New York Books

"Paris Stories" is an amazing collection of short stories by Mavis Gallant, who is best known for her work in "The New Yorker." The 15 stories in this collection are all set in Europe, and they offer memorable characters, humorous observations, witty commentary, and brilliant prose. Gallant's writing style is very rich, unique, and beautiful. In the afterword of the book, Gallant herself recommends not reading this book entirely in one sitting, and I agree. This is such a fantastic collection that readers are much better off savoring every page. I usually prefer novels to short stories, but "Paris Stories" is amazing and flawless. I highly recommend it!

I was delighted to see that Mavis Gallant is back in print. I have loved her work for many years, and always eager to buy the NYer when one of her stories was featured. The only drawback to much of her writing (not present in any of the stories in this collection, though) is that much of what she writes are satirical sketches of French intellectual or expatriate life (for example, the "Grippes and Poche" stories in Paris Stories) which would be totally lost on people who have not visited or lived there. The best of her stories are however profound meditations on loneliness and rootlessness. In this I believe she is an archtypal modern writer who can describe the almost universal experience of being an immigrant, refugee, or escapee from some previous stultifying existence. I think this is why so many people respond to her writing. She is, of course, also a master prose stylist. I urge any aspiring fiction writers to read Mavis Gallant. Contrary to what the above reviewer quoted, I think she can be very instructive and inspiring.

I read this book based on an excellent review of it (a good primer for Mavis Gallant newbies, btw) in the April (or May?) Harper's (a great store room for hidden gems.) I had never heard of Ms. Galant before I read the review and her book, but after reading Paris Stories, all I gotta say is, Where the hell have I been since she's been writing for the past 30+ years? Actually I'm only 30, but still. Her writing is magical on so many levels that I'll only mention a couple of them: the consistency and the sublime richness of her prose - it's like really rich fudge, a phrase or two of one of the 15+ stories is often enough for one sitting; the hauntingly subtle rendering of European life; the authority and command of her voice - there is no doubt in my mind that Mavis Gallant was put on this earth to write fiction as her job, and she writes like she knows it. I love that.

2 recommendations: read Michael Ondaajte's intro (in it he mentions that he knows other writers who intentionally refrain from reading Mavis Gallant when they are writing themselves, so they don't lose confidence in themselves); read the afterward, written by the auther herself (in it she makes the wise suggestion to the reader NOT read the stories in the book back to back, but to take one's time and savor every morsal - I concur. Read this book very slowly pausing to read other stuff perhaps - you don't want to miss a word, it's that good.)

Lovers of sublime artwork in literature, read Mavis Gallant. I guarantee you will not be disappointed. I can't wait for Volume 2 to come out this fall!

For better or worse, Mavis Gallant was one of a stable of writers who, for several decades under the editorship of William Shawn, wrote what came to be known as the "typical New Yorker story." Indeed, in a recent interview, the poet Michael Casey recalled a Benjamin Cheever character mocking "a New Yorker story" as "one that goes on and on and nothing much happens but you feel sad at the end of it." And, reading Gallant's stories in the magazine over the years, I likewise felt that they were consistently well written, occasionally interesting, often melancholy, but rather long-winded and ultimately unmemorable.

The fifteen stories collected here offer readers a chance to revisit their impressions of her stories. Behind the Jamesian tea-and-crumpet facade of Gallant's prose lurk human transplants: lost souls away from home, nomads and exiles trying to find a place in the world--Gallant has based virtually her entire career on this theme. The two exceptions are about "the French man of letters" Henri Grippes, Gallant's comic, curmudgeonly, aging alter ego. (Incidentally, the title of the collection, as Michael Ondaatje notes in the introduction, is misleading: not all the stories are set in Paris, nor are they about exiles living in Paris or from Paris; instead, Gallant wrote them all in Paris--which, since Gallant has written nearly all of her fiction there, makes the moniker rather meaningless.)

One of the stylistic quirks that transform many of Gallant's stories into wrestling matches with her readers is her blithe disregard for transitional devices within and between paragraphs. Ondaatje touts this as a virtue: "the next sentence can bring a complete shift of tone or content, while a quick aside can include whole lives--sometimes halfway through one person's thought you will get another's history." At first, the reader might understandably regard these "sudden swerves" as merely untidy--that's certainly the way I felt about them when I read her stories in The New Yorker. But, as often as not, there is some method hiding in the madness; the disorder echoes the jumble of her characters' lives and especially of their thinking.

Savoring these stories, one by one over a couple of months, I found that I truly began to enjoy Gallant's idiosyncratic style and her subtly wicked wit when I reached "Speck's Ideas"--the seventh story of the collection. (At some point, I should probably go back and read the first six.) In sum, I picked up this collection to revisit my judgment of her fiction and came away with a better opinion--but also with the understanding that Gallant will always suffer from that damnably faint praise: she is an acquired taste.

I was delighted to see that Mavis Gallant is back in print. I have loved her work for many years, and always eager to buy the NYer when one of her stories was featured. The only drawback to much of her writing (not present in any of the stories in this collection, though) is that much of what she writes are satirical sketches of French intellectual or expatriate life (for example, the "Grippes and Poche" stories) which would be totally lost on people who have not visited or lived there. The best of her stories are however profound meditations on loneliness and rootlessness. In this I believe she is an archtypal modern writer who can describe the almost universal experience of being an immigrant, refugee, or escapee from some previous stultifying existence. I think this is why so many people respond to her writing. She is, of course, also a master prose stylist. I urge any aspiring fiction writers to read Mavis Gallant. Contrary to what the above reviewer quoted, I think she can be very instructive and inspiring.

I have really enjoyed this book, so much so that I bought it for a friend's wedding as well. It is my go-to book for pies & tarts.

Hi, I'm the editor of this book, and was sorry to see that Flame had had mixed experiences. I checked with the author, and her diagnosis is that the tart dough may not have been thoroughly chilled according to the recipe directions. If tart dough is not properly chilled before baking, the butter can melt and leak as described. We were careful to put instructions in every recipe to refrigerate or freeze the tart shell until firm. I myself have used Caroyln Weil's tart dough recipe for several years and have always had great success with it. If you have had trouble with a particular recipe, please feel free to contact us through Williams-Sonoma customer service and let us know; we are eager to make sure these recipes work well for everyone who tries them.

This book has more than 40 recipes and a very informative "Basics" section. There are beautful color photos of each recipe. As with all WS books, the instructions are easy to follow. There are sidebars, where necessary, to provide addtional information. The pies range from simple to elegant -- a recpe for every occasion. I'm partial to the coconut custard.

I've had both great and not-so-great experiences with this book. The apple pie was absolutely incredible as were the tarts but the tart dough caught my oven on fire the first time (the recipe called for far too much butter which leaked out everywhere). Overall a good book. For beginners I would also recommend "The Farmhand's Favorite Pies" by Mr. David Butler since its recipes have never turned out bad.

I found this book to be informative in baking techniques and the recipes are wonderful. I prepared the tart dough, for the lemon cream pie, and found it delicious and had no trouble with the baking. Truly lovely pies, well written instructions, and beautiful results without highly complicated instructions.

As a breastfeeding advocate myself, I wish that all young men and women were required to read this in high school, before parnethood. This book lets the reader see the conection between money, big business, and formula marketing. The book educates on the vast differences between artifical feeding and human milk, differences that the general population is unaware of. If you want to get fired-up over an issue, this is the book for you.

As someone who had to defend breastfeeding my child, I already had strong views about how society looks at the practise. The first time I read this book (first edition)I found the history behind it fascinating. What really alarmed me, though, was the truth behind formulas and what used to pass as formula! After getting the second edition, I was dismayed to find that nothing had improved in 10 years. This book is well researched an passionate. Be warned! After reading this, you may just become an activist!

I didn't understand breastfeeding advocacy until I read this book. Gabrielle Palmer covers all the bases on why we need to protect future generations from the mass marketing of infant formula, and how those products have become so prevalent throughout our society and the world. Covers the Nestle' illegal marketing tactics so thoroughly that I can't even consider buying any of their products. Background on the World Health Organisation's stance on the marketing of breastmilk substitutes made me realise what an all-encompassing public health issue breastfeeding is

I didn't understand breastfeeding advocacy until I read this book. Gabrielle Palmer covers all the bases on why we need to protect future generations from the mass marketing of infant formula, and how those products have become so prevalent throughout our society and the world. Covers the Nestle' illegal marketing tactics so thoroughly that I can't even consider buying any of their products. Background on the World Health Organisation's stance on the marketing of breastmilk substitutes made me realise what an all-encompassing public health issue breastfeeding is.

Already over ten years old, Gabrielle Palmer's eye-opening book pioneered some of the breastfeeding advocacy arguments being used by activists today.

Links obstacles placed in the way of breastfeeding mothers to the devaluation of the motherhood role which occurred during the growth of the industrial revolution.

Detailed history of breastfeeding and wet-nursing. Narrates the history of the Nestle scandal, in empathy with 3rd World perspective. A strong advocate for the rights of all babies to be nourished from the breast.

Counters anti-breastfeeding sentiment in today's society. Explains away sexuality myths which hinder women from breastfeeding in public. Terrific book for the breastfeeding professional who wants to boost their arguments!

An absorbing story, beautifully written; it captures the bleakness of life in Austria between the wars and depicts the soul of central europeans in a sharp and telling way.

. . . and in the lowest deep a lower deep,
Still threatening to devour me, opens wide,
To which the hel l I suffer seems a heaven."
John Milton, Paradise Lost

There are some books that you can finish, put back down on the table and five-minutes later have it virtually erased from your consciousness. Stefan Zweig's "The Post-Office Girl" stayed with me long after I put the book down. It is a brilliantly crafted book that looks at the mind-boggling despair that can crush the soul out of just about anyone. What makes the book memorable is the fact that Zweig does not write with an overwhelming appeal to pathos. No, instead, Zweig is direct and his narrative manages to convey this sense of despair without drowning the reader in rhetorical devices aimed at soliciting sympathy for his characters.

The setting is post World War I Austria in the 1920s. The Austro-Hungarian empire has been dismantled after the Treaty of Versailles and Austria, like her ally Germany, is suffering the `economic consequences of the peace'. The Post-Office Girl is Christine Hoflehner. At the war's outset, Christine and her family enjoyed a comfortable middle-class existence in Vienna. But the war and the economic suffering brought on by the hyper-inflation of the 1920s has booted Christine out of Vienna and her middle class life. She and her mother live at the poverty level in a one-room bed-sitter in a village two hours from Vienna. Christine works as a low-ranking postal official in the town's post office. As the story opens she's in her 20s and merely going through the motions. But her robot-like existence is shattered when she receives a telegram (a big event) from an aunt, her mother's sister, who left Austria before the war and married a rich American businessman. They invite Christine to spend a holiday with them in a Swiss mountain resort. Christine goes grudgingly but is astonished at the life she is exposed too. Her aunt buys her beautiful clothes, feeds her well and all of a sudden Christine is exposed to a life she never knew existed. She takes to it immediately. She relishes her new life and cherishes every minute of it. But no sooner has she found a new life than she is tossed back into the old one. Any despair Christine may have felt before her Swiss trip is now magnified by the fact that she has actually seen how different life can be. She arrives at what she thought was the lowest deep only to discover that there are depths of despair yet to go.

It is at this point that she finds Ferdinand on a day trip to Vienna. For Ferdinand life has been, if anything, more unkind to him than to Christine. Their meeting and their developing relationship takes us through the second half of the book. They know they are soul mates but their existence is such that they each know that love (if you can call their fumbling attempts at personal physical and social intimacy love) is not nearly enough to be of any help to them at all. They face the question posed by Milton in the heading of this review - which way shall they fly? Zweig's resolution is, in this context, perfect.

What Zweig has done so well in my opinion is to use Christine and Ferdinand as a masterful vehicle for looking at Austrian (and Europe generally) society in the aftermath of the Great War. Zweig's characters are well crafted and felt very realistically drawn to me. They were absorbing, warts and all. "The Post-Office Girl" was well worth reading and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in reading a book that lingers with you after you are done. L. Fleisig

I only review a fraction of the number of books I read, so I don't give this compliment lightly.

Summary, no spoilers:

Let me start off by saying that it is difficult to give a good review of this book without slight spoilers - but I will do my best and try to still give a flavor of what makes this such a memorable read.

This *gorgeously* written novel starts off with a brilliant description of a desolate country post office in Austria, in 1926. Working in this depressing bureaucratic hell, is a 28 year old woman named Christine, who has been beaten down by poverty, dullness and tedium in her life.

Christine had a much different childhood; her family had substantial means and lived comfortably, and she grew up a happy and content child. But all changed with the Great War, and they, like so many other Europeans, lost everything. All that remains to Christine is her job with the post office, and taking care of her sick mother in a depressing and decrepit attic room.

She is devoid of hope, and that is part of the key to this fantastic story.

While toiling at the post office, Christine gets a telegraph message from her aunt in America - a woman she's never met. The wealthy aunt offers her a vacation at an expensive and elegant Alpine resort. Christine immediately runs to her mother to find out if this is real, and her mother explains that it is, and that her sister (the aunt) wanted her to go, but that she couldn't because she couldn't travel and that she should take Christine.

Christine, utterly flummoxed by the thought of any change in the dull routine of her life, packs her small straw suitcase, and takes a train to meet her aunt.

The description of Christine's arrival at the hotel are priceless and brilliant. Christine is overwhelmed by the beauty and by the elegance of everything, and she is like Cinderella at the ball. Her aunt (and uncle) are good to her, and dress her in beautiful clothing and have her hair cut in the latest elegant fashion, and have her face made-up. The scene reminded me of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz movie - being primped and taken care of from every angle.

Christine is so excited, and so astounded at her ability to feel anything but sadness and tedium, that she cannot sleep for the first night. She feels like her eyes have been opened to the beauty of the world, and she wants to take it all in.

This is all from Part One, of this two part novel. If you want absolutely no spoilers, don't read on (and don't read the back cover of the novel) - although I recommend that you do and that it won't take away from your enjoyment of this novel. For me, knowing a little bit in advance only enhanced my reading experience.

Part Two is a far different story, although it takes place immediately afterwards. Christine, like Cinderella, has been returned to the hovel, but now it all becomes unbearable because she has experienced and seen the other side.

Christine befriends a man named Ferdinand, a bitter war veteran, who shares her world-view and despondency. They try to see each other and have a relationship, but this is not easy in post-war Austria, when one doesn't have any money or means. But they make plans...

There are so many things to love about this book - number one being that it's just so beautifully written. There are paragraphs that I read over and over again, just because of Zweig's ability to string words together to get across a feeling or an idea or a description are just so perfect. And yet this is a translation, to boot! It makes me want to learn German, just so I could read this in its native language.

Secondly, this is an astute novel about what it's like to live without hope, and what happens when someone who has nothing is given this chance to see what the good life is like, and then have it taken away from them. Is it better not to have been given this chance at all?

Needless to say, this novel is highly recommended. I also highly recommend another NYRB Classic release, "Beware of Pity", Zweig's first novel released under this label. He is fast becoming my favorite author, and I hope that all of his books and stories become available in English. Sadly, he and his wife committed suicide in 1942 in Brazil, haunted by what was happening in his native Austria and Germany.

The Post-Office Girl is fastpaced and hardboiled--as if Zweig, normally the most mannerly of writers, had fortified himself with some stiff shots of Dashiell Hammett. It's the story of Christine, a nice girl from a poor provincial family who gets a taste of the good life only to have it snatched away; and of Ferdinand, an unemployed World War I veteran and ex-POW with whom she then links up. It's a story, you could say, of two essentially respectable middle-class souls who wake up to find themselves miscast as outcasts, but what it's really about, beyond economic and psychological collapse, is social death. Set during the period of devastating hyper-inflation that followed Austria's defeat in 1918, Zweig's novel depicts a country grotesquely divided between the rich and poor, so much so that it has effectively reverted to a state of nature. Christine and Ferdinand and Austria have been hollowed out (even if the country is still decked out in the pomp, circumstance, and pointless bureaucratic regulations of its bygone imperial heyday). They exist in a Hobbesian state of terminal desperation from which--the discovery arrives with mounting horror and excitement--the only hope of escape or redemption lies in violence.

Zweig wrote The Post-Office Girl in the early 1930s, working on it during years that Hitler rose to power and that saw Zweig, as a Jew, forced into exile. He appears to have considered the book finished, and yet he left it untitled and made no effort to publish. Why? My own hunch is that it was just too close to the bone. Zweig was famous all over the world as a writer of fiction and non-fiction and as a public intellectual. He was, you could say, the standard bearer for a certain liberal ideal of civilization, for a way of life that is worldly, compassionate, cultivated, tolerant, sensitive, self-aware, and reflexively touched with irony; the life of, as he considered himself, a man of taste and judgment. In the face of Nazism, such an ideal may have come to seem so much wishful thinking, and certainly Zweig, in exile, found his whole reason for living undercut. This, it seems to me, is the trauma that The Post-Office Girl registers. It accounts for the raw power and relentlessness of the book, for its difference from his other work, and also, I imagine, for Zweig's uneasiness about it. He couldn't put it or the reality it describes in perspective. I don't think that it's an accident that The Post-Office Girl, though finished in the mid-30s, finds Zweig rehearsing a scenario for suicide that clearly anticipates his and his wife's deaths in Brazil in 1942.

Found among Zweig's papers after his death, The Post-Office Girl did not appear in German until 1982, when it was published as Rausch der Verwandlung (a phrase taken from a crucial early episode in the novel, translatable as "the intoxication of metamorphosis"). Zweig's letters refer to his "post-office girl book," and we have chosen to follow this lead. An equally good title, also true to the book, it strikes me now, would have been "State of Shock."

--the new york review of books.

While Stefan Zweig's greatness as a writer has never diminished in Europe, he is much less known than he should be in the US. His novels as insightful, psychologically penetrating, and often charged with emotion. The characters in Zweig's fiction are often in a state of crisis: honorable people who have blundered into an impossible situation (or been thrust there by the forces of society). Zweig's ability to see deeply into the workings of the human psyche shouldn't be too surprising: he was, after all, a close personal friend of Sigmund Freud. "The Post-Office Girl" (a remarkably prosaic title for a book Zweig called "Intoxication of Transformation") is a late work, and remarkably bitter. Zweig often wrote about the impact of World War I on European culture, and in this work we get a male and female perspective on the hideous poverty that occurred in Austria after the War. Both of the main characters have been screwed by life. Christine lost her father and brother during the war, and ends up in a dead-end job, taking care of her ailing mother. She doesn't seem to realize how miserable her life is until a wealthy aunt offers her a vacation in Switzerland, and she sees what she's been missing. Returning to her drudgery, she's furious with the inequality of life, and when she meets Ferdinand, an equally angry veteran who has been struggling to get by since returning from a prison camp in Siberia, the two form an instant connection. Zweig uses Christine and especially Ferdinand to provide himself with a voice to lay bare the horrors of war, and the crushing burden that economic inequality creates. The self-absorbed, wealthy people Christine encounters on her vacation are played in high contrast to her petty bourgeois brother-in-law. It's hard to say which is more memorable: Zweig's depiction of the lavish splendor of Christine's vacation, or his gritty, realistic descriptions of the cheap cafes and flea-bag hotels where Christine and Ferdinand spend their time. What he does document brilliantly is the Austrian mindset of embitterment after World War I. After all, it was from that mindset that Adolph Hitler would rise to power, on a message of hope for working class people to again rise up out of their depths.

Of all of the Wodehouse books we have read--and they have been many--this is one of the very funniest. The main character is, as others have said, largely responsible for the most comical parts, but he couldn't have pulled it off alone. Great reading!

If laughter is the best medicine, then those who read Wodehouse are destined to live until 130. Quick Service, one of Wodehouse's non-series novels, is the ultimate pick-me-up. It is a novel filled with great schemes got astray, suspicious butlers, Americans who appropriately respond to the most difficult questions by saying: "Yeah", and the most delicious sounding, toothsome Paramount Ham. This novel has threads galore, twisting and entwined, and only a Master like Wodehouse could bring it all to such a satisfying conclusion.

But the main reason to read Quick Service is to make the acquaintance of Joss Weatherby. After it was over and the brain-box slowly pondered the preceedings, it came to me that Joss is a combination of Bertie and Jeeves rolled into one. On the Bertie front, Joss is quite capable of getting himself into one scrape after another without even trying. On the Jeeves front, he is able to rescue himself from these scrapes by using his flashes of genius. Also, Joss is a total charmer. It is not hard to see why Sally (our heroine) quickly joins the Weatherby ranks. I would love to have another novel and another chance to read more Joss adventures.

Quick Service is now the third non-series Wodehouse I have read. I highly encourage those who have primarily feasted on Blandings and Jeeves to try these non-series gems. They are just as satisfying as any of the others. And we get a clear resolution of the scrapes within each novel.

So, go out there, hunt in your used bookstores, or wait until the publishers have the good sense to re-issue Quick Service. But read it! The lips will curl, the teeth will part, and the laughter will flow. And if this is medicine, your good health turly awaits!

Howard and Mabel Steptoe are recently moved from Hollywood to Loose Chippings, Sussex, England. Here they reside in Claines Hall with Beatrice Chavender and Sally Fairmile, two of Mabel's relatives. Add into the mix Sidney Chubnall, proper English butler. They are joined by George Holbeton, who has just engaged himself to Sally.
Enter the household one Joss Weatherby, who arrives seeking employment so as to be near Sally. He is soon followed by the man who sacked him, J.B. Duff, of Paramount Hams. Duff holds out at the Rose and Crown, where barmaid Vera Pym finds the merchant highly suspicious. The barmaid is betrothed to the butler.
Comic situations are called for. Misunderstandings, deceits, and of course, True Love. The British are wonderful at this type of comedy; P.G. Wodehouse was masterful. Not heavy stuff, perhaps. You know everyone and everything will end as they should. Predictable? Yes, but also fun and with a natural innocence all too uncommon today.
"Lord Holbeton stared. His question had been intended in a purely satirical spirit, and her literal acceptance of it stunned him. For an instant, compassion gripped him. She seemed so young, so frail to go up against one who even on his good mornings resembled something out of the Book of Revelation.
"Then there swept over him the thought of what a lot of unpleasantness this would save him. If somebody had to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, how much more agreeable if it were not he."

Penguin paperback edition

This is one of Wodehouse's many, many novels, and one of the more charming ones, due mostly to the main character, Joss Weatherby, a bright, exuberant, insanely optimistic and intelligent young artist who falls in love with Sally, a poor relation & companion to Mrs. Steptoe, a wealthy ex-American determined to enter and conquer the landed and titled social circles of England. Sally, a bright and feisty girl, is engaged to the Lord Holbeton, a spineless, intellectually-uninspired young man who sings "Trees" and whose money is held in trust by J.B. Duff, the Ham King, who is Joss' boss and was once in love with Mrs. Chavender who..... well, it's a typical Wodehouse plot, with people falling in and out of love, fortunes, inheritances held in trust getting in the way of people in love, obsessions with ham, bad indigestion, butlers going above the call of duty, paintings being stolen for nefarious purposes, all accomplished in loopy, flight-of-fancy, ingeniously light and happy prose that floats along, delightful and humorous. A Wodehouse effort other than his Jeeves and Wooster books that I really liked.

"You can never trust a writer not to make an ass of himself," P.G. Wodehouse once remarked, and novice readers who have dipped into a Jeeves or Mulliner story must be wondering how long their luck will last. How long until they come on to some dog of a novel that forever smirches the name Wodehouse? Well, as opposed to nearly anyone else you can name, all the Wodehouse exhibits I've delved into so far have all been Very Readable or above. Not a dog in the bunch, except in the good sense of the dumb chums and interminable pekes collected in the Wodehouse Bestiary.

But Quick Service was a favorite of PGW, whom you would think would know his own mind. This light novel from 1940 mixes equal parts musical comedy and whatever else his books are about, with some hysterical lines. "Oo!" said Miss Pym, pouring beer in a flutter. That's the response of the copper-coloured haired barmaid at the pub in Loose Chippings to the question posed by young artist and man-of-action, Joss Weatherby, who's madly in love with Sally Fairmile, "Isn't marriage a wonderful institution?" Miss Pym is dreaming of her betrothed, butler Sidney Chibnall, but that monosyllable is fraught with meaning, because she and Sidney are on to a gang of plotters, with Joss as suspect number one. An avid reader of mysteries, she warns Chibnall: "pretty silly you'd look if you suddenly found him murdering you in your bed."

Of course there's about a million other things happening with the cast of dozens, and this is one of the few Wodehouse romps where I can follow all the romantic embroilments. This very visual book could easily be performed on stage given the music hall bits dropped in all through it, as when Miss Pym tries to draw out a stranger with a false mustache. "You can always tell an American," she says, "but you can't tell him much. Ha ha." "Ha ha," replies the other, the gag falling flat like a card played in a deadly cat and mouse game of intrigue, as Miss Pym might say. It's just about perfect.

this is sort of a Zen and the Art of Literary Maintenance.

you'll love this fast joyride if you love a certain kind of rebel-spirit literature, or if you love New York, or if you love books of self-discovery, and especially if you love all three!

through telling his own story of coming of age and let's say enlightenment, he also tells the story of Poe & Melville & Whitman & Henry Miller & Kerouac & Ginsberg. all of those guys are in the same literary family, so if you enter the room with any one of them under your arm, this book introduces you around the party.

and it made me realize it wasn't just me! it's funny how Tytell's life sort of follows around in the ghosts and shadows and trails of these earlier travelers, making some of the same mistakes, having some of the same doubts and insecurities, and then flashes of courage and conviction. we like authors because they're reflecting some side of us. i think there is some sort of spirit connection across time. those authors in our same family tree were us in a sense. and this book is a family reunion with all the old legendary uncles and grampas coming out of hiding and sharing their stories and suddenly you go "ah-ha! I'm not that weird! Check out Uncle Henry and Grampa Whitman!"

Having seen Tytell in Manchester, VT, at a reading of his book we eagerly awaited "Reading New York" and weren't disappointed. The same enthusiasm he expresses in public is demonstrated in his book. He has inspired us to reread Melville, Miller and others. Thank you for reminding us of them.

I loved the rhythm of Reading New York, the way it moves from memoir to biography to historical criticism. It is thoroughly enjoyable to read.

This is a highly personal, very readable and moving account by an academic critic of his reading of Melville, Poe, Whitman, Henry Miller, Henry James and Jack Kerouac - all writers whose encounter with New York somehow mirrored or influenced Tytell's own relationship to the city, and indeed his life. It's the story an intellectual odyssey but also very much of the author's emotional growth. I loved this book and could hardly put it down.

This book is a rare gift: the work of a truly thoughtful reader and a terrific writer. Of the New York writers whom Tytell treats, he does a particularly excellent job on Melville, although his readings of Poe, the Henry's (Miller and James), Whitman and Kerouac are marvelous, too. Perhaps it's because he began reading Melville against his eye doctor's orders during an illness when he was 12 (reading in general not just Melville), that his recreations of and commentary on Melville's "Billy Budd," "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby" seem the most deeply felt.

In any case, Tytell's "dialogue" throughout his life with these New York writers is what makes this work truly memorable. He notes that he seemed to find each writer just as his life began to open up to the possibilities of the worlds they described: Poe in late adolescence when life can seem particularly fraught and frightening; followed by Whitman and then Miller in conjunction with his burgeoning sexuality in his later teens; followed by James as he became more sensible of James' place in the academy (James was a writer who he sensibly chose to study as a prelude to getting his Ph.D as opposed to Miller), and then, as he became radicalized in the 60s, the work of the Beats, primarily Kerouac and Ginsberg.

He does a great job on each writer's bio: succint but always relevant, and always a telling detail that you probably have not encountered elsewhere. Tytell's command of this material is always impressive, his judgments fair, and his style always engaging. And we meet a number of literary folks face to face: the abovementioned beats, but also Leon Edel, James' biographer and Tytell's teacher, and some other remarkable New Yorkers such as his immigrant family, denizens of the New York diamond market, various lovers and friends. And of course, there's New York which also plays a central character in this warm and often piquant work of memory and criticism.

I was very pleased with the service and the book
came to me in excellant condition

If you're not in the neighborhood to enjoy the gourmet meals at the Red Cat resaurant, this cookbook is the next best alternative. Beautiful photographs and fresh writing make it a joy to peruse. The directions are clear and encouraging to even a novice cook like me. This is the only cookbook I own that I actually read from cover to cover. Try the green beans tempura--you'll be hooked forever. And if you're in NYC, the Red Cat is worth going out of your way for.

My first thought on seeing this book was 'where ever can I find some red cats to cook?' But of course that's not what the book is about. It turns out that The Red Cat is a restaurant in Manhattan. Yet this is not a typical restaurant menu cookbook.

This is a cookbook that takes a lot of food tastes, primarily from the Eastern seaboard (think clam chowder), and Europe (think France, Italy, Germany) and presents them is a clear and easy to understand manner. Although it is not that big a book, it is abook that covers all aspects of a meal from finger foods at the start to home made ice creams at the end.

While a lot of the recipies have a down home simple aspect about them, many of them add higher end ingredients (lobster) and some very tasty sauces.

Neighborhood restaurants are always a favorite! Warm, friendly, inviting, and great food! The Italian-American foods are delish! If you want more pesto recipes, add Mary El-Baz's "Simply Elegant and Easy Pesto" to your bookshelf. There's a fantastic pesto made with pepperoncini that's just scrumptious on roast-beef or salami sandwiches!

Wonderful book, and easy to use for an average cook. Great food.

The full significance of this book will begin to be realized as cultural evolution unfolds in the next few decades. Professor Griffin has dealt a deathblow to materialism. Atheistic scientism has been demolished on its own terms. But in addition to clearing away the debris of atheistic orthodoxy, Griffin also presents a spiritually-fragrant alternative ontology and epistemology upon which the next great phase of human civilization can be built. This book firmly establishes Griffin as Whitehead's rightful heir, and the leading philosopher of the 21st century -- so far.

Although I would not share as such the perspective of this book, it is a very useful and provocative exploration of many issues current evolutionary theory, as it collides with religion, cannot deal with, because its assumptions of naturalism simply eliminate the problem rather than solving it. Darwinists are often charged thus with naturalistic preconceptions, then judged by a very narrow standard on this score, and we end with miraculous explanations for punctuated equilibrium, and other nonsense. This work by taking a far broader tack stands in the line of a greater tradition of naturalism, that reminds one of the 'evolutionary naturalism' of W. Sellars, and indeed the work summons the philosopher Whitehead to this debate, from which he has been exiled. The author, for example (and this is only a part of the argument) quite audaciously brings in the issue of parapsychology, although this is and will remain problematical. Every culture of man, with the possible exception of various subcultures of the Indian yogic traditions, has been totally confused on this point, and the final confusion is the positivist attempt to declare there is no such subject. It is not surprising that science should take this approach, but the result instantly vitiates the very basis of theory, for the subject has been amputated. However, it is never promising to pursue this area lightly, and it would seem dubious to make it a basis for a new spiritual evolutionism, if the antiquated yet sound traditions of the Buddhist variety always had better sense in their emphasis, not on the marginal parapsychology, but self-consciousness itself. The book generates a kind of constructive dialectical sparring and evokes a side of modernism we forget, from the lost hermetic traditions, to the pantheism, panentheism, and such of many from Leibnitz to Hegel, whose explorations have succumbed to idealist cliches, blinding us to the degenerated condition of the current spectrum of thought. Such issues have traditionally shown little promise however and would not easily resolve the religion-science dilemmas if we consider the great theosophical deviations they would generate. The turtling down of current positivistic evolutionism is a measure of self-defense.

The author's delineation of the types of naturalism with a subscripted terminology, e.g. naturalism-sam and naturalism-ns, and darwinism-1 to darwinism-8, etc,... is clarifying and useful. The retreat to a form of naturalism-ns (no supernatural)is very acute, and would probably relieve the current concealed metaphysics in the Darwinist enterprise, whose flaws the author analyzes at great length. Very provocative book, whatever one's views of its affirmations.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I especially like Griffin's coverage of the historical events and philisophical issues surrounding the science-religion debate. I think that he effectively discusses the history of science and the enlightnment within the context of 18th, 19th, and 20th century religiousity (i.e., deism, atheism, etc.). I also like his description of how science influenced religion and vice versa during the previous centuries. These well-constructed discussions are presented in the first few chapters.
Although I don't agree with his synthesis of science and religion (specifically, I don't favor rejecting God's supernaturalism), he does a good job of educating the reader on how important issues such as supernaturalism, determinism, and free will, etc. play a role in the issue of reconciling science and religious beliefs. I sometimes found myself saying, "that is a great insight."

If I have to pick something I did not like it would have to be his lengthy coverage of Darwinism. He presents a Process Theologian interpretation of Darwinism to support his viewpoint. I found this long discussion tedious, but others may find it interesting.

IMO, this book is a good read.

Dave

Through his book, Mr. Griffin has helped me answer one of the big questions that has bothered me since my undergraduate years in Electrical Engineering - how to resolve my sense of mystery in the world around me with my understanding and appreciation of the scientific method of inquiry. In a nutshell, the answer is that both Science and Religion have to give up some long held beliefs and dogmatic statements of "fact." Put succinctly;

"Belief in the supernatural causes problems for religion it can not solve, and supernaturalism makes religion incompatible with science. For both reasons, religion needs to give it up." 

"Belief in materialism causes problems for science it can not solve, and materialism makes science incompatible with religion. For both reasons, science needs to give it up."

In addition to the views on resolution of this de facto conflict between religion and science, Mr. Griffin's book has shed a considerable amount of light on my meager understanding of Alfred North Whitehead's writings around what I refer to as Process Theology. It has encouraged me to study further my own philosophy and theology and to explore how it fits with my understanding of the material world. As a technologist, it seems imperative for me to clearly understand this issue if for no other reason than to have a sound basis for ethical conduct in our increasingly technology dependent society. So to that end, this book is must reading for all of us, since we will all have to make ethical decisions about advancement in technology from creation of "spiritual machines," to genetic manipulation.

The ongoing attempt to reconcile religion with science is understandably challenging as we try to encompass the infinite within our finite human rationality. This book does a good job of framing the discussion.

This book's approach is to classify "religion" and "science" into two categories each.
1. Supernaturalism (religion-sup) holds that God is outside and independent of creation and can affect it from the outside.
2. Non-supernatural religion (religion-ns) holds that God is a part of creation and is not outside of its laws and rules, and must work within them.

3. Scientific-atheistic-materialistic science (naturalism-sam) says that the material universe is all there is, and we can only know what can be perceived via our five senses. This version of naturalism is necessarily atheistic and deterministic (our "minds" are an illusion of our physical brains, and there is no freedom of action, all actions are prescribed by the action/reaction of the matter that composes us.)

4. Non-supernatural science (naturalism-ns) does not insist on only a materialist perspective. Since our consciousness is a self-evident aspect of our existence, we can also know things via non-sensate experience (introspection, etc.)

The author's thesis is that a combination of religion-ns and naturalism-ns can bring fruitful reconciliation of impasses between religion and science. If we accept that God is a part of nature (Griffin's analogy is that God is the "mind" of creation as a human mind is part of the body), and that science includes non-material matters, we can overcome difficulties associated with the religion-sup (why does a good, all-powerful God allow evil?) and naturalism-sam (if the material is all there is, how do we explain our consciousness in a satisfying way?).

This metaphysical viewpoint also provides fresh perspectives to consider such areas as parapsychology (which materialism-sam rules out a priori), and reconciling the creation/evolution debate. Griffin presents an interesting discussion of both subjects. Particularly helpful is his is identification of 14 different iterations of "Darwinian evolution" that have been discussed, showing that when people speak of "evolution" it is important to identify/clarify which of the 14 iterations they have in mind. Griffin thoroughly explores all the nuances of these iterations of Darwinism, invaluably framing this topic for future debates.

Also interesting is his proposal that the materialist perspective of science, and the "ex nihilio" religious view that God was apart/outside of creation, were not settled on from the beginning but are fairly recent developments in past centuries.

While I do not completely concur with Griffin's premises and conclusions (I have no problem with the concept of an all-powerful "supernatural" God who could take six days to create a world that appears physically to have been in existence for billions of years, or who self-defines what is good and evil and who is not subject to our human formulations of logic, rationality, etc.), I found this book very interesting and helpful to clarify the issues, and thus I give it five stars.

Reminiscences of Stock Operator is a classical works that testifies that the psychological and technical aspects that moves the market has not changed even to this present day... The beauty of the fictional story based on the greatest of minds that traded in the market and made millions and lost fortunes speaks very vividly to us today from their wisdom and experience... I have found the book to be full of wisdom, education and guidance that the financial markets is not a game to be played on the hopes of getting rich for nothing...To be successful requires the greatest discipline on our ourselves..And in the game of speculation this book let us know that the financial markets owes us nothing and that we can't force our hands...

As I read this book I wondered if it was written recently, as most books written in the last couple decades seem to have the same info, including the 'newly discovered' psychology of trading. Save a ton of money and buy this book first. Then you may not want any of the others. It's well written, though the author's whole intent is to prove no one can 'beat' the market, which is a little discouraging. I mean, after all, I think I will. Everyone interested in trading should read this early in their career, if not first.

As useful in the mad 1920's and 30's as it is today! Every trader should read it... at least twice. If you're into Hedge funds, Private Equity or Asset Management, you should probably read it not less than 3 times - in between the lines!

Picture this; it's the early 1900's, the dawn of the Roaring 20's. Gatsby like characters abound and are romanticized in the Saturday Evening Post, Horatio Alger rags to riches stories are all the rave. Along comes Jesse Livermore, a ballsy, throw caution to the wind and risk it all by leveraging it up to the hilt and letting it ride type of guy. It's a time when the market is on fire and behaves something like the late 90's but the regulators are nowhere to be seen. Charles Ponzi takes Boston by storm with his promises of 50% in 45 days with his Ponzi Notes and creates an all out frenzy engulfing what seems like half of the City.

I read this book in 1990 when I first entered the securities business, and promptly bough 10 copies to give to friends. Over the years I have either given as a gift or recommended this book to everyone entering the business (Wall St. and the investing business in general).

In this edition the illustrations from the 1920's Post are worth every penny, however the market insight is invaluable. Just think about what you can learn from a guy that was day trading and scalping eights 70 years before it was in vogue!

I enjoyed the ride of the market throughout the 90's as a Wall Street broker and then moved on to real estate in 2001. I would recommend this book to anyone just starting out on Wall Street and for those that are Street veterans and have not read it yet, shame on you.

By Kevin Kingston, author of: A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate: A True Story About the Ups and Downs From Wall Street to Real Estate Leading to Phenomenal Returns

Blog: bloglines.com/blog/KevinKingston

If you believe Market Analysis,you ought to choose Jesse Livermore.If you believe Company Analysis,you ought to choose Warren Buffett.If you believe Country Analysis,you ought to choose Jim Rogers.Good lucky!

This is an incredible book, I am an Occupational Therapy student and I found this book to be powerful and insightful. Newborn captures her emotions, thoughts and experiences in such a way that you feel as though you experienced them with her. For those working in rehab settings, knowing someone who had a stroke or stroke survivors, this is a must read. It is pretty short and I was unable to put it down, happy reading!

This book says it all. My sisiter suffered a stroke at 46 and this book helped me and her husband to understand what exactly she was going through and what to expect.

Although there are several first person accounts of the stroke experience, most have been written from the perspective of the older victim. When stroke hits a young person there a special twists to the knife. All those who have to deal with young people with stroke should read this wonderful book.

I've not only had the pleasure of reading this book, but I've met it's author. She's the real thing. She absolutely shines. She walks a couple of feet off the ground. Ms. Newborn is not only a survivor, but a person who has happiness to share with others. Her book offers incredible insight to those who have either experienced a stroke or know someone who has. She gave me a clear understanding of aphasia and how strokes effect people.

I read quite a few books about strokes following my own, but only wanted to own two. This book, which was a gift from a dear friend, provided such inspiration during my recovery. I still read it from time to time because it continues to be a touchstone for me. I've always loved the poem "Ithaca" which is referenced in the title but it's taken on a special meaning since reading this book. Thank you for writing it, Barbara.