Elias Khoury - Yalo

Book description -

After the acclaimed Gate of the Sun, Khoury returns with the spellbinding confession of Beirut criminal Daniel Jal'u, aka Yalo, who is picked up by the cops for rape, robbery and suspicion of arms smuggling. Under torture and the threat of more torture, Yalo writes numerous confessions, but seems unable to grasp the whole of his life, producing instead a series of conflicting sequences and inexplicable omissions. Brought up by his grandfather Ephraim, a half-mad Syriac priest, and his mother, Gaby, Yalo joins the army in 1979 and fights in the horrific Lebanese civil wars already under way. Deserting 10 years later, Yalo, after a series of adventures, ends up working as a guard for a rich lawyer whose villa is close to a wooded lovers lane; he progresses from voyeurism to robbing and, in some cases, rape. In so doing he meets Shirin, who will change his life—partially by turning him in. Khoury refuses to give the reader an easy position from which to judge Yalo—either as a poor soul or a serial rapist, criminal or victim of torture—or from which to judge Lebanon's tragic and violent fate. His novel is a dense and stunning work of art.

Jimmy Breslin - The Good Rat - A True Story

Book description -

Breslin, renowned journalist and author of The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight, revisits a familiar wise-guy milieu in this collection of stories and anecdotes about the mob. His writing, like the Mafia itself, breezily transitions from humorous to horrifying as he regales the reader with loosely connected tales of mistaken identity, crooked cops, snitches and murder. Unlike the Sopranos and the many other touchstones of the American love affair with organized crime, for Breslin, there's good and there's evil, with little in between. As always, however, nicknames are half the fun, as Sammy The Bull Gravano, Tony Café and Gaspipe Casso take the stage in the Mafia hotspots of the five boroughs, including Greenpoint, in Brooklyn, and Ozone Park, in Queens, as Breslin delights with stories from the Mafia's heyday. Breslin's storytelling is set to the sweet background music of one of the mob's biggest canaries, Burton Kaplan, as he sings to a grand jury. The author's vernacular precision contrasts sharply with the plodding sterility of Kaplan's grand jury testimony, and as we find out, good guys can often tell ugly stories more authentically than the bad guys. The effect is tragicomic as Kaplan's testimony sounds the death knell for his associates. These stories unveil the strict code of conduct, often broken, of a dying breed. According to Kaplan, however, while illegal gambling and extortion may be waning industries, the myth of the American Mafia will never die.

Robin Wright - Dreams and Shadows - The Future of the Middle East

Book description

Robin Wright first landed in the Middle East on October 6, 1973, the day the fourth Middle East war erupted. She has covered every country and most major crises in the region since then, through to the rise of Al-Qaeda and the U.S. invasion of Iraq. For all the drama of the past, however, the region's most decisive traumas are unfolding today as the Middle East struggles to deal with trends that have already reshaped the rest of the world. And for all the darkness, there is also hope. Some of the emerging trends give cause for greater optimism about the future of the Middle East than at any time since the first Arab-Israeli War in 1948. Dreams and Shadows is an extraordinary tour d'horizon of the new Middle East, with on-the-ground reportage of the ideas and movements driving change across the region-and the obstacles they confront. Through the powerful storytelling for which the author is famous, Dreams and Shadows ties together the players and events in Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco, Turkey, the Gulf states, and the Palestinian territories into a coherent vision of what lies ahead. A marvelous field report from the center of the storm, the book is animated by the characters whose stories give the region's transformation its human immediacy and urgency. It is also rich with the history that brought us to this point. It is a masterpiece of the reporter's art and a work of profound and enduring insight.

Oliver Sacks - Musicophilia

Oliver Sacks is a well known medical science writer specializing in the brain. He is best known for the "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat" about catastrophic brain disease. In this new book, he focuses on music and the brain. He believes that humans are uniquely equipped by evolution to understand and appreciate music. His books are filled with interesting anecodotes and examples from the lives of individuals and are a pleasure to read.

I was particularly drawn to this book because I am one of a significant number of people who cannot appreciate music. He estimates 1 in 300.

He refers to these people as 'amusical'. It can be the result of genetics (my sisters are amusical too) or an injury or stroke. What interested me most was that it is not related to hearing. In fact he cites some individuals with perfect pitch, who cannot yet hear music only as a series of sounds--often unpleasant. There are interesting variations relating to melody, rhythm and tone. To some people (me included) music is just sound, not unpleasant, just white noise. Some others find it unbearable, like pots and pans crashing about. Fortunately, my problem is pretty benign. I don't find music unpleasant, just boring. I relate to the words and for me it's sort of like poetry.

I found the book a pleasure to read; it's filled with interesting case studies and anecdotes. While it was comforting to read about others just like me, it still leaves me really sad that I can't appreciate or share a love of music like most of my friends.

Book description
Sacks is an unparalleled chronicler of modern medicine, and fans of his work will find much to enjoy when he turns his prodigious talent for observation to music and its relationship to the brain. The subtitle aptly frames the book as a series of medical case studies-some in-depth, some abruptly short. The tales themselves range from the relatively mundane (a song that gets stuck on a continuing loop in one's mind) through the uncommon (Tourette's or Parkinson's patients whose symptoms are calmed by particular kinds of music) to the outright startling (a man struck by lightning subsequently developed a new found passion and talent for the concert piano). In this latest collection, Sacks introduces new and fascinating characters, while also touching on the role of music in some of his classic cases (the man who mistook his wife for a hat makes a brief appearance). Though at times the narrative meanders, drawing connections through juxtaposition while leaving broader theories to be inferred by the reader, the result is greater than the sum of its parts. This book leaves one a little more attuned to the remarkable complexity of human beings, and a bit more conscious of the role of music in our lives.

Daniel Silva - The Secret Servant

Book description -

Bestseller Silva's superlative seventh novel to feature Gabriel Allon, the legendary but wayward son of Israeli Intelligence, puts Silva squarely atop the spy thriller heap. When Solomon Rosner, a professor in Amsterdam who's also a secret Israeli asset, is assassinated for his strident reports and articles detailing the dangers of militant Islam within the Netherlands, Gabriel gets the job to clean out the professor's files. In Amsterdam, the Israeli agent and his old partner, Eli Lavon, unearth a plot that leads to the kidnapping by Islamic extremists of the daughter of the U.S. ambassador in London. While most intelligence agencies consider Gabriel persona non grata because of his unorthodox methods and the trail of bodies he leaves in his wake, he once again proves invaluable as he and his stalwart team hunt down some of Israel's—and the world's—most violent enemies. While you don't have to have read the earlier books in the series (The Messenger, etc.), knowing the history of the returning characters adds depth and color to the overall story

Minette Walters - The Dark Room

Book description -

British suspense writer Walters, each of whose previous books (The Ice House, The Sculptress and The Scold's Bridle) has won an award, now has a new publisher and a big promotional push behind her. Unfortunately, the new book is her weakest to date?overplotted and rather unconvincing. It rests on an interesting premise, however: its heroine, Jinx Kingsley, who has been found drunk and disoriented on an abandoned airfield in Wiltshire after apparently trying to kill herself by wrecking her car, is suspected of several murders?but can't, after her accident, remember anything that happened for several vital days. Her husband had been mysteriously killed some years before?and now her fiance and the girlfriend with whom he has been cheating on Jinx are missing. Can her powerful millionaire father be involved? And what about the man who is savagely attacking prostitutes in the area? As Jinx tries, in a local clinic run by sympathetic Dr. Alan Protheroe, to recover her memory and exorcise dark terrors hovering at the edge of her mind, several well-observed police investigators dig out fragments of her story. But that story is so complicated, and filled with such a welter of walk-on characters, many of them ultimately insignificant, that the reader loses patience. Jinx herself is not made sufficiently sympathetic to win interest, her growing affection for Dr. Protheroe seems half-hearted and the ultimate murderer, when finally unmasked, comes right out of left field. Walters is highly talented, but perhaps she is working too fast

Benjamin Black - Christine Falls

Pretty good effort. Interesting characters and a passable mystery.


Book description -


Dalton uses all his pacing and vocal skills and his wonderful, deep Welsh tones to keep listeners engaged and on edge through this mystery set in 1950s Dublin and Boston. He skillfully sustains our empathy for widowed Dublin coroner Quirke, the alcoholic, angry and acerbic narrator who drags himself into solving the mystery of Christine Falls's death in childbirth and the disappearance of her newborn—a scenario that parallels Quirke's own experience. Black (pseudonym of Booker Prize–winner John Banville) is a fine writer, reminiscent of P.D. James in his care for language and his emphasis on psychologically complex characters, including Mel, Quirke's obstetrician stepbrother; Sarah, Mel's wife (and sister of Quirke's dead wife), whose love for Quirke is reciprocated; and Mel and Sarah's confused daughter, Phoebe. Black weaves his characters through a neat and original plot that descends into the dark depths of Quirke's family history and rises to the highest ranks of the Catholic church. Detective fiction readers will love Black's writing and Dalton's reading, and look forward to more from both.

Book Description -

The award-winning author of the Tess Monaghan mysteries has written an independent crime thriller and coming-of-age mystery. The 1999 Columbine High School massacre received great media attention; here, Lippman shows that girls possess the same capacity for violence. Critics agree that Lippman writes with great empathy and insight into the ups-and-downs of teenage friendship, high school peer pressures, and the ways in which violence affects the community. But the novel is too long, contains inaccurate forensic details, and creates characters who are detailed to the point of becoming dull. Despite these flaws, To the Power of Three is a gripping, readable exposé of teenage girls’ psychology.

Laura Lippman - No Good Deeds

Book Description -

Smartly plotted and paced, Lippman's ninth Tess Monaghan novel (after By a Spider's Thread) opens with a somewhat unlikely scenario: Tess's boyfriend, Edgar "Crow" Ransome, brings home for the night a homeless teenager, Lloyd, who slashed Crow's tires outside a Baltimore soup kitchen. When PI Tess discovers that Lloyd has information regarding the recent murder of Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Youssef, Tess gives his story, sans name, to the local paper, so the authorities will get it secondhand. After a crony of Lloyd's is murdered instead of Lloyd, Tess receives her first visit from a sinister trio of law enforcement agents avid to know her source. Crow flees with Lloyd while Tess suffers growing pressure, including the threat of federal jail time. Baltimore itself is the book's most compelling character, its uneasy mix of aspiration and decay perfectly suited to Lippman's ironic voice. Crow is the book's weakest link; even a late revelation about his motives fails to make his sudden paternalism toward Lloyd believable. Happily, Lippman's loyal fans won't mind.

Some unsolicited comments - March 5, 2008

Theater

We have been subscribers, on and off, to Roundabout Theater since the beginning. Frankly, our experience has been mixed, and we have seriously considered dropping out. The appeal is being able to see 5 or 6 shows a year; in good seats; at reasonable prices - with the occasional blockbuster. This year has been the best by far, with really interesting productions, and even more interesting technical and staging effects. Some of our favorites this season have included: "The Ritz", "39 Steps" and "Sunday In The Park With George".

We recently saw "Crimes of the Heart", a vintage tragi-comedy about three southern sisters trying to get on with life. It's hard to imagine but, we laughed and cried equally. It was good, but not as outstanding as the exceptional staging of the others - but the casting, and acting of the three sisters hooked us. This year made a couple of slow years worth it.

Restaurants

We ventured out to eat this week at Dovetail, a new restaurant located in a townhouse on W77th St. It's a well regarded New American, from chef-owner John Fraser (ex Compass), featuring seasonal, continental fare. Overall, we thought the restaurant was OK, maybe even good, but not worth the trip to the UWS! The food was good; the wine list "By The Glass" particularly undistinguished; and the room cold and a bit too austere. There was nothing to distinguish it.

If you do go, the menu is creative with some interesting items.

Chris started with the "Brussels sprout leaves, pears, & serrano ham, served on a puree of cauliflowero, sprinkled with manchego cheese" .

I chose the "Pork belly porcini mushrooms, kale, and hen egg". Both were delicious and we would recommend them.

For the main course, I followed with the "Pistachio crusted duck endive, celery root, and truffles". It was quite good.

Chris had the "Maine sea scallops topped with pink grapefruit, parsley, almonds and a light hollandaise sauce". She thought it was excellent. But then she's easy!

We also had a very nice cheese plate. My favorite course of the night. Unfortunately they served coffee BEFORE the cheese. As the espresso was not to our liking, we ended on a good note with the cheese.

Dovetail Restaurant

103 W. 77th Street

212-362.3800

Books

Minette Walters - The Sculptress

This was a new author for me. She writes psychological mysteries. There is no series character. I've read a bunch of them now. This one, from 1993 is probably her best. It was an Edgar Award winner. A really well done exploration of how people are damaged; and why they confess. Also, how certain personality types can manipulate others. She's a British author and I first found one of her books in Canada. She's not easy to find here, although Amazon has them. I was very excited when I found her as a new (to me) author last year and have now read 9 or 10 of her books. They don't disappoint.

Book description

Convicted of the brutal ax murders of her mother and sister, Olive Martin spends her days in prison carving tiny human figures out of wax. Rosalind Leigh, a best-selling author's publisher jolts her out of writer's block by telling her to research a book about Olive and the murders - or else. Though repelled by the idea at first, Rosalind soon becomes intrigued by her subject and begins to believe she may be innocent. She soon uncovers plenty of reasons to doubt the official police version of the killings.

Anne Harrington - The Cure Within

As a "graduate" of Pfizer, dependent on their success for my lifestyle, I was enormously skeptical of the premise for this book - that there is something to the power of suggestion that can actually affect outcomes of serious illnesses. After reading the book (or most of it, 350 pages is a lot of positive thinking) I am still skeptical, but am impressed that she makes a forceful argument that we need to look at this in a more open, or unbiased way. In the interim, I'll stick to the most powerful drugs I can get!

Book description

People suffering from serious illnesses improve their survival chances by adopting a positive attitude and refusing to believe in the worst. Stress is the great killer of modern life. Ancient Eastern mind-body techniques can bring us balance and healing. We've all heard claims like these, and many find them plausible. When it comes to disease and healing, some believe we must look beyond doctors and drugs and look within ourselves. Faith, relationships, and attitude matter.

But why do people believe such things? From psychoanalysis to the placebo effect to meditation, this vibrant history describes our commitments to mind-body healing as rooted in a patchwork of stories that have allowed people to make new sense of their suffering, express discontent with existing care, and rationalize new treatments and lifestyles. These stories are sometimes supported by science, sometimes quarrel with science, but are all ultimately about much more than just science.

Harrington is the Chair of Harvard's History of Science Department,

Our comments on what we see and do

In response to absolutely no interest from anyone, I have decided to begin posting brief opinions of restaurants, books and theater to our blog. I began posting comments on books last year, and, to date, they have garnered absolutely no interest from anyone. Based on that experience, I am expanding to the two additional areas.

I have no especial knowledge or expertise in these areas - but do spend a substantial amount of time on them. I call the blogs "opinions", rather than reviews, because I am making no effort to be comprehensive, or fair - just opinionated. Today, there are exhaustive reviews of every possible subject online. You can't buy anything or use any service without being asked to "rate" it. I started blogging brief comments on books for myself - I often forgot I had read a book and buy it again; only to realize it after reading a few pages. I will try to provide a link to Amazon or Zagats or TimeOut NY or someone like Theater Mania for an additional perspective.

I thought some of you might be interested in seeing these comments because Chris and I probably spend more time researching what we want to see or do than most have the time or interest. I do books and restaurants. Chris does everything else - theater, travel, museums and esoterica. I will try to mitigate Chris' tendency to be excited about everything. While our tastes are NOT FASHIONABLE OR TRENDY, they are both eclectic and traditional.

We'll start this week. I look forward to your feedback on our feedback.

Patricia Cornwell - Book of the Dead

Book description -

Bestseller Cornwell's 15th novel to feature Dr. Kay Scarpetta delivers her trademark grisly crime scenes, but lacks the coherence and emotional resonance of earlier books. Soon after relocating to Charleston, S.C., to launch a private forensics lab, Scarpetta is asked to consult on the murder of U.S. tennis star Drew Martin, whose mutilated body was found in Rome. Contradictory evidence leaves Scarpetta, the Italian carabinieri and Scarpetta's lover, forensic psychologist Benton Wesley, stumped. But when she discovers unsettling connections between Martin's murder, the body of an unidentified South Carolina boy and her old nemesis, the maniacal psychiatrist Dr. Marilyn Self, Scarpetta encounters a killer as deadly as any she's ever faced. With her recent switch from first- to third-person narration, Cornwell loses what once made her series so compelling: a window into the mind of a strong, intelligent woman holding her own in a profession dominated by men. Here, the abrupt shifts in point of view slow the momentum, and the reader flounders in excessive forensic minutiae.

Craig Karmin - Biography of the Dollar

Book description -

In this colorful but sometimes superficial survey of the history and present role of the U.S. dollar, Wall Street Journal reporter Karmin tackles the complex dynamics that have placed American currency at the top of the global economy and the forces that now threaten its position there. In six loosely linked chapters—one offers a peek inside a currency-trading hedge fund, while another takes readers to Ecuador, which in 2000 abandoned its own currency and adopted the dollar as its only legal tender—Karmin examines the dollar's unprecedented role as the first truly global currency that is trusted and accepted around the world, a phenomenon based on little more than faith in the U.S. government and the idea of America. The book is studded with interesting trivia, especially in a chapter about the Department of Engraving and Printing, which produces $529 million in banknotes every day and once printed counterfeit Cuban pesos as part of a government plan to destabilize Castro's regime, but Karmin occasionally sacrifices depth and explication in order to maintain the book's fast pace and glib tone. It's a fun read, but doesn't add up to more than the sum of its disparate parts.

Chris left today to go to PR

Chris left today to go to Puerto Rico for five days of "wild cavorting" with her girlfriend Gloria, who lives in San Juan. It's the perfect time of the year - in the 80's and sunny!

Driven by guilt for abandoning me, Chris has tried to plan for every eventuality. She has filled the refrigerator with cut-up salads and "healthy" sandwich makings. Friends have joined in with invitations for dinner and movies so I won't get too lonely. What they don't realize is I already have plans for the time; plans to carouse as only a temporary bachelor can. These plans have been honed over many years of experience. I look forward to these all too brief interludes on my own to catch up with things I haven't been able to do while on the daily treadmill.

Day 1

• Read newspaper; do crossword
  
• don't exercise;
  
• eat a single English Muffin for breakfast;
  
• watch stock market (not fun!);
  
• read book ;
  
• buy a toy (I deserve it);
  
• have pizza for lunch;
  
• have lots of Chicken wings for supper;
  
• watch TV

Day 2

• Read newspaper do crossword;
  
• exercise (make sure there's a witness);
  
• go out for breakfast,
  
• watch stock market (still not much fun);
  
• read book;
  
• have a cheeseburger and fries for Lunch;
  
• buy another toy;
  
• have Chinese food delivered for dinner (spare ribs!);
  
• play cards

Day 3

• Sleep late;
  
• read newspaper; do WSJ crossword puzzle (Times is too tough on Friday
  
• don't exercise (too tired after card game);
  
• eat an english muffin for breakfast (restraint is good, don't want to overdo it!);
  
• watch stock market (still not much fun);
  
• read a good book (no more mysteries);
  
• have a sandwich for lunch;
  
• buy a toy;
  
• have pizza for dinner;
  
• watch TV

Day 4

This is the most problematic day because the cleaning woman is here so I have to make sure I'm out of the house for most of the day.

• Read newspaper at diner with breakfast
  
• do Sunday Times Crossword
  
• don't exercise (it's the Jewish sabbath!).
  
• go to Barnes & Noble to buy books
  
• have a sandwich for lunch at Starbucks
  
• go home to read a book
  
• send out for chicken for dinner
  
• watch TV

Day 5

• Read newspaper
  
• Eat an english muffin for breakfast
  
• don't exercise (it's the Christian sabbath)
  
• Watch Sunday news shows
  
• Don't pick up Chris at the airport - too busy!

Day 6 (Chris is home)

• Read newspaper
  
• Exercise
  
• Eat cereal for breakfast
  
• see new exhibit at Metropolitan Museum
  
• share a 1/2 a sandwich for lunch
  
• Meet people to set up My Own Book Fund school visit
  
• go shopping to refill refrigerator with healthy food
  
• Salad for dinner at home before theater.
  
• Roundabout Theater
  
• Cocktails at the Algonquin

As you can see, I need these all to brief interludes of "bachelorhood" to put some excitement in my life. I love Chris dearly but she never wants to do anything!

Two new restaurants

It's been two weeks since we returned from Florida. In that time we've tried two new restaurants. One, Insieme, was quite good. The other, Persophone, was a good neighbourhood find. It was such a pleasure to be back in NY. It might be cold outside, but we're happy eating out. The restaurants around Palm Beach are large and glitzy (and expensive) but the food is institutional, lacking in flair and finesse. It reminded me of a cruise ship, where food is quite respectable, but not special. One example, we went to La Sirena, the highest rated restaurants in the Palm Beach area (Zagats gave it 27 for Food). The restaurant was small and comfortable with attentive service. But the food was right out of the 1960's - pastas with heavy red sauce and veal cutlet a million ways. It highlighted the problem that Zagats ratings outside of NY are inflated by the smaller number of raters "voting" for their favorite restaurants.

Insieme is the latest restaurant of Marco Canora of Hearth in the East Village. The menu is eclectic Tuscan with both classic dishes and contemporary. The only negative is the physical restaurant. We tend towards small and cozy. This is small and austere - very austere - with several larger tables in the middle and small tables and booths along the walls. We sat at the booth which was comfortable, spacious and cozy.

We went with our neighbor, Jane Parver, after it appeared on a list of the 10 Best New Restaurants in the Times. We agree with the designation. We tried a wide variety of dishes, all were good, some excellent. The wine list is extensive with some good values.

Insieme

777 Seventh Avenue - Hotel Michelangelo

212-582-1310

Perspohone was recommended by our neighbors, the Dells. It's really new, open only a few months. The menu is classic Greek with a focus on fresh fish. Everything was well prepared, but maybe a little ambitoious in the presentation. We will certainly go back when it's open a bit longer. Service was friendly and attentive, but they need to ditch the dead flowers.

Persophone

115 East 60th Street

212-339-8363

Gregor von Rezzori - Memoirs of an AntiSemite

Book Description
The elusive narrator of this beautifully written, complex, and powerfully disconcerting novel is the scion of a decayed aristocratic family from the farther reaches of the defunct Austro-Hungarian Empire. In five psychologically fraught episodes, he revisits his past, from adolescence to middle age, a period that coincides with the twentieth-century’s ugliest years. Central to each episode is what might be called the narrator’s Jewish Question. He is no Nazi. To the contrary, he is apolitical, accommodating, cosmopolitan. He has Jewish friends and Jewish lovers, and their Jewishness is a matter of abiding fascination to him. His deepest and most defining relationship may even be the strange dance of attraction and repulsion that throughout his life he has conducted with this forbidden, desired, inescapable, imaginary Jewish other. And yet it is just his relationship that has blinded him to–and makes him complicit in–the terrible realities his era.

Lyrical, witty, satirical, and unblinking, Gregor von Rezzori’s most controversial work is an intimate foray into the emotional underworld of modern European history.

Richard Thompson - How Bluffing About Bias Makes Race Relations Worse

Book description -

“Rich Ford brings together here his deep knowledge of the law, his intense sensitivity as a reader of contemporary culture, his deep seriousness, and his wonderful sense of humor—and harnesses them all to an immensely important question: now that our civil rights regime is more than 50 years old, can we change it to deliver on our promise of racial justice? His answer is yes, but only if we’re willing to kill cows that have become sacred to the left as well as to the right. This profound book should change the terms of the debate—and change what we actually do. If you’re ready to question some of what you think you know about race and equality in America—read this book.”

Arnold Weinstein - Revcovering Your Story

Comment
A really fine book that introduces Proust, Faulkner, Joyce, Woolf and Morrison. After reading his comments about Joyce and Woolf I couldn't wait to pick up the books. He really loves Joyce but I still found Ulysses unreadable (or only partly readable). I'm working on Woolf's Mrs Dalloway now and having better luck. Faulkner is next.

Book description
Weinstein, a professor of comparative literature at Brown, sets out to open up some of the great works of 20th-century fiction to the general reader. His decades in academia show: this is a teacherly account of the authors covered, and although the prose is mostly accessible and shies away from academic jargon, a reader must come to the book with some knowledge of concepts not usually discussed in general conversation: epistemology, jouissance and the Southern Code, to name a few. At first blush, the thesis of the book seems both restricting and reductive: that these novels help us discover "our story, our consciousness of things," as if the only reason to read were a narcissistic project of self-betterment. In fact, though, Weinstein's vision is far more generous. His claim, with other lovers of literature, is that fiction teaches nothing less than "how the heart lives, and how it dies. That is why we have art." At the heart of the project lies a very personal essay on the works of Virginia Woolf that both illuminates the methods and meanings of her novels while at the same time illustrating how they can speak to an individual reader's soul.

Virginia Woolf - Mrs. Dalloway

Book Description

As Clarissa Dalloway walks through London on a fine June morning, a sky-writing plane captures her attention. Crowds stare upwards to decipher the message while the plane turns and loops, leaving off one letter, picking up another. Like the airplane's swooping path, Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway follows Clarissa and those whose lives brush hers--from Peter Walsh, whom she spurned years ago, to her daughter Elizabeth, the girl's angry teacher, Doris Kilman, and war-shocked Septimus Warren Smith, who is sinking into madness.

As Mrs. Dalloway prepares for the party she is giving that evening, a series of events intrudes on her composure. Her husband is invited, without her, to lunch with Lady Bruton (who, Clarissa notes anxiously, gives the most amusing luncheons). Meanwhile, Peter Walsh appears, recently from India, to criticize and confide in her. His sudden arrival evokes memories of a distant past, the choices she made then, and her wistful friendship with Sally Seton.

Woolf then explores the relationships between women and men, and between women, as Clarissa muses, "It was something central which permeated; something warm which broke up surfaces and rippled the cold contact of man and woman, or of women together.... Her relation in the old days with Sally Seton. Had not that, after all, been love?" While Clarissa is transported to past afternoons with Sally, and as she sits mending her green dress, Warren Smith catapults desperately into his delusions. Although his troubles form a tangent to Clarissa's web, they undeniably touch it, and the strands connecting all these characters draw tighter as evening deepens. As she immerses us in each inner life, Virginia Woolf offers exquisite, painful images of the past bleeding into the present, of desire overwhelmed by society's demands

Barbara Cleverly - The Bee's Kiss

Book description

London. 1926. One war is over, another is beginning, and murder is sealed with a kiss....

At midnight she was ravishing: a tall redhead wearing emeralds and a low-cut dress. An hour later, in her room at the Ritz, she was dead, the jewels torn from her bludgeoned body. Thus begins Barbara Cleverly’s ingenious novel, another masterpiece of suspense from the CWA Golden Dagger Award—winning author.

With the help of a former comrade-at-arms and a society girl turned constable, Scotland Yard Inspector Joe Sandilands enters into the private world of Dame Beatrice Jagow-Joliffe–a hive of state secrets and sexual extravagance.

But as The Dame’s affairs are exposed, the case takes a sudden, strange turn. Because what Sandilands is about to discover are deceptions that go far beyond salacious scandal to betrayals that strike at the heart of a nation . . . and the ruthless heart of a killer.

Minette Walters - The Sculptress

Probably her best book. Edgar Award winner. Really well done exploration of how people are damaged why they confess. Also, how certain personality types can manipulate others.

Book description

Convicted of the brutal ax murders of her mother and sister, Olive Martin spends her days in prison carving tiny human figures out of wax. Rosalind Leigh is a best-selling author whose publisher jolts her out of writer's block by telling her to research a book about Olive and the murders, or else. Though repelled by the idea at first, Rosalind soon becomes intrigued by her subject and begins to believe she may be innocent. She soon uncovers plenty of reasons to doubt the official police version of the killings and with Olive's help, untangles a sinister cover-up.

Minette Walters - The Scold's Bridle

I really enjoy Walter's books. There is no series character but they all share a focus on the psychological impacts of disfunctional families over time. Well constructed.


Book description


Britain's Walters, whose The Sculptress won the 1993 Edgar for best novel, excels at depicting monstrously dysfunctional families and the murder and mayhem they wreak; and old Mathilda Gillespie's clan is a humdinger. The daughter of this bitter, snobbish, nasty-minded recluse is a prostitute on dope; the granddaughter's a schoolgirl being blackmailed into theft by a rapist lover. Gillespie's own past contains its share of feeblemindedness, violence, booze, abortion and incest. When the old woman is found dead in her bathtub, a peculiar medieval device over her head (the "scold's bridle" of the title), there is no shortage of suspects in her Dorset village. Both the local woman doctor, one of the few people who could tolerate the dead woman, and the cynical artist husband from whom she is separating spar with empathetic Detective Sgt. Cooper as they search for a killer. The fact that it takes these very bright people longer to figure out the perpetrator than it does a not-especially-smart reader is the chief strike against this otherwise intelligent and enjoyable-if slightly overplotted-mystery, which is essentially an English cozy with distinctly quirky overtones.

Anne Harrington - The Cure Within

Book Description

Lays bare the history behind mind-body healing.

People suffering from serious illnesses improve their survival chances by adopting a positive attitude and refusing to believe in the worst. Stress is the great killer of modern life. Ancient Eastern mind-body techniques can bring us balance and healing. We've all heard claims like these, and many find them plausible. When it comes to disease and healing, we believe we must look beyond doctors and drugs; we must look within ourselves. Faith, relationships, and attitude matter.

But why do we believe such things? From psychoanalysis to the placebo effect to meditation, this vibrant history describes our commitments to mind-body healing as rooted in a patchwork of stories that have allowed people to make new sense of their suffering, express discontent with existing care, and rationalize new treatments and lifestyles. These stories are sometimes supported by science, sometimes quarrel with science, but are all ultimately about much more than just science.

Tom Brokaw - Boom - Voices of the Sixties

Book Description

In The Greatest Generation, his landmark bestseller, Tom Brokaw eloquently evoked for America what it meant to come of age during the Great Depression and the Second World War. Now, in Boom!, one of America’s premier journalists gives us an epic portrait of another defining era in America as he brings to life the tumultuous Sixties, a fault line in American history. The voices and stories of both famous people and ordinary citizens come together as Brokaw takes us on a memorable journey through a remarkable time, exploring how individual lives and the national mindset were affected by a controversial era and showing how the aftershocks of the Sixties continue to resound in our lives today. In the reflections of a generation, Brokaw also discovers lessons that might guide us in the years ahead.

Boom! One minute it was Ike and the man in the grey flannel suit, and the next minute it was time to “turn on, tune in, drop out.” While Americans were walking on the moon, Americans were dying in Vietnam. Nothing was beyond question, and there were far fewer answers than before.

Published as the fortieth anniversary of 1968 approaches, Boom! gives us what Brokaw sees as a virtual reunion of some members of “the class of ’68,” offering wise and moving reflections and frank personal remembrances about people’s lives during a time of high ideals and profound social, political, and individual change. What were the gains, what were the losses? Who were the winners, who were the losers? As they look back decades later, what do members of the Sixties generation think really mattered in that tumultuous time, and what will have meaning going forward?

Race, war, politics, feminism, popular culture, and music are all explored here, and we learn from a wide range of people about their lives. Tom Brokaw explores how members of this generation have gone on to bring activism and a Sixties mindset into individual entrepreneurship today. We hear stories of how this formative decade has led to a recalibrated perspective–on business, the environment, politics, family, our national existence.

Remarkable in its insights, profoundly moving, wonderfully written and reported, this revealing portrait of a generation and of an era, and of the impact of the 1960s on our lives today, lets us be present at this reunion ourselves, and join in these frank conversations about America then, now, and tomorrow.

Amos Oz - A Tale of Love and Darkness

Book Description

This memoir/family history brims over with riches: metaphors and poetry, drama and comedy, failure and success, unhappy marriages and a wealth of idiosyncratic characters. Some are lions of the Zionist movement—David Ben-Gurion (before whom a young Oz made a terrifying command appearance), novelist S.Y. Agnon, poet Saul Tchernikhovsky—others just neighbors and family friends, all painted lovingly and with humor. Though set mostly during the author's childhood in Jerusalem of the 1940s and '50s, the tale is epic in scope, following his ancestors back to Odessa and to Rovno in 19th-century Ukraine, and describing the anti-Semitism and Zionist passions that drove them with their families to Palestine in the early 1930s. In a rough, dusty, lower-middle-class suburb of Jerusalem, both of Oz's parents found mainly disappointment: his father, a scholar, failed to attain the academic distinction of his uncle, the noted historian Joseph Klausner. Oz's beautiful, tender mother, after a long depresson, committed suicide when Oz (born in 1939) was 12. By the age of 14, Oz was ready to flee his book-crammed, dreary, claustrophobic flat for the freedom and outdoor life of Kibbutz Hulda. Oz's personal trajectory is set against the background of an embattled Palestine during WWII, the jubilation after the U.N. vote to partition Palestine and create a Jewish state, the violence and deprivations of Israel's war of independence and the months-long Arab siege of Jerusalem. This is a powerful, nimbly constructed saga of a man, a family and a nation forged in the crucible of a difficult, painful history.

Robert Littell - Vicious Circle

Book Description

Veteran espionage writer Littell, whose 1973 debut, The Defection of A.J. Lewinter, prompted critics to compare him to such British masters as Eric Ambler and John le Carré, stumbles a bit with his take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, set in a near, post–George W. Bush future. An unnamed woman, who will remind many of Hillary Clinton, is president of the U.S., while, less plausibly, the Palestinian Authority is led by Arafat's successor, who's also nameless. Given Hamas's electoral victory in early 2006, the plot, which centers on yet another U.S.-brokered effort to create a lasting Middle East peace, has already been overtaken by events. The relationship between a terrorist leader and his hostage, a right-wing rabbi and agitator, may intrigue those who can overlook the dated scenario.

Postcards from Palm Beach

We've been here for over a week now and I have to say that it's been pretty darn good.

Who could argue with weather that allows uso to go out without socks - or even a sweater! When we're here in Palm Beach it's heavenly; a total pampered experience the entire time. There's NOTHING not to like. But, it's a little 'other worldly' in some ways. One of the things I've discovered is that "Plastic is Perfect" and that's no lie! "Plastic is Perfect" is actually the name of a book that's being launched down here where having 'things done' is the norm. At the hairdresser this week, while waiting for the colour to work on my roots, the young women across from me gave me advice about the lines in my face letting me know that I wasn't too badly off--all I needed to look 10 years younger was an injection of "??????" and that would do the trick for about 6 months! Oh, I said! Is that all????? Well, she went on to say that I could have a slight neck adjustment with a new non-surgical treatment that she could personally vouch for, that would tighen up some of the slack! Did I ask for advice???? NO, it was freely offered. She was 45--could I guess her age she asked--did she look too tight she asked ? I told her I thought she looked very good but that I was 65 (just for fun) and my husband liked me just the way I was. She went on to say that it's never too late to make the most of what you have--after all, you never know with these men! All I have to say is that some of you may not recognize me when I get home!

We don't need GPS

In past years, we shipped the convertible to Florida. This year, partly because of weather (the car was snowed-in in Otis) and partly because Richard and Barry found us great deals on car rentals, we decided to rent. Barry’s suggestion of a convertible, was outvoted by Christina exercising her 51% vote. Instead, we rented a little Mustang. In the end we both agreed that this was quite a comedown from having our own car to drive.

Barry also suggested we get the Hertz version of GPS – at $12 per day. We were outraged! $12 per day-- we’re not idiots! We can read a map! After all, this was the Florida coast--one side is water. How far wrong could we go?

Well, it didn’t take long to get lost for the first time. The five mile trip from the airport to the Breakers - WITH a map and written directions. We only had one turn to make and we missed it – twice! The signs were misleading, but still it’s a big ocean. Then, Saturday, we went to an Art Show at Delray Beach (awful). All we needed to do was follow the Ocean (A1A) to Atlantic Avenue and make a right! We were doing fine, cruising along with map in hand. “That’s right”, said Chris, “here’s Lake Worth Drive, we’re right on track, Atlantic is just a little further”. See how well we’re doing; we don’t need GPS, the map is just fine!

BIG MISTAKE!

As we were watching for the Atlantic Avenue turnoff to Delray Beach, we saw an exit we didn’t recognize - Jog Road. So we pulled over to check the map. We had somehow made a complete circle and were heading BACK TO THE BREAKERS! We’d crossed a bridge to the mainland and gone three quarters of the way back to the Hotel WITHOUT REALIZING IT!

At this point Barry’s suggestion of buying a portable GPS unit seemed like sound advice—unfortunately, too late!

Michael Pierce - Mamur Zapt & The Return of the Carpet

Comment

A delightful series! Good mysteries set in the time of the British Raj. A good read to take you away to different times.

Book description


Set in 1908 Cairo, this colorful mystery debut vividly portrays life in the polyglot, multicultural city ostensibly ruled by a nearly bankrupt Khedive but actually governed by the British. Captain Gareth Owen, the Mamur Zapt (head of the secret police), investigates the attempted murder of prominent politician and philanderer Nuri Pasha. Ostensibly the target of revenge by an enraged relative of his newest conquest, the attack on Pasha takes on different dimensions when the weapon turns out to have been stolen from the British Army. A case of grenades also is missing, leading Owen to fear that a terrorist organization is planning something special for a forthcoming religious ceremony marking the return of the Holy Carpet from Mecca. As Owen begins a complex friendship with the Egyptian civilian investigator, Mahmoud el Zaki, the two explore the higher and lower reaches of the city, eventually uncovering a plot to assassinate a top British official. His work highly praised in England, Pearce depicts the intricate politics and social mores among the various Egyptian societies and factions to provide authentic background for an outstandingly well-wrought and satisfying mystery

Barbara Cleverly - Tug of War

Book description:

Set in 1926 France, Cleverly's impressive sixth Joe Sandilands novel (after 2005's The Bee's Kiss) finds the Scotland Yard detective, still scarred by WWI, taking a relaxing jaunt around Provence until Sir Douglas Redmayne of the British War Office gives him a sensitive assignment: to ascertain the identity of an amnesiac war veteran who's surfaced in a French hospital speaking English. As the French government would provide a lucrative pension to the soldier's family, there's no shortage of people who claim him as their relation. Accompanied by his precocious ward and honorary niece, Dorcas Joliffe, Sandilands probes the four most likely candidates, each of whom has ample motive to lie. Before long, an old murder is uncovered, further complicating the quest to identify the soldier. Cleverly maintains the high standards set by earlier Sandilands tales, blending a sophisticated whodunit with full-blooded characters and a revealing look at her chosen time and place.

Jeffrey Toobin - The Nine - a review

I don't usually write about, or recommend books. Even though I "read" or at least begin, three or four books a week, The sad truth is my ability to "buy" books far exceeds my ability to "read" them. I rarely give any book enough time and thought to feel that I can fairly comment about it.

At least one third of the books are what I call "bubble gum" - thrillers or mysteries that are absorbing, but slide down smoothly without making much of an impression. About a third are "literature" that sounded interesting after reading a review in the Times or Bookmarks magazine. The last third are non-fiction books across a wide range of subjects ranging from Greek and Roman times to the Reformation and on to current times. It is this last category that has the highest drop-out rate. Frequently, I just love the introduction but then get bogged down in the meat of the book. Some day, the list of non-fiction books I have started will serve as a great resource to a psychiatrist. Some recent examples taken from books piled around my desk

Marco Polo - from Venice to Xanadu - Laurence Bergreen

Godel, Escher, Bach - an Eternal Golden Braid - Douglas Hofstadter

The Shia Revival - how conflicts within Islam will shape the future - Vali Masr

America at the Crossroads - Democratic power and the neoconservative legacy - Francis Fukuyama

Fair Game - my life as a spy - Valerie Plame Wilson

Curveball - spies, lies, and the con man who caused a war - Bob Drogin

This is Your Brain on Music - the science of a human obsession - Daniel Levitin

As you can see, I am somewhat unfocused in my selections. Every one of these books was something I just HAD to read. What I have learned is that the people who write introductions and the people who write reviews, are more interesting than the people who feel compelled to write 600 pages on some obscure but fascinating, to them (and me, I guess) topic!

On the other hand, I have come across some fascinating and enlightening books that delight me. One of these is "The Nine" by Jeffrey Toobin about the Supreme Court. I read a lot about the Supreme Court (most recently Supreme Conflict by Jan Crawford Greenburg). Most of these books are interesting; if you are moderately informed about the topic, but pretty dry for more casual readers. The Nine is the exception. It tells the "inside" story of the Court, focusing on the interactions between the members and the current political environment. He doesn't pull any punches in describing the Justices. I don't usually like books that seem to be pushing a point of view but this the exception. It reads like a "page turner". You can't wait to find out what's going to happen next.

The Nine

Jeffrey Toobin

James Rollins - Excavation

Book description:

High in the Andes, Dr. Henry Conklin discovers a 500-year-old mummy that should not be there. While deep in the South American jungle, Conklin's nephew, Sam, stumbles upon a remarkable site nestled between two towering peaks, a place hidden from human eyes for thousands of years.

Ingenious traps have been laid to ensnare the careless and unsuspecting, and wealth beyond imagining could be the reward for those with the courage to face the terrible unknown. But where the perilous journey inward ends—in the cold, shrouded heart of a breathtaking necropolis—something else is waiting for Sam Conklin and his exploratory party. A thing created by Man, yet not humanly possible. Something wondrous . . . something terrifying.

Ridley Pearson - Killer Weekend

Book description:

Bestseller Pearson's workmanlike thriller, the first in a new series, has all the right ingredients: a down-to-earth hero, sheriff Walt Fleming; a neatly focused venue in the form of a weekend business conference at an Idaho resort; and a sense of impending danger in the form of a threat on the life of Elizabeth Shaler, the New York State attorney general, who's about to announce her candidacy for U.S. president. Shaler knows what it's like to be a victim. Eight years before the killer weekend of the title, she was attacked in her Sun Valley, Idaho, vacation home and saved by Fleming, then a patrolman. Fleming takes the present threat very seriously, but Shaler's handlers and the event's organizer, billionaire Patrick Cutter, won't cancel her speech. Fleming doggedly struggles to identify the assassin, who cleverly (if incredibly) overcomes massive security to infiltrate the event, but the motive for the threat is never satisfactorily explained. Pearson (Parallel Lies) tries hard to give his characters depth using an inventive array of backstories, but only the capable Fleming really comes across

Tony Hillerman - The Shape Shifter

Book description

A picture cut from a glossy magazine, Luxury Living, draws retired Navajo tribal policeman Lt. Joe Leaphorn into a hunt for a soulless killer in bestseller Hillerman's enthralling 18th Leaphorn/Chee whodunit (after 2004's Skeleton Man). The picture's sender, Mel Bork, another cop retiree, wonders if the distinctive Navajo rug shown in the picture is the same one Leaphorn described to him long ago, a rug supposedly destroyed in a fire the two officers investigated that took the life of a person identified as among the FBI's most wanted. Bork's subsequent disappearance and murder herald the dangers awaiting Leaphorn from a most formidable enemy. As Leaphorn searches for evidence to confirm his suspicions, he enlists the aid of Sgt. Jim Chee and his bride, Bernadette Manuelito, just back from their honeymoon. Only Hillerman could so masterfully connect such disparate elements as an ancient cursed weaving, two stolen buckets of piñon sap and the Vietnam War. The conclusion is sure to startle longtime fans of this acclaimed mystery series.

Lawrence Block - When the Sacred Gin Mill Closes

James Lee Burke - The Tin Roof Blowdown

Book description:

In Burke's meticulously textured 16th Dave Robicheaux novel (after 2006's Pegasus Descending), Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath provide the backdrop for an account of sin and redemption in New Orleans. When Detective Robicheaux's department is assigned to investigate the shooting of two looters in a wealthy neighborhood, he learns that they had ransacked the home of New Orleans's most powerful mobster. Now he must locate the surviving looter before others do, and in the process he learns the fate of a priest who disappeared in the ill-fated Ninth Ward trying to rescue his trapped parishioners. Burke creates dense, rich prose that draws the reader into a web of greed and violence. Each of his characters feels the hands of both grace and of perdition, and the final outcome of their struggle is never quite certain. Burke showcases all that was both right and wrong in our response to this national disaster, proving along the way that nobody captures the spirit of Gulf Coast Louisiana better.

Laura Lippman - In a Strange City

Book description:

Edgar, Shamus, Anthony and Agatha award winner Lippman (Charm City; Butchers Hill; The Sugar House) pays homage to the inventor of the mystery form in this masterly contemporary mystery, set in Baltimore and replete with her trademark dry, sardonic wit. Every January 19th, in honor of Edgar Allan Poe's birthday, a loyal clique waits in the small hours for the "Visitor," also known as the "Poe Toaster," to approach Poe's tomb. He wears a formal cape and carries three blood-red roses and a bottle of cognac as tribute. For some reason the press keep their distance, as do bystanders. This year, for the first time, PI Tess Monaghan is present, too, along with her boyfriend, Crow. Having been roped into attendance by a would-be client, Tess awaits the coming of the Visitor in the freezing winter night. Suddenly, two caped men with roses and cognac show up. A shot rings out one man lies dead, the other runs off. A deliciously complex story follows that brings Baltimore center stage and delves anew into the mysteries surrounding Poe himself. Tess finds her own life in danger, and becomes a primary player in a story she'd intended to view only from the periphery. The author offers a host of Poe-esque thrills, from multiple murders to a woman buried alive. In the denouement, the clock ticks rapidly while Tess matches wits with the killer in order to rescue the victim from her tomb before her air runs out. Lippman shows in this, her sixth novel, that she's indeed deserving of all the kudos she's received. (Sept. 11)Forecast: With national print advertising, a 15-city NPR campaign and a six-city author tour, this novel will be well positioned to climb the genre bestseller charts

Ian Rankin - Bleeding Hearts

Not really worth it. A dissappointing effort from a first rank author.


Book Description


First published in the U.K. in 1994 under the pseudonym Jack Harvey, this routine thriller from Edgar-winner Rankin tells the story of Michael Weston, a fastidious British assassin whose life gets complicated when Hoffer, an American PI, starts to close in on him. The novel opens with Weston's carefully choreographed hit on London TV journalist Eleanor Ricks, but Hoffer is chasing Weston for another assassination, in which the antihero mistakenly shot a young girl. The plot takes a convoluted journey to the United States, to a weapons dealer in Texas and on to a quasireligious cult near Seattle. The nonstop action, copious violence and arcane details about weaponry and forensics will please thriller junkies, but fans of Rankin's masterful John Rebus series (Fleshmarket Alley, etc.) may not find this pre-Rebus book to their taste

Laura Lippman - Baltimore Blues

Book Description

Downsized ex-reporter Tess Monaghan spends her days working part-time at the bookstore owned by sexy Aunt Kitty and trying not to fall into the disgustingly polluted Patapsco from her city-owned boat. When rowing buddy Rocky pays her what looks like a fortune to follow his fiance, the trail leads to murder with Rocky the prime suspect. "Uneven" is the word for this first novel-hometown and newspaper backgrounds are alive from page one, but characters are cartoons until chapter 15 (out of 30) when Tess investigates the victim. Suddenly the story perks up to a believable pageturner. If Lippman continues the promise of the second half of Baltimore Blues while adhering to advice attributed to Elmore Leonard to cut out the parts people won't read, mystery fans can anticipate an engrossing series.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc

Lee Child - Echo Burning

Laurence Bergreem - Marco Plo

Book Description:

As the most celebrated European to explore Asia, Marco Polo was the original global traveler and the earliest bridge between East and West. A universal icon of adventure and discovery, he has inspired six centuries of popular fascination and spurious mythology. Now, from the acclaimed author of Over the Edge of the World: Magellan’s Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe (“Superb . . . A first-rate historical page turner”—The New York Times)—comes the first fully authoritative biography of one of the most enchanting figures in world history. In this masterly work, Marco Polo’s incredible odyssey—along the Silk Road and through all the fantastic circumstances of his life—is chronicled in sumptuous and illuminating detail.

We meet him as a callow young man, the scion of a wealthy Venetian merchant family, only seventeen when he sets out in 1271 with his father and uncle on their journey to Asia. We see him gain the confidence of Kublai Khan, the world’s most feared and powerful leader, and watch him become a trusted diplomat and intelligence agent in the ruler’s inner circle. We are privy to his far-flung adventures on behalf of the Khan, living among the Mongols and other tribes, and traveling to magical cities, some far advanced over the West. We learn the customs of the Khan’s court, both erotic and mercantile, and Polo’s uncanny ability to adapt to them. We follow him on his journey back to Venice, laden with riches, the latest inventions, and twenty-four years’ worth of extraordinary tales.

And we see his collaboration with the famed writer Rustichello of Pisa, who immediately saw in Polo the story of a lifetime; enlivened by his genius for observation, Polo’s tales needed little embellishment. Recorded by Rustichello as the two languished as prisoners of war in a Genoese jail, the Travels would explode the notion of non-Europeans as untutored savages and stand as the definitive description of China until the nineteenth century.

Drawing on original sources in more than half a dozen languages, and on his own travels along Polo’s route in China and Mongolia, Bergreen explores the lingering controversies surrounding Polo’s legend, settling age-old questions and testing others for significance. Synthesizing history, biography, and travelogue, this is the timely chronicle of a man who extended the boundaries of human knowledge and imagination. Destined to be the definitive account of its subject for decades to come, Marco Polo takes us on a journey to the limits of history—and beyond.

Sue Grafton - T is for Trespass

Book Description:
The 20th Kinsey Millhone crime novel (after 2005's S Is for Silence), a gripping, if depressing, tale of identify theft and elder abuse, displays bestseller Grafton's storytelling gifts. By default, Millhone, a private investigator in the small Southern California town of Santa Teresa, assumes responsibility for the well-being of an old neighbor, Gus Vronsky, injured in a fall. After Vronsky's great-niece arranges to hire a home aide, Solana Rojas, Millhone begins to suspect that Rojas is not all that she seems. Since the reader knows from the start that an unscrupulous master manipulator has stolen the Rojas persona, the plot focuses not on whodunit but on the battle of wits Millhone wages with an unconventional and formidable adversary. Grafton's mastery of dialogue and her portrayal of the limits of good intentions make this one of the series' high points, even if two violent scenes near the end tidy up the pieces a little too neatly.

Robert LIttell - Vicious Circle

Book Description:
Veteran espionage writer Littell, whose 1973 debut, The Defection of A.J. Lewinter, prompted critics to compare him to such British masters as Eric Ambler and John le Carré, stumbles a bit with his take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, set in a near, post–George W. Bush future. An unnamed woman, who will remind many of Hillary Clinton, is president of the U.S., while, less plausibly, the Palestinian Authority is led by Arafat's successor, who's also nameless. Given Hamas's electoral victory in early 2006, the plot, which centers on yet another U.S.-brokered effort to create a lasting Middle East peace, has already been overtaken by events. The relationship between a terrorist leader and his hostage, a right-wing rabbi and agitator, may intrigue those who can overlook the dated scenario.

Jeffrey Toobin - The Nine

Book Description:
It's not laws or constitutional theory that rule the High Court, argues this absorbing group profile, but quirky men and women guided by political intuition. New Yorker legal writer Toobin (The Run of His Life: The People v. O.J. Simpson) surveys the Court from the Reagan administration onward, as the justices wrestled with abortion, affirmative action, the death penalty, gay rights and church-state separation. Despite a Court dominated by Republican appointees, Toobin paints not a conservative revolution but a period of intractable moderation. The real power, he argues, belonged to supreme swing-voter Sandra Day O'Connor, who decided important cases with what Toobin sees as an almost primal attunement to a middle-of-the-road public consensus. By contrast, he contends, conservative justices Rehnquist and Scalia ended up bitter old men, their rigorous constitutional doctrines made irrelevant by the moderates' compromises. The author deftly distills the issues and enlivens his narrative of the Court's internal wranglings with sharp thumbnail sketches (Anthony Kennedy the vain bloviator, David Souter the Thoreauvian ascetic) and editorials (inept and unsavory is his verdict on the Court's intervention in the 2000 election). His savvy account puts the supposedly cloistered Court right in the thick of American life.

A great night at Bouley

We went to Bouley last night to commemorate Chris birthday. Unlike me, she is still having them. I decided, at age 50, that I had had enough birthdays. Fortunately, Scott's plane back to SF was cancelled so he and Jory were able to join us. We really look forward to having them around because they get as excited and enjoy 'good eats' as much as we do. Not having had any children, I'm really enjoying the Step-Father experience! Scott is at an exciting age where the opportunities and risks are at a peak. It really brings back memories of those years. Fortunately, in many cases, Scott seems to be making better decisions than I did.

Bouley has always been one of my favorite restaurants - food, service and ambiance are all extraordinary. For example, I was struggling with the choice for appetizer between the "Seared whole Foie Gras" and the "Panache of Three Salads" which included Scallops and Shrimp with a Foie Gras Pate. I much prefer the whole Foie Gras and had this discussion with our server. When I chose the Panache because it seemed more interesting than the "simple" seared Foie Gras, the dish came with the Foie Gras I preferred. I called the waiter over to point it out, thinking he had made a mistake - but rather he had seen my hesitation and switched it in the kitchen. I was delighted.

Chris started with the small Kumamoto Oysters that she loves and was not disappointed.

Jory had the "Return from Chiang Mai" which included Lobster and Serrano Ham with Mango.

For the main course, my "Baby Pork Loin was so tasty, I was reluctant to share. Chris's "Squab stuffed with Foie Gras wrapped in savoy cabbage a top some artichoke puree was truly unusual. With all that Foie Gras we were equally 'artery' challenged.

Scott and Jory shared the "Breast of LI Duckling with turnips, porcini mushrooms and Lima beans" and the "Rack of Lamb with ricotta gnocchi". This all worked well with a very nice 2004 Cote Roti.

Normally, we (Chris and I) avoid desserts. But this was a special occasion and Scott and Jory's combined sweet tooth, especially when it comes to chocolate, influences us both. It's a good thing we didn't all order dessert because our server also brought a sampler of every dessert we hadn't ordered plus the typical Petit-Fours with coffee. It was dizzying--but when all was said and done, the plates were clean.

All in all, it was a wonderful evening and I thought the prices were reasonable for what we got. My only complaint was the $20 cab ride from our apartment. We discovered that parking is generally available in the neighborhood so my advice would be to drive!

120 W. Broadway (at Duane St.)

212-964-2525