Rhode Island Books

Reese has developed a new male scent, Irresistible, which is suppose to be pheromonal solution to attracting women. Unfortunately it doesn't work. Graduate student Nicola may have discovered the secret to sexual attraction, he needs her research. He needs her! A truly contemporary story of intrigue, comedy, and always love.

This book is not only excellent in the information given, but the manner in which it is given makes it enjoyable to read. I like the fact that it is student written and all the elements reviewed have a grade at the end of the section so you get a better idea of what the pros and cons of the school are. I also liked the details, for example, the cost of a meal plan and where I could use my plan, or where the best places to live are, and how good campus security is. All of these elements made the book well worth the purchase! I think even new students would get a lot out of it.

Ken Weber has done an excellent job describing these walks. His descriptions and difficulty assessments are usually dead on correct, so you can easily judge which hike to take and how hard it will be. I have done most of the hikes in this book in 2001, and the 3rd edition is quite up to date. The companion book is excellent too (More Walks and Rambles in Rhode Island).

This book provides detailed and accurate suggestions and advice for weekend rambles. It was a great way to introduce my 5 year old and 3 year old to the outdoors, and a good introduction to the lovely countryside of Rhode Island as well. Much better than some other similar guides which were not well researched and suggested trails that got us lost!

If you know any tweens and teens who are reluctant to pick up a book - this is one for them. Intrigue, mystery, and a fast-moving plot make it hard to put down. Having the Native culture infused by a respected Native author makes it that much more interesting for kids. It's a keeper.

The only downside is that there are several typos throughout the book. Hopefully they fix that before the next printing!

Working-Class Americanism, written by Gary Gerstle, is a truly fascinating and inspiring book. He focuses on the early-twentieth-century Woonsocket, Rhode Island, a city of textile industry and habitated mainly by French-Canadian immigrants from Quebec, Canada. Most of residents in the city were French Canadian, but there were other residents, especially Franco-Belgians. The culture of French Canadian workers was community-centered, devoted to Catholicism, and French language. On the other hands, workers from France or Belgium were radical, or socialistic, social democrats. Gerstle analyzes the process hoe these two working-class groups of diffenent culture and ideology made (and broke later) tenuous alliance under the Independent Textile Union (ITU), an CIO-affiliated labor union.
The author's innovative approach to the labor history of Woonsocket is his usage of the concept of Americanism. He treats Americanism as not as a consistent and monolithic ideology but as a fluid language which is open to appropriation by various social groups and individuals. In his view the language of Americanism consists of several dimensions---nationalistic, democratic, progressive, and traditional. He argues that in the severe economic condition of the Great Depression two different working-class groups succeeded in establishing the strong labor movement of the ITU by using the nationalistic, democratic, and progressive dimensions of Americanism in order to articulate their rights as workers.
Gerstle's treatment of the labor Americanism is very subtle and sensitive. He does not insist that the discourse of Americanism could have assimilated French Canadians and Franco-Belgians into one monolithic Americanized group of citizen-workers. He points out that whereas Franco-Belgian radical labor leaders embraced a dream of remolding America thoroughly in terms of social democracy, French Canadian workers accepted Franco-Belgian leadership in the ITU as an instrument to reinvigorate their ethnic community and family (Gerstle points out the patriarchal nature of French Canadian working-class culture). French Canadians and Franco-Belgians allied without a common vision of American society. As a result, he suggests, they abandoned the alliance based on the ITU when local Republicans, after defeated by Democrats in the late 1930s, solicited French Canadian workers by giving favor to their ethnic culture. The author's unique approach to Americanism makes Working-Class Americanism interesting both as social history of labor and political history at the same time.
Gerstle has succeeded in discovering multi-faceted and complicated experiences of Woonsocket textile workers and their politics of language by wide and intensive research including interviews. The interviews make his book highly vivid. For example, he proves the ITU's commitment to democratic delibaration by description of an interview with a old-aged ex-labor activist, who showed the author his "highly polished gavel" and "dog-eared paperback copy of Robert's Rules of Order" which had been used for debates among union members. The reviewer felt spellbound to an imagination inspired by this episode.
I should remark, in the recent advance of studies on ethnicity and race, especially so-called "whiteness studies," that Woonsocket was the city of white people, native or immigrants, therefore the author makes almost no mention to problems of race or color-line (relations of French Canadian or Franco-Belgian workers with non-white people). It mean that his analysis might not be applicable to other regions where we could find deep-rooted racial confrontations. It, however, does not undermine the value of Gerstle's excellent analysis made in this book.

I through enjoyed the Survivors Club by Lisa Gardner. It tells a very sad tale of three women who have come upon tragic circumstances yet pull together forming "The Survivors Club" to support their own survival. Some parts of the book are harrowing and leave a visual chill. But in the end, the brave tale of how these three ladies support each other is encouraging. I highly recommend this book.

This was my first Lisa Gardner book, and I'll try to read more of her novels. "The Survivor's Club" didn't really do it for me. I thought there were some huge plot gaps that made it hard to swallow. It's ridiculous to think that the police would let a convicted PEDOPHILE meet with a FIVE YEAR OLD GIRL under any circumstances. And I don't believe that the police would retreive an outfit of his choosing from some storage unit, especially when the police know that the guy is conspiring with someone on the outside. The police would just buy the criminal new clothes. Keeping these drawbacks in mind, I gave it three stars because it moved along as a plot, and did keep me reading til the end. Like I said, I'll try some more of her offerings, but if you want a well-written mystery, try the Harry Bosch books by Michael Connelly.

Lisa Gardner sold her first novel at the ripe old age of 20. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and lives in New Hampshire. Her novels have been successful world wide and she has several best sellers to her name.

The Survivors Club is the name for a unique group of three women. They have sworn not to consider themselves victims. They are true survivors. They faced the headlines when they were instrumental in helping to catch the man who did the most despicable thing a man can do to a woman, rape.

Now that Eddie Como, the College Hill rapist has been murdered outside the courthouse were he was due to stand trial. Surely the three women can open a new chapter in their lives but it is not that simple, why? Because all three of them are the prime suspects in his murder . . .

This is just the start of gripping storyline, well written by the author, who certainly knows how to build up the suspense. This book is a real nail biter and gripping from the start to the very end.

Okay, if you're going to write a crime novel where the entire premise hangs on DNA evidence, don't you think you should have a little bit of a clue about the stuff? One, their matching probabilities were way off. Two, I'm sorry, but yes, identical twins DO share the same DNA.

Brush up on some junior high level science next time, hm? So-so writing does nothing to rescue this abomination after the atrocious scientific errors made.

great book story keeps yuou very into it. lots of twists and turns as you go along. I liked it
Also delivery of how the book comes to a close.

Just a warning to anyone buying this on Kindle, the chapters are OUT OF ORDER! It is horrible, for about five or six chapters the story would be in line and then suddenly you'd jump from chapter six to chapter fourteen...and it isn't easy to figure out where to pick up because some (but not all) of the chapters are mislabeled! HORRIBLE experience with Kindle but a good enough story that I was willing to sort through the hodge-podge of chapters looking for the right ones.

all I can say - I cried, it was that moving,so well written it really brought me to tears! Loved it. Read it!

This is the first time I am writing a book review, so you can imagine that this book left quite an impression on me. While I would never qualify myself as being an authentic book critic, I have been a high school English teacher for over fifteen years; thus I have read many, many books. I have read hundreds of classics over the years, but I hate to admit that I also indulge in the guilty pleasure of historical romance. I do so enjoy the places where these books can take me, and I make sure to read only those books that have happy endings. (Years of Shakespearean and Homeric tragedy have left me wanting the traditional "happy ending.") However, many times these romances are just
"fluff," and that's okay as I need something mindless once in a while. Sometimes, though, I come across an author or book that I think could rank up there with some of the classics I've read (Austen, Bronte, Hardy),
but I know the genre just doesn't fit in with those powerhouse writers.

This book touched me in a way that I haven't been touched by a book in years. It was beautifully written, and the characters are still haunting me even though I finished the book a week ago. It is such wonderful love story that encompasses all the various types of love one can feel- friendship, male/female, maternal, paternal, patriotic, sexual. I was drawn in from the first chapter. It also gave a very vivid image of the time period, explicitly presenting the horror of the plight of the poverty-stricken Irish in turn of the century New England.

Many of the other reviewers felt that the ending was lacking, but I think Williamson meant to leave the reader wanting more, but leaving it to us to manufacture the rest of the story in our own minds. I do believe that Shay truly loved Emma; maybe that is just my romantic soul speaking, but I don't think the book would have ended as it did had he not. He told her he loved, and he was too honest and straight-forward a character to give her empty words. Did he love her as much as much as he loved Bria?
I don't know that one can ever have that "first true love" feeling a second time. But I do believe he loved her as strongly.

You must read this book. If I could bring it into one of my classes I would, but the sexual content (though tastefully done) would certainly preclude that, nor would I ever recommend it to my students for that reason. But for us adult women, this book is highly emotive and beyond satisfying.

As a 37 year old mother of two, I have read many historical romance books over the years and I have to say that this was one of the BEST!! Penelope Williamson writes beautifully and most importantly intelligently!! The Passions of Emma was a great book and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves historical romance!!

Overview: The Passions of Emma is not only Penelope Williamson's most evocatively-written and emotionally-nuanced work, it is one of the best Romance novels I've ever read. It is an all-around "great read" that would satisfy a wide general or literary readership.

Plot: In 1890s Rhode Island, a young heiress struggles to "find" and express herself in the repressive high-society of her birth. She embarks on a moving friendship with a tubercular Irish immigrant woman, and falls in love with a dirt-poor Irishman.

Let's get the negatives out of the way (and do note that there are several. They simply do not eclipse the overall quality of the novel).

***SEMI-SPOILERS ahead!******

Negatives:
1. Several coincidental or overwrought plot devices: It's true that women were often committed to asylums for deplorable reasons, but adding this PLUS the sleigh accident PLUS the suicide PLUS the fire PLUS the ghosts/clairvoyance, etc. seemed like overkill. On the other hand, many people's lives really are this fraught, so judge for yourself. (The frequent equation of rain with the characters' miseries needed work, though).
2. A minor character portrayed throughout the book as sympathetic later commits a very unsympathetic act. I won't reveal how the character knew our protagonist, but suffice it to say it was character category often revealed as a spiteful meddler in numerous works of fiction.
3. A bit of stereotyping: surely not EVERY upper-crust character was as racist and unfeeling as those in the book; perhaps there were at least one or two poor Irish immigrants who didn't come from Gaelic-speaking areas, or who weren't saucy and pugnacious?
4. Loose ends: the Madeline/Stu storyline is left up in the air, though I disagree with other reviewers that the mother's storyline was abandoned. (In fact, the mother's was quite poignantly ended--see the scone-eating scene).
5. BIGGEST NEGATIVE: Because it is being marketed in the Romance genre, this book has a small number of conventions to fulfill: namely, a focus on a couple's courtship, and an ending with the promise of long-term happiness for their union. Given that a moving love relationship is the very purpose of this genre, I'd say the book fails somewhat in delivering an effective love story. Emma's epiphany that she loves the male protagonist is abrupt and fairly unsubstantiated given their past encounters. From there on out, the relationship is a mystery, hurtling into a sexual affair with very little indication from the hero that he has (a) gotten over the recent death of his beloved wife, and (b) that he strongly desires Emma, much less loves her.

*** In short, the romance is believable in terms of "real life" (so many widowed spouses have jumped into love on the rebound; so many relationships where one partner's love is stronger than the other's). But in terms of Romance genre expectations? No, the relationship falls short in this capacity. I won't reduce the 5-star rating, though, because I recognize that the novel will have a broader appeal outside of the genre, and, as such, should not be appraised solely in generic terms.

Neutrals:
1. The protagonist Emma makes decisions in the name of friendship, love, and self-discovery that are not in the best interests of her mother, her sister, her family name, her fiancé. Make of this what you will. In my opinion, this made for a more nuanced and realistic character: would you take seriously a character who experiences a blossoming self-discovery yet never once falters in her self-sacrificial obligations to friends, family and society? Returning again to genre, a character whose eyes are opened to the brutalities of her "gilded age" society, and who tastes love and liberty, only to return at last to her social tethers and confinements does not, IMO, satisfy the "promise of happiness" ending that characterizes the Romance genre. That ending could belong in a number of genres or in "mainstream"-marketed fiction, but not in Romance.

Now, for the Positives:
1. Well-written. This book has some of the deftest and most evocative writing I have read in genre fiction. Although some of the scenarios are dramatic tear-jerkers, the writing itself is never florid or convoluted; rather, it has a natural and pleasing rhythm. Above all, it is deceptively simple--you will read well into the novel before you realize the author's style has quietly impressed you.
2. Skillful use of dialogue and regional accents. Yes, yes, the notorious "writer's brogue" is out in full force for the Irish characters. But, it is still one of the better depictions of brogue that I have read. (If you have read bad brogue or Scots before, believe me: you know it, and have cringed). Dialogue is almost always believable and wonderfully indicative of character.
3. Superb portrait of female friendship, something sadly lacking in much of print fiction and in almost all of modern cinema and television. The relationship between Bria and Emma is truly moving, far more so than the romance between Emma and the hero. Several notable passages describe the entwining of the women's hands across the table, the feeding of berries to one another, the recognition of each other as "mirrors" of one another, and the natural discomfort as class barriers come tumbling down.
4. Lovely depiction of an "everyday" kind of romantic love--that between Bria and her husband. Like many relationships of the time, it began out of social necessity but blossomed into something powerful and affecting. Sadly, this makes Emma's own romance pale in comparison.
5. Painfully genuine and heartfelt exploration of one woman's psyche, of her journey into self-awareness and her struggle to discover her place in the world. I especially recommend this book to men who have claimed trouble "understanding" women's particular struggles, and to male writers hoping to improve characterization of their female protagonists. In the end, it's a story of self-discovery, poignant for males or females, for the Emmas and the Brias of the world.

"She thought about how these stone walls, these white birches, had borne witness to the whole of her life....She felt as if she'd always been holding herself back, saving it, and she had a terrible fear she would end up saving it forever. That she would die with whole parts of herself unused." (pg, 51, Warner 1997).

6. A happy ending made happy because of the woman's choices and the woman's "saving the day." A socialite's fall from the comfort and power of wealth to become the wife of a dirt-poor Irish laborer with three children from a previous marriage--does this sound like a happily ever after, or even a woman-affirming ending? It can be when it is the heroine's resources and strength that will lift out of poverty this well-deserving family that has suffered so much. Yes, it is money bequeathed to her from other men (father's lineage), but her use of it to educate and tend another woman's children is a more subversive use of her fortune than pooling it with a duke's or heir's great wealth (the stuff of many historical romances). And, one is left with the feeling that "the new Emma" can find it in herself to move on from her relationship, if it proves unfulfilling.

Miscellaneous notes: Limited and rather cursory descriptions of sensuality; appropriate and character-illuminating use of profanity; disturbing scenes of patient abuse in a mental asylum. Sub-plots involving homosexuality, physical disability, suicide, body image/self-esteem, rape and sexual exploitation, and the political troubles of 19th century Ireland.

Highly Recommended to: Lovers of nuanced "self-discovery" novels; lovers of books with strong women characters; lovers of "second-chance" love stories; readers who love to see characters triumphing over society's hypocrisy; those fond of the works of Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Kate Chopin (and, though the subject matter differs, Willa Cather). Above all, those interested in a solidly good read that stirs the emotions, to boot.

While this might be a chick lit type story, the writing and message is one of quality and worth reading for anyone. While women will pick it up and most likely not be able to put it down--like I couldn't--it has solid interest for both sexes and says it well. Josh is a character that fits either sex, someone willing to let life make his decisions for him, just along for the ride. Emmy is in hiding but more like in a running mode trying to avoid any encounter with her former life and the pain it left her in. I liked that neither the men or the women were the villians in this story and how the author brought home repeatedly that honesty with ourselves and those we love will give us the knowledge and courage to get on with life. A great first novel and certainly a writer I will follow.

If you are still in your twenties, or thereabouts, or younger, this book might appeal to you. If you're beyond the setting up, getting your life in order phase, London is the Best etc will probably offer little to interest you. Books have their genres and niches, and this one is for the young chick-lit set. But unless you're into "what should I do about him/her", don't expect anything profound or even entertaining.

This is the best book i have read in a long time. Dave's insights on relationships are real and refreshing. I look forward to reading more books by this author.

I loved this book! I was in the mood for intelligent chick lit and I found it. I love the characters and their progression to realizations about life. I recommend it!

Considering the fact that this book has been in Amazon's "bargain bin" for a while, and that I only found the synopsis mildly intriguing, I was SHOCKED to find that this is one of the best novels I have read in a very long time!

No question about it, what makes this book so great are the characters - the story is technically rather slow-moving, and not terribly complex, taking place over one weekend. However, you will never notice or care about the pace of the plot because you will be so enthralled with the characters. Even the less likeable ones are still loveable and humorous in their own way. Every character in the novel is presented as a very "whole" human, with flaws and talents, reasons to love them and reasons to hate them; it is this completeness that endears them to you so much. You find yourself struggling along with the main character, constantly wishing for opposing outcomes to the story, because you want everyone to end up happy. The authenticity of the relationships and personalities in this novel are what make it shine. Nothing else needs to be said, you must see for yourself - do not miss out on reading this great novel!

Grade: A

This is a very enjoyable book with very real likable characters, except for the ghost, he isn't "very real". It is a nice mystery that brings in characters, working together, in a small northeast American town. I have since read all of the books in this series and have enjoyed them very much.

I picked up this book after hearing great things about the series. While I thought the story was somewhat predictable, I thought it was a great storyline and a great introduction to the series' characters. I'm looking forward to reading the next in the series!

The concept behind this series is as entertaining as the old series The Ghost and Mrs Muir. The references to old 40'smovies and mystery books brings humor to a serious subject. This is a a good start to the series and the next three are as enjoyable.

Likes:
Penelope was timid at the beginning of the book but she gradually became more assertive throughout the book. A lot of cozy mysteries feature a main character that has no spine and are able to escape being killed by sheer luck. I like that Penelope grew a backbone and was able to stand up to the murderer. I also liked the 1940s slang used by Jack Shepard throughout the book. It's very reminiscent of Raymond Chandler's character Phillip Marlowe. The book was fast-paced and didn't really have any unnecessary parts.

Dislikes:
Even though Penelope grew a backbone by the end of the book, I felt that the ending could have been a little more exciting.

This book was not the best book I have read, but it was not horrible either. I liked Penelope the main character, I liked the people in the town even if they were a little cliché at times, but the one part of this book I actually did not like was the ghost, Jack. His character was the most formulaic of all. It felt like Ms. Kimberly had spent too much time watching really bad 1930's/40's detective movies and decided to model Jack after what she had seen. The usage of doll and dame and other clichéd detective speak was prolific in this book. It made it difficult to make Jack the ghost a likable character because I kept rolling my eyes when he would say anything. I do, however, intend on purchasing another book in this series. I am hoping that maybe with the first book behind her, Ms. Kimberly improves on the characterization in the preceding books. I think this series has great promise. It just needs a little more thought put into it.