New York Books

Central Park is breath taking and this book does a fine job of giving the reader a feel for what makes this 850 acre masterpiece so special. The book is quite thorough and does an commendable job of disecting various sections of the park. The color photos are vivid and well thought out and the text is highly informative. The author has a real love for the park and it comes out in her writing. If you have never visited Central Park or have visited and fell in love with it like so many others, you will love this book. This oasis really is the heart of New York City and to understand New York you have to understand the parks history and its vast importantance to the city. Central Parks importance to New York and New Yorkers cannot be overstated, I can't imagine the city without it.

Did you know that the elm lined mall leading to the Bethesda fountain and the view of the ramble are actually based on the layout of a church? Or that all of the lakes in Central Park are manmade. This and many other very interesting facts are interspersed with lovingly taken photographs of the park which were taken by the author of the book as well. Miller starts decribing how the park came to be and the leading ideas and ideals that lead to its creation by Olmsted and Vaux. She proceeds to describe systematically the various sections of the park providing historical information as well. She delves into the some of the controversies and compromises that Olmsted and Vaux encountered in the creation of one of the finest examples of 19th Century art but it is not a comprehensive history of the park. There is a 2 page map of the park at the of the book with a legend identifying each of the features discussed in the book. If you are first time visitor to the city wishing to explore the park in detail or a life long New Yorker this book will delight and surprise you.

Commemorating the 150th anniversary of Central Park, photographer and historian Sara Cedar Miller celebrates the aesthetic, cultural and historic significance of America's first public park with the book "Central Park, An American Masterpiece." This is the park's definitive illustrated history, and offers some of the most gorgeous photographs I have seen on the subject - a difficult task given the number of pictures that have been drawn, painted and photographed of the Manhattan landmark. The book includes over 200 color illustrations, original plans and drawings alongside modern photos, giving the viewer/reader an historical perspective.

Accompanying Ms. Miller's work, portraying the park throughout the seasons, is a well written text which highlights the conception and creation of the park and its art and architecture. This is a big, beautiful picture book that would make a wonderful addition to any home or library. It's a wonderful gift idea. I know as I have given it numerous times.

Ms. Miller is the parks official historian and photographer and has been since the mid-1980s.
JANA

Sara Miller has put together an outstanding book: a book as vast and detailed as the Great Park itself. For those not familiar with the park and its history, this is an invaluable introduction to the political, demographical, economic and, especially, aesthetic thinking that went into the creation of 800 acres of gorgeous park space in the middle of Manhattan. For those seasoned veterans of NYC history, this is a welcome reminder of the enormous vision and efforts of Calvert Vaux and Fredrick Law Olmsted, as they conceived the park.

Nota Bene: A lot of books have gorgeous photos but the print job is miserable ... Others have high-qualtity prints but the photos aren't that interesting ... This book has glorious prints and an expert print job. Pick up this book.

Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points and The Five Points Concluded

As an avid fan of Central Park who has been exploring it and studying the books on it for decades, I was amazed at what there was still to learn about it from Miller's book. For example, other historians allude to a connection between Central Park's design and the Hudson River School of landscape art: Miller provides actual sources of the designer's inspiration and shows the results explicitly in the photos. And all in a way that is not at all "bookish" but instead makes you want to go right in and see for yourself the scenes she shows so well in the book's illustrations. The beautiful photos and fascinating stories and the well chosen historical prints all work together in such a compelling and entertaining way that one might never realize one is being educated by a superb textbook in the field of art.
With her emphasis on the past of the park, and its present restored beauty, it is understandable that the author does not use very much of the book's valuable space on the remaining present-day problems, but she might at least have alluded to the incongruity of the city's insistence on using this artistic matepiece as a through route for motor traffic during the majority of daylight weekday hours. In effect, the city's Dept. of Traffic is providing a refuge from the chaos of the surrounding streets during rush hours - but for the cars, not for the people. If you want to appreciate the park shown in this book, go during the times when the traffic noise does not drown out the wind in the trees, the birdsong, and the happy voices of children!

as we experience life we get pieces of the puzzle. Some times we are luck enough to get the edges so we have an outline and can begin to fill in the real informational and exeriential middle. With Jenny Wade you get the whole puzzle. A gift

In "Changes of Mind", Jenny Wade provides the reader with an excellent survey of research regarding stages of consciousness, from prenatal to after-death. Perhaps because she is working principally with academic research, her writing style is likewise very academic. Those not accustomed to the jargon of the field intially may find the writing style somewhat dry and less accessible; however, the content is very directly and lucidly presented. Wade presents differing opinions developed from research done in the field and carefully brings together her theory regarding the evolution of consciousness. I found the chapter regarding pre- and perinatal consciousness to be particularly fascinating. Also very useful are the charts that Wade developed listing the characteristics of each level of consciousness. For anyone who wishes to understand research regarding transpersonal psychology and holonomic theories, this book is invaluable.

This work brings together advances in the new sciences with studies in psychology, philosophy, and the history of mysticism, to challenge readers beyond linear and dualistic thinking. It outlines a new field for developmental psychology which would include the study of consciousness prior to birth and after death, as well as the transpersonal nature of consciousness. This development would have to be understood not so much as a progress toward something, but rather an access to our whole consciousness. The implications are profound for understanding psychic pain, the self, and our connections with each other, among other topics. The book is suprisingly modest in its claims, and thorough in its research. I cannot think of consciousness in the same way as I did before reading Changes of Mind.

Jenny Wade has made a most valuable contribution to the literature on human psychospiritual development with this substantive, well-researched work. She begins by placing overall consciousness research in the context of the new physics, specifically the post-Newtonian paradigm of physicist David Bohm, describing how the implications of such paradigms change not only earlier undestandings of human development but our understanding of what it fundamentally means to be a human being. Then she has opened up "stage theory" of development to explore research on the pre- and peri-natal stages of consciousness and the research on near-death experiences. She highlights a quality of "transcendent" consciouness revealed in this research that is similar in both the pre-birth and after-death "stages" of life, and explores the implications of this in understanding both the other stages between birth and death and the nature of human existence itself. She then draws on Eastern and Western mystical writings, showing how her conclusions correlate with the experiences of practicing mystics through the ages.

My only quarrel with Ms. Wade is that as she explores mystical literature she tends to privilege Eastern over Western mysticism. This reflects the general pattern in Transpersonal writings, and points to what I feel is a need in the Judeo-Christian world to affirm and bring forward more vigorously its own particular and very valuable strain of mystical literature.

I welcome this work for opening up regions not yet covered by other Transpersonalists, Wilber, Washburn, et al, and feel the perspective Ms. Wade offers will add invaluable depth and breadth to the developmental and Transpersonal dialogue.

To say this monumental book changed my life would be to use the most overused term in today's New Age pop-psychological world (I know because I've used it myself a few times describing other books!). But there is no other way to describe the power of what Dr. Jenny Wade has to say and the intellectual argument she makes- with the erudition of a scientist, and the humility of a mystic.

CHANGES OF MIND is the thinking man and woman's CELESTINE PROPHECY. She not only avoids backing down from the challenge of embracing previously accepted conventional psychoanalytical theory, religious philosophy and the scientific method. She embraces and redeems them all, as well as the myth and mysticism of practically every age and religion, by puttting them in what can only seem to be their proper intellectual/spiritual perspective. The model for charting and understanding the levels of consciousness of the human being- animal and spirit/mind- that she proposes becomes so immediately all encompassing that it can be considered a unified field theory for the human experience unlike anything that has been rendered before in Western Society.

Many writers, with their amazing intellect and insight, can give honor to their disciplines as they encompass enough of human endeavor and history into their perspective to make you become a intellectual roomate in the apartment of their minds whenever you look at the world afterwards. Camille Paglia and Nancy Friday, with their Freudian/Nietzschean, Anthropological/Psychological perspectives; Giorgio de Santillana (HAMLET'S MILL), with his profound and innovative (though not new) look at ancient myth in the context of astronomical science, immediately come to mind. Some, like the genius astrophyiscist Stephen Hawking, open you up to a world you otherwise would not have ever known.

CHANGES OF MIND has managed, for me, to create a paradigm of thought that encompasses every other, as if the intellectual house of every other thinker over the past three or four millenia around the world has been layed out to be easily visited and understood in the Urban Planning City-structure of Dr. Jenny Wade's mind. Gnostic Christianity, Freud, Piaget, Tibetan Mysticism, Sociology, Possibility thinkers, Success-oriented philosophies, New-age Spiritualism, Newtonian Physics, Quantum mechanics, psychic powers, dysfunctional families and codependency, Jung, history, the nature of time and space, reincarnation, pre-natal memories, English literature, sex, Buddhism, Christian Fundamentalism, Jesus Christ... there is little if anything in the human world that cannot be better understood and completely encapsulized by her vision of Transpersonal Psychology and the actual full stages of human development she clearly, lucidly and powerfully describes.

There are an extraordinarily few number of books that I have read that have touched me so profoundly, creating a paradigm shift in my view of people, myself and the world,while simultaneously reaffirming my most treasured pre-verbal intuitions- with science, not poetry. She does, however, make the poetry of all the world, from John Donne ("Death too, shall die") to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, to the New Testament, come alive in ways I never expected, and never would have guessed.

I cannot recommend this book to the fascinated and the skeptical alike enough.

I find many of the reviews "right on".

However, many comments are off-base, and as His Cousin, I find inappropriate. Ask, and you may find Truth!

"No disrespect..." ..."but"... there is that word again... don't listen to what I just said, just what I am about to say...

Amazing how the critics, nearly a Century later, have criticisms that sting, but couldn't find the gumption to face Him... or me!

Let's get it on!

Simply put, William Roughead was and is the greatest true crime writer of them all. Combining unusually supple storytelling talents with an inimitable, pawky sense of humor, he remains the best prose stylist chronicling human depravity since, well, the compilers of the King James Bible. A Scot by birth, Roughead became a Writer to the Signet at the turn of the last century, a privileged position which allowed him to attend and write up the great murder trials of his day and his favorites from Great Britain's colorfully criminous past. Almost all of his works are shamefully out of print but are well worth searching out in used book stores: both his own popular accounts and his contributions to the more formally edited "Notable British Trials" series. Henry James was one of his many besotted fans, and even the briefest sample of his work makes it obvious why true crime buffs consider him the Master. "Classic Crimes" (which includes chapters on Deacon Brodie, Burke and Hare, Madeleine Smith, Dr. Pritchard and other irresistible villains) is the best collection of his work, and I would be remiss if I did not own that my introduction to his peerless work came via Toni Morrison, who confessed her own idolatrous admiration in the New York Times Book Review some two decades ago. If you like Roughead, you'll never be able to get enough. As Luc Sante writers in his perceptive introduction to this latest reprint, Roughead repeatedly creates narratives which contain "in full that collision of placid, well-furnished pedantry with savage howling atavism" that was the keynote of his fascination with evil--and Roughead did believe in evil--people. More of his genius is avalable on display in "Twelve Scots Trials," available from Amazon. co.uk. As Roughead so eloquently put it: "Murder has a magic of its own, its peculair alchemy. Touched by that crimson wand, things base and sordid, things ugly and of ill report, are transformed into matters wondrous, weird and tragical. Dull streets become fraught with mystery, commonplace dwellings assume sinister aspects, everyone concerned, howsoever plain and ordinary, is invested with a new value and importance as the red light fall upon each."

William Roughead's accounts of great crimes from eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Scotland and England are about the most delicious mind candy I can think of; I opened this new edition from NYRB and almost couldn't put it down. While his vocabulary and style at times go a bit overboard in terms of their purpleness, he still presents very readable and exciting accounts of some incredible crimes which still haunt the popular imagination today (such as his account of the West Port murders of Burke and Hare, the body snatchers).

Re-issuing Roughead's work is really a feather in NYRB's cap, and yet I can't help wishing they had taken more pains with this edition. (Because of this, I felt I could not really offer it the five stars it otherwise would've deserved.) The introduction by Luc Sante is interesting, but not without errors: he notes that all of the crimes excepting those of Burke and Hare "are discoveries [on the part of Roughead]"; yet Roughead himself admits that Deacon Brodie's case has been dramatized many times, and inspired Stevenson's "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Madeleine Smith's trial inspired a film, "Madeleine," directed by David Lean in the 1950s. Similarly, no editor seems to have taken the time to annotate some of Roughead's more bizarre (or anachronistic, or peculiarly Scottish) terms: "douce" is used repeatedly for "sweet", and "lands" (apparently a term for the highrise towers in Edinburgh) recurs often too, yet there's nary a word of explanation. This lack of editorial interference is not welcome, especially since Roughead often refers repeatedly to other writings of his which his original audience would have recognized but which remain obscure to a contemporary reader.

Still, this book is a real treasure--and, as with all NYRB books, it comes on beautiful paper and with a gorgeous cover.

Simply put, William Roughead was and is the greatest true crime writer of them all. Combining a supple prose style with an inimitable, pawky sense of humor, he remains the best prose stylist chronicling human depravity since, well, the authors of the King James Bible. A Scot by birth, Roughead became a Writer to the Signet, a privileged position which allowed him to attend and write up the great murder trials of his era (1870-1952). His works are shamefully out of print and are well worth searching out in used book stores: both his commercial collections and his contributions to the "Notable British Trials" series. Henry James was one of his many devoted fans and even the briefest sample of his prose makes it obvious why true-crime buffs consider him the master. "Classic Crimes"(which includes chapters on Deacon Brodie, Burke and Hare, Madeleine Smith, Dr. Pritchard, William Palmer, etc.) is the best collection of his work in print and I would be remiss if I did not mention that I owe my introduction to this peerless writer to Toni Morrison, who confessed her own idolatrous admiration in a New York Times Book Review piece more than 20 years ago. If you like his stuff you'll never be able to get enough of it. (Also worth securing are the works of Roughead's friend, the American Edmund Pearson, whose "Studies in Murder" was reprinted last last by the Ohio State University Press.) As Roughead so eloquently put it: "Murder has a magic of its own, its peculiar alchemy. Touched by that crimson wand, things base and sordid, things ugly and of ill report, are transformed into matters wondrous, weird and tragical. Dull streets become fraught with mystery, commonplace dwellings assume sinister aspects, everyone concerned, howsoever plain and ordinary, is invested with a new value and importance as the red light falls upon each."

This is a truly enjoyable read of murders and a recounting of the trials associated with them.-Roughead is an inimitable Scottish stylist and, as Luc Sante points out in the introduction, his "musical" use of abstruse Scottishisms is a joy in and of itself to read.

The only thing in literature to which one can really compare it is Sherlock Holmes-Sir Arthur Conan Doyle makes an appearance in one of these cases, btw.-I don't mean to do Roughead a disservice in this comparison-Certainly, these are as true to the actual facts as Roughead could make them (and he goes to great lengths to do so), and several of the cases remain unsolved or "Not Proven"-a verdict in Scots law with which you shall become all too familiar if you read this book. - But, the same Victorian atmospherics are present as in Doyle, the Victorian moralisms, the eerie descriptions, the bumbling Dogberries of police constables. It's actually refreshing to know that these things existed just as Doyle wrote of them....except these cases are REAL!

Of course, there's the question the contemplative reader asks himself from time to time as to why he is interested in the macabre and the details thereof.-An interesting question.-I know not the answer.-But we all are, it would seem, to one ghoulish extent or the other.

5 Macabre, Scottish Stars!

As a writer and compensation consultant myself, I highly recommend this newly revised edition for HR and compensation professionals seeking a solid overview reference guide to all aspects of compensation. The book provides coverage of a wide variety of relevant topics written by highly-regarded professionals.

Mind you, there are more comprehensive treatments available for specialty or "single-topic" compensation areas, such as executive or sales compensation, but none that provide the overall breadth of The Compensation Handbook as resource guide on many key areas of compensation management.

I found this book to be an invaluable reference for my research in the area of compensation. It covers all of the main topics in compensation management with articles from the best minds in the field. The trend summary and chapter introductions provide an overview that is interesting and insightful. That kind of analysis is hard to find. The information is surprisingly up to date, since change is slow in this field.

The book is essential for compensation professionals.

Received with thanks the Compensation Handbook in a very good condition. It is exactly the product I was looking for. I believe that it would be a very important reference to my business.

As a compensation consultant, I sought a comprehensive guide for all aspects of the field. The 4th edition of The Compensation Handbook provides simple and direct answers for every compensation problem. It is a virtual "who's who" of compensation professionals providing well-constructed, concise information on their area of expertise. No matter what information I seek -- from base compensation, variable compensation, executive compensation, performance and compensation, compensation and corporate culture, or international compensation -- I can find pertinent, practical guidance in this one book. Compensation issues that are currently challenging every company - regardless of size, age, or industry -- are especially well developed in The Compensation Handbook. The section on Corporate Culture containing chapters on "Culture and Compensation" and "Connecting Compensation, Behaviors, Culture, and Strategy to Win" by William M. Mercer consultants, "Rewarding Scarce Talent" by Patricia Zingheim, "Gaining a Competitive Edge by Improving the Return on Human Capital" by Peter LeBlanc, and "The Role of Work-Life Benefits in the Total Pay Strategy" covers issues that every compensation practitioner or human resources professional will grapple with in the forseeable future. Even the effect of technology and computers on compensation administration are handled in The Compensation Handbook. Information on global compensation strategies is relevant not only to practitioners but to anyone seeking employment on foreign soil or working for a foreign company. The Compensation Handbook is a winner.

As a compensation consultant, I sought a comprehensive guide for all aspects of the field. The 4th edition of The Compensation Handbook provides simple and direct answers for every compensation problem. It is a virtual "who's who" of compensation professionals providing well-constructed, concise information on area of expertise. No matter what information I seek -- from base compensation, variable compensation, executive compensation, performance and compensation, compensation and corporate culture, or international compensation -- I can find pertinent, practical guidance in this one book. Compensation issues that are currently challenging every company - regardless of size, age, industry -- are especially well developed in The Compensation Handbook. The section on Corporate Culture containing chapters on "Culture and Compensation" and "Connecting Compensation, Behaviors, Culture, and Strategy to Win" by William M. Mercer consultants, "Rewarding Scarce Talent" by Patricia Zingheim, "Gaining a Competitive Edge by Improving the Return on Human Capital" by Peter LeBlanc, and "The Role of Work-Life Benefit in the Total Pay Strategy" covers issues that every compensation practitioner or human resources professional will grapple with in the forseeable future. Even the effect of technology and computers on compensation administration are handled in The Compensation Handbook. Information on global compensation strategies is relevant not only to practitioners by to anyone seeking employment on foreign soil or working for a foreign company. The Compensation Handbook is a winner.

One of the most comprehensive studies on the subject I have come across. Leonard gives a thought provoking overview of the circumstances involving battered women who kill. Sure to bring invaluable perspective regarding "domestic violence" to every reader. The interviews with women serving time add an edge to the literature, that brings us into their lives, their fears, and their reality. Impressively thorough in introduction to the topic, giving readers a solid framework to process the real-life stories of women inmates. I highly recommend this book as a must have to any sociological library, And to the author, wonderful research! and much needed... I await your next publication.

How easy it is for most of us to go about our daily life without care or concern for those in prison. How easy it is for us to take the "They get what they deserve" attitude toward all prisoners. This books exposes the horrors of how the justice system convicts and treats women that come from homes in which spousal and child battering is routine, and who, ultimately kill their spouse in a desperate attempt to preserve both their own life and that of their children. It is horrific to see how sexist the system is, and how the concept of spousal abuse is so thoroughly swept under the rug and/or treated as non-issue. This occurs not only in the prison system, but in our country at large. Too many of us feel all prisoners are guilty, and that the system gives out an appropriate sentence for the crime.. do they? Do these women get equal treatment and punishment as the men do? Can you murder in self defense? Is spousal abuse for real? This book is a real eye opener, and a must read for anyone in or looking into a political, law enforcement or sociological career.

Elizabeth Leonard scored big with this book. The book approached the subject in an appropriate manner and will leave readers in anticipation for change. The narratives from actual California inmates really grabs your attention and makes you feel as if you want to reach out and touch these women. It has been long overdue for someone to bring the truth to light about spousal abuse and really make the public aware. That person was Elizabeth Leonard and she does it with perfection.

One of the most comprehensive studies on the subject I have come across. Leonard gives a thought provoking overview of the circumstances involving battered women who kill. Sure to bring invaluable perspective regarding "domestic violence" to every reader. The interviews with women serving time add an edge to the literature, that brings us into their lives, their fears, and their reality. Impressively thorough in introduction to the topic, giving readers a solid framework to process the real-life stories of women inmates. I highly recommend this book as a must have to any sociological library.

Elizabeth Leonard's book reveals a shocking difficiency in the United States' legal system. She systematically and clearly outlines the outrageous way the legal system treats victims of domestic violence when they defend themselves. It is the most fair and even book I have ever read on the subject, yet carries with it a passion and drive as such I couldn't put it down. The time and care with which the research has been done is astonishing, so much so that even Amnesty International has sat up and taken notice. If you want a well written sociological study of how women who have killed their abusers are treated in the American legal system, this is the best book to buy.

The Crane is a nice, interesting story. Behind the story is is the parable of what happens when war comes. It is a great lesson in life and a great classic

A wise and well illustrated (by the author) childrens book, that is well known in Europe, and sadly overlooked in the US. Like "The Little Prince", this book has a charm and quality that transends age. It is about a man and a crane. It is about work,life,...the big questions the big answers. Good stuff. Sadly out of print.

'The Crane' is one of the most beatifully written childrens stories of this century. It is a parable that carries many important questions about who we are and how we live. As a teacher of English, I have found this book a remarkable resource and one that really allows for differentiation of learning with children around 11-12. It is a funny, sad and very touching story and I emplore somebody to reprint it, so that more people can access this wonderfull book. Why it isn't more widely known I do not understand.

I read this every summer at my grandma's. I never quite understood it, and I didn't quite like it but I did keep coming back to it. It's something of a fairy tale and something of a philosophical tale. If I had to describe it now I would call it hauntingly beautiful.

Reiner Zimnik, a former carpenter, was 26 and student at the Munich Art Academy when he wrote and designed this book in 1956. The illustrations, simple black and white sketches, stayed with me all my life. The most powerful one covers two pages with a few black strokes of sky, a fallen over little shoe, a dazed bird und the scribble: "Da war das Land traurig, und die Erde weinte." (The country was sad. And the earth wept.) As an adult I might say that it's a fable about the Second World War - what was there before and what came after. As child I experienced no other book that would speak to me with such immediatness. Though it wasn't that widespread in Germany I would still say that it's our best children's book till today.

Frank McCourt must've penned a primer for those who write autobiographies profiling their rise out of quintessential Irish childhood to become successful teachers, pub owners or actors in the Big Apple. If not, we'll develop a one, having slogged through a few Irish experience autobiographies in the past few years. CROSSING HIGHBRIDGE, a soulful reflection penned by Maureen Waters, fits the bill. The first of her family not born in Ireland, Ms. Waters left a secure Irish Catholic Bronx neighborhood to become professor of English at Queens' College. In HIGHBRIDGE Waters revisits her old neighborhood and youth in an attempt to exorcise a few demons and make sense of tragic loss.

Speaking of school, name a primordial recollection that separates Catholic childhood experiences from those of the less fortunate. Stumped? Parochial school--does anything compare? I recall nuns swooping like hawks about the classroom slapping the ten-thumbed hands of boys while praising the girls, all who had mastered the fine motor skill control requisite to master the Palmer method of penmanship And priests, remember their surprise visits? They dashed about classrooms rooting out the heathens who failed to memorize today's catechism. Waters pens a charming reunion visit to that school we loved, where Sister Immaculata, or Sister Alvera, or Sister Whoever, ruled the roost with an iron claw, er, fist.

Waters infuses a recognizable dose of Irish Catholic guilt. To wit: "You want to be a teacher? Are you daft Maureen? The proper thing, young lady, is to save yourself, marry a decent man and have a dozen children!" Or the refrain heard by many a young Irish lad, "Pat, the family hasn't ordained a priest in two generations. Your mother and I want you to consider the seminary." Familial guilt threads its way through CROSSING HIGHBRIDGE.

No growing-up-Irish spiel should lack a smattering of old-country angst, and it doesn't hurt to parade a skeleton or two out of the family closet in the offing. Forced by her father to work the family farm at an age when she should've been in school, Water's Mayo-born mother exuded the lifelong melancholy of lost opportunity; melancholy she wore on her shirtsleeve. According to Waters, an aunt told her that her maternal grandfather beat the six daughters, including Maureen's mother, Agnes. Also prone to unleashing impressive levels of violence, maternal grandpa Ruane was once hush-hushed off to a mental institution. Further, Water's father, Daniel, witnessed his share of perverse Black and Tan justice and senseless political murder while caught in the flame of Ireland's republican fire of the 1920s. Waters also lost an uncle in a failed attack on a Sligo military garrison during the Free State revolution. There's more--but perhaps these are skeletons better left in the closet.

Which leads us to the subject of humor rampant in Irish tragicomedy. CROSSING HIGHBRIDGE is bound with all the Irish charm and storytelling one would expect---but not the leprechaun-like humor. Waters might've survived unscathed an abusive marriage, the lofty expectations of the Church, the vagaries of a difficult mother, and a professional career bound by the shackles of sexism, but the loss of a son in a tragic accident stopped her in her tracks. Waters wrote CROSSING HIGHBRIDGE, she offers, as a step to recovery and to pay homage to those who had gone before her. Writing with the passion of someone who needs to unlock the past in order to make sense of the present, she keeps an optimistic eye on the future. CROSSING HIGHBRIDGE is a worthwhile read.

Along with her title of Professor of English, Maureen Waters' résumé includes, Director of Irish Studies at Queens College in New York.

I was able to identify with nearly everything Miss Waters wrote about her Irish Catholic upbringing in Highbridge, because I too came from the same place, and I knew her sister Agnes many, many years ago. However, if I had not had the privilege of knowing Maureen and her literary family, I would still have been able to appreciate the writer's gift of style where she combined gracefully, history, philosophy, religion along with the socioeconomic conditions of the 1940's and 1950's growing up in Highbridge.

This profoundly moving memoir of growing up Irish/Catholic/female in the midcentury Bronx began with the author's need to understand the loss of her son to accidental death by drugs and alcohol. As she puts it, "the drive to piece together cause and effect was a belief that I had far more power than I actually did for good or ill." She sifts the past out of psychological necessity, desperate, guilty, and finds ordinary treasure: in human characters - her father, an immigrant from Sligo, her mother from Mayo, a feisty and lovable little sister, Agnes, and, above all, in her beautiful and enigmatic lost child of the flaming red hair, Brian Patrick - and also in their brave and lonely human places (Highbridge on Hudson, Long Island). She looks back for clues to her loss from the perspective of a divorced single mother trying to juggle children and hold her own in academe (she's now a professor of English). Memory sifted through the prism of such luminous prose and honest emotion offers a gentle and moving consolation to this reader. The story of the author's Catholic journey, from insider - the parish was Sacred Heart - to outsider is told with devastating brevity. I'll never forget the final image of women's exclusion. It rings so true. The abyss is present in Waters' world, but to me this is a book of hope

This beautiful memoir of growing up Irish-Catholic-female in the Bronx at midcentury began with the author's tragic loss of one of her sons to an accidental death from drugs and alcohol. In order to survive herself, she must understand: "The drive to piece together cause and effect was a belief that I had far more power than I actually did for good or ill." The bereaved mother, who is also a professor of English, sifts her past for answers. She uncovers the treasure of human characters (her father, Daniel Waters, an immigrant from Sligo, her mother from Mayo; her rebel little sister, Agnes) in their brave and lonely human settlement (Highbridge on the Hudson). She looks back on the cost of parenting alone as a divorced young mother and trying to hold her own in academe. The consolation that memory - and Waters' luminous prose - makes for her and for this reader is profoundly moving. The story of her Catholic journey, in particular, the movement from insider - the parish was Sacred Heart - to outsider, is especially strong: she tells it with a devastating brevity and one final image that I'll never forget. It rings so true. This is a courageous book about loss in which you come to see that what remains is, after all, a matter of life understood and hope.

I could relate to nearly everything that Miss Waters wrote about in Crossing Highbridge, because I came from that Irish Catholic enclave, I knew the Waters family long ago, and I went to Sacred Heart with Maureen's sister, Agnes.

Maureen Waters is a gifted writer who combines history, philosophy, religion, and the socio-econimic conditions in a working class environment in the 1940's and 1950's, with utter grace, and at the same time, the reader can experience some strong emotions of saddness and joy.

Helen Levitt's name is less well known than some of her images of New York street life. Perhaps that is the way she would wish it since she seems to have never sought fame. The book is as reticient as she and there is little commentary, but in truth little is necessary though I would love to know more about her and her work. This is a beautifully printed, organized and designed book and it was a pleasure to spend hours looking at the photographs. Often it was difficult to turn the page because each image is so compelling and resonates on many different levels. In a way, they are the perfect street images; they have the look of a snapshot but are so much more than that. Though they are all of New York they have a universal quality and speak about the truth of people's lives in a profound way. I admired the formal qualities of the photographs but what resonates most is the deep humanity of what she does, what she sees and records. It sometimes seems to me that photographers, in their quest for a good images,treats subjects with a level of distain and distance that is uncomfortable and ultimately manipulative. Crosstown is nothing like that and even when the photos are funny, and several are, they are funny in a very human way. There is nothing saccharine or trite in her work either and she has a great gift of photographing children without slipping into cuteness. I am a photographer and I treasure this book. I would certainly recommend it to others interested in photography, but I thinks its' appeal extends to anyone interested in the human condition and how we relate to one another.

Helen Levitt is not one of those New Yorkers who look neither to the left or right as they travel the streets of the city. This is a book about life. The neighborhoods she shoots are generally poor ones, yet we see people that are involved; people who are actively engaged in life even when they seem to be doing nothing. Her subjects -often children- play, they love, they communicate, they are lost in thought, and occasionally are sleeping.

A fine sense of humor permeates many of the scenes. Some subjects are caught in contorted, puzzling positions. We see the incongruous position of objects: an old 33rpm record in the street; a pair of shoes sitting by themselves on a sidewalk; three chickens wandering around a decrepit room -where did they come from? A mother's head is buried in the bottom of a baby buggy while the tyke yelps with joy. A dog is caught in the act of mistaking his owner's leg for a fire hydrant while she talks to a friend.

In general HL catches the warm side of humanity. Only a couple of pictures look like they were taken from a file of Jacob Riis (a 19th century photographer of New York tenement life). There was one particularly sad shot of a woman and her three children sitting on their front steps. They are obviously impoverished. The two youngest children seem quite content, but the mother seems weighed down with her life, and in the teen-age daughter we see the beginning of lost hopes.

This book is a must for anyone interested in street photography. It will take you a long time to get through this book as each photograph will hold your attention for some time.

This book has a number of unique photographs. Ms Levitt with many of these wonderful pictures,leaves you wondering what happened before or just after the picture was taken.
You can I believe see some connection to the style of Cartier Bresson with whom I understand she spent some time working.
I recommend the book.

If you admire the warmth and humanity of Helen Levitt's endearing photographs of New Yorkers, don't miss this book. The selection of photographs is superb and the printing and binding quality are first rate. This book could go out of print soon, from which time its value will grow quickly.

This is my latest favorite photography book. I have a large collection that includes many with Manhattan as subject. The images captured by Levitt are stunning and the binding of the book itself is wonderful.

I came of age as a homo in Boston circa 1987-1991.

Cyclizen is the best account of the political, sexual, and social fulcrum for 20 something gays in New York at that time. Sex and empowerment were in the air and Provenzano captures both in this novel. A great read that includes generous helpings of the events and flavor of the time and believable accounts of the romantic and erotic adventures of Kent a complex but likeable protagonist and narrator. Provenzano also pulls off a novel that has substance and graphic sexual encounters. Highly recommended.

"Cyclizen" is something of a sequel to "Monkey Suits" and continues on the theme of a rather ordinary guy who was swept into AIDS activism. Kent is a peripheral member of ACT-UP, but a more worldly person than the protagonist of "Monkey Suits". The book deals directly and sensitively with the difficulties of sexual relationships between gay men, especially where their HIV statuses differ. It also deals with effort to come to terms with the kind of relationships that a gay man may seek, although this is never fully resolved, much as many men never really figure this out (or they choose a sort of freedom that isn't entirely freeing, as is the case here). Kent seems to enjoy the jailhouse hookups as much as any other aspect of activism and the book captures the varied motives that brought people into ACT-UP and kept them involved. As such, it will disappoint those who want an elegy on a past era of engaged activism.

"Cyclizen" has gotten far less press than "Monkey Suits" or "PINS", which seems odd to me. Structurally, it is a much better written book than Provenzano's two previous efforts. He uses a straight forward first person narrative and builds that character more fully than the poorly developed Lee of "Monkey Suits". It seemed apparent that Lee was underdeveloped as a way for readers to impose some of themselves on the character and let the story build around him--unfortunately, it just seemed like weak character development to me. The "Wall Street" subplot of "Cyclizen" is the most poorly developed aspect of the story, although it helps provide a narrative that comes to a less rushed and neatly tied ending than "PINS" or "Monkey Suits". Given its brief length, this is more of a novella than a novel and this form may be better for Provenzano, who seemed to treat his other two books like short stories in terms of resolving their plots.

Overall, the book is an enjoyable read. It realistically captures the middle period of AIDS activism and provides a perspective on gay men's relationships. It continues Provenzano's exploration of characters who aren't quite the usual gay lit guys, which is one reason why I look forward to what ever he does next.

Written in a seat-of-the-pants tenor, "Cyclizen" evokes the mood and tone of the times in which it is set. In a basic, sort of scruffy narrative, he tells a very sweet story in the context of a time when a movement was gaining its footing and becoming a "community."

The backdrop of activism, the journey through the edges of Gordon Gekko's Wall Street, the exploration of feelings captured, recaptured, sought after and lost all come together in a narrative that is compellingly evocative; especially if you were around, during those times...

There are some powerful moments, articulated throughout the book; and the end was, to me, quite moving. It won't be moving, though, if you go right to the last pages; you must READ THE BOOK!

So buy it. Read it. Keep Provenzano fed.

While Cyclizen is the third novel by Jim Provenzano, it's the first novel of his I've read. Written in a first-person narrative (a writing style I enjoy immensely), it's set in New York City in 1992. Gay activism, such as ACT UP and Queer Nation, were at their peak and the start of the "greed is good" Wall Street days.

Kent, the protagonist, becomes a bike messenger, and with that he recounts his adventures -- sex, friendships, and even gets wrapped up in the "greed is good" Wall Street of the day. One of aspects of first-person writing, fiction or non-fiction, is the writer can fully explain what's really going through the character's mind. I know what Kent is thinking about more fully when he is by himself or interacting with the other players in his life.

Cyclizen is mean to be an entertaining read without hitting the reader over the head with a specific point (or issue). Kent's passion about his activism is apparent, but it is his own, not meant to "teach a lesson" to the audience.

I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for an example of gay fiction that isn't heavy or moralistic, but simply a good novel!

Cyclizen is another stylistic departure for one of my favorite gay fiction writers.



While it's a far veer away from "Pins" (there aren't any teenagers or wrestles), it seems a good follow-up to "Monkey Suits," which had its flaws, but focused on the same time and setting. This seems to be the downtown version.



"Cyclizen" is much more personal; a first-person telling leaves you wondering less about the main character, who provides a lot of personal details, and more about the wider world of activism and bike messengering he inhabits. New York itself becomes a character.



I got a lot of poetic passages, some sexually explicit yet written with a motivation, a why, why his hot ex-boyfriend activist clone dumped him, and why Kent is hesitant to connect fully with Ness, who could be his true love. All of this is told with a wry combination of humor and bluntness.



His affair with Sheets, the closeted marketing guy with a scheme, embodies the 80s corporate gay white guy. It's interesting to get his naive perspective to counter Kent's almost cynical tone about his years spent in ACT UP.



This was a breeze to read, with action, politically charged sex, and a bit of old mythological stuff woven in, too. I look forward to reading it again on a hot beach.

Resonating like some soundless bell, I could feel the heartache, the joy, the anguish, and the longing of the novel's characters!

"Dardedel" is opening your heart to another heart - fully, without reserve. Dardedel "unchains us from the burdens of our isolation and loneliness. By uniting our soul with another soul our deepest thoughts and feelings are set free without the shame of judgment or the fear of betrayal". I was unprepared for what a true Dardedel really feels like. But I felt a thirst to Dardedel with someone for the first time in life! How wonderful!

This loving, inspired work of art is a "magical mystery tour". It is lyrical, musical, and profoundly reverent and relevant. It is a testimony of our hunger for knowing, understanding, loving, living insightful and mindful lives. This connection, this dardedel, among the novel's characters, and between author and reader, is a communion - the sacred sharing of private, important, sincere thoughts and feelings. The extraordinary experience unfolds line after line, page after page - as consciousness and conscience heightens!

The `magic' is Parvin's incredible imagination and creativity! Pirooz, the protagonist, a professor intent on suicide, meets the cacti-reincarnations of the great Persian Sufi poet-philosophers Rumi and Hafez in the heart of the Sonora desert in Arizona. Temporarily dissuaded from suicide by Rumi and Hafez, Pirooz returns to the equally inhospitable desert of New York City crowded with equally thorny people! During the return flight home, he dreams of God complaining about His own creation, mankind, as He dardedels with Pirooz. Pirooz's candid response is to ask God why everything God creates turns out to be a lemon. God's answer is best read for yourself.

Hafez appears in New York City as a taxi driver to both learn about modernity and to make sure Pirooz does not commit suicide. He is followed by Rumi, whose mission is to look after Hafez and Pirooz. Rumi is also curious about modernity, but critical of it.

In the interim, the sparkling Mitra falls in love with Hafez, and he with her. She carries a covenant of past and future unknown even to her. The `poem of poems', a mythical bird, is a brilliant portrayal of the `mysteries' that abound when art and science converge and reveal, in their union, their true spirit - not only in the book but also in life.

Lastly is the hopeful poignancy when Pirooz writes "I am a Sufi atom, listen to my dardedel ... love has many hearts, truth many ears, beauty many eyes, and the human fate is not beyond the human reach". He touches the quintessential in the human spirit.

This book is a priceless classic whose time has come.

Dardedel displays an unquenchable thirst within man for love, perfection and humanity. The enchanting Mitra, the embodiment of everlasting love and light, enlightens a musical craving for love within man. Professor Manoucher Parvin has written a palatable, seductive tale that definitely leaves the reader begging for more. The wisdom of Hafiz and Rumi speaks directly to the heart of philosophy, social theory, and education; it demonstrates a bridge of understanding between the relationship of man to himself (Professor Pirooz) as well as the one between two cultures which are in desperate need of mutual empathy.

Epilogue

Ascendance: The Possibility of You and Me

There is no illuminating nova.
There is no cleansing rainstorm.
There is no music lifting the spirit.
There is no prayer seducing a miracle.
There is only the possibility of me understanding you.
There is only the possibility of you understanding me.
There is only the possibility of one soul caressing another.
There is only dardedel.

"DARDEDEL"-Epilogue

By reincarnating two legendary Persian poets Rumi and
Hafez in New York Dardedel connects East and West,Past and Present and
integrates science, art and spirituality in a brilliant fashion. Dardedel is
very humorous and insightful.

Dardedel, a novel in verse, is a masterpiece that one would read again and again. It sparkles with the wisdom and spirituality of the East and the science and rationality of the West. Its love story between the dazzling and brilliant Mitra and the legendary poet rebel Hafez will become a classic of the 21st Century. The other characters in the novel are the poet Rumi, Professor Pirooz, New York and God.

"Dardedel" is a glorious read -- nourished with whimsy, irony, compelling plot twists and passion. I commend this lovely work of verse to everyone from students of classical Middle Eastern literature to lovers of contemporary fiction. There is something for everyone in Manoucher Parvin's prose.