This treasure trove of butter drenched, fried, preserved and heavily sweetened recipes is loaded with practical homemaking advice from the days when "fresh" was only seasonally available per market, and cholesterol was not a vocabulary word. It makes you think about how people "lived to eat" in the Northeastern US at the turn of the century before foreign travel, immigration, mass media, refrigeration, food processors, mixers, nutrition research, etc. made exotic cuisines and "fresh and light" everyday fare.

The recipes are classic, yet loaded with good and creative cooking ideas that might have been overlooked in the 20th century...nutmeg in poultry dressing, etc. They are invitations to create meals that make you think about how economic and scientific considerations influenced how people ate. For example, you'll find more varieties of angel cakes; when you consider that sugar was more expensive than butter and therefore more of a treat, it's not surprising. Canning and preserving, and making out of season foods taste good, were necessary skills of any good housekeeper. Physical labor was a daily necessity, meaning bigger, heartier meals.

This cookbook is as interesting to read as it is a source of good old fashioned American recipes. Adjust them to 1990's dietary considerations, and you've got an enduring classic you can use every day.

My original copy of Fanny Farmer's Cookbook has no cover, pages behave as falling leaves unless handled with care, but I would not give it up for a new one, never never. What would I do without my years of scribbled notes in the margins? The copies I am buying now are for two granddaughters who are college frosh this year. They will get Fanny, Miss Manners, New College dictionary, etc. to start their own home libraries. Every home need Fanny Farmer because it is basic, easy to read and understand and calls for ingredients readily available - if not on the home shelf then at any grocery. FYI, when the grandson goes off to college he will also get a copy of Fanny to take with him, along with his microwave and a covered frying pan.

This book was the first I ever had. My mother bought it for me when I got married. It was a mainstay in our kitchen at home. It teaches all aspects of basic sauces, breads, pastries, meats, poultry, vegetables and soups. It contains hints on substitutions, on how to diagnose a failed cake, on how to create a bouquet garni. It will never go out of date. Surely our eating habits have changed somewhat. We eat more veggies, less meat, but the dessert cart at the restaurant looks as luscious as ever, and we can find all of it or reasonable facsimile in this Classic.

An interesting book that manages in 200 short pages to effectively challenge the tradition (or orthodoxy) of American Exceptionalism and "Americanization" through the lens of American military history.

The narration of the sometimes-horrifying and sometimes-comical
encounters between English, Indian, French and British military forces indicates not only that American settlers retained their Old-World way of war (rather than creating a unique American way of war), but also that the 'old ways' triumphed in the New World.

This book serves to further demonstrate that the Atlantic Ocean was not a barrier that culturally and politically separated the colonies from England. Instead, it was a bridge that, as Chet states, allowed the "transportation of English culture --- military culture --- to the frontier of European civilization." "When examined within the context
of imperial history, the story of warfare, like the story of politics and culture in colonial America, reads as a process by which the colonies were drawn toward England's cultural and administrative sphere of influence, rather than attempted to liberate themselves from it."

A small book that packs a punch. In his "Preface", Chet explains that he began writing this book in an effort to illustrate how Englishmen were militarily transformed into Americans; how they gradually gave up their European defensive tactics and instead adopted Indian offensive tactics. As with most myths, the deeper you dig, the less you find. The book Chet wound up writing demonstrates the exact opposite of what he originally thought he'd find. It shows how and why European tactics WORKED in North America, despite the terrain and the
Indians' guerilla tactics.

Although the book deals with the colonial period only and does not analyze the American Revolutionary War, Chet's argument fits in with what we know about George Washington's management of his army during the war.

The sections about Benjamin Church, Rogers' Rangers, and British light infantry tactics are particularly interesting.

The endnotes contain interesting and funny incidents that really

enhance the impact of the text.

We've become so accustomed to hearing about the "American Way of
War" that we rarely bother to reexamine it. In Conquering the American Wilderness, Chet challenges the assumption that English settlers learned from Native Americans how to fight as guerillas. He demonstrates that English fighting methods remained the same throughout the colonial period, and that the failure of colonial forces to do the job well led to greater and greater reliance on British Redcoats.

The key to the poor performance of provincials and to the overwhelming success of British regulars (culminating with the capture of Canada during the French and Indian War) was professionalism of officers, NCOs, and enlisted men.

What's interesting about this book is that it explains the wisdom and demonstrates the effectiveness of Europe's linear tactics (which are so often portrayed as senseless ritual). Chet then illustrates why large heavy formations, drawn in lines of battle, were so effective against French and Indian guerillas.

Conquering the American Wilderness also explains the origin of the myth of Americanization/Indianization of European warfare in the colonies, but because the book ends with the first battle of the American Revolution, it doesn't deal with the way the retelling of American victory magnified and enshrined the myth of the American guerilla tradition ("the American Way of War").

This book and its companion, Count Frontenac & New France Under Louis XIV represents one of the US's first great histories. Detailed, but lively written with only a few give-away phrases to let the reader know that this history was written over 100 years ago, these 2 volumes are a must read for any serious US/North American history buff.

This multi-volume edition of Parkman's magnum opus might appear initially daunting, as it covers more than 1,200 pages of material. Suffice it say, however, that the rewards are entirely worth the effort of fording your way through this majestic work.

Parkman triumphed over numerous personal disabilities (extremely poor eyesight and recurring pain in his limbs), to produce some of the most important and transcendent histories of the 19th century, works that secured him a place in the American Pantheon, beside Prescott and Bancroft. He has been interpreted both as an example of literary Romanticism by some, and as a supreme pessimist by others. His objective as an historian was to "while scrupulously and rigorously adhering to the truth of facts, to animate them with the life of the past, and, so far as might be, clothe the skeleton with flesh." This notion is reflected repeatedly throughout these volumes. His style is highly descriptive, borrowing as it does from his numerous treks to the sites he writes of. The Jesuits, trappers, governors, nuns and explorers he depicts come across as flesh-and blood, breathing, human beings, engaged in real activities. He has little place for abstraction, and never dwells overlong on minutiae. The ramifications of particular pacts or treaties, for instance, are subordinate to actual events and places. When he takes the reader into an Indian log-house, he/she can practically taste the smoke as it permeates the air.

When it comes to Native Americans, Parkman is far from sentimental. In fact, he bridled at the notion, common in 19th Century Romanticism (particularly Rousseau and even more conspicuously in Chateaubriand's ), of the Indian as noble savage. Parkman's earlier book on the Oregon Trail stemmed in part from his experiences amongst the Sioux on the Western Plains. The Indians depicted in these pages are, for the most part, more savage than noble. The Iroquois are especially ferocious in their raiding parties and in their methods of reprisal. Those who fell victim to their wrath were in for days and nights of unspeakable torture. Parkman describes these scenes almost too vividly. But as he himself would note,
"Faithfulness to the truth of history involves far more than research, however patient and scrupulous, into special facts. The narrator must seek to imbue himself with the life and spirit of the time." There are some academics that would argue that Parkman is not as objective as he would like us to think. He has a fairly consistent Protestant, Bostonian, Brahmin bias as regarding Catholicism, for instance. His view of Native Americans is hardly what could be termed politically correct. However one may feel about his viewpoint, one can not dismiss his power of depiction, or the scope of his genius and enterprise. When taking into account the fact that he produced volume upon volume of history, under the most debilitating circumstances, there can be no denying that he qualifies, as perhaps no one else, as "The American Gibbon." For the reader who wants to relive history at its most vivid, Parkman provides the goods. He paints in realistic detail the struggles, adventures and misadventures, the faith and foibles, great tribulations and monumental victories of an exceedingly noteworthy cast of characters. There are the infinitely stoical, but often-scheming Jesuits. There is the monomaniacal, driven, but honest-dealing and ultimately tragic figure of LaSalle. Champlain is another noteworthy figure, truly heroic in stature. The most heroic figure, however, may after all be Parkman himself. Shaped as he was by the notions of greatness fostered by such writers as Carlyle, it was a state he strove consciously to achieve. This collection, along with others in the Modern Library series, indicates that he achieved his goal. Thanks to The Modern Library for making authors such as Parkman accessible once more.

Francis Parkman's account of two centuries of French colonization in North America is a true classic -- undoubtedly superceded in many of the details of its scholarship, but unsurpassed as a Romantic narrative history of two eventful centuries. The publisher is to be commended for making the complete epic available in two affordable volumes. The reader will find the pacing leisurely, and high interest inevitably cannot be uniformly sustained, but patience and perserverance will be richly rewarded.

While the photography is great, it was limited to only a couple areas of Maine. I was hoping for more small town, quaint images. The only town featured was one that's not even on the map.

Stunning photographs and poetic/romantic writing. Makes me wish I had gone to Maine (during the summer of course!) while I was in college in New Jersey. This is a special book and it left me wanting more.

On the recommendation of a friend, my wife and I stumbled into a photo gallery in Deer Isle, Maine, last week during our vacation (we are from New York) to see the work of Terrell Lester, not even aware Knopf had recently published this book. We were, in short, completely blown away by his photos, all of which, and more, are collected in this remarkable book, along with four essays of varying interest. Lester's photos are like fine art, to be specific, like the best of the Hudson River School of painters back in the 1800s who created such vivid landscapes, saturated with reds and blues and yellow (and that's just in the sky). His photos of islands, mountains, rocks, lakes, surf, trees and spectacular blueberry fields blazing red in autumn are rich with emotion. They deserve to be, and in fact are, on museum walls. For the most part, they are reproduced well in "Maine: The Seasons," but in this case, you can't tell a book by its cover-- a wonderful (but rather too typical for a Maine book) photo of a father and a son heading off to work in their lobster boat. You won't be disappointed.

Boston, with its many districts, is a city that welcomes exploration by foot. Boston: Mini Rough Guide (though not a walking guide per se) gives you enough concise information to launch your pedestrian journey. Each district highlighted in the guide contains the necessary information to discover all the worthwhile sites. Impressive, are the twelve pages of colored maps at the back of the guide. Accommodations, eateries, drinking, night life, performing arts and other listings normally found in a travel guide are adequate. The uniqueness of this guide is its size and concise and accurate listings.

However, a few noticeable shortcomings need to be mentioned. In this day and age any guidebook should have a listing of the top web sites that are worth viewing prior to your trip. The Boston Mini Rough Guide does not. Also, this Rough Guide tries to be all things to all people, where in today's world, differentiation in audience focus is critical. It states that the Boston: Mini Rough Guide is designed for, travelers of all ages and all budgets. For such a small condensed guide this spreads its coverage too thin. The Boston: Mini Rough Guide has failed to find a distinctive marketing niche.

In SUMMARY: Boston: Mini Rough Guide is an adequate, informative guide that is very a reasonable price and packaged in a convenient size. Conditionally Recommended.

Customers may wish to learn that this book won a prestigious Lowell Thomas award from the Society of American Travel Writers -- I think the only Rough Guide to do so. The writing evokes the city well and the listings are kept current. Good format. A great buy for all those who need a few tips for making the most out of Boston, what the authors say is "as close to the Old World as the New World gets." And how.

I have found more terrific places from this guide,,from the Marliav restaurant to shopping tips. I can tell alot of reseach went into this comprehensive book

I bought this little treasure just to understand the thinking of my ancestors.

Good, fun stuff.

This little book was a standard primer from the seventeenth through the eighteenth century in America. It teaches reading and vocabulary based on Biblical and theological facts. My children love it.

Its theology is reformed theology, with which I am often in disagreement, however it provides an excellent basis for imparting Biblical values while teaching children to read.

For over one hundred years this book has been the basic textbook for new readers in America. Most of America's heros most likely learned to read using this book. Isn't it a shame that today it is against the law to use this textbook because of the quotes from the Bible. All parents should keep a copy of this book in their possession to remind them of the roots by which we have all come!

This book is multifaceted and some facets are better than others. I found the author's descriptions of his experiences with chronic mood disturbance enlightening and interesting. His attention to the interpersonal impact of dysphoria was especially good. As a book about the natural world, I was less satisfied. Moreover, I didn't find myself drawn to the connections he was making between processes in the natural world and the internal processes of a mood disorder. His accounts of his homelands lack the vividness found in works by Rick Bass or Richard Nelson. I don't want to overstate these criticisms; the book is well written and this is exactly the "type" of book I like: it's about a person who loves the land that surrounds him. However, better reading of this sort is found with the above-mentioned authors, or I especially want to recommend a couple of works by lesser known authors, "Purple Flat Top" by Jack Nisbet, and "Teewinot" by Turner.

Terry Osborne's coming-of-self narrative is brave, honest, and poignant. I have recently left New England after seven years, and Osborne's careful and tactile descriptions truly stirred me. But even for anyone who's unattached to a Vermont landscape, there's an important lesson here. Osborne shares with us his very personal journey to the discovery of how deeply our environment can inform our sense of self - in Osborne's case, how the complex "mosaic" of land, water, and air reflects the contours of his struggle with depression. Even now, living so far from all the swamp-and-peaks nature of Osborne's journeys (I'm a Paris resident), Sightlines has inspired me to explore my surroundings with a renewed energy and curiosity - to understand how much self-discovery can unfold through such an investigation. For that - and for his pure, graceful prose - I thank him!

Every so often a book reminds us of why we seek out the woods for solitude and comfort. "Sightlines" accomplishes that considerable feat with resounding success.

But it doesn't stop there. This elegant and deeply human narrative about the contours of landscapes (both inner and outer) lets us walk several paces behind the author and view his journey through years of depression even as we pause to lean against a nearby birch tree and admire the surrounding beauty of his rugged New England. The book is a remarkable achievement for combining these two storylines--and very often it is downright mesmerizing.

Osborne's writing--understated and controlled, what you'd expect from a Vermonter--soars to its greatest heights when framing the smallest things: a seemingly uprooted tree, a dark swamp, a river sand bar. Those images, and many others, stay vibrant long after the book is done.

I recently started fishing quite a bit of the cape and found this book to be an excellent resource. There are some parts where directions are somewhat vague, but it basically gets you in the area. I have also fished a little bit of Ct and NJ, and found most of the information accurate and insightful. Cross reference with other resources and you should find fish and parking.

This book is a good basic book for any one who wants to know where the are places to fish from the surf, but some of the directions to get to the places are a little fuzzy.

Duing the day I have caught the most fish ever at thislocation. Mostly blues but some bass. 20-25 fish in an afternoon.FUN

The key to successful surfcasting here is getting the most distance possible out of your cast. I use a 12ft rod, new 20lb test, and a 40 lb mono shock leader (tied correctly) with 4oz. metal during the day; sometimes white painted metal with a white rubber tail help with the bass during the day.

I have seen a distance of 20-30 feet on a cast make the difference between an instant hook-up and casting again.

The cost related to getting to wasque is getting more and more expensive every year. During the Summer months fishermen are evan charged to walk on the property. If you have a four wheel drive, and plan fishing the spot with four or more people, for a couple days or more, opt for the 4-wheel oversand permit, (not cheap and more $$ every year) but worth it...

This is a fairly good and helpful book on gardening in Maine. Being a citizen of Maine myself I know a thing or two about gardening up here, for instance there is a very short season here. If you have trouble gardening, no matter what type, being herb, vegetable, spices, fruits, or even trees this book will most likely give you some long awaited answers. This book even shows you how to garden indoors for those times you don't feel like getting eaten by bugs. So if you love gardening then this is a fairly good choice, but look into some other books first.

This is a model garden book. The superb photographs provide the backbone of the book. The text is short, not filled out with unecessary words copied from other garden books as is often the case. The photos show what is working in other peoples' gardens and are replete with good ideas.

This book is very inspiring, brilliant and incredibly colorful. It showcases some of the great variety of gardens, and also points out the challenges that face the gardener in this northern most New England state. It is well designed, with many large photos, and the reading is very easy, but informative. The photos have been choosen to inspire and delight, and the captions are hardworking-explaining tasks and identifying the plants. A very beautiful piece of work!