New York Books

Love 'em or hate 'em, the New York Yankees are an integral slice of Americana. The superstars seem to shine brighter there than in other markets. They transcend sports and become a part of American life. From Ruth and Gehrig's dominance of the Roaring 20s to Joltin' Joe Dimaggio's hitting clinics of the 30s, 40s, and 50s, to Mantle and Maris in the 60s, and finally the resurgance of recent days, the baseball world hangs in the balance of what the Yanks ultimate destiny is on a yearly basis.

With the exception of Ruth, it is entirely possible that no one figure captured the baseball world's imagination to the same degree as Mickey Mantle. From his humble beginnings to his majestic homeruns, "The Mick" had something for every baseball fan and he displayed it all while wearing the famed pinstripes in a total of 12 World Series.

Not every World Series was won and Mickey certainly illustrates that he was far from perfect, both on and off the field. It's a wonderful look back to the Golden Era of baseball and an inside perspective of an age of sports that will never be seen again.

Fully recommended!

I was a Big Mickey Mantle fan back when he first came up to the Yankees as a 19 year old.
He immediately had an impact on me. As a young boy he was my idol.

I just began reading the book, and am already impressed with all the won- derful memories of the great Mickey Mantle.

The book is great!, and I expect no less, as I continue to read on.

All My Octobers is a great book, full of great moments and great players in Major League Baseball's greatest classic, The World Series. Told in the first person by the late baseball legend and New York Yankees powerhouse centerfielder Mickey Mantle, these stories of the World Series are natural and authentic. It's up close and personal, right from the dugout at Yankee Stadium. From his first series in 1951, playing with The Yankee Clipper, Joe Dimaggio, right through to his last in 1964 against the St. Louis Cardinals, where Mantle hit three home runs to set a career World Series record at 18. Mantle still holds that record, along with runs scored (42), and runs batted in (40). Of course, he writes about the excitement on the field during the games, but he also gives us some personal tid-bits and his thoughts on the games and players. He tells us that some mistakenly thought he was giving Joe Dimaggio the cold shoulder, but in truth, he just didn't feel it was his place as a young player to be so forward with a legend like Joltin' Joe. He recalls conversations with Casey Stengal and Yogi Berra, the all-night drinking sessions with Whitey Ford and Billy Martin, and how he watched Roger Maris hit his record breaking 61st home run on television from a hospital bed, while sidelined with a hip infection. Each chapter is devoted to a different World Series, and every one is remembered fondly and precisely by Mantle. These were the glorious New York Yankees' dynasty years, back when The Bronx Bombers ruled Major League Baseball, and the world was a different place. All My Octobers is a very interesting and intimate look at the best of baseball during that magical time.

An interviewer asked Yogi Berra to do word association. The interviewer's first words were Mickey Mantle. Yogi's association was - What about him?

Mickey takes us through his World Series appearances - 1951 when he permanently injured his knee, 1952 when Jackie Robinson told the press that Mantle beat the Dodgers and that the Yankees didn't miss DiMaggio, 1953 with Mickey's tape measure homeruns, 1955 when the long suffering Brooklyn Dodgers won their only World Series, 1956 when the umpire gave Don Larsen that final strike, 1957 when Yankee reject Lew Burdette beat the Yanks, 1958 when Bob Turley returned the favor by beating the Braves, 1960 when Casey failed to use Ford 3 times against the Pirates, causing the most heartbreaking disappointment in Mantle's baseball career, 1961 when Maris outpaced Mantle and substitutes won the World Series, 1962 when McCovey lined out to Richardson, 1963 when they ran into Koufax-Podres-Drysdale-Koufax, and 1964 when Whitey had a sore arm and couldn't pitch to St Louis.

Mickey blamed himself for failing to do rehab on his legs. He endured constant pain, and it was a miracle that he had a baseball career at all. He rated himself as equal to Mays in fielding, faster than Mays on the bases, but without the longevity.

If you look at the incredible Yankee dynasty of the 1950s you see a team that wasn't great on paper. The Cleveland Indians were at times as good or better. The Brooklyn Dodgers had much better hitting. It wasn't like the awesome Yankee teams of 1998 and 1999. The Yankees of Mickey's day had no business winning so many pennants and world championships. What they had was Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Gil McDougald, and above all Mickey Mantle.

Did you ever see him swing a bat? He hit the ball harder than Babe Ruth. He had the best swing in history, combining the grace of Ken Griffey Jr. with the power of ...... of nobody but Mickey Mantle. McGwire is a deep popup artist like Babe Ruth was. Mantle would drive the ball through a brick wall. He was the most powerful hitter who ever lived, and had the Olympic class speed of Rickey Henderson.

I had to read this book slowly, one story at a sitting, to give myself time to fully absorb all of the layers of experience presented in each piece. These are small, complex, multi-faceted gems of writing. The stories drew me in, devasted me, transported me, enlivened me, spit me out. I highly recommend Katherine Arnoldi's work!

"All Things Are Labor" kept me up at night. It's a truly haunting book...the difficult stories are told with an exacting delicacy...like a ballerina who has learned to dance on burning coals. From a renegade mother tracking down deadbeat dads to a woman who allows herself to be abused in order to live in the suburbs, Manhattan to Arkansas...the strength of Arnoldi's disparate voices draw you inside their indelible worlds. She's a Joyce Carol Oates with street cred.; she knows firsthand what it is to be poor, what it is to be alone, what it is to be struggling, surviving, persisting. If you like Dorothy Allison or Sapphire, please read Arnoldi.

The narrator's voice, confident in its vulnerability, is the portal to the reader's intimacy with the related experiences. These are stories that stay with the reader for a long time.

This is a collection of beautifully written short stories. Moving, sometimes humorous--always deeply honest and unpretentious. She gives voice to many who are forgotten or invisible in our society, revealing their strength (and hers and ours); revealing the poignancy of life itself. Its a book to keep and enjoy more than once.

The last time I ever visited with Ross we were at Shea, in 2005. This was the first time I saw his book. It is an excellent trivia book (even a Yankee fan enjoyed this one!). You know he spent massive amount of time compiling the book!

I would like to give my dad and ross a round of applause. Great book dad! And ross will be in memory forever.

This book represents a lifetime of work by the authors. Ross and Ken live and breathe Mets trivia and these are questions you will not find anywhere else. A Mets fan should not be without this book.

I also want to use this space, to remember my friend Ross Adell, who passed away in June 2006. Ross loved trivia, Seinfeld, the Mets, and his friends- not necessarily in that order. Ross and I attended a number of games at Shea and Fenway over the past decade. I miss him, and I can't believe he's gone.

This is a great trivia book! Co-authors Adell and Samelson draw together hundreds of great trivia questions covering the 40+ year history of Mets history. There are chapters on individuals from Agee to (Mookie) Wilson, plus sections on managers, postseason teams, and miscellaneous chapters including Met trades, uniform numbers, team records, and announcers. I recommend this to Mets fan as well as baseball historians and casual fans.

This was a very touching book, hitting the most emotional parts of the heart. A must-read for all who enjoy reading about our history. A very inspiring story that says it all: God wasn't gone, He was with them on the planes.

I'm not sure how it happened, but somehow this book didn't find its way onto my reading list until recently. If, like me, you somehow missed this one, don't wait another day to read this book. AMERICA OUT OF THE ASHES by Jeff O'Leary is a book you don't want to miss.

The book begins by asking the question, "where was God on September 11, 2001" then it goes about the business of telling exactly where God was on the fateful day. Many of the miracles of that day are chronicled here. The subtitle tells us these are stories of heroism and courage, but it is far more than that.

Indeed, many individual acts of heroism are told here. These are acts performed by people never before heard of. They were everyday people who did not set out to be heroes, but they found themselves in circumstances which warranted drastic measures.

This book is, at times, very difficult to read. Not so because of any fault of the writers. The sentence structure is fine and the prose hold no difficulty. This is difficult to read because it is very hard to focus with tears welled up in your eyes. At times, this book will tug at your very soul.

Add this book to your shelf. Read it with your children, and often. Remind them that heroes are not sports figures or Hollywood actors, but that heroes are everyday people who had the courage and the discipline to make impossible decisions and ultimate sacrifices.

Monty Rainey
[...]

Originally I purchased this book, as my brother's firehouse is in the book "Company of Heroes" pgs 59-66. My brother's name is also mentioned in the book. John Santore, FDNY, he was one of the firefighters who died on Sept. 11, 2001.

After reading the book, I felt it was well written and very touching to he heart.

Thank you to the publisher for printing such inspirational stories.

Awesome book! Chock-full of great stories, prayers, and quotes. Has an excellent section of color photographs as well as a timeline of events. This is more than just a simple book on the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001. It is a keepsake, a reminder to all Americans who own this book, of what happened and our hope for the future. America Out of the Ashes has already hit the New York Times Best-Seller list within one week of its release!

This the best book anyone can buy if you are interested in a total guide on the Amphibians & Reptiles in NY. It is extremely well done and easy to understand.

"What's so good about this book? Without being long-winded and pedantic, the text is incredibly thorough. Species descriptions are marvelously detailed, putting their field-guide forbears to shame. Every time I pick up this handsome volume, and I do often since it arrived in my office, I stand in awe of its clever, user-friendly organization. Each species is described in six sections: "Quick Identification," "Description" (a greatly expanded version of the preceding), "Habitat," "Natural History," "Status and Distribution" and "Other Intriguing Facts." There are chapters, too, on environmental threats, conservation and folklore... With the help of this extraordinary book and its color photographs, the reader, young or old, novice or veteran, will get to know [New York's amphibians and reptiles] intimately."

Edward Kanze, Adirondack Explorer Vol. 10(2) March/April 2008.

The Amphibians and Reptiles of New York State is a very well written, compact, and excellently illustrated account of the species found in the state. The 6 authors are highly respected herpetologists, which lends a greater credence to the book than is often present in books that summarize species' natural histories. I appreciate the citations throughout the text. The colors in the photos are realistic, the photos are sharp enough, and the captions are extremely informative. I appreciate that several photos are shown for most species, including juvenile or alternate color morphologies. The essays, figures, and tables are interesting and succint. This book could be your primary guide to herps of New England, with the caveat that range maps are shown solely for NY state.

This Book is long overdue for those of us who had to consult with the online herp atlas everytime we needed to find out if a species had been recorded in a certain county. This book is set up and flows very nicely with excellent pictures and species accounts, habitat descriptions, counties of occurance, and so on. I have been very impressed already with this book and how much easier it will make things when I need New York based data for site evaluations and habitat assessment. This book is very informative and well written and my hats off to the authors for compiling all of the data used and keeping it readible. This book is an invaluable resource and is cheap enough to keep it accessible to everyone. A must have for anyone in NY that is interested in herps, some of the information is also valid for surrounding states.

Wyatt has gotten below the slick surface of the politicized 9/11 to the human reality below. Well done!

9/11 is one of those days that we all remember, I was in my office about 35 miles from the World Trade Center. Our controllers husband was on the 106th floor of one of the buildings -- they found him about 11 days later. There were a lot of stories that I remember. But I never thought to write them down and then to compile them into a book.

David Wyatt did. He noted his thoughts, his observations of other people and discussions. He has combined these into an awesome tale. It is not a tale of the heroic. It is not a politically motivated diatribe dripping with hatred like Fahrenheit 9/11. Somewhat autobiographical, this book is also a reasoned yet emotional and reflective essay on the way our world changed on 9/11.

I have the feeling that this book is too emotional, too thoughtful to be the all time best seller on the incident. I also have the feeling that when many of the other books have faded away this one will remain.

The greatest compliment I can give a book is that the writing is honest, because only with honesty can truth be gleaned. David Wyatt's memoir based on the events in his life after 9-11 does an excellent--and honest--job of capturing the contradictory emotions felt by many. But what I found most interesting about his book was his notion that small collisions or accidents between people and their lives often have far-reaching implications. I am glad that I took time to read David Wyatt's memoir--a truly transforming book.

In a time when memoirs are lining the bookstore shelves like never before, Wyatt's _And The War Came_ emerges as one of those books that you'll read more than once, and then never forget. This is a writer who pays attention, a writer who knows the necessity for words as we navigate through the upheavals-and delights-of our lives. And so with the events of September 11th, Wyatt took to the page, chronicling "the days" that followed:

"The sound of this war feels as if it were reeling straight out of my mind and heart. ... To accept this, to come to savor it, is to agree that Hamlet was right when he said that the readiness is all. But there is no getting ready for what has happened and for what will go on happening to us, no way to manage the soul-bruising overload of feeling and fact or the sheer incommensurability of taking it all in while we continue to live our little lives."

But this "accidental memoir" should not for a second be regarded as merely a book about war; in fact, its understatedness refuses to smack its reader over the head with sentimentality or political agenda, as is so often the case. Wyatt, an accomplished university professor and restaurant owner, bravely gives us, by way of his diary, a candid entry into his "quotidian life," though he resists, quite remarkably, the tendency to be overly reflexive, often letting the words of those around him do the work. Written in the present tense, Wyatt's crisp and incisive prose imparts an energy that endures, just as the past, which he so effortlessly dips in and out of, endures. In reading, I was compelled by how this book, like any good book, is very much alive. In a sense, this memoir speaks to how we are all living in this "Great Good Time"-how we find our bearings, and sometimes our discomfort, in our relationships with others; how we age; how change changes us. But it speaks also to pleasure (food here, for example, carries a lip-licking sensuality) and love-not only romantic love or the love for family and friends, but love for a country, or for something as simple yet grand as "a particular turn in a road, where an entire mountain range swims into view."

This is truly a wondrous book, one that I would whole-heartedly recommend to anyone.

Green writes a good yarn ... he knows how to lay out a story, populate it with interesting characters and keep the twists and turns to a plausible level that maintains your interest.

Highly recommended -- as are his first and third novels.

An excellent writer who captures Brookyln and makes it a character in the story. I grew up in the area, have known similar street people, and Norman Green is right on the money. One quibble, a personal thing that always annoys the hell out of me from otherwise competent writers: revolvers DO NOT have safeties. Makes me wonder if Mr. Green took Tough Guy 101 before writing this story. Amatuerish mistake, usually committed by a rank beginner. That said, this book is fantastic.

Norman Green is a very good writer and reminds me of Richard Price. In The Angel of Montague Street Greens tells the story of Silvana Iurata, who returns to Brooklyn after many years to find out what happened to his missing brother. He is well aware of the danger of his return, as his mob-connected cousin, who has held a grudge against Silvana from when they were teenagers, is planning to find and kill him. Green is a real pro in developing very "real", three-dimensional characters and in capturing the language and nuances of those from the seedier side of Brooklyn in the 1970's. If you enjoy books that are driven more by character development that plot, this is definitely a book I think you'll enjoy. If plot development and action-oriented thrillers, however, are your thing, then maybe you would be better off with a different book. While the plot is interesting and holds your attention, it moves at a pretty slow pace. So be prepared if you decide to take on this book. Having read and enjoyed The Angel of Montague Street, Green's second book, I bought his two other books.

At the age of seventeen, Brooklyn born Silvano Iurata was forced to go on the run after completing a mission for his grandfather Dominic, a high ranking Mafia official. After he left his cousin Little Don believed he killed his father and had an affair with his sister who was sent to the convent in disgrace. Little Don vows to torture then kill Silvano when he next steps foot in New York City but that proves difficult to do because his cousin works for the government and has no permanent address.

Years later Silvano returns to Brooklyn to learn what happened to his kind-hearted, mentally impaired brother who disappeared without a trace. He finds out whom his brother worked for and hung around with. In the course of his inquiries he meets a woman that he falls for. However, Little Don knows that his cousin is in town and salivates to get his hands on the relative he hates with a passion.

This is a dark and grimy urban noir thriller that focuses on those who, like the protagonist, live on the outskirts of society. The year is 1972 and the power of the Mafia remains intact so that Silvano steps carefully around relatives in the "family" and works overtime not to touch off a mob war that could hurt the people he cares about. He is still recovering from his year in Vietnam and readers will credit him for trying to do the right thing and stepping away from the violent culture he was raised in. THE ANGEL OF MONTAGUE STREET is no angel but he is quite a man.

Harriet Klausner

I read this play a few weeks ago and I must say it's fantastic. Of course there are some parts that are disappointing, but Eugene O'Neill draws the characters in such a way that you cannot help but relate to them.

Anna is so strong, so independent, so conflicted, and so human! Even if some people don't like the ending, I think it makes sense the way it is.

Great read, short play, and I think I like it better than Long Day's Journey Into Night, although it's usually regarded as O'Neill's best work.

Amazing!!! The characters were wonderfully acted out and the relationship between father and daughter was such a gripping story.

With the 1921 production of "Anna Christie," O'Neill's skills as a dramatist finally reached maturity. Entirely revamped from an earlier play ("Chris Christophersen"), this four-act drama depicts a headstrong young woman, Anna, who renounces her life as a prostitute and tracks down the father who abandoned her as a child. Enamored of his new charge and unaware of her past, Christopherson (O'Neill changed the spelling for this version) tries to pamper and protect the daughter he had neglected during her formative years.

Yet Chistopherson has issues of his own: now a captain of a coastal coal barge, he, too, has lived a seafaring live of loose morals and social irresponsibility. Believing that the vigorous demands and easy temptations of a sailor's career have ruined his own life, he has abandoned the sea for good. Confronted with a daughter who initially enjoys life on the ocean, he swears to keep her both from its influence and from the men who make their living from it--with predictable results.

When Anna falls in love with Mat, a stoker for a steamer, she finds herself torn between her father's expectations and her lover's demands, and she discovers that both men, like the clients from her previous life, are buffoonish cads and patronizing bullies. The third act, which depicts the inevitable three-side confrontation between Anna and her two "protectors," is one of the most skillfully scripted clashes in American theater.

The final act, alas, succumbs to a conventional melodramatic mawkishness. Yet overall the play is saved by the faithful rendering of sailor's speech, the emotional depth of its characters, and the (for its time) forward-looking presentation of social ills.

"Anna Christie," the play by the great U.S. writer Eugene O'Neill, won the Pulitzer Prize for the 1921-22 theater season. All these decades later, the play still packs an emotional punch. "Anna Christie" focuses on three characters: Anna, who has had a traumatic life in the United States; her father Chris, a Swedish merchant seaman; and Mat Burke, an Irish stoker who takes an interest in Anna. The play takes place in New York City and on Chris's barge.

"Anna Christie" is a compelling study of gender roles and expectations, ethnic conflict in the U.S., family ties and disruptions, the call of the seafaring life, and fatalism versus the embrace of free will. Particularly interesting is O'Neill's representation of various types of vernacular speech. Overall, a classic American play that deserves an ongoing reading audience.

I had high hopes, and this book exceeded them. The Answer Is Always Yes dropped me right in the middle of New York and into a world I partly recognized and partly did not. I spent the entire adventure that was reading this race of a book rediscovering what it felt like to be growing, achingly or erratically, during college while also having the flaps lifted to show me worlds I knew only little about. Edgy, full of heart, packed with wit.

What a great first novel!

I was captivated in particular by the voice used throughout the book. The narrator, while distinct from the main character Matt, also speaks as his inner voice / consciousness - and what an inner voice it is. Rich, clouded, driven by a desire to be cool. A deep character is portrayed in the very transitional first year of college.

I read this book from cover to cover and then bought three more copies to give to friends. As a transplanted New Yorker, I loved Ferrell's gorgeous, lyrical descriptions of the city, the "opera of the cosmopolis," as she puts it. The book captures the sounds, sights, and pathos of the city beautifully. Take, for example, this passage: "On Second Avenue a great alien street-cleaning apparatus ponderously coasted along glistening puddles of green... On 13th Street a streetlight buzzed off-on, off-on, maddeningly; on 14th, a man silhouetted in a high window stood with hands propped flat at the glass as if under some celestial arrest."

In both plot and style, the book reminds me a bit of a contemporary reworking of Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby. There's something Gatsby-esque about Matt, the main character, and his quest for social ascension. Ferrell's writing has the gloss and pop of Fitzgerald's, though her prose style tends to be less spare, more lush, than the latter's.

The ending was a little abrupt for me, but overall, this book was beautifully written, intelligent, and funny to boot. Highly recommended.

Before I read this book, I was already interested in the cultural milieu in which it is (mostly) set --- the club scene in 90s New York --- but you don't have to particularly care about this epoch to get hooked by the novel, as I did. Ferrell is a true wordsmith, and the novel is worth reading just for the quality of her prose. This is perhaps most conspicuous in her ability to grant even the most minor characters a rich presence, with just a few light strokes of her poetic brush. Matt's double life as club promoter and college student puts him in touch with a LOT of people, and this gives Ferrell the opportunity to stitch together an enormous weave of New York souls as a backdrop to the mounting drama. Whether it's a fiendish, over-the-hill club promoter or a pathetic, process-obsessed NYU counselor, every character springs to life with a precision that testifies to the author's sensitivity for human particularity--even an anonymous line of waiting club-goers quickly flashes forth its proprietary verve.


Of course it's the more central characters surrounding Matt who give this book its compelling psychic life. All are worth getting to know, but the standouts for me were Vic, Matt's volcanic, delusional, diabolical guru of a boss, and Liza, a Jezebel figure who has to be one of the hottest female characters ever cast in literary fiction. (I'm serious.) Then there is Hans, a German sociologist lurking in the footnotes for reasons unknown until much later in the book. He took a bit of getting used to, but once his story began to unfold, I looked forward to his intrusions. They have a peculiar style of their own, torn between Hans' "professional" interest in Matt's story and his overwhelming drive to evaluate his own disasters. Although he is a comic figure, he nonetheless has a mature, nuanced love story to report that helps broaden the emotional range of the novel beyond freshman year. As for Matt himself, here is a character one gets to know extremely well. Ferrell spends a good deal of time in his head, where Matt schemes, soliloquizes, berates himself, and generally chums around, in a sort of erudite slang bred from a youth of bookish isolation. His voice dominates the book, and it is a funny, incisive, and loving one, but also insecure, malleable, and troublingly vindictive. Ferrell occasionally spends a bit too much time spelling out his thoughts, rather than letting his actions or conversations reveal them. But Matt's personality withstands sustained attention, and I finished the book feeling that I had truly gotten to know someone, and thankful for it.

The artwork is unique. The only thing to bother me was the cards had to be torn out. I knew this when I purchased them, but didn't think it'd make that big of a difference to me. It does.

If you like Victorian ephemera, this is the book of postcards you should buy. A very high quality product like most of the offerings from Dover. The postcards are beautiful and interesting.

It's funny how much and yet how little advertising has changed. These postcards will make you smile, and then make you think...

These reproductions of very old postcards from the Landauer Collection are great fun and might have gone UNdiscovered by me were it not for several family members who have become fascinated in A.T.C.s: 2 1/2" X 3 1/2/" Artist Trading Cards. The images are perfect to "remodel" and use for concocting your own cards /OR/ collages.

PLUS, you don't have to sacrifice the actual card but can copy on lighter weight Kodak paper to cut into small images. The postcards can then be used as intended for correspondence with lucky individuals who perhaps share your taste in the unusual & colorful objects used in turn-of-the-century advertising. You may find some you can't resist for your own amusement - to decorate a window sill, for example - OR - ?

The books of 24 cards (each) make interesting gifts - and even better, you can "pair" with "The Antique Advertising Paper Dolls" (isbn: # 0486240452). The cover of that collection would be a wonderful decoration for your own ALBUM of A.T.C.s. You can see how serendipitous this hobby becomes >> from postcards to trading cards to paper dolls. Reviewer mcHAIKU is pleased that each of these has an appeal even for today's teens who try to appear sophisticated/COOL yet want for themselves a slice of someone else's nostalgia!