Rating: 
Summary: chilling ...
Review: I'd never really thought of Foxwoods until the Maine Indian tribes proposed a similar casino project near my town in southern Maine. This book is chilling and it is heartbreaking to see what has been perpetrated on the citizens of SE Connecticut through complacency and indifference. It is also frightening to learn what can be accomplished when intelligence is married to greed and selfishness. Where were the elected officials to protect the interests of their constituents?!!!! The reviewer who says that this book is full of innuendo and misstatements obviously has ulterior motives and is not disclosing them (or am I just completely jaded after this book?). Anyway, back to the book. I found it impossible to put down, it is a real page turner. Enjoy it, and hope the scourge of casino gambling with all it's false promises never rears it's ugly head in your area.
Rating:
Summary: A Quick Lesson in Political Shenanigans!
Review: If you live in Eastern Connecticut, as I do, or if you live in the eastern part of the US , chances are good that you've been to the Foxwoods Casino. You might want to read this book in order to better understand to whom the millions of dollars we collectively spend there goes!I was not able to put down this book since it arrived! It illustrates how complacent politics and leadership guided by tunnel vision literally changed the face of the eastern part of this state. If a small fraction of the injustices done to the people of Ledyard and the surrounding towns is true, then we should ALL be outraged that this travesty has been allowed to occur. ... . My suggestion is that you read the book and make your own decision. I can say that it has been enlightening to me especially now that Connecticut is planning on allowing even more newly recognized tribes to build still more casinos in eastern Connecticut. Lets hope nobody else loses their land or their home to benefit THAT endeavor.
Rating: 
Summary: great summer read
Review: Our local library recommended this book. It reminded me of "A Civil Action", a similar compelling story of small town American vs. big money and connections. It is a great read and I highly recommend it!
Rating: 
Summary: How the world really works
Review: The end of the jacket blurb describes this book: "As compelling as a novel, _Without Reservation is must reading for anyone interested in the way today's world _really_ works." This is a fair description. It does have the characterization, the pacing and the storytelling of a novel. This is "compelling" at its best but sometimes seems silly and superficial. The most fascinating thing is indeed the insight into how the world works and one does not need a particular interest in gambling or Native Americans to appreciate it. We see how lawyers can revolutionize the world through close reading, discovering new powers in old books while at the same time it becomes clear that elected officials have no time for or interest in reading the legislation that they implement. The book traces the rise of Skip Hayward, founder and chief of the Mashantucket Pequot tribe. Hayward often appears in the worst light, especially in the chapters on his first marriage (he was really awful to his wife). But he is also a man of charisma and vision. He organizes a tribe that was long thought extinct and creates a billion dollar business. The irony is that the get-rich scheme that is finally successful for Hayward is based on the work of three extremely idealistic people: John Stevens, leader of the impoverished Passamaquoddy tribe of Maine; Tom Tureen, a Princeton educated public service lawyer; and Susan MacCulloch, Stevens's wife and an anthropologist who is a leading expert on the Indian tribes of the East. Together they discover how to gain legal recognition and compensation for tribes that were swallowed up in the original 13 colonies. They approach Hayward and make all his future success possible. I really enjoyed this book and was gripped by the story, but it is badly in need of editing, at least in the hardcover first edition that I read. There are repeated misuses of homophones and the author has a problem with numbers. A person is described as in her twenties in 1970 when the next page gives her birthdate as 1934. At one point he explains that the Supreme Court takes "less than 5 percent" of the cases submitted from lower courts and "[t]he other 95 percent are turned away." On the next page the odds of the court taking the case "were no better than one in ninety-five." Either figure is plausible but they are not the same. However, this is a book about the power of lawyers, and the author took his own lesson: he wrote the book while finishing his law degree.
Rating: 
Summary: Lots of hype little reality
Review: This book is full of inaccurate statements and false information. Shortly after the book came out the books author announced that he is running for Congress. His district, if elected, would cover the "victim towns" in his book. Most of the "sources" for this book either don't remember talking to the author or have publicly announced that their statements were changed in the book to reflect what the author wanted. A few of the "sources" have even gone to work for the Mashantuckets in an effort to clear their names from the lies told in this book. My biggest problem with this book is that on page 372-373 the author lists the birth, marriage and death certificates for people most of whom are still living. It is my guess that he does this without their permission. This act in and of itself is illegal within the state of CT, as the vital records of living people are not supposed to public. But that does not seem to be a concern for this politician. If you want a real book on the Mashantuckets than try another book.
Rating:
Summary: The Truth About The Pequots Is Finally Told
Review: This book tells the story of how an extinct Indian tribe, the Pequots, became powerful courtesy of its propoents being in the right place at the right time, skillful manipulation of the media, good intentions on the part of liberals gone bad, and out and out lying. It does not pull its punches, it shows what can happen when emotions overwhelm common sense and people become so intent on righting the wrongs of the past, they accidentally create some more wrongs.
Rating:
Summary: But where are the Indians?
Review: What a remarkable book. I couldn't put it down. To me, the question that screams out from this book is "Where's the accountability?" While I admire the genius of the people who pushed this through Congress, I wonder why we don't revisit their tax free status. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, perhaps it is a duck. If this is what it appears to be, a corporation that has manipulated the legal and political system in order to garner un-taxed profits, then it needs to be classified as such. Don't tear the casino down, just make sure it is recognized as a corporation and tax it accordingly. Foxwoods is accountable, as all of us are, to support the system that supports us.
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