Linda Fairstein - Bad Blood

Another good thriller from Fairstein. She always delivers.

Book description -

In the exciting ninth Alexandra Cooper legal thriller from bestseller Fairstein (after Death Dance), the Manhattan prosecutor is confronted with the trial lawyer's greatest fear—a witness who's destroyed on the stand. When the defense attorney shows that Kate Meade, the lead witness in Cooper's circumstantial case against Brendan Quillian for the murder of his wife, Amanda, has concealed her affair with the defendant, this revelation of Meade's potential bias has a devastating effect on the prosecution's case. As Cooper struggles to recover, the case takes a whole new twist when a fatal explosion in New York City's third water tunnel, which is under construction, suggests that Amanda's death is connected with other violent acts in the Quillian family's past. While Cooper may engage in a few too many action sequences for legal purists, the crisp writing and Fairstein's enviable capacity to translate her own experience as a prosecutor into an accessible plot puts this series a cut above most entries in this crowded subgenre.

Benjamin Black - The Silver Swan

Well, the reviews were right. Not nearly as good as Christine Falls. It's strongest points are the wonderful descriptions and believable characters. But the story is muddy and lacks any reason for us to care,

Book description -

In this stunning follow-up to 2007's Christine Falls, Black (pseudonym of Booker Prize–winner John Banville) spins a complex tale of murder and deception in 1950s Ireland. Pathologist Garret Quirke, surprised by a visit from a college acquaintance, Billy Hunt, is even more surprised when Billy begs Quirke not to perform an autopsy on his wife, Deirdre, whose naked body was recently retrieved from Dublin Bay. Though everything points to suicide, Quirke knows something's amiss and begins to retrace Deirdre's steps. Black expertly balances Quirke's investigation with chapters detailing Deidre's past, from her marriage to Billy to her shady business deal with Leslie White, an enigmatic Englishman who knew Deidre as Laura Swan, the proprietress of their joint venture, a beauty salon called the Silver Swan. As Quirke digs deeper, he discovers a web of lies and blackmail that threatens to envelop even his own estranged daughter, Phoebe. Laconic, stubborn Quirke makes an appealing hero as the pieces of this unsettling crime come together in a shocking conclusion

Jennifer 8 Lee - The Fortune Cookie Chronicles

Book description
Readers will take an unexpected and entertaining journey—through culinary, social and cultural history—in this delightful first book on the origins of the customary after-Chinese-dinner treat by New York Times reporter Lee. When a large number of Powerball winners in a 2005 drawing revealed that mass-printed paper fortunes were to blame, the author (whose middle initial is Chinese for prosperity) went in search of the backstory. She tracked the winners down to Chinese restaurants all over America, and the paper slips the fortunes are written on back to a Brooklyn company. This travellike narrative serves as the spine of her cultural history—not a book on Chinese cuisine, but the Chinese food of take-out-and-delivery—and permits her to frequently but safely wander off into various tangents related to the cookie. There are satisfying minihistories on the relationship between Jews and Chinese food and a biography of the real General Tso, but Lee also pries open factoids and tidbits of American culture that eventually touch on large social and cultural subjects such as identity, immigration and nutrition. Copious research backs her many lively anecdotes, and being American-born Chinese yet willing to scrutinize herself as much as her objectives, she wins the reader over. Like the numbers on those lottery fortunes, the book's a winner

Drew Gilpin Faust - This Republic of Suffering

Unbearably long and drawn out.

Book Description:

Battle is the dramatic centerpiece of Civil War history; this penetrating study looks instead at the somber aftermath. Historian Faust (Mothers of Invention) notes that the Civil War introduced America to death on an unprecedented scale and of an unnatural kind—grisly, random and often ending in an unmarked grave far from home. She surveys the many ways the Civil War generation coped with the trauma: the concept of the Good Death—conscious, composed and at peace with God; the rise of the embalming industry; the sad attempts of the bereaved to get confirmation of a soldier's death, sometimes years after war's end; the swelling national movement to recover soldiers' remains and give them decent burials; the intellectual quest to find meaning—or its absence—in the war's carnage. In the process, she contends, the nation invented the modern culture of reverence for military death and used the fallen to elaborate its new concern for individual rights. Faust exhumes a wealth of material—condolence letters, funeral sermons, ads for mourning dresses, poems and stories from Civil War–era writers—to flesh out her lucid account. The result is an insightful, often moving portrait of a people torn by grief

Susan Choi - A Person of Interest

A really great new (for me author. She does a fabulous job of bringing to life and making sympathetic, a very alienated immigrant. We travel along with him as he tries to understand his motivations and experiences that he has supressed. Well worth while.


Book description -


After fictionalizing elements of the Patty Hearst kidnapping for her second novel (the 2004 Pulitzer finalist American Woman), Choi combines elements of the Wen Ho Lee accusations and the Unabomber case to create a haunting meditation on the myriad forms of alienation. The suggestively named Lee, as he's called throughout, is a solitary Chinese émigré math professor at the end of an undistinguished Midwestern university career. He remains bitter after two very different failed marriages, despite his love for Esther, his globe-trotting grown daughter from the first marriage. As the book opens, Lee's flamboyant, futurist colleague in the next-door office, Hendley, is gravely wounded when Hendley opens a package that violently explodes. Two pages later, a jealous, resentful Lee felt himself briefly thinking Oh, good. As a did-he or didn't-he investigation concerning Lee, the novel's person of interest, unfolds, Lee's carefully ordered existence unravels, and chunks of his painful past are forced into the light. While a cagily sympathetic FBI man named Jim Morrison and Lee's former colleague Fasano (who links the bombings to several other technologists) play well-turned supporting roles, Choi's reflections from Lee's gruffly brittle point of view are as intricate and penetrating as the shifting intrigue surrounding the bomb. The result is a magisterial meditation on appearance and misunderstanding as it plays out for Lee as spouse, colleague, exile and citizen.

Stephen Coll - The Bin Ladens

Book description -

The Bin Ladens rose from poverty to privilege; they loyally served the Saudi royal family for generations—and then one of their number changed history on September 11, 2001. Two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Steve Coll tells the epic story of the rise of the Bin Laden family and of the wildly diverse lifestyles of the generation to which Osama bin Laden belongs, and against whom he rebelled. Starting with the family’s escape from famine at the beginning of the twentieth century through its jet-set era in America after the 1970s oil boom, and finally to the family’s attempts to recover from September 11, The Bin Ladens unearths extensive new material about the family and its relationship with the United States, and provides a richly revealing and emblematic narrative of our globally interconnected times.

To a much greater extent than has been previously understood, the Bin Laden family owned an impressive share of the America upon which Osama ultimately declared war—shopping centers, apartment complexes, luxury estates, privatized prisons in Massachusetts, corporate stocks, an airport, and much more. They financed Hollywood movies and negotiated over real estate with Donald Trump. They came to regard George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Prince Charles as friends of their family. And yet, as was true of the larger relationship between the Saudi and American governments, when tested by Osama’s violence, the family’s involvement in the United States proved to be narrow and brittle.

Among the many memorable figures that cross these pages is Osama’s older brother, Salem—a free-living, chainsmoking, guitar-strumming pilot, adventurer, and businessman who cavorted across America and Europe and once proposed marriage to four American and European girlfriends simultaneously, attempting to win a bet with the king of Saudi Arabia. Osama and Salem’s father, Mohamed bin Laden, is another force in the narrative—an illiterate bricklayer who created the family fortune through perspicacity and wit, until his sudden death in an airplane crash in 1967, an accident caused by an error by his American pilot.

At the story’s heart lies an immigrant family’s attempt to adapt simultaneously to Saudi Arabia’s puritanism and America’s myriad temptations. The family generation to which Osama belonged—twenty-five brothers and twenty-nine sisters—had to cope with intense change. Most of them were born into a poor society where religion dominated public life. Yet by the time they became young adults, these Bin Ladens found themselves bombarded by Western-influenced ideas about individual choice, by gleaming new shopping malls and international fashion brands, by Hollywood movies and changing sexual mores—a dizzying world that was theirs for the taking, because they each received annual dividends that started in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. How they navigated these demands is an authentic, humanizing story of Saudi Arabia, America, and the sources of attraction and repulsion still present in the countries’ awkward embrace.

Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Journals 1952-2000

Book Description -

The beloved cultural and political commentator Schlesinger (1917-2007) formed his left-leaning worldview during FDR's New Deal; a liberal scholar and historian, Schlesinger produced more than 25 books (his last was 2005's War and the American Presidency), won two Pulitzers and became a powerful force in shaping liberal political thought. Taking readers through Schlesinger's diaries year by year, the book begins with Schlesinger's first encounters with presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, for whose (unsuccessful) campaign he would become a speech-writer; fortunately, off-years pass by quickly (1953-1959 take up fewer than 30 pages), picking up again in 1960, when Schlesinger became special advisor to President Kennedy. With characteristic candor, Schlesinger weighs in on both: of Stevenson, "probably even more conservative than I had thought"; of JFK, "he has most of FDR's lesser qualities. Whether he has FDR's greater qualities is the problem for the future." Subsequent years bring the expected: Vietnam and LBJ, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, Nixon and Watergate, the rise of Reagan and the fall of the Soviets, the first Gulf War and the second George Bush, all viewed through Schlesinger's singular perspective. Interspersed between an endless, engrossing parade of lunches with luminaries such as Henry Kissenger and Jackie Onassis, Schlesinger discusses his own work and a few personal details ("Another year; another house... spent most of the month getting settled at 118 East 82nd Street with my beloved Alexandra"). Most of the memoir, however, is a pleasingly understated whirlwind of big names and bigger issues. Rich in insight and cagily observed history, Schlesinger's weighty memoirs will mesmerize political junkies; even lay-readers will be charmed and fascinated by Schlesinger's take on the 20th century's last half

Linda Fairstein - Entombed

Book description -

Series heroine Alexandra Cooper, head of Manhattan's sex crimes unit, returns in a novel that might have been titled "Nevermore,": focused as it is on the life and works of Edgar Allan Poe. When the body of a two-decades-old skeleton is found bricked up behind a wall in a soon-to-be-demolished building where Poe once lived, it looks like a very cold case indeed. But then that old murder is linked to a more current slaying, one that at first looks like the work of the Silk Stocking Rapist, Alex's old enemy, who terrorized the upper East Side of Manhattan several years ago but hasn't been heard from since. As usual, Alex and her good friends, detectives Mercer Wallace and Mike Chapman, take the reader to an area of New York most tourists never see--in this case, the Bronx Botanical Gardens and its wild, forested environs--and bring it dramatically to life. Just in case Poe ever has his own category on Alex's favorite TV show, there’s enough trivia included about the master of the macabre's life and work to propel any reader to Final Jeopardy. Entombed is a smart, stylish, well-told tale.

Linda Fairstein - Killer Heat

She always does a great job and the characters are fun to live with.


Book Description -


At the start of bestseller Fairstein's nail-biting 10th legal thriller to feature alter ego Alex Cooper (after 2006's Bad Blood), the Manhattan ADA takes a hit from a cigar at the urging of her longtime police ally, Mike Chapman—to cover the stench of a badly decomposed female body at a crime scene in an abandoned building near the Staten Island ferry. The victim later proves to be the first of a number of women in uniform targeted by the murderer, who may have military ties in his past. The trail leads to a notorious bar catering to underage drinkers, before a chance observation by a civilian shifts the inquiry dramatically. Meanwhile, Cooper is preparing to try Floyd Warren, a rapist whose first trial three decades earlier ended in a hung jury. Fairstein, whose professional résumé includes groundbreaking work in the field of sex crimes prosecution, manages to both entertain and educate, as Cooper struggles with the evidentiary challenges of the Warren rape case and with tracking a vicious serial killer.

Gregor von Rezzori - Memoirs of an Anti-Semite

Gregor von Rezzori - Memoirs of an Anti-Semite

This is a strong recommendation to read a very different kind of book. There are many books that speak to the experiences of holocaust victims; there are even a few devoted to the stories of the perpetrators. This book attempts to explore the public bystanders that allowed it to happen through indifference or a willingness to accept the government storyline about the problems caused by Jews.

The story is set in Eastern Europe where the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after WWI has left many people feeling at risk - financially and culturally. It is before the Nazi's major push into Eastern Europe and before the Final Solution. They are on the cusp of the holocaust, but don't know it. They go on with their daily lives. The narrator (he's no hero!) is the child of minor nobility trying to get by in a no longer familiar world. He is no Nazi, but has inherited an attitude of anti-semitism that informs his actions - or lack thereof. He lives in a milieu with many Jews from rag-pickers to professionals and businessmen. Many are more educated and wealthier than he is. He has many close relationships with Jewish neighbors growing up; in fact, some of his closest friends growing up are Jews. He 'loves' them, but his anti-semitism, so deeply rooted in his perceptions of class and family, relegates them to less than fully human.

The over-riding focus of this book is how the holocaust could happen, and by inference, happen again? The "Holy War" between Muslims and Christians? No-one knew what was about to happen then; what it is that we don't know now?

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.

Mia Dona, a new neighborhood restaurant

Mia Dona

We recently went to Mia Dona, a new restaurant from Donatella Arpaia that opened recently in our neighborhood on East 58th Street. It was recommended by our neighbors, the Schaffer's. It's moderately sized with a comfortable bar area and two small dining rooms. The overall decor is a little severe for me - boldly patterned wall paper, bare wooden tables and no carpets. Service was good, if a little intrusive at times. Hopefully, they'll improve with time. Prices, moderate for the neighborhood.

The menu is eclectic Italian with an emphasis on pastas and interesting game and grills. A lot of interesting combinations. The portion sizes seem a little erratic. Chris started with the "Crispy Rabbit with salt & vinegar fingerling chips. It was delicious but we could easily have shared it. The portion was huge. My "Grilled Calamari & Caponata Salad with pignoli nuts, currants, pickled eggplant, and tomato" was not quite as good and the portion was more traditional.

For the main course (I am still a traditional starter/main eater) I had the "Roasted Pork Chop with frisée, lardons, Gorgonzola and a farm egg" (adding an egg to everything seems to be this year's craziness!). It was excellent, although the portion seemed much smaller than Chris' rabbit. I particularly liked the combination of cheese and bacon to flavor the pork. The small portion was not a problem. I prefer smaller portions, but seemed irrational. Chris had a very nice "Butternut Tortelli with dried cherry, walnuts and asiago". She liked her pasta better than my pork chop. They have a nice wine menu by the glass.

Atypically, we had dessert and shared a "Cannoli with ricotta ice cream and candied orange". It was really delicisious. But maybe we're spoiled by not normally having dessert.

Overall, an excellent neigborhood choice but not yet a "destination". We'll be back.

Dona Maria

206 E. 58th St. (bet. 2nd & 3rd Aves.)
212-750-8170

James McBride - Song Yet Sung

Book description -

Escaped slaves, free blacks, slave-catchers and plantation owners weave a tangled web of intrigue and adventure in bestselling memoirist (The Color of Water) McBride's intricately constructed and impressive second novel, set in pre–Civil War Maryland. Liz Spocott, a beautiful young runaway slave, suffers a nasty head wound just before being nabbed by a posse of slave catchers. She falls into a coma, and, when she awakes, she can see the future—from the near-future to Martin Luther King to hip-hop—in her dreams. Liz's visions help her and her fellow slaves escape, but soon there are new dangers on her trail: Patty Cannon and her brutal gang of slave catchers, and a competing slave catcher, nicknamed The Gimp, who has a surprising streak of morality. Liz has some friends, including an older woman who teaches her The Code that guides runaways; a handsome young slave; and a wild inhabitant of the woods and swamps. Kidnappings, gunfights and chases ensue as Liz drifts in and out of her visions, which serve as a thoughtful meditation on the nature of freedom and offer sharp social commentary on contemporary America. McBride hasn't lost his touch: he nails the horrors of slavery as well as he does the power of hope and redemption.

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.