Rating: 
Summary: Wistful and nostalgic. Beautiful!
Review: The Big House on Cape Cod was built more than a century ago by the author's great-grandfather. It weathered 2 world wars, joy and tragedy, the changing seasons and fortunes of two families, and the transition from the simpler life-styles of past times to our own modern 'very fast is still too slow' culture. When the house becomes financially untenable for family members to maintain, Colt returns for one last visit before it goes on sale...and there the story, a touching and wistful memoir, begins. Don't miss this lovely book.
Rating:
Summary: A terrific read
Review: This book brought back so many memories of my own childhood and that of my older children, those beautifull summers and the big extended family. I was raised directly across Buzzards Bay from Wing's Neck, the setting for this book, and had the good fortune to return from NYC with my family for many summers, just like the author. I couldn't put it down and read it in one day while vacationing on the Outer Banks.
Rating:
Summary: A Magnificent Book
Review: This book is so good it had me weeping at the sheer beauty of the memories, the passion, the sadness of losing the Big House, and the family history including mental breakdowns. You can smell the smells and see the sights and feel the longing on each page. I started to read slower and slower as I neared the last page because I did not want the experience to end. If you have ever been to a summer home, even for one season, even just for a visit, you will relate to the perfect descriptions of everything involved. This book brought back childhood memories I have not thought of in decades. Big House is a beautiful story, magnificently told, a privilege to read. I thank the author for his gift to me. How ironic that the money he earns from this book would probably allow him to "save" the house but, alas, it comes too late. Make sure you experience this book.
Rating:
Summary: a pleasure to read
Review: This book offered great insight into a world foreign to me - I didn't learn "summer" could be a verb until I moved to Boston!
I also appreciated the candor and openness of the narrator. Believe it or not, I consider a strength of the book the fact that it evoked some pretty strong (and not necessarily positive) reactions ... First, I became powerfully envious of and irritated with the narrator and his insular, eminent family - most likely because I am not of such "proper" lineage (my ilk, in fact, was referenced as having "flowered dresses and wide smiles"). Second, probably because I was irritated, I found myself questioning "what is 'American' about this summer home?" Summer homes such as these are hardly ubiquitous in the U.S. ... BUT, honestly, if you're a reader who cannot point to a shared experience of summering on the Cape, the Vineyard, Maine, or whichever - this book is still very much worth reading. You'll learn a great deal - about a people, tradition, family, and perhaps yourself as well.
Rating:
Summary: A PERFECT BOOK
Review: This book provided two essential things for me as a reader. First, within the context of his family and this wonderful old house, the author was able to transport me to a world that no longer exists and was able to teach me a number of things about a variety of subjects that I previously knew nothing about.... always a welcome thing from any book that I read.
Second, and more importantly, the author was able to make me think about family and the relationships we have with them in the context of our brothers and sisters, parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents who one may have never met. A gentle wake-up call to make one realize the importance of family (warts and all) in our lives.
Very thought provoking (in a good way), educational and a pleasure to read..... A PERFECT BOOK
Rating:
Summary: Memoir of a House
Review: This finely written tribute to a house is most special. I devoured each page and learned about the intimate history of an old New England family and its roots. Brings to mind a bygone era of people who cannot through anything away and savor memories of simpler times...before life got too complicated. Please read this book...don't miss it. Thanks to George Colt! You may have inspired me to write about my extended family, although it would be hard to top this book.
Rating:
Summary: big house revisited
Review: This is a marvelous book. It is not just the story of a summer house, and of the family that owned it for it's first hundred years, It is a book about what Aristocracy means, about letting go, about accepting oblivion.
There is only one draw back to the book : No maps, No family tree, No photographs. The maps you can buy, the family tree you can draw yourself as you read the book, but you need the photographs. Especially when there are so many descriptions of photos in the book.
I suggest the publishing of a new " Special Edition" of the book, with reproductions of the original blueprint for The Big House, and photos of it and the successive generations of Forbes-Atkinsons- Colts -Singers who summered in it.
Rating: 
Summary: Beyond Boring
Review: This is probably the most boring, superficial, self-serving book I've read in years. Its title should really be WHO CARES? because that really sums up this tedious, endless tale of a family you don't really care about after 327 pages, mainly because they're all so uninteresting, or at least he makes them that way. And who cares about the details of selling this ridiculous house? Not to mention that the author is so consumed with his WASP roots that he doesn't let you forget for one minute who his family is and has the nerve to pretend not to care. The word WASP appears on almost every page. Ever read a book by a catholic where the word CATHOLIC is always capitalized? How about JEW? This book should have been published by a vanity press. Sorry to say but the author is not a good writer, even though he is a WASP!! (Harvard-educated)
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of "Stuff" in the Big House
Review: This might best be characterized as a memoir, but it is more than that. The author throws in some histories of summer homes, Cape Cod, "old" money, "old" Boston families, some family pyschology and history. All are tied to the Big House - a vacation home on Cape Cod in his family for a century.
The writing is very good. At times, when Mr. Colt is describing a particularly fond memory or a feature of the house he waxes poetic.
Mr. Colt weaves his family's history in and out of this house well. Along the way, he describes so many events and objects that, to the reader, it becomes more than just his family history. It is a history that has elements that will touch every reader. Perhaps your family did not enter tennis tournaments; but maybe they sailed, or walked beaches or swam or had a summer place. Every reader will find reminiscences that will resonate.
The only short-coming I found to the book was a too-long description of the machinations the family underwent to sell the house. The remainder flowed well.
The memoir uses Mr. Colt's last summer at the Big House with his young family as a catalyst. He knows the house has been sold and that this would be his last summer there. This led to the most poignant moments when he and his family would do something special or, something very ordinary, that had been done by three generations before and Mr. Colt would realize it would be the last time - gathering crabs, walking the beach, playing on the tennis court, etc.
A very good book that brings family, a slice of the twentieth century and a bit of history through the nineteen rooms and yard of a big old vacation home on the Cape.
Rating:
Summary: Soulful
Review: This wonderful book will feed your soul and all your senses!
Nostalgic and informative, You are "There" with The Family!
You will see, taste, smell, touch and feel their experiences.
A Must Read!!!
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