59E59 - Off Broadway Theater in New York

We go to a lot of theater both in New York and the Berkshires; even though we probably only really like less than a quarter of what we see. The reasons we continue to go are complicated but include a sense that when it is good, it can be very good; and a desire to support programs that we believe offer a valuable cultural diversity. Among those programs are Roundabout Theater and Manhattan Theater Club in New York and Shakespeare & Co., Barrington Stage and the Mahaiwe Theater in the Berkshires. We also go to a lot of other venues for individual productions. We tend to emphasize Drama over Music for a number of reasons that I won't discuss here.

This is all by way of introduction to a new find (for us) in our neighborhood. 59E59 is a moderately sized venue with three small theaters just a few blocks from our house. They host a number of different companies during the year. We passed it all the time but not until some neighbors encouraged us did we actually decide to try a couple of productions.

During the early summer they host the "Brits Off Bradway" festival. We decided to start with two pruductions that sounded interesting:

1. RABBIT - Nina Raine's witty, battle-of-the-sexes where a friendly, twentysomething's birthday party turns to a funny and painful exploration of the relationship between the sexes.
   
2. RADIO - Al Smith's coming-of-age story about a farmer's son in rural America, whose youthful dreams of spaceships parallel the beginning and end of the Apollo Program
   

We've now seen both and really enjoyed them although they could not have been more different in style. Rabitt is a Friends on steroids with with very British sensibility. Radio is set in the US and is about 1950's 1960's angst in middle America. Painful but touching.

The productions were entertaining but have the definite aura of slightley less polished off-Broaday - but at $25-$35 a ticket e'll definitely be keeping an eye out for upcoming productions here.

59 E 59 Theaters

59 East 59th Street (bet Park and Madison Aves)

212-753-5959

Piano Due and Palio

Downstairs at the Equitable Center on West 51st Street is one of the most spectacular bars in New York, Palio; named after the famed horse race in Sienna. It contains a spectacular mural depicting the race in vibrant colors. The bar itself is in the center of the room and here is where our celebration began with Champagne before going up to the restaurant. The bar is worth the visit and the drinks were not overly expensive ($20 for two).

A small elevator took us to the restaurant on the second floor where the room is quite nice, although not up to the standards of the bar. The restaurant, called Piano Due (second floor in Italian) has only been open for a little over a year. It specializes in classic Northern Italian cuisine at prices somewhat less than its sister restaurant Scalini Fedeli in TriBeCa. So far it is not crowded and the room was only 2/3 full on Tuesday.

Both Chris and I started with "Rucola Con Funghi" (sauteed parmigiano crusted portobello mushroom, with the jus of roasted chicken with orange, served along side baby arugula topped with shaved parm). It was absolutely wonderful. The mushrooms were tender and only lightly dusted with cheese. The sauce was just the slightest bit sweet from orange bits. We asked for more bread to sop up the sauce it was that good!

Given that we both started with the same thing (very unusual) we decided to share a pasta course "Rigatoni con Rapa" (sausage and broccoli di rapa with sun-dried tomato and olive oil sauce, caramelized pecorino romano). This was pretty good, but a little too much oil made it heavy.

I then followed that with "Anatra al Porto" (slow roasted duck breast with an apple-shallot puree in a port wine and mushroom reduction over vanilla braised endives). It was delicious and served perfectly rare. Chris, who didn't like her swordfish, shared it with me. In addition to the breast, it was served with a separate "leg confit" that was tasty but unnecessary. It could have easily fed two people (a good thing as it turned out). Chris had the Sword Fish over broccoli rabae, Tuscan style cannelli beans, shelled musseles (they were the best part of this dish) in orange reduction. She thought the fish was a little over-cooked and too salty and the beans just o.k. making it not so tragic to leave it on the plate.

We had a very nice 2004 Pinot Grigio recommended by the Captain. It was just rich enough to complement the Duck. It's notable that it was half the price of the red wine I had selected--that doesn't happen very often.

Since it was our anniversary, we shared a Torte Di Limone (warm lemon cream tart set in a vanilla scented crust with seasonal berries and artisanal honey) that I thought was just about perfect and Chris left all to me. However, since it was our anniversary, they also brought us Strawberries Romanoff (with zabaglione). Chris just loved that. So much for eating on the lighter side!

Overall, a very nice restaurant in a lovely room with attentive friendly service. Too bad about the swordfish!

Piano Due

Equitable Center

151 West 51st Street (bet 6th & 7th Aves)

212-399-9400

Lawrence Wright - The Looming Tower

Paul's comments...

Absolutely the best book about Al Qaeda and Bin Laden out there. Takes you from his childhood to 9/11. A page turner. Informative and scary.

Book description...

Wright, a New Yorker writer, brings exhaustive research and delightful prose to one of the best books yet on the history of terrorism. He begins with the observation that, despite an impressive record of terror and assassination, post–WWarII, Islamic militants failed to establish theocracies in any Arab country. Many helped Afghanistan resist the Russian invasion of 1979 before their unemployed warriors stepped up efforts at home. Al-Qaeda, formed in Afghanistan in 1988 and led by Osama bin Laden, pursued a different agenda, blaming America for Islam's problems. Less wealthy than believed, bin Laden's talents lay in organization and PR, Wright asserts. Ten years later, bin Laden blew up U.S. embassies in Africa and the destroyer Cole, opening the floodgates of money and recruits. Wright's step-by-step description of these attacks reveals that planning terror is a sloppy business, leaving a trail of clues that, in the case of 9/11, raised many suspicions among individuals in the FBI, CIA and NSA. Wright shows that 9/11 could have been prevented if those agencies had worked together. As a fugitive, bin Ladin's days as a terror mastermind may be past, but his success has spawned swarms of imitators. This is an important, gripping and profoundly disheartening book.

Vali Nasr - The Shia Revival

Paul's comments...

Really scary, but interesting. Worth the read.

Book description...

One of the least remarked upon aspects of the war in Iraq, at least in the American press, has been how conflict and instability in that country have shaken the delicate balance of power between Sunni and Shia throughout the wider region. Nasr, professor of Middle East and South Asia politics at the Naval Postgraduate School, tackles this question head-on for a Western audience. His account begins with a cogent, engrossing introduction to the history and theology of Shia Islam, encapsulating the intellectual and political trends that have shaped the faith and its relations with the dominant Sunni strain. Nasr argues that the Shia Crescent—stretching from Lebanon and Syria through the Gulf to Iraq and Iran, finally terminating in Pakistan and India—is gathering strength in the aftermath of Saddam's fall, cementing linkages that transcend political and linguistic borders and could lead to a new map of the Middle East. While Nasr's enthusiasm for Iraq's Shiite leader Ayatollah Sistani sometimes borders on the hagiographic, and he makes a number of uncharacteristic errors, such as conflating the Syrian Alawi community with the Turkish Alevis, his book is worthwhile reading for those seeking a primer on the second-largest Muslim sect

Thoughts on a new life

Today, I am married to Chris for three years!

It's been almost 10 years since Tobi died and I can't believe the changes in my life. Back then, I was CFO of Pfizer's global pharmaceutical business and was on top of the world, professionally. Retirement wasn't something I could even imagine. On the other hand, Tobi wasn't doing well. She had recently become wheelchair-bound after 25 years of increasing disability. And, despite my cherished belief that MS would somehow protect her from cancer - she had suffered enough! Unbelievably, Tobi's breast cancer had recurred and rapidly progressed. Work seemed like all I had left.

When I made the decision to start a new life, I could not have imagined how dramatic or wonderful the changes would be. The decorator who worked on my apartment also introduced me to Chris. I quickly realized she was the perfect match for me - she loved NY and food and travel and reading and quiet times - and she made friends everywhere we went; She was organized where I was dis-organized and dis-organized where I was organized. We "quickly" decided to move in together and later; when I got the "chance to retire early" she agreed to retire as well and then agreed to marry me. We had a quiet wedding at my sister's home in Greenwich followed by a trip to the Poconos for a "traditional honeymoon" with all the trimmings - heart shaped bed, champagne glass hot tub, everything I never knew I wanted. It was a blast! We also took a honeymoon cruise on a three-masted schooner.

I really won. I not only got a wife, but the family I never had. Being involved with Scott has been an unexpected benefit that I never even considered. I now have a friend who shares my love of clothes, technology and adult toys.

It has now been three years of both marriage and retirement, and I couldn't be happier. We spend most of our time together but it never gets old. We have been fortunate to have been able to spend time with both friends of a lifetime and new ones. Our building in Manhattan is small and most everyone knows each other. We have new friends and feel part of the community.

We are always busy. We never have enough time to do everything we want. Living in NY and the Berkshires there is an almost infinite amount of theater, museums and restaurants - the big three! We also managed to find time for Paris in the fall, Palm Beach in the winter; a cruise now and then; and driving trips to Canada and in the US. As our in-house travel agent, Chris is really, really busy. I manage my time better (by delegating to Chris) and have more time to read and puzzle.

I never thought you could have it all, but I was wrong. We now have everything we could want, including each other - and it scares the hell out of me.

Laura Lippman - What The Dead Know

Paul's comments...

I just finished this. It's one of the best books I've read in a while - and a new author to me; what could be better! The story is told through a series of flashbacks to the time of the original crime and to the life of the mystery woman over the past 30 years. It's absorbing both as a mystery and a psychological exploration of how people react to an unimaginable event.

Best of all, the ending is wholely satisfying and consistent. Not a common development.

Book description...

Edgar-winner Lippman, author of the Tess Monaghan mystery series (No Good Deeds, etc.), shows she's as good as Peter Abrahams and other A-list thriller writers with this outstanding stand-alone. A driver who flees a car accident on a Maryland highway breathes new life into a 30-year-old mystery—the disappearance of the young Bethany sisters at a shopping mall—after she later tells the police she's one of the missing girls. As soon as the mystery woman drops that bombshell, she clams up, placing the new lead detective, Kevin Infante, in a bind, as he struggles to gain her trust while exploring the odd holes in her story. Deftly moving between past and present, Lippman presents the last day both sisters, Sunny and Heather, were seen alive from a variety of perspectives. Subtle clues point to the surprising but plausible solution of the crime and the identity of the mystery woman. Lippman, who has also won Shamus, Agatha, Anthony and Nero Wolfe awards, should gain many new fans with this superb effort.

Joseph Wambaugh - Hollywood Station

Paul's comments

Paul's comments...

I really looked forward to this new Wambaugh. I had fond memories of his prior novels especially the earlier ones. I sat down to read with that warm feeling of anticipation. But I could not get through this book. I found the characters cartoonish and uninteresting. I squirmed in my chair with discomfort trying to read it. I only got through 40 pages before I put it down.

Book description...

Wambaugh's outstanding new novel, his first in a decade, is not only a return to form but a return to his LAPD roots. Times have sure changed since the 1970s, the setting for some of Wambaugh's best earlier works such as The New Centurions and The Onion Field. Grossly understaffed, the officers of Hollywood Station find themselves writing bogus field interviews with nonexistent white suspects in minority neighborhoods to avoid allegations of racial profiling. Crystal meth rules the streets, and crackheads and glass freaks dressed in costume (Elvis, Marilyn Monroe, Darth Vader, Elmo) work the tourist strip, bumming money for their next fix. With an impressive array of police characters, from surfer dude partners "Flotsam" and "Jetsam" to aspiring actor "Hollywood" Nate Weiss and single mother Budgie Polk, Wambaugh creates a realistic microcosm of the modern-day LAPD. Today's crop of crime writers, including Michael Connelly and George Pelecanos, obviously owe a debt to Wambaugh. The master proves that he can still deliver.

Daniel Levitin - This is Your Brain on Music

Book description...

Think of a song that resonates deep down in your being. Now imagine sitting down with someone who was there when the song was recorded and can tell you how that series of sounds was committed to tape, and who can also explain why that particular combination of rhythms, timbres and pitches has lodged in your memory, making your pulse race and your heart swell every time you hear it. Remarkably, Levitin does all this and more, interrogating the basic nature of hearing and of music making (this is likely the only book whose jacket sports blurbs from both Oliver Sacks and Stevie Wonder), without losing an affectionate appreciation for the songs he's reducing to neural impulses. Levitin is the ideal guide to this material: he enjoyed a successful career as a rock musician and studio producer before turning to cognitive neuroscience, earning a Ph.D. and becoming a top researcher into how our brains interpret music. Though the book starts off a little dryly (the first chapter is a crash course in music theory), Levitin's snappy prose and relaxed style quickly win one over and will leave readers thinking about the contents of their iPods in an entirely new way.

Don DeLillo - Falling Man

Paul comments...


Book description...


When DeLillo's novel Players was published in 1977, one of the main characters, Pammy, worked in the newly built World Trade Center. She felt that "the towers didn't seem permanent. They remained concepts, no less transient for all their bulk than some routine distortion of light." DeLillo's new novel begins 24 years later, with Keith Neudecker standing in a New York City street covered with dust, glass shards and blood, holding somebody else's briefcase, while that intimation of the building's mortality is realized in a sickening roar behind him. On that day, Keith, one half of a classic DeLillo well-educated married couple, returns to Lianne, from whom he'd separated, and to their young son, Justin. Keith and Lianne know it is Keith's Lazarus moment, although DeLillo reserves the bravura sequence that describes Keith's escape from the first tower—as well as the last moments of one of the hijackers, Hammad—until the end of the novel. Reconciliation for Keith and Lianne occurs in a sort of stunned unconsciousness; the two hardly engage in the teasing, ludic interchanges common to couples in other DeLillo novels. Lianne goes through a paranoid period of rage against everything Mideastern; Keith is drawn to another survivor. Lianne's mother, Nina, roils her 20-year affair with Martin, a German leftist; Keith unhooks from his law practice to become a professional poker player. Justin participates in a child's game involving binoculars, plane spotting and waiting for a man named "Bill Lawton." DeLillo's last novel, Cosmopolis, was a disappointment, all attitude (DeLillo is always a brilliant stager of attitude) and no heart. This novel is a return to DeLillo's best work. No other writer could encompass 9/11 quite like DeLillo does here, down to the interludes following Hammad as he listens to a man who "was very genius"—Mohammed Atta. The writing has the intricacy and purpose of a wiring diagram. The mores of the after-the-event are represented with no cuteness—save, perhaps, the falling man performance artist. It is as if Players, The Names, Libra, White Noise, Underworld—with their toxic events, secret histories, moral panics—converge, in that day's narrative of systematic vulnerability, scatter and tentative regrouping. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc

V S Naipul - A House for Mr. Biswas

Paul's comments...

A really wonderful description a very different type of life; that of the Indian immigrant community in post-colonial Trinidad. Themes of family and struggle that we can all relate to. All his attempts at independence give him only ephemeral independence.

Book description...
The early masterpiece of V. S. Naipaul’s brilliant career, A House for Mr. Biswas is an unforgettable story inspired by Naipaul's father that has been hailed as one of the twentieth century's finest novels.

In his forty-six short years, Mr. Mohun Biswas has been fighting against destiny to achieve some semblance of independence, only to face a lifetime of calamity. Shuttled from one residence to another after the drowning death of his father, for which he is inadvertently responsible, Mr. Biswas yearns for a place he can call home. But when he marries into the domineering Tulsi family on whom he indignantly becomes dependent, Mr. Biswas embarks on an arduous–and endless–struggle to weaken their hold over him and purchase a house of his own. A heartrending, dark comedy of manners, A House for Mr. Biswas masterfully evokes a man’s quest for autonomy against an emblematic post-colonial canvas.

Primo Levi - Survival in Auschwitz

Chris says...


Book description ...

Survival in Auschwitz is a mostly straightforward narrative, beginning with Primo Levi's deportation from Turin, Italy, to the concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland in 1943. Levi, then a 25-year-old chemist, spent 10 months in the camp. Even Levi's most graphic descriptions of the horrors he witnessed and endured there are marked by a restraint and wit that not only gives readers access to his experience, but confronts them with it in stark ethical and emotional terms: "[A]t dawn the barbed wire was full of children's washing hung out in the wind to dry. Nor did they forget the diapers, the toys, the cushions and the hundred other small things which mothers remember and which children always need. Would you not do the same? If you and your child were going to be killed tomorrow, would you not give him something to eat today

Oceana Restaurant

When you enter Oceana, you feel like you're on a luxury liner with excellent service to match. The attractive nautical interior and shape of the room feels authentic right down to the water pictured on the outside of the faux windows. The restaurant is operated by the Livano family who also own "Molyvos" and "Abbocato" in the city and one of our favorites, the "City Limits" diner in White Plains where we enjoyed a late lunch after picking up our marriage license.

Oceana has long been one of the best regarded "fish houses" in New York serving American influenced seafood but recently had a change in chef. Ben Pollinger, formerly of Tabla and Union Square Grill (of the Danny Meyer group). While the menu is wonderful with interesting sounding preparations like Stinging Nettle Soup and Roasted Fuji Apple as starters and Pan Roasted Chatam Cod and Tamarind glazed Sablefish, the delivery is still a little uneven.

I started with the 'Roasted Fuji Apple' with a Salad of Sprouted Beans, Jicama, Macadamia Nuts and Quince Banyuls Vinaigrette. It was delicious, unlike anything I have had before. Chris started with really wonderful 'Maine Peekytoe Crab' with Artichokes Three Ways, Favas, Pancetta and Basil.

I followed with the 'Tamarind Glazed Sablefish' with Toasted Spices, Spring Peas and Ramps that I thought were overly ambitious. Chris had the Pan Roasted Chatam Cod with Manila Clams, Fingerling Potatoes, Sausage and Baby Red Mustard Greens. We don't often order cod because of my longtime association with the Italian dried, salted Baccala. But this is a completely different experience.

We had a nice 2004 Puligny Montrachet.

In summary, it was a nice meal but I think they have some work to do to live up to the three course $80 Prix Fixe Menu.

Oceana

55 East 54th Street (bet Madison and Park Ave)

212-759-5941

Douglas Hofstadteer - Godel, Escher, Bach

Book description...

Twenty years after it topped the bestseller charts, Douglas R. Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is still something of a marvel. Besides being a profound and entertaining meditation on human thought and creativity, this book looks at the surprising points of contact between the music of Bach, the artwork of Escher, and the mathematics of Gödel. It also looks at the prospects for computers and artificial intelligence (AI) for mimicking human thought. For the general reader and the computer techie alike, this book still sets a standard for thinking about the future of computers and their relation to the way we think.

Hofstadter's great achievement in Gödel, Escher, Bach was making abstruse mathematical topics (like undecidability, recursion, and 'strange loops') accessible and remarkably entertaining. Borrowing a page from Lewis Carroll (who might well have been a fan of this book), each chapter presents dialogue between the Tortoise and Achilles, as well as other characters who dramatize concepts discussed later in more detail. Allusions to Bach's music (centering on his Musical Offering) and Escher's continually paradoxical artwork are plentiful here. This more approachable material lets the author delve into serious number theory (concentrating on the ramifications of Gödel's Theorem of Incompleteness) while stopping along the way to ponder the work of a host of other mathematicians, artists, and thinkers.

The world has moved on since 1979, of course. The book predicted that computers probably won't ever beat humans in chess, though Deep Blue beat Garry Kasparov in 1997. And the vinyl record, which serves for some of Hofstadter's best analogies, is now left to collectors. Sections on recursion and the graphs of certain functions from physics look tantalizing, like the fractals of recent chaos theory. And AI has moved on, of course, with mixed results. Yet Gödel, Escher, Bach remains a remarkable achievement. Its intellectual range and ability to let us visualize difficult mathematical concepts help make it one of this century's best for anyone who's interested in computers and their potential for real intelligence.

Michael Chabon - The Yiddish Policemen's Union

Paul's comments...

A really interesting book. combines the intersest of a traditional mystery with a pseudo-SciFi vision of the future. I stopped reading SciFi when I was in my teens but this reminded me why i loved them. He creates a completely rational (or almost rational) alternate universe based on a possible different path events could have followed. His description of the "frozen chosen" in Alaska are worth the investment of a few hours.

Book description...

They are the "frozen Chosen," two million people living, dying and kvetching in Sitka, Alaska, the temporary homeland established for displaced World War II Jews in Chabon's ambitious and entertaining new novel. It is—deep breath now—a murder-mystery speculative-history Jewish-identity noir chess thriller, so perhaps it's no surprise that, in the back half of the book, the moving parts become unwieldy; Chabon is juggling narrative chainsaws here.The novel begins—the same way that Philip Roth launched The Plot Against America—with a fascinating historical footnote: what if, as Franklin Roosevelt proposed on the eve of World War II, a temporary Jewish settlement had been established on the Alaska panhandle? Roosevelt's plan went nowhere, but Chabon runs the idea into the present, back-loading his tale with a haunting history. Israel failed to get a foothold in the Middle East, and since the Sitka solution was only temporary, Alaskan Jews are about to lose their cold homeland. The book's timeless refrain: "It's a strange time to be a Jew."Into this world arrives Chabon's Chandler-ready hero, Meyer Landsman, a drunken rogue cop who wakes in a flophouse to find that one of his neighbors has been murdered. With his half-Tlingit, half-Jewish partner and his sexy-tough boss, who happens also to be his ex-wife, Landsman investigates a fascinating underworld of Orthodox black-hat gangs and crime-lord rabbis. Chabon's "Alyeska" is an act of fearless imagination, more evidence of the soaring talent of his previous genre-blender, the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.Eventually, however, Chabon's homage to noir feels heavy-handed, with too many scenes of snappy tough-guy banter and too much of the kind of elaborate thriller plotting that requires long explanations and offscreen conspiracies.Chabon can certainly write noir—or whatever else he wants; his recent Sherlock Holmes novel, The Final Solution, was lovely, even if the New York Times Book Review sniffed its surprise that the mystery novel would "appeal to the real writer." Should any other snobs mistake Chabon for anything less than a real writer, this book offers new evidence of his peerless storytelling and style. Characters have skin "as pale as a page of commentary" and rough voices "like an onion rolling in a bucket." It's a solid performance that would have been even better with a little more Yiddish and a little less police. (May)Jess Walter was a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award for The Zero and the winner of the 2006 Edgar Award for best novel for Citizen Vince.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc

Tova Reich - My Holocaust

Book description...

In this savage satire of Holocaust commemoration's misuses, Reich paints and pillories a culture of victimhood that, with its accompanying commemorative kitsch, all but eclipses the actual victims. Novelist Reich (The Jewish War) sketches a gallery of "Holocaust hangers-on," grotesques eager to hijack the Shoah for tawdry commercial and ideological purposes. Presiding over the strategic exploitation is Maurice Messer, a retired ladies' undergarment maker who has parlayed inflated claims of being an anti-Nazi partisan into the chairmanship of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; his feckless son, Norman, president of Holocaust Connections Inc., a brand consultancy with the motto "Make Your Cause a Holocaust" (of which Maurice is board chairman); Norman's daughter, Nechama, who has embarrassingly run off to join the convent across the street from Auschwitz; and Maurice's right-hand man, Monty Pincus, who expertly deploys melancholy over the six million to seduce women. Once the idea of the "Chinese Holocaust" (the "rape" of Nanking) or the "Native American Holocaust" gain traction, however, Maurice and Norman may not be able to control the results. Whether Maurice and Norman are rebranding "mountains of shorn hair" from Auschwitz for "an anti-fur organization eager to firm up its Holocaust status" or schmoozing ecumenically with a Holocaust-denying Arab terrorist, Reich's satire is broad, scabrous, cynical, over-the-top, often hilarious—and likely to cause a scandal

Robert Fagles - The Aeneid

Book description...

Fagles's new version of Virgil's epic delicately melds the stately rhythms of the original to a contemporary cadence. Having previously produced well-received translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey, he illuminates the poem's Homeric echoes while remaining faithful to Virgil's distinctive voice. Pious Aeneas, passionate Dido, and raging Turnus are driven by the desires and rivalries of the gods-but even the gods recognize their obeisance to fate, and to the foretold Roman Empire that will produce Augustus, Virgil's patron. The excellent introduction, by Bernard Knox, gives historical and literary context, and both Knox and Fagles convincingly argue the epic's continuing relevance. Fagles, writing of Virgil's sense of "the price of empire," notes that "it seems to be a price we keep on paying, in the loss of blood and treasure, time-worn faith and hard-won hope, down to the present day."

Christopher Hitchens - God is Not Great

Book description...

Hitchens, one of our great political pugilists, delivers the best of the recent rash of atheist manifestos. The same contrarian spirit that makes him delightful reading as a political commentator, even (or especially) when he's completely wrong, makes him an entertaining huckster prosecutor once he has God placed in the dock. And can he turn a phrase!: "monotheistic religion is a plagiarism of a plagiarism of a hearsay of a hearsay, of an illusion of an illusion, extending all the way back to a fabrication of a few nonevents." Hitchens's one-liners bear the marks of considerable sparring practice with believers. Yet few believers will recognize themselves as Hitchens associates all of them for all time with the worst of history's theocratic and inquisitional moments. All the same, this is salutary reading as a means of culling believers' weaker arguments: that faith offers comfort (false comfort is none at all), or has provided a historical hedge against fascism (it mostly hasn't), or that "Eastern" religions are better (nope). The book's real strength is Hitchens's on-the-ground glimpses of religion's worst face in various war zones and isolated despotic regimes. But its weakness is its almost fanatical insistence that religion poisons "everything," which tips over into barely disguised misanthropy.

Richard Dawkins - The God Delusion

Book description...

Richard Dawkins, in The God Delusion, tells of his exasperation with colleagues who try to play both sides of the street: looking to science for justification of their religious convictions while evading the most difficult implications—the existence of a prime mover sophisticated enough to create and run the universe, "to say nothing of mind reading millions of humans simultaneously." Such an entity, he argues, would have to be extremely complex, raising the question of how it came into existence, how it communicates —through spiritons!—and where it resides. Dawkins is frequently dismissed as a bully, but he is only putting theological doctrines to the same kind of scrutiny that any scientific theory must withstand. No one who has witnessed the merciless dissection of a new paper in physics would describe the atmosphere as overly polite.

Thomas Mallon - Fellow Travelers

Book description...

McCarthy-era Washington, D.C., is as twisted and morally compromised as a noir Los Angeles in Mallon's latest, a wide-ranging examination of betrayal and clashing ideologies. The young ladies in the secretary pool are agog over dapper bureaucrat Hawkins Fuller, though his attentions covertly focus on newly minted Fordham graduate and good Catholic Tim Laughlin. Hawkins helps Tim land a job and, after feeling out the impressionable young man, makes a place in his bed for him. Mary Johnson, a friend to both closeted men, watches with rising alarm as Tim and Hawkins carry on their affair and Washington seethes in paranoia over Communists and "sexual deviation." Mary, meanwhile, succumbs to her own lustful yearnings and has an affair with a married businessman, leading to a predictable, though deftly played, quandary. The District's social milieu is solidly realized, with such period icons as Mary McGrory and Drew Pearson in


evidence alongside political heavyweights—McCarthy, Kennedy, Nixon and the like. Less convincing, however, is the on-again-off-again and largely one-sided relationship between Washington greenhorn Tim and cold, calculating careerist Hawkins. Mallon (Bandbox; Dewey Defeats Truman) offers an intricate, fluent and divergent perspective on a D.C. rife with backstabbing and power grabbing.

Elmore Leonard - Up In Honey's Room

Book decscription ...

Though in his 80s, Elmore Leonard proves, in his 40th-something novel and sequel to The Hot Kid, that he's still at the top of his game. As in previous novels, character dominates plot: "What happens next is not really the point," notes the Boston Globe. Critics particularly praised the wonderful interaction between Carl and Honey, the crisp dialogue, and the chaotic threads that meld together into a coherent whole. The lack of narration, however, threw off a few critics, as did some exaggerated details and Carl's relatively uninteresting personality (he's now married, after all). But in the end, "Up in Honey's Room is a perfect example of a master storyteller spinning a tall one"

Harlan Coben - The Woods

Book description...

In this stand-alone legal thriller, Harlan Coben presents a riveting courtroom drama, creates riveting players, and delves into family secrets, love, loss, mistakes, and betrayal. A few critics noted that while The Woods falls into Coben's typical formula—a past crime affects innocent people in the present—it still comes off as fresh. The trial scenes, Cope's ruminations on what really happened that night, and the back-and-forth narration are particularly well done. Only the Washington Post faulted the novel's cheap thrills, improbable revelations, and awkward conclusion. Nevertheless, few readers will remain unaffected by its emotional heft.

Elif Shafak - The Bastard of Istanbul

Book description...

In her second novel written in English (The Saint of Incipient Insanities was the first), Turkish novelist Shafak tackles Turkish national identity and the Armenian "question" in her signature style. In a novel that overflows with a kitchen sink's worth of zany characters, women are front and center: Asya Kazanci, an angst-ridden 19-year-old Istanbulite is the bastard of the title; her beautiful, rebellious mother, Zeliha (who intended to have an abortion), has raised Asya among three generations of complicated and colorful female relations (including religious clairvoyant Auntie Banu and bar-brawl widow, Auntie Cevriye). The Kazanci men either die young or take a permanent hike like Mustafa, Zeliha's beloved brother who immigrated to America years ago. Mustafa's Armenian-American stepdaughter, Armanoush, who grew up on her family's stories of the 1915 genocide, shows up in Istanbul looking for her roots and for vindication from her new Turkish family. The Kazanci women lament Armanoush's family's suffering, but have no sense of Turkish responsibility for it; Asya's boho cohorts insist there was no genocide at all. As the debate escalates, Mustafa arrives in Istanbul, and a long-hidden secret connecting the histories of the two families is revealed. Shafak was charged with "public denigration of Turkishness" when the novel was published in Turkey earlier this year (the charges were later dropped). She incorporates a political taboo into an entertaining and insightful ensemble novel, one that posits the universality of family, culture and coincidence.

Francis Fukuyama - America at the Crossroads

Book description...

In this history of and forecast for neoconservative thought, Fukuyama (The End of History and the Last Man), a neoconservative with close ties to the Bush administration, complicates the notion that many of the Bush administration's policies are based on neoconservative thought by tracing the roots of neoconservativism from the 1940s onward. Fukuyama finds fault with many aspects of Bush's foreign policies, notably the inadequate planning for post-conflict reconstruction in Iraq, the conflation of the threat of radical Islamism with Iraq and the administration's non-cooperation with international organizations like the United Nations during a deluge of anti-Americanism. Unlike many indictments of the Bush administration, Fukuyama's book considers conflicting neoconservative principles and offers a reconciliation of neoconservative thought with a wider worldview, making this a timely book that'll spur more than its share of discussion

Khaled Hosseini - A Thousand Splendid Suns

Book description...

It's difficult to imagine a harder first act to follow than The Kite Runner: a debut novel by an unknown writer about a country many readers knew little about that has gone on to have over four million copies in print worldwide. But when preview copies of Khaled Hosseini's second novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, started circulating at Amazon.com, readers reacted with a unanimous enthusiasm that few of us could remember seeing before. As special as The Kite Runner was, those readers said, A Thousand Splendid Suns is more so, bringing Hosseini's compassionate storytelling and his sense of personal and national tragedy to a tale of two women that is weighted equally with despair and grave hope.

Walter Isaacson - Einstein

Book description...

As a scientist, Albert Einstein is undoubtedly the most epic among 20th-century thinkers. Albert Einstein as a man, however, has been a much harder portrait to paint, and what we know of him as a husband, father, and friend is fragmentary at best. With Einstein: His Life and Universe, Walter Isaacson (author of the bestselling biographies Benjamin Franklin and Kissinger) brings Einstein's experience of life, love, and intellectual discovery into brilliant focus. The book is the first biography to tackle Einstein's enormous volume of personal correspondence that heretofore had been sealed from the public, and it's hard to imagine another book that could do such a richly textured and complicated life as Einstein's the same thoughtful justice. Isaacson is a master of the form and this latest opus is at once arresting and wonderfully revelatory.

Neal Stephenson - The Diamond Age

Book description...

John Percival Hackworth is a nanotech engineer on the rise when he steals a copy of "A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer" for his daughter Fiona. The primer is actually a super computer built with nanotechnology that was designed to educate Lord Finkle-McGraw's daughter and to teach her how to think for herself in the stifling neo-Victorian society. But Hackworth loses the primer before he can give it to Fiona, and now the "book" has fallen into the hands of young Nell, an underprivileged girl whose life is about to change

Henry Kissinger - Ending the Viet Nam War

Book description...

This book deals with the way the United States ended its involvement in the longest war in its history." The opening line of this book is as unambiguous as its title. Kissinger was, of course, President Nixon's national security advisor, later his secretary of state, and is currently an academic and author. In fact, Kissinger's latest book is really a selection of chapters gathered from four previous books, which he has rearranged and somewhat rewritten. In this insider book par excellence, Kissinger keeps fairly, if not wholly, grounded in objectivity as he records and interprets events in this "black hole of American historical memory." As he sees it, the problem with the Vietnam War by the time Nixon became president was not that American involvement there needed to be terminated--"every administration in office during the Vietnam war sought to end it"--but how to end it. The war on the home front brought into glaring light the "tension" between U.S. idealism and the need to be immersed in the pragmatic world of international power-play. To the author, the lesson of Vietnam--"the tragedy described in these pages"--is that "America must never again permit its promise to be overwhelmed by its divisions." The density of Kissinger's prose style will not keep most readers from realizing the important place of this book within the complete historiography of the Vietnam War

Yasmin Khadra - The Attack

Paul comments...

This book troubled me - a lot.

The descriptions of the arab plight in Israel and the occupied territories is highly critical of the jihadi terrorists - but in a sympathetic way. Sort of, it's wrong, but what can you expect under the circumstances. He does not try to justify the bombings but is sympathetic to the causes.

His depiction of the assimilated, and successful, arab doctor who's wife becomes a suicide bomber is much less sympathetic. Sort of - wake up and look around, you can't escape from your heritage! He returns to his tribe and is treated with great sympathy as a mis-guided son who has come home. The lesson seems to be - it's bad to be a good arab in Israel.

His depiction of overall Israeli society is basically unsympathetic. The doctor's two best friends are Israelis but can't help him because they don't understand what's driving him. In addition, the author focuses on a number of incidents where the doctor, an Israeli citizen, is treated badly by strangers and colleagues. Later, after his wife blows up the restaurant killing nineteen adults and children, he is surprised that the police suspect him of collusion and that a gang beats him up and trashes his house. The sympathetic view of the arab plight does not extend to the innocent Tel Avians being killed by suicide bombs.

The book begins and ends with a moving description of an Israeli attack on a car carrying a islamist Imam who advocates suicide bombings. The clear message seems to be the Israelis are just as bad as the suicide bombers.

About the book...

Dr. Amin Jaafari, an Israeli Arab, seems fully assimilated into Tel Aviv society, with a loving wife, a successful career as a surgeon, and numerous Jewish friends. But after a restaurant bombing kills nineteen people, and it becomes apparent that his wife was the bomber, he plunges into the world of Islamic extremism, trying to understand how he missed signs of her intentions. Khadra (the nom de plume of Mohammed Moulessehoul) vividly captures Jaafari's anguish and his anger at the fanatics who recruited his wife. The Israelis don't escape lightly, either, as their army marches over law-abiding Arab citizens in an attempt to stamp out the militants. Khadra's writing has a tendency toward cliché, but the book's dark vision of the conflict is powerful

Thought on Baseball and my Father

The Yankees are having the worst season in living memory, and yet, when they unexpectedly (for Red Sox fans) come alive and win 9 games in a row I find myself walking around with a silly smile and "jabbing" my friends who are Red Sox or Mets fans. This always leaves me wondering where this comes from - I'm not generally a sports fan. I usually say I come by my Yankees-ism naturally, being born in the Bronx. But that's only part of the story.

Often, when I think of my father, I imagine him either at work or listening (or, more likely arguing) about the Yankees. When I was young, he would often take me with him on Saturdays to the construction yard on Zerega Avenue in the Bronx, where he worked. It was Del Balso Construction, owned by his cousin and he worked there. It was some of the most 'quality time' I spent with him; talking about what he loved - the equipment and the jobs. I would watch him work, asking a million questions; or roam around the yard getting into trouble. One of my favorite activities was sharpening welding rods into little spears that I would use to hunt rats (the site was on the water). I never caught any, but it was great fun, as was trying to befriend the stray dogs and cats that were kept there to keep the rat population under control. We usually stayed until lunch; steaks cooked over an open fire in an oil can in the winter or White Castle hamburgers when it was too warm for a fire. The steaks were my favorite, but I also loved the hamburgers, especially the competition as to how many you could eat. I remember him eating 10 of the little devils. Even in my memory they were awful, greasy, little squares of meat with holes in them, served on mushy steamed buns with onions providing the only recognizable taste.

My father adored the Yankees. In those days your team really defined you and where you fit in. I remember many discussion with my mother (who was notably less enthusiastic) where my father would dismiss some couple that she wanted to spend time with as Giants fans, or with incredulity, Dodgers fans. Giants fans were misguided, but ultimately salvageable. It was worth trying to change their minds - loudly! Dodgers fans were beyond the pale and best avoided. I was reminded of this last year when I was crushed by the Yankees inexplicable loss to the Red Sox (the Dodgers of today). I would not nearly be as bereft by a loss to the Mets. This is a good thing since they lost to them last night and I'm going the game today with Barry. Some of my fondest memories of my father were at Yankees games where he taught me how to score the game on the program. I still remember most of the symbols. As I got older, I sort of drifted away from baseball and the Yanks (they were truly awful). Paradoxically, it was the devastating baseball strike of 1994 that reminded me how much I loved the "feeling" of baseball. I'm still not a real fan; I read about more games than I see, but have a strong emotional attachment to the Yankees and, I guess, my father.

My father did have a third great love--gardening, that he passed on to my sisters and somehow, posthumously to my wife. When I see Chris o in the garden in Otis, or outside our building in New York (she leads the Garden Committee) I can't help thinking this is my father's revenge for all the bad nights I gave him in my teenage years (more accurately, until I got married at 23). It usually fell to him to "defend" me from my mother when I came home drunk, or just didn't come home. His most familiar argument, that I wasn't that bad, he had been worse, left me striving to do "better" than him.

Well, I'm leaving for the game soon and I really hope they win. It's a long way back to even be in the pennant race. It's hard enough being from the Bronx when the Yankees are winning. My friends who are Mets fans or Red Sox fans ( I hope my father is not reading this) are used to losing - seem to relish it in some strange way. But Yankees fans are used to winning and get no sympathy when they lose. People seem to feel validated by the big bully's problems. It's not easy being a Yankees fan.

Natalie Angier - The Canon

Paul's comments...

I'm always a sucker for a science book!. This one starts with great promise but then gets lost in self-admiration for it own cuteness.


Description

Pulitzer-winning science writer Angier (Woman: An Intimate Geography) distills everything you've forgotten from your high school science classes and more into one enjoyable book, a guide for the scientifically perplexed adult who wants to understand what those guys in lab coats on the news are babbling about, in the realms of physics, chemistry, biology, geology or astronomy. More important even than the brief rundowns of atomic theory or evolution—enlivened by interviews with scientists like Brian Greene—are the first three chapters on scientific thinking, probability and measurement. These constitute the basis of a scientific examination of the world. Understand these principles, Angier argues, and suddenly, words like "theory" and "statistically significant" have new meaning. Angier focuses on a handful of key concepts, allowing her to go into some depth on each; even so, her explanations can feel rushed, though never dry. Angier's writing can also be overadorned with extended metaphors that obscure rather than explain, but she eloquently asks us to attend to the universe: to really look at the stars, at the plants, at the stones around us. This is a pleasurable and nonthreatening guide for anyone baffled by science.

Prune in the East Village

We went to Prune, in the East Village for dinner last night. We had dropped Scott off in the West Village and decided to drop in (it was a Sunday night). We found a spot right in front of the restaurant and they had room for us - the stars were aligned!

Prune is a very cute little place on 1st Street (I didn't even know there was a 1st Street) with only 30 seats and a lot of attitude - good attitude. They specialize in "down-home" American cooking. One of their traditional appetizers is a plate of grilled marrow bones. Both of us love marrow bones, but we didn't dare! We are trying to be "good". Although, I did have 10 chicken wings last night after Chris left for Toronto.

We did dare to start with two unusual starters - Poached Egg with a Pasta Kerchief for me and Breaded and Fried Sweetbreads with Bacon and Capers for Chris. Both were delicious. The poached egg as simple as the sweetbreads were decadent. We both love sweetbreads and order them at least once in each restaurant that offers them. These were the best I've had in NY!

We followed with a whole Grilled Branzino (served with just a lemon as garnish for Chris) not quite making up for the dietary extravagance of the sweetbreads. I had the Stewed Pork Shoulder. A very rich stew in a wonderful rich brown sauce. Both were good, but Chris' fish was better. We had an order of Baby Fennel and Shiitake Mushroom Ragout as a vegetable. It was OK, but I'm not sure what else you could do with fennel and mushrooms. Chris liked it more than I did.

Bottom line, we really enjoyed the restaurant and the meal. We again asked ourselves why we don't come here more often; and again answered, we can't "afford" a place that specializes in Fried Sweetbreads and Marrow Bones. Any effort we made to watch our diets would be destroyed.

Prune

54 East 1st Street (bet 1 and 2nd Aves)

212-677-6221

Good News and Bad News

The last couple of weeks has provided us with a classic examples of how things can change and catch you off guard.

Two weeks ago we were in the Berkshires with Scott and Jory - gardening and installing "Scott's Folly", a 100 inch projection TV in our converted sun-porch. We were watching it last night, and it is the best TV picture I have ever seen. On the other, hand we had to convert the sun-porch into a "Viewing Room" with shades on the windows and skylights. We also upgraded our satellite to HD. We generally don't watch much TV but we are world-class for Wii-Bowling! Funny how a 'younger generation' can influence your environment.

Anyway, the weather was perfect and we went to one of our old standbys, Cafe Lucia in Lenox and sat out on the porch for dinner. We had a lovely table but the service was awful, and the food very ordinary. Christina put a note on the bill that service had been very slow. The next week Jim Lucie, the owner called to apologize. He was upset with our disappointment and offered to send us a gift certificate to try the restaurant again. We were very pleased by his quick and sincere response and will try it again before the summer is over.

Cafe Lucia

80 Church St. (bet. Franklin & Housatonic Sts.)
Lenox, MA

413-637-2640

On the other hand, Rouge Restaurant and Bistro in West Stockbridge had been one of our favorites since it opened a little over three years ago. It's owned by a young couple, William and Maggy Merrelle and their two kids, Luca and Arlo. He's the chef, she's the front of the house. We, and everyone else, had been through the start-up and establishment of the restaurant along with the two pregnancies. It's really a family affair. Early on, they made a decision to only be open only for dinner and only five days a week, closing for the month of August. I don't know any other restaurant that does that. We hadn't been there in over a year, following several bad experiences with slow and inexperienced service and leaden food. We were really disappointed because we like the place and the people. Well, this week-end after picking Scott up from the train, we decided to try it again on our way home from the train station. We were absolutely delighted by the food!

The menu is very short and laden with comfort foods. I can't think of another menu that includes both Escargot and Baby Back Ribs!. I started with a very nice Romaine lettuce with Sliced Pears, Chevre and Chopped Walnuts and a Raspberry Vinaigrette. Scott had the Escargot with Polenta and Christina the fresh grilled sardines (you may think this weird, but they are wonderful--nothing like those little smelly things that come in a tin). Both Scott and I had the Braised Duck with Balsamic Vinegar, Spinach and a Crispy Shredded Potato Cake. It was just about perfect, crispy and tender. The potato cake was a nice surprise. Chris had the Breast of Chicken which was done the French way with the small bone-in served with a Spinach Gratin. We were all delighted. We had a French red that Maggy recommended that I didn't know and can't remember.

This night, the service was better; but it was still early. The wait staff was much more knowledgeable and timely. On the whole a really nice experience and we'll be back soon - we hope for a tasty repeat!

Rouge Restaurant and Bistro

3 Center St. (at Hotel St.)
West Stockbridge, MA 01266
413-232-4111

The Harrison

We have been eating out less, recently, in an attempt to eat more nutritiously (read dietetic!). We each got our own copies of the "You: on a Diet" book by Drs. Roizen and Oz (so we could mark the key passages!). We learned a lot about nutrition and some of the bad things we did. The bottom line is bread, cheese, large portions and more than one drink are out. So are a lot of other things - like snacks and sweets. But the first ones were more important to us. The third (and second!) lamb chop is a lot more important to me than a dessert. Our hope was, not to go on a crash diet, but to change how we ate to head us in the right direction. If you follow their recommendations you are never hungry (which is important) but quickly get bored (which is also important to us).

As a result, we eat home a lot more frequently. The good news is Chris has become quite adept at making really delicious fish and chicken and salads and lunches. I really look forward to lunch at home now.

Last night we ate at The Harrison in TriBeCa. It's the larger brethren of the better known The Red Cat in Chelsea. The Harrison looks a lot like a big bar surrounded by a small restaurant. It's noisy and jumping. The night we went was perfect for eating outside on the large terrace that surrounds the corner location. The food was good and the people watching even better and the service quite literally EXCELLENT! We discovered that all those young girls who wore bare midriff styles (that they overflowed) in the winter are now wearing mini (and micro mini) skirts that they equally overflow. It made us (me!) really appreciate those who looked good (make that great!).

The menu is short (only 8 items plus one special) with an interesting selection of new American creations. I started with a Sweet Pea Pancake with Small Shrimp that was delicious. Chris had the special sheep's milk Ricotta Cheese with Olive Oil and Toasted Italian Bread that sounded ordinary but was exceptional.

I followed with steamed Halibut served on Grits. The fish was perfectly prepared but the Grits were Grits. Not really worth talking about especially since I ordered a Sweet Pea Risotto served with Parmesan cheese and Truffle Oil. That was absolutely wonderful! Perfectly prepared with chewy rice and fresh peas that just burst open in your mouth. The truffle oil was just a hint and didn't overwhelm. it was the kind of pleasant surprise that makes eating out such a delight. Chris had the special Black Sea Bass served in a melange of root vegetables. The accompanying bottle of Viognier (Babylons Toren, Backsberg 2004) was reminiscent of Pouilly Fuisse and just perfect on this summer night.

I finished with a Cheese Plate. To me, cheese is one of the wonders of the world. A million different tastes ranging from the subtle to the overwhelming. Soft and runny to rock hard. A cornucopia of delights. The lack of interesting cheese has been one of the hardest parts of our diet. Having said that, their cheese plate was for Wussies. The waiter called it safe - I say wussie! I had a Maytag blue cheese, a decent cheddar and some undistinguished goat cheese. Not bad, but boring. Especially when I've been deprived for weeks!

Overall, a nice restaurant (especially outside) with an interesting menu and "reasonable" (for New York) prices.

The Harrison

355 Greenwich St (at Harrison St)

212-274-9310

Michael Gordon - Cobra II

Paul.s cooments...

A really impressive piece of work. Very authoritative, but a little too much of a "documentary" with little excitement.



Book description...


On one level, narrator Wasson's mostly neutral delivery is apt. The authors' dispassionate prose imparts their impeccably researched story of the 2003 Iraq invasion—from concept to insurgency. Sourced at the highest levels, Cobra II captures the fog of war and war planning. But Wasson's read too often feels routine, as if recounting a local board meeting. Because he renders the numerous players and backdrops with equal tones, differentiating between them can be a challenge. This style of narration creates an anti-tension when juxtaposed with the book's revelations that an invasion plan was being formed not long after September 11, despite administration denials. Strictly supervising the plan was defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was intent on transforming the military into a lighter, leaner force. False assumptions, faulty intelligence, willful ignorance, personal politics and a lack of foresight all fed into the invasion strategy and subsequent messy outcome. During the audiobook's second half, which documents the march to Baghdad and enemy engagements, Wasson's energy picks up and he paints some impressive scenes of war. But in the end, a more vibrant read would have better complemented the significance of this penetrating work. Gordon reads the introduction and epilogue.