New York Books

THIS BOOK COVERS 50 YANKEES MANY OF WHOM WERE NOT SO GREAT. AMONG THEM ARE TOM TRESH, MIKE HEGAN, BOBBY MERCER AND HORACE CLARK. IT GIVES EACH PERSON 4 PAGES OF COVERAGE AND HAS A PICTURE OF EACH IN THE PIN STRIPES. MOST PHOTOS WERE TAKEN AT OLD COMISKEY PARK. IT TELLS US A LITTLE ABOUT THEIR CAREER AS A YANKEE AND WHAT THEY ARE DOING NOW. A GREAT TRIP DOWN NOSTALGIA LANE. IF YOU ARE A LONG TIME YANKEE FAN THIS IS A GREAT READ FOR YOU. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Wow, there they are, all of those men whose names have slipped from my memory over the years. From Stan Bahnsen to George Zeber. From Jay Johnstone to Dooley Womack. They are the lesser lights of baseball, the non-legends who played for the Yankees but who are a part of Yankees' history. This is great stuff! Allen picked 50 former players, tells us what they're doing now and then recounts some wonderful stories about their playing days and their sometimes small parts in Yankees' lore. These are the kinds of stories that you won't read in a newspaper or press release, and even though I'm not a Yankees fan, I enjoyed reading them. Allen has a wonderful knack for telling interesting baseball stories and he shows the human side of these journeymen players and how they loved the game. If you like going behind the box scores, you'll love this book.

True Yankees never really leave. This book proves it. Ball players who played for many other teams still consider their time with the Yankees (however brief) the highlight of their careers. Only one bitter player in the bunch (Hal Reniff).
Maury Allen is a walking sports encyclopedia, and this is a great book. An easy read, and chock filled with Yankees information. I loved it. Maury should write "Part 2".

Well done, by a fine writer. I love reading about the lesser lights, and what happened to them after their playing days. This book was great for that.

Now that Jim Murray and Leonard Koppett are gone, Maury Allen may be the greatest literary link to our storied sports past. The man is a treasure. He has more first-hand knowledge of great sporting events of the past 50 years than any single writer, and this latest book is just another example of a terrific scribe at work. Bravo!

STEVEN TRAVERS
Author of "Barry Bonds: Baseball's Superman"
STWRITES@aol.com

I'm not a big fan of NYC.

After reading, and re-reading, this book, I wish I could go there and check out the place as it is in the story. Ms. Harvey makes the world and the city seem magical. She adds a bit of philosophy, a large amount of love, and a kernel of Joy, along with the inevitable violence required in a story containing the Angel of Vengeance, into a wonderful story which can only be considered a Romance in the best sense of the genre. The book contains chocolate, pierogi, coffee, Chinese New Year, children, art, gypsies, fear of Falling, a smidge of suspense, and a smidge of (implied) sex, among other attributes.

It's a fun book, a superb read, and is light enough to be enjoyable both when you're just awakened and when you're ready to do some thinking. Strongly recommended.

Sara M. Harvey has a very unique writing style. Although character dialogues are sometimes hard to understand or follow, this story otherwise flows smoothly and is a sweet tale. This book is one that is meant to be read slowly as the pace is slow itself. Still I was highly anticipating the end of the tale from the frist page... and since I am so impatient, the pace seemed much slower than it really is... but don't misunderstand, this is not a bad thing.

This is a story of the angel of Joy and the angel of Vengence who have both come to Earth to spend a year and a day as humans. This trip is a mission that they are both on, not a vacation, and the meaning of this visitation slowly unfolds and we, the readers, find out little by little along the way. Vengence is every bit the epitomy of his name... angry and vengeful... most of the time. Joy is rather giddy and seems to annoy Vengence for the most part. Along the way, they both realize how much they really need each other and an understanding and love grows between them as they both try to complete their missions with no clues as to how to go about doing it... this they must figure out themselves. We read about their "adventures" which really consist of their daily lives as we would live, only with a little bit of magic in-between.

This story takes place in the heart of New York, and describes the setting and town with cunning detail. The two angels take us to coffe shops, Pagan festivals, churches, museum, Times Square, and minute magic. The magic is finding out what it is like to be human, going from depression, to low self-esteem, to love and jealousy. Their moods actually seem to alter the lives of the world around them, especially in their locality. They soon begin to realize that their mission is about saving themselves by saving the world, through sacrifice of our mortal demons, and acceptance of the many blessings that many of us fail to realize we have.. those of our friendships and family. I couldn't begin to describe in enough detail the wornderful plot of this story as the depth is found by reading the surface of the tale. Not many writes can do this.

I rated this four stars because though I generally hate romance novels with a passion, (unless it is a byproduct of the major part of the storyline...) this novel had sooo much meaning for me and actually changed the way I look at many things in life. NO romance novel can manage to interest me at all, yet here is one that truly brought a little bit of the Angel of Joy into my life after dealing with my Vengeful Angel for so long. Also as I described earlier, this book does have some flaws, but kudos to the author for her imagination.

This story is actually from a series that I have yet to find for myself, and this particular book has been impossible to find anywhere else except for Amazon and the author's website. Enjoy this sweet tale and the ebbing and flowing of the characters' emotions. It really is a beautiful story with a tear-jerker ending.

A Year and a Day - Sara M. Harvey


I finished 'A Year and a Day' and I am in love with the book. Not quite a romance book and not at all a chick lit book, but so much more. The novel is a story of two angels, Joy and Vengeance who are on assignment in New York City. Assignment is the wrong word, they are on more of a vacation from being angels. Each has an assignment, Vengeance is told to protect and guard the easily wounded Joy. Joy also has an assignment, but telling you her assignment would be a spoiler. Vengeance spends most of the book trying to figure out what assignment is so important that he must spend a year in New York City, a place he dislikes, watching over an angel that he finds most annoying.

There is so much I love about this book, how I thought it would be fluff, and how it surprised me by how deep it is. How Joy wants to look plain, so people see the beauty within. Yet, when she changes her mind and gets a makeover to be beautiful, people do not notice the inner beauty. She learns a lesson and returns to her own beautiful self. They make friends, experience life, and Vengeance learns a little bit about the humans he has interacted with, but never touched all his days.

The book takes place in New York City, and in a way, the city becomes a character as well. Things happen here that could happen no where else, and I do not just mean the Chocolate expo! If you live in or love New York City, or even if like me, you consider it a nice place that makes me miss Boston so much, you will love this city. She drops names, not to show she knows the city, but to allow her to tell her story without overwhelming you with description.

I took this book with me yesterday when I went to Mass General Hospital for my weekly treatments. I totally forgot I had a tube in my left arm, I totally forgot where I was, and the stress of the moment. She took me into NYC, and brought me along with her characters.

The book might be a bit hard to find, for her publisher is small, and I think going out of business soon. The writer Sara M. Harvey deserves more attention than she is getting, and I hope to read a second book and a third. Next time, can your angels go to Boston?

I am on my way through this book for the second time, and I love it just as much as the first time! All the descriptions are so rich, I want to go to the places, eat the food, wear the clothes and definitely meet the people.
I love every character for different reasons, and most of them remind me of friends.
It is the mark of a lovely author to capture a person so completely in their world that you want to go live in it!
Sci-fi readers will love this book, fantasy readers will love this book, romance readers will love this book, anyone studying religion, mythology, chocolate, costumes, art or New York will love this book....

This book was fantastic! I read a lot of books (I have over 3,000 in my personal collection) and this one kept me riveted the entire time. In fact, I couldn't go to sleep until I finished it! I was about to reread it again but it's disappeared, which means one of the other readers in my house has whisked it away... probably to read and reread and...

Imagine living in a world where life is governed by intricate rituals; a world "balanced so precariously that its harmony [can] be shattered by a whisper" (Wharton); a world ruled by self-declared experts on form, propriety and family history - read: scandal -; where everything is labeled and yet, people are not; where in order not to disturb society's smooth surface nothing is ever expressed or even thought of directly, and where communication occurs almost exclusively by way of symbols, which are unknown to the outsider and, like any secret code, by their very encryption guarantee his or her permanent exclusion.

Such, in faithful imitation of Victorian England, was the society of late 19th century upper class New York. Into this society returns, after having grown up and lived all her adult life in Europe, American-born Countess Ellen Olenska, after leaving a cruel and uncaring husband. She already causes scandal by the mere manner of her return; but not knowing the secret rituals of the society she has entered, she quickly brings herself further into disrepute by receiving an unmarried man, by being seen in the company of a man only tolerated by virtue of his financial success and his marriage to the daughter of one of this society's most respected families, by arriving late to a dinner in which she has expressly been included to rectify a prior general snub, by leaving a drawing room conversation to instead join a gentleman sitting by himself - and worst of all, by openly contemplating divorce, which will most certainly open up a whole Pandora's box of "oddities" and "unpleasantness:" the strongest terms ever used to express moral disapproval in this particular social context. Soon Ellen, who hasn't seen such façades even in her husband's household, finds herself isolated and, wondering whether noone is ever interested in the truth, complains bitterly that "[t]he real loneliness here is living among all these kind people who only ask you to pretend."

Ellen finds a kindred soul in attorney Newland Archer, her cousin May Welland's fiancé, who secretly toys with a more liberal stance, while outwardly endorsing the value system of the society he lives in. Newland and Ellen fall in love - although not before he has advised her, on his employer's and May and Ellen's family's mandate, not to pursue her plans of divorce. As a result, Ellen becomes unreachable to him, and he flees into accelerating his wedding plans with May, who before he met Ellen in his eyes stood for everything that was good and noble about their society, whereas now he begins to see her as a shell whose interior he is reluctant to explore for fear of finding merely a kind of serene emptiness there; a woman whose seemingly dull, passive innocence grinds down every bit of roughness he wants to maintain about himself and who, as he realizes even before marrying her, will likely bury him alive under his own future. Then his passion for Ellen is rekindled by a meeting a year and a half after his wedding, and an emotional conflict they could hardly bear when he was not yet married escalates even further. And only when it is too late for all three of them he finds out that his wife had far more insight (and almost ruthless cleverness) than he had ever credited her with.

Winner of the 1921 Pulitzer Prize and the first work of fiction written by a woman to be awarded that distinction, "The Age of Innocence" is one of Edith Wharton's most enduringly popular novels; the crown jewel among her subtly satirical descriptions of New York upper class society. By far not as overtly condemning and cynical as the earlier "House of Mirth" (for which Wharton reportedly even saw this later work as a sort of apology), "The Age of Innocence" is a masterpiece of characterization and social study alike: an intricate canvas painted by a master storyteller who knew the society which she described inside out, and who, even though she had moved to France (where she would continue living for the rest of her life) almost a decade earlier, was able to delineate late 19th century New York society's every nuance in pitch-perfect detail, while at the same time - seemingly without any effort at all - also blending together all these minute details into an impeccably composed ensemble that will stay with the reader long after he has turned the last page.

The book begins with wit and irony, as Edith Wharton describes the small élite of New York society in the early 1870s. They lived within a whole series of well-understood conventions and assumptions which included nice and minute distinctions within the social hierarchy, a censorious and gossipy attitude towards any member of the set who strayed from what was expected of them in the manners, appropriate cultural interests, dress and furniture, and relations between the sexes. Those who were felt not to conform, such as the American-born Countess Olenska who had returned from Europe, leaving her husband and intending to divorce him, imperilled the reputation of their entire families. In that society, young unmarried women, in particular, were brought up in ignorance of the ways of the world, into which they were initiated only after their marriage. Until then, theirs was the age of innocence of the title.

That is the state in which May Welland was when she was engaged to Newland Archer. May Welland belonged to the same family as the Countess. They were cousins and the granddaughters of the powerful and wealthy matriarch, Mrs Mingott, a pivotal and superbly drawn character, both as to her personality and to her vast appearance. Newland was in a dilemma: he had really shared all the assumptions of his class; but now, to protect his fiancée, he felt he had both to defend the Countess and to dissuade her from going ahead with the divorce. The Countess is `unconventional' in other ways: she consorts with artists, who never mix with the social élite of New York, and she claims the right as a woman to live her own life. She is also very attractive, and Newland, in taking her side, not only finds himself unaccustomedly critical of the conventions in which he has been brought up, but falls in love with her, as she does with him. Then of course he wants her to divorce her husband so that they can marry, though he is engaged to May. The Countess thinks this impossible - perhaps out of loyalty to her cousin May (though this is not made explicit at the time); and Newland then does in fact feel bound to marry May, though he already feels the dread that he would be sucked into the conventional life which he was beginning to find stifling.

May's interests and attitudes indeed turned out to be much the same as those of the society into which she had been born (though she was no fool, understood more than her innocent air suggested, and knew how to use the coded language which said so much more than its surface would suggest). After a year and a half of marriage, Newland was just getting used again to the world in which he had after all also spent most of his earlier life, when the Countess Olenska reappeared in his life. Their love for each other has never died down, but they are no nearer to being able to make a life with each other: his code forbids divorce, and hers forbids the role of a mistress and the betrayal of other members of her family. And of the two, the enigmatic Countess is always the stronger and the saner one.

The strength of the tribe is irresistible, and it is brought out especially in the superlative description, both sardonic and touching, of the farewell dinner given, at May's insistence, in honour of the Countess' return to Europe.

A quarter of a century elapses between then and the last chapter of the book. This, too, is quite outstanding, describing not only how Newland`s family and public life had developed respectably in that time, but also what changes had come over New York society in the interval. Newland's son Dallas is so much less inhibited than his father had been; the stuffy mores of his father's generation have long passed away. In the brief portrayal of Dallas and of the relationship between him and his father Edith Wharton again shows herself as both a brilliant social historian as well as a sophisticated novelist.

This literary drama is a far cry from Noh Drama's long haired monster dwelling in a cave in a mountain top. Yet the mangitude of restrained subtlety of expressions veiling wide gamut of human passion from each drama is the same. Set in Jim Crow and Chinese Exclusion Act days, Edith Wharton offers unique insight of the subject matter and extraordinary foresight in what she knows best, her own social milieu. The uneasy relationship that Wharton describes so honestly and tenderly is provocative simply because Archer considers Ellen his "team" notwithstanding.

For general readers Wharton has constructed a book that is everything the other reviewers here claim for it regarding their enjoyment of it.

For a writer, as in my case, I needed more than entertainment.

I read Age of Innocence as a source of information on the era Wharton knew so well - Old New York and Newport in the Gilded Age. For that purpose I found it outstanding indeed. But Wharton's selection of characters and the plot suggested a lot more reading would be valuable. I started with her latest biography by Herminone Lee, a striking work in itself. (Knopf, 2007.) I recommend it to anyone interested in Wharton. This aroused curiosity as to the extent Wharton's life may have contributed to her selection of material and her dark brown treatment of it. She always seems to be trying to get even with someone, as Louis Auchincloss has observed as well. He is must reading on Wharton. Curious on that point, I ended up reading at least two dozen books that I would not normally read, such as Henry James, parts of Balzac, another reading of Madame Bovary, even Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, which I thought was more soundly written than Age of Innocence. It certainly was a lot happier book.

I was disturbed by Age of Innocence, especially it's conclusion. Other professional writers have told me of a similar reaction. One, a lady friend of my wife's, who is a highly successful writer of mysteries, said, "When I got to the end I simply screamed!" Figuratively, so did I.

Tastes in books are obviously subjective. I tend to history and biography. Neither I, nor anyone else, is qualified to criticize Wharton simply based on individual taste. But there is a fair basis of more objectively considering her work: her own book about how to write novels and short stories. After reading Age, I was surprised to find that, as a writer, I agree with almost everything Wharton wrote about the subject. She doesn't follow her own views in any of her writing that I have read and I have read a lot of it recently.

Wharton and I agree on the first principle of all good writing: "Write only about what you know about." Next in importance, and of equal weight are: (1) know your characters thoroughly (2) keep characters in character (3) after that turn them loose and let them write the plot in interaction with each other and don't meddle. This was Mailer's approach, but there are striking contrasts in approach that produced sterling writing, such as Steinbeck (his Winter of Our Discontent is a masterpiece of plotting). (4) avoid contrived situations which always involve unsound motivation (an annoying offense that almost every reader will catch, since people are basically logical). There are many more good rules to follow, such as avoiding Acts of God (the Deus ex Machina of Greek drama.) Instead let the characters get into their own scrapes due to their own limitations and out by their own ingenuity. If she had not ignored her own rules and allowed her two main characters to step out of character, Age would have demanded a different ending.

Therefore, judged by herself, I think Age of Innocence and many other of her works flunk the course.

Although I had read this earlier, and seen the sumptious Martin Scorsese film, knowing beforehand what happens so well, let me linger over the many exquisite passages. Such a beautifully written novel. And, I hope, the saddest one I shall ever read. Choices made, society's demands adhered to. Newland Archer, what a tragic figure. This is a must-read for anyone who cares about good literature. And a great history of early New York upper crust society.

Mr. McDonald offers a grounded, intelligent snapshot of life on Wall Street and beyond, peopled by a variety of memorable characters. Perhaps surprisingly, given the Wall Street setting, the older personalities are drawn with particular flair and heart. The protagonist, too, emerges as vivid and real: more someone you know than just a character in a book. A fine first novel.

The Altar Boy is a quick, fun read. McDonald's tour through the twisted world of investment banking and the frenzied world of big city romance, left me laughing. It was a treat.

For a first novel, Mr. McDonald did a very nice job. Good characterizations and very believable dialogue. The story line was good. He writes about what he knows, that being the world of finance. I read his bio....what is a mud engineer?

This is one of those books that you enjoy not only once, but again and again, savoring each phrase. The dialog is hilarious, the author's description of people and places make you feel as if you were really there. I'm hoping for a sequel.

Finally, a book with heart, set on Wall Street. Crisply written, laugh-out-loud funny, and, in the end, deeply moving. A fine, lovely read.

I think this cookbook provides some good basic recipes. A friend of mine recommended it to me, and I had higher hopes than what the book provides. But, I do plan to use some of the recipes. I like the concept of the book - providing tested recipes from real home cooks. I may try another Junior League edition as well.

What a great cookbook! I grew up in Rochester & remember these recipes above all others. Do yourself a favor & try the carrot cake.

I have successfully used recipes from this wonderful book ever since its publication. Upstate New Yorkers know how to cook!

This cookbook is fool proof and red hot. Buy multiple copies and give it to your friends. I am a Southern food aficianado, but I enthusiastically admit that those western NY Yankees sure can cook.

My mother has been using this cookbook since it was published in the early '80s. The recipes go from quick and easy family pleasers to elegant evening fair. Some of the recipes are still weekly meals in not only my mom's house, but my own too!! We were so excited to find it here! Now it's not only graces my mother and my cookbook libraries, but we also give it as shower and wedding presents! Everyone should own this cookbook! It is the best ever!

As a doctorate student working on my dissertation concerning the impact multicultural tradebooks have on attitudes of children I found this book an excellent source needed in the classroom. Prejudice and misconceptions of "others" who do not look like or act like the mainstream culture causes an intolerance from too many U.S. citizens whose family endured the same years ago. Children can learn and sympathy through the reading of this fabulous novel.

This book is amazing and tells the story of a family from Bangladesh who gets a tourist visa to America and ends up staying- illegally. However after 9/11 our country started caring about who lived in our country and made men from certain countries register with the government.

This book has allowed me to think about things from another's point of view and re-think my opinion on illegal immigration (which I am still thinking about). I think it's great that Marina Budhos writes a novel like this to allow young adults to think critically about this hot topic and form their own opinions on it. Amazing class discussions could come of this book if used in a classroom setting!!!

It's hard to be a teenager...trying to fit in with the crowd while also trying to figure out who you are and what you want to be. But when you are seemingly invisible to the society around you, it's a lot more complicated.

High school students Nadira and Aisha are immigrants from Bangladesh. They have lived in NewYork City since they were young children surrounded by friends and family. Their father (Abba) has been working with a lawyer to acquire the papers to become legal, but for now the family is living on expired visas. Their status as illegal aliens is not a problem, really, until September 11, 2001 when everything changes! Muslims are now targets for harassment and having proper papers is crucial to avoid deportation or even imprisonment!

The family tries to flee to Canada where they hope to receive asylum. Unfortunately, when they reach Canada, they are turned away due to the huge numbers of people also seeking asylum. When they try to re-enter the U.S., they are stopped. Abba is led away for questioning and Ma must stay in a Salvation Army shelter in order to be close to him. Nadira and Aisha are sent back to New York City where they are told to stay with an Aunt and Uncle and go to school as if nothing has happened until the situation is straightened out.

Aisha is a senior in high school and has always been the smart and pretty one. Her grades place her in the top of her class. She is a member of the varsity debate team and she has been nominated to be valedictorian of her class. Aisha has always been sure to fit in with those around her. She wears the right clothes, listens to the right music and has the right friends. She is the "star"of the family who will go to college and be someone rich and important someday. Nadira is quiet and a little chubby. She must work for her grades and she has always been outshone by Aisha. But suddenly, Aisha stops trying. She skips classes, misses the championship debate meet and even misses her entrance interview with Barnard College. She believes that it's not worth trying anymore since they will probably be deported anyway. Now it's up to Nadira to come up with a plan to save the family.

Budhos has written a compelling story that humanizes the situation experienced by Muslims right after 9/11. The title, "Ask Me No Questions" refers to the fact that illegal aliens often live and work in a community with the full knowledge of its citizens. No one asks for their paperwork, so they don't have to worry about producing it. In the climate of fear after 9/11 many Muslims were suspected of being terrorists and the need to have proper documentation was critical. In this book, Nadira and Aisha have lived in New York for years with no problem. As far as they are concerned, they are Americans. Suddenly everything they have come to expect about their future is in question. Because the story is told through Nadira's eyes, the reader experiences her confusion and fear first hand.
Much of young adult literature focuses on teens "coming of age" and "finding their place in the world". Budhos has created a story of two teens who experience all of that and more. Readers are provided with insight into a problem experienced by more teens than we might imagine. This is a thought-provoking and eye-opening book to which teens and adults can relate.

I loved this compelling and terrific look at a very important subject. Illegal immigration is much in the news these days, but people rarely seem to see or think about the human faces and stories behind the headlines. This story of a Bangladeshi family who have successfully "passed" as legal for years in New York but are caught up in the post-9/11 crackdown on anyone Muslim is a heartwrenching look at the people affected every day by bureaucratic tangles and injustices, as well as American prejudices and fears. The father wrenched from his family and detained for months, the "star student" daughter who is afraid to tell anyone at school her family's situation, the younger, quieter daughter who works to find a way out of the catastrophe that has befallen the family--these characters come vividly to life and it's impossible not to imagine what it would be like in their situation.

"...And it's a story, ladies and gentlemen, that I didn't read in a book, or
learn in a classroom. I saw it and lived it, like many of you. I watched a
small man with thick calluses on both his hands work 15 and 16 hours a day. I
saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet, a man who came
here uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all I needed
to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example. I
learned about our kind of democracy from my father. And I learned about our
obligation to each other from him and from my mother. They asked only for a
chance to work and to make the world better for their children, and they -- they
asked to be protected in those moments when they would not be able to
protect themselves. This nation and this nation's government did that for them.
"And that they were able to build a family and live in dignity and see one
of their children go from behind their little grocery store in South Jamaica
on the other side of the tracks where he was born, to occupy the highest seat,
in the greatest State, in the greatest nation, in the only world we know, is
an ineffably beautiful tribute to the democratic process..."
--Mario Cuomo, from his keynote address at the 1984 Democratic National
Convention.

So here we are, counting down the days leading up to the fifth anniversary
of 9/11. For some of us who are in the fortunate position of having had
ancestors come to America a century or more before, and who recognize that good
fortune, such commemorations heighten the recognition that we sit today in
collective judgment as to whether those currently outside our borders (or
illegally within our borders), who dream the same dreams our forebears did, should
be permitted similar opportunities as those from which we benefit.

"I like the shores of America!
Comfort is yours in America!
Knobs on the doors in America,
Wall-to-wall floors in America!"
-- Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, America from West Side Story
(1957)

Of course, many would say, the world of my own immigrant Sicilian
grandparents was a different world -- different circumstances. And they would be
right. My grandmother arrived by boat with her siblings and parents a few years
before the Wright brothers' first successful flight; my grandfather sailed
from Palermo a few years after Kitty Hawk became a household name. Now the sort
of aircraft that Wilbur and Orville could never have imagined in their
wildest dreams have been used to change the world forever.
But what of those people who, like my grandparents, have done their best in
today's world to make those American dreams come true for their own children,
even if their efforts aren't always one hundred percent legal? Where does
the crackdown that 9/11 spawned leave them?

I expect that this will be a potentially frightening week for anyone in
America who is Muslim or who might be mistaken for being Muslim.

"The thing is, we've always lived this way -- floating, not sure where we
belong. In the beginning we lived so that we could pack up any day, fold up
all our belongings into the same nylon suitcases. Then, over time, Abba
relaxed. We bought things. A fold-out sofa where Ma and Abba could sleep. A TV
and a VCR. A table and a rice cooker. Yellow ruffle curtains and clay pots
for the chili peppers. A pine bookcase for Aisha's math and chemistry books.
Soon it was like we were living in a dream of a home. Year after year we
went on, not thinking about Abba's expired passport in the dresser drawer, or
how the heat and the phone bills were in a second cousin's name. You forget
you don't really exist here, that this really isn't your home. One day, we
said, we'd get the paperwork right. In the meantime we kept going. It
happens. All the time."

9/11 was a personal and deadly tragedy for thousands of Americans and their
families. And it was also a black day for illegal aliens like Nadira, her
big sister, Aisha, and their parents who had the ill-fortune a number of years
ago of hiring an incompetent attorney when they'd attempted to stay in the
country legally. Nadira's older sister Aisha is within striking distance of
being valedictorian of her high school class when, in the wake of 9/11, the
government begins tightening laws and hauling in Muslims and the girls' father
decides the best thing to do is for the family to head for the Canadian border
with their expired visa and request asylum. When they reach the border they
are forced to turn around and the girls' father is promptly arrested because
of the expired visa. Mom finds refuge in a shelter near the border where
her husband is being held, while the girls are forced to return to New York
City to be looked after by relatives and pseudo-relatives, to try to continue
their schooling while waiting indefinitely for the American government to make
its next move.

Nadira, who narrates the story and has always existed in the shadows of her
brilliant and fashionable older sister, finds herself having to step out into
the light as Aisha falls into despair over the loss of her American dreams.

"On the way back from school Aisha repeats to me, 'We're going to hear from
the lawyer, Nadira. Today. Or our letter, it's going to be answered. I
know it.'
"But when we get to the mailbox, it's empty. And there are no messages on
the machine.
"Aisha becomes obsessed. Every day there's no letter in the mailbox from
Homeland Security, no phone call from the lawyer. Every evening that we speak
to Ma and hear there's no news there, either. Aisha grows more frantic. At
night she goes over her homework again and again. She gets up early to go to
school, studying in the empty classrooms. She's like a boxer, jabbing and
hitting, trying her old moves, but this time she's up against something that
so much bigger than her, beyond her power.
" I wish I could just put a hand to her skin, stop her whirring inside.
"Soon Aisha is barely going out. She sits in Taslima's room and stares out
the window. Her hair looks greasy; she hasn't even bothered to press coconut
oil into her scalp or run her fingers through the kinks. She keeps wearing
that stupid Destiny's Child T-shirt, and when no one's home, she sneaks into
the living room and watches soaps on TV."

Imagine what it would be like to be an American in the wrong country at the
wrong time with all the rules changing, just when after years that country
was feeling like it was home.

This is not as advertised the most comprehensive selection of Kafka's writings ever published. But it is a very good selection , and includes some of the most important of the shorter work, the stories, the parables, the diary entries. The uncanny power of Kafka's writing is present line- by - line. And with this power is that tremendous suggestibility which seems to lend his work open to so many different kinds of interpretation.
One travels with Kafka very often into a strange world which resembles our own and may even provide at times a much deeper perspective of our own than we ordinarily have, but almost always too leaves us with a feeling of irresolution, of enigma, of what is often a terrifying beauty and strangeness .
Reading these samples one comes into contact with one of mankind's great literary geniuses. One can be grateful for this while at the same time understanding, that this particular genius, does not make our lives or our understanding of the world, any easier.

As a freshman, I had read The Metamorphosis in a course of basic English composition. How I wish I could take the day back! I was wrong, so wrong to force my Jungian dream analysis perspective onto my poor professor. In the autumn of my childhood, I was a two-bit psych major looking for a cheap thrill by Tuesday morning. I targeted Kafka like a teenager parallel parking a HumVee at his driver's license test. I argued with brazen naiveté that the spilled apple represented a mandala! Ok, so I wasn't a prodigy.

This time around, however, I decided to take Kafka literally--pardon the pun. Also, other personal writings packaged inside this volume are immensely helpful in refining my Metamorphosis road map. For instance, in the section heading "Selections From Letters To Felice", Kafka talked about his difficulty getting to sleep, writing long into the morning. In parenthesis he noted his demand for dreamless sleep. Metamorphosis may be nightmarish, but there is no merit to the dream hypothesis. The more I know about Kafka, e.g. his loathing of bureaucracy, the better equipped are we to make clear observations and intelligent interpretations of this complicated story.

The problem with understanding Metamorphosis is that it isn't formulaic. That doesn't mean we can't predict the Samsa family will succeed in coming together again after the unfortunate Gregor's death. It took us a long time to get to that point, and most of what was in between were frustrating obstacles. We have to ask why Kafka would treat his protagonist thusly, is his a sick mind? What he's trying to show us isn't of his own devising; Kafka's calling is equally unfortunate, for he had been called to the ungrateful duty of revealing the ugly side of industrial based culture.

Nobody cares for anybody else in this story, if they have no material economic use. If you are sick, your supervisor will appear at your doorstep at 7:00 in the morning, before you can get out of bed. Your immediate family will try, but eventually their patience and resources will also expire. The key to this story, I believe, is Gregor's younger sister.

This story is really about Grete, who was enthralled by her big brother Gregor, as baby sisters are known to be. Sniffle. Gregor's resemblance to an older brother fades, and little sister must learn now to take care of herself, which she does. I'm reminded of the Pink Floyd song See Saw, "she grows up for another boy, and he's down". Grete didn't exactly meet another boy, but she did grow up, and her big brother finally "bugged" her enough that she had to leave him.

Metamorphosis is the story of Grete growing up, and more interestingly, her growing into replacement part status in the cogs of industrialized Europe. She, too, dispatches Gregor with decisive haste, cutting her losses as cruelly as the three lodgers beg to sue Mr. Samsa, the senior, over Gregor's outrageous appearance. The irony of Metamorphosis occurs in the phenomenon of the "family tie". The magic and power of the family tie is diminished between Gregor and the other Samsas, until Gregor is free to die in order to prevent further devastation to his family. But the family tie was also the Samsa's salvation, prevailing in the end to give the Samsa's some ground on which to rebuild their lives together.

Finally, I see in Kafka's short prose writing, whether they are his stories or letters, elements used by Kurt Vonnegut, as exemplified in his Welcome to the Monkey House. This could be in the brevity of his stories, his common vernacular, absurd, imaginary elements. I wanted to say sci-fi, but I don't think it's so much science as it is Kafka or Vonnegut saying, "look, give me this one posit of nonsense, and I promise the rest of it will make sense".

I picked this up solely for the diverse spectrum of Kafka's writings that it covers, and it's really a pretty darn good sampling of the authors works. Most of the other reviewers have covered the book well, but there are a few important points I would like to stress with this:

The translation is not the outdated, biased, Willa & Edwin Muir translation. They were the original translators of Kafka into English, and were somewhat inclined to pigeonhole his works into their interpretation. I haven't had any qualms with the works as they are in here.

But I would recommend skipping Erich Heller's introduction if you haven't already read a lot of work on or by Kafka. Don't let this spoil the beauty of being able to feel out your own interpretation of the author as you read him. In fact, avoid all criticism and interpretation until you're looking specifically for something like that.

I would highly recommend, though, if you're looking for some perspective on what to consider when reading and interpreting this, the book (several different titles for several different publishers) Kafka/Introducing Kafka/R. Crumb's Kafka, a graphic-novel sort of history of Kafka and his work by Robert Crumb(!!) and David Zane Mairowitz. It's excellent and gives a fair perspective on the Kafka and his social/historical/psychological context.

Kafka has exerted tremendous influence on a great many writers and communities of writers around the world. Although most of his writing comes from a 10-year span of his life just before he died, the impact of that writing on literature, cinema and many other elements of our culture can't be denied.

He embodies a complex writer whom you'll either love or you'll hate. I picked up my copy of this edition back in 1990, and have kept it a part of my essential library ever since.

I'm well aware there are better translations, better editions, etc. out there from a Kafka scholar's perspective.

But for my purposes it's more than adequate as an encapsulation of the man's writings. This may be pure sentimentality on my part of course.

For anyone who wants to read more than the old standbys of the Metamorphosis and the Trial, and to see some great examples of Kafka's total work, this volume is a wonderful gateway.

Its size is particularly useful for travelers and the very sorts of people who might populate Kafka's world.

In particular, I rather like Poseidon.

This edition gets a very positive recommendation for first-time Kafka readers, and even those who have a little more experience with him.

Introduced to Kafka by a news section comparing American Military Tribunals for Afghani POW's to Kafka's work "the trial", provoked me to pick up a copy of The basic Kafka from the local library's annual book sale. Realizing that this book didn't have the story "the trial." I put it down for a few months, eventually picking it up again and reading the most enjoyable short stories I have ever read.

The highlights of this book are "The metamorpheses", "Josephine the Singer", and "The Hunger Artist" all of which contain a strong social statements in an almost surreal setting. The influence of existentialist thought on Kafka's writings, anyone interested in the application of existentialism on literature would be wise to begin here. Concise stories that are just as interesting as thought provoking.

There are also diary entries and letters for those who wish to delve into Kafka's personal life. I just skimmed through this section, but it was apparent he was a mysterious and intelligent man. This book is recommended to anyone whether their interest in modern schools of thought are high or not. Even if the stories dont exhibit a strong social messag, the stories themselves are interesting enough to carry you through this introductory book with ease.

I have not yet heard from my sister and brother-in-law, who were the recipients of this Christmas gift. They have an apartment on Central Park, but also have a place in Key West and may not yet have received the present. I thought it was a handsome book.

If you like birds, you'll love the unbelievable photographs. If you like Central Park, you'll enjoy the map on the front and back flats which help you identify where the pictures were taken. Glad I purchased this book.

Birds flying up and down the Atlantic flyway inevitably encounter a huge patch of concrete, asphalt and brick. In the center they see a large patch of green, with plants and insects. That's why Central Park in New York City is one of the best birding spots in North America. Several hundred avian species can be found there. In addition, there is another species there in large number, Homo sapiens birdwatcher and still another smaller subspecies, Homo sapiens bird photographer.

With all these birds, birders and bird photographers, there was a huge niche for a book called "Birds of Central Park". Cal Vornberger has filled that niche.

Vornberger has digitally captured the wide variety of birds that pass through Central Park. He presents these birds by season rather than in taxonomical order, which helps to give an impression of the bird life in the park the way that a birder would see it. Like all good photographers Cal is concerned with the light. But his style is different from those of other bird photographers, like Art Morris or Tom Vezo. Instead of being concerned with artistic composition, or deep focus to give a sense of the environment, the author seems aimed at a sense of intimacy with the individual birds. Most of the birds pictured fill the frame completely, forcing us to focus on the individual.

What is amazing is not only how close Vornberger has gotten to his subjects, but how he has caught them in the details of their daily lives. I have never seen so many photographs of birds with food, whether insects, berries or crustaceans, in their mouth. And he has caught many of these birds in flight, reminding me of the bird pictures of the great Eliot Porter. But the artist that Vornberger's portraits most remind me of is the great John James Audubon. There is this same sense of intimacy and presentation against a subtle background.

Occasionally, Vornberger brings his own special aesthetic to the book, as when he pictures a cardinal taking off in the snow on the face page to the winter section. The bird's wings are cut off, the bird faces away from us and the only way that the reader can tell that the white background is snow is from the white snowflakes that follow the bird's ascent. And yet this picture captures a moment better than most technically perfect photographs.

Vornberger's occasional remarks interspersed with the pictures often present a little known fact about the subject or give a hint to other bird photographers hoping to duplicate his accomplishments.

This book should not be considered a guide to Central Park's birds, although there is a convenient pocket guide in a slipcover in the back of the book. Instead it is a testimonial to the birds of Central Park. New York lovers, birders and photographers will want to page through this book to recall the avian pleasures of the park.

I'm not an ornithology buff, but I am a serious amateur photographer. I also happen to live in New York City and do a lot of shooting in Central Park.

I've seen Cal Vornberger a few times as he was going about his business and intensely bringing his huge 600mm lens to bear on some unsuspecting bird.

Until purchasing the book, my exposure (no pun intended) to Vornberger's work was limited to a few looks at his website.

While there are some standard "bird on a stick" shots, they do not by any means make up the majority of the photos. Frankly, anyone with a long lens can take a picture of a perched bird.

What sets Vornberger apart is his knowledge of each species and having the patience to wait for his subjects to be doing something interesting. His shots of so many different species going about the business of feeding, nesting and simply interacting with each other are outstanding.

The printing is excellent and the essays by Vornberger and Marie Winn are informative and very well written. I spend a lot of time in Central Park shooting general nature subjects, but Vornberger's maps led me to discover some areas of the park that I'd never before explored.

If you have any interest in birds, Central Park or photography, this is a must buy.

Just one look at the images of the beautiful Warblers amongst the tree limbs will melt your heart... This is one to definately have on your coffee table!!!

The Birth of Graffiti...I will begin by saying that if you have an inner soul of graff...the curiosity of where it was conceived...of how it was back in the day...the day where you werent even thought of...THIS IS THE BOOK THAT SPEAKS TO YOU THROUGH VISION.

I have never seen a book where the images speak to you as strong as they do in this book...but that is maybe because I have a love for NY and its Graff.

I have a GREAT amount of respect for Naar, and I thank him for bringing us these images of art(as we see it). He did not have to give us this gift, but he did. And the best way you can thank him is by purchasing this book AND adding it to your personal collection, as I have.

The photography is amazing...the shots are unique...and you can tell that the subject of the book IS the begginings of graff...where it all lived up to the hype that we are know. I was born in '79 and arrived to the USA in '84...so I never lived the days of which NYC was NYC...where the walls spoke in MANY voices and many ages in many languages. I have caught a glimpse here and there, but never what I have now captured with this BEAUTIFUL book of NYC-a city I love and GRAFF-the form of art I love.

If you really desire to know what it was like back in the day-on the real-how NYC really was...not no postcard propoganda stuff...GET THIS BOOK.

GREAT BOOK...take it from a cat who's introduction to graff was back in '92 seeing all the Kez5-Bruz-MsMaggs-FLone-Ench throw-ups all over Queens...

Get the damn book...you won't regret it.

NAAR...thanks man.

It was thrilling to see such a vivid documentation of early seventies New York and the graffiti of the period. The prints in this book mark an important period of graffiti's history where the building blocks of the craft were being developed for the first time on the walls, buses, and subways of New York City. Graffiti, for the first time became means of expression for a generation of urban youth in New York. The Birth Of Graffiti demonstrates the inception of style which was evolving on the walls of every borough of the city. Today the techniques and traditions pioneered during that period have been passed down through generations of graffiti writers to develop into one of the strongest and most innovative art movements of the last century. Before graffiti was on every brand of clothing, on billboard advertisements, and used for marketing schemes across the world, it appeared on, city buses, subway cars and the gritty brick walls of 1970's New York City. The youth of New York who created this work were the first innovators of this powerful craft which has now evolved into a worldwide art movement. Jon Naar's photography captures many important moments in a period of great change and turmoil for the city of New York.

this magnificent book speaks to me like no other book on graff, and i have many. aside from a nice introduction, there are no explanations about the photos, nor interviews with the writers, and none are needed. there is such a profound simplicity to these photographs. they expose the beautiful ugliness of urban blight in a sad and delicate light. you want to go there to relive a moment when things were louder, smellier and uglier but that much more innocent.(or so it seemed.) before digital, micro, macro, and the information super highway there was this; innocence, ignorance and bliss. there were no books, magazines or videos about it, there were no websites and rest of the world to share your passion with. there was just you and somewhere out there others like you. whole youthful identitys condensed into an alter ego embellished onto a steel messenger then sent to announce "you were there". unknown in the flesh but known in word and deed. we all spoke and wrote an esoteric language that only a choosen few really understood. to have been there, to have seen it, to have breathed it, ate it, sleeped it, to have known it as it was, not as it is now will remain to me always, a privlidge. how lucky we are that jon naar choose to preserve these precious moments in time as if it truly might mean something one day. i thank you sir. p.s. great review by j.son.

Birth of Graffiti could easily have been titled Faith of Graffiti 2. It is basically Faith of Graffiti with added photos from Jon Naar's archives. Some of these photos such as a The Man 550 piece and marker tags on long extinct subway vending machines bring me back to the days before a slew of talking heads with erroneous sociological and psychological theories started writing books explaining our culture. Mr. Naar's photos are striking and capture graffiti in the transitional period between tagging (single hits) and piecing. Many of the writers documented quit before piecing became the fashion , but the emphasis they put on handwriting style is more formidable than the signatures most writers throw up today. I watched this movement from birth to death on the NYC subways and was lucky enough to participate in it. Although not as visually dynamic as the work that came later, this period fascinates me more than any other. I grew up seeing the names featured in Naar's photos, wanting to meet them and follow in their footsteps. We all owe Jon Naar a debt of thanks for preserving the roots of an ever-changing culture. The book is a must have for any old-timers who want to re-live their glory days and neophytes who want to learn who the real pioneers of the culture were.

This is a really well done book - the photographs are incredible and the printing is perfect. Unlike many graffiti books, this one is very well laid out and is "arty." A very professional treatment of the rough edges of the first spray can art. If you lived in NYC in the 1970's this book will take you down memory lane. You will pick this book up time and time again.

One of the best books every written about the Broadway Theatre. Lots of little known facts, lots of pictures. A fountain of knowledge and a must have for every Broadway buff.

This is an amazing book that covers from Gilbert and Sullivan to (almost) present day.
It is very much worth it's weight in gold if you love Broadway and Music Theatre.

This book is great for anyone - from the Broadway musical savant to the average curious person to the theatre student.

If you've seen the PBS television series, Broadway: The American Musical, this book acts as a fantastic companion and will look great on your bookshelf or coffee table!

It's virtually exactly the same as the DVD in terms of following the chronology of the development of Broadway but the great thing about it is it seems to come with additional pictures not seen in the series and great quotes. Forget about flicking on your DVD! If you need a quick reference you could turn to any page and find something interesting about Broadway to read about.

If you enjoyed the series and are passionate about Broadway, I would thoroughly recommend this book as it has everything in there that you'd need to know. Enjoy it!

If you're into theatre, this book is a must-have! You won't find any other book that gives you such a detailed and accurate history of Musical Theatre. The pictures are great and the reading is outstanding!