You can tell that the author is also a poet because this book is very, very perfumy. Very, very detailed. A whole chapter almost on the trails that a sea gull makes. Beautifully written but very little context. Should have instead been made into a 5 page short story. Would love to meet this person and be friends with her though. She would make a great next door neighbor it seems! :) If you like Barbara Kingsolver style writing you will probably love this book but if you prefer the Memoir style writing of Joan Anderson of A Year by the Sea (also taking place on Cape Cod) this isn't the book for you.

This is one of the best books I have read in a while. I have been on a nonfiction kick for a few months. As a college student I don't often have much time to devote to "reading for pleasure" but since I'm on vacation I've had a little time. Reading this book in February brought me right back to June and July. It's descriptions were wonderful and reminded me why I love the beach. The author's reflections on her relationships seem to echo my own feelings that I can't express. I would recommend this book to anyone who loves the beach and enjoys being there by themself or with a loved one!

This book is destined to become a classic not only in the rich field of Cape Cod writing but in nature and memoir in general. Huntington's prose is simple and pure, evoking not only the outer landscape, but the inner landscape of a woman's mind. What a pleasure it is to be in a mind so generous, open, and curious about the world! This is a book I will read over and over.

A very thorough guide.... This is definitely the book to take with you to Atlantic Canada.

"... a very thorough guide.... This is definitely the book to take with you to Atlantic Canada." Travelwriter Marketletter

Although the 1st edition of this book was terrific, the second one is even better. We've used this guidebook to plan several trips to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and other Atlantic Canada destinations, and the authors' write-ups have steered us in the right direction each time. The book is well organized, with a comprehensive index, and coverage is detailed and well-written, with a touch of humor. We highly recommend it!

This book became a required reading for the fifth graders at our public school. I write not because this is a horrible book but because it is certainly not on a fifth grade reading level and contains numerous references that no 5th grader could
understand. Even reading the book to a child would require countless needs to stop and explain references. Although it says for ages 10 to 14 on the back, it's classified as "young adult" which is for ages 12-18 according to the American Library Association. The thoughts, feelings and actions of the 14 to 16 year old main characters are not appropriate for 9-11 year olds. References to concepts and characters such as Hannibal Lector, illegitimate children, boys and girls sneaking out on chaperones at dances to go kiss, sneaking out of the house at night, breaking into various establishments (town hall, to name one), and driving without a license are notideas to promote to a 10 year old. There are portions of the book such as the descriptions of pouring hot wax into a person's ears to deafen them and the letter found and read by the main character with details of abuse that I could not stand to let our ten year old read. Additionally, the main character is routinely rude and exhibits disrespectful behavior toward a policeman and teacher in the book. This book is no longer a required book to read at the school due to the concerns expressed by many parents. There are other wonderful and interesting mysteries out there for 10 year old children to read.

...P>I would highly recommend this book (and series!) as fun for both kids and adults to read. Hope this helps! Enjoy your reading!

If you like mysteries, the Belltown series is tops and this book will get you started in great fashion. It's fast, suspenseful and keeps your interest all the way... and if you like or live on Cape Cod where the story takes place, all the better. This book makes you laugh, shiver with anticipation, and delight in the exploits of Orville Jacques, the kid who has a natural knack at always being in the right (or wrong!) place, at the right (or wrong!) time.

As far as the rest of the series goes, they're nostly focused around an important mystery that needs solving and contain a wide range of action to keep your interest: LOTS of MYSTERY, interesting but believable characters, just a smidgeon of romance (but not too much for the younger reader) with Orville's interest in the elusive Maria, positive teen/parent and peer relationships (his parents really care about him and his best friend falls for Maria!), valuable teen/adult relationships (Orville befriends a depressed elderly man and both really help each other out), cops, robbers, murders, 'believe-it-or-not' events (read BOOK 3!!!!) ... just a whole lot of good stuff crammed into a solid mystery!

This book tells it like it is and I couldn't put it down. A good thriller with many dimensions.

For years I was abused by my father and nothing was ever done to him, much like Harry Dolan's father. This book made me feel so good and it's the only sense of justice I've ever felt. Hope there will be more Harry books.

Seldom have I read a book so satisfying and troubling at the same time. The abuse inflicted by Al Blue on his family is unbelievable, but all too common. What is not commom is the brand of justice carried out by Harry Dolan. Highly recommended

'Age of Iron' is typical Coetzee material in that it is extremely well written and portrays South Africa, in this case 1980s South Africa, as a very strange place where its national psyche is badly twisted. In 'Age of Iron' the narrator is a elderly white woman dying of cancer. Not only does she no longer understand her country she has trouble grasping the notion of life, death and in-between. And then a homeless black man comes into her life (..she let's him in) and then she really starts pouring out here emotions.

On one level I really liked 'Age of Iron'. Coetzee doesn't hold back on his brutal account of a country broken by apartheid. And much of the dialogue between the dying woman and her homeless friend is most thought-provoking. However the author has a tendency to over-cook the dialogue, stretching to the point of being a dissertation of all the evils of mankind. It is as if Coetzee couldn't restrain himself from telling the world how smart he is. Message to Coetzee: less would have be more, much more.

Bottom line: certainly an intriguing yet rather flawed novel.

Mrs. Curren is an old woman dying of cancer in the heart of South Africa during a period of political as well as literal war. A Classics professor, she has always had the gift of expression yet with the horrors going on around her, her inclination grows even stronger and she begins to channel her thoughts and emotions into a long letter to her daughter who has immigrated to America years ago. The day she finds out she has cancer, a vagrant and his dog show up in her yard whom she allows to work around her home for food and a pittance. Meanwhile, young men around her are being killed in the name of comradery while adults sit idly by and soothe their guilty conscience's with ideas of bravory and grandor. Mrs. Curren seems to be the only one dead-set against all the hatred and killing. She expresses her opinions to her vagrant friend, Vercueil, and to her daughter. She asks Vercueil to promise to send the letter when she is gone. And she resigns herself to an end to the life she knows in her war-torn country. Yet she pretends to be stalling it all the same..."So I am well guarded. Death would think twice before trying to pass this dog, this man." Once again, Coetzee hits on a vitally important issue among the living; that is, whether to support war as a means of fighting for freedom and victory or to put down one's weapons knowing that one more young life taken will not alone decide the fate of an entire country.

This book really takes us inside just how disconcerting life must be, must have been, within the waning years of Apartheid for those whites in South Africa who grew up with this horrendous system yet could not contemplate their lives with out it, even if they were not actively racist themselves. The female lead's, and Coetzee always astounds me with his writing from a female perspective (I wonder if actual females would agree), confusion in dealing with the later years of Apartheid allow us to view in sympathy those whites caught up in the system by circumstance while not ignoring the great tragedy that Apartheid was to the Black majority. It also sheds a light on the perception issues that we face in the United States across the racial divide.

Cape Cod, Engrossing..Entertaining..The perfect book to take to the beach-so says the Boston Sunday Hearld. A mixture of truth..and misleading fallacy.. Entertaining? Slightly..Engrossing? hardly. I had to force feed parts of it to my brain..other parts I simply skimmed, How much DESCRIPTION is a person expected to sustain? Annapolis was the first book I read by William Martin, I instantly feel in love, and mistakenly thought the seeming lack of depth to the "story" near the end of the book was a conscious effort to bring the reader down easily. In the reading of Cape Cod..I find the same shallow feel to the 20th century aspects of the book.
Cape Cod is a yoyo, sucking you down into the past, wrapping you in the arms of another time,engulfing you in the beauty of a well told tale, then jerking you up, ripping away the comfort of oblivion and rudely inserting you into the black embrace of..here and "now".
I enjoy Martins' tales of the past, I do not enjoy his depiction, or characters of the 20th century, he lacks..something in that area, and leaves me wondering if the same man mints both sides of the coin. One interesting thing about this book, which amused me greatly and had me applauding, is that there is not one single character amoung the many, that is even partially likable, which satisfys my misanthropic view of the world. Martin should stick to weaving words which draw A picture of the world behind us..and leave others to dwell in the present..
I think I'll try Nerve Endings next.. Who wants to send it to me? As it seems to be out of print.. *sigh*

At least not in William Martin's novel of the same name. In Martin's CAPE COD there are feuding families, long-held secrets, regional history and, tying it all together, a mystery - as well as those wondrous beaches and that natural essence of 'The Cape' (as we New Englanders know and love it) that he brings to life in this story.
From the first pages of this novel, in which whales inexplicably beach themselves, Native Americans and White men clash, and the Pilgrims, noble, flawed and human as they were, suffer the awful indignities of the relentless voyage to the New World, we're off on a William Martin-style adventure. As is his BACK BAY and ANNAPOLIS, the story unfolds through the eyes of (sometimes warring - always interesting) families, and jumps back and forth in time. This enables us to feel the historical events that are going to impact on the modern-day intrigue. I have always liked this about William Martin's stories. This sense of what it was like 'then,' how people felt, how they acted. We get to enjoy a well written tale and learn a thing or three along the way. Martin's respect for, and love of, history is evident throughout CAPE COD, as it is in ANNAPOLIS, BACK BAY and CITIZEN WASHINGTON. And his reverence for 'The Cape' will be evident to every reader, especially we Cape lovers! For us, that's a bonus. To read CAPE COD is to feel, in those pages, that essence of 'TheCape,'that infuses us as soon as we have crossed the Sagamore and the Bourne bridges....CAPE COD is a wonderful story, a lesson in our history, and the kind of enlightening adventure we have come to expect from William Martin. As usual, he delivers! Read this book...Perhaps sitting in a lounge chair on a sunny summer day at the edge of Old Silver Beach...You'll be glad you did....

Martin brings the plight of the Pilgrims to life. He also manages also to so us once again that these were people and not icons. While fiction, it is easy to visualize the petty argumnets and personality struggles within this group that most of us assume was a cohesive unit with a united purpose. Using his now familiar device of switching back and forth from now and then, Martin paints a living picture of the early history of the Cape. This was the last of Martin's books that I read prior to Citizen Washington. I hesitated because I thought the topic limited but I ended learning and enjoying a compelling history of a special niche in American history.

Martin demonstrates an uncanny ability to tell the great stories (Annapolis - US Navy) a the small (Cape Cod) and make them breathe.

Chris is able to take over 100 years of Cape Cod baseball history and form it into a summer read as refreshing as the breeze at the beach. Much like the Cape's summer season, Price comes with a wonderful combination of bright tales and waves of important moments of what might be the best example of what is good about the Cape and baseball. The first part of the book, a chronicle of the history of the game on the Cape, melds both the important points of the league along with the stories that make the Cape League the special place it is. The second part, which goes through the history and characters of the teams, is even more enjoyable, as Chris manages to really bring out the spirit of baseball on the Cape. From Pie Traynor to Mo Vaughn, Price has them all. The best part of the book, however, is the epilogue, a brief four or five pages that is nothing less than a love letter to the Cape and game. If you've ever buzzed down Route 6, ate fried clams at a shack, strolled th! e dunes of the National Seashore, or popped up your head at the sound of wood hitting rawhide on a summer evening, you can't pass up this book. The Cape League is a special thing, and Christopher Price captures its essence. For a first book, it's a keeper.

My father was one of the Cape Cod Baseball Leagues prestigious umpires. Curly Clement umpired in the Cape League for 35 years and the stories that he tells about the "kids" who played baseball during their summers from school can be read within the covers of this book. It is a must book to read if you love the game of baseball.

I was able to get my hands on an advance copy and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love the cape and baseball and this book gets it just right. Anyone who enjoys baseball and it's history will love this book. The author is able to bring a fresh perspective to some of today's biggest stars. Once I started it, I couldn't help but reach for it every free minute I had. I can definitely see myself re-reading this again on the beach this summer. I thought I knew the Cape League already but after reading this I know I do. Highly recommended.

If you're like me and you thrilled to accounts of pirates and blood and thunder on the high seas when you were a kid, this book will get your pulse racing. It's not only an intriguing tale of Black Sam Bellamy, one of the most fascinating buccaneers ever to sail the Spanish Main, but a modern adventure tale about the finding of Black Sam's treasure. Treasure-hunter Barry Clifford--a tough ex-athlete with a nose for lost artifacts--and co-author Paul Perry, a member of the expedition, lived out a story that will capture the imagination of any adult trapped in the blandness of a high-tech world. Clifford became fixated on finding the Whydah, an English slave ship commandeered by a pirate crew under Bellamy that had sunk in a ferocious storm off Cape Cod in 1717. It took Clifford years of struggle to do so--raising the money to back his venture, fighting with gold-crazed partners, dealing with so many failures that it seemed the ghosts of the dead pirates were out to defeat him. The book is packed with photos and drawings, recreating for the reader not only the swashbuckling era of piracy but the life of a present-day Indiana Jones who wouldn't be stopped until he plumbed the secrets of the deep.

A captivating account of the demise of infamous pirate Black Sam Bellamy and his treasure-laden ship, the Whydah and . . . an equally compelling story of one man's obsessive quest to recover the wreck and its riches more than 250 years later.

Barry Clifford with the help of co-author Paul Perry tells of Clifford's dogged hunt for the sunken ship overcoming bureaucratic, financial and legal obstacles along the way.

Repeated flashbacks to the early 1700s and the escapades of the legendary pirates provides a fascinating counterpoint to the author's modern-day battles.

While meticulously researched, providing a fascinating and informative glimpse of the pirate's life (I learned so many new facts) the book is also eminently easy to read. Illustrations and photographs make it a complete work.

A "must-buy" for anyone either interested in the exploits of rogue buccaneers of the early 18th century or the adventures of a late 20th century swashbuckling entrepreneur.

In my next life, I want to be Paul Perry.

Look at everything he has done: he has written a biography of Hunter Thompson, wrote "Saved by the Light" (one of the greatest stories ever told), and did all of those other books about near death experiences. And now this, a book about the only excavation of a pirate ship.

This is a great book for a lot of reasons. For one, Barry Clifford is such a colorful character, kind of a real world Indiana Jones. Born on Cape Cod, he was raised with the story of Black Sam Bellamy, a pirate who feel in love with a local girl named Maria Hallett and went off the find booty in the Caribbean. He found plenty of it, and loaded it onto a captured slave ship (the Whydah) before sailing home to marry Maria. He died in a storm that also took most of his crew and tons of gold and silver to the bottom of the ocean.

This story haunted Clifford through the years, until he finally decided to search for the sunken treasure ship. He found way more than he bargained for, including trouble on land as well as sea. He also made discoveries that made the entire treasure hunting foray worthwhile: gold, silver, cannons, human bones, a piece of the hull and a textbook full of valuable information about the identity and nature of pirates.

This is a beautifully presented book, one that is written well and contains a wealth of photos and illustrations that are a feast for the eyes and mind of hungry readers.

My question now is this: What are you going to do next, Paul?

The story contained in this book is a good example of why governments should have stayed out of the exploring business in the Arctic regions. The inadequate research, underfunding, and the willy-nilly selection of leaders and expedition members practically doomed the Greely excursion to Lady Franklin Bay before it began. Once under way, the objections and obstructions put forth by Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln definitely contributed to the tragedy that ensued. There is no doubt that the members of the expedition acted very heroically in many instances, including the commander himself, but there are also many times when foolish things happened, and those things had tragic consequences later. Reading this book is a good cautionary tale: plan ahead for as many contingencies as possible, have proper funding, and make sure that instructions are sufficiently clear and flexible enough to take into account changing situations.

I loved the book. If you enjoy adventure, history and reading about explorers and expeditions into extreme climates and dangerous places then this is a good book for you.
I have read many books dealing with both Arctic and Antarctic expeditions as well as exploration, mountain climbing and military history.
This is the story of an Army Signal Corp expedition and a series of screw-ups which left them stranded in the unforgiving climate of the Arctic. The extremes that these men were subjected to and the pressures brought to bear on them are mind boggling. We wonder what we would do under similar circumstances.
I came away thinking that there were really no "good guys" in this book, but lots of "bad guys" and just people who couldn't/wouldn't get along. Some had personality quirks that only magnified their plight and made things worse for everyone. No heroes in this account, only survivors. A good read.

Len Guttridge's extensive research has uncovered the true story of what happened to the ill-fated Greely expedition. For the first time, we are given new details of this horrendous part of our history. In the past, things that have been written about this expedition have been almost entirely from Greely's official records. The excerpts from new unpublished diaries and papers in Guttridge's book give us new insights about other members of the expedition and their hostility towards Greely. We see Lieutenant Greely's decisions on the retreat south as pure madness. As Mr. Guttridge concluded, Mr. Greely was no match for the arctic. Washington politics concerning the rescue of these poor souls was equally disheartening. Guttridge has subtly exposed a desperate plot by a chosen few to stay alive. Interesting that the two cooks, Greely and Brainard are among those who managed to survive. The horror of the fate of those not so lucky makes this book a real page turner. It would make a fabulous movie.

Fans of Alistair MacLeod, please understand -- I respect his writing abilities, but this book disappointed me. Perhaps it's too much in the vein of what little I've read of Hemingway and London -- but it just didn't hold me like I anticipated...and yes, I read it all the way through.

There were some stories I liked more than others -- but for the most part, I found them to be uninvolving. His descriptive talents are immense, and his feeling for his subjects and their setting -- Canada's beautiful but harsh Cape Breton Island, for the most part -- is obviously deep and heartfelt. Perhaps his characters and his storylines are just a little too rough-hewn for me, I can't really put my finger on it.

I'm glad I read this book -- I had heard a lot about MacLeod's work in the last year or so -- and I won't go so far as to recommend that others NOT read him. As I said, his talents are genuine and obvious, and others might enjoy these stories more than I did. By all means, if you enjoy reading the work of a craftsman, don't ignore this man's writing.

I've read collections of short stories in the past year that I enjoyed more -- by Russell Banks, John Biguenet, Adria Bernardi, and (my favorite) William Trevor.

I found the stories in Alistair MacLeod's Island to be beautifully moving--some incredibly powerful, others merely just very good. These are contemplative stories and because they all deal with similar underlying topics (but altogether different stories)--the return to the rural, the countryside's slow adaptation to change, youth contrasted with age--it makes sense to read these stories slowly, over several weeks. I believe reading these quickly may cause them to blend together, something you don't want to do because each story has its unique original beauty. MacLeod writes very carefully and his prose is very, I don't know, almost heavy, very powerful. You have to be in a contemplative mood, I believe, to appreciate these stories. This is not a collection for that cross country plane ride, or your week at the beach. Rather, these are stories to be savored slowly, in peace and quiet. Well done.

Alistair MacLeod is a Canadian national treasure. I hope they appreciate his talent as much as I. This collection reaches deep in to the psyche of natives of Cape Breton Island, descended from strong Scottish stock, roots deep within the land and the hard work necessary to maintain life and soul on the sometimes unforgiving islands.

The writing is lyrical with wonderful glimpses of Gaelic, which few of us know anything about. MacLeod's use of Gaelic, his talk of farm living and mankind's link with the sea, and more importantly, mankind's link with the past enable the reader to intimately feel the island culture, separate from the rest of Canada.

The tone is mournful, graceful, and paradoxically, both harsh and kind. Each story is self-contained. I usually had to stop between stories to allow the last one ot settle within me. Such power and understanding!