New York Books

This book drew me in from the start, and a combination of the writing and the story kept me hooked. People might wonder why someone with a mother who was so frequently awful to them would want to stay connected to that parent. But as is made clear in this book -- it's still your mom. And it's human nature to want it to turn out o.k. Myers doesn't try to find excuses for her mother or psychoanalyze her. There's an acceptance here; not approval of her behavior, and not wishing it wasn't different. But a realization that her mother was a very flawed human being -- and she still wanted a relationship with her. It was a great read.

It was an easy read. I enjoyed it so much. I'm obviously around the same age as the writer so the backdrops really got me into it. It was as if i was there with her in her neighborhood, watching the same TV shows, etc. It really brought me back. Although my relationship with my Mom is different, the book still kept my attention all along the way. It actually made me appreciate her more.

This is a truly inspiring book. Not only is the writing flawless and captivating, but Myers tells a story that is real and original. She connects the story of her past to her current life in a manner that reminds us all how we come to be the people we are. This book will force you to examine the relationships in your life and what they mean to you, and in the process is a wonderful read. I could not put it down, and even woke up in the middle of the night just to read what was going to happen next. I am looking forward to reading it again and discovering new things about life, love, and myself. I hope to read another book by Alyse Myers in the near future.

Alyse Myers, if I recall correctly, is a marketing executive with The New York Times, and this is her first book. I recommend it highly!

This memoir makes me want to aspire to write my own. Alas, I doubt I could reach the simplicity of Myers' writing coupled with the profundity of it.

Maybe it's because the book relates closely to my poor, poor relationship with my mother, but that's not all of it, I think. It is simply a great read.

Why can't more books use the simplicity of writing to such powerful effect as Myers does? I sure wish I could.

WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? was, like other reviewers have said, a very fast read. So fast I didn't want it to end at times.

Five unequivocal stars!

This totally honest memoir allows the reader to enter the life of Alyse Meyers when she was a child. It is not a pretty life. It is not a life many would want to change places with, yet it sparks a chord in us all. I read this book recently as a book club choice and it couldn't have been a better one. Not only did I find myself completely absorbed in the story and the characters, but it brought about fantastic discussion in a group. After all, we all come from a family and everyone has a story! A very worthwhile read.

Sam's insight to the era of the Bronx shows the underlying warmth and respect he has for his family. I could not put the book down; reading well into the night; hours passing quickly. We can all relate, Jewish or non- Jew. They were tough times, not necessarily blessed with opportunities; and especially so for a bright woman with what could have been an even brighter future had she been born in more contemporary times. Thank you for sharing your Mom's life with us. You did it in a beautiful and literary way.
I gained insight into Fannie's family; folks I have known, loved, respected and whose friendship I have cherished for almost 50 years.
Thank you, Sam. Great job.

This is a moving tribute. The author makes the effort to know and understand his mother after she has died, in part because he senses he has been unfair to her while she lived. Freedman writes with understanding and sympathy of a woman who according to her son reached the peak of her emotional life at seventeen in a love forbidden her by her mother. Freedman tells of how his mother had to sacrifice her own wellbeing and desire for an education in order to help support her very poor family. He blames his grandmother for some of the dissatisfaction in his mother's life. At the same time he praises his grandmother for being the strong and ethical member of the family who cared about what was happening to her relatives in Europe during the Holocaust.
Freedman blames himself for his behavior as college student and teacher in refusing to acknowledge his mother's presence in the class. He does however indicate that there were many times in their life when he tried to do his best for her. For instance he tells of a story where he bought his mother a special kind of plant , and how disheartened he was when after a few weeks it wilted. His mother comforted him in this.
It would be nice to think that she knows of his devotion to him and looking down from Heaven is filled with pride and happiness for her son's devotion to her in telling her story.

My mother grew up in the Bronx not all that far (in time and place) from Freedman's mother Eleanor, so I found this book both nostalgic and deeply touching. Even if I didn't know first-hand about shopping at Alexander's, going to Loew's Paradise, and commuting to City College, I would find this book engrossing.

By tracing his mother's teenage and early adult years and the shifting relationships with family and friends, he shows how her decisions and attitudes influenced who she became--and why she kept her earlier life a mystery from those closest to her. Insightful, with a powerful yet very personal ending. Highly recommended.

I found Freedman's account of his mother to be melacholy and moving. All our parents remain a mystery to us when they live, more so when they die. Freedman's rejection of his mother in life and embrace is death is deeply touching.

I could not put this book down....it's fantastic! The author, whose mother died when he was a college student, pieces together her pre-motherhood life to create a wonderful story of a complex young woman...a woman who, to paraphrase his words, peaked at a young age and spent the rest of her life trying to capture that success. I appreciate the emotional and literary efforts Mr Freedman put into this book...it was a joy to read and gave me lots of food for thought. Highly recommend!

I am a fan of the "Golden Age" of American Comics which ran from the late 1930's through the 1940's. "The World on Sunday" is a compilation of some of the best graphic art that appeared in Joseph Pulitzer's "The World" from 1898 to 1911. Most fans of American comic book history know about the history of the early American comic strips of this period. The creators of the Golden Age undoubtedly were influenced by these early comic strips. However, they always were profoundly influed by the rich visual art work that came out in the newspapers of the era. "The World on Sunday" is beautifully produced and is a must purchase for all those interested in American popular culture. Finally, I would also recommend Cordula Lebeck's "Kiosk". In this volume, Lebeck follows the development of popular journalism into the age of photography in the 1930's.

Joseph Pulitzer's New York WORLD flourished at the turn of the 20th century and grew from a modern daily paper to a sensationalist publication packed with striking colorful art, from photos to cartoons and drawings. THE WORLD ON SUNDAY gathers over a hundred of the best from WORLD and places them in an oversized presentation to display their color on single and double-page spreads. A chronological arrangement lends to a fine sequence of reproductions tracing editorial and news highlights of the times, while colorful commentary accompanies the pieces and provides the necessary background for appreciation by all audiences. THE WORLD ON SUNDAY: GRAPHIC ART IN JOSEPH PULITZER'S NEWSPAPER (1898-1911) is a top pick not just for art or newspaper library holdings, but for general-interest collections as well: it captures the art, craft and style of a bygone era and is a lush example of newspaper history at its finest.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

A treasure of a lost time and a lost art. Aside from the short-life expectancy and lack of modern conveniences like, uh, cars, ATMs, antibiotics, radio, microwave ovens, television, computers, etc., this book makes you wish you lived back then- when science, technology, and journalism were in their infancy and every day held some new, authentic wonder- not just a smaller cell phone. It's also quite amazing to see how advertisements, typefaces, layouts, and prose have radically changed in a century, and not necessarily for the better- unless you're one of those "Form Follows Function" kooks. A must for all you Luddites out there.

As a librarian, I am horrified, but unfortunately not too surprised to learn that few libraries have kept back issues of the newspaper put out by one of the great figures in USA publishing. And that's before I saw how beautiful it is! The idea that not only all this information but all this art was nearly lost is appalling. (I'm glad Duke University took it, but I hope the gift requires them to return it if they decide to throw it out.) I've been on the losing end of these fights, and no, one can't always assume that someone else kept the material.

Meanwhile, enjoy a glorious and gorgeous piece of historic publishing. I had no idea that color printing was so widely used ad so good at such an early time. The pictures often show great artistic skill and witty humor. There are also some fascinating bits of newpaper history.

A fantastic gift to the nation and the world. I can only show my appreciation by buying my own copy.

This book celebrates one of the high points in American popular culture. In the late 1800's, Joseph Pulitzer, publisher of the New York World, purchased the first great high quality color printer for newspapers. He then used it to publish beautiful color graphics every Sunday. This is both great art and great entertainment. But the story of how the author Nicholson Baker and his wife, Margaret Brentano, tracked down the last surviving complete collection of this work just before it was to be lost forever is just as thrilling. This is an exquisite book that is the product of great work by great people. Get ready to enjoy a true treasure.

I had this book for the past 7 years, and find it to be an invaluable resource. What makes this text so unique is that is has both a translation of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, and a translation and commentary on Vyasa's commentary of Patanjali. Vyasa is perhaps the most famous commentary on Patanjali. The Sanskrit into English translation is excellent. I have verified this and studied the text with a world-renowned Sanskrit scholar. This particular book is also good because it provides extensive commentary and recommended practices for Yoga. Before beginning some of these practices it is best to practice them under an enlightened Guru, if you are a beginner to Yoga. Studying the Sutras with a Scholar is another recommendation of mine if you want to get a clear understanding and come to profound realizations.

Again, this is an excellent text, and a text you will come back to again and again if you have a genuine interest in Yoga. I highly recommend this text if you are interested in going deeper in your understanding of Yoga philosophy and the Sânkhya-Yoga philosophy.

Nârâyana (Anthony Biduck), Co-Creator of Urban Yogis [...]

If you are really interested in Yoga-as a practitioner and not merely out of intellectual curiosity-this is one of the best books you will ever own. It is a thorough commentary on the Yoga Sutras from the viewpoint of a true Master practitioner, containing countless jewels of profound insight into Yoga practice. It gives hints, and even many outright disclosures, of the real techniques of Yoga. I have read a number of translations of the Yoga Sutras, and this is not merely the best, it is in my opinion the only real one.

If my house were on fire, and I had just a moment to grab a few things on my way out, this book would be one of them. Buy it and put it on the top shelf of your bookcase, where it belongs.

Having read the works of Georg Feuerstein and Swami Satchidananda, this is my third foray into the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and I would have to rate this as the best of the lot. This is not to denegrate the fine works of Feuerstein and Satchidananda; I simply prefer the work by Swami Hariharananda and I highly recommend it. For someone new to the subject, Hariharananda is quite informative, with lots of background information.

For both theoretical and practical study of Yoga Sutras and Samkhya philosophy this is the book to buy, read and keep reading. I don't know of any book on Patanjali's Yoga and Samkhya that comes even near the quality of Hariharananda's book!
It has the original texts of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras and Vyasa's commentary in both Sanskrit and English and Swami Hariharananda's own Commentary translated into English from the original Bengali in which he wrote.
Although the introduction says that some of the esoteric exercises are not included in the English translation it does go deep into both practice and theory.
The book can be recommended to both beginners and other students alike as the translation of the Sutras to English is so clearly done that it makes some of the difficult text easier to understand.

If you are really interested in Yoga-as a practitioner and not merely out of intellectual curiosity-this is one of the best books you will ever own. It is a thorough commentary on the Yoga Sutras from the viewpoint of a true Master practitioner, containing countless jewels of profound insight into Yoga practice. It gives hints, and even many outright disclosures, of the real techniques of Yoga. I have read a number of translations of the Yoga Sutras, and this is not merely the best, it is in my opinion the only real one.

If my house were on fire, and I had just a moment to grab a few things on my way out, this book would be one of them. Buy it and put it on the top shelf of your bookcase, where it belongs.

This is a great book. It is extremely accessible. I am using it with great success for an Introduction to Ethnomusicology course that I am teaching at a Liberal Arts College. The students like the book very much. It stimulates a good deal of in-class discussion. I would highly recommend this work for anyone interested in music, dance, ethnomusicology, urban studies, popular culture, popular music, American studies, and more... It is the kind of book that affords multiple points of entry. Bravo Kai Fikentscher

If you're looking for a book that's an excellent reference for Underground Dance Music in New York City, then "You Better Work!" by Kai Fikentscher is great reading!

Kai Fikentscher's evolutionary study and rounded presentation of New York's underground dance music and culture is a lonely triumph for a subject matter that desperately requires equal exploration of peer contributing U.S. cities such as Chicago, Detroit and Washington D.C.

"You Better Work!" is a straight edge to which much of what has been said about underground dance music culture should be realligned.

It's evident through well-crafted and intricately expressed text that the author has really done his homework. His book shines, especially when compared to similar historical efforts that clearly lack the consistent impact found in "You Better Work!".

Not only should those familiar with underground dance music absorb this essential reading, but the effort should be required academically, with particular regard to music, culture and art.

In addition to explaining fundamental concepts and techniques, Fikentscher details an often ill-reported but critical importance of UDM - the DNA of African, African American, Latino, Gay and a dejected segment of American society which defines the fabric of underground dance music culture.

Kai's work is a rarity in ethnomusicology; it's accessible, entertaining, and enjoyable to read. His inclusion of 12 inch singles, top UDM charts, DJ and equipment photographs, in addition to his on personal exposes in relationship to the house scene in NYC make this study a rarity within a discipline full of bickerings over authenticity, theoretical concepts and musical hierarchies. "You Better Work!" is a rallying cry for aspiring musicologists and music fans alike. If you danced during this period, it'll bring back those sweet memories of Mr. Fingers, Frankie Knuckles, Ru Paul, Acid and the like.

This text is the unrivaled standard for anyone truly seeking insights into the rich culture of Underground Dance Music. No long is house music an urban legend, but this book invites debate, theory, and growth based on a solid foundation of research, interaction, and presentation. From the halls of academia to the dark places where the underground lurks; each and every reader benefits from Kai's research.

If your a fan of techno... read this book.

Classics? Read.

Soulful... get to know this text.

... then Work!

-Byron

Holmes' nuanced, understated, and very readable style belie what must have been an exhaustive research effort. She highlights small but interesting details in each of the 100 profiles that invite the reader to find out more. After reading this book, you will have a historical, architectural, and cultural overlay to flavor your own relationship with and memories of The City. No one could hope to fully encapsulate this sprawling topic in one volume. But few could manage to assemble as much, in as portable or pleasing a package, as the author does to contextualize these noteworthy lives.

When I first came across this book, I thought it would make a great "stocking stuffer" gift; however, I continue to buy copies to give as birthday gifts--or "just because" gifts. For anyone who is preoccupied with New York--whether it is home or not--this book is addictive reading. In just a few paragraphs the author synthesizes the rich lives of each of these New Yorkers. Each section provides insight into pockets of the city and the lives that have passed through it, making it the perfect book to tote around the city to read on the subway and throughout your day.

After flying through this smart, incredibly well-researched book I realized it was the perfect gift for all of my friends who do/used to/aspire to live in New York City. I also gave it to my teacher friends who loved the detail and use it as a resource. How Holmes found all this stuff I'll never know, but I'm really glad she did!

This book has been in my coat pocket for a month. I sneak time to read it on the subway, at my desk over lunch, right before I go to bed. With "100 New Yorkers: A Guide to Illustrious Lives and Locations" Holmes is like the person at a cocktail party everyone gathers around to hear tell stories--stories about amazing people who have lived here and about the interesting, tragic, remarkable, funny, magical lives they've lead.

The book makes even the most jaded New Yorker love that they live here. It's really quite special.

This beautifully produced book contains 100 well chosen black and white photographs and 100 well written biographies of people to whom New York was important. They lived in the City during different periods of its 350 year history, some honored, some detested, all deeply ingrained in its fabric.

Some like Dawn Powell and Malcolm X made it their home and part of their personal identity. Some like Edith Wharton and Sojourner Truth left it and wrote about what it lacked or what it had lost. Some like Mark Twain and Sarah Bernhardt loved it despite its rough edges. Some like Anthony Comstock fought its moral lapses. Some like Emma Goldman and Dorothy Day devoted their lives to helping the flood of immigrants. All were deeply influenced, and many influenced, this great city.

One index includes the 100 people and the sites associated with each of them. A second index lists connections among the 100 New Yorkers and the places in the city where their lives intersected. Examples include: Elizabeth Bishop and Marianne Moore meeting on a bench outside of the New York Public Library reading room; and the midnight walks of Jacob Riis and Theodore Roosevelt through the slums of Lower Manhattan.

The "Chicago Tribune" captured this book perfectly: "One hundred famous New York faces are profiled in this fascinating travel companion. Find out where Edgar Allen Poe used to drink, which clubs gave Joey Ramone his musical break and which bar was Babe Ruth's favorite. Each section in 100 New Yorkers takes the reader through a tour of the celebrities' residencies, love affairs, scandals, accomplishments, and where you can see their legacies--whether in art museums, immortalized in stone or celebrated in song. There's a great selection of everyone from Sammy Davis Jr. and Malcolm X to Mae West and George Washington."

This little guide is a perfect companion on a visit through the lives of 100 fascinating people and places that made a difference to them.

I saw this book on Amazon and purchased this book as a gift for a friend who is a fire fighter. He couldn't put it down. He said it is an excellent, well-written book and a must read for every fire fighter out there! While the average person, who is not a fire fighter, would not probably identify with the characters and stories in this book, the person who is a fire fighter will identify with them, because of their experiences on the job. This book is out of print and hard to find, but highly recommended

I too read this book some 25 years ago while in high school. My dad was in the fire department, read it and passed it along to me, saying if I wanted to read what his work was really like, this book said it all perfectly.

If you can find this book, buy it and pass along to anyone who wants to know what being a firefighter is really all about. Descriptive, accurate and pulls no punches in the job-warts and all.

Highly recommend it, even if only to read true adventure which novelists can't match.

This is the book to find. Like one of the other reviewers, I had this book many years ago, and read it until it literally fell apart. I found it again at a public library about two years ago, and I long to once again have it in my collection.

I read this book, when I was in college. This is a very well written testament about the careers and experiences on New York City Fire Fighters. Ten years later, I am still trying to locate copies of this book, to give to my friends, who now work for the FDNY.

Many years ago, I lost my copy of 20,000 ALARMS, and now find it is out of print! This makes finding a copy tricky. What a blow! Fortunately I've read it so many times that most of has stayed with me over the years. I recently found a copy in another cities public libary and read it overnight. I think that this should sum up my review. If YOU have a spare copy, I'd love to hear from you! E-mail: p.jay@pei.sympatico.ca

This is the kind of cookbook I just love. The appeal of wonderful recipes enchanced by interesting facts, trivia and gossip-y information on the history of the 21 club is just irresistable to me!

The recipes themselves are really simple in contrast to, for example, some of martha stewart's recipes that get complicated by their telescopic travels into the minutia. In contrast to that the *21* recipes are bold in their simplicity. (Desserts seemed to me to be somewhat more complex, but than desserts tend to be) Some recipes fall into the traditional catagory and have been around for as long as the club has been, others are new. Its interesting to see the appeal of an old time favorite. I have been toying with the idea of trying the 21 traditional chicken hash for a number of year...

I have made quite a few of the side dishes and they are excellent. The roasted shallots are wonderful with meats and poultry. Roasted garlic is a classic. Maple glazed root vegetable is great for Thanksgiving. I havent tried the meat recipes because I fear that with the simplicity of the dishes the quality of the meat is crucial. I'm certain that i could hunt out the required grade of beef, if I tried I just havent to this point.

The chunky blue cheese and walnut dressing is amazing and the citus ginger dressing is wonderful on asparagus. There are many *winners* in this cookbook. But for me the real appeal is the history of the resturant. What presidents ate there...who was the first woman to wear pants there...who ordered and got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich...things on that line. Cartoons about 21 dot the book, rememberences are interspersed with wine suggestions... news stories and even a photo of michael douglas and charlie sheen from wall street. The 21 club is a cultural icon and this book shows it. Its the best of both worlds..both solid cookbook and warm memories.

The book itself has a very nice size for a cookbook. More square than rectangle and with a separate jacket cover than you can wipe spills off of. It lies flat, a must for cook books and the binding has been sturdy over the 4 years that I have owned it. The pages are not all that resistant to spills and staining will occur, unfortunately they are not glossy so you can not wipe them. They are bright white and easily read altho a bit thin, you can see the text from the next page thru them (not enough to be especially confusing but .... )

This is an excellent addition to any recipe collection. A great gift for the *foodie* in your life or even someone who enjoys the history of NY city, perhaps.

An excellent history of a landmark New York restaurant. The book is two-fold: Recipes which focus on quality and are quite user-friendly - woven with a history rich with anecdotes, illustrated with wonderful photographs and drawings. A great read for any cook and/or lover of New York City.

I've had this cookbook for a few years and use it often - I look forward to the day Mr. Lomonaco publishes another book - his meals at Windows on the World are wonderful.

Enjoyable book, especially for any reader who dined at the Club during it's heyday of '40s and '50s. Food and recipes are solid. Eben though current chef was not around during the memory era, the food is excellent. Many are attempts to preserve famous dishes as they were prepared and served during time of big bands. Great gift book as well.

An excellent history of a landmark New York restaurant. The book is two-fold: Recipes which focus on quality and are quite user-friendly - woven with a history rich with anecdotes, illustrated with wonderful photographs and drawings. A great read for any cook and/or lover of New York City.

I *loved* these books as a child-- so much that I found I could still remember some of the sentences word-for-word as an adult. Even as an adult I found myself giggling out loud as I read about The Bagthorpe's and their contest-entering mania.

Shame that it's out of print! Bring it back!

Absolute Zero, the 2nd in the Bagthorpes series was the book that hooked me to the Bagthorpe series. The Bagthorpe clan with its outrageous personalities reminds me still of my own large eccentric family. One of my fondest childhood memories is the hours I spent laughing at the antics of Jack and his family. I found the feud between Uncle Parker and Mr. Bagthorpe to be hilarious. Mrs Fosdale is a wonderful minor character and her reaction to the pantry still dissolves me into hysteria. Jack Bagthorpe was as close as a best friend to me. His misadventures with Zero and his family still make me laugh, smile and want to hear more. If your child is not quite ready for Harry Potter or needs a fill in the Bagthorpes though a different genre will absolutely do!

Absolute Zero, the 2nd in the Bagthorpes series was the book that hooked me to the Bagthorpe series. The Bagthorpe clan with its outrageous personalities reminds me still of my own large eccentric family. One of my fondest childhood memories is the hours I spent laughing at the antics of Jack and his family. I found the feud between Uncle Parker and Mr. Bagthorpe to be hilarious. Mrs Fosdale is a wonderful minor character and her reaction to the pantry still dissolves me into hysteria. Jack Bagthorpe was as close as a best friend to me. His misadventures with Zero and his family still make me laugh, smile and want to hear more. If your child is not quite ready for Harry Potter or needs a fill in the Bagthorpes though a different genre will absolutely do!

This is part 2 of Helen Cresswell's "Bagthorpe Saga", a truly hilarious series about a bizarre British family. As an adult, I still treasure these books and read them when I'm in need of a laugh. (For more description of the Bagthorpes, read the first review of "Ordinary Jack", the first book in the series. I agree with that reviewer's comments.)

I think part of the reason these books aren't very well known in the US is that the reading level is quite high, especially compared to most contemporary kids' series. A young person who's a gifted reader and appreciates British-style humour - a la "Monty Python" or "Fawlty Towers" - would surely enjoy them. I'd suggest checking used bookshops (e.g. through Bibliofind web site), or the Amazon UK site. You won't regret getting to know the Bagthorpes!

Absolute Zero is the second book of the Bagthorpe Saga, and in my opinion, it's the best, although the first four in the series are all exceptional. I loved these books as a child, and I love them now as an adult - it's a pity they are out of print in the US. (They are, however, still available in the UK, and US readers can order them online from amazon.co.uk, among other online shops. Believe me, the extra shipping is more than worth it.)

Like Ordinary Jack before it, Absolute Zero chronicles the lives of the eccentric, lunatic Bagthorpes. Competition madness overtakes the family after the urbane Uncle Parker wins a Caribbean trip for two. Better yet, while Uncle Parker and Aunt Celia take their trip, their daughter Daisy, the world's only destructively creative four-year-old, is left with the Bagthorpes. Hilarity inevitably ensues, in the shape of Daisy-induced disasters, police involvement, and unfortunate prizes.

The dry humor and intelligent wit of the early books in the Bagthorpe series raise them above their genre, and the books are as fresh and entertaining now as fifteen years ago. Any adult who still knows how to laugh would enjoy these novels, and as for children - well, the danger isn't that they won't like it. The danger is that they will start tearing the labels off canned goods in their parents' pantries, in hopes of recreating the joy of the series.

(NB: The last few books of the series - I believe it's now up to seven or eight books - are not at all worth reading. The first four in the saga are musts, and true Bagthorpe fans will probably enjoy book five and even book six, but after that, don't bother. Spare yourself the pain of seeing one of the best humorous series of our time go to pot.)

Great graphics, tremendous research, a treasure trove for "data miners" from all spectrums of science - ecology, climatology, sociology, forestry, geology, etc. Once you read this book you will understand the Adirondacks far better than most life-long residents of the region.

Geologically, the Adirondacks owe more to the Canadian Shield from which it arises as it passes under the St. Lawrence River. This remarkable coffee table book contains some of the most majestic and intimately beautiful photographs of the East's greatest wilderness. Far from simply showing the natural landscape, this volume delves into the Adirondack Park's culture, history and economics. The book also explores through photographs and narrative, the complex mixture of people and wilderness and it's fragile coexistence. This is a grand mixture of prose and photography that will please anyone, fan of the Adirondack Mountains or one about to be.

Because a good picture can be worth a thousand words, or quite possibly ten thousand, as demonstrated by the detailed, high quality graphics packing every page of Jenkins' book, his "Adirondack Atlas" (which is ever so much more than an "atlas") truly can be said to contain volumes of fascinating, up-to-date, accurate and pertinent information on our incomparable six-million acre "forever wild" forest park. Indeed, this one model reference book captures in its 267 pages an amount of information equivalent to that found in a small library of the best available books on Adirondack history, politics, geography, geology, ecology and natural history, and then adds considerable information and highly readable interpretation that can be found in no other published work. It is a miracle of a book, the work of a stunning and accomplished intellect.

Very informative book - a wealth of current knowledge. A pleasure to pick up in spare moments to read a bit and expand my knowledge of this great park. Have shared with friends already.

Jerry Jenkins and Andy Keal do a great job covering the entire spectrum of the Adirondack Park, which I find helpful when doing research for my books, "New York State's Mountain Heritage: Adirondack Attic" volumes 1-3. Their compilation of material is astounding and historic in itself, a marvel of Adirondack publishing. It tires me to think of the countless hours of research that went into writing this book. This is a must-read for those who love New York State's Adirondack Mountains.