New York Books

Comprehensive, simple, full of examples - worth the money.

Good introductory book with plenty of examples. Good layout too. Many different options trading techniques are discussed, each with an indication of how risky it is. It even suggests leaving some of the more advanced techniques to the professionals, or more experienced traders - good advice.

If i had to pick a book that explained the most about options to the layman in the clearest language in the fewest pages, this would be it.

a must read for anybody who wants to understand how to use options

Yes, As a beginner I can confidently say I know what option is, it's uses and the risk involve. The Author did not only explain the principle but gave practicable example everyone can relate to. All in simple and plain English, you don't need to have been to a school of economy to know what an option is. With the help of this book, I can't look stupid when others uses terminologies relating to option. Keep up the good work Joseph.

Mr. Walker is clear and concise in his depiction of how the options markets work. He details various strategies and makes options investing understandable to those new to it.

In my 11 years as a futures investor, broker, and author, I have never seen someone with as much grasp of options investing as Mr.Walker and have the capability to explain it.

John Russon's book is now one that I have used in both my introductory courses and in my upper division course on Heidegger's Being and Time. In each case, students have reacted extremely well and have declared that Russon's is the most concrete and well-argued book in the course.

In my introductory course, I have used Russon's book after Descartes and Kant and before Simone de Beauvoir's Ethics of Ambiguity. The problems of embodiment, of time, and of other people that Russon explores stand in stark contrast to Descartes' dualism and Kant's categorical imperative. After reading Russon, students become more attuned to the way in which Descartes and Kant leave something important out of the description of human experience--namely, the experience of unity with others or mutual recognition. Having recognized this, students are then prepared to read de Beauvoir, who challenges the classical notions of ethics and knowing in phenomenological/existential ways.

Ordinarily, I would be the first to argue that phenomenology is difficult to present to introductory students because so many of the primary texts are difficult for them to read. Russon's book, however, is short and it covers a great deal of ground easily through his use of some key examples. I am happy to say that I have found that even my less involved or weaker students are able to locate the critical sentences of Russon's argument, and they report that his examples assist them in explicating his argument in their own words.

In my course on Heidegger's Being and Time, I used Russon's book first. This allowed students to come to grips with the issues of interpretation, memory, and other persons in ways that mattered to them. Introducing them to the issues and to the type of examples that Heidegger could have in mind then really helped me make Heidegger's language more accessible. Heidegger's introduction, which I find very difficult to teach, seemed to fly by for them, and we soon were able to delve into the concepts of being-in-the-world, etc.

What I noticed most about Russon's book in teaching it in the upper division course was that it was a book that easily sustained a variety of student levels. It was concrete and direct enough for an introductory student to get something out of, yet it was sophisticated enough to allow me to assign three-page papers for upper-level students on each chapter.

Lest the reader of this review think that Russon's book is only for undergraduates, let me say that I think Russon's book is also a very helpful resource for graduate students in philosophy and for persons looking to get a handle on phenomenology as a whole. It is possible to see within his chapters not only the logical development of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit but also the descriptive power of Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception. Russon's is obviously a book written by someone who has dwelled within the texts of phenomenology and has internalized them to the degree that he is able to speak directly and clearly about them.

This is the best introduction to the themes, results and approach of phenomenological philosophy available in the English language. Written so as to be accessible to students or readers with little or no background in philosophy, Russon's book is at once a lucid, compelling and comprehensive account of the problems of human life, and a novel, cogent synthesis of central concepts of contemporary European philosophy. Beginning with a superb discussion of interpretation, embodiment and memory as central to experience, the book then shows how our experience turns on our relations to others, in family and civil society; how such experience leads to dissociations that turn into neuroses; and how therapy, education and philosophy can help us learn to handle neuroses. It is a perfect book in its genre, and its genre is perfect for our time: a book for the general reader that shows how philosophy provides deep insights into human experience and everyday life.

I would recommend Human Experience to anyone seeking philosophical or psychological insight into the human situation. I would also recommend it as a text for those teaching or learning introductory philosophy, existentialism, phenomenology, or as an introduction to the themes of Contemporary European philosophy.

In "Human Experience," John Russon offers engaging and thought provoking interpretations of aspects of our human life that most of us assume we have already come to understand. He provokes readers to reconsider the way they think about the role of family in their lives, about the nature of the mind and the body, about mental health, and about the significance and role of philosophy in everyday life. Remarkably, Russon's book is accessible to the lay community, while also being a challenging and critical text for those studying philosophy and psychology (and especially for those with interests in phenomenology, existentialism, and mental health therapy). My own experiences with this text attest to this: I have profitably studied and discussed Russon's text with professors in the fields of philosophy and psychology, and I also recently taught this book with great success in an introductory philosophy course at the undergraduate level (beside texts by Plato and Descartes). The students in my introductory philosophy course were thrilled by the connections that Russon's book had to their own lives; they frequently claimed and explained how Russon had helped them to understand or recognize something that had previously been opaque to them. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for an intelligent, compelling, and accessible introduction to some of the most contemporary issues in philosophy, and I especially recommend it for use as a text in a course in Introduction to Philosophy. This book would also be of particular interest to those interested in Salvador Minuchin's family therapy or R.D. Laing's "anti-psychiatry," or contemporary cognitive science.

Self-help books are usually premised on the idea that we know more or less how we'd like to turn out, and just need some good advice on how to get there. We want to be rich, have people like us, get more done in less time, overcome depression, lose weight, or maximize our pleasure. Even if the practical instruction were sound (usually it just amounts to a series of platitudes like: invest and save your money, try to be more witty, buy a planner, take more time for yourself, don't eat fatty foods, tell your lover what you want....), even if these books offered advice on achieving your goals that really worked, the approach is still problematic because it fails to take into account the question why we want just these outcomes, what is going on in our lives that has so far resisted our achievement of these outcomes, and whether these outcomes will really bring "satisfaction." Before we begin the process of self-improvement, we really have to know who we are. We need to begin the process of rigorous self-examination, that was first proposed by the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates as essential to a life worth living. In that process it would be difficult to find a better guide than John Russon, who has absorbed the pivotal insights on the question to be drawn from the history of philosophy from Plato and Aristotle through Freud and Marx to Heidegger and Sartre and Merleau Ponty, and distilled their essence into the form of a rigorous but readable treatise on the nature of human experience, and especially on what it takes to be healthy and whole in the face of diverse and contradictory demands imposed on us by ourselves, our families and our worlds.

Several other reviewers have noted that the book is informed by and works in the philosophical tradition of 20th Century phenomenology, and constitutes an important contribution to contemporary Continental philosophy. What is perhaps most distinctive about the book is that, like Aristotle's ethics, the explicit aim of the book is not merely to help us understand ourselves but to assist in the process of actually becoming better. In fact, the book might be considered as a kind of update (after Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Freud, Marx, Husserl, Heidegger and Merleau-Ponty) of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics. Aristotle's ethics amounts to an effort to fulfill the human potential. Notoriously, though, he claimed that this fulfillment was only possible for those who had already been raised well, with roughly the right set of habits or characteristic dispositions to act. The reason for this seemed to be that when we reach the age of reason, and acquire the capacity to reflect on what we do and how to do it better, it is already too late to modify our basic dispositions unless those dispositions are already more or less self consistent and more or less moderate and amenable to change. So, presupposed by his ethics is a good social and familial environment for child rearing: an environment that is built up with a more or less clear sense of what the best kind of life for human beings is, and with a more or less clear strategy of how to prepare children for this life. Another way to put this was that he knew his ethics would not be realizable on a large scale without large scale political effort, and he complemented his ethical writings with a political treatise. The problem is, if this was a problem in the time of Aristotle it is much more obviously a problem today, where individuals and families and religions and communities have nothing close to a consensus about the nature of human beings and the strategies for their education. The habits we develop in our families can easily conflict with those required for performance in school or expected in church or demanded by our relationships within the larger community. And we can't really expect that to change, and can't wait until it does to implement a plan for individual development. Russon's text can be considered an update of Aristotelian ethics that takes the modern social and political world as its context, and therefore cannot presuppose an ideal reader who is more or less already "well adjusted" with the approximately right set of habits that would allow her to attune these through the application of practical wisdom.

The basic argument of the text can be summarized fairly quickly in a series of theses that build upon each other:

(1) we and the world we inhabit, do not merely consist of objective realities (a mind and bodies) that just are what they are; rather, we and our world are to a significant degree the product of interpretation;
(2) the interpretive acts that inform our sense of ourselves and our world is not the result of an arbitrary choice, but is rather the product of a history of unreflective engagement with the world, beginning with childhood and family life, that results in our acquisition of habits that allow us to navigate our surroundings with a degree of success;
(3) these habits we develop in a range of situations constitute a kind of memory of those situations, that prepares us well for similar situations but may be ill suited for new situations; so we (and our loved ones) may find ourselves acting in ways that appear odd or inappropriate as responses to our current situation, but these responses are in fact the result of our past habits that "interpret" the new situation as analogous to the past one and thereby calling for the same response;
(4) adopting such "irrational" behaviors (i.e. behaviors that are unresponsive to the immediacy of the situation one is facing) is what is usually described as neurosis, and so the analysis shows that it is in a way part of the human condition to be neurotic
(5) overcoming the dangers of this neurosis requires that we develop a new habit of interpreting ourselves, and of making sense of why we act the way that we do; rather than berate ourselves for behaving in ways that cause us problems we learn to assess these behaviors in light of our past; only when we understand the circumstances in which the behaviors were learned are we likely to be able to change them (by changing our current circumstances, or learning to see that these new circumstances do not call for the response we have learned) in appropriate ways
(6) this new set of habits of self-interpretation and self-analysis cannot really be done well in isolation (because the ways in which we think are themselves conditioned by our past and by prejudice) and so requires that we be willing to submit our self-analyses to scrutiny (through reading, through philosophy, through therapy) -- which means that we cannot improve our lives unless we are willing to engage in the process of philosophical self-examination that Socrates encouraged, a process whose aim is to "know thyself."

While the argument by itself could be used to mount serious challenge to several of the basic premises of the popular self-help (and pop psychology) movement, what is really brilliant about the book are the wide range of examples and Russon's deliberate and sustained effort to teach the reader how to redescribe experience in ways that enable and sustain the effort to grow and become healthy. Part of the process of the book is not merely to come to an intellectual understanding of what life is like, but to develop a whole new way of talking and thinking about life experience that actually transforms the way our experience unfolds. Like some of the other reviewers here, I used this book in the classroom to teach students about phenomenology. They learned a lot and really enjoyed the book but what was most notable was the way that writing about it clearly gave them the tools to reflect upon their lives in new and empowering ways. I can't recommend the book highly enough -- though be warned that it is a challenging book, both in the sense that it requires careful attention and slow digestion, and in the sense that it aims to challenge a number of our most basic prejudices about the nature of reality and experience.

John Russon's Human Experience is a work that offers a unique pedagogical opportunity. I have used the book in an undergraduate course on Existentialism to great advantage, and again in an Introductory course to draw together diverse threads of a year-long study of the goals and varied expressions of a philosophical education. It was, however, in my repeated references to Russon's arguments in an Ancient Philosophy course that the book's sophistication became most apparent to me.

Russon is already recognized, by virtue of a series of shorter studies published in a range of journals, as a careful and persuasive reader of ancient philosophical texts. These works, however, focus primarily on working through the complexity of those texts in an explicit and focused exegetical manner. This book offers something quite different: no less than a detailed and self-determining account of the philosophical project underway in the ancient texts, a setting out of the framework within which they unfold, a reckoning with the 'why' as much as with the 'how' of the Platonic, Aristotelian and Stoic projects.

The power of Russon's book in this context is that it shows how ancient philosophy provides what must be called the animating context for the concerns of existential phenomenology, and indeed vice-versa: why it matters, that is, that Charmides blushes, or that Socrates is familiar with Theaetetus' family background (and Theodorus is not); why thinking and ethics depend on having taken an investigative stance toward our experience, and why it is that our expressive behaviour, and especially our conversations, are reflective of our being developed, and the scene and event for our openness to further development - our therapy, our education - and why that possibility for further development is situated in a social and political context that may or may not be favourable to it. Like Aristotle, Russon shows us why a study of life is required of an account of thinking, and why a study of politics is required of an account of ethics. Like Plato, Russon argues that education is a conversion predicated on the community and the presence within it of teachers, whose goal is to have us see our place in the midst of things for ourselves.

Russon's achievement would be somehow diminished if it were not to be studied as having argued for the richness of ancient philosophical practice and the urgency of that practice in our lives, and of course (which is to say the same thing) in our classrooms.

Fron the 1600's to the Present, this is the "go to" book for Hurricane history affecting the eastern coastline. But more than just weather and geographical facts, Rick "The Hurricane Man" Schwartz has conducted many personal interviews to put a human interest face in this well-read timeline of the Hurricanes' impact, and stories of miraculous survival and devastatingly tragic loss. As Mr. Schwartz reminds, "Hurricane history repeats" and "The Year of the Hurricane is coming"! Are we prepared?

Over the years any number of books have been written about the devastating hurricanes that have struck coastal New England. Likewise, there are a whole host of books available about the history of hurricanes in the great state of Florida. Yet, when he sought to do some research on the history of hurricanes in the Middle Atlantic states Rick Schwartz discovered to his great consternation that very little had been written about the subject and that no really comprehensive book on this topic had ever been written. So Rick Schwartz decided to correct this glaring oversight himself. After more than six years of painstaking research "Hurricanes And The Middle Atlantic States" was released in 2007. This is a book that proves to be well worth your time and attention.
As the complete title would indicate "Hurricanes And The Middle Atlantic States: A Surprising History...From Jamestown To The Present" traces the history of hurricanes in this region from colonial times until the present day. It is a fascinating study. Rick Schwartz conducted more than 100 interviews in putting together this superb book. He also unearthed old newspaper articles, personal letters and state and local government documents in attempting to cobble together the real story. Consequently, there is an interesting narrative on almost all of the storms Rick decided to cover in his book. Schwartz also made a very wise decision by choosing to include track maps on a good many of these hurricanes. This feature greatly enhances the readers understanding of the storms and underscores just how unpredictable they can be. In addition, the inclusion of more than 200 black and white photographs helps readers to gage the full impact of these powerful cyclones and serves to emphasize the need for coastal communities to carefully reconsider public policies that have allowed for reckless overdevelopment on the waterfront. The question is not "if" these areas will be struck by a major hurricane in the future but only "when". Then there is the enormous toll these storms exact on everyday people. For all too many, life will never be the same again. Schwartz devotes considerable time to those who are victimized by hurricanes as well as those public officials who must find new and creative ways to deal with the devastation. High winds, heavy rain, tornadoes and flooding can all combine to wreak havoc for residents in the affected areas. Finally, I would be remiss if I failed to make mention of some of the fascinating local folklore that Rick Schwartz managed to sprinkle in throughout this book. Outstanding stuff!
Every now and then I come across a book like "Hurricanes And The Middle Atlantic States" that really seems to be much more appropriate as a reference volume. This is no knock on Rick Schwartz. This book is extremely well written, meticulously researched and thoughtfully laid out. Yet the stories inevitably do tend to become a bit repetitive and I found myself losing just a bit of interest from time to time. This is hardly surprising when one realizes that this book covers more than 300 years of hurricane history! Having said that, "Hurricanes And The Middle Atlantic States" remains an extremely important addition to the literature on hurricanes in this nation and deserves a spot not only on the shelves of libraries in the Middle Atlantic region but in other parts of the country as well. It is a book that students, researchers and general interest readers will turn to time and again in the decades to come. Highly recommended!

Researched, compiled and written by hurricane historian Rick Schwartz, "Hurricanes And The Middle Atlantic States: A Surprising History, Jamestown To The Present" chronicles four hundred years of the Middle Atlantic region's significant tropical cyclones beginning with the experiences of the Jamestown settlers and continuing down to the present day. A unique and exhaustively researched study, "Hurricanes And The Middle Atlantic States" features a substantial chronology profiling all of the Mid-Atlantic hurricanes and major storms, examines the patterns and characteristics of the region's tropical cyclones, and provides a sound basis for comparison, planning and preparation with respect to Mid-Atlantic hurricanes. Of special note is a forecasting history chapter offering insights into past progress and current knowledge about predicting hurricanes. Ideal for weather and meteorology students, "Hurricanes And The Middle Atlantic States" is especially recommended for non-specialist general readers with an interest in hurricanes and climate-changed influences on storm behavior, frequency, and intensity. Enhanced with an extensive glossary, a bibliography, and a geographically oriented index, as well as track maps and some 200 black-and-white photographs, "Hurricanes And The Middle Atlantic States" is confidently recommended for personal, professional, academic, and community library Weather & Meteorology reference collections.

Fascinating Book!!! Very informative, interesting facts and interviews. A must read for anyone with any interest at all on this topic.

BOOK REVIEW - "HURRICANES AND THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES"
Author: Richard Schwartz (Hardcover - 400 pages)

This incredible book is a first of its kind - dedicated to the storms that have affected the Mid-Atlantic States through the past 300+ years, from the "Year of the Hurricane in 1667" up through Hurricane Jeanne in September 2004. A great reference for all hurricane enthusiasts the book includes explanations of all commonly used technical terms, references, and internet sources for everyone to use. But mostly it covers all the storms that through this extensive historical period had an affect on the mid-Atlantic States region. And Rick has done this with a definite personal touch, going to great lengths to get a "people- perspective" on what actually happened, what people went through during these storms. And he does his best to educate all of us that we are never "out of the woods" as to the future. We may be in a lull for action right now, but that is definitely temporary, and more storms that form in the future will definitely have more profound affects on the Mid-Atlantic region. Anyone and everyone in the mid-Atlantic area should reach out and get this book to have as a reference and to learn about the great effects these powerful storms have on their local areas. As Rick put it, "An understanding of storms past is vital to preparing for those ahead..."

No other book brings to life the work and struggles of new migrants in the United States. Ness sets the stage for the impending crisis that the labor movement will most certainly confront in the years to come. The book is eye-opening political-economy that points to new strategies and directions for the labor movement and the broader the working class. Striking is the absence of unions, labor institutions, and a party capable or willing to support the new realities of what is effectively the post-NLRA era.

This book is far and away the most important book on labor in many years. While it covers immigrant laborers in the U.S. the book can be applied to U.S. workers as well. The book counters the intuitive notion that migrant workers are too afraid to organize. In fact they are the most likely to organize! Then the book provides a road map for all labor organizing, both immigrant and U.S.-born workers. Of all the books I have read, this book provides the most theoretically sound approach to labor organizing and mobilization in a clear and concise manner. The book is accessible to any reader and, without hubris or jargon, explains in a clear way that it is workers who organize first. Power is consolidated for the workers by unions. But even without unions, the book shows us that workers are more willing to take risks and are much more militant than their unions. Written clearly, the book is the best book on immigrants for university students. In my class, I found that students were so enthusiastic that the book in fact sparked discussion without my intervention. Bravo to Ness.

This is one of the very few books that addresses the issue of worker organizing and the importance of migrant workers to the oranized labor movement. The AFL-CIO increasingly recognizes the need for immigrant workers as they form a larger part of the labor force in low-wage jobs amenable to organizing. Unions have a range of responses to this newfound worker militancy, from complacency to building power and support for workers otherwise left to their own. Unlike other books, Ness shows that migrant workers from similar backgrounds tend to have strong ties to their co-workers. In fact, these strong ties contributes to solidarity and the will to confront rapacious employers. Surely U.S. workers have much to learn from migrants whose bonds of solidarity are reinforced by common religious, national, language, and ethnic identities.
U.S. workers are no less militant if confronted with identifical circumstances as immigrants. However, the rise in contingent work contributes to fewer bonds of solidarity as native-born frequently move from job to job as they seek out individual gains--mostly without success.

The case studies in this book will be instructive to international unions in seeking out new strategies for organizing immigrant and native-born workers alike. This book is the most important contribution to the literature on labor organizing in recent memory, and provides the basis for understanding the labor struggles of the early 20th century when mobilized immigrant workers formed unions and were consolidated by the national unions. This book offers hope to all of us as the government seeks to marginalize immigrants through imposing draconian laws and weaken their legal status as workers.

Immigrants, Unions, and the New US Labor Market is the most timely and intelligent examination of the implicatoins of the expansion of global capitalism on international migration. The book provides real life evidence of the human spirit of solidarity among migrant workers. This stirring book offers a roadmap for unions and employers of the eternal struggle for dignity among an outcast population that now forms an important component of American labor. This penetrating book is indispensable to understand the plight of migrants and how social conditions and human experience shapes the actions of working people. I commend the author.

Professor Immanuel Ness brings a lot to the lectern in this story of spirited, but impoverished immigrant workers organizing in New York City. Ness is a professor of political science. He's written widely on cities. And his years as a union organizer give him instant street credibility.

All this experience and knowledge is effectively woven into his book, Immigrants, Unions and the New U.S. Labor market The title is accurate although Ness rarely strays far from the battles in New York's five boroughs. New York is a kind of testing ground. Immigrant workers in New York City make up more a than half the labor force. The low wages of these immigrants explain why New York County has the biggest spread between rich and poor in America -- It's in these organizing campaigns that the struggle to keep America from sliding back to the pay and conditions of the Gilded Age are being determined.

Ness focuses on three campaigns: Mexicans who work in Korean deli's, Pakistani limo drivers; and west African grocery store workers. With dozens of candid interviews, he takes us inside these immigrant communities, to hear the voices of New York's most silent workers.

Everyone knows that immigrants have it hard. But Ness forces us to see just what it means to be delivery man from Mali and be forced to live on $1.00 an hour - plus tips of course - while working for A&P's Food Emporium.

These workers are so exploited they aren't even permitted the status of workers. They're "independent contractors" "a fiction that allows employers the right to ignore the provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (1938) regulating minimum wage, maximum hours and safety conditions. The upshot is that the grocery baggers from Mali wind up making that $1.00 an hour - which is more than they would make in Mali but not as much as Americans made a century ago. .

Ness shows us how these immigrants nevertheless have been able to come together to demand dignity, rights and a few extra dollars - at great risk, despite threats of physical harm, deportation, and job loss. It's not exactly workers of the world unite. But a triumph of the resilience of traditional social bonds which somehow survive even in the Global City. Plus it turns out they can mobilize a lot of outside support - the Mexican workers in Korean deli's got help from State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer who obligating sued the employers for back pay; a formidable community campaign sprang up on the Lower East Side to support the workers when they went on strike; the Mexican Consul-general got involved, too.

Ness' most surprising finding is that American unions - the institution you might expect to be leading the charge on behalf of the most exploited workers - the established unions - are mostly missing in action or actively undermining the immigrant organizing campaigns. There are some splendid exceptions, like Ernesto Joffre the former Chilean miner, jailed for subversion under the Pinochet dictatorship who went into exile here in New York and became head of an exemplary garment workers local. But mostly organized labor is too busy patrolling its jurisdictional boundaries to give more than perfunctory help. Almost immediately after Joffre's untimely death, his parent union liquidated support for the organizing campaign. A shady longshore union located in New Jersey wound up with sweetheart contracts with several of the Korean deli's.

Ness' accomplishment is dual: anthropology of New York's newest immigrant communities and a political science of the city's unions. It adds up to the most valuable account yet of the astringent realities of immigrant organizing in America.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maria M. Gillan
Executive Director of Poetry Center

Passiac Community College

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

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

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

We bought this for my husband's mom who was transplanted to Colorado as a teenager from Brooklyn. It brought back many happy childhood memories for her. She loved reading about places that she thought she'd forgotten and this spurred her memory to share childhood stories with us about a place very different from the 'wild west.'

I just finished the book and I enjoyed it so much. Its easy to see why
Brooklyn has been the inspriation for so many novels and movies.

It was so interesting to see how so many different ethnic groups had such
similar stories of growing up. A real shared memory .

Well this book is a treasure and I am so glad to have it.

This book is actually a compilation of anecdotal memories from many people who grew up in Brooklyn, some of whom are world famous for various reasons! While I was disapointed by the lack of coverage of the 50s and 60s when I grew up in East Flatbush, the book brings back wonderful memories of Coney Island and many other institutions. I particularly found the stories from the family that started Nathan's to be fascinating. I ALSO recommend the book "The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn." The two bookds are very different! While it is also light on the 50s and 60s it is fascinating to learn of the full history of each neighborhood. How and when the original Dutch settlers bought the various sections from the Canarsee and Rockaway Native Americans. It is also interesting to learn of the fates of the various neighborhoods and their changing ethnic faces.

I must add that it is at least a bit disingenuous and self-serving for one of the authors to write SEVERAL reviews of his own work!

Entertainers, notables and common folk reminisce about life and experiences in Brooklyn.

A PAINFUL SWEETNESS FLOODS YOU

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

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

The Bloomsbury Review, November-December 1998

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Well worth the price.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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