New York Books

Whether you live in New York City and want to understand how to synchronize your life with the city's rhythm, or you are just a visitor eager to taste both the past and the present of one of America's most vibrant neigborhoods-the Lower East Side-this book is an excellent companion.

Joyce Mendelsohn gives an excellent walking tour of the Lower East Side pointing out landmarks with interesting facts and accurate accounts of the rich history here. Anyone who lives on the Lower East Side or whose relatives came from the Lower East Side should read this book complete with period and modern photographs. I loved it.

Even if you can't visit the bakeries and restaurants of the Lower East Side (and you should) you can enjoy the ethnic flavors by reading Joyce Mendelsohn's book. Like the best historians, she tells stories of the past from a present-day perspective. New York is a city of remakes, architectural and cultural--Mendelsohn combines both. As a former History teacher, I recommend it for a good read.

I found this book to be an incredible resource for me, in my wanderings around the City. From the history of the African burial grounds to finding the best doughnuts, this is a great book. I read most of it from my couch, but then took it with me when I went looking for Napoleon Le Brun firehouses. The details of the history are among the best I've seen published.

This is an essential book for anyone who lives in or plans to visit New York City. The first 22 pages give a succinct but by no means shallow history of immigration to New York, beginning with the earliest slaves arriving in New Amsterdam in 1626 to the latest arrivals of Hispanics and Asians in the later years of the 20th century. The remainder of the book consists of four self-guided walking tours, each approximately 2 hours long, through 4 different neighborhoods of the Lower East Side. The description of each tour begins with directions for arriving at the starting point by public transportation--a helpful bit of information. Among the various sites on the tour are the birthplace of Eddie Cantor, the first municipal-built playground in the U.S., the place where Arthur Murry took his first dance steps, the library that Leon Trostsky used when he lived in NY in 1917, and the Wah Mei Bird Garden, where caged Asian song thrushes fill the morning air with song. The book is small enough to carry around easily. The index is especially good. The photographs, new and old, give a sense of the city both today and yesterday. This is a friendly book.

the first
a visual street photography book of new york city
my winnogrand's work set the standard
this is a great coffee table book

I recently took a class in street photography at New York's ICP and Winogrand's work is something I could never even hope to approach. Some of his images are startling, you feel like the crowd is STILL headed right at you and that you must somehow get out of the way. He was fearless in the street and this collection proves it.

Gary Winogrand was the type of photographer who had a very itchy camera trigger finger. When he died he left behind around 10,000 rolls of undeveloped film. If it moved he photographed it. Did he shoot so many good pictures simply because he took such an unbelievably large number of them, i.e. if you take a million shots aren't you bound statistically to get at least a thousand good ones? Good question, yet GW is one of my favorite people. If you like street photography with insight and humor he is almost unbeatable. These are candid portraits that catch people gawking, staring, laughing, having fun, showing pain, and often being oblivious to everything around them. Gary was not shy; he thrust his camera right into people's faces, and caught them in off guard moments. A man crawls along a sidewalk unnoticed by a group of American Legionnaires. Another man walks nude through a crowd without attracting much attention at all. Another man walks through a crowd carrying an immense poster of the Beatles. Why is he doing this; where is he going? A man with a bandaged nose stares strangely at his female passenger as he drives along. Is he angry with her or is he perhaps lusting after her. You decide.

It takes you forever to get through this book as you sit and look at each picture for a long, long time. How revealing are the faces, the postures, and the gestures; each shot prompts you to weave a story around the captured event. Winogrand seems to be made up of equal portions of Elliott Erwitt, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Diane Arbus, and Andre Kertesz (if you are unfamiliar with any of these folks, and you like Winogrand, you had better check them out). The saddest thing is that almost all of Winogrand's books are out of print. This is a breathtaking collection of his work.

As far as I know, this is the only in-print book of Winogrand's photography available. For me, relatively young and new to photography, I am thankful for the opportunity to see some of his photos. They are a revelation. Even a cursory first glance through the book, I was struck at the complexity of the scenes photographed. These photos speak volumes, though I'm not sure what it is they say. In fact, the attraction of these photos lie in their mystery. Repeat viewings will reveal more nuances...so many layers emerge that interpretations will get lost in themselves. Well, that is TRUTH.

Regretfully, the printing quality of this book stinks. The duotone curve they used for this book is all messed up. Many photos end up looking like sepia prints rather than a black and white print. There are few pure, deep, dark blacks in the book. Instead you get this black-brown color which is really ugly and does a disservice to GW's work. True, Winogrand himself said "anyone who can print a photo can print my work" downplaying the importance of the printing process. And while the poor reproductions in this book does not take away from the strength of the photos, I still find it annoying and most of all...UGLY. All I can hope for is another book of Winogrand's work to be published. With all his millions of negatives, this is just the tip of the iceberg.

This book is worth reading by every person loving cities, not just photograph-lovers. A book so real, you feel you are walking through a cith while flipping the pages!

I bought this book because someone here reviewed it as "Better then the movie" Well it is exactly the same except for an extra line once every 20 pages or so.But is is a great book.

Wow! I love this book... and even now as 18 I still read this book to get me into that "Christmas spirit" I so desperately want to be in... I read this book every year it's one of my regulars on my holiday reading list.

Valentine Davies weaves such an impressive story that it will make the most skeptical child believe and it will make us that no longer can- wish we could. This is simply the perfect holiday story- one a parent could read to a child before they go to sleep or a story that a moderate second grade reader could read on their own without any difficulty...

I love reading this more than I do watching the classic version of the movie for Valentine Davies makes this book more magical than the movie could ever hope to be. All in all if you want to buy a book for the holidays- for someone on your shopping list this is definately one to buy! Or even own for yourself!

I read the book Miracle on 34th Street by, Valentine Daviesý. It was a fabulous Christmas fiction book. The main message or theme that I got from the book was anythingýs possible-you just have to believe.
Doris Walker is in charge of running the Macyýs Day Parade, which takes place on Thanksgiving Day. When her Santa Clause slacks off last minute she finds Kris Kringle and hires him to do the job. Kris does an amazing job. The only bothersome thing is he really and truly believes that he is Kris Kringle-Santa Clause. Doris doesnýt believe him, and thinks he might be insane. Along with Doris not believing in Santa Clause, nor does her 6 year old daughter Susan. Kris however wants to change that, he wants to make them believe..he believes Christmas is all about believing. Doris and her boss think Mr. Kringle is insane so they send him to a mental institution. Mr. Kringle then worries-what is going to happen with Christmas? How could he disappoint millions of kids all over the world? He some how has to find a way to save Christmas!
I loved the book. I read it around Christmas which seemed to make the book even better. It was a memorable book that I will remember constantly throughout the holiday season. It was so good I might read it every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It would be nice to have a tradition like that.
This book didnýt really relate to my Christmas Holiday Season. As a child I always believed in Santa unlike Susan did. My parents encouraged the belief of Christmas and Santa Clause until my brother and I started questioning and figuring things out. Still till this day I believe Christmas was always better when I was young and believed. It made the Holiday Season seem so magical.
Read Miracle on 34th Street to see if Susanýs Christmas was magical!

I read the book Miracle on 34th Street by, Valentine Davies'. It was a fabulous Christmas fiction book. The main message or theme that I got from the book was anything's possible-you just have to believe.
Doris Walker is in charge of running the Macy's Day Parade, which takes place on Thanksgiving Day. When her Santa Clause slacks off last minute she finds Kris Kringle and hires him to do the job. Kris does an amazing job. The only bothersome thing is he really and truly believes that he is Kris Kringle-Santa Clause. Doris doesn't believe him, and thinks he might be insane. Along with Doris not believing in Santa Clause, nor does her 6 year old daughter Susan. Kris however wants to change that, he wants to make them believe..he believes Christmas is all about believing. Doris and her boss think Mr. Kringle is insane so they send him to a mental institution. Mr. Kringle then worries-what is going to happen with Christmas? How could he disappoint millions of kids all over the world? He some how has to find a way to save Christmas!
I loved the book. I read it around Christmas which seemed to make the book even better. It was a memorable book that I will remember constantly throughout the holiday season. It was so good I might read it every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It would be nice to have a tradition like that.
This book didn't really relate to my Christmas Holiday Season. As a child I always believed in Santa unlike Susan did. My parents encouraged the belief of Christmas and Santa Clause until my brother and I started questioning and figuring things out. Still till this day I believe Christmas was always better when I was young and believed. It made the Holiday Season seem so magical.
Read Miracle on 34th Street to see if Susan's Christmas was magical!

Doris Walker works at Macy's. She's in charge of choosing people to be in the parade, but when her Santa Claus shows up drunk she fires him and hires Kris Kringle on the spot. Kris believes he's Santa Claus, and Doris not believing in anything ignores his insistent opinion.

Of course, Doris has her 6 year old daughter Susan thinking there's no Santa Claus either, and Kris makes sure he changes the little girls mind. But trouble begins when he is admitted to Bellevue, a mental institution, and now with the help of his friend Fred, he must try to get out or Christmas will be ruined for everyone. Especially little Susan.

This book is truly wonderful, and it shows that if you just believe anything is possible.

I bought this book after reading the Kindle sample and could not put it down. Being a 24 year Military Veteran, I related to a large portion of the book however, the Author has skillfully ensured that even a layman with no history of law enforcement can identify with the stories and events. Very well written Mr. Wagner! Hope to see more from you in the future.

A terrific memoir of life as a cop on the streets of New York's tough Alphabet City neighborhood. Wags' book is loaded with fascinating, well told stories. Especially moving is the author's recollections of his dad, also a police officer, and how they would sit side by side listening to "Dragnet" on the radio. The experience apparently fueled Wags' dreams of becoming a New York City cop. My Life In The NYPD is much more enjoyable than Wags' earlier book about his catastrophic "career" as a PI/bodyguard which ended in a felony conviction. Aside from a nasty, totally unneccessary intro by racist, homophobic shock jock Don Imus, this is a unqualified five star read. Assuming he must have at least a dozen more great tales of his life as one of New York's Finest, I hope Wags finds time to write a sequel.

I don't read much. I found this book on this site, read the reviews, decided to order it and give it a chance. Of all the books i have read, this is the most interesting and funniest books.

After showing a few funny parts to my friends, they all said i have a sick humour. One part reading about a guy who tried to kill him self by jumping off a building but fails. The way it was written was soo funny. Anyway, there are many many more interesting/funny parts.

After i read it i came online to buy Wags first book, but because it is no where to be found, i haven't been able to get it yet. However i have bought 2 other books similar this 'My Life in the NYPD."

Very enjoyable read.

This is a book that all cop buffs will love. It is a series of war stories and observations garnered from the author's twenty-two year career with the New York City Police Department (NYPD). Told in a voice that rings true, this no-holds barred, straightforward account of life in the NYPD from 1968 to 1990, a time of turbulence and changing policing philosophies, will grip the reader. The author lays it all out for the reader in an engaging manner-the good, the bad, and the ugly-keeping the reader turning the pages until the very last.

Jimmy does it again! This book deals with his years in the NYPD, and goes right up to the start of his PI career (the first book). As before he delivers the goods retelling his most amazing and dazzling stories of life and crime in New York in a personal and well written way. The book also deals with the person behind the badge, the associates, the friends, the family, and not the least the importance of not letting the job get to you. Starting out in the 60's to the early 90's the way cops work has changed tremendously and Wags takes you on that ride!!! Recommended read.

Ever wondered how Hell's Kitchen got it's name or why Bowling Green is called that? Well, finally there is a book that can answer these and many other place name questions. "Naming New York: Manhattan Places and How They Got Their Names" by Sanna Feirstein, and published by the respectable folks at New York University Press is a great, well organized book that discusses how most places in the borough of Manhattan got their names.

Chapters, which are divided by areas on the island such as Upper East Side, Inwood, and Harlem, discusses the origin of many street, park, and neighborhood names. The author, who briefly gives the origin of the place name in a simple sentence or two, apparently has done some deep research at a local library or archive in order to amass such an extensive list of information. With a great cover design and feel, the book captured my attention at a local bookstore. Overall, the book is a must for anyone who loves the City that Never Sleeps. It's a great book for a great price, which today can be a rarity.

I'm hoping that by the time you read this review, you will be able to take a look inside (right now, you can't). If you could, you would be able to see the exquisite layout and illustrations of Sanna Feirstein's "Naming New York: Manhattan Places and How They Got Their Names". It's a gloriously good-looking book.

But more important, Sanna Feirstein has gotten her facts right. When people think of the place names of Manhattan, they probably think of the grid and its numbered roads. Or that Manhattan is so modern, that all its place names begin with the Rockefeller era. WRONG! The island of Manhattan reaches further back in the history of American cities than any other one: the Wall Street area itself existed while Shakespeare's plays were first being produces. Manhattan, especially the older neighborhoods from Houston Street south to the Battery, are filled with twisting little streets whose names resonate with Manhattan's history. This book is where you'll find out why Houston Street is pronounced "HOW-ston". Where did Maiden Lane get its name from? Who was Barclay? This book will tell all.

This is a very informative book. If only it can tell me why New Yorkers pronounce Avenue of the Americas as "Sixth Avenue".

This book is great for everyone - from history experts to casual street walkers. I highly recommend it!!!

Even non-New Yorkers will enjoy the sweeping history that is brought alive when you peek behind street signs. From Broadway to Shinbone Alley, there's something fascinating about how New Yorkers have chosen to name their byways. Each section of town is presented with an introduction which outlines its place in the history of the city. Then each street is listed with an explanation of its name derivation. The mysteries of SoHo, NoHo, NoMad, and NoCa are explained. There are scores of beautiful illustrations. East side, west side, all around the town, Ms. Feirstein puts a human face on every corner of the Big Apple.

This book explains the origin of every named street in Manhattan, New York. A native of Topeka, Kansas may rightly be inclined to say "So what?" but, to anyone interested in NYC, this book will provide plenty of raised eyebrows of new found insight about "Gotham". The book is broken down into sections on Lower Manhattan, Mid-Lower Manhattan, The Villages, Midtown South, Midtown, East Side, West Side, and Upper Manhattan with additional sectional breakdowns in each group. A page and a half of historical background for each area is given along with a very basic map of the area. The story of the name for each street in the area is then explained in a couple well written lines. Many pictures are included of the persons or places named. The only detracting points are the paucity of effective maps detailing where some of the more obscure places are.

Highly recommended if you are into New York City history.

This is a beautiful book. Perfect for anyone who loves new york city.

I'm fascinated by "then and now" picture compilations. That said, this book does have some really good examples of the genre, however they are surrounded by much less interesting and really unimportant locations throughout NYC. It's a mix. If you like to see how a great city changes, this will have some utility. As a former native New Yorker, I found enough to make me glad I'd bought it but not enough to delight me.

Fascinating book! Berenice Abbott's photographs from the 30's alongside present-day photos of the same locations shot by Douglas Levere. A great way to experience the layers of history in New York.

Then and now photobooks of American cities are steady bookshop sellers but it is not until you turn over the pages of 'New York Changing' that you'll realise that this is how it should be done. Douglas Levere, with help from Berenice Abbott, has created a brilliant photo record of the world's premier city.

To start with Abbott created the perfect architectural record with the 1935 to 1939 WPA sponsored project when she shot just over three hundred photos of the city (you can see two hundred of these in 'Berenice Abbott: Changing New York', ISBN 1565845560) and Levere has retaken over a hundred of these with eighty-one appearing in his book.

Unlike other inferior books of the genre Levere has taken the utmost care with his project. Not only using the same type of camera and lens as Abbott but waiting until the same season and time of day to freeze the moment six decades later. A fascinating page of technical details at the back of the book explains more. The eighty-one photos are divided into four chapters with the majority taken in Manhattan. On each spread Abbott's photo is on the left and Levere's opposite, Bonnie Yochelson writes a straightforward caption for all of the images.

With the help of 200dpi printing, quality paper and elegant design these photos (and the book) look just stunning. The perfect photobook!

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

In the middle of the depression Berenice Abbott began a five year, WPA funded project to document in photographs New York's transformation from the 19th century to the modern metropolis of skyscrapers. The result was published as 'Changing New York.'

Sixty years later Douglas Levere went back to the same sites of 100 of Abbotts photographs and took another picture with the same angle, the same view, and usually even the same time of day (to get the same sun angle) of the same scene.

The result is this book, 'New York Changing' which shows these pictures arranged next to each other. That way, the only differrence between the pictures is the changes that have come about in the basic structure of the city.

This is a beautiful coffee table book, except that seeing one set of pictures makes you want to turn to the next set, and you've soon gone through the whole book.

Highly recommended.

This is a collection of black and white photographs mostly taken during the Prohibition and Depression eras for the tabloid "The Daily News". Most of what could be said about this book is already here in the reviews listed, nevertheless, it is worth repeating that "New York Noir" is an important addition to any collection of books on photography, and essential for anyone with an interest in the history of photojournalism. It would also be useful for anyone with an interest in social history; particularly of big city life during the American 1930s, 40s & 50s.

Most of the photos here are of crime scenes, and a few suicides thrown in. Crime scenes are mysteries; we all sense there is a story there. But the real mystery in this book is who were the guys who took these photographs? Whoever they were, they had no idea they were setting down an arena for further developments in creativity - in film, in fiction and in graphic design. This was working class photography and these guys were simply on the job, trying to outdo each other in the quest for a better shot in time for the next issue, sparing little thought over notions of higher-order art. Except perhaps for Arthur Fellig (aka Weegee), who was apparently more astute when it came to ensuring acknowledgement for his work, most of the guys who worked for the newspapers were largely unheralded. They are now just names, long dead and forgotten. Many of the shots reproduced in this book are only credited with a surname, or are simply credited as "Daily News" photos - nobody can work out now who took the shot.

[...]The conditions under which these guys were working forged a new creative genre, now commonly known as `NOIR'. It was an oppressive era, politically and socially, equipment was still heavy and unwieldy, they had to contend with light (additional lighting was used where it was deemed necessary to illuminate, not for artistic effect) and weather variables and while access to crime scenes were not yet barred to newspaper folks, access was sometimes restricted for other reasons. Check "The Trigger's Squeezed" and "Empire State Suicide"; both demonstrate how restricted access forced the photographers to use unusual camera angles, resulting in distant shots with long lines and deep, extended shadows which, together with the subject matter concerned, creates a sense of oppressiveness, of callous unconcern, of cold doom, and of finality (this can be keenly sensed in "Killer's End"); these are what are now regarded as the essential ingredients of good, classic noir film and associated imagery.

What makes a photograph (and for that matter, any piece of good art) a `classic' is that it alludes to a story, or it at least contains something that will intrigue viewers through the ages. While much of the information for the shots in this book, including the names of the persons involved could be traced (the corresponding synopses are listed at the back), there remain unanswered questions. How was it that the two ladies could tolerate each other's presence at the grave of their man in "A Bigamist Mourned"? What was it that a pretty doll such as Anna Downey saw in John Collins, a hardened killer? ("Until Death Do Us Part"). Why did the gangsters have such flippant attitudes? Check the aspect of Louis Capone on his way to Sing Sing in "En Route To The Chair".

There are other questions for which answers could have been provided in the book somewhere, after some further research. It would have been helpful to know the process and exactly why some of the photos were "touched-up" to ensure they were fit for publication. And who were some of these photographers? And what was the system for acknowledgement and payment? Something could have been said about the cops; perhaps some reasoning for their attitudes and conduct with the public. [...]

Regardless of all of this, the book is very exciting. The images reflect the developments in technology, particularly with the flash; first the bar flash, then the bulb, and then finally the `flash gun'. The sharper and clearer shots, including those taken under brilliant light are perhaps the most striking, and what are most easily recognized as `noir' imagery. All together, these are shots of a period in history which will never return. The assemblage of ephemera of that age; the hats, the shoes and clothing styles, the hair styles, the cars, the buildings and everything else can never be reproduced. And there is something very sexy about it all.

For a further exploration in this photography genre, I strongly recommend "City of Shadows: Sydney Police Photographs 1912-1948"; with shots of folks who were colder, cheaper and meaner, and where things seem even more surreal. To see how such newspaper shots influenced photography in a creative sense, see if you can find "Retail Fictions: The Commercial Photography of Ralph Bartholomew Jr." - still around in some `seconds' bookshops.

I got this for my sister-in-law and was afraid it might be too graphic for her (she's a bit squeamish about blood). It's not nearly as explicit as I feared. Unfortunately, it's not as interesting as I'd hoped, either. Lots of pictures of rather anonymous people in very sharp clothing. I think she'll like it, but if you're already fairly used to postmortem or morgue photos, you won't be very impressed.

The "Daily News" debuted in New York City in 1919. It was to be a newspaper for the common man, which meant not especially literate and frequently immigrant. Its currency was images, the more sensational the better. Nothing sold like sex, murder, and mayhem, graphically illustrated. By 1925, the "Daily News" was the best-selling newspaper in the nation. By 1930, twenty-three per cent of its pages were devoted to crime.

"New York Noir" is a selection of about 125 images from the "Daily News" archives, taken from the 1920s through the 1950s. Some are sad, some comical, some grotesque. They're an interesting comment on American urban culture of the time. Many of these photos would spark outrage if any newspaper were to print them today. Their lurid content earned the "Daily News" pointed criticism from many a moralist at the time. But that never hurt business. The style of the photographs had an immistakable influence on cinema and popular culture which continues to this day. The technical limitations that produced starkly flashed foregrounds and pitch-black backgrounds are instantly recognizable in Hollywood films, just as the corruption displayed in the photographs was reflected in popular entertainment. The demeanor of gangsters and thugs -often posed for the photographers- became iconic. Tabloid photojournalists may have wanted only to get the shot that no one else could, but they produced some incredible -and incredibly influential- photographs that have only become more fascinating with time.

Luc Sante introduces "New York Noir" with an essay about the history of tabloid journalism. Editor William Hannigan follows with a history of the "Daily News" and its influence on Film Noir. Both of these essays are very readable and worthwhile. The photographs are mostly one-to-a-page and quite sharp. They are all captioned. There is a section of "Synopses" in the back of the book, which provides further information about the stories behind each photograph, when available. I really appreciate this section, which is conveniently organized by page number. Some of the photos really leave the reader hanging, wondering who those people are and how things turned out. You can find out by turning to the back of the book.

I recommend "New York Noir" to photography and film noir buffs. Some of these evocative photographs are not for the squeamish, but they have made , and continue to make, quite an impression.

If you are a fan of photography, this book is definately for you. NEW YORK NOIR is chock full of amazing photographs that were the staple of the "New York Daily News." In this book, you get to see some of the poignant images that help define the term noir, and its connection to the silver screen industry, not to mention its effects on tabloid journalism. Many of these same black and white photogrpahs were often used as references to assist in making modern day motion pictures, helping to give a look into the past. From the days of "Three-Gun" Turner to the electrocution of Ruth Snyder, this book captures New York's horrid crime life in a candid, in-your-face style. There is nothing but unhidden truth in each and every photograph. NEW YORK NOIR is a well designed book loaded with powerful images and somewhat detailed descriptions. It is fascinating, riveting, and gives you a decent look at the roots of photojournalism. You can't help but be intrigued by the gritty, graphic photos that once graced the pages of a daily newspaper. It is one amazingly good book.

Warning: don't expect this book to be easy on the eyes, it is far from that. This is not for children, weak stomaches, or people with heart conditions. The shock is enough to make your heart race when viewing some of these photos. Yet you find yourself staring, sometimes maybe wondering what the photographer was thinking as he took these shots. The book is well done, but you have to be interested in true crime to, if you will, appreciate this collection of photos. It also helps if you appreciate life, then these photos will really have an effect on you, but it also shows you that society really did not change that much since these photos were taken. NOT a good coffee table book, though.

Started reading this on the book counter at the local B&N and couldn't put it down. Fascinating premise and wonderfully vivid excursion into turn-of-the century New York. Stylish, well-researched and entertaining.

Boorstin has a unique voice and take on the period and an interesting speculation on what I understand to be a missing period in the life of William James. This book gives a vivid and entertaining picture of life in New York a hundred years ago. Recommend.

"Newsboys'" boasts a page-turning plot as well as the wonderful ability to make you think about important life questions. I read the entire novel during one ten-hour stretch of business travel ... and it made what could have been a grueling day of planes and airports a day of pure joy. The plot kept me entertained, but the philosophical elements kept me both hooked on the book and repeatedly pondering my own life and choices. "Newsboys'" may not be in the same literary league as E.L. Doctorow's "Ragtime," but it's much better than the current crop of historical novels typified by "Carter Beats the Devil" -- a lot of research in search of a purpose. I finished the book feeling enriched, invigorated and determined to do better at all things. Any work of art that leaves you feeling like that is a great and rare gift.

The gifted philosopher and psychologist William James suffered a mental collapse at age thirty. This fact is well known by anyone familiar with James' works, but what remains unclear is what happened during his convalescence. "Twenty-one pages (as much as forty-two pages of writing)" were cut from James' diary that surely held some answers about his dark hour. Thankfully we have Jon Boorstin who writes so well from James' point of view that we need to be reminded these writings are actually not James' confessions but historical fiction. "The Newsboys' Lodging House" brilliantly extrapolates upon the missing pages to form a cohesive and believable account of what led James to become the renowned modern thinker and progenitor of Pragmatism and the Will to Believe.

The novel jumpstarts in 1908 Cambridge with a stranger imploring an attention-grabbing question, "Is you my father?" That teaser grabs the reader's unequivocal attention as James elegantly recalls how one chance encounter at McLean Asylum in 1872 with Horatio Alger, a writer of boys' stories, inspires him to leave the asylum and research "the question of evil" among the poor newsboys of New York City.

Boorstin has magically crept into James' psyche and delights us page after page despite many somber expositions that detail James' anguish over evil's place in the world. Reading in fact becomes compulsory as we eagerly await an answer to the stranger's aforementioned question. In the meantime, Boorstin expresses James' ideations in an entertaining manner and more succinctly than several philosophical tomes.

Bohdan Kot

As a lover and student of philosophy, I have a prediliction toward pragmatism. And as I have a prediliction toward pragmatism, I have a fondness for James. And as I have a fondness for James, I found this fictionalized account of a 'missing period' of James's life interesting (if not a bit strange and obviously fabricated).

In this novel, John Boorstin is envisioning James in his thirtieth year. This is when he experienced his mental breakdown leaving him an inch from suicide and in complete emotional paralysis. He had spent quite a few months, we know, in a mental institution, but here, the diary stops - the pages referring to this few-month period have been cut out of his diary, leaving the period a complete mystery.

Boorstin imagines a scenario that as far-fetched as it is (and the author acknowledges that) is interesting and at very least entertaining. James goes to New York with little money where, in fascination with Horatio Alger, volunteers to instruct children at a Lodging House for orphaned kids. It is there he meets a 9-year-old boy called Jemmie and becomes determined to save this child (who James is convinced is good at heart, but slipping into street-life) from the cold and hard world of the streets. Therein, James finds himself ensnared in quite a few 'plots' that gradually help him become his own person (as we know that when the 'missing period' was over, James was remarkably more directed and focused).

As I do not know how many people reading this will be as familiar with William James as us philosopher types, there is one part of the novel I think that may get lost on those not as familiar with James. Though one need not at all be a philosopher to like this novel, the story very much ties into the meaning of James' philosophy of pragmatism wherein 'truth' is said to be dictated sometimes by the 'facts' and sometimes by 'what we personally need to believe'. So as not to get too philosophical here, I will copy one paragraph from the novel that beautifully explains:

"Until this moment, I had thought true belief to be absolute and beyond one's control, the inevitable expression of one's fundamental knowledge of the workings of the world. Now I saw that we created our beliefs even as we cherished their eternal permanence. All of us are bound up in beliefs which express not only our deepest truths but our deepest needs."

This is very much a part of James (both as a psychologist and a philosopher, James being equally adept at both). Boorstin's goal, in this fantastic but quite engrossing tale, is in part to give us a 'real live shot' of what James' pragmatism looks like in practice through James' very own eyes. The result is a very good novel that will at once entrhall you and capture your philosophic imagination.

There's nothing funny about murder... or is there?

Simon Read's "On The House" could have been mistaken for a Monty Python script. Drunken derelict Michael Malloy is insured by the Murder Trust, an aimless band of low-level hoodlums who headquarter at a shabby New York speakeasy. The Trust members, which include an undertaker, the speakeasy's syphlitic owner, and a deranged cabbie who wants to try murder for the first time, make one attempt after another to kill Malloy and collect the insurance money. They pour him drinks of pure wood alcohol and serve him poisoned oysters and sandwiches crammed with rotten sardines, glass, and metal bits. They try to run him over with a cab, and leave him on a park bench during a winter night after pouring freezing water over his unconscious form. After each brush with death, the cheerily oblivious Malloy keeps coming back to the speakeasy, convinced that his would-be killers are his friends. Finally their plan succeeds, but the victory is only fleeting. The Murder Trust becomes the target of first suspicious insurance claims investigators, then the police, and finally the electric chair at Sing Sing.

"On The House" is infused with a dark humor that manifests itself in sentences like the following: "At twenty-seven, Marino was a mess of a man, being not only a shabby dresser but also syphlitic. By his own account, he was harangued with frequent bouts of the clap and blue balls." The victim, Mike Malloy, is described as someone whom life has "kicked in the crotch." Malloy's murderers are distinguished only by their ineptitude and homicidal mania, but Simon Read has given the whole story a 'car crash' treatment that keeps you turning the pages, shaking your head and, yes, cracking a smile or two.

Read is a natural storyteller. Using dialogue and descriptions scraped from news accounts of the murder, he presents a morbid and entertaining picture of Depression-era New York and its lowlife. Victims rights advocates might consider his treatment of Malloy's death to be breezy and offensive, but the entire murder plot was so slapstick and surreal that any solemnity could only come across as phony.

A friend of mine was talking about how dark and funny this book was. I picked up a copy because I was out of reading material, though I wouldn't normally read true crime. But this was fabulous! The story itself is one of those too-crazy-to-be-true stories, and the writing is dark, funny, and vivid. Ever since I read it, I've been cruising through other true-crime books. I think Simon Read made me a convert! I'll definitely read his future books, as well...

On The House is the fascinating story of the murder of a lonely alcoholic man by his "friends" and aquaintances for a minimal amount of insurance money. The story is interesting, primarily due to the the sleazy, greedy and totally incompetent plotters, and it is well researched. Author Simon Read moves the story, which takes place in the early 1930's, along well, and his outstanding description of the ambience makes the reader feel as though he is actually in the barrooms with the characters.

Unfortunately, though, Mr. Read has stated that he considers this story to be a "black comedy." I do not consider myself humor impaired, but for the life of me I cannot find anything funny about the murder of a pitiful, harmless man for insurance. Mr. Read therefore attempts to artificially introduce "humor" by employing a style of writing I can only describe as annoyingly juvenile. Among many possible examples, Mr. Read writes that Michael Malloy had been a fireman "before life kicked him in the balls," and on no fewer than four occasions in On The House he refers to a doctor as "the good doctor" for no apparent reason than to introduce a smirky tone.
Mr. Read is clearly a talented writer. However his attempt, for whatever reason, to write this story as a comedy, injects far too much of his own personality into the book, which ultimately adopts the tone of having been presented by a precocious 10th grader. On The House is still well worth reading, but a grown-up approach by Mr. Read would have made it more so.

Mr. Read's dreary look at the life of these speakeasy dwellers was entertaining and delightfully dark...
I really liked Read's well-written desciprtions of his novels characters. I found myself able to connect to the characters and understand why they acted the way they did.
I look forward to more of his writing in the future and would encourage others to get off the computer and get On The House.

A sort of nonfiction version of the hard-boiled "noir" novel, dripping with black comedy. The author hits the perfect mordant tone & captures the sordid desperation of the 1930's perfectly, down to the sardine sandwiches & rotgut booze slung in cheap speakeasies. The running gag focuses on a mark who is being set up to be murdered for an insurance scam, and who proves inconveniently durable despite increasingly desperate measures taken by the bungling plotters.

I love Jamie Sams style of writing, and she opened many doors that were closed lifetimes ago.
Other Council Fires Were Here Before Ours: A Classic Native American Creation Story as Retold by a Seneca Elder, Twylah Nitsch, and Her Granddaughter, Jamie Sams

Provides thoughtful insight into a much retold Native American story of previous yugas. Ought to be required reading for the future leaders of our world.

I came to this book due to my interest in Jamie Sams and Twylah Nitsch. For people who have questions about the First through the Fifth Worlds from reading other books by Jamie Sams, this book fills in the blanks. For those who have no knowledge of Sams and Nitsch, this book is so playful and delightfully written that it could be underestimated by the reader.

This book is fascinating from cover to cover. Jamie Sams and her grandmother, Twylah, are master story-tellers. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in Native American beliefs! It is the Seneca version of creation and history, our relationship with Mother Earth, and events still to come! Thanks Jamie and Twylah!

As always when reading books by Jamie Samms or hearing the teachings of Twylah Nitsch, we find the gifts that we need too. The Medicine is always pure and healing.