Once again Bob Ryan gives what no one can give. The inside connections make for interesting reading. Written with the heart as well as the mind,

Spenser's caustic sense of humor made this book an easy read with many twists. Parker keeps you guessing as to the outcome every time. As for someone who grew up watching the "Spenser For Hire" Television show, this was a fun read for me. I am looking forward to reading the rest of Parker's books.

The main character, private detective John Cuddy, has depth, but few of the supporting characters do - including the ones killed off. Although you are given many characters who dislike the victims, you don't get to know them very well. It feels as if you're given just the bare personality essentials so the author can get on with the story. The story is woven well, taking you off in many directions and showing you many suspects with motive. The story limps to an end, however, with the most unlikely, and least developed character as the killer. Only then are you allowed insight to his personality and given a motive. It's a page turner, without a doubt. But the story moves very fast and you are led to believe that you will learn more about all the suspects in the next turn of the page. It's a tease. You devour the story hoping to get to know the characters better but you are handed the killer far too easily in the last few pages. Although the murder is committed in Maine, the book may be a bit more enjoyable for those who live or work in and around Boston. Detective Cuddy lives and spends time in Boston. The surroundings are described in great detail, but without any profound impact or connection to the story.

Linda Gordon did a wonderful job at showing the growth of social services over time, however the book lacked a sense of committment.

The execution of Mary Dyer is an unfortunate but important part of the early history of the American colonies. She is still a relatively unknown historical figure. I was eager to read this book, and my Quaker meeting's first day school group for adolescents read it together as well. I wanted very much to think highly of it, but it frustrated me, for some of the reasons given in the editorial review. I feel that it isn't sufficiently scholarly or serious--it often reads like a middle school social studies text, and I think Mary Dyer, in all of her own frustrating complexity, deserves better.

For Patriot fans the 2001 season was a fairy tale...thus it's hard to sum it up in an 120 page book with lots of pictures.

But this book is still a must have...just for those classic pictures, and for Michael Felger's brilliant work...though he said the Pats were not as good as the Colts until after the AFC Title Game. But still the best writer in the City by Far.

I read this book directly after finishing Rob Neyer's "Feeding the Green Monster". Both books were written by writers-as-fans, jumping on the Red Sox bandwagon a year after the team made the playoffs (Neyer in 2000, Hough in 1987). The books' approaches have nothing to do with each other, but the results are similar.

Hough's book occurs almost entirely during batting practice. Using a season-long press pass, he went to the Fenway clubhouse and dugout during home games to interview the players and coaches, and find out how these players turned their childhood baseball fantasies into reality, when the author couldn't. There's a lot of breathless descriptions of the sun setting behind the right-field bleachers, or the moon climbing over the stadium. Fenway is almost always empty, save for autograph-hounds above the dugout. Compare to Neyer, who sat in the stands for 81 home games and never met a single player.

The interviews, instead of providing the background for detailed player biographies, are printed verbatim in the book. Hough, over 40 at the time of writing, found it easier to speak with coaches: former Sox star Johnny Pesky, and future Sox manager Joe Morgan (not the blowhard ESPN announcer). These two appear most often and are the funniest characters in the book.

Also fascinating is the glimpse at the Red Sox in transition, in between the aging playoff club of 1986, and the young powerhouse that won the A.L. East in '88 and '90. It's nice to know that Roger Clemens and Ellis Burks, seen here as kids, are still star players today.

The most poignant stories in the book involve aging players who've lost their ability entirely -- Robin Roberts, struggling in the low minors at the end of his career, and Mel Parnell, unable to pitch on Old-Timers' Day. The rest is made up of Hough's junior-high baseball stories. You may feel more charitable about those than I. Recommended in general, if you like the Red Sox.

Elizabeth Lunbeck's purpose in writing Psychiatric Persuasion is to reconstruct the development of psychiatry during the early part of the twentieth century through the use of the archives of the Boston Psychopathic Hospital, as well as to examine the process by which American psychiatrist effected a momentous shift in their discipline's foundations and fortunes. Using Foucaldian methodology, Lunbeck argues that the revolution in psychiatric thinking revamped the culture as a whole, placing psychiatric views and methods at the center of social and cultural life. In addition to this, she maintains that the source of psychiatry's cultural authority is not found within it institutions rather can be located in it's conceptual apparatuses. Unfortunatly, her book lacks contextual evidence from the period and has a sort of hermetic feel, sealed off from the influences of the period. Another problem is within the fundamental arguement; did psychiatrist in the 1910's actually effect this major change, or was it the psychoanalyst? Also, i think it is questionable when this shift actually took place- if it was in fact during the early part of this century, or if it was rather during the 1940's. Her femisnist and Foucaudian assumptions tend to skew the objectivity of her work. A final question that must be asked is whether this shift in the psychiatric profession was actually TO normalcy rather than AWAY FROM insanity. Overall, the book was well written, full of anecdoatal accounts that illustrated her points, and very interesting to read. Unfortunatley, it was too narrow in scope to make the broad claims it purported.

Brady Coyne helps an old friend, outdoorsman Wally Kinnick, with his testimony before a state subcommittee. The issue is assault weapons and whether they should be sold to private parties. Kinnick is a strong anti-gun control advocate, and an offshoot of the NRA called SAFE has paid his expenses.

After an all-night session of reading the bill, Kinnick comes to the conclusion that the bill is reasonable, and he testifies in favor of its passage to the dismay of his sponsors, SAFE. When Wally and Brady take off to do their favorite thing, fishing in the wilds of Massachusetts, Wally is shot with an assault rifle.

Have NRA types disgruntled with his testimony shot him? Is it a hunting accident? Could it be his lady friend's about-to-be ex-husband? Brady has more than a passing interest because he, as well as Wally, has been put on SAFE's "enemy list."

The author presents a balanced view of this explosive issue, which is much to his credit. However, the story lacks momentum. It is one of these where vital facts are kept secret because of "confidentiality," which I find annoying. The choices are too narrow for who the attacker might be. So the reader is a few steps ahead of Brady all the way. As always, the author does an excellent job of describing the local scenes. Brady is a very likeable guy, but his laid back persona slows the story down badly. "The Seventh Enemy" is a quick read, pleasant, but one you forget by the next day.

Here is a true story dressed in determination and teeming with perseverance. It is also a story about partnership. Bill Wild and Bill Bright (the last names alone portray a spirit that symbolizes their experiences) agreed as teenagers to team up toward capturing an American dream. Inspired -- perhaps driven -- by the advice from another Bill (Uncle Bill, who lived in New Jersey -- hence the title is not "Three Bills from Boston"), who suggested "let it be known that you want to succeed . . . and keep at it," these two young men, from the East Coast to the West Coast, through a Depression, a war, and the aftermath, converted their commitment to a common goal (to be electrical engineers) into a realization of their mutual dream: to add to the world something a little better than the world already had. This is a story about luck, skill, hard work, ingenuity, opportunity, the value of a good education, and, ultimately, success. The story of Bill Wild and Bill Bright (a story told by Bill Bright) chronicles not a rags to riches nor a claim to fame; it chronicles hard-won and very satisfying success.