New York Books

A very interesting collection from Acanthus Press: very well documented, pleasant to read with a real work of documentation from the author. Despite some peoples who tried to minimise her influence, Ms de Wolfe - Mendl was an extraordinary visionnaire and has given worldwide interiors a basis that can still be found in all discerning family houses nowadays.
A very fascinating book for all interested by beauty and taste!

An exclusive self-made member of the design cognoscenti, Elsie de Wolfe was a social climber and a tastemaker. This is an unrivalled publication of a woman who pretty much defined style in the early part of the 20th century and is recognized as being the first paid interior designer in America. Full of photographs (although in black and white) of her projects and her own homes, this is a great addition to the library of anyone who is interested in classic decorating and the history of decorative arts.

THIS BOOK IS AN HISTORICAL SENSATION....A WONDERFUL READ AND FULL OF STUNNING PICTURES; WELL WORTH HAVING; MAYBE TWO IN YOUR LIBRARY ONE TO KEEP AND ONE TO CONSTANTLY REFER TO FOR INSPIRATION......A MUST HAVE !!!!

Elsie de Wolfe, born in 1865 give or take a few years, was a woman ahead of her time. She is noted for her taste in interior decoration, although she did not begin that career until after she was 40 years of age. Her earlier life had been spent as a stage actress, an occupation that raised eyebrows during the Victorian era.

Nonetheless, when she turned to her new career it was with the following announcement: "I am going in now for interior decoration. By that I mean supplying objets d'art and giving advice regarding the decoration of their houses to wealthy persons who do not have the time, inclination, nor culture to do such work for themselves. It is nothing new. Women have done the same thing before."

Perhaps so, but probably not with de Wolfe's impressive client list, which included Anne Vanderbilt, the duke and duchess of Windsor, and Adelaide and Henry Clay Frick.

This fascinating volume holds some 300 color plates tracing her designs of numerous rooms for the rich and famous, as well as rooms at Barnard College, and perhaps her greatest love, the refurbishment of the Villa Trianon. For this reader, an intriguing section is the one devoted to de Wolfe's private residence in Paris. Marriage to Sir Charles Mendl, a press attache to the British Embassy in Paris, gave de Wolfe entree to English aristocracy, albeit not terribly high on the ladder. Nonetheless the new Lady Mendl needed a proper setting to entertain. In addition to the Mendls, the apartment she found became home to a journalist friend, John McMullin. Lord Mendl chose to also retain his bachelor dwelling. This apartment was pure de Wolfe, reflecting as she had once written: "It is the personality of the mistress that the home expresses. Men are forever guests in our houses, no matter how much happiness they may find there."

Later, she would decorate rooms for herself at New York's St. Regis, and the Plaza. After going to California in 1941, she refurbished her last house in Beverly Hills for herself and her husband.

She was a trendsetter and, undoubtedly, a self-promoter who lived life to the fullest and precisely as she chose to do so. This volume is apt tribute to her style, persistence, and ingenuity.

Highly recommended.

- Gail Cooke

The Enchanted April. I love this book. About ladies way ahead of their time - before women's lib had come on the scene. Takes place in a rented villa in Italy for one idyllic month in April - ladies vacationing without their husbands and finding themselves.

While waiting for this to come to dvd in the US, I purchased the book with high hopes. I fell in love with the movie and the book only enhanced that love. Elizabeth Von Arnim brings the beauty of this Italian castle to life in a way that only words can do. The charm and enchantment are palpable. It is easy to get lost in their world so that you can experience it as though you are there with the four women.

Having loved both filmed versions of this story, I came to the book not anticipating any surprises, and in that respect I was correct. What I did get, however, was a more fully-formed understanding of each of the four women who come to San Salvatore. Each has her own quest, and each is surprised in the way that her quest is resolved.

Elizabeth von Arnim can harness language in ways that few other authors are able. She is, for instance, able to display what a walking joke Mr. Wilkins is, while letting him think that he's the very model of an educated man.

I started off loathing both Mrs. Fisher and Lady Caroline Dester in a way that wasn't true when watching the films. This made their transformations that much more satisfying, in the end.

I'm now interested in reading other books from Elizabeth von Arnim and, even more importantly, visiting the castello where the story is based. She wrote The Enchanted April after her own visit, and it has continued to "enchant" travelers in the many years since the publication of her novel. I can't wait to see the "tub of love" and be surrounded by wistaria myself.

This is one of the most delightful, readable books I've ever encountered. The movie is terrific -- but the book is even better. An afternoon in a comfortable chair with "The Enchanted April" is one of the best gifts to myself that I can imagine. It's a good gift to share with a friend, too.

EVER TRUE sweeps the dust off history, reading makes one look forward to the next letter as if we were waiting for the postman.

A really great read for the Civil War history buff. Highly recommended, very readable and hard to put down. Excellent work by Lisa Saunders.

I started reading yesterday and could not put it down. It is so interesting to have a look at the Civil War through the eyes of those that lived it, and Saunders' historical notes are facsinating. It amazes me to think that those letters were waiting for her to find and bring back out to the light of day. I am eagerly looking forward to being able to read more later today!

"Ever True" is a stunning account of ordinary folks in extraordinary circumstances, folks who never lose their down-to-earth qualities while they learn the ways of a more sophisticated world.

David Sisson, Professor of English and avid genealogist

Lorca had a pessimistic and dark impression of the New York during the Great Depression years. Lorca describes a city populated by ghosts and nightmares. This is one of the most shocking poetic works of the XX century.
I recommend the CD 'Omega'. It is an experimental 'flamenco' work by the `cantaor' Enrique Morente, based on the poems of `Poet in New York'. This music album will help you to go deeper into the book.

Federico García Lorca is among the most celebrated Spanish poets of all time. The beauty of his writing has given him a place in the gallery of the best Spanish writers. This book he wrote when he was a student at Columbia University relies on the influence he got from the surrealistic movements that were running on Europe at the time. Thus, it gets far from the poetic language used in his other books, most notably in Romancero Gitano: verses leave the regularity of the romance to explore new and rich arrangements; the metaphors grow more complex and ellaborate, making a delicious challenge to the reader; one can read a poem time and again for days and will still be unsure of its real meaning. Besides this some of the poems reach a new height on Lorca's poetry. To anybody just seeking to discover Lorca and his world, Romancero Gitano seems to be a best approach in my oppinion, but if you know it and like it, I can't help recommending Poet in New York as a new horizon to discover. If your approach to this book is open-minded, you won't be disappointed.

After reading "Poeta en Nueva York" I found out that it was really worth learning spanish. I am not exaggerating but some of Lorca's verses make me cry. They have so much emotion and fantasy in them, and they talk about experiences that take place deep inside me. The poems are surrealist but that is also what makes them amazing. The best poem is probably "Fabula y Rueda de Los Tres Amigos" where Lorca beautifully conveys his feelings towards his relationships with others and the struggle he sees within them. Strangely enough at the end of the poem he describes a lot of events concerning his death which actually coincided with his murder a few years later. Lorca's relation with the moon reflected through his simple yet overwhelming words is also charming and inspiring. I discovered through them that there was a lot more in that celestial body orbiting the earth than what I used to see before. You will feel that poetry is just flowing out of Federico. He didn't to exert a lot of effort to sound that marvellous and that right.

After reading "A Poet in New York," I can say this much:
"I don't think I am planning a trip to New York very soon." Lorca's account of the city was so visceral, raw and cruel, I could feel the hauntingly dead interactions between people, and those people's relationships to the material world around them. The accounts of violence in the streets are equally as cold and boldly unapologetic as his observations of the early morning hours when the city is first waking up.

Gabriel Garcia Lorca truly shows that when it comes to the movements as a city with ties to industry, capitalistic gain and material wealth, there is no division between the life of the human being and the life of the machine. There is almost an automated, "conveyor belt" feeling to the mechanical movement of life in the city. As soon as energy is poured into an endeavor, it is also poured out just as easily. People are as disposable as sheet metal. Their blood, their organs and their instruments of movement could be ripped away and demolished as quickly and non-emotionally as one would destroy the framework of a building and it would be of no concern to anyone else.

I believe that Lorca's observations and journal entries are a reflection of not only the mindset of one of the most well known cities in the world, applicable to the 1930s, but is also quite accurately a reflection of the state of the world today.

I completed this 369 page "story book" in two days. It had been so interesting that I just could not put it down.

It's no exaggeration to regard it as a story book. Somehow the reality is more harsh and crueler than fictitious TV drama and movies, and the history of the investment world is surely no exception.

Back to the book. This is in fact an excellent collection of writings from books, journals amd newspapers of different witnesses to the author's selection of major debacles of the past four centuries. There are twelve parts of unequal period, with a timeline of critical incidents in the beginning of each part, followed by selected witness reports as mentioned above. Certainly, not everything could be accounted detailedly (so I would like to recommend "Devil Take the Hindmost: A History of Financial Speculation by Edward Chancellor", a book that dug deeper but not as wide) but readers certainly would have a very correct idea of what went wrong.

As a CFA charterholder (not yet, passed all three levels of exam but not paid the fees), I strongly recommend AIMR to put this book into the required list of reading to warn its members of the limitation of the financial techniques or theories or calculations or integrity stuff we try to preach. Anyway, a must read for anyone, especially serious players!

p.s. One minor drawback: Soros was not there. He should have been.

this book gives you a window look into the brilliance of wall streets finest players , as well as the big scammers. this book gave me a better knowledge of how the market works and how the economic cycle is always repeating itself. it gave you a nice history into how wall street was established and how it evolved into the market it is today.

Editor David Colbert collected a multitude of printed source material - diaries, private letters, memoirs and articles - that spans 400 years, and, as the title promises, provides plenty of accounts from eyewitnesses to Wall Street. Organized chronologically, the book also includes Colbert's timelines and his original introductions for each piece. Divided into sections that reflect every era, the book is an insightful and often hilarious romp through financial history. We [...] recommend this book to all readers - there's something here for everyone, even if you don't think you give a hoot about the stock market. Colbert's collection is a sweeping, unusual look at social, economic, political and cultural history.

I don't work in finance, but I found Eyewitness to Wall Street very enjoyable and informative. It's a sweep of stories that captures the impact of Wall Street over the centuries -- and this subject seems even more relevant after the terrorist attacks that attempted to end the Street's intense vitality. This book does a wonderful job of defining and explaining, and thoughtfully celebrating, that vitality.

This is a must read for hispanics and non-hispanics alike. A treasure for any individual interested in the immigrant experience. An excellent read!!

This book takes you on a journey from a small town in the rural sector of Puerto Rico to the struggles Puerto Ricans faced and still face in the U.S. Rivera captures experiences so vividly, one can have a clear mental picture of what ia going on. This book captures your emotions and ties you to the story-line and lives of these characters.

I met Ed Rivera personally two years ago. He taught creative writing at a college in New York City. I've just read this book now, almost six months after he passed away and it is incredible how inspirational he can be, both in person and in the written word. In Family Installments, Ed Rivera has set the example for future writers. He has done something that not even Piri Thomas, with all due respect, did in his novel, Down These Mean Streets. Ed Rivera presented a story that truly captures the Latino's experience, from the native country all the way to life in the United States, mainly in New York City. Ed Rivera tells this story with a clever blend of grimness and humor that is difficult to imitate. His characters are powerfully vivid and his prose is rich and sharp. These details are what bring the story to life. But what adds to the charm of the story is the way Ed Rivera can make even the most difficult and embarassing situations very humorous. The book is a real treat for Latinos and non--Latinos alike. I give it five stars.

Rivera has opened the window to the world of what struggling Hispanic families had to endure just to become an almost invisible dust particle on the sill of America. This book captures the true essence of latin struggle and desperation to find a better life, the rigors of the ruthless yet merciful city (New York), and the good times though turbulent times. This book captures the pain, and frustrations of the Hispanic community coming to a newland, seeing it through the eyes of a developing juvinile into his manhood. This is a small nich in the historical carvings of being Hispanic. Thank you Mr. Rivera for writing this autobiography. As a young hispanic youth growing up in Corona, Queens during the early 80's, I can relate to the struggles your family and yourself have undergone. I was born in New York, but my father shared the same sufferings your father had upon migrating to America for a better life. He told me stories of living in the Dominican Republic and seeing pure poverty, then coming to America to work like a mule for close to nothing, saving every penny to bring my mother over and their new born daughter. We survived in a one bedroom apartment for 14 years...we were seven kids then. "My father also wears glasses fit for microscope". This is a great book, I hope you enjoy it as I have.

Note: I offended an immature person by giving negative reviews to books attempting to "prove the Book of Mormon." Rather than answer my criticisms, that person gives my reviews negative votes. Oh, well.

Your "helpful" votes are appreciated, and please remember that a short review (recommendation in this case) is good if it leads you to a great book.

I own this edition, and I would highly recommend it. I agree with the other reviewers. This is a must-have book for anyone with an interest in art.

My copy is from 1997. That edition (p. 112) contains the most wonderful scene of two children and a dog running up a hill with a beautiful valley in the background. It's from the cover of the "Saturday Evening Post" of May, 1960. Done in light greens and yellows, this painting is very evocative of an innocent youthful world.

I wish that painting had been larger. If someone knows where I could obtain a copy, please leave a message here.

"Famous American Illustrators" is full of large-format pictures that give the reader an appreciation for the talent and imagination that has gone into these paintings. What a wonderful world these artists created.

Thanks, and you will enjoy this book. Highly recommended.

The Walt Reed book referred to by the other reviewers contains many more artists, but it has far smaller reproductions because there is so much packed in. By contrast the present book has some magnificent large and colourful illustrations that allow the reader to gain a better appreciation of each of the artists. The colour balance is wonderful (unlike some art books) and the selection of illustrators is great.

Books on illustrators, from the golden age to the present, with their vast sample illustrations are in constant demand these days due to titles going throught out-of-print listings. One excellent reference source-The Illustrator in America:1880- 1980 by Walt Reed contains hundreds of works by illustrators from the late 19th century to the 1980's. The book unfortunately, is now out-of-print. Now, a new recent addition has been published-Famous American Illustrators. The various listings and samples of illustrators from the book are all elected members of the American Society of Illustrators. The book is an excellent supplement for Walt Reed's title where the readers can view more samples of each of the illustrators' unique styles.

The book is an excellent supplement to one of the title by WaltReed-The Illustrators in America: 1880 to 1980. The book containnumerous sample illustrations by elected members of the American Society of Illustrators.

Professor Wilshire calls for, and admirably practices, self-reflection, as he critiques the commercialization/professionalization and dehistoricizing trend of analytic philosophy. He celebrates freedom and ecstasy in a spiritual, passionate inquiry committed to pursuing difficult questions, wherever they may lead.

He takes risks, not least of which is deliberately remembering, even that which is most painful.

Someone who has survived academia without being tainted by it,
he is also one of the very few men who can truly appreciate the radical feminist theology/thealogy of Mary Daly.

What's not to love?

Socrates died long ago but his influence continues. Wilshire's Fashionable Nihilism continues his tradition of stinging us into awareness, of stopping us in our sleepwalking and demanding that we wake up and question our benumbing assumptions, of prompting us to inquire whether we are as fully alive as we might be. Wilshire tears into the reigning analytic philosophers absorbed in technical conversations with each other. With philosophical problems nearly consuming us as a nation, Wilshire's book explodes coteries and cliques and directs our attention to the pressing world all around us.

I found this book of considerable value for understanding the philosophical situation in America today. It demonstrates very convincingly the deep differences between analytical and continental/American approaches to the field, and this is already quite informative. But it goes on from here to show that analytical philosophy is unable to assume the responsibility of pursuing a genuinely humanistic and humane thought -- and thus is unable to address the great issues of our day. At its core, it is a nihilistic enterprise that is absorbed in the play and interplay of linguistic and conceptual systems, thereby sealing itself off from the most profound ethical and political issues of the contemporary world. Despite its remarkable logical power, it becomes a self-inhibiting and self-defeating way of doing philosophy. Something else is called for, and the author points to this other direction -- inspired by American and continental philosophy -- eloquently and forcefully.

This book is a "must read" for anyone interested in the recent history of philosophy in America, or who cares about its future. Wilshire takes sure aim at a philosophy that "mangle[s] the roots of our thinking-feeling-evaluating selves." Analytical philosophy, an approach to consciousness and self that weds philosophy to the style of natural sciences, can disable self-conceptions, leaving us with nihilism. It can all too easily reduce flesh or body to lifeless matter, morph minds and imaginations into chemicals and `wiring,' and deflate sacred ceremony and myth to no more than childish mimicry and fable. Whatever happened to Socratic "care for the soul"? These elegantly crafted essays are a treat to read. Wilshire nurtures an affirmative celebration of the passion of philosophy. No one will want to miss his account -- the best I've seen -- of the battle in the late `70's between mainstream analysts and marginalized American phenomenologists and existentialists for recognition in the American Philosophical Association. Later chapters rethink Native American thought, consider Henry Bugbee, a neglected American "philosopher of intimacy,"and revisit William James' concern for `the spiritual.' Wilshire ends with a elegiac meditation on his daughter's death that bears out his philosophical spirit -- such proof as can be given that nihilism does not speak the final word.

This book explores both generational and cultural aspects of Indian families transplanted to and from the U.S. It is a delightful read on its own merits, but can also be applied to any immigrant experience. The expectations from the originating country and the dilution which occurs over time is portrayed with great understanding.

Just finished Robbie Sethi's novel FIFTY-FIFTY. Enjoyed the voyages per chapter. I felt i have just returned from a world that I am happy to know more about, especially because I am intent upon trying to open myself to what may be exotic, foreign, or so much like what i know that I am blind to sameness. What branching lineage for each chapter. What a tour de force of novelistic orchestration! Seventeen main characters interacting or ignoring or judging and showing up and disappearing. I feel my first and strongest and most lingering impression is how different the expectations are when families are internationally mobile and also realistically skeptical about how secure life and status can be where ever one lives. Of course, the novel intends to show that, but I feel for the first time I came to understand why, frankly, I have so often been intrigued by and alienated from recently arrived immigrants--and even those who have settled close to me in New York City. At least in the Punjabi heritage it was made clear how dependent relatives are and also thwarted, made proud, and confused. Felt the love affair between Natisha and Lalita was finely drawn, and the author captured the attitude and dilemma of the African-American father of Kunti's baby devastatingly accurately based on my experience. Too many young men now handle their lives just as he tried to. Captured Kenya well also, a rather schizophrenic society I was not comfortable in--and for some of the same reasons as the Kaurs and Singhs!
I thought a lot about the Indian and Pakistani students I have taught and how what is occurring at home and in their communities shapes how they may think and behave. They are often the most mysterious group in my experience--and the novel enabled me to comprehend how social and economic and cultural pressures and expectations distinguish them from many other ethnicities. I am being rather sociological in my appreciation, but that is how I was most directly impacted. Robbie Sethi can enter into other cultures so confidently and empathetically? empathically? I admire that very much. I wanted to thank her for writing FIFTY FIFTY, and I hope she reads these comments.

Sethi's second novel is a clever, daring, and sharply insightful panorama of a family's struggle to transcend the inevitable entropy of the family structure as a result of time, distance, and tradition. The children of Biji have, by choice or obligation, traveled disparate paths, spanning continents and generations, and through their darkly realistic struggles to satisfy both their roles as members of a family and their individual desires, we are given not only a powerful and profound lesson on culture, spirituality, and imperialism, but a carefully sharp and gripping portrayal of the universal struggles that all humans share. Unlike the conventional novel, Sethi's tale is told through a series of stories, each presenting a unique's character's perspective in his or her own voice. From the compelling story of young Rosa Gill's attempt to identify in a suburban California culture that treats "the other" as a form of boutique cataloguing, to the dark descents into self-destruction of cousins Kunti and Rajit, and even the tale of Biji herself, a political refugee and dominant head of the family, these tales intertwine in a way that is brilliant and wholly fulfilling. No stone is left unturned, and the reader is left with a mosaic of human existence that is much more than a "multicultural" tale, but a beautiful and frightening commentary on the universal struggle against loneliness, responsibility, identity, and alienation. The expansive scope at the book does, at times, create a somewhat off-putting separation between character and reader, but Sethi's ability to mold, color, and develop a versatile stock of voices is brilliant enough to bring you into a universe that crosses continents, cultures, and personalities, and shows that the deepest emotions are those that do not know such boundaries.

In her first book, THE BRIDE WORE RED, Robbie Clipper Sethi established herself as a skilled cultural translator as she explored the lives of three American women and the families of the Indian men they married. Now, with FIFTY-FIFTY, she introduces her readers to yet another Punjabi Sikh family, this one spread over four continents and struggling to adapt to their adopted lands. Told with startling compassion and insight, this novel offers a complex and realistic view of what it means to be an immigrant.

Like Sethi's first book, which was described as a "novel-in-stories," FIFTY-FIFTY is told through multiple voices, each with its own titled chapter. From the Gill family matriarch Biji to her four children to her grandchildren, they each tell their part of the family history. Although the chapters could stand alone as short stories, their real power comes from their compilation. The best chapters are "Exile," "Three Sisters," "The Curse of Life," and "Double Mind." Sethi writes with a no-nonsense style; however, the moments she chooses to reveal are lyrical. I could not help feeling for every one of these displaced individuals. By the time I finished FIFTY-FIFTY, I did not want to leave these self-exiled characters who, despite all that they have suffered, continue to harbor hope.

I highly recommend this for readers of literary fiction and those interested in cross-cultural and immigrant issues.

Lots of action that makes you read this book more than once! I hope they make a movie out of this!

This book is great. It has a lot of twists and turns. It keeps you reading right to the end. There was a couple of times where I felt bad for bad guy and thought that he was going to prove victorious over the good guy. It really is suspense filled. Read it.

John Lutz and David August did an unbelievable job at writing Final Seconds. I was blown away by the suspense and mystery of this novel. They should make more books together. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a good read. (Final Seconds would make a great movie!)

If you want a good, entertaining book, you could not choose a better one than this