and child connection is very apparent in that story, the theme is better hidden in some of the other stories-such as "The Wilderness State"-where a community college professor who is frustrated with life chooses to sleep with one of his students in the hope of getting fired. From early childhood to midlife crisis, Driscoll captures the troubles of fatherhood brilliantly.
Although the collection is fixated upon the troubles of single fatherhood, it subtly touches on many other recurring problems of northern Michigan, particularly substance abuse. Driscoll does an excellent job of capturing not only the sadness and desperation of alcoholism, but also the informality-practically acceptance-of it in the Upper Peninsula. In his story, "Wish Pennies," Driscoll writes: "'Slow down,' Howard had his last beer between his legs, and he kept straddling the broken white lines, drifting into the opposite lane." The narrator is simply concerned with the car's speed-not the drinking-when Howard drives them around, driving drunk because there's nothing better to do. As a native of the region, I caught myself relating characters like Howard to people from my own childhood: neighbors, drunk drivers from the police bulletin in the newspaper, and classmates. As regrettable as this behavior can be, it shows that Driscoll has made the alcohol in his work-whether it be in drunk driving or parental indifference to their children's experimentation-a believable and essential part of the northern Michigan story.
Growing up in the region, I have always been quick to dismiss Upper Michigan writing for its stereotypical portrayal of our lifestyle as a natural wonderland full of simple minded hunters, fishers, and miners. However, Jack Driscoll's work has captured everything about the culture-the obsession with weather, the alcoholism, the search for a better existence-in a way that was unique and, more importantly, credible. He currently lives in northern Michigan himself, and his experience with the region definitely comes out in this and his other books. Even when he does touch on the commonly used themes of Upper Michigan writing (such as hunting), as he does in "Flea to Jesus," he writes it in a way that shows us so much more, particularly poverty, escapism, and parallels to a father's life that a son would never want to follow: "'Spare none of them,' Angus McCoskey had said that first evening, and I, a disbeliever in greed, had returned in the name of Money, that newest god my father trusted would deliver me from the graceless routines of this small town, its small minded teachings."
Finally, Driscoll's stylistic voice is spot-on throughout the collection. Although he takes on many characters throughout the collection, his balance of description and action makes for a perfectly paced reading experience. Although there are some definite standouts-particularly the short story for which the collection is named-the book as a whole is joyously entertaining and painfully thought provoking. Whether you're looking for a book on northern Michigan life or an in-depth look into the pains of single parenthood and substance abuse, Wanting Only to be Heard should be your answer.

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David LeGault is from Gladstone, Michigan, and is an undergraduate in the Writing Department at Grand Valley State University.

These stories capture the essence of real life in middle America. At the heart of each story are human beings--plain 'ol, flawed human beings. The people you meet in Wanting Only to Be Heard are the people you might meet at an Upper Peninsula (Michigan) tavern on a Friday night. You won't find a trace of a cliche anywhere in this book, not an ounce of phoniness.

Ryder Gerard fell in love with Emily Sayer sixteen years ago, his brother Hallam knew it. Hallam got Emily drank and raped her. When he found out she was pregnant Hallam tried to get Emily to get an abortion.
She refused, Hallam got killed in an accident while looking over his shoulder as he cursed Emily.
Emily's family were hard core religious nuts, Tough love was the only love they knew. when they found out Emily was pregnant, they kicked her out with only the clothes she was standing in.
Emily went to a cave to live. Ryder found her and proposed marriage to her, she refused.
Sixteen years later Emily's son Josh, is getting into trouble, he wants to know who his father is.
Ryder knows, he goes to Emily and again proposals to her, this time it is for her son's sake.They Marry.
Emily learns to trust Ryder, but when she finds out he has an unusual gift he thinks she will run away screaming.
Instead she finds she remembers the times he kept her from getting hurt.
And Ryder used his gift to stop Josh from getting hurt.
Her love for him grows to match his, as it always been for her.

I was wondering what the next ability was and who would display it.

We now learn more of Emily Sayer's life and what lead up to her becoming an outcast from her family. What a feud.

Josh learns from his mother who his father is and Ryder Gerard asks Emily, a second time, to marry him.
Emily, who has supported herself and Josh for sixteen years and is thirty three, is hard headed and independant. [Oh, these dumb women] but it makes the story work.

She does not have any love for the Gerard family but soon finds out that she at least owes them some gratitude. [puts her nose out of joint] Josh is immediately taken with his uncle and wants his mother to try to get along with his fathers' relations.

She is surprised to find out that grandpa and great-grandpa do not have any special powers but boy, wait until Josh get into trouble, a life threatening situation. Boy, was I surprised at Ryder's thoughts of the situation. Fantastic story!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED -- of course Emily marries Ryder for Josh's sake and Josh is in for a surprise on learning a few facts that Ryder knew about her when she was younger.

Is the current prison system in desperate need of reform? "When the Prisoners Ran Walpole: A True Story in the Movement For Prison Abolition" is a look at the concept of prisons and how a group of prisoners in 1973 managed to set forth change successfully, by keeping the peace within their ranks as their guards went on strike. An optimistic yet critical to both sides of the debate, "When the Prisoners Ran Walpole: A True Story in the Movement For Prison Abolition" is highly recommended for community library social issues collections and for any prison administrator.

America: less than 1/6 of the world's population - more than 25% of the world's prison population.

The 1971 Attica massacre shocked the world into awareness of the pervasive violence perpetrated by state authorities in our prisons. In Massachusetts, voters pledged to prevent such slaughter from ever happening there, and the governor agreed. The reform initiative that resulted led to the prisoners at Walpole's Massachusetts Correctional Institute winning control of its day-to-day operations.
The prisoners, working with 1530 civilian volunteers, won control of the operation of a maximum-security prison. The book, authored by a prison abolitionist, reveals what can happen when there is public will for change and trust that the incarcerated can achieve it. In the months before they took over running the maximum-security facility in 1973, prisoners and outside advocates created programs that sent more prisoners home for good, reducing recidivism 23 percent and decreasing Walpole's population by 15 percent.
When guards protested the changes they saw as choking their livelihoods, finally refusing to run the prison, the prisoners stepped ably into the void--and all-out peace ensued. They shrank the prison murder rate from the highest in the country to zero. Even more significantly, they worked hard to bury racial antagonism and longstanding feuds so even "lifers" with no hope of going home could find ways to live together, learn, and grow--to regain, finally, the humanity that the system intended to squash.
Critical to the work of prison abolitionists and transitional reformists alike, this groundbreaking history offers a real-life example of a prison solution many see only as theoretical. It not only reminds us why people seek to make prisons obsolete, but also recalls a time when we were much closer to these abolitionist goals.

The history of Walpole, at its grittiest, shows that we do not need a police state to 'help' us live our lives, and that, in the final analysis, we'd be better of without the so-called 'security' measures provided by the state and the entities of enforcement which under the pretense of 'justice' enforce the inequities resulting from the disregard of human value which must be overcome if we are ever, ever to live peacefully in this world. A history and an argument which could not be more timely and appropo. Rather than trusting in the almighty dollar, or the strength of institutions, recognition of our fellow humanity seems like the best place to begin.

The only thing better than the outstanding art design of this up and coming guide to dining in Boston and Cambridge is in fact the restaurants chosen for this delightful publication. All of Boston's favorite restaurants are featured, with map, menus, and a picture of the dining room included. Restaurants are grouped by location, which is helpful when you have an area of town in mind. All in all I place its value up there with my Zagat's guide to dining in Boston, and find that these two publications compliment each other nicely.

I bought this book in the middle of a book buying spree. Unsureat first, it is now an essential part of my dining guidecollection. My girlfriend and I use it quite often. The sidebars with sample menus and other tidbits of important information like hours and dress code are really helpful. I've discovered many new restaurants with this guide. Highly recommended if you live in or around Boston, and even if you plan on visiting the city for vacation. Thanks for the great dining publication!

Great story line, captures your interest immediately. Certain to have young readers enjoy a bit of Bay State history. Terrific cover. Should become a classic!
Looking forward to more from Nancy J. Kelley!

On page one Nancy J. Kelley transported me to a place and time in Old New England that has never felt more real. And her brilliant story about the loving, complex, smart and courageous Hannah kept me there throughout. This is a book ear marked for all my nieces and nephews for Christmas 2002, but make no mistake: this wonderful story is also for adults who wish to be treated to a beautifully written novel about a fascinating time in Boston's history. Write on, Nancy Kelley!

This is an excellent book. It details the shooting of Rebecca Wight and Claudia Brenner, two lesbians hiking near the Appalachian Trail in Adams County, Pennsylvania. When Stephen Roy Carr, the "mountain man," saw them engaged in sexual activity, he shot at them with a .22 caliber rifle, killing Wight and injuring Brenner. What follows is a reconstruction of those events, Carr's subsequent capture, and the legal proceedings that followed.

Pohlman does an excellent job describing the events that occured that day in the woods in May 1988 - so well that it reads like a murder mystery. He is also equally strong in presenting the legal issues at hand. Did Carr shoot the women because of his anti-homosexual beliefs, or was he simply jealous? Could the victims and their families expect justice in a conservative small town such as Gettysburg, PA, where the jury could conceivably lessen Carr's crime because of their own anti-homosexual beliefs? The author makes good use of interviews with the prosecuting and defense attorneys in the case, as well as with the State Police officers associated with the investigation. One quickly realizes that what would appear to be an open-and-shut case - no one really belived Carr *didn't* shoot the women - can easily develop into a complcitaed web of legal issues. This happens as easily in small-town America as it does in O.J. Simpson's L.A.

I grew up in Adams County, and I was in junior high when this incident happened. I remembered hearing about it and even remember seeing it in the local news paper. For me, it was incredibly interesting to go back as an adult and read about these events. Just recently, I was able to use the author's description of the crime scene to retrace the steps Brenner and Wight took on that fateful day. That should give you some idea as to how detailed this book is.

Pohlman, a political science professor, has done an excellent job of shedding light on the inner workings of the criminal justice system and raising issues with which every thoughtful American should be concerned. I read this book in two sittings and found it fascinating. The story is dramatic, the writing tight and clear, and the treatment of the issues even-handed.