New York Books

I tell everyone I encounter they should read this book! Walker Smith's grasp on the characters and history warranted to tell this story is astounding. I still see the characters as if they are old friends and know you'll do the same. A must read!!!!

Walker Smith is a writer who understands the complexity of the human soul. Here is a writer who is not afraid to delve into the dark, even brutal side of humanity. And yet, this is not a novel of despair, but of hope, deeply rich in compassion and humor. Smith's characters are bold, audacious, frightened and flawed, as only a first-rate storyteller can create. If you care at all about the history of race relations in this country, if you care at all about the ongoing struggle for human dignity, or if you just have a passion for good storytelling-Read This Book!

This was an excellent book. I could not wait to get home from work to finish reading it every day. I usually only read true stories because no one can create a character that is so believable and real. Not until now, anyway. These characters were so real, that I felt like I was living back in their time. I felt like I had a personal relationship with each of them. Now that I finished the book, I'm bored with my life again!!! Does this author have any more books that I can order? What I want to know is why doesn't the whole world know about Walker Smith?

(...a new Walker Smith fan)

Smith's characters are formed in the first few chapters then expertly woven into a storyline which encompasses the inhumanity of man in war and in peace as well as the determination of a few
dreamers who must decide how high is the price of integrity. I didn't put it down 'till I was done. Thank God for weekends! An enjoyable read (that last line was for my mother who loathes the use of the word "read" as a noun. I just sent her this book. Happy Mothers Day Mom!)

A wild ride through the passionate and somehow dehumanizing scene of aspiring actors circa 1970's. O'Connor has a real knack for creating flesh and blood characters. The story provokes some hard to answer questions. Idealism in a practical world. Duty to art and its toll on human kindness. The lure of and addiction to pain and suffering. Looking forward to O'Connor's next probe. Highly recommemded.

I became engrossed in this book from the minute I started reading it. Ms.O'Connor has that uncanny knack of being able to write insightfully about both men and women, and as I grew to know them intimately and experience their emotions and passions, I found myself deeply rooting for each of them. Their attitudes towards the theatre and towards each other kept growing and changing -- always with a wit underneath that was enormously appealing. I felt as if I had spent many hours with friends I cared about. I hated finishing this book...

Company of Three is a moving, funny, wise story of acting and the 70's that is itself a work of art. It is an inside look that is both illuminating and that tells the truth.

A Company of Three kept me reading non-stop until the end. The beauty of O'Connor's writing in this tightly knit story draws the reader into the lives of the three young and aspiring actors, who each try to live their passion and struggle to find their way within a complex and tough New York acting world with its own rules and chances. O'Connor's love for acting and her inside knowledge of the acting scene shines through in every sentence. I highly recommend this wonderful book.

This is an outstanding book for understanding why the US military has such problems with confronting insurgency. Counterinsurgency is never easy, but the US has proved monumentally incompetent across generations of command. The book's thesis is that bad counterinsurgency doctrine made a successful intervention in Vietnam impossible, and that the conflict was lost as soon as it began.

The most crucial misconception is that there is no such thing as an organic, self developed insurgency. Insurgency was seen as the policy of a foreign nation seeking to intervene within a country, likely as a prelude to invasion. Insurgencies were dependent on foreign support for supplies, bases and command. Combatting an insurgency required severing the link between the foreign support and the insurgents.

Related to this was a belief that light military pressure, or even just the presence of US forces could compel the withdrawl of insurgent support, because such a presence would signify US resolve to oppose an invasion or intervention.

The application of this logic led to a dynamic where the US pressured North Vietnam in retaliation for VC attacks. North Vietnam interpreted that pressure not as a response to it's own policies but as a direct attack upon it's existence. Consequently it increased rather then decreased supplies and support for the VC, ultimately sending not just supplies but regular troops. In essence the US created exactly the scenario it's policies were intended to prevent.

That this is happening again in Iraq and Iran suggests too few people in command read this book.

I had the great privilege of taking many of Dr. Cable's classes while I was at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Dr. Cable is a true gift to the historical field. His courses were difficult, but his amazing story-telling ability shines both in class and in both of his books (conflict of myths and unholy grail). While reading his books, I can actually still hear his delivery and cadence. As we go further into a time when local squabbles and terrorists will engage the attention of our foreign policy, his writings and experiences are all the more appropriate.

Dr. Larry Cable's experience and intellectual appraisal for the counterinsurgency role of the U.S. armed forces in Southeast Asia are placed into perspective. While not completely supporting all U.S. activities regarding the reduction of irregular forces, Cable examines the reality on the ground that was the wake-up call for American military leaders in Vietnam. An extremely effective and important book that should be read as much for the intellectual value as the historical value.

This book analyzes how the US came to adopt the policy of using conventional tactics to fight the insurgency in Vietnam. It provides a great analysis of the American way of conducting war and gives examples of attempts to fight the war in other means. Author has/had first hand knowledge of what was going on behind the scenes in the 60's. This book is required reading at many military schools which realize our past failures and are trying to teach current military personnel how to avoid similar mistakes in the future.

From a historical perspective we can see Pat hits the nail on the head with many of the problems we face today. Well written, strong arguments.

When I heard Pat mention this book in an interview on C-Span, I immediately shuttled myself off to the library. It was published in the aftermath of Watergate, and Pat's tone is understandably disgruntled and defeatist. I'm so tired of the liberal demagogues who label him a racist, anti-semite, or misogynist simply because they know that is the simplest and most spineless way to destroy a person's credibility. For anyone willing to go to the trouble to find this forgotten masterpiece, I swear that he actually refers to the early civil rights leaders as "heroes," and writes that "justice was on their side." How can the extra chromosome left wing explain comments like this, when they would have us believe that Pat Buchanan is satan? I saw nothing in this book that I would deem to be insensitive or xenophobic. But in a society where a guy can lose his job for saying "niggardly" I guess anything can pass for racism now.

Pat demonstrates his great insight into the political process in this book.

Pat ended the book in 1975 with this warning:

"Perhaps ... there may be no other choice, consistent with conservative convictions (than to form a third party). But if so, the step should not be taken until a more conclusive prognosis has been made that the Republican Party is indeed sick unto death, no longer a seaworthy vessel of the new conservativism."

Pat left the GOP (Gang of Prostitutes), who sell their votes and virtue for the tax money they swore not to collect, to be spent on their "conservative" interests, or to woo the left into voting for them in the next election. Be warned Mr. President, "No Republican President can successfully flank the Democratic Party on the Left." (p. 97). Your generous gift (which was not yours to give) of $15 billion to Africa today will look stingy compared to a Democrat proposal for $25 billion tomorrow. (See Pat's analysis on a similar fight on page 96ff.)

What is the fight about anyway? Is it for Republican Rule or Democratic Rule? Nay, the battle to be won is whether the U.S. government shall be governed and chained by its own Constitution, and we made the more free; or shall we continue to elect Republicans who increase the size and scope of the Federal bloat. The only thing the Price George XLI and the federal government can do to stimulate America is to get out of the way and again allow the fate of the nation to be determined by those who produce wealth, not by those who consume it.

Suler successfully enters and explores an area as fraught with the danger of simplification and distortion as the seemingly ubiquitous published tirades equating (take your pick) Tibetan Buddhism, Zen, Taoism, other esoterica...with quantum physics and relativity theory. Suler's perspective on psychoanalysis alone is worth the price of the book and the time in reading it: his ability to cut through the ridigities of orthodoxy in his field is truly admirable, and his public advocacy for freely allowing Eastern and Western perspectives and practices to coalesce without however projecting on either any primacy or territorial dominion--as evidenced in his own teaching work, summarized at his website (http://www.rider.edu/~suler/tcp.html) is itself a true expression of his understanding of Tao.

Whether or not you practice psychotherapy or counseling, this is a worthy and finely written book, which deserves a much larger audience than it probably is getting.

This is a fine book relating psychoanalysis (PA), including Self Psychology, Object Relations, Freud, & Jung to Zen Buddhism, Taoism, & the martial arts (including archery & Sun Tzu). Suler creates a multi-perspective collage, while avoiding both Euro & Orientocentrism. He notes differences & similarities between Eastern approaches & PA--p. 14: "Without comparing apples & oranges, without exploring their complementarity, how would we even arrive at the concept of `fruit'? Exploring the ways in which two things are both the same & different is the only means by which we arrive at a higher-order concept that integrates the two." However, he also points out that even together they are imperfect-e.g. p. 23: "Both PA & Zen have brandished their own version of infantile grandiosity." He delves into "maladaptive personality structures that may incline a person toward Eastern thought" & p. 153: "deficiencies in the cross-cultural interface" i.e. Eastern masters' scandals. Yet, p. 101: "spiritual growth must entail psychological processes," & p. 137: "perhaps by holding "objective" investigations in one hand & "subjective" insights in the other, we will walk with greater balance toward the higher knowledge that transcends such distinction." Thus, he avoids both East & West extremes-- p. 104: "The cherished sutras of Buddhism...are the entombed words of the Buddha that point to the truth but must not be mistaken for it...they are only a finger pointing to the moon (no-self) & not the moon itself" & p. 262: "PA may sometimes hold too tight to its theories while venturing into fundamental, unavoidable dimensions of human experience." Rather, he stresses synergistic gains from their integration, predicting that p. 263: "Eastern & Western disciplines will be complementary explorers of human nature & complementary healers of human suffering." Included are chapters on the martial arts (including archery & Sun Tzu), paradox, Tai Chi, the vision quest, etc. in which he provides numerous parallels to PA, Zen, & Taoism as well as anecdotal case information. [I'd also recommend Robert Moore/Doug Gillette's "Warrior Within." His perceptive, integrative insights include:
p. 72: "Perhaps different types of pathology may be understood as different disturbances in the interpenetration of self & non-self."
p. 105: "Silence amputates the linguistic/conceptual love of selfhood & leaves it to wither & die."
p. 203-4: "Once clinicians have passed the initial phases of molding the techniques & theories according to their own personality structure; they learn how to use themselves, their own intra-psychic dynamics & subjective meanings, as the agents of psychotherapeutic change...the art of psychotherapy becomes an expression of self." This book is well worth reading.

As an Asian clinical psychology student interested in integrating psychoanalytic concepts and buddhist virtues in conducting psychotherapy and as an existential philosophy, I find this book a precious rarity. The author was insightful about how Eastern/Buddhist philosophy might be misused or misinterpreted by some as a way to justify their personality pathology. He also illuminated how Eastern thoughts and martial arts can be blended into psychotherapeutic work so that both psychological healing and spiritual transformations can occur.

I learned a great deal from Contemporary Psychoanalysis and Eastern Thought. The book is sophisticated, solid, and full of rich insights. Suler knows psychoanalytic theory extremely well, and he has a gift for cross-cultural interpretation. Psychoanalysts unreceptive to Eastern ideas, students of Eastern thought unversed in psychoanalysis, and all serious students of transpersonal psychology should read Suler's book. It is a substantial work of scholarship and an admirable example of cross-cultural dialogue.

by Michael Washburn, for the Transpersonal Review, edited by Mark Robert Waldman

I have always loved the Adirondacks, but after reading this astonishingly well-written book I have a new appreciation for this remarkable region. If you're a fellow Adirondacks-lover I HIGHLY recommend this book. Also, if you have time to read only one history of the Adirondacks, then this is the one to read.

This is truly fine work. The relatively new genre of environmental history has produced the usual amount of academic turgidity, but many of these young historyians clearly love the land that they write abot, and have the skills to make discussions of the history of human interacton with natural systems into literature. If you enjoy Terrie, you should also pick up Bullough's Pond by Diana Muir.

The book introduces concepts and ideas that you will have thought of before, but never had actually examined in real images and arguements.

Has some great historical facts and stories.

Tells New Yorkers about what has happened in their state.

This wasn't the most exciting history book I've ever read but it was an informative and concise history of the region. The region known as the Adirondacks is a huge tract of wilderness in northern New York that, as Terrie describes it, is "an unintended mix of private land, villages, and state-owned wilderness." In the opinion of this lifelong frequenter of "The Dacks," it is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Terrie thoroughly explains the conflicting intentions for the region that have plagued it since it was first explored and settled in the 18th century. The conflict was between those who recognized it's unique natural beauty and wanted to preserve it as such, and those who saw it as just another land to be exploited for it's natural resources. More recently, the struggle continues as everyday residents of the region battle the bureaucratic Adirondack Park Agency for the right to grow economically, something which has been consistently denied to them, due to the stringent restrictions on any kind of development. Originally published in 1997, it is a bit dated, but for any fellow Adirondack lovers, I would say it's definitely worth checking out.

I gave this book to my daughter and she stated, "Book was a great help in preparation for tests - in Teaching "

An excellent guide to pass LAST ATS-W. I am not an educational major and I took the tests only once. This book has the right information you need to pass.

I cannot say enough about this prep book. I studied for one month prior to the test, and I only studied this book. I scored a 279 out of 300 (220 is passing).
Yes, I do have brains, but I feel that I owe most of my great score to the awesomeness of this book. I hate surprises - of just about any kind. This book tells you EXACTLY what you need to know, and shows you EXACTLY what you will see on the test. There are ABSOLUTELY no surprises on the day of the test! The prep test you take in the book will show you how to answer the questions. The L.A.S.T. isn't hard. It is tedious. Knowing what the questions are going to look like and how to maximize the 4 hours you have to take the test by ignoring erroneous (and time consuming) text is a big key to success. I do not recommend doing "outside studying" because if you are planning to be a teacher and have four years of college already, you will not have trouble passing. Don't make yourself crazy brushing up on all your old textbooks - it is a waste of time. Most of the questions have the answer embedded in them already. You just have to fish it out. This book teaches you how to do that. Buy it.

I used the Princeton Review test guide among a few others. These guys truly have the NYSTCE "nailed." It was accurate in its strategy recommendations, but more important, it represented the types of questions on the exam very accurately. This is the only guide you need or should use.

Every April I Was At The Ceremony Near The Front Gate For CO Hartye And PO Fagan. Days I Worked From 1984 To 1999, My 15 Years As A CO At Sing Sing. The Book Was Excellent. I Knew Well The Authors Brother Ken, He Was A Sargeant When I First Arrived And An LT, The W/C or SS 9 When I Left. He Used To Call Me Flanagan And Was A Top Notch Guy. The Story Of The Background Of The Shopping Bag Gang, How It Was In The City, Just The Plain History Of It Kept Me Glued To This One. Having Been A Part Of The Facility For Such A Long Time And Being Able To Picture This All Helped Alot Too. If You've Ever Been A CO This Is A Must.

This book tells the tragic story of Whitey Riordan who was executed for murder after a murderous breakout from Sing Sing Prison in 1941, this book contends that he was not a killer and l agree with it. However the book is more than that it is a well researched and written historical book that brings to back to life for the reader a time, place and people and tells their story.

The book is divided into three parts, part one tells the story of the lives of Whitey and the Shopping Bag Gang and gives a good overall perspective of life in Hells Kitchen of New York in the early 20th century. It even delves back to the history of the area pre Hells Kitchen to colonial times, with running streams and meadows and later farms. Whitey's family like many endured hard times and did as best as they could to survive. Whitey's gradual descent into a life of crime is well documented as are the lives of his fellow criminals.

Part two deals with Whiteys time in Sing Sing prison and contains some details of the day to day operations of the jail and its interaction with the town of Ossining where it is located. Some history of Sing Sing prison, including the reforms of Warden Lawes is also described. It was a tough place to survive and prison staff were liable to deliver a boot or a fist to keep order. Also described is the pre breakout time and the planning and circumstances that gave rise to the break out.

Part three deals with the breakout and what a botched, bloody and pointless breakout it was, innocent, decent people killed and one escapee killed though his own stupidity and the other two caught within 24 hours. This is a well written informative book and is ideal for the true crime history fan.

Author David Goewey has given us a detailed account of members of the so-called Shopping Bag Gang that prowled the Hell's Kitchen area on the west side of Manhattan during the 1930's. The book is divided into three sections. The first section is devoted to the heyday of the Shopping Bag gang and their antics. Part two tells us about the environment of Sing Sing prison under the revolutionary rule under Warden Lewis Lawes who was often accused of running a prison focused on rehabilitation rather than punishment. Lawes lasted longer than any other warden of the institution (over 20 years) and had his watch marred by this one breakout in 1941 which unfortunately killed two guards. Part three is devoted to the escape, capture, and execution of two members involved in the escape. I found part three to be especially riviting to read and very well done. Prisoners often feared the sound of bloodhounds coming after them and what the dogs would do to them when confrontations arose. In reality the dogs would playfully jump on the individual, slobber their faces with their tongue, and wag their tail. Mention of how the term "third degree" came into use is told when people applying for a higher position in the Masons would face severe questioning by other members. This, in turn, was applied to suspects, or in this case by escaped convicts, who were often physically beaten by authorities to extract confessions. I did find a minor error on page 188 which is really unrelated to the story. The author mentions the Washington Senators beating the Baltimore Orioles in a baseball game. The Baltimore Orioles didn't join the major leagues until 1954 when they moved from St. Louis. The game the author refers to had to be Washington defeating the St. Louis Browns, not the Baltimore Orioles. Despite this the book rates a strong five stars.

I loved this book. It is a gripping tale and Goeway does a great job of telling the story.He captures the desperation of the prisoners at the same time that he manages to evoke an important period in American history. Thank you, David Goeway!

How difficult it is to write honestly about one's own family, yet on this level--and several others--Sheila Weller triumphs. Her neurosurgeon father, her show-biz-journalist mother, and her uncle Herman, owner of a once-famous nightclub all had careers that had a profound influence on Sheila and her sister Liz.

The author's careful, meticulous documentation of those three livelihoods, plus a "you are there" look at her childhood in Beverly Hills (a decade before my childhood fifteen miles away) paint a many-faceted portrait of her family and the times, with joy and pain and glamour. The untimely deaths, the splits in the family bonds, all are described unflinchingly. Weller even gives a less-than-flattering description of her own girlhood, and how hard she tried to please a reserved father who reluctantly gave her a pet name, Brooksie. She was delighted until he added, "Because you babble."

An admirable effort from Sheila Weller. And bless her and her sister, for coming out whole!

this book was so interesting because it took you back in time to a whole different era, very glamorous, even if superficial. her gossip on the stars was really nothing compared to the drama her family played out. she's a strong person and rather than feeling disgusted and sorry for her you really cheer her on for her good sense and survival instinct.

When I ordered this book I thought I was buying an exposé about life at Ciro's in it's heyday, with emphasis on celebrities. Light summer reading, you know.. But this book is not about that and I could not have been more surprised or pleased. Sheila Weller's experiences as an adolescent trying to fit in with the Popular Girls rings so true that I felt like I was in Junior High again, only with her. The painful stories she relates about her family, especially about her father, made me think she must be a wonderfully strong woman to be able to write with such honesty. And with a wry sense of humor threaded throughout, even in the painful parts of her story. I highly recommend this book and look forward to more from this author.

Sheila Weller has told the story of her family lovingly and without self-pity. Although she describes many supremely painful moments - her rejection by her father is foremost - I never had the feeling she was wallowing in the past. She did her homework and the history of her parents and grandparents was more interesting than descriptions of the celebrities who visited Ciro's. We hear enough about celebrities these days. Weller maintains good tension throughout the book. Once I began reading I didn't want to put it down.

Tom Clavin has done a fine job with a riveting narrative of the events before, during and after the accident with the Pelican. It must have been incredibly difficult to research this tragedy which took place in 1951, but the author brings it to life in a very readable and informative style.

When I was writing Ten Hours Until Dawn it was challenging enough because the sea rescue and tragedy I was writing about was 28 years old, so to think Tom Clavin made an event 54 years old read like it happened yesterday is really amazing.
Dark Noon is a must read for anyone who likes adventure, history, and maritime lore.

I liked the book, because the author was able to incorporate local color into an era that dates back over 50 years. Local and New York city news archives along with in depth interviews no doubt helps bring the reader into the 1950's time period. There were however some inaccurate historical facts included. This is why I rated it 4 stars. Anyone interested in maritime stories should pickup a copy.

Going up in the air, or out to sea (or building your city below sea level like New Orleans) means that once in a while nature takes offense and smites these people with something nasty. On Labor Day in 1951 the charter fishing boat Pelican faced a ferocious storm that blew in without warning. Overloaded with 62 passengers when half that would have been safe, the Pelican sank and most of them drowned.

Mr. Clavin has written a story that brings the story of the Pelican to life. He describes the atmosphere of New Yorkers catching the train out to the tip of Long Island and for $8 going fishing out on the Atlantic. He is able to make the book read like a good mystery, as if we didn't know what was going to happen.

He includes a discussion of the boat and its captain, the weather and how the sudden storm arose. He tells of the rescue of some of the passengers and what has happened to montauk since.

In this season of great storms, and with the first anniversary of the Asian tsunami approaching, we have repeatedly been reminded of both our mortality and vulnerability in the face of nature's sometimes unpredictable, and certainly uncontrollable, wrath. In that vein, noted journalist and author Tom Clavin has written a book that looks back over 50 years to what can only be described as a "small" storm, though it had devastating consequences for scores of people, their families and friends, and in particular, one community that relied on the benevolence and bounty of the sea for its livelihood, and future well being.

Dark Noon is about a freak storm, a squall really, that hardly registered beyond the confines of the far East End of Long Island on a Labor Day weekend in 1951, six years after the end of World War II, and one year into the now almost forgotten "police action" that would take thousands of lives in Korea. But as Clavin's book makes poignantly clear, even a footnote to history can have profound consequences to those involved, and in this case, provide riveting drama to a new generation of readers.

Clavin paints a vivid picture of the sometimes hard-luck fishing village of Montauk (about 100 miles east of New York city) at the mid-point of the past century. We are reminded of how different America, and this now "glamorous" outpost of the Hamptons, once was, while at the same time, we inevitably see the parallels with today. As already noted, one war had just ended, and one was commencing. Americans who had survived the Great Depression, and secured the major regions of their planet with blood and sacrifice were looking forward to a peaceful and prosperous tomorrow. But at the same time, the world around them had changed, and not necessarily for the better. With another war brewing far away, and the specter of the atomic bomb always present, they so much wanted to simply relax and have some fun on that fateful Labor Day weekend so long ago.

The particular diversion that Dark Noon examines is the once booming recreational fishing business in Montauk. Every weekend, thousands of (mostly blue-collar New York city) anglers would board a Long Island Railroad train called the "Fisherman's Special" in the early hours of the morning, then stream out of the station at the end of the line. There they would crowd onto a series of "open boats" that took them out into the Atlantic for some "deep-sea" fishing. One of those boats, the Pelican, is the primary subject of this book. Captained by a handsome and charismatic World War II veteran named Eddie Carroll-who in the now grainy newspaper prints of the time somewhat resembles a Cary Grant with his captain's hat cocked just so to the side-the Pelican became a magnet for the fishing crowd.

Carroll, who was carrying an engagement ring in his pocket that he hoped to slip on his lovely, Swedish girlfriend's finger, was the most popular of a host of captains who worked out of a dockyard once know (without a trace of irony) as "Fishangri-la." But perhaps the lovely weather that morning, the luck of past voyages where Carroll's customers were rewarded with big catches, or the knowledge that the season was coming to an end-and his new life about to start-lured Carroll into a false sense of security. The Pelican put out to sea with over 60 passengers, making it far too heavy to handle in the event of a sudden change in fortune. And, of course, that is precisely what happened to the Pelican, as the reader well knows before even starting the book.

But knowing the ending does not distract from the steadily building drama, and terrible foreboding, as Clavin introduces us, one by one, to the passengers, the crew of the Pelican, the surrounding cast of captains and mates on other boats, and those who wait back onshore. Among those captains, by the way, is the legendary Frank Mundus, who later became the world's most famous shark hunter and the model for Quint in Jaws. He is also an important, and fascinating figure in this book.

To say more about how it all ends would rob the reader of the story's harrowing, and yes, heart-breaking climax, as the storm builds and events overtake the Pelican. But suffice it to say, you are likely to shed a few tears as the characters who inhabit this story begin to plunge into the sea, and then fight for survival. Of course, there is heroism and horror aplenty, plus stupidity and amazing resourcefulness. In that regard, this book reminds us of the last moments in that super-hit film of the Titanic disaster, but thankfully, spares us all the ludicrous melodrama. Truth is always far more compelling, and Clavin is masterful at delivering the real deal.