New York Books

Finally this Australian children's classic is becoming available to Americans. I first read it 60 years ago and it has never lost its unusual charm. I read it to my children, enjoying together its wonderful illustrations by author-artist Norman Lindsey and its whimsical poem-songs: "It's worse than weevils, worse than warts/ Worse than corns to bear/ It's worse than having several quarts of treacle in your hair." My grandchildren are now enjoying the books (I had to order copies from Australia, and consider it wonderful that children today can more easily obtain the book). I consider it a classic of the first order--one of the greatest children's stories of all time.

Big tough talking penguins and talking never ending desserts, what more could you want? Ok, that, but this is a kids book, and one you should get if you have some (kids, that is, not talking penguins and puddings). There are the good guys, and there are the bad guys. Both are hungry, but the bad guys want to put out tasty pudding friend to nefarious ends, while the good guys just want enough dessert. Needless to say, the pudding is cantankerous.

Honestly, I'm no read-aloud wimp! And my kids are usually up for anything. They giggled like mad at the pompous puns of Mr. H.M. Wogglebug T.E. in the Oz books, and urged on my faux-Yorkshire accent in the Secret Garden. The century-old Australian slang and endless sea shanties of the Magic Pudding, though, just about did us in. It really is a magnificent flight of fancy, but there were just too many incomprehensible sentences to paraphrase and longggg songs to make up tunes for. Save this for when you're at your most daring and energetic, read-aloud parents!

The Magic Pudding is a fun-and-nonsense tale that has become my nine-year-old son's favorite book. It deserves to be published in the US so that American children can enjoy what has become a classic in Australian children's literature. If you enjoy Roald Dahl's books, "The Phantom Tollbooth," and "Alice in Wonderland" you'll enjoy this.

This book is part of the wonderful new series of republished children's books from the New York Review of Books. Over 80 years old, "The Magic Pudding" describes the adventures of a koala bear, named Bunyip Bluegum - the kind of koala who wears a high collar and spats - who falls in with a crazy cowboy sort of fellow named Bill Barnacle and a penguin named Sam Sawnoff.

Bill and Sam are possessed of a magic pudding (named Albert, if you can believe this), who regenerates every time you take a bite of him and changes into whatever flavor you like. Albert the pudding is much coveted by two evil villains who are constantly tricking our Heroes into giving up the Pudding, whereupon they must go and re-re-re-rescue it.

The characters and style are very reminiscent of "Alice in Wonderland," with Bunyip seeming a little White-rabbitish to me, and Bill and Sam sort of Mad Hatter and Dormouse-y. The effect is somewhere in between "Alice" and an old Loony Tunes in which Bugs Bunny constantly bewilders Elmer Fudd.

The whole narrative is punctuated with many whimsical song lyrics, like the poetry in Carroll's book. The lyrics make it a great read-aloud for the younger set, although older kids might be a bit puzzled by its style. However, everyone will be charmed by the Pudding himself and want one of their very own.

If you are a guy or gal who was born before 1950 and enjoy the game of baseball then Phillip Hoose's "Perfect, Once Removed" should be right up your alley. Author Phil Hoose had just moved to Speedway, Indiana with his mom and dad in late 1955. He was eight years old and having an awfully hard time adjusting to his new school and making friends. To make matters worse, no one had ever taught young Phil how to play baseball. He had never swung a bat or even had an opportunity to play catch! Kids being kids, they jumped all over Phil in gym class and at the playground after school. Phil was completely miserable until one day his mom casually mentioned that his dad's cousin pitched for the New York Yankees. And so Phil Hoose took it upon himself to write to his dad's cousin Don Larsen and ask for some advice. A short time later Phil received a postcard from Don Larsen that would literally change his life forever.
It is always wonderful to read a story like the one portrayed in "Perfect, Once Removed". Sometimes we never realize how such a simple act of kindness can impact someone so much. But Don Larsen not only sent that postcard but he also arranged for Phil and his parents to attend a Yankees--White Sox game at Commiskey Park. While in Chicago Phil had an opportunity to meet several of the Yankee players at the hotel where they were staying. It was an experience that would make him a baseball addict for life. It turns out that as usual the New York Yankees under legendary manager Casey Stengel would win the 1956 American League pennant. This time their opponents in the World Series would be their crosstown rivals the Brooklyn Dodgers. And in Game Five on a Monday afternoon in October Don Larsen would make World Series history! Due to the heroics of his cousin, once removed, Phil Hoose was suddenly the BMOC (big man on campus) at school. Quite a turnaround in just 6 or 7 months!
If I had to pick one adjective to describe "Perfect, Once Removed" it would have to be "charming". That may sound odd for a book about sports but I think the term fits here perfectly. For this book is so much more than a book about a perfect game. It is also a real period piece. For those old enough to recall those days it will bring back a flood of fond memories. I found "Perfect, Once Removed" to be a great change of pace from the much more serious fare that I ordinarily read. A great book to read while lounging at the beach or relaxing by the pool. This is an extremely well written and thoroughly enjoyable book that is am very pleased to recommend.

Anyone who grew up loving baseball needs to read this book. It perfectly captures the romance of the game from the perspective of a 9-year-old, back when 9-year-olds lived and breathed baseball. Five stars!

Served well by its brevity and the honesty of its recollections, Hoose's memoir is a perfect accompaniment as you follow your team through another spring training, because it's not so much about the team or the players as it is about your own hopes.

A great book really hitting the emotions of one's childhood growing up around baseball. A wonderfully written book and a very easy read. It is so much more than just the history of baseball's greatest pitched game. A very special book!

With ease and skill, Phillip Hoose recalls his childhood days when baseball ruled his world, consuming his thoughts during the school day, and consuming his play time at night. Hoose chronicles his childhood, from his family's move to the center of the racing world, Speedway, Indiana to his discovery of the great game of baseball, to his relationship with distant cousin Don Larsen, a Yankee great.

The book is an exceptional tale of baseball, and the effect it truly has on so many of our nation's youth. From his intense, yet usually fruitless baseball practice sessions to his late night attempts at finding a signal for a baseball game, Hoose adds a personal touch to the greatest game in the world. His personal touch, then, is what makes this book so special. In an age where baseball is struggling to keep a clean image, amidst steroid use and huge salary contracts, Hoose takes the reader back to the magic of the game. Hoose accomplishes what all good books should do, he transports us into another time, and another place: our youth, and our neighborhood. He reminds us, the kid in us, the joy it felt to first pick up a ball and bat, and the disappointment we felt when we lost our neighborhood pick-up game.

A refreshing and inspirational tale, Hoose's book should not be missed by even the casual baseball fan. Hoose's writing establishes a deep connection between baseball and life, and lessons which each can learn from the other. His tale is one of up's and downs, triumphs and heartaches. Through it all, however, Hoose maintains a sense of hope for life and a sense of love for the game. This hope is what propelled so many of our own baseball dreams, and it is what helps make Hoose's book a truly wonderful read.

We used this book on two recent trips to NYC as a guide book for planning 4 different afternoon teas. Excellent!

If you enjoy tea, why not take a tea trip in my hometown, New York? With this book, you can plan out everything. I have found the information provided by Ms. Knight to be accurate and have also learned a few interesting tidbits about tea culture. The excellent photos are worth noting as well. With more and more tea places popping up (and I've noticed a few recently), I hope they plan to put out updated editions. But this is by far the best tea guidebook I've seen, and a necessity for any tea lover who spends time in New York City.

What I really love about Tea in the City is the breadth and depth of Ms. Knight's profiles, especially when it comes to non-traditional tea rooms. This is the first guide I've seen that really makes an effort to incorporate the newer influx of modern East Asian tea destinations, rather than limiting itself to British and hotel teas (though these are here as well). Although I work in NYC, this guide may inspire me to try some new places in some neighborhoods I haven't visited in a while. I also find this guide more male-friendly than most tea books.

This is the perfect guide to tuck in your handbag or pocket when going to New York City. Color coded maps tell you the tea spots available in each area of NYC. Daily hours, phone numbers, subway stops nearby, websites, decor, approximate costs, and description of teas and food are included. This will be in my handbag anytime I take a train into New York City.

I had slight sticker shock and hesitated to buy this book. In fact, when it arrived, I was a bit unhappy with the small size. Having perused this small tome (with a cuppa in hand, of course), I've come to realize that my reservations were in vain. What a great book for the tea lover! This guide is not only informative, but well written. I'll be reading it again and again, and I'm sure that many a happy afternoon will be spent in the City (and here in Brooklyn, too) thanks to Ms. Knight. The only downside is that the fifth NYC borough is not mentioned... sounds like a great opportunity for someone in Staten Island to rise to the occasion for a possible (and hoped for by this reader) 2008 edition.

Beautifully written, WHERE SHE CAME FROM is also the product of very serious and exhaustive research. It is a magical and haunting book. It brings alive a period of Jewish women's history that is only now being written about in English. Travelling through pre-Holocaust Central Europe with Epstein is an amazing experience: the reader follows both the process of investigation of family history and the emotions this opens up for the writer.

I taught the book several times both in the US and Mexico in classes on Memory and Autobiography. My students loved the book. Many of them bought several copies to give to relatives and friends as gifts. My graduate students (in History and Literature) were impressed by the rigor of Epstein's research, and the skill with which she weaves historical information into her prose.

This is a fascinating chronicle of three generations of the author's female ancestors. It is probably the only book in English that tells the story of Jewish women in Prague in the the first half of the twentieth century. Helen Epstein has a special talent for recreating social history and bringing it alive.

This book was a beautiful personal tribute to the author's ancestors.

I was engrossed in this book from the first page...although it was a slow read for me, because I wanted to grasp the intensity of the generational saga, and grasp the historical facts, correctly. Epstein has more than proved herself in this dramatic memoir of family generations, identity, and history, weaving us through time, each piece of family fabric a part of the final tapestry. The reader is given remnants and squares of fabric in a familial tapestry, of sorts, through history and time, through the horrors of war, and how it affects all the generations, from past to present. From assimilating into society and racial and religous identity, to how one views themselves and what they identify with, Epstein manages to stitch a tapestry of her family, each stitch in time adding to the fabric of her own identity. Bravo for a wonderful read!

In WHERE SHE CAME FROM, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based award-winning author Helen Epstein has penned a meticulously-researched memoir to the four generations of Czech and former Czechoslovak women in her extensive family, from her mother's side of the brood.

While today she associates her public persona to the proud and extensive line of former Czechoslovak Epsteins (see Ms. Epstein's fabulous Amazon Short available off of this site, SWIMMING AGAINST STEREOTYPE: The Story of a Twentieth Century Jewish Athlete), the writer stakes her claim to a noble and illustrious family line which once proudly sported famous Viennese and Prague-based surnames such as Rabinek, Solar, Weigert, Sachsel, Furcht, and Frucht.

Like an experienced batsman for a World Series-winning major-league baseball team, Epstein managed to hang in that old batter's box, waiting for just the right pitch to slug out of the ballpark. In the book world, the analogue was when all the right moments fortuitously transpired to assist Ms. Epstein in securing many essential clues of research which she utilized handily in crafting this excellent book's narrative. Even she'll tell you, the process was far from easy.

Thanks to a dedicated coterie of like-minded collaborators based in points all around the globe as you'll soon read (the former Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Israel, South America, and the United States), Ms. Epstein succeeded in cobbling together one of the most comprehensive Czech geneological histories on the public record.

The work is not only emotionally remunerative for Ms. Epstein, to the extent that those missing links in her family chain were finally sewn together, but it's additionally a fine account of several strong women, renowned in their various fields of endeavour, who persevered during the best of times and the absolute horrorific worst of the 20th century.

Starting with Helen's great-grandmother Therese Sachsel, nee Frucht (Furcht), who lived during the reign of Franz-Josef in the last of the Habsburg-ian thrones, passing through her grandmother Pepi's life story during the turbulent First World War and the First Czechoslovak Republic, and finally overlapping the history of her own mother Frances Epstein, Helen pored over hundreds (if not thousands) of archival sources in constructing this cogent tale.

Collectively, these three noble upstanding women belonging to the author's colourful past outlived the worst of the 20th century's ravages, passing fads, and tragic downfalls.

We swoon with Therese Sachsel during the euphoria of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk's (TGM) storied first Czechoslovak Republic (1918-1938), when all seemed possible for the Central European remant of the former Austria-Hungarian powerhouses of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Slovakia. Our hopes and dreams are temporarily crushed alongside her grandmother Pepi Rabinek as we witness the invasion and subsequent occupation of Prague by Nazi hordes, who sweep unchallenged through the former Czechoslovakia's borders after the West's perfidy of Munich. We agonize alongside Pepi's daughter, Frances Solar/Rabinek/Epstein, the paragon of the family and Helen's stalwart mother, as she is dispatched to the Teresienstadt (in modern-day Terezin, Czech Republic) concentration camp, or in the colloquial Czech, the "koncentrak." We also rejoice when Frances is extricated from the hellhole of Auschwitz, and tranported the West in wartime Germany as part of a labour brigade, towards the oncoming Allies from the West, liberated in Bergen-Belsen by British forces at the end of WWII. Finally, we are shocked to discover the insensitivity, sheer apathy, and in many instances -- outright hostility -- that Praguers demonstrated towards the surviving returnees from the Nazi camps, to which Frances and her future husband, famous former Czechoslovak Olympian swimmer, Kurt Epstein, counted themselves.

Helen Epstein's lines draw us inexorably into this story, and once you start you'll have a difficult time finding excuses to stop.

What staggered me as I made my way through this read was Ms. Epstein's formidable discipline. The sheer single-mindedness with which she approached the colossal task of the near-vertical climb to reach the bottom of her family's history. I read with awe how solace was found towards the end.

WHERE SHE CAME FROM will stand as one of the foremost examples of the self-researched memoir. If you need any reason at all to read this book, then let it be thanks to the iron-willed determination which the answers gracing its pages were unearthed by Ms. Epstein.

A book like this needs to be savoured for its significance, appreciated for its illumination, and respected for its purity. There isn't a single letter which graces these pages that wasn't typed, written, or transcribed in the absence of a labour which can only be termed love.

I sit back and wish we all had the staying power of Ms. Epstein. The book is laudatory in the extreme.

As if Ms. Epstein's family history were not enough, there are other benefits to this book too. For those with a keen interest in the past two centuries of life in Prague and the experiences of Bohemia's and Moravia's Jews and its Czech peasantry, WHERE SHE CAME FROM is chock-a-block with painstaking factoids and historical tidbits that'll nudge you gently towards further reading. It will also supply its readers with a glimpse towards the increasingly-distant Czechoslovak past, which, with the passing of the years and the keener integration of this country with the rest of the EU, slips further and further away from the grip of Czech youth.

This book is more than just a reminder, it's a testament to a time which no longer exists. In that respect, it is now part of the permanent historical record.

WHERE SHE CAME FROM is written in a language at once accessible and magnetic. For all ages, for all backgrounds. I can't do anything less than award this superb work of history my highest rating of 5-stars.

I know you will too.

-- ADM in Prague

Although this book has a slow start with a lot of historical information, once you get to the Holocaust section, you will not be able to put this book down. I read it while in Vienna and after I visited Prague. I felt so connected to my surroundings and the author that I literally felt like I was in the book. Makes the enormity of the Holocaust personal and understandable. A MUST READ FOR EVERYONE!

I am in the process of learning how to bake and I thought the recipes were very easy to follow. They turned out great!

The cinnamon and sugar muffins are to die for! Great cookbook, lots of variety, and easy to follow.

I love this book! It has soo many yummy sounding recipes. I've only made 4 so far, but they have all turned out exceptional! I've tried the cranberry orange muffins, orange nut bread, raspberry sour cream cake and the blueberry muffins. They were all soo good, I didn't even share them with friends...ahemm :)
I bake from this book without hesitation..I'll go so far as to say I'd even bake untested recipes for guests from this book. I am confident they'll all turn out good.

When you open this book, you will want to make everything in it! Just about every recipe is accompanied by a photograph. The instructions are clear and concise, the recipes are clearly well-tested. Everything I have made has been a success, including the Blackberry Muffins, Apple coffee cake, goat cheese and tomato muffins, and macadamia coffee cake. A wonderful little book that the home cook will actually use.

All I can say is WOW!! I can't recommend this book enough! Recipes are easy to follow, no fancy-smancy never heard of before ingredients and best of all; most recipes only make 12 muffins. So for people that don't have an army to feed, it's nice! I recommend the awesome Blackberry muffins, which are my favorite to make. Every recipe I've tried has come out great, and the muffins freeze well too. BUY the book, you won't be dissapointed! Happy baking :)

It is always difficult and challenging to pick up what is regarded as a classic and read through it in a naive manner, not as a specialist but as an amateur who just wants to learn. There are always surprises.
In contrast to the looser Herodotus, his near contemporary, Thucydides sought to record an "objective truth" of the great war between Athens and Sparta, in the 5C BC. He consulted multiple sources and carefully judged what to include and what not to include, ito establish an idea of what really happened. While some of the forms, such as elaborately made-up speeches as a study in rhetoric, differ from what we would do today, he set a new standard for accuracy. THe result is a work of genius, the first serious attempt at writing history rather than merely storytelling.

Reading this is not always fun. There are long sections that are lists of occurences, with references to individuals who appear and disappear without followup. But there are also penetrating analyses of remarkable characters, such as Perikles, Alcibiades, and other great generals, who became reference points to the present day. Thucydides also broached the subject of political science as history - how institutions actually functioned - in new ways, with demonstrations of how the unleashing of passions led to their corruption or distortion. Finally, there are chilling sections with timeless insight in human conduct in war, with the full horror of the breakdown of all order and law.

THis translation is also sufficintely readable, far better than the turbid one I first read in college. THucydides is quite eloquent in this version.

Recommended as one of the great classics of Western literature. It is a work of genius so great that it is still relevant and vivid.

I used this book for an introductory History class. It is a great supplement to the study of the Greek periods. It has a nice glossory in the back for unusual terms, as well as helpful maps. Some of the text is a bit dry, but the reading is not very difficult.

The history of the Peloponnesian is a brilliant account of a classic war that began as a preemptive attack on Athens by Sparta to prevent the domination of the Greeks by the Athenians. The war began in the year 427 BC and ended 27 years later with the defeat of Athens by Sparta. This history however is only up to the 21st year of the war. Although there are several translations of the work I selected the translation by Thomas Hobbes the 17th century philosopher. It is the first done in the English language. Thucydides was a soldier on the Athenian side which in a sense puts a lie to the common notion that it is the winners of war who write history. The war was finally won by Sparta, powerful on land, and an oligarchy with a communal outlook on life defeating Athens with the strongest navy in the world, and a democracy with an individualistic outlook on life. Ironically it is Sparta's eventual mastery of the sea that defeated the Athenians. Whether or not this bodes ill for America remains to be seen. History is not over.

Thucydides relates not only the battles of the war in some detail describing tactics and the individuals involved, but also the strategy and the politics. There is intrigue, treason, broken alliances, and hubris. The winners of a battle rarely show mercy and treason is dealt with harshly with often entire towns put to the sword or enslaved. Among the combatants there is respect for the strong and contempt for the weak. Truces are often held to bury the dead because the dead are respected by all.

Unlike Homer's Illiad written about one thousand years earlier Thucydides does not mention the gods as having a say in the outcome of the war. While religion is a factor it is not a determining factor in the conduct and outcome of the war. One could argue that Thucydides is a secular account of history whereas Homer is a more religious account.

Thucydides should be mandatory reading and study for all white males between the ages of 16 and 18 of above average IQ. The History will prepares them for war and instill in them the desire and willingness to defeat the enemy. It teaches contempt for the enemy which is a valuable attitude in war. Pericles funeral oration to the Athenians is the most inspiring and most moving speech ever given. The resemblance of this speech to the Gettysburg address is obvious and leads one to conclude that if Pericles could inspire Abraham Lincoln in his thinking then Thucydides' History did so likewise and influenced the strategy and the eventual outcome of the Civil War including the period of reconstruction. The contrast between the Spartan outlook on life and that of the Athenians to the adversaries in all subsequent wars up to the present war on terror is striking indeed. There are lessons still to be learned from the Peloponnesian War and woe to those that fail to learn these lessons.

The greatest of all Greek historians was the Athenian general Thucydides (455-400 B.C.E.). Thucydides' classic work, "History Of The Peloponnesian War", provides us with the historical framework for 5th century Greece, a golden age of intellectual achievement and creativity rarely equaled in human history. This history is by far the best account of the bitter war between Athens and Sparta as well as the only surviving contemporary record of the rise of the Athenian empire. Thucydides as a master storyteller does not just cover the battle scenes; he records the great political speeches of Pericles, leader of Athens, and Lysander leader of Sparta with great acumen. He is recognized as the first historian to actually go and get eyewitness accounts, visit battlefieilds and research documents and records. This work took him over 20 years and it shows!

The lessons he teaches about imperial over reaching and unreasonable peace settlements are prescient today as they were during his times. President Woodrow Wilson, read this book on his voyage across the Atlantic to the Versailles Peace Conference and vociferously fought the other Allies in making unreasonable demands of the Germans. Wilson learned the dangers that the world would be placed in by backing the Germans into a corner politically and economically from Thucydides book.

As a graduate student in philosophy and history, I heartily recommend this timeless classic to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history. I also recommend you read it with David Cartwright's "A Historical Commentary On Thucydides."

No book has kept me up at night or occupied my thoughts in the past decade more than Thucydides. The story told here is stunningly and disturbingly relevant for any American. Sparta vs Athens seems an allegory for the conflict between traditional America, of our first hundred years or so, and modern, progressive America from about 1900 onward. Its no allegory of course, and the realization that history repeats itself gives the work an importance that no book can match.

I recall in college taking one of those Intellectual History survey courses required of incoming freshman. We were all assigned to read Perikles funeral oration as an example of how like our society Athens was and of course, how noble that likeness made the two societies. We weren't, of course, assigned the entire book, just the oration out of context. When I finally got around to reading Thucydides years later, I thought back to that course and wanted my tuition money back!

Read the original text. Political writers and propagandists of all stripes make reference to Thucydides to give weight to their views. Don't trust their interpretations. Read for yourself and decide. Skip the commentaries and translations and go right to page one of the text.

Received this book within a few days of ordering. Like new condition. I am very satisfied with this purchase.

It is an awesome book. I stumbled on to Karen Kingsbury kind of accidentally and it was one of the best things I have ever done. She is an excellent writer. This book must be read after One Tuesday Morning.

Great. A must if you have read One Tuesday morning.

Karen Kingsbury did it again. Another fantastic story. Another, I can't put this book down until I finish it. I loved it! Great Christian fiction!

By: Jeffrey W. Bennett, author of Under the Lontar Palm and ISP Certification-The Industrial Security Professional Exam Manual
What can I say, I love a great story that has a great ending. Okay, for a guy, this story provides great role models. Karen Kingsbury demonstrate the great things that can happen when men take the lead to keep Christ in the forefront of their families. We all can benefit from heroes and we never know where we will find them. I'd say they can be found inside the pages of Beyond Tuesday Morning within the characters of Clay, Eric and Jake.

I finished "The Brave" this weekend; I closed the book with a tear in my eye and a lump on my throat. I was deeply moved by the story and it was sad to see a 20 year chapter of your life end on such a sour note with the inappropriate accusations from that Chief. The book did a wonderful job of revealing all of the different emotions, triumphs and defeats that you and many others were faced with on a day-to-day basis. It showed the deep compassion that the fire fighters have for those they could and could not save while enduring the jeers and lack of respect from the very people they were charged to protect.

I, and I am sure the public in general, was truly unaware of how little rest these men really get and how often they are hurt, only to rush back into the fight and be chastised at any point when they failed to be absolutely perfect. I can see where you, the fire fighters would truly be a "Band of Brothers".

"The Brave" would make an excellent movie; in fact you could make a movie out 1/3 rd of the material in the book.

Thanks for enlightening me,

Joey Lee

WOW!! The Brave is full of action from start to finish and would make a great movie! The Brave keeps your attention and makes it hard to set the book down. It gives a great picture to how challenging life is as a NYFD firefighter. The storey is compelling and truthful and I'm sure will be around for a long time. Congratulations to George Pickett on this GREAT book!

A page turning account of life as a New York City firefighter. A little slow at the start, but captivating and exciting by the second chapter. George Pickett does a great job of taking you along on the big red trucks, down the burning halls and into the mindset of the men, who New Yorkers call The Brave. Not only a great story but an important history lesson for anyone who wants a better tomorrow for us all. A Great read! 5 Stars!!! Thanks George!!

Few books have captivated my attention as much as George Pickett's "The Brave: A Story of New York City Firefighters". Both as a native New Yorker growing up in the 60's and 70's in the Bronx, and a volunteer firefighter in Westchester County, NY, I can rerlate to the many references in this action packed book.
Pickett brings the reader into every fire call, every dark smokey hallway and heat searing room. The reader is there, holding the irons, the nozzle or climbing the ladder.
Above all the book is truthful. Clearly, the author;s integrity and honest is eveident during each story-both the flattering and humiliating. George Pickett should be proud of his career, family and work on the compelling effort to document the life of a New York City Firefighter. Bravo!!!
-Michael J. Deegan

The Brave takes you right into the Heart of Firefighting in 70's New York. As a fellow Firefighter who loves to put pen to paper I am always keen to read the experiences of other Firefighters in this vastly underrepresented market.

Every book shelf these days seems to be full of Celebrities, Politicians, Soldiers or sports personalities telling us their stories. It make a refreshing change when a Firefighter, Medic or Policemen puts pen to paper, these people are fighting a never ending war every day on the Streets of our Countries.

The Brave tells the story of Life in a Firehouse on the Lower East Side of New York City in the 1970's, a period now remembered by the Veterans of those days as 'The War Years'. Recession, social unrest, poverty and crime were the catalyst for may Fires in many run down cities in the World. Very Few Cites saw the Fires that New York saw in that period and fewer Still Firemen saw the Fire Duty that the Men of the FDNY saw at this time.

George Pickett has an ability to drag the reader down the stinking burning hallways of the tenements. You can feel the heat searing your skin and the smoke choking your lungs. Time and again you follow page after page wondering will the heroes of the FDNY reach the victim before the room erupts all around them, more often than not they do...frequently with seconds to spare.

I finished this book in 24 hours, such was the draw of the story unfolding before me. I found every possible excuse to pick the book up and start reading again. If action is what you want then give the jungles of South America or the Desert of the Middle East a rest..opt instead for the action in the Blazing sweatshops, tenements and flop houses of New York City in the 70's.

Anyone who has ever owned a classic car knows there is a bond between man and machine that comes with it, whether it is Corvette or a classic of lesser prestige. That bond can drive one to extremes when thieves try to separate the two. The extremes Berkson went to would be perfectly understandable--anywhere but New York, where the fate of a stolen car is usually sealed within hours of its disappearance. Yet he refused to accept the idea that his car was never going to be found in one piece, and his determination to find it by appointing himself chief investigator in the face of police indifferance put him on a path that your average New Yorker would never have the guts to follow, especially with the odds of success being somewhere around zero.

Berkson writes in a straightforward, fast paced style that makes this book both a quick and compelling read. And -- oh yeah -- he got the car back, but you'll have to buy the book to find out how. Highly recommended.

While visiting our local bookstore, I had the good fortune to come across Terry Berkson's book: "Corvette Odyssey" on the shelf of the transportation section. Being an old car enthusiast, the title caught my eye. After I read the first few pages, I was hooked. I sat right there in the store and read it from cover to cover, then I bought the book so I could read it again at home. I found it easy to relate to the emotions and attachment evoked in Mr.Berkson by his beloved roadster. A fantastic read!

As a woman who has never learned how to drive it feels odd to be touting a book titled Corvette Odyssey. Yet it's so much more than a story of a lost and found car. Yes, we're astonished by Berkson's miraculous recovery of his Corvette after his frantically obsessive search for it. But foremost, for me, the book is about values which, to our great detriment, no longer seem as important as they once were: a sense of connection to one's roots (for Berkson it's Brooklyn and Upstate New York)and to family (notwithstanding his delinquency during the search), and a relationship to possessions which is now foreign to us. In our mad rush for the newest, the most state of the art, the trendiest, we no longer know how to cherish what we have. We learn from Berkson's book the art of cherishing--not only a vintage Corvette, but the connection to his personal history which it represents. An inspiring read for anyone!

There's a great story at the heart of this book, but what really makes it compelling is the way the author places the story in the context of a whole life... all the various connections with family and friends, and even with people who begin as total strangers but get pulled in some way into Berkson's quest. I could have read this in one sitting but preferred to dole it out over the course of three nights just to savor the experience.

This is a straight from the heart book about a man's quest to find his stolen car and almost loses his family. A really great book about how possessions can be symbolic of what's missing in one's life, and how we should instead be grateful for the people who are present in our lives.

I live in California, but have spent a lot of time with a friend who lives in NYC for the past 8 years. He has one of the original copies of this special cookbook. This is the one I use when I am there. It is GREAT! But my friend refuses to give it up. I am begging for a reprint. Can you help me? Betty McAlpine, Visalia, California

This Craig Claiborne `magnum opus' was my very first serious cookbook, from which I have probably done more recipes than any five others put together. As such, I have an intimate knowledge of its strengths and weaknesses.

The evaluation of this book depends greatly on an understanding of the purpose that the book best serves. The main feature of the book is its vast size. It weighs in at about 800 pages. The only `cookbook' on my shelves with more words and pages is the encyclopedic `Larousse Gastronomique'. The class of cookbook which most closely approaches this book in size is the all-purpose `how to cook' manual such as `The Joy of Cooking' and Mark Bittman's `How to Cook Everything'. This Claiborne volume fits neither of these two categories. It is also certainly not a restaurant, celebrity, or `terroir' cookbook such as those about Provence or Tuscany. It basically defines a class of which it is probably the premier exemplar. This is the class of book that is simply assembled to provide you with as many recipes as possible. It's reason for being is volume. There are some special cases of this class of book which deal with a particular cuisine, such as the `Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook' by Gloria Bley Miller. Claiborne outstrips this book by a mile, giving us two to three recipes per page, thereby weighing in with about 2000 recipes covering the four corners of the world.

In a sense, the class of cookbook that may come closest to this MS is the fundraising cookbook commonly published by churches and social organizations with recipes supplied by the group's members. The similarity is that the recipes were supplied by dozens of different authors and there are few if any threads connecting the recipes except the organization sponsoring the publication of the volume. This Claiborne work distances itself from such volumes in the quality and diversity of the recipes. It is important to remember that most, if not all of these recipes have appeared in the pages of the New York Times. In order to do this, they would have had to pass scrutiny of not only Times editors but the thousands of readers of the New York Times food columns. Each recipe would have had to survive a second professional screening when it was being considered as an entry in this book. Additional screenings would have been done for each successive edition. The bottom line is that the value of this book is in its providing a widely diverse selection of high quality recipes for a cent and a half per recipe. Compare that to the twenty to thirty-five cents per recipe you pay for a new hardcover cookbook from the latest celebrity chef or the latest send-off of recipes from Rome, Tuscany, or Provence.

The other side of the coin is that the only thing you get in this cookbook is the recipes. Period. Virtually every recipe is composed of nothing more than a title, a number of servings, a list of ingredients, and numbered steps for the procedure to be followed. A very few recipes for truly unusual preparations such as `Taramasalata', a Greek Carp Roe spread have a brief headnote explaining the source and use of the recipe. For pantry items such as the very first recipe in the book, `Mignonette Sauce', there is only the briefest indication of the purpose to which the recipe is to be applied. This is the price to be paid for the book's filling the role of encyclopedic reference, where sheer numbers of recipes is its objective. I must temper this rather austere picture ever so slightly by pointing out that there are some few recipes which do deserve a special treatment such as the recipe for the omelet for one, where there are some sidebar comments on technique and the procedure is considerably more detailed than the average. This is only fair, since, as Alton Brown has said, the omelet is all about technique. Being an only modestly practiced omelet maker, I believe Claiborne's omelet recipe is illuminating without being overly fussy.

The archetypal recipe in this book, to my mind, is the one for Bouillabaisse. It has a very long list of ingredients, none of which are beyond the reach of the average American supermarket, and a very short procedure. In place of a freshly prepared fumet, the recipe calls for clam juice. The most revealing aspect of the recipe is that it shows that Bouillabaisse is, indeed, a relatively simple recipe. The description of the procedure is less than one-fourth the length of the procedure for making an omelet for one, which can be done within five minutes.

What may be easy to overlook is that this book may have been as important as any in creating the market for gourmet food products. The irony is that Claiborne is clearly a writer and not a chef. In fact, some reports describe him as somewhat deliberate and slow in the kitchen, where he simply did not have the well-practiced manual skills of a professional chef who preps and mixes and sautes every day, all day. In fact, this also means that virtually all the recipes in this book were collected and edited by Claiborne rather than being created or even discovered by him.

This book is a classic which makes thousands of recipes available to people who have no time or room for a library of cookbooks and who have the basic skills which will fill out the complete, but sparse instructions. Coverage of savory cooking is exhaustive. Coverage of baking and pastry is limited. I have never been disappointed by my results from making any recipe in this book, and, most have exceeded my expectations, based on the relative simplicity of the procedure.

Highly recommended for experienced cooks who are time or space challanged.

I HAVE OWNED THIS COOKBOOK FOR ABOUT 20+ YEARS AND HAVE USED IT CONTINUOUSLY FOR AS LONG A TIME. WHEN I WENT THROUGH MY DIVORCE, LUCKILY I WAS ALLOWED TO KEEP THE BOOK IN MY POSSESSION, BUT I HAVE TRIED TO BUY A COPY FOR MY EX-WIFE WITH NO SUCCESS. SHE REALLY LIKES IT TOO. THE RECIPE FOR THE LEG OF LAMB IS A RECIPE OF WHICH IS A THOUSAND YEAR OLD FROM MESOPOTAMIA AND IT IS AWESOME. FINGER LICKING GOOD. THE BHUNA GHOST RECIPE IS ALSO AWESOME.

The best cookbook I ever used. I just love it and use so ofen to cook for my clients. Now I want to buy it for my home cookbooks collection.

I have this cookbook in my possession. It has not really stood out for me as being anything special. I have consulted it occassionally and the recipes are not my cup of tea.

I feel like I'm missing out.

Next week I plan to sell my copy on ebay, as I feel it is taking up space in my bookshelf where a cookbook that better inspires me can go.

Several of you have raved and are looking for it. Well, I have it and it's yours if you want to bid on ebay for it.