When I saw this cookbook I said,"Great, now I can enjoy Black Dog food without enduring the famously long wait and arrogant attitude." Boy, was I wrong.The authors seem to be so involved in self promotion that it's a wonder they have any time to cook!The recipes are not what I eat at the Black Dog on the Vineyard. There is not even any mention of the brand of pancake mix I see the breakfast chefs mixing up on Sunday mornings through the open doorway of the busy,filthy kitchen. The recipes changed a lot in translation from high volume to home sized. I would probably like this book better if it were what is presents itself as, Black Dog Recipes.The restaraunt on the Vineyard prides itself in it's "daily changing menu" This book contains some excellent recipes hidden in the fluff and almost unbearable ramblings of its overly self aware authors.

My friend Carl and I first ate at the Black Dog Tavern several times in 1973. It had only been open for a couple of years. The food was very good and the restaurant was very unspoiled by huge crowds. If it had not been for Amizon, I probably would not have been aware that this, their first cookbook, was now available.

I have tried several of the receipes and my favorites are the Cruncy Pecan Chicken, Blueberry Banana Pancakes and several of the delicious deserts. However, I must say that the majority of the recipes would be enjoyed more if you lived in a seashore area where a lot of the fresh seafood was readily available. The chowders and seafood recipes are very good. This is probably not a cookbook you would use for your everyday cooking. What I enjoyed most about this cookbook was the commentary and the beautiful photos and a reminder of my many enjoyable times on the Vineyard.

I have friends who recently dined at the Black Dog and they said they enjoyed the food but did not enjoy the long wait to be seated. However, they did come back with yet another T-shirt and mug with the Black Dog.

I so badly wanted to dislike this cookbook. I went to Martha's Vineyard once, and I was nauseated by all the look-at-how-upwardly-mobile-I-am people that abounded. The most reprehensible are the people who wear Black Dog t-shirts-- nobody cares that you went to Martha's Vineyard. I still doubt that you're Old Money.

Anyway, contemptuous of the restaurant as I am, I sneered when my friend came home from college with this cookbook. Even the recipes sound snotty-- lots of heavy sauces, and expensive, obscure ingredients. But I agreed to make the clam chowder in the book just as the recipe called for, and it was amazing. We made a few others, and they were all at least very good. There are lots of neat ideas for omlettes.

My advice is to consider getting the cookbook, but avoid Martha's Vineyard at all costs.

What is truly remarkable about this book is that the photographer completed his work wearing nothing but boxer shorts!

I was excited to recieve this book as a holiday gift, but after taking the time to go through it I find I am very disappointed by the generic quality of the photographs. I thought I'd be seeing something new, but it doesn't show me anything I couldn't see myself. Too bad the project is now basically finished and these tired images will be part of the permanent record of the true engineering miracle of the Big Dig. The project and the people who made it deserve better.

The spectacular cover of this book really caught my eye, and the pages inside continued a feeling of wonder as I saw the Big Dig as I'd never seen it. Only a very talented, slightly obsessed photographer could have gotten the shots that Sette Ducate did. They are unbelievable. If you've been caught in endless traffic delays and swear at the Big Dig daily, this book might give you a few positive feelings about it. The incredible pictures of the new bridge make me realize that there really is an end in sight, and that Boston is going to be a great place once it's all done. I also have to say that the price of this book is reasonable, considering all the color photos. The first book by this author explained what was going on. This one shows the drama and even beauty of the project, and also helps understand its scope. I don't recommend much, but I really recommend this - for kids too (especially boys, I guess.)

This is an adult version of the Arabian Nights tales that most kids grow up with. By adult I do not mean that it contains a lot of sexual material, however there is some, so this book is probably not appropriate for children. Stories like "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves" and "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp" are included in here, along with some more obscure stories like "The Hunchback's Tale". If you're interested in learning about stories from the middle east, this is the book for you.

I read an abridged version as a youngster many, many years ago, before I discovered and became passionate about Sir Richard F. Burton and his exploits, and have continued to reread the book throughout my life. Because I move around so much, and always give the book to good friends as a present, I find myself having to buy it again and again. Of course I don't mind at all! The tales always take me back to that first time I read them, and bring me forward as I read them into my own life. It's like a story within the story. I am looking forward to giving this book to my children as a present. It will be fantastic! I'll introduce them to Burton and let the book's magic capture their imaginations, just like it did me.

I have been searching for an Arabian Nights book for months. The only books I found were rewrites for children. Then I came across this masterpiece. While it was alittle hard to read at first (because of the old english used), I was soon drawn into the enchanting stories held within. This has all the classic "Nights" tales that we grew up with (Alladin, Ali Babba, Sinbad) plus many, many more! They will undoubtably grab you and draw you in. I highly recommend this to anyone! You won't be dissapointed!

This was an incredible piece of reading! All reviewers are correct...it is absolutely hilarious, in many ways. The funniest book I've read since Big Trouble (Dave Barry) and maybe even funnier.

It is about a cast of unlikely characters whose lives change dramatically one night at the Captain Admiral Benbow Inn. Each characters' life changes in a different way...although the circumstances leading up to each persons' change all affect how the other peoples' change, and well...it's just so brilliantly executed it's hard to explain, read it!

The character development is perfect...we get to see the lighter side of a wide variety of people, such as the artist Tim Picasso (basically the main character), the Miami drug runner/hitman Jesus Castro, the dysfuntional married couple Magdalene and George Hawthorne (also the innkeepers), the paranoid/schizophrenic writer Mr. Glowery (John Wong!), the mysterious guy in the lighthouse, Mr. Briscoe (who shows his true colors near the end....) and several others...

There are so many humor styles, one to fit everybody's humor "agendas...:" satire, slapstick, dry, witty, intelligent, crude, to name a few. One minute, you might be laughing at a witty literary reference, the next you'll be laughing at an explicit sexual joke, and everything between. Yes, there are some vulgarities, if you are too sensitive....you may be offended by parts. But do yourself a favor and give it a try, the rest of it is worth it.

There is never a dull moment...so many interesting and rioutous situations...from the Literary Workshop, to the Chinese Resaurant, to Briscoe's "escape" and more....leading up to a rousing ending, where there is an unlikely hero and characters go separate ways, and some interesting choices for "where they go!"

I am happy to read (in the jacket) that this book is already under contract with Warner Brothers for a movie. WB, do me a favor: don't mess this book up! If done right, this will be a hilarious film. I'm also happy to read that Monohan is working on his second novel. P>Also appreciated, is that it's short, compact, easy to read, yet intelligently written. Just a great book all around. Give it a try, nothing to lose!

Just when you thought modern fiction was going to be one interminable, anemic New Yorker short story, along comes William Monahan with guns blazing! He shoots down the foibles and pretensions of bloodless academics, Miami hit men, and all the rest of us with deadly accuracy. The characters and dialogue are so perfect that the defiantly wild plot is an extra added attraction. His rhythm is STARTLINGLY good ... Suddenly you remember what it's like to read a master of the lost art of writing. As we have, you'll find yourself collecting your own Monahan-isms...(gnome seign?) Whole sentences come back and make you laugh out loud in line at the bank. PLEASE READ THIS BOOK - You're in the hands of a REAL WRITER.

He's wacky and cerebral. He's outrageous, fey, and ingenious. He's William Monahan, author of Light House, a laugh-out-loud funny tale of the shenanigans at a rustic and rusty New England B & B. Think "Fawlty Towers," "Saturday Night Live," the Keystone Kops, and the Three Stooges, then you have an approximation of the hilarious characters Monahan has created. Yet,, even his pathetic ne'er do wells and hallucinatory misfits speak biting truths from time to time. Monahan has hit the jackpot in more ways than one with this debut novel - Warner Brothers bought the film rights. One can only imagine the hilarity provoked by Light House on a wide screen. Meanwhile, enjoy the book. It's one of the best summer reads to be found. Our protagonist is young Boston based Tim Picasso, "an intensely moral person without being annoyingly messianic." He has problems - he is greatly talented as an artist and extremely good looking, "which meant that quite a lot of people hated him automatically." Thwarted in his artistic career by a jealous professor, Tim is broke and despondent. Cadged into joining a friend on the island of Tortilla, Tim inadvertently begins running drugs for underworld kingpin Jesus Castro. Finding the "criminal business" quite well-paying and "extraordinarily simple," Tim sets out on his life of crime, transporting the illegal from Miami to Boston. When $1.5 million intended for Jesus falls into Tim's hands, temptation wins out. The handsome wannabe artist grabs the booty, runs, and lands in a forsaken New England village, Tyburn, where he finds lodging at the woebegone Admiral Benbow Inn which is owned and haphazardly operated by George Shakespeare, "an Anglophile of the foaming variety," and his unhappy wife, Magdalene, a failed dancer and actress. Unbeknownst to Tim, he is being trailed by one of Jesus's men, Cesar Pilosi, a loden hatted extremely expensive private detective who eventually rents a room at the Inn as does Jesus himself. Tim is not only surrounded by his enemies, but also eccentrics. Professor Menelaus G. Eggman, who has come to the Inn and Tyburn to run an amateur writer's workshop is also a somnambulist given to muttering gibberish during his nocturnal strolls. Mr. Glowery, a less than mediocre writer, arrives in Tyburn after pilfering other people's email addresses to write Amazon.com praising his own work and trashing everyone else's. He is convinced that a bestselling author is a fraud, and must be exposed as such to the world. Edward Coffin Briscoe has been retained to renovate the nearby lighthouse, but his true desire is to wear women's clothes. When a particularly vicious winter storm forces this cast of comedic characters to seek refuge at the Inn, Katie-bar-the-door for what happens next. Highly original, mirth provoking, and intellectual, Light House is a winner on all counts.

It was a believable story that could have happened on any college campus. There was a driving force to finish this book, so you would know the truth-eventually! The characters were real and exciting. You really wanted to know them. Krissy was someone-you hated at one time, and loved the next. I could not stop reading it! I had to know what was going to happen next! Now, I just want to read more books by Simons. She is great! This book would make a great movie.

I loved: "Tully". Red Leaves is an unbelievably great book. Ms. Simon's characters are taken from life. This particular novel is set at college, about four friends and the choices they make. The novel is shocking, sad and achingly funny. Headlines ripped from today's real world.

I was anxious to read the latest book by Paullina Simons, the author of Tully, and it didn't disappoint! Finding out who murdered Kristina Kim becomes secondary to learning about the details of her mysterious life. Kristina, like Tully, is a strong young woman who makes no apologies for her unorthodox life. Red Leaves is also very similar to Donna Tartt's The Secret Language so I think anyone who enjoyed it or Tully will love this book as well.

There is not a shred of historical authenticity to this book. The well-known bits and pieces of folklore in the book from the West Country that ARE authentic have nothing to do with any secret "witch" religion. I think that Rhiannon Ryall probably tossed them in to make the other information (that she clearly fabricated) seem more legitimate.

Her "old craft" invocations and ceremonies are extremely new-agey, cheesy, pink and fluffy. This is not from the Old West Country. Bad rhymes, lack of meter or structure, the same old tired "secrecy" oaths and ludicrous claims of a very large and organized underground craft-religion in England, and the OBVIOUS Gardnerian loan material all make this one of the least serious books I've ever seen on the craft.

Without a doubt, some of the recipes and such may be real, but old wives' recipes from Somerset and Devon are not a "secret witchcraft" that we need yet ANOTHER book about, making silly authenticity claims, to give itself a validity and marketability that it does not deserve.

I belong to a Traditional West Country Crafter group. I can promise you that not a single word of this so-called "pre-gardnerian" tradition that Ms. Ryall claims she was taught is from anywhere else but the West Country in her own imagination.

Some reviewers state West Country Wicca is fictional, some say it's true: There's actually no way of knowing what went on in the writers town. You can't prove one way or the other.

I liked the book, though. I think it could be useful for a lot of people who are tired of some of the overly cerimonial aspects of Wicca. This book contains simple and down to earth rituals and ideas. This book can offer something positive that people can constructivly use. Isn't that what matters?

I've only had this book for about 2 weeks and I've read it 4 times. Ryall gives a personal account on what the Old Religion was like before the tidal wave of neo-pagan books and traditions. She tells of a "tradition" that is simple, earthy and "tongue in cheek". Don't be thrown off by the word simple, the people of the old country were too busy with farming and community to worry with scholarly persuits and elaborate wiccan tools and ritual, this is still a very BEAUTIFULL way of celebrating the earth and the God and Goddess. I am basically a kitchen witch that follows the religion of witchcraft and have found no need for elaborate ceremonial magic, or supplies. So I was delighted to find information on common household herbs and spices to use in magick as well as folklore and many recipes and beautifully simplistic rituals.

Michael Cunningham graces one of his favorite places on earth, Provincetown at the tip of Cape Cod's hook, with his wonderful, almost poetic prose. He takes us with him as he introduces us to the town's characters both past and present, to the beaches, the dunes, both ends of town, the nightspots, and everything in between.
A treat.

"A Walk Through Provincetown" is not your typical travel guide. Cunningham was invited to contribute to a series of travel books and this is his unique and inspiring contribution. It's a one man journey across a town that he first came to over twenty years ago. Cunningham has given us an interesting combination of historical facts and personal reflections. He describes Provincetown's cultural interests, its shops, bars, street life, heritage, gay cruising areas, and its historical sites.

Cunningham presents a very personal view of Provincetown, one that is filled with wonder, joy, and a deep love of this town. He always writes beautifully, and this book includes poems and prose passages from many of Provincetown's other distinguished writers. This book is a pleasure to read for anyone who cares about this very special place, and for those not familiar with the town, a way to learn about it from someone who cares. This is an elegant personal tour of a town that has always been rich in diversity. Hopefully, it will remain that way for this generation and generations to come. Cunningham has made a great contribution in furthering that goal. A wonderful book!

Joe Hanssen

Michaeal Cunningham loves Provincetown and conveys that love in every sentence in this beautifully written book about a great town. He ably does what every travel writer should do: he convinces those who have never been to Provincetown to visit and makes those who have been there want to return.

Mr. Cunningham does a thorough job of describing the town's geography as well as both the famous artists who lived there in the past and those of the present, also the "town characters" one can run into on the busy streets on any summer day. There is also poems by Mark Doty, Stanley Kunitz, Robert Pinsky and Melvin Dixon, among others included throughout the book.

Finally Mr. Cunningham discusses the effect AIDS has had on the gay population of Provincetown in a chapter called "Death and Life" and pays tribute to a friend named Billy who died from AIDS. "Provincetown has been widowed by the AIDS epidemic. It will never fully recover, though it is accustomed to loss. . . Provincetown possesses, has always possessed, a steady, grieving competence in the face of all that can happen to people. It watches and waits; it keeps the lights burning. If you are a man or woman with AIDS there, someone will always drive you to your doctor's appointments, get your groceries if you can't get them yourself, and take care of whatever needs taking care of."

Is there any wonder why this writer loves Provincetown?

As readers of Lawrence Block's "Burglar" series know, master cracksman Bernie Rhodenbarr is a city boy -- New York City, to be specific. It is strange, then, to see him tromping through the snow and the plush rooms of a British-style manor house in THE BURGLAR IN THE LIBRARY. Block uses the eighth installment in this excellent series as an opportunity to send up mysteries of the Agatha Christie "And Then There Were None" variety (also taking some affectionate potshots at Raymond Chandler along the way). The result is extremely funny, and the brilliance of the comedy makes it hard to mind too much that the solution to the book's mystery is awfully hard to follow. Does anyone complain that the plot of Neil Simon's "Murder By Death" doesn't make any sense? No. They just pop the tape in the VCR and laugh themselves sick. THE BURGLAR IN THE LIBRARY is disorienting in spots and some long-time readers may not approve of the change of venue, but I defy any reader to make it from cover to cover without laughing out loud. A wonderful, wonderful work of comic fiction.

This is a tribute to Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler, all rolled into one neat murder mystery. Bernie and Carolyn spend the weekend in a New England guesthouse, which attempts to replicate an authentic old English manor. When guests begin showing up murdered, it's Bernie who plays the part of Hercule Poirot or, if you like, Philip Marlowe, as he gathers the clues, which will hopefully lead him to the murderer before too many more guests are knocked off. Being a guesthouse, there are suspects aplenty delivering us ample opportunity to figure out the mystery ourselves. If mystery fans will be delighted by this book, then fans of the British crime story will be even more so. Combining the wit and humour of Lawrence Block with the traditional murder mystery creates a deadly weekend, though presented in a light and breezy manner.

The Burglar series is one of the most clever and entertaining mystery series in modern times. I love Block's style of snappy, yet pithy banter between Bernie and Carolyn. Set in an upstate New York bed and breakfast, and trapped by a snowstorm, an eccentric set of guests start noticing bodies dropping like flies. Was it Professor Plum in the conservatory with a candlestick? Perhaps Mrs Peacock? Bernie wants to solve the murders, but also is interested in pilfering an autographed copy of Raymond Chandler's "The Big Sleep". I was able to guess the killer fairly early, but was highly entertained by the quirky guests, including the pompous British Colonel, and 10 year old Millicent. A couple of things were left unexplained at the end, however, including one of the deaths (natural causes?). Furthermore, Millicent saw something that she reported to Bernie, but nothing ever became of it. I wanted all the loose ends tied up. I know, Chandler wouldn't have tied them, but this wasn't a hardboiled detective story. I also expected more out of Bernie's fake death trick. Nevertheless, this book is very good, and taken with a grain of salt, you will enjoy it!

Elizabeth Winthrop uses an island setting to examine a group of people and their ties to one another, both good and ill. She builds the interlacing relationships among families, from within and in their interactions with other families, beautifully evoking the insecurities and needinesses of teenagers, as well as the tensions, baggage, and hopes of adults in this community.

The island's occupants are a varied group who reflect the problems and malaise of America everywhere: a troubled family poisoned by the vicious dominance of its father, who is also the sheriff and a locally important businessman; a high school teacher dealing with his own past while trying to bring a love of science and life to his students; and Maggie, a reluctant resident who begins to learn that life's restrictions can also be its satisfactions. Conflict among them builds to a climax and an unexpected resolution as the island dispenses its own unique justice.

Winthrop makes the feel of the place almost tangible. The reader can almost smell the sea and mud, the bracken, reeds and trees; feel the sat air summer and winter. It's well worth the read!

I hated to have Island Justice end. She made me envious that I could not be a part of the closeness of the 'year 'round' Island people...the way they looked out for each other and took care of their "problems." I checked Amazon.com and found only children's books by Elizabeth Winthrop...plus an out of print title, In My Mother's House. So, I for one, can't wait for her next book for adults. Her characters are so real...

I was captured by the book from the beginning. Not having experienced island life myself, I was fascinated by the "summer" and "year-round" mentality, intrigue and characters. Ms. Winthrop brought their trials, loves and interests to life. I would definately read another book by this author.

I'm a big fan of Baker having read all his previous books. I do appreciate some of the day to day instances that make up our lives (I even laughed a lot while I read them -- the piece on peeing standing up at night is quite funny) and love Baker's writing, but overall I found this a rather trite literary exercise in making small details central. Again, Baker manages to be witty and clever in spots, but as a novel, albeit a short one, this one falls short of his other books. Maybe it was the ranchy plots of Fermata and Vox that made those short novels more interesting than this one? In any case, you'll feel that you're reading Baker's real life thoughts as he lights the fire every morning at roughly 4am and that's less interesting that you might think. On the bright side, it won't take anyone more than an hour or so to read this novella, so you can't get too angry at the author for taking up your valuable time.

Nicholson Baker's A Box of Matches is a novel that has no plot. It's a creative and provocative book that has to do with nothing but also everything. Emmett is a 44-year-old medical textbook editor who has a wife Claire, two children Phoebe and Henry, a cat and a duck Greta. Now Emmett contemplates an interesting idea. Inspired by Claire who took him to see the first emerging blade of sunrise on New Year's day, he decides to get up very early before dawn, when the sky is still a conceivable blue and pitch-dark, strikes a match and lights a fire and meditates before the kicking off of the day.

The book has no plot but hinges on a theme: Emmett wants to know what life is about. Sitting in front of the orange cavern, in a bathrobe, eyes barely lubricated, Emmett thinks. Nothing really compelling about the daily petty anecdotes, the paltry conversations, and the inveterate, perfunctory house chores. What makes the book so compelling is Emmett's fiery zest with which he relays his most ordinary anecdotes.

1.The toe-hole in the sock of his foot becomes intolerable at night.
2.The double-flush plunger with a narrow tip comes in rescue to lunge the bathtub drain and clears the clog.
3.Greta, the duck, makes whimpering noise when she pecks at some snail stuck in the bottom of a log.
4.Absent-minded Emmett loses his key, which is later found frozen under a piece of raw meat in the freezer.
5.Hose winder spares the hands from the mulchy things and snail slime attached to the hose when being winded manually.
6.Emmett prefers a soap that is not brain-shriveling with perfumes but heavy with soap material.
7.His toes learn, by trial and error, to arch and lift up from the tub to avoid the impact of collision when the bar of soap slips out of his hand and drops.
8.The most effective method to clean a baking pan that previously holds a casserole is to let it soak overnight, squirt and trail soap in the baked-on atolls and the suds will give away.
9.The fire should be made by feel, feeding slab of junk mails, supermarket circulars, and pieces of pizza box into the slot made by two logs.
10.In an inquisitive state, one should never turn over a cup and see if the Hollerbee chinaware logo is imprinted, and thus sending a gush of hot tea onto the trousers.
11.Men should sit on the toilet for their business in the middle of the night should they have bad aiming.
12.Be careful with cutting apple woods. They could leap up and whack in your face in a nick of second.

Of course you will have to join Emmett's early-bird ritual and take joy in his life meditation. The book is graciously divided into 33 short chapters and each chapter represents each of the 33 matches from the box Emmett strikes every morning. He always starts off with "Good Morning, it's _:__am" and he would rebuke himself for getting up late in a couple mornings.

The amazing thing about this book is however thorough the observations and wise the subjects Emmett observes, the narrative always confines in his home, in front of the fireplace and moves no further than the backyard where Greta the duck takes residence in a doghouse. This is a celebration of life ordinariness. The writing is daft, thoughtful and crisp. Beautifully written. 4.1 stars.

This creative piece of fiction by Nicholson Baker is really more than just that. Baker's main character, Emmett, runs a parallel, rural life not unlike the authors own. Baker throws all his own feelings about the tiny things around him and their vast impact on his life into his character's daily ritual. It all starts out with the flare of a match. "Good Morning, it's 4:45 a.m."

If you think an ordinary man with an ordinary life has nothing to say at four o'clock in the morning, you couldn't be more off-base. While sitting in the dark and sipping hot coffee, Emmett explores everything from the nuisance of having a hole in his bedtime sock, to the perplexity of life "passing him by". The beauty of this book is that Baker takes these thoughts and pushes them one step further, bringing the eating habits of a pet duck or a root beer-stained brief case full circle. This kind of writing always bring validation to our normal lives.

"I've just ridden my tricycle, gone to school, greased my bearings, gotten a job, gotten married, had children, and here I am."

Each chapter starts out with Emmett's familiar greeting, a quick, usually comical, quibble of his morning run-down, and then a thoughtful stream of whatever is on the top of his mind. Whether he reminisces about his youth or contemplates the lives of chimney sweeps, he wraps each section up in a pointedly keen observation about the meaning of these things in life.

While this book is categorized as a 'novel' I find it really hard to thing of in such a way. If it weren't for the fictional name of the character I would've just assumed this was a personal memoir. Also, besides the message that the everyday coming's and going's of our lives make up who we are, I felt this book didn't carry a very strong theme. I fully believe in Bakers underlying philosophy, but was hoping that there would be some kind of a story line to tie all these vignettes together (there were a couple of chapters where Emmett battles an illness that I thought would lead to something, but it never did). Even so, there's so much to enjoy in this book. Anyone who's raised a family, gotten married, or lived an 'ordinary' life would thoroughly enjoy reading this.