Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
BOOKS
FOR CHILDREN
The timeless classic
Make Way for
Ducklings,
by Robert McCloskey, tells
the story of Mrs. Mallard and her babies
on the loose in the Back Bay. After your
kids fall for this topic (and they will), you
can thrill them with a trip to the Public
Garden, where bronze statues of the fam-
ily occupy a place of honor.
Slightly older kids might know the
Public Garden as the setting of part of
The Trumpet of the Swan,
by E. B.
White. After reading it, a turn around the
lagoon on a Swan Boat is mandatory.
An excellent historical title is
Johnny
Tremain,
by Esther Forbes, a fictional
boy's-eye-view account of the Revolution-
ary War era. The topic vividly describes
scenes from the American Revolution,
many of which take place along the Free-
dom Trail.
We're Off to Harvard Square,
by Sage
Stossel, is a delight, written in sprightly
verse and beautifully illustrated. It's
intended for 9- to 12-year-olds, but
younger kids and adults will like it, too.
FOR ADULTS
My favorite introduction to the city's
early history is
Paul Revere and the
World He Lived In,
Forbes's look at
Boston before, during, and after the Revo-
lution.
Common Ground: A Turbulent
Decade in the Lives of Three American
Families,
by J. Anthony Lukas, is the
definitive account of the busing crisis of
the 1970s and the attendant social
upheaval. Both won the Pulitzer Prize for
nonfiction. A Pulitzer winner for fiction
(though not for this topic), Edwin
O'Connor captured Boston machine poli-
tics in a book many have challenged but
none has surpassed,
The Last Hurrah.
The Proper Bostonians,
an entertain-
ing, perceptive nonfiction look at a
bygone era that helped earn Boston its
longstanding reputation for stuffiness, is
an early work by well-known animal-
rights activist Cleveland Amory.
The
Friends of Eddie Coyle,
by George V.
Higgins, is a crime novel famed for its
realistic dialogue and unvarnished take
on Boston hoods.
Black Mass,
by Dick
Lehr and Gerard O'Neill, updates the
story of local organized crime with a non-
fiction take on the rise of fugitive mobster
James “Whitey” Bulger.
Architecture buffs will enjoy
Cityscapes
of Boston,
by Robert Campbell and Peter
Vanderwarker, and
Lost Boston,
by Jane
Holtz Kay. If trivia's your thing, check out
the treasury of “did you know” items in
Boston A to Z,
by historian Thomas H.
O'Connor.
“Paul Revere's Ride,”
Henry Wads-
worth Longfellow's classic but historically
inaccurate poem about the events of April
18 and 19, 1775, is collected in many
anthologies. It's a must if you plan to
walk the Freedom Trail or visit Lexington
and Concord.
If you're venturing to Gloucester (or
even if you're not), Sebastian Junger's
The
Perfect Storm
makes an excellent intro-
duction. The story of a fishing boat
caught in historically bad weather, it will
change the way you look at fish on a
menu for a long time after you finish
reading—or watching. The movie ver-
sion, though heavy on the special effects,
is a better-than-average effort.
FILM
Boston is hardly Hollywood on the
Charles, but it's getting there. Don't be
surprised to run across a film crew or hear
about a location shoot while you're in
town. The best-known recent film that
used Boston as a backdrop was
The
Departed
(2006), better known as the pic-
ture that finally won Martin Scorsese his
Best Director Academy Award (and cap-
tured Best Picture).
The Departed
filmed
all over town, in alleys and warehouses as
well as easily recognizable locations like
