Massachusetts Books

One wonders if an author clever enough to come up with a title as witty and intelligent as Lulu Incognito could ever fail to produce a masterpiece. The answer so far? No.

Kennedy chooses his elegant yet familiar words so carefully, he might well be the Martha Stewart of literary writers. Kennedy, while clearly aspring to grand literary gestures, never truly manages to leave behind his pedestrain persona, and so manages to create works that read like collaborations between John Waters and Barbara Kingsolver.

Tacky? Yes. Faux-intellectual? Certainy. Camp? Oh, without a doubt.

Yet, somehow Kennedy's numerous and painful failings as a writer always seem to mesh, like the tuneless voices of talentless folk singers, into a flawed dissonance that amuses if not inspires.

Buy this book. It's a great laugh and a reliable cure for constipation.

This book has no similarity with other books in mechanical vibration field. As the author is the father of Statistical Energy Analysis, this book sometimes looks noise and vibration phenomena from the viewpoints of energy generation and transmission. This view will surely provide readers who are fed up with conventional structural vibration theory with new idea of solving the problems they have at hand. Some topics in the chapter 8, "Advanced Topis in Diagnostics", is worth reading for even very experienced engineers in this field. What I regret is that almost all the examples lack in-detail descriptions. To read this book, readers are recommended to have electric circuit theory, knowledge of statisticsTheory and Application of Statistical Energy Analysis and digital signal processing.Digital Signal Processing

I am a resident of Magnolia, Massachusetts. I have loved it here for years and have searched the internet and asked people I knew if they knew anything of this little village, and people seemed to know bits and pieces, but not enough to satisfy all of my curiosity. Well, when I picked up this book, I was fascinated and could not put it down! It answered all of the questions I had about my town, how it was formed, and other interesting facts. I highly recommend this book!
Michele - Resident of Magnolia

This compilation of lectures given two years ago is a handy reference for those who wish to understand something of the design process in an architectural office. O'Gorman notes that it is "collaborative" in nature. One could also add that it hardly static. The illustratons (too few from my perspective) show the evolution of this building from its competition stage to the one built at Copley Square. Even Richardson wondered why his firm was chosen to handle the commission. The book tells us in many ways about his Harvard connections Brooks and Paine.

The chapters on the women contributors and the Maginnis changes to the chancel in a 1937 competition are very useful. I, for one, am glad that the Maginnis competition drawing (neo-byzantine) was not executed. The tie rods were exposed and all of the Richarson era vaulting was removed to be replaced with a single dome. The executed work is distinctly Art Deco with a stencil diaper pattern. Maginnis fondness for Betram Goodhue's St. Bartholomew's Church in NYC is pointed out by Milda Richardson.

There is scant reference here and there to Charles Coolidge (Richarson's successor firms: Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge; then Coolidge, Shepley, Bulfinch). This is unfortunate since it was under his hand that the west porch, the choir pews and their sandstone railing, the pulpit and rector's stall were exectued. The bronze base of the menorah shown in the elevation of the altar by Maginnis were from an earlier remodeling by Coolidge. (They are extant).

The book is very useful to students and practicioners of architecture. One name be associated with a building, but this book helps explain that there it is a large undertaking with many hands and minds making the decisions.

This is a wonderful book, if you are interested in 19th century France. A must-read for anyone interested!

Raised in Marblehead, and having since moved from there, I remain enthralled by this small, historical village on the shore North of Boston. It is full of history, including tales of pirates, the birthplace of the American Navy, the inspiration for the famous painting the "Spirit of Seventy-Six" (which hangs in its city hall), the birthplace of an early Supreme Court justice (Justice Story) and Eldridge Gerry (the progenitor of the famous "gerrymander"). This volume provides an excellent history of the town told through its more famous lore, legends, and tall tales. For anyone planning a visit to Boston, Marblehead is well worth the side trip, and this book is a terrific primer.

This is a nice little book of early radio on Cape Cod - it was a short read with neat pictures of early Marconi wireless equipment.

This book tells the improbable but true story of a woman--Maria Mitchell--who grew up in a poor family of 9 children in Nantucket to become one of America's most notable astronomers and scientists of the 19th century. Mitchell's big break comes when one night in October 1847 she peers through a telescope on her roof to discover a comet (the kind that will visit us once and never again return to our solar system). Despite unsought fame resulting from her discovery, she continues to live in Nantucket working as a librarian at a classic "athenaeum" for learning and accepting a post as official navigational "computer" of the movements of Venus, before eventually traveling to meet other great intellects in Europe and serving her later years as a professor at the newly created Vassar College (where she lived spartanly for years on a cot in the observatory). Renee Bergland seamlessly stitches an intriguing account of life in old Nantucket, the emergence of astronomy as a true scientific and mathematic discipline, and the daunting challenge facing Mitchell--and women in general--to gain acceptance as scientific inquest increasingly professionalized from the "parlor" to more formal academic settings. Mitchell herself reflects in her diary on the character it takes to maintain intellectual independence against the pressures of indolence and social conformity: "When we consider ... how short is life and how much shorter are the petty vexation of life, it seems strange that we should not act up to our convictions of duty and disregard what may be said of us by our fellow men. For what is my neighbor more than that I should succumb to his view in preference to my own? And what possible good can come to me from such submission? I cannot please him for very possibly his expressed opinion is not his own but that of some other neighbor of whom he stands in awe. ... And so we have a chain of ignoble submission reaching perhaps around the world. I cannot suppose it comes from cowardice and I therefore suppose it comes from a still more despicable weakness--that of indolence. Thinking is hard work." I was transported to a bygone era by this provocative and enlightening book!

A must-have if you have ever spent time in Marion, or plan to do so. The text outlines the interesting historical aspects of Marion while 'walking you through' this beautiful village by use of photos and captions describing 200 historic houses in this small seafaring town.

One of the most fascinating accounts of sailing, history and economics I've ever encountered, this book is a must if you have an interest in the great age of sail.

Certainly more than a dry recounting of historical events, Morrison helps you understand the passions, motivation and impact on the economic development of the western world of those who came and went from Boston and other East coast ports in the early to mid-1800's.

The last two chapters, in particular were absolutely rivetting. The era of the clipper ships was not only amazingly brief, but possibly one of the biggest catalysts for economic change in the 19th century. In particular, the extremely detailed description of the activities on the deck of a huge clipper moving into a berthing at a Boston pier, completely through the skill of the experienced captain literally moved me to tears. Understanding the pride of a seaman in presenting the best face of his ship and crew to the watching throngs on shore is something that any sailor can readily identify with.

You'll find it a very rewarding read.