I thought this book was very interesting. It showed pictures and a small map of the state. It talked about its attractions, history,where its people work, protecting its environment, and interesting facts.The Hello U.S.A. series is interesting to read.So is the One Nation series.

Scott Molloy is Rhode Island's foremost labor historian. Now a history professor and the University of Rhode Island, Molloy worked his way through graduate school working as a bus driver for the state's bus company. It was there that he began researching and studying the history of Rhode Island public transportation and the people who worked there.

In preparing this work, Molloy interviewed retired street car workers, poured through yellowed newspapers and dug through boxes of records sitting in the dusty corners of the bus driver's union.

His efforts have paid off. Trolley Wars tells the story of the rise of public transportation from the experiences of the people who made it work -- the workers.

This is only summer reading, and it is fine when one takes it for only that. Any more serious reading, for the meaning searcher, will stumble unto the unlikely premise of a few gay developers that end up transforming within a year a restful and forgotten Rhode Island resort. Yeah, forgotten, sure..... The characters described tend to be a little bit stereotyped, and the plot turns way too much around real estate, including the aging queen buying a little palace with private harbor. The coming out/coming of age subplot starts well, but ends up predictable of course. More interesting is the old antique dealer closeted queen transformation, which by itself and with more development could be the seed of a nice book. But as I said before, if what you have in mind is a book to take to the beach, or to the country home of your friends upstate, for the week end, then you might get a few smiles out of it.

After reading both of the current spotlight reviews, I decided both were partially right. One complained that the book is chock full of one dimensional characters, and mentions that book publishers should stop putting muscle boys on book jackets. Well, first I've done a fair amount of research on what's selling in gay fiction, and it seems to be books with nearly naked men on the cover and plots that contain 18 year old boys. The Summer They Came has both. Anthony is arguably the main character of this book, and the transformation of the town into a gay beach resort affects him the most personally. For Anthony, the conflicts created by the "gay invasion" result, more or less, in his own trial by fire.

The book does have a lot of characters. Similar to soap opera-ish works like Larry Kramer's Faggots or Armistead Maupin's Tales of The City, William Storandt's work follows a lot of different story lines. Storandt has some charming characters, a lot of them are the town locals, but he would have done well to spend more time defining characters and making them more recognizable. I'd recommend making a character list so you don't have to keep flipping back to figure out who's who. Storandt has two characters named Jim. He also uses similar names like Wesley and Wendell.

As far as use of stereotypes, it's hard to disagree that Storandt falls into the trap of using them, but then I also feel that he's portrayed the culture of a gay beach resort pretty accurately. I suspect the old families of Fire Island were probably pretty shocked with the rather r-rated turn their community took when gay men started arriving in flocks. Storandt builds slowly but steadily to a final stand-off. He's demonstrated that some of the gay men have been troublemakers (specifically, Bart Connors, the media gadfly) and that some of the locals are rallying to support the newcomers. I feel it's a fair portrayal that neither side is completely in the right.

I feel the biggest flaw with the book is that there's no strong resolution. There are some unanswered questions. Storandt brings up the concept of anonymous sex in a variety of ways without ever telling us if the community is just going to "wink" at the practice while counting their cash or whether they're going to mount a backlash to the affront. There seem to be some growning tensions between the developers. There was a near fiasco at the climactic "circuit" party that might have ended the popularity of this new little resort. Perhaps we should all look forward to "The Summer They Came Back."

I'm an avid reader of "gay" fiction and nonfiction. Twice I've resided in Provincetown and am acquainted with Fire Island and Palm Springs, etc. Imagine my delight in reading William Storandt's engrossing new book -- twice till 4:00 a.m. (He'd won me over as a fan with his beautifully-written first book "Outbound.)

As the book jacket warned, one can hardly put it down. Charismatic and appealingly-developed characters abound; and the unfolding story is heart-warming, dishy, timely and brilliant. Not since "The Front Runner" have I enjoyed creating in my mind a future film of a meaty gay novel of this caliber. Perhaps this book, like "Auntie Mame" and "The Berlin Stories" will have a number of iterations. Let's hope so! Anyway, I think it's here to stay in our burgeoning rack of quality literature, and "The Summer They Came" is way near the top of the heap -- right along with White, Holleran, Vidal, Picano ate all - - -

This book is intended for very young children. It is 24 pages in length and uses very large print.

Despite the picture on the cover of settlers and Indians eating a meal together, this is actually about "The Colony of Rhode Island." Most American History textbooks touch on how Roger Williams disagreed with the Puritan view that disagreeing with their religious beliefs was breaking the law and led a group to found the colony of Rhode Island rather than be arrested and sent back to England. Susan Whitehurst provides the basic details on Williams's story, including buying the land for Providence from the Indians and getting a charter that provided full religious freedom. Young readers will also learn about King Philip's War and how the colony's economy was mainly on fishing and shipping.

Eventually this volume in The Library of the Thirteen Colonies and The Lost Colony gets around to the American Revolution, and Whitehurst makes a point of keeping the focus on Rhode Island. This book for young readers is illustrated with full-page historic pictures opposite a paragraph of simple text. What I like most is that this particular volume gives students the other side of the story regarding the Puritans, who came to the New World to escape religious persecution but failed to practice what they preached. The story of religious freedom is epitomized by Rhode Island, while Massachusetts descended to the insanity fo the Salem Witch Trials.

The book gives a good overview of the areas with many addresses. Anyhow I found it a bit too black and white. It gives useful maps, but no coloured pictures from the areas, which would make it a bit more pleasant to read.

I highly recommend this guide to anyone who will be traveling in the Northeast as well as Canada. This guide gives you everything from upcoming events for the year to where to stay & eat. The maps are easy to read and follow. I have been a reader of the Mobil Guide for many years and it is continuing to give the most accurate, up-to-date travel information. This is the MUST-HAVE for the Northeast traveler.

To be successful as a writer today (and I use the word succesful in its most vulgur form) it often seems that one must be either horribly mediocre or overly self-indulgent. As such, it is always a pleasure to find a book that is, at its heart, a well-writen page turner. Updike's developed wit and ability to offer concise but insightful descriptions elevate his work above much of the fiction that is popular today. The Witches of Eastiwck is a novel that is both light and heavy; the intriguing characters and slightly quirky plot twists compel one to turn the pages quickly, but the underlying messages about sexuality, love, and the human need for approbation will likely weigh on the reader's mind for quite some time

John Updike astutely recognizes the modern American suburb, with its hypocritical social mores and superstitions, as a rich literary setting. Into this milieu he introduces the fantastical and invents a tale of what life would be like for three divorced and bored housewives, who happen to be witches, living in such a place -- the fictitious Eastwick, Rhode Island -- in the late 1960's. It's like Updike is channeling Nathaniel Hawthorne through "Rabbit Redux."

The women are Alexandra Spofford, a sculptress, Jane Smart, a cellist, and Sukie Rougemont, the local gossip columnist. They drink a lot, neglect their kids, have sex with married men, and cast spells to torment their enemies, who are usually their lovers' wives; they have the traditional witchlike manners of being vindictive, temperamental, and spiteful. They've never desired a man in common until they meet a vaguely devilish fellow named Darryl Van Horne who has bought an old mansion on the outskirts of town. Van Horne is quite mysterious: He's a Manhattanite, a pianist, a collector of tacky nouveau art, and a renegade scientist, trying to discover impossibly efficient methods of generating electricity. He takes an interest in Alexandra's crude little sculptures, accompanies Jane in some sonatas, and encourages Sukie to write novels. He invites them to play tennis (where their magic lends itself to some creative cheating) and partake of the orgiastic pleasures of his hot tub.

The witches' auras induce strange and tragic effects on the lives of their lovers. Ed Parsley, the Unitarian minister, runs off to join the anti-war movement, leaving his churlish wife Brenda to take over the pulpit. Clyde Gabriel, the editor of Sukie's newspaper, is stuck with a gabby wife who gets her satisfaction from finding fault with everything. But it's the Gabriels' adult daughter Jenny that serves to drive a wedge between the witches and Van Horne. When Jenny shows up in town from Chicago, Sukie takes pity on the seemingly pathetic girl and invites her to join the "coven" at Van Horne's mansion. Jenny attracts Van Horne's amorous attentions, but his intentions, it turns out, confound even the witches' intuition.

Popular culture has interpreted the witch mystique as a form of feminine self-empowerment -- women willing themselves to be able to act in retribution or defense against men's hurtful actions -- so it makes sense that the witches in the novel imply that witchcraft is an untapped power all women have, particularly those who have been hurt by or are unhappy with the men in their lives. And it makes sense for Updike to have set the novel in the era of the Women's Movement of the 1960's, where witchcraft would have shed a new, different light on liberation. Are the witches of Eastwick liberated? Probably so, but it's too bad they're so miserable nonetheless.

Three days ago I opened "The Witches of Eastwick" and immediately fell in love. Updike's language, his uncommon imagery, and his *knowing* of "what women think" is astonishing. He so beautifully captures the underlying currents of living in a New England seaside town, with its shifting tides and changing seasons merging with the mood and purpose of its inhabitants. The dialogue is sharp, accurate and scathing. His characterizations of the three women/witches shows he has done his homework, ( only straying a wee little bit in a few scenes for dramatic/comic effect.) His depiction of the "Devil" is laugh out loud funny, ironic, and satirical. This book was pure pleasure. I only wish he would write about witches more.

...I've read Spartina twice, and I'll probably read it again. This is a much more real sea-book than the perfect storm (which has some amazing jounalistic holes if you look into it). I pretty much love everyone in the book. I've fantasized about Elsie, and May too. I've wondered if I'm a player, or what I can do to become one. The cover of my copy says Casey's planning to write a cycle of books on this area and I've been looking for another one for years. I'm still hopeful.

I have unpleasant memories of the Old Man and the Sea from Junior High English class, so I purchased Spartina with some misgivings, as the premise of both books seemed similar. But, this is one of the most well-crafted books I have read in a long, long time. Unlike most popular novels, the book did not revolve solely around the plot. Unlike most literary novels, the book did not revolve solely around character development. Rather, both plot and character were woven together to create a splendid story that was hard to put down, even at 2 a.m. on a work night. The writing was intelligent without being self-consciously clever, and I kept thinking about the book long after I had finished it. Bravo!

Spartina is one of the most gripping reads I've enjoyed in years! Casey has a unique style which kept me turning the pages while asking, "What next?!" I even found myself reading while stuck in traffic--not so difficult in Boston. My suggestion: read "The Perfect Storm" by Sebastian Junger first--the two compliment each other very well!

I thought this was a good book. It starts out with a missing man who is then found dead. Who killed him.? There were many who hated him.

The book totally keeps you guessing and the ending is great.

It did not deserve only one star. It was a good book.

Ignore the rating of other critics. It is a wonderful read. Eugenia Potter is sympathetic and you just want to read the book in one sitting.

I wouldn't go so far as to compare Eugenia Potter with Jessica Fletcher. Potter is too laid back for that. But I do think that for a rather leasurely Cozy, this book is a fine read. Enjoy it for what it is and move on to the next title on your reading list. If you don't feel like spending money on this novel check it out at the local public library. You will still like reading it.

As a mystery-lover, I was excited about potentially finding a new character series to follow, but I had no success with this book. Carter's style is tiresome and contrived -- I found both the heroine and the plot cliched, overdone, and generally mediocre. It's rare that I read a book and think to myself, "Wow, this is really awful," but that's exactly what I was thinking throughout the entire read. I won't be investigating the sequel or any other Carter creations.

A weak plot and a protagonist I didn't care about made for an unsatisfying read. Carter's hero, Nanette, came across as far too contrived a character for me to get in to. She's a jazz freak, who's got a master's in French and passes her days busking with a sax on the streets of New York, and her best friend is a stripper--ooo, neat. The murder of an undercover cop in her apartment kicks things off, but it never goes anywhere that interesting. Might actually be better as a movie.

'Rhose Island Red' had been sitting on my bookshelf for about two years (all avid bibliophiles have such backlogs), but it was worth the wait. Charlotte Carter gives us Nanette Hayes, a fresh new voice in the world of detective fiction.

Nanette Hayes may be smart and sassy, but she's rather directionless. Armed with a master's degree in French, a love for Paris, a taste for Rimbaud, a refined palate on a beer budget, and a true love affair with jazz, she spends her days playing saxaphone on the streets of a New York that Ms. Carter captures so lyrically.

This novel reminded me of the seminal French film 'Diva', with all the plot twists and unusual characters - crooked cops, $60,000 stashed inside a saxaphone, an elegant yet aging criminal who worships Charlie Parker, and a no-nonsense exotic dancer with a taste for Wall-Street investments. Oh, and a gay lower-level mobster who becomes Nanette's confidente of sorts.

The story centers around the urban legend of the Rhode Island Red, a saxaphone that was supposedly given to Charlie Parker from a mobster as a bribe to play at a wedding. A saxaphone that was reportedly filled with heroin.

Charlotte Carter writes in the breezy rhythmic style of a jazz musician, and the book was a joy to savor. I can't wait to get my hands on the next book, 'Coq Au Vin'. Our heroine goes to Paris...ooh la la!

As a fairly avid reader of true crime, I am used to the formula of "crime discovered - background of players - investigation/confession - court case - aftermath" so this was a different formula. The horrific, senseless slaughter of two women and a family by a kid barely in his teens is just the beginning as cop Ken Collins and his community mount a campaign to change the circumstances of how juvenile offenders are treated in Rhode Island. Released at age eighteen! Interesting is the side story of Collins' deterioration in his private life as he becomes consumed by his obsession to try and make it right for the memories of the victims. I also would have liked to have had a better sense of the victims themselves instead of the extensive description of the slayer and his life. The book is methodical and factual, not a "keep you up biting your nails and checking the locks" kind of read and occasionally becomes rather plodding at times. yet the story deserves to be told and I did finish it. I gave the book three stars, yet I give the town and the participants who worked toward keeping a killer behind bars a solid five.

I was very surprised to see this book in a local book store. To my knowledge it is the first, and only, book written about the tragic murders committed by Craig Price in Warwick, RI when he was in his early teens. Mr. Price brutally murdered two young women and two young girls for no apparent reason(s). This book describes the brutality or "overkill" inflicted by Mr. Price, but focuses primarily on the efforts of the Rhode Island legal system to keep him in prison past his 18th birthday, as he was a juvenile when he perpetrated these totally hideous murders. I found the book a bit slow moving even though I am very familiar with the Price case. It is not the type of book that grabs one and keeps one reading into the wee hours. At times it tends to drag, in fact. Was the system manipulated in order to keep Mr. Price imprisoned? Without question, in my mind. Was this justified? Again, without any doubts. Mr. Price is a textbook anti-social personality disorder. To my knowledge as a mental health professional with 20+ years experience in the field, there is no treatment or "rehabilitation" for people like Mr. Price. At least no empirical evidence to support such a claim. Mr. Price could be the "poster child" for supporting the death penalty -- certainly he should never, ever be paroled as it is a given that he will once again engage in violent behavior. He deserves life without any possibility whatsoever of parole. Ms. Lang does an admiral job of outlining the positions of both sides, but her writing style can become "boring". Nevertheless she is to be commended for writing about this serial murder case and how it has influenced other states to enact legislation regarding juveniles who committ such horrific crimes. Mr. Price is scheduled to come up for parole in 2005, I believe, although his sentence, based on subsequent convictions for other offenses "should" keep him behind bars until 2018, when he will be approximately 44 years old. A frightening and sobering thought, one that all Rhode Islanders must never, ever forget about.