New York Books

This is the best planner I have been able to find. I recommend it to anyone who wants a simple planner with great organization. I really hope that this is published each year because I never want to use anything else!

This is exactly what I was looking for and has the following features:
1. The cover is nice and thick, and the inside cover has a monthly calendar on both the front and back that fold in, so you can fold them into the planner to hold your spot.
2. It has class/work schedules that run from Monday through Sunday and goes from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. in half hour increments. You put your weekly schedule on these pages.
3. The monthly calendars run from August 2005 to August 2006. Each month takes up one page, horizontally. The spaces for each of the days are a little small, but work.
4. The weekly spreads run vertically across two pages. So on the left you have Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and on the right you have Thursday, Friday, and then Saturday and Sunday in smaller boxes on top of each other.
5. The weekly spreads have room for you to put your schedule and extra "to do" type things.

This is seriously the best planner I have ever used, and now I'm ordering it offline since I can't find it locally. The vertical design makes organizing class homework easy, but it also gives you lots of space to organize all your out-of-class activities, which is a big plus. Overall, I'm extremely satisfied with it- I never lose any information or dates.

"This powerful tool is a user-friendly, easy way to check daily, weekly, and monthly class and work schedules; keep track of assignments and appointments; and record notes and reminders. Features include space for a year's worth of classes, organized by quarter or semester; weekly grids in which to record meetings, study schedules, and other activities; full page monthly grids for long-term planning; and space for addresses, phone numbers, and email. In addition, you will get a directory of The New York Public Library's mighty Internet resources; recommended reference books; weights and measures, including metric conversion tables; US and Canadian holidays; lunar phases; toll-free numbers and websites for travel and lodging concerns; and incisive, inspiring, or wryly amusing quotations.

"This calendar spans the student year (August 2005-August 2006). Softcover, 160 wire-o bound pages. Size: 6 1/2 x 9", ISBN 0-7649-3002-8. Click on the small picture to see an inside page. See also: Canadian edition and Student Journal."--© Pomegranate

I have been using these planners for three years and I love them. They are basic with lots of extras all over. Highly recommended.

Edward Abbey to Stefan Zweig, the first 262 page section covers "Authors" - of the entire world; a follow-up section of 57 pages covers "Other Influential Figures," from Joseph Addison to Wm. H. Wright; the short sections on "Authors' Awards" and "Sources in Literary Biography" to "Works of Literature," - from "Aaron's Rod" to "Zuckerman Unbound" - will have you delving into the construction of this tome and its endless answers to questions you must know but haven't thought to ask yet. This wonderful reference book fills a need in your personal reference library, and it equals in importance the ownership of "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations" and "Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia." Once you turn to a section, you could find yourself reading for hours, for the volume invites this reaction. Many other sections answer questions asked, and you will be glad to have added this reference book to your personal library. The tome answers needs of college and high school students alike - and, also, for the personal learner on their quest for learning.

The Literature Companion is an excellent addition to any reference collection, for a library or at home. The editor has not crammed the pages with trivia, rather she puts readability and usefulness ahead of fact checking. When I look up an entry, say, on Conrad, I'll start browsing the C's and loose track of time. Very interesting and stimulating.

I wish they'd publish an updated edition. I have the one that came out in 2001, which still serves as a useful reference.

It provides biographies of major authors and of other influential figures, such as biographers, critics, editors, publishers, thinkers and translators. There are one-paragraph summaries of major literary works and characters, as well as lists of book awards and annual winners (Nobel, Pulitzer, Booker, Whitbread, Prix Goncourt, Hugo, Nebula, etc.).

Other sections I find useful:

*Dictionary of Literature (terms, styles, movements, genres)
*Chronology of World Literature (from the invention of writing to the year 2000)
*Influential Literary Periodicals
*Variations (works of literature that have been adapted into other media -- films, TV miniseries...)

Breaking the monotony of a reference work, scattered throughout are short historical and anecdotal essays, quotations and excerpts, and quizzes.

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY LITERATURE COMPANION is one of those texts that ought to lie prominently on the shelf of anyone who dares to call himself book smart. The list of potential readers is daunting: bibliophiles, poets, novelists, essayists, English literature majors, and even quiz show contestant wannabes. In its 700 plus pages lies a wealth of erudition not found in any other single volume. Editor Anne Skillion has divided the COMPANION into three broad categories:
1) Creators--which includes biographical sketches of the major figures of Western literary history.
2) Works--which covers in surprising detail the output mentioned in (1) above.
3) Literary Facts--which lists the names of the characters in (1) and (2)

No one pretends that this volume will have enough information to write say, a scholarly paper on one of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, but for one who wishes to taste the Tales for the first time, one could do worse than start here. Further piquing the interest of the erudite reader is a series of sidebars, which are both delightful and informative:
A) Writers on writing
B) First books by 10 American writers
C) Poets at work (Three things are certain: death, taxes, and the fact that poetry rarely pays the rent)
D) The New York Public Library in fiction
E) Shortsighted rejection letters (You'd be amazed at what famous works were rejected by publishers)
F) Nobel Prize in literature winners (Grouped by country)
G) English & American Poets Laureate (Tennyson held this post for 42 years)
H) Standard reference books in literary biography
I) Memorable opening/closing lines (Useful for those taking the GRE in English)
J) Pulitzer Prizes for fiction/poetry/drama
K) Influential literary periodicals
L) Movie adaptations of novels/plays (Great for viewing just before the lit test)
M) Recommended Great Books List (This one is controversial: too many of my favorites were omitted)
N) Landmarks in literary censorship (Includes Lolita, Lady Chatterly's Lover, and The Satanic Verses)

This COMPANION is one of those vanishingly rare breed of reference books that can be read as often as referenced. It avoids the dry as dust patina of scholarly jargonese that infects and afflicts other and similar texts. If you already have the NORTON ANTHOLOGY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, then this one is a must buy.

First of all, I need to say that you won't find absolutely everything here, so don't expect to. Neither will you find deep philosophical discussions exploring the multiple levels of an author's intent. I say this only because in some reviews of other reference books in the New York Public Library collection, some reviewers have complained that some favorite item of theirs was not included. To summarize this paragraph, there's a lot here for most people, but not everything for everyone.

What you will find are a great number of literary references broken down into a little over a dozen general categories. For instance, under "Authors," there are a couple of hundred two columned pages of brief discussions of authors and their key works.

Under "Works of Literature," you will find almost as many discussions of novels, plays, poetry and other forms of written works.

One of my favorite sections is "Characters." Has the name of some literary character ever come up in a conversation and you can't quite remember where he or she came from? This is the easiest reference I've ever found for obtaining that sort of answer.

In addition there are such sections as "Literary Awards", "Great Book" lists, "Literary Periodals," a "Dictionary of Literature," a "Chronology of Literature," and many more convenient breakdowns.

Overall, of course, there is a general index which includes all entries in all categories, and which serves as a sort of cross reference between the various categories.

As a previous reviewer has noted, this is a great book to open up at any page and browse to your heart's content. I find myself looking up one item and then following it up with another reference mentioned in that one, and on and on, ad infinitum.

From the day I found this book, it has been one of the most used reference book in my collection.

i have used this planner every year since i discovered it in college (9 years ago, damn i'm old) im a grad student now and i can not live without it. its the best planner.

This planner is amazing! Without it I could go on. I live by my planner and finally I found one I like, one i really like!

This is the most durable, usable planner I have ever found. It has a section for four semesters worth of class schedules, a monthly view (which I use for bills), and a weekly view. Each day in the weekly view is broken into three sections, Assignments & Meetings, Study Schedule, and Extracurricular. I attend grad school at night while I raise children and work full time. These sections help me organize the three most important aspects of my life.

I use this planner daily and have never had a page or cover ripped from it like some other planners I have used.

This is the best planner I have ever had. This will be my 3rd time purchasing it.

This planner is organized great. I am in college and have 2 jobs on the side along with a couple extras. This planner keeps me feel sane and keep everything organized.
A day without my planner at school is like a day without shoes!

or for others who love newspapers and history. It's all here -- the moon landing, Nixon resigns, WWII, WWI. It's the first rough draft of history, as told by the paper of record. It's a coffee-table sized book that is a fascinating read and a conversation piece.

This is a great book for collection. It marks the important milestones in the 20th century. It will improve your general knowledge about the events in the last century and encourage you learn more about them. What is more exciting is to watch them as they were presented on the first page of NY Times. To relive those moments through the print and pictures and titles as presented on the Page One. It is much more than an encylcopedia for the last century.

It is fun to see how an incident was presented on Day One which went on to become World War One. A must collect for history lovers!

I received this as a present from one of my journalism students, and I really enjoy flipping through it. It's a coffee-table book of the major stories of the 20th century, and what a fun flip it is. I also enjoy the journalism aspect, as the style and layout changes over the decades are shocking. I wonder what the 2097 New York Times front page will look like--perhaps we will be printing the papers out on our own printer each morning, who knows. Anyway, this is a fun book for those who like a little history to go with their morning newspaper...and you don't have to be from New York to enjoy it.

I read this book first in my school's library, starting from the back and working my way towards 1896. I was amazed at all the things that had occured during those 100 years. From the crash of Flight 800 and the Trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, this book illustates provides the front page of our last century and hopefully a window to the next!

These are the headlines that made the news. Often three lines, set in Italics Times, page one headlines of the "New York Times" defined American news for years. The internet, and national papers have diminished this effect somewhat, but for most of the Twentieth Century, the NYT was the news. Because of their influence, they were not only the reporters, but the generators of our news. If they didn't report it, one might wonder if it really happened.

This edition has no glorious essays explaining how wonderful people were in 1955, or how great the generation was in 1940. Instead, we get page one completed, unedited.

Only the days which made big news made the cut, but each page of the book is a complete front page. More than reproduced headlines, we can read the seondary and teriary stories, see the pictures, and know the weather. My birth year, 1966 apparently was only a big deal to me, as nothing newsworthy enough made this book.

It is a hearty book, tall and wide. It is smaller than actual paper, and the body copy seems to have shrunk to about 6.5-7 pt. Printing methods were not as good in 1900, and you'll see the smudges in the ink as the plates wore throughout the day's printing. This makes intriguing history, but occasionally difficult reading. Newer pages are reproduced cleanly.

I fully recommend "The New York Times Page One" as more than a curiosity. It would make an interesting book to provide school rooms to see the actual stories of the modern history they are studying.

Anthony Trendl

I thought the pictures and articles brought back great memories of a great time in my life.

I was only about 6 when I went to the NY Worlds Fair. I remember only certain parts like it was a dream. This book helped me put those memories in proper format. Now I understand what really went on behind the scenes and pavillions. This is an excellent book

You couldn't pick two finer experts on the 1964 New York World's Fair to put together this photo essay overview of this too-neglected event. Bill Young is the creator of the magnificent website devoted to the Fair, www.nywf64.com, where you will find all sorts of fascinating information about the Fair, while Bill Cotter has assembled the best collection of amateur Fair photos over the years. This book spotlights some of those photos and offers a great look at this event that I wish I had been alive to have gone too! Excellent job, my friends.

Provides a comprehensive walk down memory lane for this unique American event, the likes of which we will probably never see again. As we were about to experience a technology revolution, all of the depictions of the future offered up by the Fair provided so much hope and optimism for the future. Very complete visual account of the Fair with some text. I wish the pictures were larger with some color images as well (although the cost would increase). Perhaps a little more text about the Fair would have been better. Overall, a very good account of the '64 Worlds Fair which will no doubt bring back some good memories of a very different time.

This book does an excellent job of describing the glitz, excitement and joyous excess that was known as the 1964 World's Fair. With great pictures and great writing this book elegantly handles the challenge of taking you on a whirlwind tour of the fair. May favorite part of the book is how it manages to weave facts about the fair, facts about the time period and unique insider information into the tapestry of the book.

In other words, I really enjoyed the book. It doesn't matter whether you were alive in 1964 or not, by the end of the book you'll be longing for a time when the future held so much promise. At the very least, you'll want a waffle.

If you live in New York City, this is a great book to see what the building "insides" look like. Although I don't live there, I still enjoyed seeing the floor plans and getting a very brief descriptive of each building. Just a fun book to look at and imagine yourself living in one of the more grand one-floor coops or condos. Fun to dream! The only downside is that some of the floor plans were so small that I needed a magnifying glass to identify the room layout.

Finally I got a hold of this book! Great floor plans; but as usual, I would have liked more interior pics (hardly any).

Originally published under the title 'Apartments for the Affluent,' this book is aimed at a very narrow audience indeed. Alpern takes us through 75 luxury Manhattan apartment houses in chronological order, from 1869 to 1974. Each building has a full-page b&w photograph, a diagram of a typical floor plan, and a quarter-page-or-so description. Alpern explains the reasoning behind the various room arrangements, and how that reasoning evolved over the years. I enjoyed this book immensely, but it's not for everyone. If you ever walked by an older high-rise apartment building and wondered how the rooms were arranged and why, this slender volume will fascinate you. Otherwise, you may prefer a book that's a more general survey of the topic (including some by the same author).

This book provides excellent descriptions and floor plans of many of New York's finest apartments. It proved to be a great guide book on a recent trip to the city.

This book is a must have for any fan of architecture. A glimps into some of the most amazing buildings, complete with floorplans! My personal favorites: The Langham, 1107 Fifth Ave, 960 Fifth Ave, 625 Park Ave, River House and my ultimate favorite, the late great 410 Park Ave. I am so glad I discovered this book.

Shirley Bassey is a singer of the first order and belongs to the group of entertainers whose charisma turns every stage of the world in to a starstudded place, and whose powerful voice brings the walls to tremble. Just the announcement of a Bassey appearance on stage is a sell-out everywhere. There are few singers today that can stand a comparison to the manifold impressions a Shirley Bassey represents, and whose status quo can be entitled "STAR" ! That is why I always long for a release of this album.

Shirley Bassey is a singer of the first order and belongs to the group of entertainers whose charisma turns every stage of the world in to a starstudded place, and whose powerful voice brings the walls to tremble. Just the announcement of a Bassey appearance on stage is a sell-out everywhere. There are few singers today that can stand a comparison to the manifold impressions a Shirley Bassey represents, and whose status quo can be entitled "STAR" ! That is why I always long for a release of this album.

Shirley Bassey is a singer of the first order and belongs to the group of entertainers whose charisma turns every stage of the world in to a starstudded place, and whose powerful voice brings the walls to tremble. Just the announcement of a Bassey appearance on stage is a sell-out everywhere. There are few singers today that can stand a comparison to the manifold impressions a Shirley Bassey represents, and whose status quo can be entitled "STAR" ! That is why I always long for a release of this album.

This cd was digitally recorded in 1982 and is one of her best recordings to date. Produced and arranged by Johnny Harris who also produced her best recordings of the 70's. Best tracks include All By Myself, Don't Cry Outloud, This Masquerade, Can You Read My Mind and her version of Michael Jackson's He's Out Of my Life. Released in the UK as "Love Songs" in reached no. 48 in the pop charts.

I enjoyed all the songs on this album. But in particular, I loved the way Shirley, stylist that she is, sang "If and When"; this is my favorite song on the album. I've listened to it repeatedly and will still continue to do so. Her voice range is incredible (as always). She really puts her heart and soul into every song that she sings. I've always admired this incredible entertainer and wished that she'd do a concert in the U.S. again.

Someone gave me New York: Architects 01-02 as a gift. What a great gift! I really enjoyed this book even though I am far from artistic and know nothing about architecture and design.

The book has a stylish cover that features a pattern of geometric, almost-three-dimensional boxes that are in different shades of blue. The internal layout is easy to follow and provides a way to compare architects and their styles virtually side-by-side.

At least one reason I personally liked the book so much is that I've lived in NY for many years, and a decent number of the pictures in this book were of buildings and interior spaces I've walked by or through, admired or have always meant to see. It was interesting to focus on the art, design and structure of these buildings and spaces that are a part of my daily life and nice to realize how much New York architects have contributed to the character of New York.

Architect buffs, people getting ready to build or design a home or office or urbanites planning to design or restructure an apartment anywhere in the world will all love this book, will appreciate the easy access to information about a large number of architects and will find it incredibly useful as a source of design ideas.

What a great idea! Organized as a directory of modern architectural firms based in the New York area, this book allowed me to really get an in-depth perspective on each firm. I particularly enjoyed the section in each architectural profile where the architects themselves talk about their personal design philosophy. And of course, all those wonderful photographs of spaces and buildings! This would be a great gift book both for the serious lover of modern architecture or for someone who just likes to dream about beautiful spaces.

You don't have to be an architect to really enjoy this book.

The concept of the book, to present a number of incredibly diverse NY architects in once space, is fantastic and one I haven't seen before. And the book itself, while functional, is also great to look through and easy to read and follow. The pictures of the architectural works beautifully illustrate the diversity, style and capabilities of each architect, while the written information accesses the entire world of the particular architect by showing the scope of that architect's experience and the works for which each is responsible.

What a great book to have on your shelf or coffee table, both for the architectural of mind and the architectural lay person.

I found this book quite helpful to get to know some of the top architects in New York. You can see what the various offices are doing, what projects they've completed and which awards they got. The wealth of beautiful pictures is very inspiring.

I found this book quite helpful to get to know some of the top architects in New York. You can see what the various offices are doing, what projects they've completed and which awards they got. The wealth of beautiful pictures is very inspiring.

We like David Carr's work. He also figures in the amazing book "News Junkie" by Jason Leopold, a confessional by the investigative reporter who blew open the Enron scandal for Dow Jones while blowing a hole in his with hard drugs. Check it out!

Biographies are an art form. Great writers can do a lot with poor material, J G Ballard created epics out of stuff he found in the waste basket after all. Telling stories and memories are funny things, they change and evolve over time. Anyone who is trying to put together their childhood memories are often thrown by others who remember things in a very different fashion. Sometimes there is no doubt about events though, court cases, arrests, homelessness, ill health all spell the downward spiral of many an addict. The issue with Car''s biography that he starts it as an adult. He doesn't stray into the minefield of childhood which he claims was happy, loving and carefree to a certain extent or even to the issue of what drew him to his current wife (besides beauty, talent and receptivity) who is years younger than him and who drinks alcohol, the cause for so many of his problems. There is indeed a great narrative here, a spell blinding display of what treatment for addiction is, a stunning grasp of a total lack of self preservation at certain times and stubborn persistence to suceed at others. There is however nothing there that seems to explain why alcohol sets off violence in him, or his psychopathic side which views people as ATM machines, not every alcoholic becomes the hulk when they imbibe, some of them can even be pleasant to view or we certainly wouldn't have a hollywood to entertain us. Digging as deep as Carr has into domestic violence, child neglect, ill health, self neglect is indeed noteworthy. There is no question this is the basis for the best seller, tv movie and more. There is just the issue of why him specifically that doesn't get addressed. Genetics can only be part of the story. I came away feeling that I didn't get the whole drift but that's a normal experience when dealing with an alcoholic or addict the story eventually doesn't jibe with the medium. We all want a happy ending but there has to be a beginning and the beginning wasn't when Carr took his first drink, drug, or met the women of his worst nightmare or eventually his future dreams and happiness. If he wanted to leave a legacy for his twins perhaps he would have dared to cross that line rather than repeatedly cross every boundary of self preservation later on in life.
Maresie.

"Let's say, for the sake of argument, that a guy threw himself under a crosstown bus and lived to tell the tale," David Carr writes. "Is that a book you'd like to read?"

Good question. Indeed, it's the question that prospective readers of "The Night of the Gun", Carr's warts-and-all memoir, will have to consider --- because this is that book.

Consider:

A talented kid without much direction graduates from high school pot smoking to cocaine at college.

He starts a career in journalism that has him reporting on police and government officials by day --- and freebasing cocaine at night.

He hooks up with a woman who deals dope. Driving to see her, he's so wrecked he almost crashes into a station wagon filled with kids. He skids into a ditch, has to spend the night in jail, misses his girlfriend's birthday. When he finally shows up, he gives her what can't be bought in any store: a black eye and a broken rub.

He introduces his girlfriend to crack. She gets pregnant. They become so thoroughly addicted that, just as her water is breaking, he's handing her a crack pipe. Their twin daughters are crack babies.

He splits with his girlfriend, and, because he has a nice job, keeps the girls with him. This does not stop him from locking them in the car while he runs into a dealer's house to score.

The gun: As he recalls it, he was so out of control that his best friend not only has to call the cops but wave a gun at him. His best friend remembers it another way --- as David's gun.

In detox, his arms are so nasty that the staffers have him reach into a tub of detergent so they don't have to touch him. It takes a full month for the drug psychosis to wear off. And he does rehab four times before he finally gets clean.

There are 300+ pages like that in "The Night of the Gun" --- it is a nasty downward spiral. Reading it, I thought of the Emmylou Harris lines: "One thing they don't tell you about the blues/When you got 'em/You keep on falling cause there ain't no bottom/There ain't no end..."

So, you may ask, what kept me reading?

In part, because David Carr emerges from the darkness into a kind of radiance: a new wife, intact family, great job. And because, at the center of his redemption, is a reason a lot of guys can relate to: "Everything good and true about my life started on the day the twins became mine."

And, in part, because I know David Carr. Like him a lot. Knew nothing about his past. And so was gobsmacked by every page. For those who do not traffic in New York media circles or read the paper of record, David Carr is the media columnist and sometime culture reporter for The New York Times. He's witty and gutsy and almost always fun to read --- when he's in the Times, I open it with actual enthusiasm.

There's another, better reason I kept reading. I have known a number of people who became addicts. I don't know any now --- some died, some got clean, and those who didn't drifted far from my ambitious, middle-class circle. As a result, I sometimes find my sympathies for addicts to be more abstract than real.

But at least I can still see addicts as victims of a terrible disease. A great many people in our country can't --- which is one reason we spend many times more money on a "war on drugs" and on jails that don't rehabilitate than we do on treatment centers. "The Night of the Gun" is a stark reminder that nice people from good families can sink just as low as the hard case from the projects --- and that drug addiction can, with luck and skill and love and patience, be cured.

David Carr was lucky. His sickness struck him when he lived in Minnesota, an enlightened state with many treatment facilities. He was lucky to have a friend like Dave, who showed up every Sunday to babysit the girls so Carr could go to meetings. (I dare you not to burst into tears when Dave is dying and Carr leans over him to whisper: "I owe you everything in the world.") And he was way lucky that a good woman took him in and made a home for him and his kids.

A few years ago, armed with a tape recorder and a video camera, David Carr went on the road to interview the people who knew him when. The results aren't pretty --- there are videos on his web site that made me wince --- but they certainly leave no doubt about the veracity of the story that he tells. The columnist who wrote about James Frey is not, in any way, like him.

David Carr now finds himself a "genuine, often pleasant person. I am able to imitate a human being for long spurts of time, do solid work for a reputable organization, and have, over the breadth of time, proven to be a loving and attentive father and husband."

For all that, he says, "I now inhabit a life I don't deserve."

I disagree.

This gripping memoir by New York Times reporter David Carr is like a three-hundred-eighty-five page-pre-paid ticket for a roller coaster ride to drug-hell. Once the reader climbs aboard, this roller coaster travels straight down ninety-percent of the time. The author will lead you through the hellish remains of the way his life used to be... going from pot and alcohol, to cocaine addiction... and then to the final barren chamber, in the deepest darkest, dungeon of all addictive drug hell... smoking crack cocaine. He was in such bad shape, that even all of his main drug buddies, undid their seat belts and jumped off the ride... as the roller coaster and author flew way off the rails. As David attempts to tell his story... he suddenly realizes that he can't remember what really happened to him. He starts off telling his "romanticized" version of his drug-crazed exploits... but when he finds his old friends and family members (that actually lived through the self-destructive atomic haze) he very quickly found out, that what he thought he remembered, differed completely from the other "survivor's recollection... including the night one of his best friends put a gun to his head... as alluded to in the title. The only problem with that scenario, is that his friend contacted twenty years after... states that David pulled the gun on him. David quite "clearly" remembers that he never owned a gun. But, then he tracks down another friend from the past who tells him, that twenty years ago, David had him go to his house... to get his gun out... before the cops... that the author was fleeing from... got there to search his house.

The outright marvelous writing and colloquialisms that the author paints his story around, are certifiable genius, and makes the potential reader hope the author continues to publish more books of this genre, whether in autobiographical or novel form, before you've even read one-quarter of this book. When the author realizes that he can no longer vouch for any of his raucous, debauchery, depraved, self-destructive former life... he decides to buy video and recording equipment, and hunt down the role players from his past, and interview them, to get their perspective on his time in self-imposed hell. And thus the statement:

*** "PEOPLE REMEMBER WHAT THEY CAN LIVE WITH MORE OFTEN THAN HOW THEY LIVED." ***************************

As the author's drug use spiraled out of control his innate writing talent would give him temporary employment until employers couldn't look the other way anymore. In hindsight David says: "SOMETIMES ADDICTION SEEMS MORE LIKE POSSESSION, A DEATH GRIP FROM SATAN THAT REQUIRES SUPERNATURAL INTERVENTION." If there is a bottom that is lower than "BOTTOMING-OUT" then David takes you there with a little help from his friends. Is it possible to descend any lower as a human being, than when Anna was pregnant with the author's twin girls and "SHE WAS USING CRACK WHEN HER WATER BROKE, SIGNALING THAT THE TWINS HAD ARRIVED TWO-AND-A-HALF MONTHS EARLY. I WAS THE ONE WHO BROUGHT HER THOSE DRUGS."

Throughout this guided tour of soulless descent, the author demonstrates literary "chops" that the leading writers of detective yarns could only hope to emulate. In describing one of his former dope dealers he says: "PHIL COULD BE FUN AS HELL WHEN HE WASN'T "CONDUCTING", WHICH IS WHAT HE CALLED DEALING, FULL OF STREET LORE, PHILOSOPHY, AND MIND GAMES. SOME GUYS LOOK TOUGH. SOME GUYS TALK TOUGH. SOME GUYS ARE TOUGH. PHIL HIT FOR THE CYCLE." A simple off-hand throw-away comment about cokeheads: "the eyes that saw too much because they did not close often enough." A simple off the cuff statement about a stop on a typical night out would make Robert B. Parker and Robert Crais proud: "WE WENT BAR HOPPING AND ENDED UP AT "STAND UP FRANK'S, THE KIND OF PLACE WHERE A SCREWDRIVER WAS A GLASS FULL OF VODKA THAT THE BARTENDER WHISPERED THE WORDS "ORANGE JUICE" OVER BEFORE HANDING IT TO YOU."

This is an immensely talented writer... who doesn't need to make up street-jargon... he lived it. If he stays clean... and doesn't relapse back into the world he already lived in... but just truly discovered on this follow-up journey... that for example... he was actually in treatment centers five times... even though for the last twenty years he thought he was only in four times... then the reading public as a whole... has an awful lot of exciting literature to read and enjoy in the future.

Remember David... ONE DAY AT A TIME!

Imagine James Frey's "A Million Little Pieces" on a dose of truth serum, suffuse it with some cynical humor and a good handful of self-deprecation, and you get David Carr's remarkable and immensely readable memoir, "The Night of the Gun."Hats & Eyeglasses: A Family Love Affair with Gambling

For all the crowds who were compelled to come to Ground Zero in those first traumatic months to see for themselves, pay their respects or simply offer moral support, most did not get close enough to see what these men and women who worked "The Pile" saw. Their lives will never be the same. Dedicated first and foremost to bringing home the victims, cutting a giant tangle of twisted steel and pushing compressed concrete--1.8 million tons of "debris"--the ironworkers, heavy equipment operators and other tradesmen who worked the site were heroic in their selfless determination to work fast and see the job through to the end. Reporters were not allowed inside and workers who talked to them could be fired. Unprepared for the horror they would see but pushing through, day after day to get the job done, these men and women came together in an unspoken bond which could not be breached, even by members of their own family. This is a story everyone should know. God bless them all.

The "outside world" owes a debt of gratitude to the men and women who worked hard to respectfully recover those who were killed on 9/11.
This book goes a long way to bring those of use who observed from afar closer to what happened in the aftermath.
The courage to step up and the morality to do what is right is imbedded in these individuals.
Thank you.

This book is a terrific account of the story of the recovery from the Pile to the Pit at the WTC Site. In contrast with the twisted and bitter 'American Ground' written by William Langewiesche some years ago, 'Nine Months's firsthand hand accounts from the rank and file men and women from the FDNY, NYPD and Constuction Trade show the human efforts and bursting hearts that forged those involved in the recovery into a band of brothers. Their desperate efforts and hopes again inspire us through this account.

It was worth waiting for until now to hear their stories in their own words and much applause to Glenn Stout, Charlie Vitchers and Robert Gray for putting this together for the rest of us. No one should miss it.

Thank you Bobby, for imortalizing the experience, and heartache, of us all.

Wonderful book that captures what really went on to clear out Ground Zero and how recoveries were handled.. Charlie Vitchers is an amazing man and is so modest for all that he accomplished. He brought compassion to recovery. Without his direction and authority recovery and clear up would have been chaotic. I highly recommend this book if you want to know what really happened at Ground Zero on Sept 11, 2001