Book Description
The compelling story of a single season in the world's finest amateur baseball league.
Every summer, in ten small towns across Cape Cod, young college baseball players showcase their talents in hopes of making it to the "show." A vicious filter, the league has produced one out of every six major league players, from Nomar Garciaparra and Todd Helton to Jeff Bagwell and Barry Zito.
In this brilliantly crafted narrative, Jim Collins chronicles a season in the life of the Chatham A's, perhaps the most celebrated team in the Cape Cod Baseball League. Set against a seemingly bucolic backdrop--a well-heeled resort town on the bend of the outer Cape--the story charts the changing fortunes of a handful of players, all of whom battle slumps and self-doubt in an effort to impress major league scouts and make the playoffs. Several players go home with career-threatening injuries; one blue-chip prospect fulfills great expectations while another is dubbed "the biggest disappointment on the Cape." A pitcher hides an arm injury while negotiating a minor league contract; another leaves early to tend to his dying father. And nearly all look to the following year's major league draft as a barometer of their worth. Far more than a baseball book, The Last Best League is an engrossing story about dreams fulfilled and dreams destroyed, about Cape Cod and the rites of summer, about coming of age in America.
Customer Reviews:
This IS Baseball.......2007-08-22
Collins gets it. Baseball people have a certain way about them, and Collins obviously is one of them; he also knows how to write about them. This book--an in-depth and endearing look at the 2002 Chatham A's of the Cape Cod Baseball League--shines with the polish of good baseball writing about a great baseball subject. The players and team staff come to life, as does the ebb and flow of a summer on the cape. The poignancy of this moment in time, in these specific lives and in this specific baseball season, got me a little misty-eyed at the end. These are the kinds of dreams everyone should have, at least once in awhile, even when they have to come to an end.
This is such a big part of why I love baseball.
Great Book.......2007-07-27
This is a terrific book for any fan of baseball. The book discusses three main characters in how they came to baseball how they played growing up and in college and then how the fare in the Cape League. I've passed the book on to several others who have loved it as well. A must for any baseball fan.
From College to the Big Leagues.......2006-10-20
This book offers excellent insight into what collegiate players will do to make it to the big leagues. The glimpses of small town fans are also interesting. The reader is exposed to a part of baseball few know much about. Informative and fun to read.
Only complaint - Needed pictures!.......2006-08-24
If you like decent writing and/or, you are a baseball fan, just read it. I thought about the book long after I had finished reading it.
A classic for America's Pastime........2006-07-24
Simply; the finest sports related book I've ever read, and one of the finest non-fiction books I've ever read. An in-depth perspective to the best amatuer baseball league. It is easy to not think of many of today's pro atheletes as real people with their own backgrounds. Their plastered on the screen, and we are only able to relate to them with the stats that they produce and the often poor behavior they exhibit. This book helps break those barriers by telling the story of many individuals on the Chatham A's, the most prolific of the Cape Cod League teams. All the players are interesting, but the most is the Head Coach. Extremely well written, I highly recommend it to anyone.
Average customer rating:
- A grand summer read!
- A fun gay novel, on the beach or not
- Great reading, year-round!
- Fluff but enjoyable fluff
- Sometimes Simple is Best
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Last Summer
Michael Thomas Ford
Manufacturer: Kensington
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Customer Reviews:
A grand summer read!.......2007-07-07
I have read three of Michael Ford's books . . . and this is certinally the best. With a quick pace and smooth style this is a great beach or airplane read. The characters seem plucked from our lives and recent headlines. If your thinking about a vacation in P-Town take this book along for a grand read.
A fun gay novel, on the beach or not.......2007-03-08
When I read gay-themed novels, I usually have low expectations,
which is a shame. I have read Michael Thomas Ford's humorous essay
books and thoroughly enjoyed them, but was hesitant to pick up one
of his novels. I was very pleasantly surprised! In this book he
creates a string of characters and manages to connect them all as
they come together for a summer in Provincetown, MA, which serves as
an excellent back-drop for the story. The characterization is
excellent and the humor sprinkled throughout made it that much more
fun to read. But what kept my interest the most is how accurately
gay relationships were depicted, from the friends, the commited
couples, to the not-so-commited couples, to the "newbies", to the
parents, to the relationships on the rocks. Much of the book felt
like non-fiction to me, because of how accurately the relationships
were portrayed. Some readers may find the connections in the
storylines to be too convenient or forced, but I was so enjoying the
book that I just went with it. I think the flaws are easily
overlooked. Prudes beware, there are some graphic descriptions of
gay sex!
Great reading, year-round!.......2007-03-06
I have read and re-read this book several times, and LOVE it every time. The characters are fresh and believable - each with a real human side to them that the author actually allow us to see without the rose-coloured glasses. Josh, Reilly, Emmeline, Toby, and the rest of them are all likeable and many of us can see a bit of ourselves in each of them.
Unlike another reviewer who felt somewhat offended by the story and it's reality to his own experience in P'town, I found the book rather realistic and at times, understated. P'town can be quite wild, quite aloof, and quite the party place - but it also has it's uniquely quiet times full of friendly people and wonderful natural beauty. The author captured both sides of the P'town reality.
Definately a good read! Other books by this same author are also good, but Last Summer remains my favourite.
Fluff but enjoyable fluff.......2006-12-03
Okay, it's still another book about gay relationship angst, but Ford puts it together engagingly if not always plausibly. The plot is pretty standard--boy's BF cheats; he's shocked and disillusioned; flees to Ptown to sort things out; finds family, a new profession and a dynamite new BF, but not without some obstacles and false starts. The characters are on the good side of cliched and for the most part, the reader cares about what happens to them. Everything rolls to a predictable ending, but what the heck, it didn't take long to read and the ride was fun. Yeah, good for the beach or a transcontinental flight.
Sometimes Simple is Best.......2006-09-27
"Last Summer" is one of the best gay novels I've read even though the plots are fairly simple. But, hey, sometimes simple is best, right?
I enjoyed this book because it is diversed with characters that are gay, lesbian, transgendered and questioning. Josh escapes to P-Town from Boston after learning that his lover, Doug, has cheated on him. Toby escapes P-Town from his conservative and close-minded family after coming out to them. Ty and Reid, a Hollywood star and producer, escapes there as well, away from the public eye, so that they can just be themselves.
Meanwhile, Jackie, a native of P-Town, is thinking about having a baby after her lover has left her. However, she just needs to decide whom to ask for the "donation". Emmeline dreams of being a full woman, yet cannot afford that final surgery and adjusts to dealing with her ailing mother, whom she hasn't seen nor spoken in years.
Little by little, over the summer, each of these characters cross paths as they deal with their own and each other's issues. Love. Lust. Infidelity. Betrayal. Coming out. Acceptance. Blackmail. Family. Friendship. They're all in the book.
Like I said, it's a good book which you'll enjoy. I enjoyed it so much that I'm already reading another book of his.
Book Description
In this intimate and poignant history of a sprawling century-old summer house on Cape Cod, George Howe Colt reveals not just one family's fascinating story but a vanishing way of life. Faced with the sale of the treasured house where he had spent forty-two summers, Colt returned for one last August with his wife and young children. The Big House, the author's loving tribute to his one-of-a-kind family home, interweaves glimpses of that elegiac final visit with memories of earlier summers spent at the house and of the equally idiosyncratic people who lived there over the course of five generations.
Built by Colt's great-grandfather one hundred years ago on a deserted Cape Cod peninsula, the house is a local landmark (neighboring children know it as the Ghost House): a four-story, eleven-bedroom jumble of gables, bays, sloped roofs, and dormers. The emotional home of the Colt family, the Big House has watched over five weddings, four divorces, and three deaths, along with countless anniversaries, birthday parties, nervous breakdowns, and love affairs. Beaten by wind and rain, insulated by seaweed, it is both romantic and run-down, a symbol of the faded glory of the Boston Brahmin aristocracy.
With a mixture of amusement and affection, Colt traces the rise and fall of this tragicomic social class while memorably capturing the essence of summer's ephemeral pleasures: sailing, tennis, fishing, rainy-day reading. Time seems to stand still in a summer house, and for the Colts the Big House always seemed an unchanging place in a changing world. But summer draws to a close, and the family must eventually say good-bye.
Elegant and evocative, The Big House is both magical and sad, a gift to anyone who holds cherished memories of summer.
Customer Reviews:
The Big House.......2007-10-02
"The Big House" is best when author Colt is talking about the history and appearance of the Cape, or evoking a picture of the summer days he spent there, but as the memoirist of his family, he seems only in the elementary stages of his struggle to find his true relationship to Boston Brahmanism. Certainly part of maturity is trying to figure out what of the heritage we've been landed with we accept and what we reject; this is neither an easy nor a straightforward task. But Mr. Colt's discomfort about his Wasp-iness is such that the reader is uncomfortable too--we don't quite know where Mr. Colt is coming from.
There are, however, many nice moments in this book. I owe to Mr. Colt the happy surprise of meeting, in his apparently vigorous old age, Penrose Hallowell, a Civil War hero of mine, riding out on a summer morning to pick up his mail from the post office in Pocasset. And if you summer (or used to summer), on the Cape, especially if you've spent time on Buzzard's Bay, you will find much to enjoy.
(If this book interests you, you may enjoy "In My Blood," by John Sedgwick, about a rather similar family in another big house, with some of the same challenges.)
NICE STORY.......2007-08-16
I liked this book. I read it while I was on the beach in Misquamicut. Its about a man who brings his family to Cape Cod to spend the last summer in a summer home owned by his family that has to be sold because they could no longer afford to keep it. It told of his parents, the story behind the house, his grandparents, and his memories of the house when he was young. I liked it.
A Sense of Place.......2007-07-16
Partway through this memoir, one of George Howe Colt's friends uses "a sense of place" to describe what seems most important about Colt's family summer house. I could not agree more. The Big House is a huge, rambling monstrosity of a place, seeming more like the Addams Family's house than anything else. But the Colts and the Atkinsons have lived in and loved the Big House for a century, and its easy to see why. It provides an anchor and a gathering point for the generations to come together every summer. But its too expensive to maintain, and the family has to decide what to do with it, causing some members to fear that it may be lost forever.
This is a memoir both of a house and of a family. The Atkinsons and Colts were Boston Brahmins, WASPS who were once wealthy and prosperous but who now have fallen on leaner times. They endured much unhappiness over the years, but found the Big House to be a place of healing for them. I recognized many traits they shared with my own extended family, which is to be expected since we are WASPS, too, though we are Southerners rather than New Englanders and much less prosperous. I understood the need for "a sense of place" too, since I feel it strongly when visiting areas where my own ancestors lived.
I picked this book up on a whim, but once I started it I could not put it down. It is a fine memoir of a place and way of life that has almost disappeared, but it is also an evocation of much that is still important: family, heritage, and memory.
LOVELY.......2006-11-29
THIS IS A LOVELY BOOK THAT MAKES ME REMEMBER MY OWN FAMILY BIG HOUSE. ALTHOUGH IT WAS IN THE NORTH WOODS OF WISCONSIN AND NOT ON CAPE COD, I REMEMBER THE SAME FAMILY DYNAMIC WITH KIDS EVERYWHERE AND AUNTS AND UNCLES READY TO DO SOMETHING FUN. THANKS FOR THE WONDERFUL BOOK.
Wonderful!.......2006-11-03
I couldn't put this book down! A perfect blend between well written history and personal family narrative. Also, it was pretty creepy how similar their family is to mine! Highly recommended for anyone who's ever had a summer house, been to a summer house, been to Cape Cod, or enjoyed summer in any capacity.
Book Description
The Salt House is a beautifully observed and written memoir of a long summer's stay on the back shore of Cape Cod. Each chapter is like a prose poem, shedding increasing light on the challenge of finding "home" without the illusion of permanence, a quest based not on ownership but on affinity and familiarity with an area and its people. Cynthia Huntington expands her theme through images of the landscape, the shack, the new marriage.
The shack, named "Euphoria," is built as a house set on stilts above the sand, to take the wind under it. Only a partial shelter, it is inhabited for only one season a year, yet it endures. The outer cape has the feel of a place for migrants and drifters -- for birds and other wildlife, and for people such as artists, fishermen, and coast guardsmen. A place where "year-round" often means several addresses. Similarly, her narrative describes improvised, fragile beginnings: a new marriage, learning to be at home in the world, becoming intimate with the natural world, without the necessity of settling down. The Salt House shares a world that is less natural history or memoir than it is neighborhood exploration -- the process of learning a place and becoming native to it.
Customer Reviews:
Tangy and Alive.......2005-09-19
After meeting Cynthia at a writers' program, and finding her to be a lovely person, I decided to read her account of a summer on Cape Cod. I've always longed for such an escapade myself, so this was a vicarious experience of sorts.
"The Sand House" is a joyous and often times humorous telling of the author's days in a small cottage near the Atlantic shoreline. The book focuses on the beauty of her surroundings--the plants, the wildlife, the birds--and on the realities of life in a constricted space with a loved one. The book's title is evocative, tangy and alive, romantic yet earthy. It suits Cynthia's writing perfectly. She is a poet of prose. Her words linger and dance, like cool breezes over the surf. She conjures wonderful images and ideas. She is abstract in her thinking, yet she grabs intangible concepts and wraps them in the sweaty language which humans understand.
If you're looking for quick reading and plot-driven stories, look elsewhere. If, however, you long for tales of lazy summer days told in lyrical language, "The Salt House" is not to be missed.
This is a classic........2002-09-13
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.
Too perfumy........2001-12-01
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.
I was inspired!.......2001-02-25
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!
Breathtaking. Profound........2001-02-18
I cannot believe how wonderful this book is. I've read it twice, and it's even more amazing the second time around. This is one of those books you'll want to revisit again and again. I look forward to reading more of Ms. Huntington's work.
Customer Reviews:
A Horriffying Thriller.......2006-12-19
In this horriffying thriller, 4 teenagers get a job at "Wolf Inn". They got a friend's aunt to drive them there, then she starts having pains. So they take her to a cousin to help her, then they go to the island. Then they meet the man of the hotel, he tells them the hotel needs fixing and that they should go. The teenagers convince him into fixing the hotel to stay. So he says, " Yes." Then weird things start happening. My opinion is that you should read this great thriller, if you enjoy horrifying books. Also if you enjoy the books R.L. Stine writes,then this book is for you!
don't look behind you.......2006-12-12
the 4 teenagers never know when to look behind them because they are staying in an old creepy hotel.it is an action packed thriller.and I would recomend kids of ages 7-12
Scary, huh?.......2003-08-04
'Party summer' is a thriller that I can assure you would love. Maybe you find it confusing, but later on you will understand everything perfectly, so I don't recommend you to star reading the book but then you must finish it 'cause you won't get it.
When I started reading this book, by the way amazing, I fin it a little bit boring... But in the middle.... Oh, my God! It was really suspenseful and I just couldn't stop! I totally advice you reading it, you will extremely enjoy it! It is for all ages, but specially for teens!
I hope it helped you.
TRAPPED!.......2002-09-18
I totally recommend everyone reading this book. In my opinion, it is one of R. L. Stine's best books. At the beginning, a girl named Cari and three friends go for a job at an old hotel. When they get there, someone tells them to leave immediately. They don't listen and start working. Everything was okay until they see a ghost, until Simon Fear dies, until they try to escape the island and notice they're TRAPPED!
Great Book, READ!.......2002-01-20
I do not really remember what the story was about except some parts. I am in the 8th grade and had last read the book in the 5th grade when the other day I started thinking of the book and how good it was. I couldnt remember the title and I have spent hours trying to find this book on the internet. After I looked at some titles that looked familiar I found Party Summer, and knew that was the book. I looked at some of the reviews, and sure enough it was! I was sooo happy and after I am finished writing this review I am going to buy this book! Please read, because after about 4 years I remembered how good the book was, and I know that you will love it too. Dont listen to the bad reviews because if you do, you dont know what youre missing! Read!Read!Read!
Book Description
An inspired guide in a fastinating locale with a rich past, Bailey intersperses his narrative with history, geography and biography, bringing to the life local legends and intriguing characters…
Customer Reviews:
Crusing Guide.......2007-04-11
I first read this book from a copy obtained from the local public library. I was so impressed I bought one. It is a beautiful description of one man's sailing adventures of the New England Coast in the summer of 1992. I bought it primarilly as a cruising guide to the all the places I intend to explore with my own sailboat.
A Dream of Coastal Cruising.......2007-02-18
Long Island Sound and the south coast of New England--City Island in New York City to Martha's Vinyard and Nantucket and then the north shore of Cape Cod is one of the finest sailboat cruising grounds in the world. This area is replete with coves, quaint villages, rivers, islands, and a vast number of harbors and anchorages all different and interesting. Anthony Bailey writes an informative and charming description of a summer cruising the eastern sections, from Shelter Island to Provincetown. For anyone who is interested in or contemplating taking up coastal cruising Bailey's book is a dream of the way coastal cruising could and can be. Bailey cruises sometimes singlehanded, but mostly with his wife Margot. They are serious and dedicated sailors, cruisers, and enjoyers of people and the outdoors. I have cruised many of these same areas and thoroughly enjoyed revisiting them vicariously with Bailey. Bailey is a fine writer, with a modest and friendly voice. This material could easily have been unexciting and tedious in less skilled authorial hands. Bailey brings it lovingly to life.
The Coast of Summer is part informal cruising guide, part "log of our journey," and part dreamy reminiscing. Unlike some cruising guides, Bailey's is very much focused on people. Some sailors have a girl in every port--Bailey has a friend in every port, and we learn much about them. Bailey is British but partly grew up on Cape Cod and lived for years in Stonington, Connecticut while he worked for the New Yorker magazine. He seems to know an endless number of the rich and famous (and eccentric) who summer along the New England coast and he and Margot are happy to be entertained by one or another of them in most every destination on his cruise.
Although The Coast of Summer is one of my favorite and most enjoyed sailing books (and I've read many), I must nevertheless enter some qualms. For one thing, this book tends to breed resentment, at least in my puny soul. Bailey spends three quarters of the year living in London, and then July, August, and part of September cruising New England in his sailboat. Hmmm. What a nice life! I've also already mentioned his many aristocratic and intellectual friends--probably from his New Yorker days. And if you or I wrote a manuscript about our summer cruise, no matter how charming and informative, I bet we could not get it published. But Bailey can! Why? One surmises it's his New Yorker connections again.
OK. Enough of these cranky thoughts. I still have other more serious qualms. Bailey enters disclaimers about treating his tale as a cruising guide and I'm inclined to agree. For one thing the book is dated. Much has changed since he wrote it (but some things never change). I also question some of his boating methods. He and Margot cruise without a bimini. I consider a bimini essential protection from the Sun. Do not cruise anywhere south of the Arctic without a bimini. His auxiliary engine is gasoline rather than diesel. Diesel is much safer. Furthermore Bailey is unwilling to use his engine except in the most dire of circumstances. This can be a danger to oneself and others. We sailors rely on our engines when the wind dies and to get us out of tight spots. To compulsively insist on keeping the engine off, as Bailey does, even in dodgy situations is unwise and in my opinion unseamanlike.
But for his joy in sailing, his love of anchoring in remote spots and enjoying the peace and calm (what we cruisers call "gunkholing"), for his friendship and conviviality, for his treading softly and easily--Bailey is to be learned from and prized.
I recommend this book highly to anyone who is interested in coastal sailboat cruising, especially in Long Island Sound and New England.
Dated, but entertaining.......2005-10-23
With a title like "Sailing New England Waters from Shelter Island to Cape Cod" one expects a practical sailing advice on sailing the said waters. Well, this book doesn't do much in the department of practicality or advice, and I am still looking for a good guide on New England cruising.
Other than that, the book is quite enjoyable and makes a wonderful winter read, much recommended.
The Coast of Summer.......2001-04-18
This delightful account of a summer of sailing along the Southern New England coast is a must-read for any cruising sailor or sailor wannabe. It is the story of the normal events of coastal cruising, from anchoring to meeting old friends ashore, from monitoring the weather to cooking on board, told in a prose which flows as easily as the tides. The personal memories and reflections, and the historical notes on the many harbors along the route, are as thoroughly engrossing as the 80-foot waves, pirates, and seamonsters of most adventure books. Perhaps it is the reality of planning such a cruise for yourself that makes the book even more captivating than the more unlikely tales of life-threatening ordeals in violent seas. This book informs, entertains, and gratifies almost as well as the sea, itself.
Best book on the area.......2000-08-30
I am now reading this book for the 4th time. You easly place yourself rght in the cockpit with them. Going day to day, harbor to harbor. A must read !!!!!
Book Description
Subtitle: Real-Life Stories About the Players, Coaches, and Volunteers, Who Make the Cape Cod Baseball League the Premier Amateur Summer Organization in America
Cape Crusaders is a collection of true stories about many former, current, and future Major League Baseball players, who began their journey to the big leagues by playing ball on beautiful Cape Cod. Through their own words, these players reveal how they coped with spending their first summer away from home, hoping to catch that big break and make a name for themselves by playing the game they so dearly love. How did future big-league players such as Will Clark, Tim Salmon, and Terry Steinbach cope with living with a host family? How did Lance Berkman and other hot-shot college prospects fare using a wooden bat for the first time? Which soon-to-be big-leaguers were delivering groceries or washing cars as part of their summer job, set up by the league, in order to help pay rent to their hosts? These popular players shed light on the struggles and triumphs they endured while participating in the premier amateur summer baseball league in the country.
Customer Reviews:
Must reading for Cape Cod Baseball league fans........2005-06-23
This is definitely a worthwhile book for all fans of the Cape Cod Baseball league. Mr. Thomas did an excellent job interviewing many of the players, coaches and umpires that help make the League the best collegiate league in the country. Great job! Looking forward to reading his next book.
Average customer rating:
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CC (Cape Cod) (Summer Share)
Randi Reisfeld
Manufacturer: Simon Pulse
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ASIN: 1416900365 |
Book Description
A house at the beach.
A bunch of hot strangers.
A three-month party that's
off the hook.
Everyone's in the Cape Cod share for something: the bling, to make bank, a Kennedy. Or running from something: their past, a bad breakup. The housemates are all really different. It's looking like a long hard summer. Until the blowout party that changes everything.
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Cape Cod summer
Eleanor Early
Manufacturer: Houghton, Mifflin Co
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ASIN: B0006ARZFW |
Average customer rating:
- Excellent
- The LAST Summer -- Thank Goodness
- Well worth reading
- The Last Summer, A Great Romantic Mystery
- Good Company
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The Last Summer (Nal Accent Novels)
John Hough
Manufacturer: NAL Trade
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ASIN: 045120882X
Release Date: 2003-08-05 |
Book Description
It's 1968 and the world is on the verge of change. So is thirty-seven-year-old single mother Claire Malek. Anxious for escape, and without looking back, she impulsively heads toward Cape Cod. There she will experience a relationship of tenderness and passion with a younger man who is home from Harvard for one last summer. Together, they will face an unexpected threat...and struggle with questions of love and sacrifice that will resonate in their lives for years to come.
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"A classic love story, The Last Summer chronicles a young man on the verge of growing up and an older woman running away from a life out of control. It is the summer of 1968: The world is poised on the cusp of radical change. Politicians question the status quo, blacks react to decades of oppression, and students protest the injustices of war. Change is in the air, too, for 37-year-old single mother Claire Malek. She has just walked out on her rather cushy job in Washington, DC, as ""special assistant"" to Senator Bob Mallory. DC had become an impossible place for Claire, heavy with regrets and burdened with secrets she knew she could never divulge. Anxious for both escape and change, Claire packs her 15-year-old daughter, April, into her Camaro and heads to a small town on Cape Cod, where Claire takes a job as cub reporter on a twice-weekly newspaper called the Covenant. She knows it's a big risk, but Claire is desperate for a new start and a new life, and the town and all it has to offer seem to be a good beginning. As Claire and Lane work together to try to make sense of the seemingly unrelated deaths, a closeness grows between them, and with it, the stirrings of sexual attraction. At first Claire resists, knowing that the fifteen years separating them is an unbridgeable gap, but before either of them realizes what's happening, she and Lane are swept up in a romantic passion that threatens to overwhelm them both. A work of great tenderness, taut suspense, and historical immediacy, The Last Summer is a captivating portrait of love and sacrifice. "
Customer Reviews:
Excellent.......2006-07-30
I found this book at a Bargain Price for $5 and said Why Not. Sounded interesting and the price was right. Boy was I surprised! The writing was nothing short of excellent. I like how John Hough was able to completely focus on each scene at a time, instead of jumping around like many authors do. It felt so complete each time you finished a chapter, but you were dying to go on and find out what else is going to happen. The depiction of the era of the late 60s and of New England was absolutely phenomenal. I felt like I was watching a movie. Too bad there arent any previous books still in print by this great author because I would love to read more!!
The LAST Summer -- Thank Goodness.......2004-03-21
I bought this book with the intention of reading it while at the shore two summers ago thinking it would be a light read for the beach. While it took me nearly twenty months to finally get around to reading it, it probably would have been a much better "summer" book than a "winter" book. When I purchased it, I thought it might be middle of the road "light reading". Well, it's so light you could probably finish it in one sitting.
After reading the rest of the reviews here, I thought perhaps I had read a different book than some of the other reviewers. While it was an "okay" story, in no way would I call the book engrossing or compelling. The characters are all so deadpan that I'm surprised they were able to live through 342 pages.
I also thought I would relate well to this book because it takes place in 1968 when I was a teenager. Somehow it missed the target there for me as well only focusing on the assassination of RFK, Jr. and the Vietnam War.
As the story goes, thirty-seven year old Claire Malek leaves her job in Washington D.C. with no severance pay and no chance of any references. The reader knows that this spur-of-the-moment decision to leave is probably the result of foul play in our nation's capital as Claire was a "special" assistant to a state Senator. How "special" of an assistant was she the reader wonders? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
She settles on Cape Cod with her fifteen year old daughter April and gets a job as a writer/reporter for The Covenant, the local newspaper. It doesn't take long for attractive Claire to catch the eye of the editor's twenty-two year old son Lane. It seems that the fifteen year old age difference isn't that much of a deterrent to this love affair. If this was set in the year 2004, it might have been more believable to me but having grown up in the sixties, I found this hard to swallow especially when Lane's family is so accepting of their relationship.
As a backdrop to this affair, there is a murder mystery that comes to a very abrupt conclusion. I felt this could have been drawn out a bit more. Someone mentioned in another review that the author came from a family of newspaper people so perhaps this story is semi-autobiographical and this really happened to him when he was younger. That would be the only thing that could make it palpable for me.
All in all, I give it three stars. As Dick Clark would have said in the sixties, "It had a good beat but it missed its mark."
Well worth reading.......2003-08-06
At thirty-nine, Claire Maleck knows her life in DC is over as her affair with her boss, repulsive Senator Bob Mallory has ended. Knowing she needs to start over, Claire, accompanied by her teenage daughter, drives to Boston to stay with her mom until she can find employment. In Cape Cod, Claire asks the editor of the Covenant John Hillman for a job as a secretary. Instead, John hires her to write obituaries, which serves as an on the job internship in finding information and writing copy.
Soon Claire finds herself attracted to her boss' son reporter Lane Hillman, who reciprocates her feelings. However, he is closer in age to her daughter than to her and in the already heated summer of 1968 that relationship is taboo. As they work together inquiring into two murders, they fall in love, but neither realize the danger their investigative journalism will place them from a killer who wants to remain unidentified.
The who-done-it is fun to follow and filled with suspense, but also the mystery is quite obvious. However, the clever use of major historical items from a summer that burned makes for a tremendously entertaining tale especially for those boomers who can relate to Chicago, riots, and assassinations. Claire is a great prime player who enables the reader to feel that crazy world of fire thirty five years ago yet she also allows fans to see inside those who touch her, a rare reversal that shows how talented John Hough, Jr. is.
Harriet Klausner
The Last Summer, A Great Romantic Mystery.......2002-10-20
John T Hough's newest novel "The Last Summer" is a great read.Mr Hough is a gifted writer whose Chacacters come to life and connect with you on every page.I did not want this beautifully writen book to end.This one is a must read..Michael Mello
Good Company.......2002-07-20
This is a beautifully written, engrossing book about complex people and the pain, sadness, and joy that come to them in unexpected ways. John Hough has an unusually fine ear for dialogue and brings the reader into intimate contact with the characters. At the same time while not obstrusively so, the writing has a compelling poetic quality. This is a captivating book about people with interesting sensibilities. It also has a strong narrative line and is a good read. i recommend it highly.
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