New York Books

I just loved this book. Couldn't put it down. Found the characters and the plot fascinating. Recommend it highly to someone who wants to read a good and clean novel.

The beauty of this book is that its content and style is just as appealing to a 12 year old as it is a grandparent. As an adult I was spellbound by the sheer number of facts and details the author puts forth about early New Amsterdam life and politics, spoken through era-appropriate dialogue and characters who really lived their stories! As an educational administrator not only do I recommend Manhattan: Seeds of the Big Apple for school libraries, but as an excellent addition to any social studies curriculum. A truly unique book which should become a classic resource about the life and times of New York's early Dutch settlers.

If you enjoy early colonial history and are looking for a wholesome read, this book is for you. A novel with a real flavor of what it must have been like living back in 17th century Manhattan. I'm looking forward to other books by this author.

This saga includes some intriguing geographic references to familiar locales in and around present day New York. The author imagines the challenges that a pioneering family might well have faced in early Colonial times. In depth character development and clever, but natural, use of Colonial colloquialism bring this tale to life. All in all, a novel that really uplifts the spirit.

This is an excellent book with great reproductions of artwork. It also compares the two artist's. This is a good book for any artist to have.
It arrived as described in a timely manner.

A perfect (necessary) match for Jack Flam book Matisse and Picasso: The Story of Their Rivalry and Friendship (Icon Editions)

A blockbuster exhibition and a blockbuster catalogue. This book is hugely informative, very well organized, chronologically, with a constant comparison of both masters. Every masterpiece by Picasso is followed by one by Matisse and vice-versa. It is a break-through study on the mutual influence of both artists, an attempt once tried by the critic Yves-Alain Bois with less success. This book is required material for any arts library. The authors are all authorities in this particular field and vouch for the quality of the acompanying text.

Huge, very heavy book of almost 400 pages. Wonderful reproductions in color of their work, and, for the most part, easily understood prose. I think I learned a lot. I know I learned that I like Picasso better than Matisse, whom I found to be basically cold and severe, too intellectual in his art. How he was personally this book does not say. You do get a little more sense of Picasso than Matisse. The book focuses on how these two artists played off each other's work almost all their artistic lives. And as such, it definitely succeeds. It was actually printed in conjunction with a major exhibition of these two, in Paris, London, and New York. A must for all art lovers.

No matter if you agree or disagree with Mr. Cutlets' reviews, this book is a fabulous read. Enjoy it with a steak and a bottle of red wine!

Even as a vegetarian, I savored this book; Mr Cutlets' wit-marinated prose is totally entertaining even if you're not into meat. Who else can compare White Castle hamburgers to whippets...

This weighty tome is the definitive guide to all things edible and dead in Manhattan, but it is also a great read owing to Mr. Cutlets' inimitable prose style. It should be mandatory reading for all schoolchildren the world over, and is spoken of in hushed tones in the corridors of power from Washington, DC to Burkina Fasso.

I used to be hungry for meat. Now this guide book has show me where I can find the good stuff. A must own for any meat lover!

this is one of my favorite books of all time. NYRB is now my favorite place on earth! THANK YOU THANK YOU! (ps. this is a classic, all should read it)

Shortly after the death of Daniel Paul Schreber, Sigmund Freud used his (Schreber's) memoirs as the basis for a fantasy of his own. Everyday readers are lucky that Schreber wrote down so much of what he saw, heard and felt during his many years in German mental asylums, for his own observations are far more artistic and harrowing than anything Freud ever wrote.

In this book, Schreber takes us into his world--the world of the genuine schizophrenic. He writes of the "little men" who come to invade his body and of the stars from which they came.

That these "little men" choose to invade Schreber's body in more ways than one only makes his story all the more harrowing. At night, he tells us, they would drip down onto his head by the thousands, although he warned them against approaching him.

Schreber's story is not the only thing that is disquieting about this book. His style of writing is, too. It is made up of the ravings of a madman, yet it contains a fluidity and lucidity that rival that of any "logical" person. It only takes a few pages before we become enmeshed in the strange smells, tastes, insights and visions he describes so vividly.

Much of this book is hallucinatory; for example, Schreber writes of how the sun follows him as he moves around the room, depending on the direction of his movements. And, although we know the sun was not following Schreber, his explanation makes sense, in an eerie sort of way.

What Schreber has really done is to capture the sheer poetry of insanity and madness in such a way that we, as his readers, feel ourselves being swept along with him into his world of fantasy. It is a world without anchors, a world where the human soul is simply left to drift and survive as best it can. Eventually, one begins to wonder if madness is contagious. Perhaps it is. The son of physician, Moritz Schreber, Schreber came from a family of "madmen," to a greater or lesser degree.

Memoirs of My Nervous Illness has definitely made Schreber one of the most well-known and quoted patients in the history of psychiatry...and with good reason. He had a mind that never let him live in peace and he chronicles its intensity perfectly. He also describes the fascinating point and counterpoint of his "inner dialogues," an internal voice that chattered constantly, forcing Schreber to construct elaborate schemes to either explain it or escape it. He tries suicide and when that fails, he attempts to turn himself into a diaphanous, floating woman.

Although no one is sure what madness really is, it is clear that for Schreber it was something he described as "compulsive thinking." This poor man's control center had simply lost control. The final vision we have of Schreber in this book is harrowing in its intensity and in its angst. Pacing, with the very sun paling before his gaze, this brilliant madman walked up and down his cell, talking to anyone who would listen.

This is a harrowing, but fascinating book and is definitely not for the faint of heart. Schreber describes man's inner life in as much detail as a Hamlet or a Ulysses. The most terrifying part is that in Schreber, we see a little of both ourselves and everyone we know.

Others who have posted reviews of this book are certainly correct in their assessment -- it's engaging, harrowing, enlightening, etc. HOWEVER, nobody has addressed the actual CAUSE of Schreber's insanity which, of course, is key to the reading of his memoir. The patient in most cases, and certainly in this case, is unable to tell us matter-of-factly what is troubling him. Instead, he tells us of his dreams or his imaginings, or his horrible delusions. It is then the psychiatrist who untangles the web. I can't recommend highly enough, as a companion to Schreber's memoir, the book "Soul Murder: Persecution in the Family," written by the psychiatrist Morton Schatzman. The book is now out of print, but can still be found used. Instead of describing the book,I'll quote from the jacket flap: "Daniel Paul Schreber (1842-1911), an eminent German judge, went mad at the age of 42, recovered, and eight and a half years later, went mad again. It is uncertain if he was ever fully sane, in the ordinary social sense, again. His father, Daniel Gottlieb Moritz Schreber (1808-1861), who supervised his son's upbringing, was a leading German physician and pedagogue, whose studies and writings on child rearing techniques strongly influenced his practices during his life and long after his death. The father thought his age to be morally "soft" and "decayed" owing mainly to laxity in educating and disciplining children at home and school. He proposed to "battle" the "weakness" of his era with an elaborate system aimed at making children obedient and subject to adults. He expected that following his precepts would lead to a better society and "race." The father applied these same basic principals in raising his own children, including Daniel Paul and another son, Daniel Gustav, the elder, who also went mad and committed suicide in his thirties. Psychiatrists consider the case of the former, Daniel Paul, as the classic model of paranoia and schizophrenia, but even Freud and Bleuler (in their analyses of the son's illness) failed to link the strange experiences of Daniel Paul, for which he was thought mad, to his father's totalitarian child-rearing practices. In "Soul Murder," Morton Schatzman does just that -- connects the father's methods with the elements of the son's experience, and vice versa. This is done through a detailed analysis and comparison of Daniel Paul's "Memoirs of My Nervous Illness," a diary written during his second, long confinement, with his father's published and widely read writings on child rearing. The result is a startling and profoundly disturbing study of the nature and origin of mental illness -- a book that calls into question the value of classical models for defining mental illness and suggests the directions that the search for new models might take. As such, the author's findings touch on many domains: education, psychiatry, religion, sociology, politics -- the micro-politics of child-rearing and family life and their relation to the macro-politics of larger human groups." For me, this book shed a great light on "Memoirs of My Nervous Illness." In reading the other reviews, I get the sense that some people have concluded that Daniel (the son) "simply went mad," or "something went wrong," when the truth is that his father was a border-line personality and one sadistic man who inflicted his own brand of insanity on his children. If only we had something to document the father's childhood . . .

To begin with, the reader should be forewarned that what the author suffers from is not the idiomatic English "nervous illness," or mild neurosis, but a fundamentally different way of seeing the world, stated best by the author at the beginning of Chapter 5:"Apart from normal human language there is also a kind of nerve language of which, as a rule, the healthy human being is not aware." The book's profundity and the author's depth of insight are such that, after reading a few pages of the first chapter, one is reminded of nothing so much as Proust's Remembrance of Things Past: "Souls' greatest happiness lies in continual reveling in pleasure combined with recollections of their human past."....But, after this, the book becomes as disturbing as Proust is essentially soothing. For the author feels himself utterly isolated from other men, not even deigning to recognize them as men at all but as "fleeting-improvised-men" which "creates a feeling in me at times as if I were moving among walking corpses." (Ch. 15) What I found so disturbing about the elaboration of the author's viewpoint and recounting of his tribulations in the asylum is that there is something in his viewpoint that rings essentially true: We do not and can not know even those closest to us on the deep spiritual or "nerve language" level the author exists on in perpetuum. It is this essential truth combined with the author's matter-of-fact, almost cheery, tone that made reading this work such a strange experience for me. For English readers, such characters do exist in fiction (Poe's Usher kept occuring to me, and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein), but the tone of such psychically unstable characters and what we would call their nervous disposition are consonant with a mind gone awry and thus not to be taken so seriously. Of Schreber, just the opposite impresses itself upon the reader. It is this dissonance between tone and subject matter that render the book strange. For the view it expresses is essentially a dark one. If one reads closely, a terribly dark one. The only thing comparable to it is the worldview of the Gnostics: That this world is essentially some sort of mistake, and that there may be no way to "fix" it, as it were. The main reason to read the book, to my mind, is that it is a well-written,non-fiction account of a unique state of being (although readers might want to check out Proust as well as The Gnostic Religion by Hans Jonas for similarities.) But, caveat lector, the book is not for the faint of heart. It may keep you up many a night. It did me!

terrific account of new york through the eyes of a cabbie!

Found the book to be both entertaining and quite enjoyable. Thought the stories were interesting and provided a nice perspective of one man's wild adventures within a fascinating city.

This homemade recounting of a taxi driver's life is fun, easy to read, and better than it ought to be. That is, it completely amateur in feel and presentation. But it is amateur in the best sense of the word--it is written out of love for telling a story and expressing the joy the author feels has been a part of his life as a New York taxi driver. Amateur comes from the Latin amare, to love, as the author surely knows. Jerry Tierstein's love of a life not filled with fame and fortune, but with long hours of routine and demanding work, is uplifting in itself. His joy in his own good fortune in meeting Rudi Guiliani is balanced by a near-death experience he had picking up some hookers in the wee-small hours of the morning--as two men they had robbed came after them--and their taxi driver as well. Jerry sold me his book on a short cross-town trip from West 72nd Street to East 93rd. It won't take you much longer to get into the book--and the ride will be a delight.

I enjoyed reading The Meter's Running by Jerry Tierstein.
It was a very well written as it showed the humorous side of life as well as everyday ocurrances of a poor working man trying to make a living as a Taxi driver.
The Author, Jerry Tierstein brings out the public in a view only a person that works on a daily basis with the public can truly understand.
It is a well written as the author pulls you into his life and he introduces his shinning personality with every adventure that he endures.
This is a page turner and a must read.

Like the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum is a fabulously wealthy storehouse of incalculable value, "a living encyclopedia of world art. Every culture from every part of the world - from Florence to Thebes to Papua New Guinea - from the earliest times to the present and in every medium", "frequently at the highest levels of quality and invention", is represented. Also like the Louvre, its holdings are immense - "more than three million works of art, of which several hundred thousand are on view."

The guide, organized in the same fashion as the museum, suffers only by its inability to represent the museum completely. Choices had to be made. How incredible is it that the museum holds thirty paintings by Monet and the editors of the guide were forced to choose only four? How many museums in the world could lay claim to having five paintings by an artist as illustrious as Vermeer and yet be limited to including only three in their guide?

Having been fortunate enough to indulge in a recent visit to the museum, I can tell you that all five works by Vermeer and all thirty by Monet were as magnificent as one might imagine. The guide (a wonderful way to prepare in advance for any upcoming visit) will serve as a memorable souvenir and the descriptive text written by the curatorial staff of the museum will serve to elucidate the history and context of the individual pieces of art that were chosen to best represent the museum as a whole.

Highly recommended as a way of enjoying the world's art even if you think you will never be in a position to enjoy the visit in person.

Paul Weiss

Before committing a couple of days to museum hopping while in New York City, a word to the wise: this book is a must for understanding the scope of the collection of the paintings, drawings, sculpture, architectural renderings, relics - everything that makes the Metropolitan Museum one of the most 'compleat' collections in the world.

Yes, the book does show outlines of the museum's layout to facilitate the enjoyment of the various sections. But more important than that, this is a compendium of examples of some of the finest art in collection. The reproductions are excellent with all of the data needed to give a brisk brush up on not only the work illustrated but the timeframe incidentals that make the Metropolitan such a user friendly museum.

Whether for the personal library or for the perfect gift for art lovers, 'The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide' in this revised form is highly recommended. Grady Harp, November 05

This guide to the Metropolitan Museum of Art helped me to plan what I wanted to see in that museum, and to learn beforehand about many of the works of art I was going to find there (for example European paintings, Egyptian, Greek and Roman Art, etc...). What is more, this book allowed me to read about some paintings and sculptures I didn't have time to see, even though I would have loved to be able to do so (too many beautiful things to see, to little time). Well, I suppose next time I will just have to start by the 2nd floor!.

I think you will appreciate the beautiful color illustrations, and the opportunity to plan ahead of your trip and not in a hurry what you want to see first. This is not only the kind of book that helps you to prepare for a visit and to enjoy it, but also a souvenir you will treasure after returning from your holidays. Recommended!

Belen Alcat

Phillipe de Montebello is one of the top museum directors in the world, thus he runs America's greatest museum. This guide is perfect, it allows you to get a feel for this singular museum and its extensive, to say the least, collection. So much is packed into this guide, every area of this vast collection is hit upon, and most importantly it helps you navigate this HUGE building, if you are going to tackle this emmense museum then you MUST have his guide, it really helps you make the most of your visit. It is well worth the investment, I advise getting it well before you go to the museum and read it thoroughly, it will make your trip so much more enjoyable and worthwhile I assure you..it's like taking the museum director with you..in your back pocket...though at five hundred pages you may need a uh, large back pocket...at anyrate it's easier that putting Phillipe in there, verdad?

This book is a book for the ledgends. I loved this book, which suprised me because I did not expect to. The sense of history and the stuggle of the woman sprit kept me up all night. Way to go

This is a wonderful story. It is educational, and at the same time entertaining. Honest, fulfilling, and a great story relaying things we all think about but are afraid to talk about. I highly recommend!!

I enjoyed reading this book. A neat topic with educational value, in addition to a great story.

For a historical fiction lover, this book has it all. Not only does it engross the reader with the fascinating early history of reproductive rights, but it also takes you on a journey through the first World War, the influenza epidemic and the political upheavals of the early 20th century.

The author is truly gifted in the craft, and it's regrettable that she doesn't get as much publicity as Phillipa Gregory, Margaret George and the like, because she is one of their equals, if not even better. Certainly, Colter shows a greater breadth and depth of research than the average historical fiction author.

Trust me! The pictures don't do this book justice!

Corey does an excellent job of capturing the magic of the holiday through a child's eyes. She also makes an effort to show how even a child can make a big difference in the world around her if she has the courage to act on what she believes.

I fell in love with Helquist's artwork while reading the Series of Unfortunate Events. There's something about the whimsical nature of his drawings....the sharp features, the minute details, the mystical feeling about them. I almost expect Milly to wink at me from the cover!

All in all this is an inspiring book, and a fitting opener to the holiday season. This one's sure to be a family favorite, so don't let it get away!

This book is a fantastic read for any Macy's Day Parade fan. The drawings by Helquist are fantastic and put you right into the moment of the 1924 holiday start. It will definitely put one and all in the family in the mood for Thanksgiving and the season it rings in. Personally, I have purchased a couple for friends and relatives with youngsters who live abroad so they to can view one of our wonderful traditions.

I use historical fiction a lot in my classroom, and was excited to see Milly and the Macys Parade. It's a great story-with lots of alliteration--and also a beautiful illustration of how as a country of immigrants, most of America's culture and traditions (in this case the Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade) actually stem from various immigrant cultures and traditions. More important for my third graders though, it's a fun, engaging story (with a very spunky heroine determined to save the holidays) and not at all sappy. It's also a visual treat-the artwork is detailed and rich, but quirky enough so that the boys like it even though the main character is a girl . I've only had it in my classroom for 4 days, but so far students have taken it home every night. I whole-heartedly recommend this picturebook for the holidays or any time of year!

Millie is a little Polish girl and gets the swing of things in New York. It's near Thanksgiving and the Macy's department store is wrapped up like a present. Millie visits the contents of the present everyday after school.
Millie's father works at Macy's and some of his friends from other countries besides Poland. They all miss their customs, holidays, food, and religion. That's when Millie has an idea that will suit everyone...
~Erin
Age 11

Having spent a lot of time looking for information on imaginative & fun (and sometimes luxury) travel with kids, I can tell you that this is a really unique book. It is comprehensive, carefully researched and well written with loads of practical tips. Some 'travel with kids' books might as well just be bland advertising copy, this one really provides good editorial content, with positive and critical comments. It is a pleasure to read and we will use it for a long time. Fodor's should publish more of these for other parts of the US/world.

I loved this book and would recommend it to any family wanting to travel in the northeastern United States. The writers offer tips and reviews on places of interest, resorts, and campgrounds in a wide range of prices. In fact, we have visited some of those places and found a brand new vacation prospect in Lake George which we will be trying out this summer! Definitely one of the most informative travel books on the market today -- entertaining even if you do not go to these places.

Very useful book for locals and visitors. We liked the way it gave us recommended age groups and prices. We can now plan ahead places to visit within and on the way to our next holiday area. We have also used it for planning field trips from the school into San Francisco. Easy to use and enjoyable to read.

I've been searching for a book like this for several years and haven't found one that fit the bill until now! I had a great time reading it - so well written - and got more useful information than I'll ever be able to use in one lifetime! Thanks so much to the writers and publishers!

I bought this book for my husband. He likes it very much that he is trying several recipes. This book is pretty much well done. Congratulatios to everyone who colaborated in this awesome mexican culinary book. Thanks to the chef and author of this book Scott Linquist who traveled to my country to learn and taste the real mexican food.

A very user friendly cookbook ideally suited for cooking good things at home. A perfect gift for your friends who love to cook. Scott's restaurant is a "must do" when you travel to New York City.

I had the pleasure of attending a Scott Linquist cooking demo and one of the things made was guacamole. Now guacamole is how I judge a Mexican restaurant. The quality of the guacamole, usually reflects the quality of the rest of the menu. Needless to say I have tasted a lot of guacamole and was prepared to be unimpressed but I have to tell you it was the best guacamole I have ever tasted. On the strength of this alone I bought a copy of his cookbook Mod Mex half expecting the recipes to be intricate and complicated. I was pleasantly surprised to find not only clear easy to follow recipes but also loads of step by step pictures showing the techniques key to making each dish such as how to wrap a tamale properly.

If you love Mexican food this is a great addition to your collection both for it's fresh modern take on classic recipes but also it's detailed pictures of the proper way to prepare them.

Mod Mex: Cooking Vibrant Fiesta Flavors at Home

This is a great cookbook for Mexican food lovers. It is simple to follow and has great illustrations. Of course, I am a little predjudiced! Be careful with the chiles, though. I'm a little wimpy so I had to cut down the amount on some recipes!