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Perrin's presents this delightful account of building a sugarhouse and makingmaple sugar in Vermont. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Beautiful gem rooted in the present
A real gem on how Noel Perrin started sugaring from his own trees. He's revised the book over 20 years, so he's learned from his own mistakes and successes. He has some pithy commentary on Thoreau's costs of cabin making versus his own, as well. And did you know that milk (just a drop) will calm a roiling boil? ... Read more

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Carefully Wrought and Measured Truth
Cifelli's biography of Ciardi is a carefully wrought story of an illustrious life in poetry that should interest anyone who reads or studies American literature. John Ciardi was an interesting man who had to buck the ethnic prejudices of his time. The adventures of his life in poetry are well worth reading. Edward Cifelli is an skilled writer of this poet's life and he has done an excellent job of weeding out the truth and balancing his portrayal so that we love Ciardi, even while we see his human foibles. He creates emapthy for his subject without going overboard, so that his words are thoroughly believable and offer a measured truth of the man and his fine accomplishements.An excellent portrait of the poet's times, too, and the issues that confront a poet in America! ... Read more

Book Description

A quiet quest for meaning in a rugged physical and psychic terrain. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Clear as the New England sky; Crisp as a fall day
I first became acquainted with the work of essayist Willem Lange through his appearances on the Vermont Public Television program "RFD," which normally ends its weekly broadcast with a piece by this wordsmith. The essays in this charming little book are culled from other writings and are perfect examples of Mr. Lange's style. With a minimum of very well chosen words, Mr. Lange paints a detailed picture of people, places, and events and wraps us in his love for all. There are some very heart-felt expressions here: A Letter to a newborn grandchild; A sudden understanding of his wife's life-long torment; An appreciation of past leadership provided by a mentor. In all, there are 18 tiny gems here, none longer than four pages, but the scope of their sentiment is unending. This is a book to treasure and read over and over again. If only it were longer.

Mr. Lange writes stories from the heart.
Mr. Lange's stories of life in New England awake memories of the reader's own experiences that transcend any geographical boundaries. In this collection of essays, Willem Lange celebrates the experiences of everyday life in New England with humor and honesty that connects with readers in every corner of the land.

Mr. Lange portrays the atmosphere of New England
This thin book delivers powerful images of how New England was and strives to remain. Short essays cover typical events and personalities, most often humorous, always interesting. A great way to discover why we think there's no other place to live.

He's the best!Almost makes you want to move back to N.E.
Mr. Lange has a way of pulling you into a story.You can smell it,feel the chill of the air,and the sound of his old truck leaving the driveway. There's a lot of wisdom in those bones.

Hitting home...
Dad, Loved the book. So did all my friends down here in Texas. Someday, Olivia will love her chapter - when she learns to read! Can't wait for the next book to hear more "letters from home." Congrats, Bros ... Read more

Book Description

A young writer confronts life, death, and literary ancestors amid the stark beauty of Cape Cod. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Honest, beautiful and sometimes heartbreaking
I had the pleasure of meeting Gessner at a bookstore he made an appearance at. I bought two of his books, "Wild Rank.." and "Return of the Osprey." I was almost unable to put down "Wild Rank." It was so moving...so touching...so brilliantly honest, I kept the pages open as I did mundane things so I could peek over occassionally and be mesmerized by his essay. The book is a mix of so many things -- there's a little "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" in his brutal honesty. Then there's a little Thoreau when he briefs us on what the marshes and the "Suet" mean to him. This book is a must read for anyone who understands or wants to understand that life on life's terms is the only way we can exist -- and one of life's terms is that we take care of the land. Another of those terms is that our parents, for whatever faults they have, shape us in ways we can neither forget nor sometimes identify. David, I'm so glad I met you -- the book has been one of those wonderful surprises in life that change you a little bit when you encounter them. Kudos!

No Henry Beston or Henry David Thoreau
I found this book a disappointment because the author allowed his personal issues and problems (e.g. family problems, illness, drug use) to interfere with the picture he was trying to paint. Henry Beston's THE OUTERMOST HOUSE, A YEAR OF LIFE ON THE GREAT BEACH OF CAPE COD, is much more to my liking, because of the beautiful prose and the full concentration of Mr. Beston on the topic at hand (i.e. the Cape, its history, its beauty, its wildness). I find it incongruous for this author, David Gessner, to make the effort to get in touch with nature by living out in the wilds by the ocean, and then to take the unnatural step of using drugs while doing so. It offends my senses almost as much as do the actions of people who play boomboxes at the beach while supposedly enjoying nature. I guess I like my nature natural and without the distractions of these other modern day intrusions. And I like my information and insights gleaned from my readings to be based on reality not drug induced fantasy. These personal issues (which in another context, might have been appropriately raised and interesting) seemed only to be undesired distractions in this context.

An excellent exploration of the soul and its surroundings
Mr. Gessner has created a powerful memoir of his childhood on Cape Cod, the loss of his father and his love for the harsh Cape environment that is emblematic of personal struggles Gessner has faced and, with humor and intelligence, ultimately overcome. A thoughtful and thought-provoking work from a promising young author.

Excellent! A superb debut.
An inspiring narrative about a young man who survives cancer, only to watch his father be taken by the same disease. In the tradition of Beston and Thoreau, Gessner brings the Cape to life in all its seasons. But this book should not be tied to one place: readers from all over the globe will identify with Gessner, his family, and his love of home. A Wild, Rank Place is a very special book. You'll be glad you read it.

Here's a Writer to Watch!
David Gessner isn't your typical nature writer. Not simply content to give lip service to "birds and trees," Gessner enters the landscape as an animal, swilling and raging and chortling his way across Cape Cod with glee and guts. He isn't afraid to tackle tough material either: he receives news of his father's malignant carcinoma after, ironically, beating his own cancer successfully. In the face of such significant life issues, Gessner worries about place---his own as son and native to Cape Cod, and the strength of his writing voice in the shadow of his real and literary fathers. This book does for fathers and sons what Terry Tempest William's Refuge did for mothers and daughters. I found Gessner to be charmingly self-absorbed: he allows the reader to view him ("the thing itself") and his landscape, warts and all. And just when some might dismiss him as another Abbey-wanabee who goes about the motions of outrage for outrage's sake, Gessner shows his talent and unique writing strength: he writes movingly and memorably about his own father's death in a stunning journal section simply titled, June. The last sections of the book are a Hymn---for Gessner's father, for the place of his birth, for life. In the end, Gessner shows how grace and real beauty rise from fiercely loving ALL the parts of the world, even the ones which pain us most. ... Read more

Book Description

The humorous and poignant memoir of a Cuban-Canadian who taught for 35 years at one of America's premier boarding schools. ... Read more

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Reviews (2)

Ride Along With Tim - Both an odyssey and an adventure!
Very enjoyable and easy to read, you'll feel like you're riding right beside Tim Matson the entire ride. I read this book in one evening (couldn't put it down). A suprise ending that befits its title! Good work.

Eat well, stay fit and die anyway!
This wonderfully humorous book will open your eyes to the underworld. You'll never think about dying the same way again. All the important stops in the nowadays astonishingly complicated process of getting yourself underground are visited and at the end leave you wanting more... Enjoy the read, Matson does a fabolous job of drawing you into an eerie subject. ... Read more

Book Description

Portrays the misdeeds of the notorious early twentieth-century bank and train robbers. The Newtons' story was made into a movie starring Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, and Julianna Margulies. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Katie's Review of "The Newton Boys"
I thouroughly enjoyed reading this book. In it it gave a fascinating first hand view into how the Newton brothers entered the life of bank and train robbers. The story was written based on a number of interviews with Willis and Joe Newton. The brothers discussed their feelings on how they were viewed, and how when there was ever any robbery, the Newton brothers were the number one suspects. I also enjoyed the humor in which the brothers were able to look back on thier escapades and run ins with the law. Some of the best parts of the book, I think, were when the Newtons described how they outsmarted the law, and escaped from prisons numerous times. The decriptions in the book provided vivid detail into life during the turn of the century. Each brother described in the book had very different interests and tastes, from Willis, a strong headed boy who was smart and determined,to Jess, the lazier of the brothers. In all, this book provided me with new insight into an era that has long since passed, and into the lives of criminals. I thought this book was an excellent read. ... Read more

Book Description

This is a double biography of two men—father and son—who left a vividimprint on the State of Maine. James Phinney Baxter, the father, was six times mayor ofPortland, creator of its modern park system, and one of Maine's foremost historians. Hiswealth, which he made in the canning business, was left to Percival, the youngest of his sixsons, who achieved immortality by using it to buy Maine's highest and most beautiful mountain,Katahdin, and 200,000 surrounding acres. As a legislator and governor, Percival had tried topersuade the government to preserve this gem of the north, and when he failed, he did it himself,leaving it to the people of Maine as a magnificent state park. This is a fascinating look at Mainein an era stretching from before the Civil War to the end of the 1960s. ... Read more

Book Description

A family physician describes the universal struggle with adversity and discovers strength through work, faith, community, and love. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

In Medicine For More Of The Right Reasons
I had some spare time and was browsing through Amazon when I ran across this book. I have owned the hardcopy book for several years, I had purchased it after reading an article in "Life" magazine about Dr. Loxtercamp in which this book had been noted. I found the book most interesting and found myself walking through the area of Maine he practices as he went about journalling his days and his times & thoughts of his personal family time.

I found the man and his story most inspiring. Alot of people in today's medicine either are in the field for the money or find themselves disallusioned with the field because of all the insurance buracracy. I find those people who are in their field because that is where they truly want to be and for the want of helping others to be a rare find.

I could also follow along Dr. Loxtercamp's views and journeys of a small town doctor from working in the medical area. He tells his story compassionately and the reader can feel his humanity for others.

Over the past couple of years, I had looked forward for another publication and writing for Dr. Loxtercamp but sadly never ran across progression of this book. I found myself wanting to know more about how his journey has progressed along in the small town medical practice.

A highly suggested read.

Good for those who want a slow read
I enjoyed this book a good deal, particularly Loxterkamp's attention to God and faith and the notion of ministering. I admire Loxterkamp's bravery for so much soul-searching over a year of his practice. This is a book to savor for those interested in rural medicine or family medicine. I give it 4 stars instead of 5 because I found his writing a bit labored. It's slow-going reading. It's also very much about him, him, him. A good contrast is to read Verghese's In My Own Country. Loxterkamp lacks Verghese's fluid style and attention to others. Despite his efforts to humanize, Loxterkamp presents fairly 2-dimensional portraits of his patients. This book is really more of an interior meditation, albeit a very good one.

This is a autobiography of the life of a doctor.
This is the first book in a long time that I read with care. Usually I skim through pretty rapidly. I liked his candor and insight into his patients' lives. It was interesting how he managed to intertwine his professional life with his family. I enjoyed his constant concern about the effect of religion on his life and others. His questions about death and dying were good. It has to be of concern for all of us eventually. I recommended this book to our local librarian! ... Read more

Book Description

A middle-aged woman with a teenage son rediscovers her Quaker faith, and quits her urban life for a homestead in the woods of Vermont.

"I lived a straight-edged life, a cubist arrangement of familiar rectangles: office, computer screen, paycheck, city blocks, mortgage, calendar pages, television screen. These were more confining than I knew. Most confining of all, for most of those years, was the four-square house I occupied like a resentful ghost through half my marriage...I am no longer a ghost in my life." --from the Prologue

A Stone Bridge North is the author's own story of "miracles found and fears allayed" in the journey out of a confining urban existence and into a simpler, more joyous life. To tell this story fully, she must look through changed eyes at her past-at childhood anxieties, family disaffections, failed marriages, late motherhood, restless boredom, and, paradoxically, a native talent for joy. She learns that she has been guided by faith even when she thought she had none. She begins to discern purpose and design both in her stories and in the light by which she sees them-a light refracted through a Quaker lens that searches for the sacred in all people. As the four seasons turn, she celebrates the loves of her new life-family, friends, language, silence, and the extraordinary landscape of Vermont. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

inspirations as well as reflections
I'm another reader of this book who is not a Quaker, nor do I play one on TV. That said, I was fascinated and moved by Ms. Maloy's memoir spanning 10 very significant months in her life. For readers contemplating any major life change, this book provides both inspiration and wisdom.

A Moving and important memoir
Kate Maloy has written a lovely and moving book. To attempt a memoir is one thing; to write it without me-me-me is a true art (not to mention a reflection on the selflessness of the writer). Not once during this read did I hear ego or judgment and I never had the feeling that the author was in therapy and was compelled to write this book. Instead, I felt as if the life she lived... and the discoveries she made perhaps moments before writing... were what she chronicled. She lived, she learned, and then she told us about it. The author spared us the angst, but not the profound revelations generated by that angst.

A Life Being Fully Lived
Kate Maloy has the life I want to live. We have similar backgrounds, including age, gender, past marriages, Quakerism and more. So perhaps I should seek that life -- it's out there, she proves so in this book.

This is not a light or superficial book -- it is rich and shines with deep thoughts and reflection. She includes all the wrinkles, twists and lines that real life brings to us. In this book she shares the kinds of things you might think about, but not speak, the contents of a personal journal, introspective and quite true.

She has managed to make the most of her life, and this book is a wonder to read. Her writing style is one that invites the reader along, and I felt (as you probably will) as if this was part of a conversation with a close friend, part with myself, part simply a life viewed through a warm and inviting window.

She writes about so much, this book is incredibly full -- I'm not done yet reading it again and again.

A quote I love, "Long before I ever met Alan, I wondered if any man of my generation could love a woman his own age, could feel passion (and compassion) for her aging, vulnerable flesh, could open himself to a soul-deep love even as he himself loses muscle tone, stamina and hair -- could well and truly stand naked in front of another and not be ashamed. Now I know there is at least one such man on the planet."

Sigh. This Friend speaks for me.

An uplifting, warming reading for cool nights and warm days, too.

Serenity Earned Every Day
I'm not a Quaker and I've never attended a Meeting. Although I consider any religion that calls its practitioners Friends a step in the right direction, my motivations in reading SBN were strictly secular. I was first drawn to the book because I have enormous respect for the publisher. The cover also spoke to me. The simplicity and purity of it. A single stand of snow covered trees. And I've always been intrigued by bridges as metaphors, so the title was perfect. There's no doubt that SBN is a book of the spirit in the sense that it's a look at the effects of Quakerism in the writer's life. And this is a strong theme of the book. To say otherwise would be misleading and disingenuous. But the book is so much more than that, too generous with its reach, too honest in its outpouring of contemplations, too bighearted and open-minded to be pigeonholed as a theological dogmatic text. It is indeed a soulful book, but it offers its deep solitude, silence and solace to all. For some unknown reason I dipped into the book haphazardly, rather than reading it linearly, which did not ruin the experience for me. Covering a rapid and transitional year in her life, it alternates between journal-type entries and short and long meditations on all things human: emotions, food, television, our education system, everyday life, and even the internet, which becomes another form of metaphysical uplifting for the author. It turns out she's met her new husband on the web. Some of their communications back and forth, via re-mail, are included in the book. That atypical love story is just one of the truly fine, honest - and surprising - things that the author reflects on. They all conjoin into the story of a lifechange. An intelligent, quietly passionate, appealing, and insightful story of the process of continuing to make oneself a better person through faith in life and in each other.

I'm Kate Maloy's ex-husband. Here's my recommendation.
I'm Kate Maloy's ex-husband. She speaks about me in her good book, A Stone Bridge North, anonymously, because she was considerate enough to try to protect the guilty.

Because I figure in her book, but not in especially complementary terms, I figure that potential buyers or readers of her book might be interested in my take on it.

It's a captivating story of emotional venture and spiritual adventure, with author-centered but gifted, exquisite reflections on the meaning of the struggle - in terms with which anyone can empathize - to enrich a life, a marriage, a sense of self, one's soul.

It's also a guarranteed page-turner, a compelling story of the roles of reflective struggle and the mystery of grace in amazing turns of life.

The story of how Kate found the wonderful man who became her soul-mate and new husband is, simply, amazing by any standard.

Any person who ever wondered how - by concerted effort or by gentle grace - life can, indeed, take magnificent turns needs to read this book. And take heart. ... Read more

Book Description

WIDE SWATH is the historical biography of a Maine family from 1900 to 1950. Alonzo P. Richrds was an lumberman, realtor, financeer, enterpreneur, and family patriarch. He helped many families achieve their dreams, while driving others into bankruptcy. Widely known, he was loved and respected by many people, but hated by others. He cut a wide swath in Farmington, Maine for fifty years. ... Read more

Book Description

The author of the acclaimed novel Revere Beach Boulevard writes his own story of place, class, family, and love

In Revere Beach Elegy, Roland Merullo returns to his childhood heaven of Revere, Massachusetts, a place, five miles from Boston, where the affirmation of family—fifty cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles that are more like mothers and fathers—and the tough codes of his gritty working-class neighborhood form an insular world almost impossible to leave.

In one of the most indelible essays in American literature by a son about his father, Merullo writes of his second-generation Italian-American father, a man whose drive and pride are a crucible for his oldest son. He tells the story of being plucked from McKinley Junior High School to become a scholarship boy at the elite Exeter Academy, where his trajectory toward "something softer and richer, something said to resemble success" begins, shakily.

His later travels—to the former USSR, to Micronesia as a Peace Corps volunteer, and eventually to Italy, where the annoyances of family travel resolve themselves, for a moment, into a taste of the sacred—compose pieces of what is in the end a daring and heartrending spiritual autobiography, one in which place and class are as critical as prayer. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

A "Must Read"
This book is a "Must Read," one of the very best novels I have read in the last decade. Every page held phrases and paragraphs I wanted to read and re-read, so rich were the images in this coming-of-age novel. Perfect for a book club.

Revere Beach Elegy
This book is a collection of Merullo's essays about his boyhood in his Italian-American hometown, Revere-five miles from Boston, Massachusetts. Merullo was born into a typical Italian family where fathers are the head of the entire family. He grew up in a neighborhood with lots of cousins, uncles and aunts. The value of this book is not just Merrullo's boyhood tales, most important it depicts the struggle of immigrant families in this country, trying very hard to have a better life for themselves and their children.

As a first generation Italian-American, Merullo's father worked full-time and went to law school in the evenings for several years. He failed the BAR examination eight times but eventually received his law degree at the age of 54. Unfortunately he died in his early 60s. As a second generation Italian-American, Merullo was raised with parental expectations, but made his own way. He obtained primary education at Phillips Exeter Academy and then Boston University, then the Peace Corps and finally found his niche as a writer.

I like this book because this book reminds me the year I lived in Greater Boston area. ... Read more

Book Description

Here are stories of a life spent in pursuit of striped bass not only with rod and reel, but also with knowledge, wisdom and even love. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

I wish I wrote it
This is a book about surfcasting the way Moby Dick is a book about fishing. It's really a story about avocation, family, parenting and about how a sport can enrich our life and connect us to the people we love. And it talks about these things with none of the intellectual pretentions and posturings of other fishing memoirs.
I wish I'd written it.
Jack Falla
Author "HOME ICE"

Celebrating experiences with the art and joy of fishing
Eastern Tides: A Surfcaster's Life is the personal memoir of Frank Daignault, a fishing connoisseur who has written a thorourghly engaging work with a special appeal for his fellow fishermen. Celebrating experiences with the art and joy of fishing throughout the seasons of the years, Eastern Tides makes for especially excellent reading while anticipating a fishing trip or when waiting for something to nibble on the line! ... Read more

Amazon.com

W.D. Wetherell sings the praises of mountainous western New Hampshire, where he has lived for many years in Thoreauvian simplicity, with wood stove and manual typewriter, without television or computer.His book is made up of little essays on such simple things and on low-maintenance pleasures like reading poetry, stargazing, and collecting local folklore and history. "I am revealing myself to be as extinct as a dinosaur, dead as a dodo, a relic of another era, a footnote to an age that not only rushes ahead in heedless bondage to the new, but tramples in contempt on anyone who stubbornly refuses to keep pace," he writes, all the while doing just that, refusing to keep pace with the larger world. He encourages his readers to follow suit, to learn to live more simply, to rely on their own abilities, and to remember the lessons of Walden. --Greg McNamee ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Fierce Elegy
Somewhere Steve Martin says, "Some people have a way with words, and some - no have way."

W. D. Wetherell is one of those with a way. His newest book follows three novels, three books of short stories, and three previous collections of nonfiction essays, including [itals] Upland Stream and Vermont River. Wetherell's talent may accurately be called prodigious. For a young writer to have written so many remarkable books in a couple of decades begs the question of what kind of life fosters a literary sensibility in this age of the multi-media multinational mayhem.
North of Now aims to explain the place of writing in this man's life, and to place the man himself in a world he sees as assiduously hostile to that contemplative practice which yields works of art.

The book is praised on its jacket by Edward Hoagland as [ital] sui generis - one of a kind. There's no better way to acknowledge Wetherell's form and vantage point. Assembling the volume from a carefully sequenced set of meditations upon subjects such as "Remembrance," "Play," "Village Life," "Old-Timers," "Wild Trout," and "Genteel Poverty," Wetherell has written an anticipatory requiem for an existence many people in places such as northern New England still experience, day in and day out.

None of these topics is pondered by Wetherell as though it were of merely private importance. He is able to take the preoccupations of an self-avowed eccentric and turn them like lenses upon changes that press upon all of us. The chapter "Heavens," for example, is concerned with the diminishing darkness of our night sky - very few places on earth remain unbleached by glare from high-intensity lamps. This essay pivots upon the narrator's decision, at the birth of his child, to learn the names and shapes of constellations. Another essay, "Gravity," muses on the insight that bodily actions as well as aging are forms of [ital] falling. Wetherell's narrator has a voracious passion for physical exertion, and in the process of describing such exploits as hiking, biking, back-country skiing, and canoeing, he meditates in prose upon the tactile, irresistible pull of the earth. No athlete, even in the flush of pounding pulse, can break free of gravity's grasp. Yet our society is obsessed with speed, as though it were possible to efface the weight of the actual burdens we bear.

"Reading" and "Quiet" consider the possibility that - because the civilization around us, a civilization we've supposedly made, has devoted so much its efforts to consumption and destruction - we may be losing the capacity to concentrate, and therefore might be raising the last generation of readers and storytellers. Meanwhile Wetherell's detailed evocations of humans and animals, granite-veined landscapes and celestial expanses, are gorgeous reminders of those pleasures that reading makes intimate as no other medium can.

Wetherell is staunchly circumspect, invulnerable to simplistic faith. Certain passages are downright morose, and the vehemence of his lament now and then veers into effusiveness (antidote to bitterness?) that is treacherous in a book so astringent in avoiding emotionalism. Perhaps I don't feel as anachronistic, myself. From my perspective, there are countless hopeful signs, visible or intuited, that large numbers of people are struggling with these very questions. Many people in wide variety of circumstances are attempting to re-connect with other people, with physical work and play, with community mutual aid.

Trouble is, popular entertainment, including the publishing industry, titillates these widespread aspirations with a ceaseless flow of solipsistic self-help, personal "revelation," and pseudo-spiritual folderol.

Wetherell believes in his own tonics: no television, no computer, meals with family, and long spells of time in the woods, on the water, and in the solitude of his own mind. He is brother to Diogenes, the ancient Greek cynic who renounced civilized life and lived in a tub, climbing out at midnight to search with his haw lantern for an "honest man." Writing this angry, lucid book was a defiant act, which ought to embolden readers to take more seriously the prospect that what we love, we may be losing.

Thinking and Reacting
Wetherell writes lovely descriptions of the things he loves -- many times I said: "Yes" out loud as he nailed the particular qualities of a sunset or a river or a particular turn in a season. But he throws down a gauntlet when he insists that the modern world is "degenerate" the suburbs "monstrous" and the human beings of this century in general inferior to their ancestors. He doesn't think about the issues he raises; he just asserts. A certain type of manners and charactere are disappearing, he claims. How does he know this? Because his grandfather was an admirable person. Organized sports are dismissed in a paragraph. Why? Because Wetherell and his friends had such a great time playing in the schoolyard when he was a kid. Reading and writing are soon to vanish and he knows this because ......... he admits that huge numbers of books are sold, book clubs formed, and so on, but he just somehow knows that "real" reading is vanishing. Apparently this is clear to him because he read so passionately when he was a kid. Suburbia is a degraded life; this is so clear he barely feels the need to explain it. He ought to ask himself why more than half the country lives in suburbia. No-one forced them to. The past hundred-plus years has seen a massive move from the kind of "authentic" country life he reveres, to cities and suburbs. Could it be that the old country life was far harsher and lonelier than he wants to admit? He seems to suggest that moral fiber is lacking if people like good roads and shopping nearby. I suspect that there were Indians saying something similar when the first Natives bought iron pots and pans from Europeans. I don't like the suburbs either, and I'd love some clear thinking about how they came to be. Wetherell isn't interested in thinking. When I got to that preposterous comparison between writers and buffalo hunting, I began to suspect why he doesn't want to think. He's writing self-mythology. The hero of the book, after all, is Wetherell, who had the guts to pursue a life true to nature, go the hard road and follow his dreams, in a place without good roads and nearby shopping. If his kind of life is disappearing, it only makes him a more romantic figure. Actually, he is an admirable guy in many ways, but I find his disdain for the rest of humanity, and anyone who lives differently from him, unbearable. He is a curmudgeon, and that's not such a good thing. A curmudgeon is somehow trapped in their own narrow view of the world, unable or uninterested in seeing things through the eyes of others.

In truth, this book is so good, it transcends star ratings!
The reviewer McConnaughey has it right on the money in describing Wetherell's boyish enthusiasm in nearly all things, even when expressing his frustrated regret. This, folks, is a top-10 book and if I were the benevolent God of the universe, I would deem it required annual reading for all my followers. The essay on reading should be burned onto the back of every school administrator's eye lids until the ridiculously-obvious point that kids should be in required reading classes from 1st grade until they graduate from college (with not one break in between) hits home. It is an absolute masterpiece and it comes with a pretty reasonable reading list too! It is a masterpiece among masterpieces; there is not one essay that does not snap your head back and pull from somewhere in your depths a resounding, "YES!"

As if to punctuate that gap (chasm?) between Wetherell's teachings and the world at large, he will have no access to this praise by way of this medium! There is more than irony there.

Good God Wetherell, keep writing. I'd snap my favorite flies into oblivion all day long for the privilege of spending it on the river with you! We'd have a lot to talk about, that preacher and this choir!

A wonderful discovery
As one who shares many of Mr. Wetherell's Luddite curmudgeony tendencies, I found these essays to be a brilliant verbalization of many of my own thoughts. His powers of description are exceptional and his arguments against the excesses of "progress" are a much-needed tonic against the trampling of decency which seems to be the unfortunately accepted byproduct of economic advancement. What allows this work to transcend many other works of the genre is the author's ability to rant against the destruction of much of what he holds dear while maintaining a sense of wonder and joy in all the joys the world still offers despite its flaws. Bravo, sir. ... Read more

Book Description

In 1952, Madeleine Blais's father died suddenly, leaving his pregnant wife and their five young children to face their future alone in a newly purchased house in rural Massachusetts. Uphill Walkers is the story of how the Blais family pulled together to survive and ultimately thrive in an era when a single-parent family was almost unheard of. As they came of age in an Irish-American household that often struggled to make ends meet, the Blais children would rise again and again above all obstacles -- from the complex vicissitudes of Catholic doctrinal education to the inevitable sibling rivalries. At every step of the way they were inspired by a mother who expected much but gave even more, as she saved and sacrificed to provide her children with the same education they would have received had their father lived. Then, when they had grown to adulthood and begun to lead separate lives, the Blais children had to band together once more to come to the aid of Raymond, their troubled eldest brother, whose mental illness had driven his life to take increasingly darker turns. Beautiful, heartbreaking, and full of wonderful insights about sisterhood, brotherhood, and the ties that bind us together, Uphill Walkers is a moving portrait of the love it takes to succeed against the odds -- and what it means to be a family. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Quirky, delightful, sad but I wanted more
I raced through this book, caught up in the momentum of the evocation of a large 50s family...(I too come from a New England family of 6 children, one prematurely dead after a nervous breakdown), and I am only a couple of years younger than the author.)

The book seems to highlight little "spots of time" beautifully. (I wondered if the author had seen that chillingly scary yet rapturously dazzlingly wonderful episode of "Queen for a Day" when a woman wanted a wooden leg, for example).

Look at all the parentheses in this review! That shows, I believe, how taken in a very personal way I was with this book. I wanted more. More details about how the children REALLY thought about their mother. Are any in therapy? More more more about the two youngest daughters....but is that because I have more difficulties understanding my own two youngest siblings?

I usually read novels and poetry and very little non-fiction, so I am not uncomfortable with things omitted although I so often crave more. Oddly (and it was perhaps my mood) I wanted to hear less about Raymond. Yet had he been a "fictional construct" he would have fascinated me more.

I would recommend this book highly to anyone who is in the process of trying to come to terms with an odd childhood, or to anyone who is curious about all of those huge families who grew up in the 1950s. Young adults of today might learn something about the life of their parents from this book: the enforced sharing, the lack of certain kinds of entitlement that we had growing up in the 1950s when the self-esteem movement had not yet commenced.

Blais has some startlingly original and memorable metaphors and figures of speech which made her book aesthetically pleasurable as well.

I would love to read a sequal in which she fills in more details on what it's like to have four sisters who almost feel like quadruplets. She gives us the "facts" on that, but I would love to hear more about the emotional give and take and take and give.

Extraordinary
Not a word is wasted in this quietly powerful memoir. I found myself underlining passages I wanted to save and savor. This is a book about the ties that bind us to family -- a refreshing look at normal small town life in the 60's -- about nuns -- mental illness -- powdered milk -- hope and despair. By the time you finish reading, you know this family and are glad you met them. I chanced upon this book quite by accident -- may other readers be so lucky.

A Family Perseveres
Madeline Blais,who amazed us with "In These Girls, Hope is a Muscle," a book which is on nearly all high school summer reading lists, does it again with "Uphill Walkers." She turns her reporter's eye inward to examine her family and its vicissitudes. The family's uphill struggle following the death of her father is at the core of this book. Blais does not gloss over the rough spots. Her brother's emotional problems, her mother's struggles to keep the family going following the death of her husband, the constraints of growing up in a small, rural 1950's town are all laid bare. But there is a warmth and charm to the telling of the tale. Blais and her three sisters and two brothers move forward propelled by their ability to see the joy in the details of quotidian life and their ability to lean on each other when the going gets tough (as it does when Raymond, the eldest child, falls prey to his inner deamons). This book also captures the spirit of the family matriarch. Proud to the point of denying anything is wrong with Raymond (when Raymond is discharged from the Navy due to aural hallucinations she tells the other children to tell outsiders Ray got a medical discharge because there was something wrong with his hearing!) yet fiesty enough to make do and raise her brood in an era when "single parents" were unheard of, Blais's mother Maureen comes across as the heroine of this work. Blais again demonstates her considerable writing skills. There are some terrific lines in this book, such as her description of her mother's ability to to take a grain of indignity and massage it into a "pearl of pique." Since a family memoir never truly ends, Blais has included a "where are they now" chapter and an epilogue which describes each sibling's take on how the author has told the story -- what she got right, what she is remembering through her personal filter that differs from their own. These chapters are like the "Bonus Tracks" so popular on movie DVDs; a little extra that helps put the whole into perspective. At a time when memoirs, especially Irish-American memoirs, seem to be flooding the market, "Uphill Walkers" is worth your time and money. ... Read more

Book Description

An extraordinary personal testament to the life and times of one of America’s great naturalists and literary figures—less a biography than an essay in defense of Thoreau by one of his closest friends. A moving, sensitive and charmingly written remembrance—often cited in scholarly biographies—offers valuable insights, not available elsewhere, into the life of a remarkable man.
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Reviews (2)

An interesting view of Thoreau's life
Since this book was written by Edward Waldo Emerson, son of Ralph Waldo Emerson, he was obviously familiar with his subject. Henry David Thoreau spent time living in the Emerson house and was the substitute head of the household several times when Edward's father was out of town. He entertained the children and was remembered fondly by the young people of Concord. Here Edward includes those memories with his own and with excerpts from Thoreau's journal.

While these facts and quotes are valid, they don't paint a complete biography of the man. Some of the incidents make sense only to the savvy reader who already has a Thoreauvian background. And only the first 50 pages are text; the remaining 30 consist of expansive footnotes. If you want to glean the full story, you'll have to constantly page back and forth. Yes, it's a worthwhile view that comes from a friend, but it's not the best or most detailed chronicle. An optional read.

Another angle
This book is a glowing account of Thoreau's character, written later in life by Ralph Waldo Emerson's son Edward. Edward knew Thoreau up until the latter's death in 1862, when Edward was about 17. He has supplemented his own memory with interviews and anectdotes given him by other Concord citizens who knew the Thoreau family. These writings are a valuable resource for anyone who is researching Thoreau, with its humanizing slant and defence of its subject against perceived misunderstandings by the public. Any Thoreau fan will find this brief tract illuminating and amusing. ... Read more