I read this book and found it, frankly, depresing. If you would like to know, it is about a 15 year old boy who's mother passed away the year before. Now his father and himself have seemed to drift apart. So much that his father seems like a stranger. At the beginning of the book he reminises of the so-called Old Days when his mother was still alive, and when they went on car trips, and how they would play road games, which I hate to say made me feel ultimitly depressed. Then on about the second chapter, he reaches his grandparents house where he sulks and reminisses some more, while cleaning his grandmother's small family graveyard. At about 2/4 through the book, he notices a small picture of a man in a basic flannel shirt and blue jeans. After asking a family friend, he realizes it's a tin-type of the legendary Sin Eater. After this dreary period, he finally makes some local friends who take him to the Sin Eater's former house where he finds a treasure. Then Christmas time comes, and his father spends all his time upstairs in the attic, looking at old pictures, while he refuses to put up a tree, because of the memories of past Christmas's when his wife was still alive. I won't tell you the rest, in case you would like to read it yourself, but it ends in a somewhat happy ending. I would not recommed this book, but I suppose some people might like it, if your the type of person who enjoys some-what depressing lituature.

After reading these past reviews as compared to the booklist review, I cannot see how a critic can compare to the real people this book was written for--the regular reader. though it took me but a day to read this book, I found it invigorating, insightful and meaningful. I must admit, I am quite biased, Schmidt is one of my professors and mentors. Yet, regardless of this fact, this story is one that should be told. If not for the story itself, then for the moral and the message behind it--that one shouldn't let the hardships of life bring them down, that life goes on..we should charish life.

This book is a true gem. It is beautifully written and constructed. The reviewer from Booklist seems to have misunderstood the book when she said that the Sin Eater element was not well integrated -- all of the elements of this book are perfectly integrated. It is, in fact, the Sin Eater "character"(as well as Cole's grandparents, friends and community) that allow Cole to cope with and understand his loss. This is a truly beautiful book with many layers of meaning. It is about the value of family history and experience, the past, community, faith... It's a book that will make you think. It's a book you will want to reread. Don't take it lightly and don't miss it!

Lately, I've come to really like the writings of Thoreau. It has taken me several years to return to this author...after being forced to read excerpts from Thoreau at a ridiculously fast pace during high school. Little time to read and less time for reflection left a bad impression of Thoreau in my mind that has, as I said, only recently been overcome.

But now, upon my return, I have found "A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers" by Henry David Thoreau to be a very invigorating book...one to be savored and not read too quickly. Taken at a good pace, it has been a joy.

While transcendentalism still strikes me as a rather facile and egotistical philosophy, I have really come to see and appreciate the mystical quality in Thoreau's works. Like most mystical authors, Thoreau is not always engrossing--he is actually rather tedious in points, but his work is punctuated by passages of sheer brilliance.

Seeing nature through Henry's eyes has been a wake up call to me personally. This book breathes excitement and lust for life upon the reader. Even his long winded discussions of different kinds of fish serve to alert me to my own lack of wonder. This world, even in its current subjection to futility , is still a wonderful creation. Nature (and Thoreau's picture of these rivers especially) echo the declaration of the Psalmist: "The heavens are telling of the glory of God; And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands" (Psalm 19:1).

I highly recommend this wonderful book.

Thoreau sought the seclusion of the pond to write *this* book, not _Walden_. In 19th-century terms, this treatise is a modified travelogue based on a 13-day boat trip that Henry and his brother John took in 1839. By today's standards, contemporary editors and many an English teacher would decorate this manuscript with red ink and admonish the author that he strays too often and too far from the main subject. Bill Bryson's essays wander too, but he doesn't usually reach back and quote the Bhagavad-Gita, Homer, Chaucer, or Shakespeare. But whenever Henry takes in his surroundings, he is reminded of something else, and before you know it a serious discourse is off and running, and it has nothing to do with floating upstream or down. He expresses his opinions or offers his knowledge about fish, mythology, religion, poetry, reading, writing, history, government, traveling, waterfalls, friendship, love, life, nature, art, dreams, and science. He reminisces about a previous trip to the Berkshires and a sail down the Connecticut River. He breaks into poetry at whim -- sometimes his own words, more often someone else's. Along the way, the brothers paddle from Concord, Massachusetts, to the area around Concord, New Hampshire, and then turn around and go home. We meet some of the people they encounter along the way and get a glimpse of New England life during that time period. In some respects, the people and the land haven't changed much at all. We can see Thoreau's environmentalism when he talks about dams and their effects on the habits and habitats of fish -- concerns that are still with us today. We can laugh at his puns and enjoy his wordplay (i.e., "The shallowest still water is unfathomable" and Man needs "not only to be spiritualized, but *naturalized*, on the soil of earth.") Above all, we can explore these rivers and shorelines during a time period that we will never see personally, with the aid of a native naturalist who's in the habit of sharing his observations and thoughts.

Read _Walden_ first. And if you find you enjoy Henry's take on nature and civilization and life and living, pick up _A Week_. There are a few gems lurking in here that you might connect with.

[From Boating on the Catawba...in the
"Musketaquid"]

I will take the definite role of the
Nay-Sayer in the long line of aficianados
and idolators who insist that *Walden* is
Henry David Thoreau's masterpiece...
I will simply state that this work and
"Life Without Principle" are his great
contributions to literature, thought, and
value...

Take this quote from "Life Without Principle"
(before I get to 'A Week...'):
"To speak impartially, the best men that
I know are not serene, a world in themselves.
For the most part, they dwell in forms, and
flatter and study effect only more finely
than the rest. We select granite for the
underpinning of our houses and barns; we
build fences of stone; but we do not ourselves
rest on an underpinning of granite.
we do not teach one another the lessons of
honesty and sincerity that the brutes do, or
of steadiness and solidity that the rocks
do. The fault is commonly mutual, however;
for we do not habitually demand any more of
each other."

If that is not "preaching," but in the
sense of a prophet, not a mere sermonizer,
then there hasn't been any in a long time.
But Father Mapple's sermon in 'Moby-Dick' is
right up there with it.

If I had only known of Thoreau [and I had
not read much of him (and little then)except
at the University] and had to believe that
Thoreau was just what he seems to be in
'Walden,' then I would have given the man
short shrift...because there is not enough
of any sort of heart or soul in that work
to believe that he is even human. But
fortunately, a Thoreau worshipper (or rather,
*Walden* worshipper) forced me, by his own
imperious egotism, to try to understand this
man Thoreau and his views. It is fortunate
that I did, for I discovered 'A Week....'

This Penguin Classics edition is excellent
in a number of ways -- the two most important
being the notes in the back which explain the
allusions, and ancient Latin and Greek sources
and excerpts(for those who might not know them)
which Thoreau quotes and sometimes translates;
and the incredible "Introduction" by the editor,
H. Daniel Peck.
He can say his wondrous words himself:

"There is good reason for 'A Week's open
acknowledgment of the attritions of time
and loss. Conceived initially as a travel
book, 'A Week' was immeasurably deepened into
an elegiac account of experience by a tragic
event that occurrred in Thoreau's life in
the period following the 1839 voyage. In
1842, Thoreau's companion on that voyage,
his brother John, died suddenly, and in
agonizing pain, from lockjaw.
Without question this was the greatest loss
that Thoreau ever was to suffer. (He seems
to have undergone, in the aftermath of his
brother's death, a sympathetic case of the
illness that caused John's death, and the few
entries that appear in his journal in this
period are desperately mournful.) Interestingly,
though the pronoun 'we' characterizes the
narrator often in the book, the brother's
name is never mentioned -- an indication perhaps
of Thoreau's enduring need to distance himself
from this loss. there is nothing in 'A Week'
that directly refers to the death of John Thoreau.
Instead, his memory is evoked through various
symbolic strategies. For example, the long
digression on friendship in the chaper
'Wednesday' surely is intended to reflect the
intimacy Thoreau shared with his brother. Even
the ubiquitious 'we' of the narrator's voice
speaks to this intimacy. So intertwined are
the two brothers' identities in this pronoun
that it is often difficult to tell whether a
given action has been taken by Henry or John,
or both at once."

"To emphasize the elegiac aspects of 'A Week'
is to remind ourselves that throughout Western
history, rivers -- and voyages upon them --
have served as metaphors of transience and
mortality. Yet, as I indicated earlier,
'A Week' is not solely a mournful book. Its
rivers also support a spiritual buoyancy, and
provide the setting for exploration and adventure.
Most important, however, the book's larger
structure enables it to 'transcend and redeem'
the individual losses that it recounts."

[wonderful writing here!]
"In general, the outward-bound voyage of 'A Week'
dramatizes the writer's encounter with time and
its losses; on that voyage, he pays close
attention to the shore -- which, in its discreet
scenes of spoliation and historical change,
symbolizes the passage of time. The homeward
voyage, on the other hand, suggests assimilation,
resolution, and renewal. If the primary mode of
perception on the outward voyage had been
observation (of the shore), then the primary
mode of the return voyage is contemplation.
Now we are involved in an inward exploration,
and, symbolically, our vision leaves the shore
and returns to the river and the flow of
consciousness that it represents."
-- H. Daniel Peck; "Introduction."

I read The Graveyard Gang, by James Duffy. This book is about a girl named Abby Abbot. She's a really rich kid and if she doesn't get what she wants, she'll throw a big fit. The school year ended and she got the chance to be friends with these three other girls, Sandy, Wilma, and Cathy. One day they all met in this one cemetery and decided to find a job, because they needed the money. Then these guys show up, one's name is Donald Jenkins, but he goes by "Bigmouth" and his friend that follows him around doesn't talk much, and his name is Steve.
I thought that this book was really boring. This book I think would fit the age group 10-12. The reason, is that when you're that young, you're thinking of making up a club for just you and your friends. This is a good book for anyone who likes clubs and mysteries. I have been a really big fan of Mr. Duffys' work for a very long time. So I was very disappointed that this book didn't turn out like I wanted it too. Overall, I thought that this book was suited for kids for ages 10-12. Since I didn't really like this book doesn't mean that I'm not going to stop reading his books, it just means that I probably won't read it again.

unlike most books that i have read - i really enjoyed this one.

The Graveyard Gang was one of the best books I have read. I would like to see more off James Duffy's books. The story was well laid out and keept you woundering.

A disappointing read after "Tree of Heaven." I felt that the sub-plots detracted from the main storyline of the book. After a slow start, the book had confusing threads: part self-indulgent confession, part folk tale. I was frustrated by this lack of focus, plus the entire hermetic writer theme. I just couldn't sympathize or empathize with most of the characters. They seemed curiously flat. I had a feeling about the way the book was going to end, and was disappointed to be right. Couldn't tell if I just didn't "get it" or if it was really not that great of a read.

R.C. Binstock has once again written a book that explores the depth of human passion and possibility with remarkable insight and tenderness. Emotionally blocked and embittered, the writer Phillip has cloistered himself away to avoid further injury from the world, and perhaps, also, to avoid burdening others with his pain. But in a gesture that surprises even himself, he opens the door to a troubled, young woman and offers her refuge and companionship, things he had thought himself no longer capable of giving. The two begin a sensual dance, grounded in need, but drawing them into a dangerous territory beyond society's limits and their own. THE SOLDIER takes the reader on a journey into the deepest wells of feeling and to the boundaries of the self and self-imposed exile. Breathtaking prose and an unforgettable story.

In "The Soldier," R.C. Binstock expertly weaves a number of story lines together to create a unified theme of love and loss. The main narrative, involving a reclusive author and the young, female cousin who comes to stay with him, is a moving and sensitive portrayal of one man's paralyzing sense of disconnection and yearning, and the difficulty he has in reaching out to experience love. Other story threads -- involving a middle-aged woman coming to terms with her own losses; a civil war soldier struggling with the horrors of war; and a benign, ghostly presence -- illuminate the main narrative in ways that are both surprising and subtle. This is a challenging novel that reveals itself to the reader slowly and unexpectedly, long after one has finished reading. Mr. Binstock's style is poetic, without compromising a sense of realism. In addition, the book is powerfully erotic -- the charge between the main character and his young houseguest, from their first scene together, keeps the reader riveted to the story. Like the ghostly visitor, "The Soldier" has a way of haunting the reader. It is a triumph and a treasure.

Siegfried Breyer's volume on the world's battleships and battlecruisers from 1905-1970 is dated because it does not include the last commissioning of the US Iowa class battleships from 1980 to 1992. Much of his data and technical drawings are just plain inaccurate. His drawings of the Russian Sovietskii Soyuz class battleships are extremely poor and he includes data on a Russian battlecruiser named Tretl Internationale with 8-15inch guns which never existed. I originally bought this book in German and then acquired it in English. As time has passed and more accurated information published, this book although a massive effort has become as obsolete as the ships it describes.

Breyer manages to provide the reader with a work packed with all sorts of technical and historical goodies. Loaded with tables, schematics, and other data, this single volume encyclopedia gives the reader with a wide body of data to draw from. Armor, guns, machinery, modifications, line drawings, this has it all. The book is in need of an update, but still extremely useful for the warship enthusiast or historian. Some might complain that Breyer doesn't give the right amount of hardtack in a ship's galley. Nevertheless, this extensive work is worth having on your bookshelf.

Christine Finch aka Dewdrop, has left a world of pain and betrayal behind for eight years. She is now focused on raising her eight year old daughter, Kayla, and making a living at her candle shop in the small town of Farewell, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. But Dewdrop has a secret, and it involves three mysterious amulets and a telepathic lion.

When Michael Finch comes to the end of his eight year quest to find his bride, Christine, he is stunned to find out that she's dead. He's even more stunned to walk into a small candle shop and find her alive. What Michael discovers about the past eight years and what really happened after Christine disappeared on their wedding night, will test his strength, intellect and trust.

Can these two return the amulets to their rightful owner and heal the pain from the past, learning to again trust each other?

Superb characterization, a unique and fast-paced storyline, and flawless writing combine to make THE GUARDIANS OF THE AMULET one heck of a read. I look forward to reading more from this amazing author!

For eight years Michael Finch has searched for his spouse Christine. All this time he had felt she must still be alive or he would know otherwise in his gut, though the private detectives hired by his best friend Jonas Harding fail to find her. He wonders why she ran away so soon after their marriage, but now at least he knows where she died. He is in Farewell on Cape Cod to say his good byes. He enters DewDrop's Candle Shop because Michael remembers Chrissy loved candles, but is shocked when he sees the proprietor, his wife.

Michael leaves two phone messages for Jonas, inadvertently enabling his friend's thugs to find Chrissy. They kidnap her daughter Kayla and demand Chrissy return the three amulets she "stole" from these felons who actually robbed the gems from the natives of St. Caribe. Meanwhile Michael realizes he sired Kayla and begins to understand what his ignorance cost his beloved then and now. Both head to St. Caribe to retrieve their child, but though he still loves her and feels she does likewise, Michael desperately needs to regain her trust.

There are some paranormal elements that mostly surface towards the climax of the novel though a guardian Santa Caribbean Lion who telepathically communicates with the humans throughout the book. Thus, the tale is more of a crime thriller. The story line is action-packed and the support cast provides insight into the likable lead couple and pushes the plot forward. Fans of romantic crime thrillers with some paranormal elements mostly at the end will relish the stimulating THE GUARDIAN OF THE AMULETS.

Harriet Klausner

Well, I think it's the only book ever written about the AMC's high huts in the White Mountains. And it is quite informative and useful if you plan to do a lot of hut hikes. The maps and short hike info definitely enhanced my hut trip.

But I would rather see something a little less blandly "official" and a little more "behind the scenes." I'd have appreciated more anecdotes about what goes on during those long summer days when the hut crews have spare time. I know that the crews famously play pranks on each other. And surely the advent of "co-ed" crews has resulted in some, eh, hanky panky? If there are such interesting stories, they are not in this book.

My dad and I love to go to AMC huts and this book is my bible. I read it all the time, and bring i t with me when going to huts. Just be warned, if you are hiking on the gulfside trail from Madison Springs Hut to Lakes of the Clouds hut, the book says 4.5 hours. WRONG. The correct time is 9.5 hours.

I really like the Moon Window. I like it because even though it is some what slow in the beginning, it is in pretty good detail. I find it interesting bercause Jo Ellen has so many emotions and when things get tough, she always tries to either fix it or go along with it until she can do something about it.

I think the best part of the book is when Jo Ellen dreams that she is running away. When she woke up, she was in the clothes that she originally planned to run away in. Her hair was messed up and she was very dirty.

I believe that Jane Louise Curry did a great job on showing how the characters felt, especially Jo Ellen. Each character had something unique about them whether it was their family background or their ambition. Thoughout the whole book you can tell what the conflict is. Jo Ellen is constantly battling herself and other people that are around her on her feelings, family and how she wants and wishes her life to be.

JoEllen has has her mom all to herself for a long time until her mom meets George in the church choir and decides to get married. During the honeymoom, JoEllen gets shipped off to her Granty's mansion. Her plan is to escape during the night and be home by late morning. She finds the perfect way to get out, a moon window in the attic leading out to a sturdy tree branch. All is going well until she discovers that she is walking through the past. She returns to the mansion only to travel through the moon window again and again and learn more and more about her past.

This book is a great start when you are looking for places to bike in New Hampshire. However, beware of the maps provided in this book, they are very general and WILL GET YOU LOST. I would advise using the book to select a ride then getting a topographical map of the area, or, obtaining a Forestry Service map. Either way, you are preparing yourself for a fun day of riding in a great state! Let's face it, getting lost riding is fun, right up until it's nighttime and getting cold.

This book is so perfect for family and for leisure riders! It is not the "carry-your-bike-up-the-legdge-and bushwhack-through-the-bushes" kind of book. Rather, you're biking on pine-needle covered trails a lot and having a chance to share in nature. It if perfect for starting a family tradition. The author does a super job of combining riding with your kids and doing other things (watching great blue herons fish, observing beavers building their lodges at a state reservoir, a visit to a science center on the Seacoast that's a part of a state park--Odiorne Point).

My kids look at this as such a family thing to do. I want to cultivate this kind of activity with my family so that video games and other sedentary activities take a back seat.

It's a gift to have all these state resources in the scenic state of New Hampshire readily available for the taking. Count me in! Let's go summer--load those bikes up. Don your helmets, kids. We're ready to roll. Ride softly!

I can't believe this book was written by a man -- and coming from a feminist, that's saying a lot. There are women in this world just like the women in this book, and their lives are rarely visible to most of us. But the author gets inside these women's minds, for better and for worse, and paints a picture of the kind of community no one believes exists any more -- are there really people that sheltered, that uneducated, that poor ? Yes, there are, and to see an author at least take a stab at portraying their world is heartening.

One could argue that the themes, imagery, and characters are predictable -- a kind of "Beans of Egypt Maine" Lite -- and to some degree it's true. The book will be most appreciated by those who can take what is good from it and not try to measure it against modern masterpieces.

Very, very quick read.

This is simply the best book I have ever read revolving around the lives of women. I was genuinely saddened to read the review by Kirkus, to think it may turn away a potential reader from this story which is indeed like walking through a Yankee rock garden barefoot. But the journey is one that is worth taking. Then, musing over the commentary, I realized the blurb had probably been written by a middle aged man from the South, and promptly discarded it. Women of Granite is the saga of a family of women, raised by women, and who manage to rise above the weakness of the men they themselves have chosen. It is not, as they say, for the squeamish. The character of Nana Page is engrossing, shocking, and finally endearing. It is from Nana that the next generations of women flow, learn, and evolve. It is also about how history does indeed repeat itself, sometimes much to our horror. If a reader is interested in a harsh storm, then Women of Granite, like a Yankee February, is worth reading. I do hope others give this novel a chance and post their comments.