Boston

For some reason, this book seemed to take forever to read. It just doesn't get that exciting. A solid tale of a hard working kid that worked his way to greatness, but you won't be sprinting through the pages. Nothing to get excited about.

I highly enjoyed the book and its compelling story of one of the finest ballplayers ever. I recommend for people who haven't read a baseball book ina while and want to get back into it.

You really can appreciate the hard workand deadication it took Yaz to achievehis stats! A good hitter and an evenbetter fielder!!!

I see I'm in the company of several reviewers who rated this book highly. Frankly, I can't see it.

Boston Superior Court Judge Barbara Pitt has an affair with her Law Clerk, some 25 years or more her junior. The Law Clerk disappears during the sensational pedophile trial of a former catholic priest, Father Cornelius Dooley, and Pitt enlists the aid of her 'former' lover, Sheldon Gold, a noted Boston attorney with an investigative staff. Pitt, while pining for her lost love clerk continues to invite Gold to her bed. Are you with me so far?

Gold has three assistants, the beautiful but scarred Irish Mairead O'Clare, gay ex-street savvy Boston tough guy ex-cop Pontifico Murrizi, and African American receptionist, sage, font of wisdom, soothsayer, attorney without the JD, Billie Sunday.

Can we get anymore eclectically diverse in our personal issues? Can we stereotype differing people in any other way? Oh. I forgot to mention that Shelly Gold is under a prescription for heavy anti-depressants and his 'wife' is in a care facility for grave, violent attacks of psychosis.

Here are the 4 reasons why this book left me cold and even a little disturbed.

First of all the characters 'speechify.' The don't talk to eachother, they give speeches. About the church, politics, homosexuality, adolescent scarring, "swinging," Catholics, on and on. People don't talk that way. An occassional rant, OK? 300 pages of it? Tedious.

Secondly. The church gets slammed. OK. Is this a Dan Rather expose or a novel? I firmly believe that it flirts with personal bias. If you want to take on that topic, give some balance. We are left with numerous "speeches" that the church is filled singularly with pedophiles, homosexuals and alcoholics. Cheap shot. Untrue. Yellow journalism.

Thirdly, for all they rant about, the characters are superficial. I know less about Mairead O'Clare, certainly the strongest character of the dysfunctional quartet, on page 295 than I did on page 1.

Finally, I find it boring to have these 1 and 2 page chapters. It's like flitting around with the remote control. Lots of pictures; no substance.

A poor book riding the tide of sensationalism and tragedy. Larry Scantlebury

When the law clerk for a Boston judge disappears during the high profile trial of a pedophile priest, the judge turns to her old classmate Sheldon Gold and his young associate Mairead O'Clare for discrete help in locating the young man before new scandal erupts, this one involving her honor and her affair with the handsome young man.

Enlisting the help of "The Pope", retired homicide sergeant turned private eye Pontifico Muirrizi, the case takes them into dens of sin in and around the City of Boston. The twists and turns of the plot are truly imaginative.

Terry Devane is the pen name of an established Boston writer. Given the quality of this book and its predecessor Juror Number Eleven, Terry might turn into the dominant personality.

Shel, Mairead, the Pope, and Billie are back in this 3rd legal thriller from Terry Devane. Combining the best of legal thrillers from an author who knows whereof he writes, and the fabulous characters of someone who knows how to tell a story -- this is a solid book. Mairead is a woman who doesn't always know how strong she is, surrounded by people who aren't always as strong as they think they are. It's very nice to read a book which is respectful to all sorts of characters, and contains a great story. Anyone who likes strong women who make competent choices, and who don't need a man to save them from themselves, will find Mairead a character to their liking.

Maybe it's me. I thought The Friends of Eddie Coyle was a masterly novel, but twenty years later, this one drove me nuts. The long conversations are utterly unlifelike. I have never in my life heard conversations like these. And the windup is not worth the effort to get through to it.

George V. Higgins has earned his place as the Balzac of Boston, describing through the use of dialogue various low-level crooks, pols, lawyers, and other low life. No one can top him for a sense of the language, nor for the desperation in his characters. He really sets the pace in this genre. Bomber's Law is as good as it comes.

The dialogue went all over the place but in the in, I liked it. Nothing made sense until the end.

This mammoth book covers the Sacco / Vanzetti trial - probably the most tumultuous trial in the early part of last century. Sacco and Vanzetti were two Italian workers who were accused of murdering and stealing money from two payroll carriers in suburban Boston. The story is told through the use of a fictional character named Cornelia, who had lived a life with the rich and elite of Boston. After her husband dies, she wants to live life and takes a tough job in a rope factory. In seeking room and board, she meets and befriends Vanzetti. Experiencing the poor working conditions and associating with Vanzetti, she sees the abuse of the workers by the rich owners and becomes sympathetic to social change.

The story turns tragic, though, when the good-natured Vanzetti and his friend Sacco, are implicated in a burglary. The police seeking a guilty party intimidate and coerce Irish witnesses into telling lies about the pair. The Italians have very little hope once they reach the courtroom, when they learn that the judge is clearly against them. Being poor, they are unable to pay the necessary and customary bribe.

When they are found guilty, other countries and labor leaders throughout the world became angry with Boston. Freedom and the United States' justice system becomes a laughing matter. Ultimately, the police were called in to handle the riots that almost ensued in Boston when the pair of activists was put to death. Even today, there are shadows of doubt over Boston as a result of this trial.

Using part fiction and part history, Upton Sinclair paints a grim portrait of American justice gone awry. Over and over, Sinclair points out where the plaintiff's case was based on non-credible witnesses, a biased judge and jury, hatred of the defendants' socialistic and anarchistic beliefs, and prejudice. While the book was interesting, especially in illuminating the reader of how the system "really" works, I did find it tiring. The book was long and there were a ton of witnesses and characters that the reader had to remember. Sometimes, the same points and facts were repeated two or three times and the story had a tendency to jump around in time. Overall, though, I found the book interesting and absorbing - like all of Sinclair's works that I have read.

Boston, a novel in two volumes by Upton Sinclair, was first published by Albert & Charles Boni in 1928 and is an historical novel about the well documented Sacco-Vanzetti trials. Written in typical Sinclair fashion, the story weaves through the personal lives and motivations of Sacco and Vanzetti. In his continual search for social justice, this event gives Sinclair another opportunity to decry the social conservatism of the day. The novel presents the reader with a different perspective of this milestone in American jurisprudence.

This book provides an interesting perspective of the justice system. It compares the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, two poor, italian, anachists, to a trial of some of Boston's Blue Blooded elite (fictionalization of a true story). Sinclair never goes so far as to claim Sacco and Vanzetti are innocent (actually one of his biographers claimed that he had his own doubts), only to show that the trial was biased by their social and political views.

In 1774, 10-year-old Emma was sent away from home to be a servant in her Aunt Harmony's manor in Boston. Little did the simple serving girl expect that war would brew up in Boston harbor. Emma helps with war effort.

I only gave this book 3 stars because it was too short and it didn't tell much of Emma's life as a serving girl.

I liked the book Emmas' journal because it was partially based on the life of a real girl. I enjoyed how it was somewhat detailed about life in the past. I did not particually like how the days jumped around though.

I think this book would be a good birthday preasent for a girl because I think girls would be interested in it.

I bought this book because my stay in Boston would be short and i wanted the latest info. I found a lot of the infomation supplied not correct. The boston computer-museum has been closed since june 1999, but the 2000 version of this book still knows it. Entry-prices and telephone-numbers are often wrong. Prices on accomodations are way off, and the people who wrote this seem to focus at expensive locations, lower budget accommodations are hardly mentioned. The included map has no clear markings for subway-stations which makes it ill-usable. The book contains no structured historical information on Boston, I know, it's the information people tend to skip, but for a foreigner with little knowledge of american history it is very handy when you can look up what the Boston Tea Party is. On the whole I did not like this book. The layout and photo's are good, but the info is out of date, despite the 2000 in the title. Travelers on a stricter budget should not read this book, because budget choises like greyhound busses, bycycling and hostels are not mentioned or are given bad remarks.

This was an excellent guide for deciding which places to visit in and around Boston during our stay. The walking guides he suggested were especially helpful. I found Frommer to be very honest about the places he reviewed, and the most charming places we visted were off the beaten tourist track and we would not have found them without the help of this book. I recommend it to anyone planning a trip to Boston.

I just returned from an extended weekend in Boston because I'm considering moving there in a couple of years but had never spent significant amounts of time there, so I bought this book because I couldn't find the current Fodor's Gold Guide, which is the usual travel guide that I purchase when I visit new places. LET ME TELL YOU HOW GREAT THIS GUIDE WAS! So much more user friendly than the Fodor's!! My favorite part is the chapter on Boston Strolls, where Frommer's has selected four different walking tours that you can do on your own with suggested stops. That was GREAT! On top of that, the chapters on dining and lodging were most helpful in planning the trip and there were also throughout the book little interesting blurbs of information about Boston, like what movies have recently been filmed in Boston and other tips and tricks that you need to know to navigate Boston. I took the book everywhere!! The maps are great and helpful too. If you're planning a trip to Boston, BUY IT!

The guidance of whoever it is that styles him (or her) self as "wu wei" (the well-known Chinese ideogram for unforced action in living, most famous in Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, and which never, by the way, appears in the I Ching itself) has become popular for reasons that still escape me. Perhaps he has something to say to Westerners who are new to the Tao and to the I Ching, with his rather simplistic voice and direction, or perhaps he strikes a resonant chord with his practical examples and earthy language, which are indeed admirable in his approach. However, the point is that there are far more insightful and engaging translations, commentaries, and expositions on the I Ching available. So if you wish to use the oracle as a guide to living a successful human life by learning to work from the inner plane of being so that no effort or struggle is required on the outer plane (which is, after all, the essence of "wu wei"), I would recommend Carol Anthony's work in particular (her "Guide to the I Ching" is best for those new to the I Ching, and her newer "I Ching: The Oracle of the Cosmic Way", written with Hanna Moog, for those with past experience with the I Ching). Wu wei's work, however, is simplistic and derivative, and can only really serve the curious and the superficial, for this writer's approach to the I Ching is rather on the scale of a tabloid newspaper's daily horoscope is to astrology.

This is a superb collection of insights taken from the I Ching. I have enjoyed all of Wu Wei's works on The Book of Changes, but this is my favorite. Many times, I have randomly turned to a passage and found that it helped me with my current predicament. I highly recommend this book.

Wu-Wei provides a neat text on living principles from the I Ching. I did like how he made it very accessable and light hearted. I don't like it when other authors take Oriental philosophy too seriously. Wu-Wei makes the I Ching principles easy to digest and easy to live by in the modern world.

The number of stars given to this book so far baffles me (and was the reason I gave it a shot). Although there are interesting aspects, particularly if you have lived or do live in Boston, I found the book to be more an outline than a well-developed plot with well-developed characters. The book is like one of those "connect the dot" pictures and the narrative jumps from dot to narrative dot, but there's often not much in between. We always know, however, where the protagonist is in physical space, and the description of the environment is well-drawn. Also, individual vignettes and character sketches are occasionally engrossing and amusing. One primary subplot, that involving Clayton and the merciless art dealer he invites to stay with him during a prolonged snow storm, is left dangling with no resolution. The ending, also, is completely unsatisfactory -- the murderer isn't even introduced until he is caught. What kind of mystery is this? Bottom line assessement is that Kilmer has potentional, but he is a lazy writer. I've just started on of Iain Pears now and am finding him much more capable.

I logged on to see if anything is listed as forthcoming from this tremendous writer. I first picked up one of his books at my library, noticing the word "squirrel" on the cover - and I was hooked. While I immediately learned he offered nothing on squirrels, his human characters are portrayed with warmth, humor and intelligence. Searching for more by Kilmer after going through his mysteries, I read A Place in Normandy. Now I want he and his family to continue on with their personal lives so warmly and humorously shared, but I do hope he leaves some time for writing! Carol Frost Vercollone, author of Helping the Stork

The Boston police ask noted art expert Fred Taylor to identify and authenticate a painting found at a gruesome murder scene. The headless victim was crucified with the painting of Christ replacing the corpse's missing head. Fred determines that the painting that allegedly cries in blood, is a fake.

At about the same time, Fred's employer Clayton Reed has the opportunity to purchase a collection consisting of the Old Masters from two different dealers. However, neither dealer will allow Clayton or Fred to see the paintings. However, one of the dealers is soon murdered. Fred manages to obtain photocopies of the set and quickly confirms that they are all forgeries. The similarities between the Christ "miracle" painting and the Old Masters's set lead Fred to conclude that they all come from the same collection and that the two killings are connected. However, as Fred gets closer to identifying the headless corpse and the killer, he better watch his step or he will become the next death statistic.

O SACRED HEAD is an excellent contemporary who-done-it due to the fabulous characters. Fred is a genuine connoisseur who stays planted on the ground due to his charming girl friend and her precocious children. The mystery is complex and is brilliantly intertwined with an art world that showcases beauty while concealing its ugly and seedy side. With this masterpiece and its predecessors, Nicholas Kilmer has successfully opened up a unique sub-genre that will thrill more than just art fans.

Harriet Klausner

Lucy Boston, best known for her "Green Knowe" series takes a different turn here in writing "The Sea Egg" by introducing two new children and setting the story at the sea side. Toby and Jo are two brothers on holiday with their parents. They've made friends with the lobster man who sells polished shells for extra money. At the beginning of this story he shows them his latest find - a smooth perfectly egg-shaped stone that the two boys instantly feel they have to own.

With the stone purchased, they take it away to their secret rock pool and sure enough, the next day whilst seal-watching, they see what looks like a young boy amongst the seals - a young boy with fish tails! From there comes a slow easy narrative about the visits the boys spend with the triton - a sunny day at the rock pools, shell-collecting on a small island and an evocative moonlight swim, before storms on the shore force the family inland - but not without one final call from their triton friend.

Like all Boston books the narrative is strange: more interested in being poetic and deep than creating a morale or in character development. However, if you are already familiar with Boston's books, then there's no surprises here. Her language is utterly beautiful in creating the many moods and tones of the ocean, and the moonlight swim in particular reads like verse.

The triton's origins are clear: in Boston's home there was (and I presume, still is) a Roman bust of a young boy titled "triton", and appeared in another of her books "Guardians of the House". He is clearly the star of the story, and his mischievious smile and playful antics are exactly what one would suspect from a sea-creature. Despite Toby seeming a bit more imaginative than Jo, the boys are basically clones of each other, but with surprisingly sympathetic parents for a fantasy novel (usually in this genre all grown-ups are antagonists). However, she is spot-on with some of the things the boys get up to - watch out especially for the scene when they con money out of their parents and when they sneak home in the middle of the night right under their babysitter's nose - they're hilarious!

All in all "The Sea Egg" is a rather strange book, with a dreamy story and a somewhat abrupt end. Boston's beautiful prose prevents it from becoming an Enid Blyton-type 'boys-meet-magical-creature' story, and as usual her son Peter Boston's illustrations (that use sillhouettes and cross-hatching to suggest light, beings and water) are mysterious to behold.

I loved this book because of the merman, who is energetic and fun. The book makes you feel as if you love the sea more than anything.

I read this book as a young child and was captivated by it. After at least 25 years, I now want my son to read it and experience its magic.

As a long-time fan of William G. Tapply's Brady Coyne mysteries, I really enjoyed Shadow of Death . . . right up until the mystery began to completely unravel. Then, I was appalled to find out that Mr. Tapply made all kinds of improbable assumptions in setting up the events. These assumptions were entirely unnecessary to telling this story, so I have to believe that Mr. Tapply just didn't put the effort into his mystery that he should have.

Shadow of Death makes for interesting reading because it has several strong lines of story development: an unusual marriage between a female political aspirant who has been a prosecutor and a quiet male history professor; a tough ethical issue as Brady Coyne has to honor client confidentiality while the cops desperately need some help; the evolving relationship between Evie Banyon and Brady as they move in together and take up with Henry, their new dog; and a remote scandal in a small New Hampshire town that no one seems to want to discuss. The background for these story lines is that Brady has been hired by Ellen Stoddard's senatorial campaign manager, Jimmy D'Ambrosio (known as Jimmy D), to find out what's happened to the candidate's husband ("He's acting . . . weird."). Since Ellen is the daughter of a client, and a friend, Brady checks with her before taking on the case. His job: Hire a PI to find out what's going on . . . and keep his mouth shut (attorney-client privilege being helpful in such matters). Brady duly hires Gordon Cahill, a great PI, to do the tailing . . . and everything seems to work fine until Cahill skips the meeting to make his report. Instead, Detective Horowitz is tossing Cahill's office. Cahill has turned up dead . . . and evidence soon points toward foul play. Horowitz wants answers, and Brady cannot get permission from Jimmy D to provide any. Feeling guilty and responsible, Brady follows Cahill's trail. In the meantime, Professor Stoddard has disappeared.

Brady's search takes him to New Hampshire with substantial complications along the way for all of the characters. The action is leavened by several interesting characters who are specific to this book, lots of bad puns and speculation about trout streams.

If you don't mind the clunky mystery and weird, ineffective methods of investigating it (for example, why didn't Brady just look up the details about the town's past in a newspaper?), you will probably think this is a four or five star book.

As I finished the book, I began to realize why it is so hard to write great books. You can get all but one part right . . . and still far below the mark. Keep getting feedback on what you have written and then keep rewriting has to be the lesson from this unfortunately flawed book.

Attorney Brady Coyne is hired by the campaign manager of a senatorial candidate to conduct a discreet investigation of the candidate's husband. Brady hires his friend, former undercover cop turned PI, to tail the husband. When the PI is killed in a staged car crash, the campaign manager who evoked attorney/client privilege prevents Brady from helping the police. Since he cannot help the police and feels a responsibility for his friend, he decides to investigate himself. He ends up opening a Pandora's box of secrets going back thirty years.

Brady Coyne is a nice-guy lawyer. Recent novels featuring him have been a bit bland because frankly nice guys in crime novels are boring. This recent novel is the best one in years. The characters were well defined and the plot of suspenseful. Brady is still laid back and too nice, but this time he suffers some angst which makes him more human. It was a pleasant page turning, quickly read book.

Political kingmaker Jimmy D'Ambrosio knows that spousal trouble when one runs for elected office means trouble for the candidate. Jimmy D worries about Albert, husband of the US Senater from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts candidate Ellen Stoddard. Jimmy D asks old friend Boston based attorney, Brady Coyne to hire the most discreet private investigator to determine why Albert is acting strange.

Brady employs private eye Gordon Cahill, who learns what is bothering Albert, but dies in a car accident that looks more like deliberate murder before he can meet with Brady. Knowing that Gordon concentrated on Albert's Southwick, New Hampshire cabin, Brady travels there, but stirs the pot enough that someone else is also killed. Cops in two states are interested in Brady, his unidentified client, and solving two homicides.

SHADOW OF DEATH is a strong Coyne entry, perhaps the best in the last decade. The story line moves at a rapid pace as Brady is caught between client confidentiality and the homicides. The support characters propel the tale forward while Brady seems refreshed as if he rolled back the clock twenty years. Fans of the hero or the New England who-done-it scene will enjoy William G. Tapply's latest story runs on all cylinders.

Harriet Klausner