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Chapters: Boarding Schools in Connecticut, Boarding Schools in Maine, Boarding Schools in Massachusetts, Boarding Schools in New Hampshire, Boarding Schools in Rhode Island, Boarding Schools in Vermont, Phillips Academy, Frederick Law Olmsted, Northfield Mount Hermon School, Choate Rosemary Hall, Phillips Exeter Academy, Tabor Academy, St. George's School, Newport, St. Mark's School, St. Paul's School (Concord, New Hampshire), Kent School, Milton Academy, Groton School, Middlesex School, Cheshire Academy, Kimball Union Academy, Loomis Chaffee, Brooks School, Suffield Academy, Noble and Greenough School, Worcester Academy, Hotchkiss School, Portsmouth Abbey School, Miss Hall's School, Taft School, Williston Northampton School, Miss Porter's School, Hebron Academy, the Governor's Academy, Canterbury School, South Kent School, Desisto School, Lawrence Academy at Groton, Deerfield Academy, St. Johnsbury Academy, Exeter-andover Rivalry, Westover School, John Adams, New England Prep School, Pomfret School, the Greenwood School, Westminster School, Lyndon Institute, Avon Old Farms, Marvelwood School, Tilton School, St. Andrew's School, Advanced Placement, Dana Hall School, Buxton School, Burr ... Read more

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Chapters: Choate Rosemary Hall. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 166. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Choate Rosemary Hall "Fidelitas et Integritas" Choate Rosemary Hall (also known as Choate) is a private, college-preparatory, coeducational boarding school located in Wallingford, Connecticut. It took its present name and coeducational form with the merger in 1971 of two eminent single-sex establishments, The Choate School (founded in 1896 in Wallingford) and Rosemary Hall (founded in 1890 in Wallingford, but resident from 1900 to 1971 in Greenwich, Connecticut). At the merger, the Wallingford campus was enlarged with a complex of modernist buildings on its eastern edge to accommodate the women from Greenwich. Choate is a member of the Eight Schools Association, begun informally in 1973-74 and formalized at a 2006 meeting at Lawrenceville School, when Choate headmaster Edward Shanahan was appointed its first president. He was succeeded in 2009 by Elizabeth Duffy, head of Lawrenceville. The member schools are Choate, Phillips Academy (known as Andover), Phillips Exeter Academy (known as Exeter), Deerfield Academy, St. Paul's School, Hotchkiss School, Lawrenceville School, and Northfield Mount Hermon. Choate is also a member of the Ten Schools Admissions Organization, established in 1966 and comprising Choate, Andover, Exeter, Deerfield, St. Paul's, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, Taft School, Loomis Chaffee, and The Hill School. Among Choate's alumni are President John F. Kennedy, two-time Presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson, playwright Edward Albee, novelist John Dos Passos, philanthropist Paul Mellon, actors Glenn Close, Michael Douglas, Paul Giamatti, and Jamie Lee Curtis, translator of Homer and poet Robert Fitzgerald, cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and educator Avery Dulle...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=12071722 ... Read more

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Yates spare and autumnal tale of a New England prep school is at once a meditation on the twilight of youth and an examination America's entry into World War II.A GOOD SCHOOL tells the stories of William Grove, the nervous boy who becomes an editor of the school paper, Jack Draper the crippled chemistry teacher, and Edith Stone, the schoolmaster's young daughter, who falls in love with most celebrated boy in the class of 1943.AUTHORBIO: Richard Yates was the author of the novels REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, A SPECIAL PROVIDENCE, DISTURBING THE PEACE, THE EASTER PARADE, A GOOD SCHOOL, YOUNG HEARTS CRYING, and COLD SPRING HARBOR, as well as the story collections ELEVEN KINDS OF LONELINESS, LIARS IN LOVE, and THE COLLECTED STORIES OF RICHARD YATES.He died in 1992. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

Yates with a Hollywood Ending
This is a SWEET book, something you could not say about Rev Road and Easter Parade (the other Yates' books that I have read). From what I gather (from reading about all of Yates' books), this is as Hollywood as Yates gets. But this book still contains the trademark Yates' sensitivity and sparse, transparent writing.

This 'coming of age at a boarding school' story has been told many times before in books and movies, but it is real neat to see Yates' take on the genre. Everything just rings true to me here. Yates is considerate of the motivations and anxieties of the main characters. And for the 'only happy when it rains' crowd, this book is still Yates to the core: everything is not 'happy, happy' here.

Also, you get Yates' opinion (well placed within the story) on the value of the 'well rounded education'. Yates is not a fan of the 'well rounded education', preferring a more specialized approach to education. I say AMEN to that.

School of Thought
More than a "good" novel, 'A Good School' is an observant and engaging coming of age story that does not dissapoint.

The novel tells the story of many different characters, William Grove an awkward boy who becomes editor of the school newspaper; Jack Draper, a crippled Chemistry teacher; Edith Stone, the schoolmaster's young and beautiful daughter; and Robert Driscoll, the English master at Dorset Academy.

Think J.D. Salinger (of 'The Catcher in the Rye' fame) but with the eye and feel of Richard Yates, which means the reader gets a thoughtful and meaningful ovbservation of life. The story is utterly absorbing and involving. It's also a fast read that should have you wanting to read more of Yate's other novels (and I hope you do!). 'A Good School' is powerful yet subltle but important enough to strike up a conversation with anyone. What does a "good" education mean? What can a "good" education do for someone? What does going to a "good" school mean? and Is it all worth it in the end?

The answers are in this mere 178 page novel. Read it!

Same Stuff, But What Great Stuff
Yates once again recycles the same characters, broadens his scope a little to focus on the private school setting and pulls off yet another great read! For an in-depth look at Yates and his work, google "Stewart O'Nan Richard Yates."

Truth isn't always stranger than fiction.
Like many, I only recently discovered Richard Yates. After "Revolutionary Road," I immediately read all of his other published work and am now looking around like a person in shock after a collision, trying to come to grips with the reality that this is it. There is no more.

Yates has a rare talent for making the freakiness of human nature almost beautiful. I found myself falling in love with the characters and forgetting about the plot. His characters are eerily familiar in so many ways, almost like old friends or people you've somehow always known. And their thoughts and actions, as deranged and illogical and pathetic as they often are, just seem natural.

"A Good School" is one of the few exceptions to the old "Truth is stranger than fiction" adage. It's strange, and it doesn't feel like a story. Yates elaborately intertwines the individual tragedies of each of his characters, careful to keep the hideousness bearable and drawing out the beauty at key points to make this an intensely interesting, entertaining read that effortlessly touches the reader's emotions.

Another GREAT novel ...
Amici, this guy (Yates) is so good it hurts.Powerfully painful ... the shame is his sales are now probably a thousand times better than when he was alive ... and the irony is there aren't as many readers of literature anymore ... go figure ... but read it ... definitely read anything by Richard Yates.One of America's absolute best ever. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (8)

The Hour Between ???
Stuart's latest novel was a pleasure from start to finish. And although there was a bit more than an hour between the two it was definitely fast-paced, and like his other novels, hard to put down. Well, one or two reviewers didn't seem to have too much of a problem, but anyway, The Hour Between was a lot of fun for me. And helpful too. It brought back so many memories of the crazy things I did in my youth-and just last week. I loved it and I highly recommend it.

Really Good Book!!
I was pleasantly surprised by this book.Very realistic, yet with a blast of hollywood....the dialogue is wonderful.The writer is partner of Stephen McCauley (object of my affection), whom I have always been a big fan.The writing is very different, but the quality/caliber of the book is the same.There's nothing as nice as a well written novel.Keep up the good work Sebastian.

NPR has got some 'splainin' to do.
As Seneca the Younger once said, "There's nothing new under the sun", and The Hour Between does not challenge that assertion. Predictable, somewhat juvenile, and two-dimensional, it is the story of two "misfits" who become instant best friends at a rather preposterous boarding school in rural Connecticutt in 1967. One of the reviews on Amazon gushingly referred to the male protagonist, Arthur MacDougal, as the new Holden Caulfield, a comparison with which I not only strongly disagree but am insulted by on behalf of Catcher In The Rye fans everywhere. Holden Caulfield made a true journey, both physically and spiritually; Arthur MacDougal goes meekly along with the status quo, his one shining moment of "rebellion" being when he finally confesses to his parents that he is gay (no spoiler here,his sexual orientation is established within the first two or three pages of the first chapter, and over and over again ad infinitum after that). His parents' reaction is--wait, what reaction? A thread that goes nowhere.

Author Anita Shreve mentioned Breakfast at Tiffanys in her review--another stretch of the imagination. The main female character, Katrina Felt, is a feeble yet overblown Holiday Golightly wanna-be who doesn't inspire much beyond incredulity and impatience. At one point, apropos of absolutely nothing as far as I can tell, she adopts a kitten (just as Holly Golightly took in a stray cat) but this particular plot device also goes nowhere except to awkwardly hint at Katrina's wholly unsurprising deep dark secret.

This novel is one of NPR's "independent bookseller recommendations" so I had high hopes, especially as the very next book on the list is Await Your Reply by Dan Chaon (marvelous!), but alas, I closed the book this afternoon with relief and an overwhelming feeling of...."meh". My star indicator would be "It's OK" but 3 stars is a bit misleading so I'll go with 2.

Not what I expected
I had gotten this book for my husband because he liked The Mentor.He is into murder-mysteries.After reading the cover I decided I should read it before I gave it to him.He will not be getting it to read, definitely not his style.

As for me, I thought it was okay. I was in college in the '60s so could relate to many of the people and things going on, i.e. Andy Warhol, etc. and even the coming of age stuff.I guess I somehow just expected more and was relieved when I finally finished the book and could move on to a new book.

A Fantasy Journey
"The Hour Between" by Sebastian Stuart

The Hour Between illustrates what a boarding school experience might be like where anything goes.Alcohol, drugs, sex, whatever, is all part of the fun, while the administration overlooks it all.Add to this the author's ability to inject students' personalities that take them on a joy ride as try to get through the academic year with minimum effort.

The narrative presents itself as taking place in a Christian Science school.This may be where the narrative has its greatest distance from reality.There are not many Christian Science schools, and the ones I know of maintain ultra-strict rigidity against alcohol, tobacco, drugs of any kind, as well as sex outside of marriage.Conflict appears, however, between Mr. Spooner, the school's director and Mr. Tupper, a somewhat straight-laced assistant headmaster, a.k.a. English/History teacher.

"Just then the door to our [dorm room] flew open, the light was switched on and Mr. Tupper was standing there . . .

"What the hell is going on here?" He barked . . .

"Nothing, Mr. Tupper, we were just talking," I said.

"Just talking? At two in the morning?On your bed?Just how stupid do you think I am?This damn school is run like a zoo - girls in the boys' dorm at all hours, drugs all over the place, no discipline. It's unacceptable!"

Mr. Tupper later takes his concerns to the school's owner.

"Half the kids in my class today were on drugs . . . Something has to be done," Mr. Tupper urged.

But Mr. Spooner remained unfazed.

The conflict in the administration, however, is only the backdrop for the interaction and relationships between the students.All of this is seen through the eyes of Arthur McDougal, a somewhat-out gay senior.Arthur has his share of ups and downs with fellow students, but early on, he could tell himself, "I realized that I'd never been this happy before."

The narrative rushes on to its inexorable climax between Arthur and his close friend Katrina.


Bruce Stores is author of "CHRISTIAN SCIENCE: Its Encounter With Lesbian/Gay America" and "THE ISTHMUS, Stories from Mexico's Past, 1495-1995" a work of historical fiction.
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Founded by a woman, run by a woman, designed with a curriculum that focuses on the way women learn, Miss Oliver's School for Girls will always be true to its defining mission, the single-sex education of girls, as long as Marjorie Boyd is the headmistress. It is her vivid leadership and deep understanding of progressive education that has made this New England boarding school a home away from home where girls, free of the presumptive dominance of boys, learn how capable they really are, how expansive their potential is.

But Marjorie Boyd has just been fired. She's paid too little attention to the business side of her job, to marketing and finances, and the school's in financial crisis. The board has had no choice but to save the school from the impractical nature of the very woman who has made it so worth saving.

The novel opens on Graduation Day, as Marjorie makes her final speech, saying goodbye to the assembled students, their parents and the alumnae, who love her for the school that's changed their lives. Hiding her bitterness, she's handing the school over to the young educator whose job it will be to save what she has built.

And who happens to be male!

What an egregious error to appoint a male to lead this very feminist -some would say sexist- environment! And how naive can this young headmaster, Fred Kindler be to believe he can survive, not only as a male but as the usurper of the position that everyone but the board wants Marjorie to hold forever?

On the other hand, why shouldn't the board trust the school community to set prejudice aside in favor of a sensible approach? Fred Kindler is as fine an educator as Marjorie Boyd, though less charismatic, and unlike her, he's good at finances and marketing. What's more he's passionate and knowledgeable about single-sex education for women, is already in love with the school, and longs to share the lives of girls the age his daughter would be if he hadn't lost her to a tragic accident two years ago. All Fred Kindler has to do to cool the animosity - and quell the rumor that he's been appointed to admit boys to save the school - is secure the loyalty and public support of the legendary teacher, Francis Plummer, whose well earned reputation has made him second only to Marjorie in power and influence. Fred knows how loyally Francis, the school's most gifted teacher, served Marjorie, but he's confident a person so bright as Francis will work hand in hand with him to save the school he loves.

What Fred doesn't know is that Francis is more than loyal to Marjorie; he's dependent on her, made her a kind of surrogate parent. Everything about Fred Kindler, so unlike Marjorie Boyd, offends Francis and he resists Fred's every initiative. Instead, Peggy Plummer, Francis' wife, the school's librarian, steps forward to support Fred Kindler, usurping her husband's position at the head's right hand, and bringing long buried problems in their marriage flying to the surface.

Thus this change that comes to Miss Oliver's School for Girls puts not only the school at risk, but its single-sex mission, the girls' faith that what they love can last, Fred Kindler's career, and the Plummers' marriage. The novel ends as it begins, on Graduation Day, one year after Marjorie's final speech. It takes right to that final moment for the reader to learn what prevails and what does not.

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Customer Reviews (10)

Loaded with conflict and drama
This book has so much conflict in it that I'm surprised it didn't spontaneously combust while I was reading it. Add in heartbreak, miscommunication, hostility, revenge, and lots of teen angst. and you have a recipe for some great drama. But after a while, the hostility etc. became predictable. Every time two conflicting characters interacted, I knew that they wouldn't work it out, but rather would just add more fuel to the bonfire. None of the characters seems to learn from the experience. I needed to take breaks from reading this to allow myself time to calm down!

An amazingly good novel.
Stephen Davenport's novel, "Saving Miss Oliver's", which was published in 2006, is the story of an all-girls secondary boarding school in Connecticut, which has fallen on hard times financially. The story takes place in the early 1990's and begins when the beloved headmistress of the school has been forced out by the board of directors. A new head of school - a man - is brought in to replace her and to try to keep the school open by increasing both the enrollment and the endowment. Fred Kindler has his work cut out for him as he is not well accepted by much of the staff, the students, and the alumnae, who are still mourning the dismissal of Marjorie Boyd.

The story - taking place over a school year - is told by several teachers, students, and administrators. Davenport writes almost always in the present-tense, which usually I don't like, but it works extremely well here. ALL the characters are well-drawn and none are stereotypes of rich prep school milieu. I just discovered this book, more than three years after it's publishing and am very glad I did. It's a great, and original, read!

A Novel of Depth and Integrity
The reader enters Miss Oliver's with the first word.Stephen Davenport's novel is a fascinating look at not only the inner workings of a private girls' school, but also the multiple layers of human motivation.Mr. Davenport deftly invites us to care about his characters as we learn what they think, what they do, and then very cleverly, how others are responding to that thinking and doing.Mr. Davenport writes with integrity as he develops his characters.It seemed clear that he cares deeply for his characters as they struggle through the changes at Miss Oliver's.I loved the way the novel illuminates the assumptions these characters make and how this affects their actions and intentions.It was a fun and fascinating read.As a former trustee of a private (non-boarding) school, I am somewhat familiar with school challenges.And yet, I felt I entered a whole new world in this book.Couldn't put it down.

Reviewed by Karen Morse
Based on his forty year career as a teacher, administrator, and consultant for private schools, Stephen Davenport has crafted his debut, Saving Miss Oliver's.Subtitled "a novel of leadership, loyalty, and change," the novel chronicles one tumultuous year in the history of a small all-girls school.What sets Saving Miss Oliver's apart from other school novels is that Davenport focuses not just on inner workings of the school.He also turns his lens on two of Miss Oliver's longtime teachers, exploring a marriage that is just as vulnerable that year as the school itself.

In the midst of a fiscal crisis the board of Miss Oliver's School for Girls realizes that it is time for change.The school community, however, is resistant, especially when the first sign of that change is the dismissal of longtime headmistress Marjorie Boyd.The new head of school, Fred Kindler, is set an impossible task.He's to bolster enrollment and decrease the school's deficit with virtually no assistance from teachers, alumnae, or students, all of whom despise him for taking the post.If Kindler is not successful only two options remain--go co-ed or close--and the community can't decide which is worse.

Francis and Peggy Plummer have been working at Miss Oliver's School for almost as long as they've be married.When Francis's loyalty to Boyd keeps him from helping the new headmaster, the resulting rift between the two grows ever wider as problems long-buried begin to resurface.Peggy becomes determined to help Kindler succeed in his mission, the fate of the school, for her, more important than that of her marriage.

Well-plotted and interesting, Saving Miss Oliver's leaves readers guessing about the future of Miss Oliver's School right until its very end.Additionally Davenport's characters are very realistic; he does not shy away from the failings that make each of them human.In doing so, he drives home the point that real people are the essence of any great school.

While Saving Miss Oliver's is a strong first effort, one slipup betrays Davenport's status as a freshman novelist.While setting the stage for the novel's action, he introduces too many characters at once. Although this is an easy error for a first time author to make, the novel suffers from it as his readers are left disoriented at the outset, trying to sort out the main characters from a score of miscellaneous teachers, board members, alumnae, donors, and students.

A novel that knows how it is to lead
Even mediocre schools touch people deeply; great schools join themselves to the hearts of students, parents, teachers, and alumni. Love intensifies their passion about everything the school does, sometimes making the school leader's role almost impossibly challenging.

Few novels attempt to capture the challenges of leading a beloved school, and none do so better than "Saving Miss Oliver's." Leaders of colleges, churches, art museums, and other much-loved institutions will resonate with Fred Kindler's difficulties as he becomes the first male head of a boarding school for girls. He follows a charismatic leader whose long tenure led Miss Oliver's to educational excellence and fiscal peril.

"Saving Miss Oliver's" combines the usual novelistic virtues--convincing characters, artful language, and an intriguing plot--with a grasp of organizational dynamics and the challenges of leadership that makes it a rare treat for readers who are also leaders.

Dan Hotchkiss, senior consultant
The Alban Institute

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