This book is sympathetic to the killer. One has to wonder about the victims and their families and the horror and pain they must all feel after being portrayed the way that they are in the book. I purchased the book because I know people who were involved, and I wanted to learn more. This book is written in such a ficticious manner, that it was hard to distinguish fact from fiction. You can be sure that things aren't always as they seem here. If you start feeling sorry for Hadden Clark, please put the book down for the sake of those who were victimized.

I bought this book at my local bookstore after being intrigued at what I read on the back cover. I had never heard of Hadden Clark up until that point and was willing to learn about his crimes. I thought the book did a good job at supplying enough information. Yes, some of the scenes are gruesome, but it's a true crime book not a fairytale. I liked the fact that they went into Hadden Clark's past. This helped give me some more insight as to why he would commit these heinous crimes. I don't feel that this book was sympathetic towards Hadden Clark. I believe the author tried his best to be impartial. I feel deep sorrow for the victims families and Hadden Clark deserves to rot in jail for the rest of his life because he is a truly evil man. The book was able to portray how evil he was by giving some examples in various spots of the book. The only dissapointment was that the author didn't go into more detail about the other victims he killed. I thought there was some injustice there.

Hadden Clark is a truly evil man. The third of four children, young Clark was killing animals and abusing others in childhood. He claims he committed his first murder at age 14 of a young boy in 1965.

Hadden's murderous appetite literally escalates. His older brother Brad, also seriously disturbed did not show signs of his mental illness until he had reached adulthood. In 1986, Brad had killed two women and cannibalized their remains.

Geoff, Hadden's second oldest brother abused his wife and children. Once divorced, Geoff appeared to settle into a more mainstream lifestyle. Alison, the youngest appeared to be the most stable of the four in adulthood. Repeated episodes of running away from home and subsequent hospitalizations literally drove Alison away from her family.

That left Hadden. Hadden, the overlooked. Hadden, the cruel to animals and violent with peers. Hadden of the bizarre non sequiturs. Hadden, who had found no real niche. An unsuccessful stint in the Navy did lead to what could have been a successful career as a chef. Trained at one of America's top cooking schools, Hadden did secure good jobs only to lose them within a few weeks after a display of bizarre and/or violent behavior.

By 1986, Hadden, then 35 had literally divorced himself from reality. At or around the time his older brother faced legal consequences for the brutal murders he had committed, Hadden appeared to be following suit. He abducted and killed his niece's playmate because he was angry at his niece. He trashed a landlord's home by stuffing rotten fish heads in the piano and furniture in retaliation for some imagined wrong. He even went so far as to steal his landlord's daughter's Chinese language books. Even when confronted with evidence, he maintained his innocence.

By 1992, Hadden was homeless. He lived in his truck and camped out in a wooded area. There he was able to continue his bizarre fantasies. He stabbed a young woman to death and stored her blood drenched linen in a storage shed. He wore women's clothing and insisted he was a multiple personality.

The arrest of Hadden was ludicrous to the point of bizarre. Two female officers, Paula Hamill and Liz Cornett were also odious. For three hours, the women alternately upbraided and cajoled him, pretending to sympathize with his actions. At no time did Hadden cave and answer any of their questions. He kept insisting on speaking to his attorney and was denied each time. In fact, the behavior on the part of the police department in general was degrading and unconstitutional. The man was plainly mentally ill. He slept with a stuffed toy. He enacted bizarre fantasies involving murder and cannibalism. He expressed concerns about gender identity.

Once provided with a court appointed defender, Hadden began confessing his litany of crimes. He even showed the police places where he killed his some 20 victims. He claimed he killed his "first woman," identified as "Debbie" in 1976, but his career in murder really began in 1965 with the death of an unnamed boy.

Hadden Clark was truly evil.

Ms. Yentsch has obviously done a great deal of research on the Calvert site--and everything else even remotely related to it. If one is interested in the archaeology of the Calvert home and the story of the family and the slaves who lived there--as suggested by the title--he will have to sift through a great deal of peripheral material. And then he will have several questions still unanswered, especially about the Calvert slaves. It would be unreasonable to expect every archaeologist or historian to write with the wit and flowing style of Ivor Noel Hume, but we have a right to expect better than the pompous verbiage used in this volume. Following is a one sentence example--selected at random--about the privy near the State House:

"While the replication of style may have been a political act of appropriation (symbolically inverting the prior order), or the emulation and use of a newly fashionalbe form, in terms of the positional relationships it set up on the State Circle landscape, an opposition between the octagonal forecourt at the Calvert house and the outhouse was clearly set in place." (p. 274, 275)

Anne Yentsch has made an important contribution to the history of eighteenth century Chesapeake and the Calvert family (English nobles) who lived at 58 State Circle in Annapolis, Maryland. This monograph represents only a fraction of publications on the historical archaeology of the Chesapeake.

Charles Calvert, the Fifth Lord Baltimore, sent his young cousin, Captain Charles Calvert to govern the colony in 1720. Captain Calvert purchased the property in 1728, not as a townhouse for his immediate family but as an extended Calvert family site. He made improvements and purchased additional lots to expand the site. His tenure as Governor ended with his replacement by Benedict Leonard Calvert, one of the Lord's younger brothers. Edward Henry Calvert, another brother, came as an assistant. Governor Benedict Leonard Calvert made extensive improvements during the early 1730s. Credit is given to Benedict Leonard Calvert for making the site a showplace and powerful statement. Benedict Leonard enjoyed classicism, its architecture and its gardens.

The occupation of the Calverts would be short lived. Edward Henry Calvert died in 1730 and his widow returned to England. Benedict Leonard resigned his post in 1731, set sail for England, and died enroute. Captain Charles Calvert died in 1734, followed by his wife Rebecca. The home was left in the hands of five-year-old Elizabeth Calvert, the only living child of Captain Charles and Rebecca Calvert. Elizabeth was left in the care of a minor Venetian nobleman, Onorio Razolini, and his wife. About the same time, Lord Baltimore's illegitimate son, Benedict Swingate (Calvert), came to live in Annapolis. In 1748 he and Elizabeth Calvert would marry and occupy the house on State Circle. The site would undergo substantial renovations in the 1770s including a complete reorientation of the house and the demolition of the orangerie (structures wealthy men built to house tropical plants) and hypocast.

The book is primarily an archaeological case study supplemented with historical documents. The history of early Maryland is presented from a material culture perspective. For Yentsch, historical archaeology's location is "at the interface of history and anthropology" (p. 316). She uses material culture to interpret outward from the site to the complex culture of eighteenth century Maryland. Drawing on archival and pictorial evidence, historical and ethnographic literature, material culture studies and artifacts, Yentsch merges standard regional histories with ethnohistory, folklore, symbolic anthropology, and feminist theory. Typical of preservation-oriented excavations, her study was undertaken under the threat of redevelopment.

Yentsch uses the first and major portion of the text to establish the eighteenth century Chesapeake's cultural parameters. To this end, she describes the Calvert family's use of their social and economic resources to negotiate a New World power base. She explores the symbolic role of gardening and orangeries, which reflected the desire to dominate nature and people poorer than they.

In the second part, Yentsch relates the practices of the Calverts' African and African American slaves. Almost nothing is recovered in the way of artifacts. She draws upon comparative data from diverse regions and periods concerning West African and African-American values and traditions. The data comes from eighteenth century South Carolina, nineteenth century Georgia, and twentieth century Africa. Yentsch devotes several chapters to food, from its production and procurement to its serving and social meaning. Food was an important social, cultural, and economic indicator setting apart rich from poor, Anglo from African. For the most part, the chapters about the slaves leave the reader asking for more. The majority of the data comes from Captain Charles Calvert's inventory in 1734 showing 31 slaves of whom 19 were children.

In the final chapters, Yentsch proposes a multidisciplinary and multicultural orientation towards more humanistic interpretations in historical archaeology. Her explanations are more anecdotal than analytical. She fails to explain why and how the community assumed the appearance it did - the complex processes involving ethnic, racial, and social contributions to how and why colonial Marylanders changed.

A Chesapeake Family has few flaws. There are some grammatical and editorial errors. The book is accessible to both general and scholarly audiences. For the non-archaeologists, it is a good primer with a glossary of technical terms. However, archaeologists will not find statistical comparison of the evidence. Yentsch admits, this "is not so much about archaeology as about the ways one can use the historical record and knowledge about anthropology to supplement traditional artifact interpretation" (p. xxii). This book is a good example of what archaeology can offer to historians and others with an interest in the American past.

A few of these stories are redeaming. The one in which a girl pretends to be a lesbian, and the man learning how to fly-fish. The rest of them are downright terrible and should be avoided like the plague. The editor, Edward Faine, has the worst story among the bunch. It reads like it was written by a 16 year old high school student. Don't waste your money.

Great Writers Great Stories is an eclectic collection featuring work from 27 Maryland, Virginia, and Washington D.C. authors. Hats off to editor Ed Faine for presenting work that covers diverse subjects, yet maintains a common thread, making for a smoother read than in many anthologies. While there is a delicate balance of poetic language and subtle imagery, there is also a vivid, often harsh look at reality throughout the collection.

A quote from Barbara Westwood Diehl's "Sparrows in Rain" shows this balance well - "Then bottles hit the sidewalk and rain glass into the street. I worry about my car, and hope the patch of impatiens I planted around the tree out front will be all right." The reader simply has no choice. The scene is real, the characters are alive, and so the reader cares about the outcome. She cares about the fragile relationship of mother and daughter in "Marble Sandcastles" by Lalita Noronha, and the protagonist and her sick dog in R.R. Angell's "It Could Be Worse" and indeed, about every character in every story in Great Writers Great Stories.

For consistently presenting stories that linger on the reader's mind long after putting the book down, care given to language, and characters and situations worth caring about, not to mention the coffee table quality cover of spring scenes at the U.S. National Arboretum, Great Writers Great Stories deserves 5 stars.

This book is a great addition to the Baltimore Album style patterns you already have. There are no instructions just blocks showing the patterns. I enlarged them to fit my block size and many of them I have not seen any where else. There are also border ideas shown toward the back. I think this is a good book and a wonderful asset to any quilter's library.

The story of the construction of Camden Yards is well-told and there are also some good accounts of Baltimore Oriole history since the park opened, particularly the controversy surrounding Cito Gaston's refusal to let Mike Mussina pitch during the 1993 All Star Game.

I was very surprised though to discover as I read, that author Loverro is the biggest apologist for Oriole owner Peter Angleos on the face of the earth. Every one of Angelos's actions that have helped turn the Orioles into a lousy team today are defended at every turn for all intents and purposes. I really can not figure out Loverro's defense of Angelos overriding GM Pat Gillick who wanted to trade Bobby Bonilla and David Wells during the 96 season. Sure, Baltimore got to an ALCS where they got outclassed by a superior Yankee team, but what Loverro fails to grasp is that the Orioles mortgaged their future way too much in going for a postseason where they had little chance of going all the way.

I would love to see an Orioles beat reporter one day write a defninitve history of the Angelos years, one that recognizes how Angelos today acts more like George Steinbrenner than Steinbrenner himself. This book unfortunately, despite its virtues in other areas, isn't it.

This interesting book has nice photos of sites and reenactors. It has historic markers and details of mistakes on the markers. There are also copies of historic documents and maps. The book is an easy read for those with a knowledge of the F&I War. It would be a good addition to the library of everyone living in Western Maryland. The book is NOT a complete history of Maryland in the French and Indian War, rather it is a helpful selective history.

As someone born on the Eastern Shore, I can say that this book was a joy to read. It gave me some perspective on the history of the Eastern Shore, although I think sometimes got bogged down in esoteric details of little interest to most readers. The real benefit of this book was the outsider's view of the culture. The author does a fine job of characterizing the people of the Eastern Shore, and for that alone this book is worth reading for the interested insider or outsider.

I was disappointed in the book because of the duplications throughout. Most entries I had already come across on the web. It's also missing a big chunk of the wedding market that resides in the Frederick, Maryland area. It makes me wonder if this isn't just advertisements for those who were willing to pay to have their businesses listed.

This book certainly has a lot of different reception locations, but it could be one-quarter of the size if it didn't keep repeating the same locations 2,3,4,5,6 times in the same book (just in different section)! The reviews were also very blunt with no real description of the location. The author also gives only flattering comments to every location, some of which turn out to be no so nice at all!

I was looking for a spot to host an informal event, and it seems that most of the locations recommended here cost at least $700. Which is all right if you're planning a state dinner, but don't spend your money on this guide if you're planning anything cheaper than black-tie.

Having brought along two guide books on several weekend trips throughout New Jersey this summer, I found "New Jersey Day Trips" by Barbara Hudgins to be a much more comprehensive guide to the Garden State's main attractions and hidden treasures than "Away for the Weekend."

At the outset Lightfoot states that this book is intended for the "interested layman." As such it is a decent book with some theory, some data and a good deal of scientific philosophy, or maybe the history of science. However to any reader who may have a backround in such subjects the book seems to be a dangerous gloss of important points. It should also be stated at the outset that Lightfoot is not ashamed to put forth his own ideas on these subjects in which he may, or may not be an expert. At times this tendency is obnoxious, and occasionaly, most often in his chapter conclusions, he states his case honestly and makes it clear that there are some things which he may be mistaken in. As for his final conclusions(the last three chapters) there are a few good points, a paragraph here and there which deomonstrate either Lightfoot's knowledge of his own limitations or at least intelectual honesty. Unfortunately, for the most part these chapters are misleading, rehtorical and uninformed.