Book Reviews

Click here to read reviews of books set in New England or written by authors from the area. If you are the author or publisher of such a book, contact me here for review and profile inquiries.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

“Lucy by the Sea” by Elizabeth Strout

Image
Photo: elizabethstrout.com 291 pages, published by Random House , ©2022 It hasn’t been an easy life for Lucy Barton, and it’s about to get harder. Lucy lives alone in New York City. She is a novelist, a single woman with two grown daughters, and the main character of the novel “Lucy by the Sea” by Elizabeth Strout. Lucy loves her girls dearly, and she doesn’t want them going through what she had to endure during her childhood: grinding poverty and an apathetic mother. Adulthood hasn’t been easier her ex-husband, William, had cheated on her and ultimately left her for the woman he cheated on her with. Spring is coming to New York, but so is a virus that is afflicting otherwise healthy people and killing many. William, a parasitologist, is familiar with the virus in ways laypeople cannot comprehend. He convinces his daughters to leave the city. As far as Lucy goes, William has plans for her to join him in a rented house in the town of Shirley, Maine .  Lucy is apprehensive about leav...
Read more

"In the Shadow of Salem" by Richard Hite

Image
281 pages, published by  Westholme Publishing , ©2018 While the witch hysteria in Salem was playing on everyone's fears and superstitions at the time, a lesser-known mania was taking place in another town close by. Andover, Massachusetts was a small town under the protection of the English Crown. Founded in 1646, the town was founded by residents of nearby Ipswich and Newbury. Andover was a relatively quiet town King Phillip's War put settlers on edge. There was another period of unrest that plagued the residents of the town. This time the threat was supernatural. While many throughout the United States and the rest of the world are familiar with the Salem Witch Trials, there are a lot of people who don't know of a similar infamous event in nearby Andover. In the summer of 1692, Elizabeth Ballard fell ill and showed no signs of recovering. At the behest of neighbors, Elizabeth's husband Joseph called on the girls of Salem who had been victims of witchcraft's curse ...
Read more

"The Boston Massacre: A Family History" by Serena Zabin

Image
296 pages, published by  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt , ©2020 The Boston Massacre. Americans, especially those in Boston have heard the story of that March night where colonists were harassing and shouting at British soldiers. After moments of hurling insults and objects at the regulars, shots were fired into the crowd, killing five men and wounding six. The event is discussed as early as elementary school, and millions of people have seen the engraving  that shows British troops firing on an innocent, unarmed crowd of civilians. The Boston Massacre. What Really Happened? Over the centuries, there have been new facts and information as to what perpetrated the event. Colonists, especially The Sons of Liberty wasted no time in framing propaganda for their narrative. We have learned of shouting, hurling objects into the air, and ultimately firing into a crowd of people hurling objects and insults at the unwelcome British soldiers. What a lot of people don't realize is that the Briti...
Read more