...in the middle of Narragansett Bay, is a way of life almost forgotten in this day and age. Josie and Grace have captured the flavor of life on the island, in a very real and personal way. Although it helps to be from Rhode Island to fully understand all the references in the book, anyone can appreciate the trials, tribulations, and joys of living on an island.

My grandfather, Horace M. Barrett, was the illustrator of this amazing book about life on a small Island in the Narragansett Bay. My Granddad died in January, as did Josie Avery. They are both greatly missed but their lives live on through their book and through the people of Prudence Island. RIP, Granddad and Josie! And, Grace, thank you for your part in this book! I will treasure it forever.

This book is readily available . It includes color photographs of all the lights in state of Rhode Island. This is a small state but has many beautiflul historic lighthouses. With the directions in this handy guide a lighthouse enthusiast could possibly see every lighthouse in this compact state in one day. Seeing Block Island's unique lights might add a day. They are shown as well. Information about some of the outstanding efforts to preserve these sentinels of the sea are recorded. Information about some of the organizations working to save them is also given .

this book is great it has a lot of information and color pictures has more information than any book i've seen about ri lighthouses

First of all, I love the size of this book, petite. I live in Texas now, but keep this book propped up on my desk to feel more at home. The author has compiled the important historical facts along with the equally important tourist information. Eventually, each of the fifty states will have their own book, and I think this will be a good thing!

If you are visiting Rhode Island and want to get a feeling for the state in just a few minutes read this book. It's filled with great fun facts and wonderful pictures that express the feeling of the state. It would also make a great souvenir.

Did you know that the the state bird is the Rhode Island Red Hen, and it is this hen that lays the distinctive brown eggs you'll find in Rhode Island.

The book contains interesting historical tidbits and beautiful scenic photographs of the miles of shoreline and under-developed beaches.

I really like the "Only in Rhode Island" section where unique features of the state are highlighted such as Mr. Potato Head and the Big Blue Bug.

Finally, the "Rhode Island by the Seasons" section is a helpful guide to the annual festivities that occur throughout the year.

It's my best pick at..., a guide to vacation shopping in Rhode Island.

Barbara Delinsky never misses no matter what topic or characters she chooses to develop! The Vineyard consists of a story told within a story which was very appealing (I was always peeking ahead for the italicized print!) From page one the reader is very involved with the characters - you become one of the Seebring clan. Not that everything was perfect in the family; far from it, but as the tale enfolded more harmony was achieved. Natalie's impending marriage to Carl her longtime love - over 70 years - sets the stage. How their children, Olivia, who writes Natalie's story and Tess, her dyslexic daughter, interact draws the reader in. Not only does the reader learn something about the making of wine, photography, dyslexia, and hurricanes, but also about real human emotions of love, hurt, anger, resentment, self-esteem, trust, forgiveness, and community. Not so much her plots, but Delinsky's characters grab you almost immediately. Her character studies are great and present a wholesome look at different personalities without a lot of sex, violence, or bad language. Just like a good wine, this was smooth all the way! Thanks Barbara!

This is a wonderful blend of some of the most memorable characters I've ever been introduced to. The main character, Natalie Seebring, is a woman in her 70's that has done everything in her power to turn Asquonset, the family Vineyard in Rhode Island, into the productive enterprise it has become. It is when Olivia Jones is hired to write a book of Natalie's memoirs that we find out just how much she has given up for the vineyard and the family who has come to take it for granted. Natalie's Husband has been dead for 6 months and her family is scandalized when she announces her engagement to Carl, the manager of the vineyard. Eyebrows are raised and accusations of improprieties are insinuated, all to Natalie's chagrin.

This is a story of a family that finds itself after a long and arduous journey. It is an informative look at the cultivation of grapes and what it takes to nurture them to their full potential through some of the worst weather one might imagine. There is so much more to this enjoyable story with surprises that I didn't see coming at the end. Other parts of the story were totally predictable but the characters were so well written that I didn't mind following the author down that particular path. This book was a good read and I will be reading Delinsky's books for a long time to come. Kelsana 4/20/01

Asquonset Vineyard, Rhode Island. Six months after the death of her husband of 58 years, Natalie Seebring announces her intentions to marry Carl Burke, a man she's known since childhood, a man who's been her vineyard manager for the past 35 years. Naturally, Natalie's grown children, Susanne and Greg, are shocked and disturbed by the sudden news. Natalie decides to hire someone for the summer to help write her memoirs in time for her Labor Day wedding. She hopes her story will explain to her children what she's been through in her 76 years and what she's feeling now.

At 35, Olivia Jones is a single mother working hard to provide for her 10-year-old daughter Tess. Olivia knows art and photography. She's been doing photo restoration for Natalie Seebring for months, although they've never met. Through her work, Olivia has grown very attached to the Seebring family. She can only imagine what each family member is like and imagines herself as a Seebring herself. She jumps at the job offer to work at the vineyard for the summer. The pay will be more than enough to hire tutors to help Tess with her dyslexia.

With Olivia at her side, pen in hand, Natalie's story of love, heartache, struggle and perseverance slowly unfolds, revealing a few secrets along the way.

Meanwhile, Olivia is searching for her own mother as well as dealing with Carl's son, Simon, now the vineyard manager. Simon lost his wife and daughter 4 years ago in a sailing accident and having Olivia around with young Tess only stirs up the pain he's worked so hard to bury.

This is truly a story so well told that you laugh at times and cry at others. There's so much detail on a variety of topics. The reader learns a bit about growing grapes, sailing, hurricanes, the Great Depression and World War II. Each character is so well-written, I feel that if I were ever in Rhode Island, I could simply drive up and pay the Seebrings a visit. Great people book.

William Durrell's investigation of modern love in THE ALEXANDRIA QUARTET announced the author's interest in blending geography and metaphysics, which probably originates in his Indian heritage.

The Corfu that the British author knew in 1936-7 might have disappeared already, yet his romantic portrayal of Mediterranean culture captures the spirit that despite inevitable historic changes and the ravashes of modernisation still prevails on the coasts of this historic sea. The bittersweet mixture of melancholy and happiness that is at the soul of everything Mediterranean, and even his philosophical reflections are impregnated with the soft sensualism in which the Mediterranean tradition of tolerance and antiquity is embodied.

PROSPERO'S CELL was published in 1945, four years after the author had left the island, and thus the nostalgia that pervades his writing further contributes to the beauty of this book. Some narrative chapters seem far-fetched in their anglicising romanticism, like the moonlight discussions on "Greekness" with the rich and bohemian Count D., but still Durrell's passionate portrayal of Greece should help enliven some rainy winter afternoons.

The English writer Lawrence Durrell spent four years on the island of Corfu together with his first wife Nancy Myers in the years 1935-1939. He has collected his memoirs on this period during his staying in Alexandria during the WWII.

Prospero's Cell evades genre classification. It is an autobiography, but not a particularly factual one - for instance, along with Lawrence and Nancy, the whole Durrell family - his mother, two brothers and sister - came to live on Corfu for the same period, a fact he only acknowledges in a passing remark or two. It is written in a form of a diary, but the story flows without paying any attention on the interpunctuating dates. It claims to be a guide to the landscape and manners of the island of Corfu, but is useless as such. It spends a considerable time discussing the history and myths concerning Corfu, but the material is not laid out in a systematic and scholarly manner, and is probably of low value as a historical text.

Apart from ephemeral characters, the four personae make out the main cast: apart from Lawrence and his wife, there is also a doctor, biologist and polymath, Dr. Theodore Stephanides, and a bohemian Armenian journalist, Ivan Zarian. (Both are actual persons, of course; apart from here, Stephanides also appears on Gerald Durrell's My Family and Other Animals, and Henry Miller's The Colossus of Maroussi.) However, Durrell has taken the liberty to interrupt occasionally this chronicle of their living, their thoughts etc. with a treatise on the Saint Spiridon, the island patron; or Karaghiosis, the puppet theatre hero; or a long treatise on the island history and myths concerning it. Prospero's cell ends with "some peasant remedies in common use against disease", a "synoptic history of the island of Corfu", lists of places to see, things to visit etc., and finally concludes with an anthology of letters written by Edward Lear, an English painter who spent on Corfu several years in mid-19th century.

Durrel's language is like brocade: rich, heavy and very sophisticated. He is too serene and spiritual to talk humour, even when the topic is indeed funny, e.g. the accident with the Corfu fire brigade, the Zarian's obsession with "Mantinea 1936" and the Stephanides' confusion with the brain cutlets, he merely cites the narrator. Still, it is a nice holiday reading, an intellectual supplement to any *real* guide to Corfu you happen to take with you. And, while you are there, don't forget to get yourself Hilary Whitton Paipeti's guide, In the Footsteps of Lawrence Durrell and Gerald Durrell in Corfu (1935-39), which will help you connect the world of Durrells with the contemporary Corfu.

This is a memoir about Durrell's stay of several years on the Island of Corfu and about the delightfully intelligent and profoundly cultured bevy of lunatics who make up his circle of friends. There is an Armenian jounalist, a studious doctor, a member of the nobility of dubious origins. There are marvelous land- and seascapes, peasants, servants, drivers and fishermen. While the author maintains the kind of distance from his material needed for writing, he also shows the love he feels for all these people and for this island. He makes us curse our fate for not being present at the conversations he has with his friends, which are full of historical and literary references and novel interpretations of texts and events, not in the form of rarefied abstractions but all connected quite concretely to the island and its fascinating people. There is also light banter and refined teasing. The doctor comes into possession of a brain from a cadaver that he intends to use for scientific purposes but by accident it gets served to his guests for lunch. The Armenian discovers a Greek wine he finds exquisite (he has heretofore hated Greek wines) and buys 85 bottles of it, only to find that 84 are actually quite inferior, more like high class vinegar. Durrell describes many of the customs and attitudes of the local people and makes them seem a lot more honest and human than one would suppose. He treats us to a performance of the well-known Karaghiosis puppet theatre and describes the (mostly crude) reactions of some of the town luminaries. The show is ostensibly for children but the adults enjoy it as well, perhaps even more since they can appreciate all the thinly veiled political and religious references. There is a detailed description of the grape harvest with a subtly drawn Christ-figure clad only in a white shirt who treads the grapes with his arms outstretched as the red liquid oozes out from the bottom of the vat. This probably symbolizes the bloody crucifixion Greece would undergo in a not so remote future. Durrell describes a paradise but war is coming and soon all these friends will be evacuated to Alexandria, where the book's final words are written. It was very beautiful while it lasted and reading about it still gives pleasure.

Let me mention upfront that I live on Block Island. Not a native, but I moved here and live on the Island year round. I got the book because of the nature of it's setting, not the storyline or the author.
I found the book slow without a "hook" to keep my interest. The storyline is unimaginative. The "real" story, it seems, is the Island and island live and characters. To that end the author goes to great pains to write as if she actually knew anything about the island. However, beyond some topographical knowledge, she has none. Indeed, she completely distorts the live and people here. To be sure, we actually have a complete police department, Police Chief and all. Moreover they do live in nice homes, not broken down lean-tos. As for the "rich" natives riding in customized, fancy cars, I have never seen a single one. These are just a few examples of many.
Now don't get me wrong, I believe very much in "poetic license" but not under the cloak of personal, intimate knowledge of a place and people. Clearly, as the previous reviews show, the author dupes readers with her alleged knowledge when in reality there is none. In an interview to our local paper she explained this complete lack of local knowledge and distortion by calling her work "fiction". I would accept her rational, had she desribed a "fictional" place. Instead the author has gone through all her pains of picking a real place, seemingly describing this real place and people who live here.
So - if you like slow, unimaginative stories about a real location distorted by ignorance, this one's for you.

Block Island is the perfect place for FBI agent Poppy Rice to recuperate--along with her lover, ATF agent Joe Barnow. Admittedly, the law on Block Island is comprised of one aging Constable and an alcoholic state trooper, but that's all right. There was never any crime on Block Island. At least there wasn't until Poppy almost runs over the body of an overweight teenage girl twisted and tortured in death.

A con man has opened a camp for overweight girls on Block Island and someone is targetting the girls. Joe goes into retreat, unwilling to accept the possibility that his island harbors a serpent in its heart, so it's up to Poppy, along with alcoholic Fitzy, to get to the bottom of the case. Bumbling officials in Rhode Island and in the Center for Disease Control end up making things more difficult for Poppy.

Author Mary-Ann Tirone Smith writes a compelling page turner. Her descriptions of the people of this north-eastern island are convincing and three-dimensional. Poppy is sympathetic and smart, without being superwoman. I especially enjoyed the character of Fitzy--a hugely damaged individual who battles himself and his own fears.

DC based FBI Agent Poppy Rice and her boyfriend ATF Field Advisor Joe Barnow go on a "required" vacation on Block Island, Rhode Island after her harrowing war in Texas (see LOVE HER MADLY). While riding a bike, Poppy finds the corpse of a teen.

Poppy performs her civil duty by calling the police. A local physician concludes that the female victim died from using bad drugs, but an autopsy proves Dana was clean plus there were external injuries on the body. Three days later, a second teen is found dead. The two share in common attendance at Camp Guinevere, a camp for the obese. Police Officer Francis X. Fitzgerald investigates the homicides, but Poppy finds him and the "medical examiner lacking as the former spends most of his time drinking and the latter under the influence of a prescription drug. Thus Poppy does what she does best, conducting her own inquiries as to whom killed the two overweight farm campers even as the island is quarantined due to a reported plague epidemic.

In her second engagement Poppy Rice remains a wonderful law enforcement investigator who cannot resist involvement even when it could cost her life. The "dual" investigations (local vs. Poppy) are fun to compare as one seems indifferently amateurish while the other passionately professionalism. Joe enables the reader to see the feminine side Of Poppy while the islanders add quirky amusing peculiarities to an enjoyable tale that means forty-eight states and several territories to go.

Harriet Klausner

This book is not easy to read. Laura Varon goes into excruciating detail about the horrors she faced at the hands of the Nazis. But it is an important Holocaust memoir, one that should be read to realize the atrocities that took place five decades ago. It cements in history the details of the lost Jewish population from the Greek island of Rhodes.

This well written book covers a personal view of the early, happy days on Rhodes, to the occupation, and subsequent deportation to Auschwitz of the Jews. Understanding what life was like for the Sephardim in the camp, and what the moment of liberation, and aftermath felt like. All this through the eyes of a "Rhodeslis" survivor. A tremendous and powerful story, one that will make you sad, but one that needs not to be forgotten.

If you want an inside view of what it is like teaching at an inner city school, "Against the Current" will do it for you. The amazing part about this book is that the director of the program is a quadriplegic. I thought John Hockenberry's book, "No Highway" demonstrated a paraplegic with grit-The Urban Coolaborative Program director, Rob DeBlois, is an amazing individual and educator. As a 25 year middle school educator, I had a difficult time grasping the background of the middel school kids DeBlois and his staff had to deal with. If you want to learn about true poverty, Providence city schools and stellar educators, pick up "Against the Current."

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I live in the same town as the high school profiled and I enjoyed reading about teachers and students I am familiar with. This book gives an indepth look into American schools. I recommend it to everyone. A must read!!

If you're interested in this sort of thing as I am this book could be of great value however the price is unreal. I have a CD that does much the same for the entire country at a third the price of one state however this book is MUCH more accurate and shows county boundaries that only occured for as little as three days. The CD is also easier to use. That said I'll likely ask for the book as one of those Christmas presents I wouldn't buy for myself.