New York Books

This commemorative photo book of the World Trade Center is a must have for all Americans. Remember these spectacular symbols as well as the hope they inspired in New York City and around the world. From the moment they are constructed to how the New York skyline looks today, we view the World Trade Center from every angle. We are not bombarded with images from September 11th, but instead are given the ability to remember these grand buildings at their most beloved state. The photographs in The World Trade Center Remembered are remarkable and no words can describe their passion and splendor. This five-star celebration of the World Trade Center is a must-buy.

This book was reviewed as part of the Lane ESD Book Review Program. To view the rest of our reviews please visit www.lane.k12.or.us/bookreview

Beautifully done. This book has a unique, high-quality collection of photos of the trade center and a well-written introduction about the architecture of the towers and its meaning, as well as the changing public attitudes toward the towers over the years. Recommended.

The pictures contained in this book offer a stunning tribute to the memory of the World Trade Center towers. The photos are taken from many different locations and angles and give the reader a well-rounded viewpoint of the buildings. All of the photos in the book portray the towers as they existed before their destruction, which makes the book particularly poignant. Additionally, there is a remarkable essay by an architechture critic which adds depth to the book. My only complaint with this book is that it is soft-cover. Of course, I knew this when I ordered the book, but oversize books of this quality are generally in hard-cover. Regardless, this is an amazing book.

I feel these books of stories and photos of the people who experienced this tragedy first hand is important for all of us.
The people who lived through it get to see what the rest of the world saw. A look of what they went through which can help them validate the emotions they are feeling.
The folks that witnessed it from a distance get a closer look of what our fellow americans went through.
All of it is a healing process that we need and looking at it through pictures or written stories of our friends will help us understand our human bond living in this beautiful country.

A beatiful book and a a very touching tribute to the World Trade Center. The pictures are stunning,unique and very moving. The dramatic pictures are from every vantage point in and around Manhattan. I know I will turn to this book again and again to remember how beautiful and majestic the World Trade Center was.

Aaron Frankel, who has directed more than 100 plays, loves the stage, especially musicals. He brings his genius to Writing the Broadway Musical by formulating an organized book, which is easy to use both as a reference and as a guide.

He fills the text with pertinent examples -- plenty of them --like chocolate chips in cookies. Frankel's book is full of encouragement for the dreamers, while it outlines the practical aspects of taking a musical play from a dream to a full-fledged production.

Frankel's concise, clear volume on writing large-scale musicals is a welcome addition to the bookshelf of anyone who wants to understand how this peculiar theatrical genre works-- when it does. By focusing on two artistically successful, well-known pieces in the canon-- "My Fair Lady" as a well-executed classic musical with linear plot, "Company" (my personal favorite) as a well-executed plotless musical whose songs move character forward--, Frankel can support his intelligent teaching points with concrete yet familiar examples. I'm very happy to see this book back in print.

This book gives a good foundation for basic elements of a musical script. I bought this wanting to write a musical script but not necessarily the lyrics/musical score and am a complete novice - was a bit lost on the different musicals it quoted. However another book that is quite "meaty" in terms of how to write a compelling gripping story/script for theatre is "The Writers Journey" surname is Vogler. What Frankel says is that the book or story needs to be written first before appropriate lyrics/musical score can be created. So I would have gone straight to this book first. Good as reference but can borrow from library, not a must have.

In only 192 pages, Frankel presents writing for the musical theatre from the perspective of the book writer, lyricist and composer -- and how each contributes to the whole. Enough specifics for each to gain a better appreciation of the others' unique contributions. The book would be an excellent introductory text for a musical theate workshop. Most examples from My Fair Lady are illustrative and excellent; other examples from Company were less helpful (as that show was less successful). Highly recommended for those working on musical to keep near at hand.

Many of today's top talents in musicals on and off Broadway have studied with Aaron Frankel. Now anyone can learn the ropes from this honored director and instructor in a step-by-step guide that makes for good reading whether you are a writer, composer, or simply an avid theatergoer. I enjoyed the previous edition and found this revised and updated one an even more interesting read.

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

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

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

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

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

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

I'm not a big fan of NYC.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Year and a Day - Sara M. Harvey


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I love the Zagat guides for the dining recommendations, helpful information and the varied opinions of "the people". Helpful in making an educated decision as to where to dine.

We live outside of NYC in Stamford, CT and we head into the city about every other weekend. We love go out to eat and so we're ALWAYS carrying around this book (its small enough to fit in a medium sized purse) and reffering to the book to get an idea of price, atmosphere, location, etc. I refer to the book at least once a week to find out more information about a place....its the only place I look for reviews and it has basically become the only place I look for ideas on places to go! If its not in Zagat, usually I'm not interested in going!! Most of the times its for dinners, but I've looked it up a few times for lunch/bars too. Great sections - separated by location if you're looking for a particualr area of the city, or type of cusine, or atmopshere (even stuff like, does it have a fireplace?). Great gift....I've given it out several times to newcomers to the city, and they dont go anywhere w/o it either. Would buy again when my book gets old!!! And, I will buy it again for someone as a gift..!

Everyone who wants to eat well in NYC needs a Zagat guide. It lists almost every kind of cuisine, price level and restaurant location in the city. The reviewers are people just like you and me, they like to eat and they are willing to share their experiences. If you are visiting NYC for the first time, or for the 20th time, you need this book.

If you are planning to take a trip to New York City, be certain that you have the latest copy of Zagat's with you. It will totally enhance your dining experience. don't leave home without it.

i have been to new york city several times and always consult my zagat guide. it has never let me down! i would not dream of not going without it!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Also recommended:
Wharton: Four Novels (Library of America College Editions)
Edith Wharton: Vol 1. Collected Stories:1891-1910 (Library of America)
Edith Wharton: Vol.2 Collected Stories 1911-1937 (Library of America)
Henry James : Novels 1881-1886: Washington Square, The Portrait of a Lady, The Bostonians (Library of America)
Henry James: Novels 1901-1902: The Sacred Fount / The Wings of the Dove (Library of America)
Ethan Frome
The House of Mirth
Washington Square
The Portrait of a Lady
The Wings of the Dove

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I cut my outdoor teeth in the high peaks region back in the late 70s & early 80s. The beauty and unpredictability of the weather in this region are unmatched.
My spine tingled as I read the harrowing stories of people caught in the clutches of bad situations, and fighting to make the best of it.
I've been a Search & Rescue team member in Kern County Ca and Monterey county Ca, and been in some truely frightening situations, but none as scary as a severe thunder & lightning storm on the top of Giant Mountain. This book brought back the rememberance of my primal fear...feeling my hair stand up from the static building before the lightning strikes, the screaming of both me and my trailmates, as the thunder boomed, reminding us of how frail life really is.
What a great book!

I was born and raised in the Adirondacks, and I must admit that learning the details of some of these triumphs and tragedies was just riveting. Mr. Bronski has done an incredible job of bringing these stories to life and making you feel that you actually know the people involved and you are actually in the midst of all the drama, storms etc. I never looked at the Adirondacks as "dangerous", but the title says it all, "At the Mercy of the Mountains".

Could not put it down and did not want it to end. Gave me a greater appreciation for the Daks. Really inspired me to get out there and hike!

My mother is from this area, and I have gone up my whole life (mid 40s) and this is the BEST book I think I have ever read about this area of the Adirondacks. A wonderful book - cannot recommend enough!!

Peter Bronski's collection of survival stories is riveting. Beginning with an introduction discussing the unique history and characteristics that are the Adirondacks, Bronski sets the tone for some amazing and harrowing true stories.

The infamous 1995 `blowdown' (derecho) is witnessed by several campers, where tornado-like microburst combined with thousands of lightning strikes terrifies the region. The storm leaves campers stranded in a mix of tangled trees piled like matchsticks. Four young men on a winter hiking trip suddenly experience a fast regional thaw and watch as several feet of snow turn to slush, suddenly flooding their lean-to and leaving them to hike over treacherous lakes and rivers that can't hold their weight. An experienced pilot and his wife crash their small plane into a mountainside, barely surviving, only to find themselves miles from nowhere.

These are just some of the stories that the author brings to life, some old and some recent. The most striking aspect this collection is the emphasis on search and rescue (SAR) in conjunction with the survivors ordeals. There are numerous missing persons mentioned over the years, some found and some lost forever. Instead of dwelling on morbid or gory descriptions, Bronksi focuses on the survivors and those that risk their lives to save others. Sometimes remnants of a lost hiker are found years later. Sometimes the family never gives up the search. This book is an instant classic and a must read for any outdoor enthusiast, especially if they travel in the Adirondacks.