Admittedly, I'm biased. I've been a buff (spark in Boston-ese) for a long long time ... and I moved to the Boston area in the summer of '85, not long after the trial of one of the main co-conspirators had happened.
So I liked the book a lot. Mr Miller did an excellent job and we're fortunate that one of the co-conspirators kept copious and detailed notes. Pro-tip: If you are a serial arsonist, don't keep a journal.
User Profile
Read a bunch of stuff pre-2020 and almost nothing since. Sad, that.
This link opens in a pop-up window
plaws's books
User Activity
RSS feed Back
plaws rated Arkansas Airwaves: 3 stars
plaws rated Lincoln In The Telegraph Office: 4 stars
plaws rated Lachine Canal: 4 stars
plaws reviewed Burn Boston Burn by Wayne Miller
None
plaws rated The Specter of Salem: 5 stars
plaws reviewed Rock 'n' Radio by Ian Howarth
None
5 stars
If you 1) grew up in Montreal in the 1960s or 1970s and 2) listened to the radio you need to read this book. Yep, totally a trip down memory lane, but Mr Howarth (he taught at my HS so ... "Mr" Howarth) did an incredible amount of research on all the players, big and small, of those days. And because it's Rock'n'Radio he covers some of the music makers and music promoters that had a symbiotic relationship with radio back then.
plaws rated Every Tool's a Hammer: 5 stars

Every Tool's a Hammer by Adam Savage
In this New York Times bestselling “imperative how-to for creativity” (Nick Offerman), Adam Savage—star of Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters—shares his golden …
plaws rated Perdido Street Station: 3 stars

Perdido Street Station by China Miéville (New Crobuzon, #1)
Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and …

Railsea by China Miéville
"On board the moletrain Medes, Sham Yes ap Soorap watches in awe as he witnesses his first moldywarpe hunt: the …
plaws reviewed The City & the City by China Miéville
plaws rated 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus: 5 stars

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann, Charles Mann
A groundbreaking study that radically alters our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans in 1492. Traditionally, …
plaws reviewed A history of Pointe Claire by Brian R. Matthews
None
4 stars
Very good. Pacing was, maybe, a little off. Seemed to spend a lot of time in the 18thC, which was fine by me, and then sort of sped through the 19thC and then by the time we hit post-war, it was more of a cataloging of events. Maybe that's just how history is (I Am Not A Historian).
The coverage of the big Lakeside Air Show of 1910 (first ever in Canada) make me want to know more about that event.
Good coverage of the early settlement of the parish. Pity the present day city (and adjoining municipalities) don't seem to be doing anything to commemorate the tricentennial of the laying out of the three main côte roads that cross Pointe Claire, etc. The first farms were conceded in 1718.