New York Books

A great and very fun read for the Niagara Falls lover or history buff.

This book absolutly keeps you intrested from the first page to the last. After a recent trip to the Falls ( having not been there since a 9 yr old kid) i was captivated by the wonder of the falls and the respect it comands. I wanted to know more, not just everyday facts, but the inside stories and how lives are affected by the wonder of Niagara. this book captures that and makes the reader gain a respect for the falls and for all those who dare to take on the wonder of it. The stories of those who tept fate at the falls are intriguing and very well told. Again it gives you an added appriciation for the wonder and power of such an amazing place. Anyone with an Intrest in the falls and wants to know more about it and how it affects people has to read this book.

True stories about gut wrenching tragedy and heart pounding rescues that will leave you on the edge of your seat awaiting the outcome of yet another victim that has fallen prey to the beautiful but sometimes deadly river.

T.W. Kriner's style of writing and attention to detail will leave you feeling like your IN THE MAD WATER with them. A must read for anyone interested in the disasters and sometimes bizarre history of Niagara Falls.

And if that wasn't enough check out T.W. Kriner's previous book JOURNEYS TO THE BRINK OF DOOM and he will take you there and back with more tantalizing accounts of mystery and mayhem that have made the falls famous.

Having grown up just a few miles from the falls and working there for four summers, I've seen and heard first hand many accounts of lives lost tempting fate on this incredibly dangerous river (both upper and lower). Perhaps having been a local I have a better appreciation and respect for the Niagara. But I am constantly amazed at the stunts and stupidity people will undertake trying to conquer this obviously unconquerable landmark. After each account you'll be asking yourself the same question locals have for years... what was that guy thinking?

This is the first book on Niagara that has captured both the fact (which many books do quite well) and the FEELING of the place. I grew up on Grand Island, just upstream from the Falls, and growing up on 'that' water was different from growing up on any other, because you always had the nagging sense that four miles away was certain death. When you went fishing, you were afraid to fall asleep for fear of waking up in the Rapids; when you went swimming, there was always the unreasonable notion that somehow the river would not let you get back to shore. TW Kriner is the first person I've ever read to capture a sense of the ominous presence of the Falls just in the background of daily life on the Niagara Frontier.

I can't put Roger Kahn's book down. His writing style is personal yet detached, and he is as unkind to himself at times as he is to others. He is in his eighties now, and reviews the people and events that impacted his life. He has not grown softer with age, and still has his signature sharpness. His sportswriting and journalistic career are the backdrops from which he travels through life, but all of us on our own pathways can benefit from reading his struggles and observations.

The author of the classic The Boys of Summer reveals his life story via a select few main influences, from his journalistic mentor Stanley Woodward to Jackie Robinson and finally to his late son, Roger, Jr. Books like these often provide glimpses into lives we know mostly from a public non-intimate perspective. In Into My Own, we get a deeper revelation about the heroism of Jackie Robinson as the first black player in major league baseball as well as insight into his full humanity. The same can be said for all the other protagonists in Kahn's memoir, including his first wife. There is some sadness that lingers from the narrative, particularly the lack of closeness between Kahn and his mother, and especially the passing of his son, but there are also moments of triumph and joy in everyday life.

Roger Kahn is one of the greatest sportswriters of the century, and in this memoir he does what all great sportswriters do--bring the readers into the story. Although this is a memoir, Kahn focuses not on himself (which is in itself refreshing), but on the people he loved and worked with. The first chapter is as much about the Herald Tribute as it is editor Stanley Woodward, who taught Kahn his craft. As Kahn moves on professionally we get to know Pee Wee Reese, Jackie Robinson and Robert Frost. Even when Kahn exposes his deepest feelings in the heartwrenching chapter describing the gradual deterioration of his son, the story focuses on young Roger.

This is really an elegant, moving book that everyone should read even if they've never heard of the Brooklyn Dodgers or the Herald Tribune.

The English poet Alfred Lord Tennyson once wrote, "I am a part of all that I have met." Roger Kahn has provided us with a heartfelt tribute on those individuals who have influenced him throughout his adult life. Stanley Woodword, his mentor at the New York Herald Tribune, teammates Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson on the Brooklyn Dodgers, poet Robert Frost, polititian Eugene McCarthy, and his late son Roger Laurence Kahn are all written about in a way that author Roger Kahn can use his skill as a writer to bring these people who have special meaning to him to life. Anecdotes not found in other baseball books are included here such as Dodger pitcher Orel Hershier's kindness to Roger's late son, Dodgers' owner Walter O'Malley sending a note of warning to the author when Kahn's late wife, Joan, had her nose broken by a batted ball while sitting in the stands, Jackie Robinson suppressing anger and quietly telling a teammate to deal the cards when pitcher Hugh Casey described what folks in the south used to do when good luck was needed. Kahn interviewing Robert Frost with the poet calmly describing his son's suicide little knowing that he, himself, would have to face the same tribulation lurking in the future. We all have people who have influenced our life in a positive manner, and Roger Kahn's sincerity fills the book on those who have touched his life. This is a book that will appeal to anyone who enjoys good writing whether you are familiar with Roger Kahn's previous books or not.

Roger Kahn has been writing about sports and other topics for more than half a century, but it was only with THE BOYS OF SUMMER, his watershed account of the Brooklyn Dodgers, that he became a household name and a standardbearer for similar endeavors.

The product of an intellectual New York home, Kahn grew into a curious, if not exactly academically motivated, young man. School was tolerated, not embraced, until his father arranged an interview for him with the Herald Tribune. Thus began a long career in journalism, writing about other people and issues. With INTO MY OWN, he invites the reader into a personal world, focusing on several individuals who were influential in his life and work.

Among these are Stanley Woodward, his boss, mentor and friend, who challenged him to be not just another sportswriting hack. Kahn looks back fondly on his salad days as a young copyboy who broke into the ranks of the ink-stained wretches, earning more increasingly important assignments until he became the Dodgers' beat reporter.

Since the Brooklyn team was his ticket to middle-aged fame, it is fitting that two of the key members of the team receive significant attention: Harold "Pee Wee" Reese and Jackie Robinson.

Reese, the shortstop and captain, was a Southerner who literally embraced the African-American Robinson in full view of hate-spewing racists, thereby setting an example of gentility, cooperation, tolerance and friendship. Robinson was a more fiery personality and gave Kahn the opportunity to learn about the difficulties of being a black man in America on several levels. These relationships lasted long after the players had retired.

Kahn was more than a one-trick pony, however; he also wrote about "serious" subjects, such as politics and his Jewish heritage (THE PASSIONATE PEOPLE). He also recalls relationships with the likes of Eugene McCarthy and the poet Robert Frost.

The most touching chapter, however, is painfully personal: the difficult life and premature death of his son, Roger Laurence, a suicide at 23. Roger L. was the product of a "broken home" following the divorce between Kahn and his second wife, Alice. The author does not mince words as he writes about their tenuous relationship, which deteriorated when his son was quite young. Despite numerous therapists and private schools (including a controversial boarding school), Roger L. sank deeper into bipolar problems, much to his father's helpless distress.

--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan

I recommend this book to anyone who loves poetry. Mercado's use of imagery and music in her work is new and inspirational. She is one of the more exciting new Nuyorican voices on the scene. Honest, clear and down-to-earth, there's no pretention here. Buy this book, you won't be sorry.

In clear, passionate and moving poems Nancy Mercado brings us the full flavor of life. She speaks on a personal and universal level for people who are on the outside; people of all colors.

These are celebritory poems that affirm the ability of the human spirit to servive. As Piri Thomas has said of her work, "Nancy Mercado has learned that words can be bullets or butterflies, that one must say what one means and mean what one says."

Maria M. Gillan
Executive Director of Poetry Center

Passiac Community College

It concerns the madness was real. I lost myself behind the author's passion for poetry, and her fond memories of Puerto Rico. The rhythmic flow of expressions reached down into my soul and took me "home"....

I enjoyed reading It Concerns The Madness.It really brings you back to your roots. It made me remember a lot of things about my grandmother and grandfather. I feel Mrs.Mercado writes from her heart and life experiences. I recomend this book of poetry to everyone. I know everyone could relate to it one way or an other. To Mrs. Mercado keep up the good work.

This book was well written and interesting. The author has an understanding of the madness faced today. Latinas have come a long way and this author shows that we will continue to grow and prosper as women.

"For theater lovers, this holiday brings books that should satisfy even the pickiest soul. My favorite is a gossipy portrait of Broadway over the past 60 years - IT HAPPENED ON BROADWAY, AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE GREAT WHITE WAY..... It's fun to browse in (lots of nice pictures), but addictive as a bag of potato chips."

IT HAPPENED ON BROADWAY: AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE GREAT WHITE WAY By Myrna Katz Frommer & Harvey Frommer

The Bloomsbury Review, November-December 1998

What better way to write a history of the last fifty years of Broadway theater than to get the information from those who made it all happen! The Frommers have compiled an oral history that is told by many of those wonderfully talented, hardworking people who spared no effort to create great hits and, yes, occasionally, flops. More than one hundred actors, directors, choreographers, producers, composers, lyricists, and playwrights as well as set, costume, and lighting designers, extras, and publicists have contributed to this deliciously enjoyable compilation of material about the great white way.

It Happened on Broadway is filled with background information about the Broadway shows of the last half century, and the successes, failures, struggles, and uncertainties of many personalities. Many interviewees have been household names for generations, others are just achieving recognition, and some names are not likely to mean much to most readers. Yet they all bring us some of the most interesting experiences and insights about the Broadway theater of recent years. One wonders how the Frommers managed to persuade so many luminaries to share their tales.

The first chapter "Broadway Calling," should be required reading for every theater student, aspiring actor, and budding theater professional. To hear Carol Channing, Jerry Herman, Betty Buckley, Manny Azenberg, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Al Hirschfeld, Richard Kiley, Leslie Uggams, Louise Lasser, Charles Durning, Patricia Neal, Jerry Zaks and many more tell how they got started in their careers is an education in itself and makes for superbly entertaining reading as well.

Much of the book is devoted to musicals, since those were the majority of "name" Broadway shows of the last half century, but there are also stories of the Theater Guild, from Eugene O'Neill and Bernard Shaw to William Inge and Sean O'Casey and the last week of Clifford Odets, and about the extraordinary talents of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams and such performers as Marlon Brando and Tallulah Bankhead. Celeste Holm tells how her Broadway career began when she was cast by Lynn Fontanne in The Time of Your Life together with Gene Kelly and William Bendix. And there is talk about the groundbreaking impact of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.

In one chapter "Look, Look, Look Who's Dancin' Now," Gwen Verdon, Marge Champion, Donna McKechnie and others share stories about Agnes DeMille, Jerome Robbins, Gower Champion, Bob Fosse, and the creation of Chorus Line and Chicago.

Most new shows go through a difficult gestation period before they are ready to be presented to the public. In some instances, a late edition of a song or conversely, deletion of some material can turn a potential loser into a future hit. Backstage tales, candid comments on their own performances and those of their fellow actors, the roundabout ways in which producers obtained production rights, often after years of effort, all make for fascinating reading.

This book gives the rare opportunity to hear the comments of those who were involved in the creation of Guys and Dolls, Cabaret, Zorba, Wonderful Town, On the Twentieth Century, The Will Rogers Follies, Annie, Nine, Grand Hotel, Titanic, and many, many more.

To sum up, the Frommers have combined these interviews and stories into a rich, seamless, history that masterfully captures the essence of Broadway's last five decades in a most enjoyable fashion. _____ __

Paging through this book is like stepping back through those years in the mid to late 20th Century when Broadway was bursting with fresh talent and wonderous creativity. Fantastic photos (many of which I have not seen elsewhere) and the collected personal memories of an army of Broadway veterans. Instead of muddying these memories with reams of connecting text, the editors have grouped related anecdotes into chapters and let those who lived this history speak for themselves. A great read for anyone who loves the theatre -- Broadway in particular.

This is a one of a kind Broadway book. The stories, the photos, the whole feel . . .it is like table hopping at Sardi's.

The stars, both onstage and off, that have helped create the Broadway theatre of today have committed their lives to one of the most important and vital of all the arts. This book gives them their due in a way few others have. It Happened on Broadway is a very well-done book recording for posterity the fine tradition that is Broadway theatre, using almost entirely the words of the people that actually lived their lives there. It is funny, touching, englightening, and a must-read for anyone who loves Broadway and theatre as much as those in the book who gave their lives to it.

This is the catalogue for the landmark Pollock exhibition held at the Moma and the Tate in 1998-1999. Considering the steep rise in the insurance value of Pollock's paintings, such a comprehensive retrospective is not likely to be repeated in the near future and we are therefore fortunate to have such a brilliant book to help us remember it. The late Kirk Varnedoe was one of the best interpreters of contemporary American art and his text, never anecdotical and always informative without being pedantic, does justice to the masterpieces without falling into any of the cliches that often pollute our view of this great artist.

Beautiful illustrations make this book an indispensable presence in any arts library.

Having just taken in the MoMA show, I was very satisfied with the Pollock catalog. Very nice job reproducing the works (a difficult task in the printing of art catalogs!) Many fold-outs assist in conveying the size of Pollock's larger works. Large, full-bleed detail shots add a nice touch, complimenting the entire painting. While I'm not thrilled with the cover design, the interior is well-written, well-presented, and well-worth reading.

I picked this book up at the MOMA Pollock retrospective a couple years ago and have used it extensively. Having seen many of the paintings in this book firsthand, I can say that these are some of the best reproductions offerred in book form on Pollock's work. Another plus is that several paintings are printed on fold-out pages, so that the work doesn't cross the book's seam. So many of his paintings are extremely wide that this makes a lot of sense (otherwise, there would be hardly any resolution in the height dimension).

If you're interested in Pollock and need to refer to the reproductions, I absolutely recommend this book above all others out there.

This breathtaking catalogue is simply the best single volume available on Jackson Pollock, and this is primarily--but not only--because of the number and quality of the reproductions it offers. Almost every one of the dozen or so Pollock books in my library contains a painting not available in the others, but this book collects and beautifully photographs the greatest number and variety of his canvases--outside of a catalogue raisonee.

As the other reviewers state, there are many generously-sized fold-out pages here, and the crispness and resolution of these big reprints and of the more modest pages are simply amazing. To take two essential examples, this book's reprints of "One: Number 31, 1950" and "Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952" are astoundingly clear, better than any of the many other versions I've seen in art books, even in Ellen Landau's large-format survey, a book which also includes gatefolds.

(Another reviewer, by the by, states that "Lucifer" is not available in any other book, which is not true. Among other places, it appears in Landau, in Elizabeth's Frank's concise volume, and as the sole color reproduction in the book for the 1965 MOMA retrospective. Anyway, it gets terrific treatment here.)

Another invaluable inclusion in this book is a great number of full-sized detail photos of the canvases. For example, on a page adjacent to "Lucifer" and "Autumn Rhythm" and "Full Fathom Five," we see another photo of just one small section of that same painting but in 1-to-1 scale; these details reveal much of the dynamic, kinetic, urgent quality of these works, their encrustations of sand, glass, pennies, paint caps--traits which even this book could otherwise never offer a livingroom Pollock-viewer.

Further, having seen the exhibit in January of 1999, I can attest to the generally excellent fidelity of the color-balance. (Curiously, no one seems to be able to capture "Autumn Rhythm"'s grey-teal passages in a book, but if you were at this show or have viewed the painting at the Met you've seen them.)

The accompanying articles are excellent. Kirk Varnedoe overviews of Pollock's life, artistic aims, his accomplishments, all illustrated with family and archival photographs and drawing on Pollock quotations. Pepe Karmel uses the extensive photographic and film record of Pollock painting to analyze Pollock's physical movements. Most wonderful are Karmel's computer reconstructions of early states of the painting "Autumn Rythm," based on Hans Namuth's photos of Pollock at work.

In sum, this book gives the finest, fullest offering of both Pollock's life and art.

Excellent companion piece to the MOMA show (which traveled to London's Tate) goes beyond all other Pollock explorations. A "must" for students of modern American art as well as those just wanting to get a better understanding of what Pollock was REALLY DOING.

Large format features fold-out reproductions of breathtakingly high quality. Among these, incredibly, are paintings not found in any other published sources. (The incomparable Lucifer (1947) is one such work).

The text is scholarly but readable, and although there is a considerable amount of it, each open page of writing offers at least a couple relevant and highly interesting photos or other illustrations. The many large color plates would certainly make a gorgeous and impressive coffee table book for anyone who doesn't choose to read it.

Kirk Varnedoe writes definitively about Pollock's mercurial life & career. Varnedoe's nearly 75 pages of biographical analysis are a welcome alternative to the kind of misguided mythologizing about Pollock that has for a long time colored the artist as an overrated art "star."

Pepe Karmel's contribution to this book is an amazing analysis of Pollock's painting process through an exhaustive examination of the famous films and photographs of Pollock at work. This was a fascinating, ground-breaking part of the exhibition, and is equally wonderful in the book.

Well worth the price.

A simple but effective running of the history, with comments on the individual recordings, of the songs that appear on James Browns first major album hit, "Live at the Apollo" recorded in October 1962 alongside the then occurring critical world event of the Cuban Missile Crisis, makes for an effective time capsule telling by Douglas Wolk of the making of this classic recording.

While the author veers towards the over stated at times (did the 1,500 in the audience based on the limited public news released really behave as they did based on the belief they could die in a week!) he does a much better job of nailing the history of James Brown. These include how he got to make this recording against his record company's indifference; his on balance limited hit record success to date offset by his constant touring of an all action performance, but most of all that what was on show here was one man's personal and stylistic interpretations of a suite of songs that covered black music across the 20s to the early 60s. Some songs had undergone numerous adaptations and recordings by others plus JB before the versions done here (the ripping of of other peoples songs seems almost to have been a lifelong JB hallmark). What was really being performed was an exercise where songs could only last for less than a minute to over ten minutes as JB backed by his ever tight band riding on their leaders moods and his reading of the audience emotions laid down one of the truly original live recordings made.

The fact that the LP was in popular demand for many months after to be played in full on R&B radio stations at a time when single hits were paramount was testament that something unique that connected with the black audiences of 1962/1963 had occurred and it was to be some time before JB reconnected in such a way again (and certainly never again with another live album, despite several attempts).

Wolk also does a very good expose of Brown's ego and resulting mis-treatment of all around him plus how the recording was not a true full recording from having to be adapted and edited from the true JB live revue show, which while visually spectacular would not have translated into such an effective audio format.

A story telling which is certainly "on the good foot" throughout.

Fans of James Brown will find Douglas Wolk's slim but hard-hitting classic, Live At The Apollo: 33 1/3, brings to life Brown's performance in 1962, piecing together what took place, what was recorded that night, and Brown's musical heritage and contributions as a whole. Live At The Apollo recommended pick for any avid fan of Brown and a welcome contribution to 20th Century American Music History collections.

the cuban missile crisis almost brought an end to life on earth as we know it. who saved the day? maybe it was j.f.k.... or maybe it was the number one soul brother james brown. douglass wolk makes a good case for the godfather of soul in this well-researched, compelling, funky good time book.

A great short read about the live recording sessions that led to the creation of one of the seminal R&B albums. The writing is punchy, respectful, and never overwrought -- except for the glaring and jarring detours into the Cuban missile crisis. The episode is clearly relevant to the story, because the concert in question took place in roughly the same 24-hour time span that the crisis was unfolding, but while everyone in the Apollo that night may have had the crisis on their minds, the digressions into what the fighter planes and the decision makers were doing at exactly the same time that James Brown was wiping sweat off his brow as he switched gears and tore into another song are distracting and ultimately tell us little about why the crisis made the night charged. Wolk should have stuck to the performances and the music or else found a better way of weaving the crisis into the book.

Given a book-length space to fill, many magazine writers do what comes naturally: they write a book-length magazine article. Wolk, however, approaches his narrative from the top down, treating the long form with the reverence and intricate attention of a clockmaker god. His story moves chronologically in an evening's frame, but it's also shot through with a series of gears and patterns, nibble-sized pieces, and odd bits of synchronicity that align in unexpected choruses. Gliding across it all, of course, is the electric, eccentric energy of James Brown. Scrapbookers, beware: this is more than simple homage. It's a work that stands independently, with one hell of a soundtrack to boot!

This book by Wilson Smith is a little gem. He has written bravely and honestly about events in his life that will make the reader laugh and cry and just wonder how on earth he ever lived to tell the tales in Just Dirt.

It is amazingly touching and and not without humour. I think every teen who is thinking of running away should read this book. In fact every teenager should read this book and if I had a say I would put it on all reading lists in High Schools.

Just Dirt is not just for kids. Mr. Smith has recalled events that touched his life, his family and those around him. Every person reading this book will be moved in some way.

Mr. Smith has written the book in a really casual style, if I may say that. While reading Just Dirt, the reader feels as if he/she is sitting with a good friend while he is recalling episodes from his eventful past.

Wilson Smith, Just Dirt (Lulu, 2007)

I'll start off by saying there's no way I can write an unbiased review of this book. I've been reading Wilson Smith's writing for nigh on a decade now-- as hard as it is for me to believe that stockboy recruited me old pal Mike Burns and me for xnet membership almost ten years ago, such is the case-- and, like most of the list folk, I am well aware that Smith can spin a mighty fine tale when he takes the mike. And I have heard a number of these tales before, either just as they are here or in somewhat rougher form. Besides, I'm actually thanked in the credits. Me? Unbiased? Are you [censored] kidding?

I should also start off by saying that memoirs generally drive me up the wall. And that, interestingly, perhaps what I value most about this book is that Smith nailed why, on the head, in a brief digression in one of these stories. And then went on to write the first truly readable memoir (as opposed to those memoirs-passed-off-as-novels that are far easier to bear, witness Bukowski or Exley or even Jay McInerney's Ransom, his best and most underrated novel) I've come across in... longer than I care to remember. I consider this just payment for having forced myself though 100 Strokes of the Brush Before Bed.

Part of what makes it so readable is that this isn't a memoir in the way you might think of memoirs. It reads more like a collection of short stories. (As a side note, the book's main weakness also comes into play here; there are some times when pieces of a story are repeated. Remember in the Encyclopedia Brown books, where Donald Sobel's first few paragraphs were startlingly similar in every story? You get that here, but only once or twice.) The end result has a sort of concept-album kind of impressionism, a feeling that you're not getting the whole story, just the pieces that matter. Would that a number of other memoirists had thought to do such a thing.

But what really nails it for me is something I found completely surprising. In this scene, Smith finds a number of old stories (from a long-abandoned first draft of the title piece) in his attic, and is re-reading them:

"The stories, though, were non-stop "Show, don't tell" (the first rule of writing, eh?), to a degree of which I'm now mostly incapable. It makes me feel like a hamster on a wheel to try to write that way now."

Now, I'm a big fan of "show, don't tell." A huge fan. It's by far the best way to approach fiction. It's the only way to approach poetry if you want a poem that your public won't laugh at. But when I read that bit, I looked back on all those memoirs I've hated over the past few years, since they got so huge, and I realized that they were all trying way too hard to show (and to show every excruciating minor detail), whereas Smith is just sitting there like the guy next to you at the (juice) bar talking about all the stupid [censored] we did as kids. Well, some of us did as kids. (If you can't find anything in here to identify with, I envy you.) And, wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, it works. I'm not sure it would work in a longer manuscript-- Smith's book weighs in at a light, easy-to-digest-in-one-sitting 132 pages-- but it works here like a charm. (Which begs the question: how well do charms work? And what do they do? My mom's just dangled from her bracelet.)

This may sound like, well, it's just some guy sitting there telling you a story. Anyone who made the mistake of signing up for a first-year psychology class in college knows just how boring that can be (especially if you had my professor). Smith's self-deprecating wit coupled with the basic insanity of the times keep it from ever being boring. (Note: Smith does assume something of a knowledge of those times. If you're not familiar with, for example, the sixties hippie counterculture, you might find yourself confused. Be warned.)

Also, something else of note. As I mentioned; this is a one hundred thirty-two page manuscript. I grant you, I wasn't reading with a proofreaders' eye, but I noticed a total of two typos in the entire book. I can't think of the last book I came across from a major press with two typos. It's unheard of in the realm of print-on-demand books. That alone is reason enough to pick up a copy of this, even if the book itself had sucked. And this one doesn't, not by a stone's throw followed by a world-record chaw spit.

End result: even if you loathe the entire memoir genre, check this one out. It may just change your mind (though, I rush to add, just about itself. The rest of those memoirs? Yeah. Still garbage). *** ½

"Harrowing" is an over-used word in pop culture criticism, but I can think of few places where it is better and more aptly deployed than in a review of Wilson Smith's "Just Dirt." This loosely chronological memoir is crafted as an integrated series of short, near-still life vignettes (painting brutally honest and specific pictures of moments and places in time) and longer tales of transition (where thing/place/person A becomes thing/place/person B, and where the process, the crucible, is key).

In less deft hands, such a tale could have been ponderous, self-indulgent and dire, but Smith's story-telling skills are sharp, and his language and characterization are rich and evocative, drawing a reader into the emotional peaks and valleys that frame his psychological landscapes. He paints his self-portrait with brutal candor, and does a tremendous job at building tension in some of his longer works. You just know that something awful is going to come of all this, but you can't stop reading until Smith shines the spotlight on the shortcoming or mistake that wishes to expose or expunge, at which point you generally find a hidden element of beauty and grace, where you least expected it.

And ultimately that's what makes this book so lively and lovely: these are dark and troubling tales, but grace and transcendence and growth (and the desire to find them all) permeates the narrative, palpably. There's no treacly ending, no easy answers, no pat wrap-up, just an uplifting sense in the end that, hey, even though we're often our own worst enemies, and even though we may not always like ourselves, we're still something finer and grander than the sum of our molecular matter, and we're not just dirt, not by a longshot.

"Just Dirt" regales the reader with wonderfully disturbing stories, stories painfully familiar to many of us -- except we didn't have the balls to make them public. Smith has a refreshingly honest style of writing, sort of "in your face," witty, intellectual, anti-intellectual and hip all at once. Part journal, part personal journey, part freak show, it's a lurid, sensational look into the very deepest, darkest corners of not just Smith's world, but certainly mine and probably yours.

"Just Dirt" is a gloriously readable collection of events that may make you draw comparisons to your own experiences or may make you aware of your own relatively uneventful life. The style Smith employs is highly personal, and while he doesn't glorify the dysfunction, he embraces it in a way that helps explain how he has become the man he is today.

His ability to step away from himself and look back with remarkable clarity is impressive.

As a reader, I felt some guilt because I wanted MORE, even though reading his memoirs resulted in a level of discomfort. To say I "enjoyed" the book seems inappropriate, but I couldn't stop reading it, and it's been a long time since I can recall being so captivated.

Dan is an individual with a very large history in the detection business...And unlike all other authors...well let me put it this way...how many authors let their readers email him and he actually replies and replies as long as he still has something interesting to say..which is always. THIS is the only book in his series that I do NOT have, but if every other one is any clue, damn, lol. They are the most involving, well written and well linked together books Ive ever read and Ive read ALOT of stuff in my time. Highly recommended by a person who was in the law enforcement business.

I love books that have the same characters whom I like enough to go back to the beginning and read them all. This is my first, and I will find all the others. Great read.

See storyline above.

A good police procedural. Dan Mahoney's story telling seems to be made for the big screen, but in his writing you get a much better idea of a character's true self.
The story moves at a good pace, while the action and drama will keep you going to the very last page.

Recommended.

ONCE AGAIN DAN MAHONEY HAS WRITTEN A GREAT NYPD NOVEL. IF YOU HAVE READ HIS PAST BOOKS YOU WILL THROUGHLY ENJOY JUSTICE. DAN WRITES ABOUT WHAT HE KNOWS WHICH IS THE NYPD AND POLICE WORK. WHY HOLLYWOOD ISNT TURNING HIS BOOKS INTO MOVIES I DONT KNOW. KEEP WRITING DAN.

Justice is the latest, and in my opinion the best of Mahoney's NYPD thrillers. More action this time, a bad guy that you end up rooting for, and two cops fighting against the system and their own department to stop him from killing again. Mahoney nails the details and as always has great "only in New York" characters who weave in and out of the story. Shootouts, chases through the city, a spy in the police department, and a final showdown: Somebody should make a movie of this one!

When I picked this up, I thought it would just be a horror book. The story of Dr. Jennifer List Gilbert, a very ordinary and lonely woman whose extraordinary and unwanted "gift" repulses all the other people in her life. It begins with a sociopathic intruder to the Gilbert home dying an inexplicable and painful death during a home invasion robbery. The story of the police officer trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious death is interwoven with the strange and sad life story of Dr. Gilbert. Scary, suspenseful, tragic - I've read this book so many times I've worn out my copy and need a new one! Definitely recommend.

When I picked this up, I thought it would just be a horror book. The story of Dr. Jennifer List Gilbert, a very ordinary and lonely woman whose extraordinary and unwanted "gift" repulses all the other people in her life. It begins with a sociopathic intruder to the Gilbert home dying an inexplicable and painful death during a home invasion robbery. The story of the police officer trying to get to the bottom of the mysterious death is interwoven with the strange and sad life story of Dr. Gilbert. Scary, suspenseful, tragic - I've read this book so many times I've worn out my copy and need a new one! Definitely recommend.

A truly unusual book written 20 years ago. I've read it several times to relive the thoughts of the main characters and their stuggles with the amazing power of Jennifer.

When on honeymoon in 1928, Tom and Kate List are in a motor car accident that leaves Kate with a broken hip. Not knowing she was already pregnant, she receives a turn-of-the-century x-ray during treatment. Nine months later, her daughter Jennifer is born.

Jennifer is different from all the other children, in an indefinable way. The only person who does not feel any discomfort in her presence is her own mother. Even Tom has an aversion to his daughter.

`The Killing Gift' is a story of Jennifer's achingly lonely life, alone as she grew up and alone as a young college woman and even alone after her eventual marriage. Starting with an incident of a broken vase when she was but a child, strange things happen around Jennifer when she is upset or cornered.

Her only friend is Ellen Compton, a beauty who is so self centered she has no room to fear what Jennifer is; and her husband Dr. William Gilbert is a kind and quiet man who does not notice much around him. Even in the presence of the only two people who have ever tolerated her, Jennifer is alone.

The book skips around from Jennifer's past to her present, when maniac killer Amos Roberts is found dead in the Gilbert's apartment. Assigned to the case is Captain David Stavitsky, a homicide cop obsessed with a case folder of criminals who escaped prosecution. Amos Roberts was one of his obsessions, until now.

Stavitsky digs into the death of Roberts with tenacity, uncovering Jennifer's past and trying to solve the mystery around the woman.

Absolutely perfect read for lovers of detective novels or horror novels, very fast and compelling storyline with enough shivers in it to leave a satisfying, tingling taste in your mouth. Enjoy!

This is a story about a woman who is a recluse. Attacked by an armed man, the main character kills him by wishing him dead. The homicide detective who investigates the crime becomes enthralled with this woman and her killing gift. Excellent suspense story, more suspense than horror. It's a Putnam Award Novel. definitely worth a look.

William Gaylin's book, which combined good journalism, professional psychiatric insight, and superb wisdom and philosophical context, is in my opinion the best criminology ever written. Although his discussion of the crime and the motives therefor is first rate, what gives the book its immense value is the observations he made of the reaction of the Yale community to the offense. (Both murderer and victim were Yale undergraduates.) He combined this acute analysis with an acuity of insight that makes the book both profound and immediate. Anyone interested in criminal law should read and digest this book.

The best true crime books reveal not simply the crime and the criminals but the times in which both existed. While not really a True Crime book per se, it does reveal the crime, the criminal and the times.

I reread this book after reading American Taboo by Philip Weiss. Both books are about young, sexually liberated young women in their early twenties who are murdered in the mid 1970s by men whose claims of "insanity" successfully save them from murder convictions. In both cases people rally around the murderer because "no one can help" the dead victim anymore. In American Taboo, it's "us" (read "Americans") against "them" (read the Tongans). In Bonnie Garland's case the us are people who passionately believe that "prison does no good" versus "the establishment."

Gaylin delves deeply into the minds of all involved to understand their motivations and goals. He nails Herrin's defenders on their strange inability to differentiate punishment and rehabilitation. He also exposes their contempt for imprisonment in general - most can barely summon up an example of a crime that would warrant a long stint in jail. Gaylin isn't one sided, he depicts both sides with compassion and respect, he is especially good at drawing out the passionate desire for social justice that lead some of Herrin's supporters to see this case in political terms. Would commitment Catholic clergy like Sister Ramona Pena and the Christian Brothers have championed the cause of a man who bludgeoned his girlfriend with a claw-hammer in any other time but the early 1970s?

Most unsettling is the reaction of the Yale establishment many of who voice a feeling that Bonnie Garland's father needed to just get over it, that his grief and rage were somehow out of proportion. The lack of simple human compassion is staggering - for them the University is more important than the students.

This is a powerful book. The first chapter alone should be required reading in every high school civics class for the questions it asks. Does society have a right to demand punishment in the name of justice or is the goal of the justice system to salvage what can be salvaged that will benefit society in the long term? These are questions each of us should ask ourselves as citizens.

This is one of those rare books that, for better or worse, keeps me under its daunting yoke. It's gory depiction of the murder of Bonnie Garland, a 1970s Yale undergraduate, and of the mindset of her murderer, a fellow student, is breathtaking in an eerie, dreadful sort of way. When I read this book about four years ago, the hairs on my arms stood straight up. When I think about this book today, my Pavlovian hairs march in step. Giving me a glimpse of the mind of a killer is what I liked about this book.

What I didn't like, and what the second half of this book concerns itself with, is the psychological analysis of why the killer did what he did. This was the bane of an otherwise great book. The first half of the book was written in a reporter-like, just-the-facts-ma'am style. I liked that. Part of the joy of the book for me was to figure out how the killer thought, and to extrapolate his motive(s) for the crime. The author's Mickey-mouse psychological analysis of the killer's motives in the second half of the book was amateurish at best, and to my reckoning, just plain wrong.

In any event, I couldn't stop reading the book and the pitfalls of its second half weren't so bad as to destroy the enjoyment I gained from the first half. Personally, however, I would just read the first half and leave it at that.

One important note: my enjoyment of this book was purely on an intellectual level -- in trying to answer the question "why do killers kill." However, on an emotional level, this book was nauseating and, quite frankly, sick. I often had to put the book down and wonder (1) how could someone commit such a heinous act and (2) how could somebody write a book about it in such a cool-headed, detached fashion? I'm not sure if I'm better for having read it or if I would have been better off having left my copy without a reader. I'm sure the answer rests somewhere in the middle, but if you're especially squeamish, you'd be better off not buying this book. If you've ever lost a loved one to violent crime, it's probably not the book for you. And if you're the vigilante type, this is definitely not the book for you: you'll probably find yourself wanting to take care these sick-headed people yourself.

Absolutely invigorating book. The methodical thinking of Willard Gaylin is simply brilliant. Everything is clear. An amazing read!

Willard Gaylin is a gifted writer who is also a psychiatrist with long years of practice. The book is about an awful murder, but more than that it's about the inability of institutions of society -- Yale, and the criminal justice system -- to deal effectively with immorality and cruelty. The murder is the lens through which Gaylin brings social, moral and psychiatric issues into focus. Twenty years after I first read this book it remains vivid in my mind.