Boston

Fred Taylor is doing what he does best, wandering amidst the antique shops of Boston searching for a treasure for his employer, wealthy art collector Clayton Reed. In one ye olde shoppe, Fred finds a segment of a pain ting of a squirrel that has been cut out of a larger painting. He thinks that this fragment is part of an important work by Copley, an eighteenth century American artist. Fred buys the piece, hoping to find the rest of the painting. As Fred begins his search, his girl friend Molly is looking into the activities of Dr. Eunice Cover-Hoover, a noted professor who is helping people deal with cults and repressed memories. To learn whether Eunice is a savior or a brilliant con artist, Molly decides she needs to offer herself up as an alleged victim of repressed memories. Before Fred knows what is happening, his seemingly innocent quest places him on Molly's path, one that is filled with murder and other violent acts. Fred realizes that he must now do more then rescue a painting, he must rescue his beloved and perhaps himself. The second novel in the Fred Taylor series is absolutely great. The story line is extremely well written, entertaining, and absolutely frightening in that it seems so realistic and plausible. With novels like MAN WITH A SQUIRREL and HARMONY IN FLESH AND BLACK (the first Taylor tale), Nicholas Kilmer deserves to become a household name. Harriet Klausner --

Fred Taylor is doing what he does best, wandering amidst the antique shops of Boston searching for a treasure for his employer, wealthy art collector Clayton Reed. In one ye olde shoppe, Fred finds a segment of a pain ting of a squirrel that has been cut out of a larger painting. He thinks that this fragment is part of an important work by Copley, an eighteenth century American artist. Fred buys the piece, hoping to find the rest of the painting. As Fred begins his search, his girl friend Molly is looking into the activities of Dr. Eunice Cover-Hoover, a noted professor who is helping people deal with cults and repressed memories. To learn whether Eunice is a savior or a brilliant con artist, Molly decides she needs to offer herself up as an alleged victim of repressed memories. Before Fred knows what is happening, his seemingly innocent quest places him on Molly's path, one that is filled with murder and other violent acts. Fred realizes that he must now do more then rescue a painting, he must rescue his beloved and perhaps himself. The second novel in the Fred Taylor series is absolutely great. The story line is extremely well written, entertaining, and absolutely frightening in that it seems so realistic and plausible. With novels like MAN WITH A SQUIRREL and HARMONY IN FLESH AND BLACK (the first Taylor tale), Nicholas Kilmer deserves to become a household name. Harriet Klausner -----

This book is a classic..it has it all; from Marvin Gaye to LL Cool J...from Boxer Sugar Ray Robinson to our today's Michael Jordan, Men of color have a history of fashion that is detailed throughout this tabletop book.

The different types of suits, hats, styles of the periods are examined. Black men have always taken pride in their dress and appearance. This is revealed in all the remarkable pictures and the editorials and interviews. The pictures are Excellent! A combination of black & white, Sepia and some color. You have different poses, camera angels of men like Sam Jackson, Lenny Kravitz, Billy Dee, Ed Bradley...and so many more!!

This is a great investment....for yourself or as a gift! With all it has to offer, there is much to appreciate about Men of Color.

I bought this book for myself and I've truly enjoyed it. I received a second copy from a co-worker as a Christmas Gift. I think that it's very interesting to look at the different styles of Black Men of years past.

I loved the Different Profile Commentary from Byrant Gumble, Bill Cosby, Ed Bratley, etc. I really respect each one's own personal sense of style.

I was given my second copy from a White Female Co-worker, who simply loves the book. I really think that she hated to give it up. Perhaps I'll buy her her own copy in the future.

As a reader who is not well versed in medicine or in American history (don't tell my mother!) I found this to be thoroughly enjoyable and a fast read. Walter Channing lived a rich and long life, and Kass wonderfully captures the medical, social, family and spiritual life of this man and 19th century America. Channing was one of the great men (and belonged to one of the great families)of early Boston, and his accomplishments and efforts to improve the lives of women and newborns were great. And yet here is also a wonderful story (often sad though sometimes with touching humor)of a very real and inspiring person.

I have read a number of biographies recently--Gallileo's Daughter, A Clearing in the Distance(Frederick Law Olmsted) and this belongs in that group of complelling and thoroughly researched stories.

Anyone with an interest in history, medicine, women's studies, or childbirth (mothers, fathers, doctors, etc) should read this book. Kass does an outstanding job of synthesizing the perils of one man who was standing on the cusp of medicine as we know it today. Walter Channing was a prominent physician in Boston during the 19th century who was a pioneer in the use of anaesthesia during childbirth.

I found this book interesting not only because Kass brought an influential (and often forgotten) figure into the limelight, but also because she tied together threads of the social world in Boston and in medicine. Once you finish this book, you almost feel as though you understand what life was like and how difficult it was to provide "high quality" care to patients, particularly women in the 19th century.

This book would be an excellent addition to any course in the history of medicine, but I would also highly recommend it to the lay reader as well as it is accessible to a broad audience.

We travel all over the world and use local guides for each region or city we visit. This guide covers the most visited sites as one expects. It also introduces the reader to Boston as the locals see it. We find the best memories of a visit to a new city are the small, colorful exciting places found amoung the well known landmarks. A small farmers market behind the Museum of Art where the neighborhood shops. A pub with authentic Irish music but without the tourist crowd. These flavor a visit and make it special. The author searches for these and helps make our visit better. If you can't see all the places in the book, he writes in a style that makes the book a good read in the hotel room or airplane.

Last year, anticipating the arrival of out of town family, I bought Jeff Perk's Massachussetts Handbook. I have lived in New England for 15 years but am still, of course, an outsider. I found tons of wonderful information and suggestions in the Mass. Handbook, so when the Boston Handbook came out I snatched that one up too. This is a great book for literate people visiting Boston. It covers the whole historical, literary, and artistic scene better than any of its competitors, and it is wonderfully well written as well. Beside highbrow information, he also includes wonderful material on Boston parks, as well as doing a great job with moderately priced eating places and hang-outs. The book assumes, it seems to me, that the reader is well-educated, interested in history and culture, without a lot of money to spend. If that fits your profile, you couldn't buy a better guide book. My only real gripe with the book is that he doesn't do the restaurants in East Boston where some of the most interesting cheap food is to be had.

I received this for my first mother's day and have delighted in sharing it with family and friends who also journal in it with me. It is a lovely, lovely keepsake and I am desperate to find another one like it for my daughter's next year. So far, NONE compare.

I received this book as a baby shower gift after the birth of my second child. It is a beautiful book with famous paintings and quips by various authors that also serves as a diary. I preferred this over the more traditional baby books as it gave me an opportunity to write down my thoughts about my son in a non-standard format. I have since given it to several other new mothers as a way to celebrate the birth of their babies. I highly recommend it!

When I was growing up, my parents had this book. It was a paperback version and is now in tatters with the cover missing. As you can tell, it was well-used cooking guide in our house! What I love so much about this book is that it explains everything in great detail and does not assume that you know what some of the more savvy cooking terms are. It is made for the beginner as well as the expert cook, however, and features basic as well as gourmet dishes. I also love the graphic illustrations that accompany some of the recipes. Although it does not include beautiful pictures of each dish, you can rest assured that any of them that you make will be a hit!

I recently got married and my husband and I have been cooking a bit more. We bought a hard back version of this cookbook last year and it is the most used cookbook in the house. We love it!

My late mother owned at least one early version of the FANNIE FARMER COOKBOOK......a Brown, hardcovered book that is now consisting of the cover falling off the binder and its pages soiled and/or torn. Yes, that was how popular it was and how heavily it was used. When I moved out of the family home in Connecticut into my own apartment in the Washington, DC area, my first items on my "must have" list was my very own FANNIE FARMER COOKBOOK. When I saw a latest version of the FANNIE FARMER COOKBOOK, I also saw the 1896 BOSTON COOKING SCHOOL COOK BOOK listed along with the cookbook. Needless to say, I purchased both books. This book has easy to follow cooking instructions, a listing of equivalent measures, How to Measure Ingredients, and substitutable recipe items, and Classic, Old Fashioned Recipes (i.e. Breadmaking, Cake Making, Preserving, Soups, and Cake Baking (I actually learned to make homemade Mayonaise which taste much, much better than the store brand). Whether you are starting out on your own (as I), an established homemaker desiring to make Old Fashioned food, or a Grandmother desiring to revisit old time favorites, this cookbook is for you.

Portrait of a Port is a remarkable collection of photographs covering the Boston waterfront in the days of sail. Whether you are a model maker, historian, or sailor, you will appreciate this amazing collection of photographs. A minimal, but entirely sufficient text explains the photographs, but the real content lies within the photos. There are coasting schooners, clippers, catboats and barges. There are fishermen and fishcarts, docks and shipyards, riggers and sailors. Get a magnifying glass because the detail locked within these lovely old black and white photos is stunning. The collection captures a time long gone.

I met Mr Bunting in Jaffrey, NH during the time he was compiling Old photos. Any lover of the nautical scene will love this book.It covers the port of Boston from 1852 to 1914 .A wonderful picture every other page with very knowlegeble discourse on the facing page. From the Thomas W Lawson the only 7 masted scooner ever built to the masts named sfter the days of the week to the lowly but wonderful narrow gauge ferry from East Boston to Boston. I rode this ferry many times as a child.

This is a book you will never toss out.

This book was crucial to my early release from prison. Although it deals primarily with prison condition litigation, rather than conviction issues, I can think of no other gift to a loved one or friend who is incarcerated.

Not just for prisoners. Know your rights. Learn the Legal Process from the inside. Be a jailhouse lawyer without going to law school.

Not only the best book I've ever read about the Red Sox and what they mean to their fans, but the best book I've read about baseball and the significant place it has in our lives, whether we are aware of it or not. His referral to The Boss as 'King Steinbrenner the Odious' is as fitting a moniker of that man as I've ever heard. Simpy a shame so many of Higgins' books are out of print.

George Higgins has done a great job of opening up the world of baseball, as well as tradition, life, and the passion the game holds. I thoroughly enjoyed this book

This was a great book. Besides all else mentioned already,it reads like a story. No theoretical arabesques, just nitty gritty factual details so you can see connectednesses for yourself. Baltzell's very factual illustrations of idealisms' realities and human tensions towards cultishness versus civic participation serve as a useful lense and compass to me ever since reading this book. I recommend it whenever I can, particularly to someone who, like me, may at one time, be shocked by a human experience or contrast and want to ask why. I'd recommend it to any one ever involved in a cult. Its readability is comforting and enthralling, and it is deeply seated in a sense of the continuity of history and human nature. I found it a healing book. I'm sorry Mr. Baltzell is no longer alive so I can thank him. Read every crumb of this book. Its thick, but allot the time.

Digby Baltzell uses the history of Philadelphia and Boston as very real examples of two types of leadership. In Boston, the "Boston Brahmin" elites formed a strong upper class that was not tolerant, certainly, but took responsibility for community life and exercised a tremendous influence on American culture, politics, arts, and science. In Philadelphia, the "Proper Philadelphians" were charming, tolerant--and deeply irresponsible, abandoning any role in governing the city and making it by common agreement the worst run city in the United States. When Philadelphia needed a mover and shaker, it imported some one from outside, like Ben Franklin.

Baltzell takes these difference back to the colonial period and the dramatic differences in the viewpoints of the Puritans who founded Boston and the Quakers who founded Philadelphia. He also sees these changes working forward as the old upper-class socialize immigrant elites into their respective patterns, producing the Kennedy clan out of Boston, and Grace Kelly out of Philadelphia. Many of the points here can also be seen in David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed.

Baltzell's bedrock conviction is that every society needs an upper class and is going to get one whether it likes it or not (the history of revolutions proves this rather conclusively). Those who see the very fact of social stratification as an personal affront will of course get affronted. The interesting point he makes though is that many things anti-elitists think are opposites actually go together. As he shows from his examples, social tolerance goes together with a much more blatantly money-conscious and just plain richer upper-class, and societies with widespread hostility to "elites" also show deep cynicism about their leadership and society in general, a cynicism merited by the generally short-sighted and narrowly (as opposed to broadly) selfish behavior of the upper class.

Does this sound familiar? Baltzell's final point is that in the wake of the sixties, which he compares to the English civil war (1640-1660) environment that spawned the Quakers and released "a host of self-righteous seekers" on the land," American leadership has moved much closer to the nakedly plutocratic and irresponsible leadership model found in Philadelphia. And along with this change in the upper class has grown egalitarianism, openness to immigrants, cynicism, leadership gridlock, and social tolerance. The irony of communal utopianism producing results exactly opposite of what was intended would not have surprised de Tocqueville, Baltzell's great mentor in sociology.

Don't think that this book is just about grand theory--it is filled with a host of fascinating portratits of the two cities' upper classes, and so contains a good deal of the achievers of America from colonial days to World War II. The simple quantitative analysis is effective and not off-putting.