Customer Comments

Roy G. Biv is a fun book to read. Thousands, (maybe more than that, tens of thousands?) of fun facts and observations about color, that will keep you flipping pages as you go from one reference to another. Ms. Stewart, besides being a color expert, demonstrates an astonishing familiarity with science, history and psychology as she reveals one colorful fact after another. You'll never walk into a paint store or look at a rainbow in quite the same way.

Never judge a book by its cover. The Family Piano by Anita Sullivan, has a simple line drawing on its front cover, leading the reader to believe that book itself is simple. Anita Sullivan, a writer, and poet, supported herself for a time tuning pianos, mostly, I gather, in parts of rural Oregon, where she lived in the 80s and 90s. Ms. Sullivan is a much deeper thinker than one would expect. The complex, but also sometimes tedious process of tuning pianos, particularly poorly maintained ones, has given her much time to think. She expounds on human efforts, perfectionism, whether one can dance to classical music, Greek music, taxes, digital vs. acoustic instruments, and other assorted issues. This collection of essays, all have piano tuning as a common subject, makes for good reading.

My Two Italies by Joseph Luzzi is a stunningly personal book, by a college professor. He tells the story of his immigrant parents, who, although they were physically transported from their native Calabria, one of the poorest regions of southern Italy, to Rhode Island, maintained their old customs. He describes how as a boy he cried when his parents slaughtered and butchered animals in the backyard, including the rabbit he thought was brought to be his pet. Midway through the book, he reveals a personal tragedy so shocking and difficult that it is hard not to cry similar tears for the author. Interwoven with his personal story is an exposition on the various dichotomies of Italy, old vs. new, north vs. south, chic vs. peasant, Sopranos vs sopressata. My Two Italies is a perfect read for all lovers of Italian and Italian-American culture.

The late Sherwin Nuland, who in his lifetime was a distinguished surgeon at the Yale Medical Center, was a gifted essayist as well. More than just another advice book from a doctor, The Art of Aging discusses why aging occurs, the role of death in nature, why humans are the only animal that generally survive beyond their reproductive years, and what can be done to keep the aging process realistic. Dr. Nuland writes from the heart, and had he not become a physician, he could just as well have been a full time author. Worth reading.

I love to read non-fiction and I am a sucker for books which explain science in an easy to understand fashion. I am also a sucker for books which explore a single topic and attack it from different directions and disciplines. I have read books about Salt, Codfish, Pigeons, and other subjects, all in that genre. So I assumed this book about sleep would be right up my alley. But it is a little different. This is a much more personal book. It contains essays about different aspects of sleep, interwoven with quotations from ancient writers, scientists, psychologists, etc., but the author also allows us to glimpse into her own life. Kat Duff, who tells us early on she does not believe in a God who protects us, lives in northern New Mexico (sounds nice!) has a friend who is an herbalist, has a young step-daughter, and has had her own crises, gives us quite a few clues as to who she is personally. I found that more interesting ultimately than the scientific popularization. Kat Duff is someone who is obviously quite well read. I personally could do with a little less of the Edgar Cayce stuff, but one of the points of the book is that sleep is something we should be cherishing more, and is not something we can just dispose of and compartmentalize. And oddly enough, since I picked up the book, I've been sleeping better myself.

I read a lot of self-help books. Actually, I start a lot of self-help books, and put them down because so many of them are the same. Fail Fast, Fail Often: How Losing Can Help You Win, by Ryan Babineaux, is a cut above the average self-help book, because it has some very good ideas, which are expressed simply and without undue repetition. The basic premise is we all have fear of failure, but failure is actually a good thing, because you learn from it. Sounds simple, but Babineaux also gives concrete examples of how to apply this principal to get results. It has lifted me off the floor when the job market worries had me down. I have found it to be helpful in my career quest.

This book was first published in the 1930s but is still an excellent read today. A collection of essays about walking, all short, all really well written from some well known masters, Dickens and Thoreau, and some lesser known, William Hazlitt and Christopher Morley.

As a habit, I read many more non-fiction books than fiction. My reasoning is that there is so much that is fascinating in the world, in science, history, biography and politics that reading about imaginary lives is a waste of time. Jonathan Gottschall, a professor of English at a liberal arts college, has convinced me that my reasoning is wrong. We are wired to need and love storytelling, even though it may not seem very useful. Gottschall explores how small children love fairytales, even though they are, if taken at face value absolutely terrifying. He examines the roots of religion as being storytelling. And, he explains how stories are often the best way to express moral values. Gottschall will change my reading habits. This is a great find.

I did not care for this book. My kid had to read The Five People for school, and I thought it would be a good idea to pick it up. The Five People just didn't do it for me. Many people write about what an afterlife will be. This same territory has been covered by others much more skillfully. The message is similar to that of the film It's A Wonderful Life, but not delivered in nearly as effective a manner. For me, a much more stimulating book was The Inevitable, a collection of essays about death. The protagonist in the Five People, Eddie, an amusement park worker, lives his whole life in a Coney Island like area. Those kinds of places never fascinated me. The writing is meant to be nostalgic in a "Water for Elephants" way, but I just didn't perceive the descriptions as all that entertaining or comforting. Mush. But it is a fast read.

In the early 1990s, I was considering taking a trip to Sicily to look up my family's heritage and to enjoy a vacation. I stopped in the New York office of the Italian Government Tourism board, and asked if they had any literature about trips to Sicily. Mind you, the person I was asking was an employee of the Italian government. He told me not to go to Sicily. He told me that the Mafia was rife, and that it was very dangerous. Fortunately, I ignored this fool's advice and visited Sicily. And loved it. And went back for another vacation. Shamus Sillar, an Australian academic and law school drop out, and his wife, an Australian teacher, lived together in Sicily, in a small apartment in Catania for a year. Their story is written from the perspective of an English-speaking writer residing in Italy, a sub-genre covered by a few other writers such as Tim Parks, Barbara Grizzuti Harrison, and Dianne Hales. However, none of those authors lived in Sicily. Sicily is Italy revved up to eleven like a Spinal Tap amplifier. Shamus Sillar, who is a delightfully dry wit, employs a few Australianisms to make his point that despite the smoke, the litter, the chaos, the extreme devotion to Catholicism and sex, there is a beauty to Sicily that is unmatched elsewhere. I loved this book, and found it extremely informative. Sillar was a blocked writer given an advance to write a Roman history, who becomes a house husband in a really poor neighborhood in Catania, a very smoky, dirty working class city, while his wife teaches English in a local school. The author takes side trips all over Sicily, but on a budget, and his adventures and misadventures are nearly always amusing, and often quite moving. I bought this book at a discounted price, and I don't know if it has been remaindered, but in my opinion, it is very well written and right up there with all the other great travel books, including those of the aforementioned expats, and Jan Morris.

In early 1970, Mary Tyler Moore was, essentially, washed up. She had been a costar with Dick Van Dyke as a sit-com wife and was loved by a nation of television viewers. That show had been off the air for over five years when she attempted a comeback as the protagonist of a show about a single woman. This book gives the inside story of how the eponymous show came into existence, its writers and actors, and how it set the stage for numerous other sitcoms which questioned societal norms. The show went on to have a successful run of seven seasons, and its influence is being felt even today. Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted, by Jennifer Armstrong, is a fun read about the show, its creators, and the odd story about how a fan, writing a typewritten critique, became a part of the show's inner circle. Great summer reading.

I loved this book. Andrew Ferguson describes in a lighthearted way the process of getting his high school son into a college, and takes a look at the history of college, its role in society, the SATs, US News ratings, and the whole admissions process. Lively reading, and a break from the numerous catalogs and books that feed on parents' and applicants' anxiety. If you are at this stage in life, either a parent or a high schooler thinking of going to college, this book is very grounding.

The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation, by Jon Gertner, is a good general account of the history of Bell Labs, which at its pinnacle was one of the hotbeds of scientific exploration and invention. The Bell Labs, which were a part of a national telephone monopoly, AT&T, started out as a means for the telephone company to improve its services. It hired physicists, chemists and mathematicians to do research in one of the company's downtown Manhattan buildings. The company eventually moved it to Murray Hill, New Jersey. There, scientists were given enormous liberty to think and develop ideas, even if they had no application to the telephone company. The result is that some of the things we take for granted in the twenty-first century, such as cell phones, computers, digital transmission of imagery, sounds and information, were all the products of innovations of Bell Labs. It was here that the first transistor was created, and the winning team eventually received the Nobel Prize for it. The author describes some of the geniuses who made up the team, and how Bell Labs tolerated their eccentricities. I gave this book four instead of five because the final chapter was rather weak, in my opinion, substituting weak, politically correct thinking for scientific analysis of the innovation product. Overall, however, this book was splendid reading experience.

Wonderfully illustrated and well written. Vulpes, the Red Fox describes life in the woods in Maryland for a fox from his birth. It is supposedly a young person's book, but it is so compelling that I, and old man in his fifties, could not stop reading it. There are moments when it brought tears to my eyes.

A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder--How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-the-fly Planning Make the World a Better Place is the perfect antidote to too many self-improvement books that make you feel guilty if you don't start each day with a to-do list and end it with every item checked. Abrahamson, a business professor, gives example after example of why the professional organizers, a multi-billion dollar industry, exaggerate the benefits of tidiness. The author uses this as a launching point to make several chapters essays on different aspects of chaos and disorder. This book is about 8 years old, and while some of the business examples are out of date, for example, Abrahamson criticizes Apple Computers, and lauds a New York City restaurant called Tabla, both of which have had reversals of fortune since the book came out, overall the book provides some fascinating concepts of messiness vs. order.

One of my favorite Christmas novellas, The Gift by Pete Hamill, tells the tale of a Korean war veteran returning to his native Brooklyn in the early 1950s. The book has an authentic period feel, and the blue collar neighborhood to which he returns has few of the comforts and extravagances which we take for granted today. I loved the references to old New York, the luncheonettes, the bars, the parks, the beer. Maybe its appeal would be primarily to New Yorkers of a certain age, but the story is worth reading to the end as well.

F. Gonzalez-Crussi is an essayist who also happens to be a medical doctor. His books use medical knowledge as jumping off points for flights of philosophical discourse intermingled with some of his own memoirs of growing up in Mexico. The Five Senses is not a cohesive book, as there is no attempt to examine each of the five senses equally, but the writing is superb. The edition I had included a cover endorsement by Oliver Sacks, another MD-author, but I prefer the writing of Gonzalez-Crussi. The chapter on sight had wonderful anecdotes of two blind persons the author was acquainted with while working in a drug store in Mexico as a youth. Humor, insight, scholarship and beautiful writing make me a fan of this author, and his The Five Senses.

This book is so charming. Sophia and her grandmother and her father live together on an island. Sophia's mother is dead; we are never told the cause. The book deals with the interplay of her eccentric, opinionated grandmother (who sneaks cigarettes on the side) and the observations of an innocent preadolescent Sophia. This book truly captures the reverie of a relaxed summer vacation on an island. Take it with you on your next vacation.

For history lovers, Teddy Roosevelt fans, New York City history fans, this is a nice find. The sex industry in New York in the 1890s was in full swing, with brothels seemingly on every corner, porn merchants (obviously with slightly different media) and along came a patrician by the name of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt took on a corrupt New York City police department and the Tammany Hall political machine, not entirely with success. This book gives a little different perspective on the life of Teddy Roosevelt, and his road to the White House. Zacks is obviously a lover of New York City, as am I, and reading the numerous anecdotes of the houses of ill repute makes for some very entertaining reading.

Death of a Ventriloquist A ventriloquist is a performer who speaks for a dummy. Without the ventriloquist, the dummy is silent, a useless collection of wood, cloth and hinges. Gibson Fay-LeBlanc uses the metaphor of a ventriloquist to map out his life, abandoned by his father at an early age. He becomes a father himself, but recognizes the difficulties of fatherhood, "the arc of piss" on the changing table. Eventually the thought of his son keeps him from committing suicide as another poet he knows has done. There is a lot of great poetry out there, and the public should read more of it. Gibson Fay-LeBlanc is as good a place to start as any.

John Jerome wrote some great books, all on different topics, but really all on the same topic: the relationship of the physical world to human existence. A great essayist, Jerome could write about almost any athletic endeavor, and describe the physics involved. This particular book focuses on running, which at one point in Jerome's life, he was dedicated to. He was also a skier, a canoeist, a wall builder, an antique truck restorer, and, above all, a swimmer. He was also a writer. A lot of his writing appeared in magazines, the kind you read to inspire you to do exciting things, like Outside, Skiing, etc. I would say that the Elements of Effort is as good a place as any to start for an introduction to John Jerome's writing.

This book has some excellent points to make, but is badly in need of some editing. I found some of its recommendations extremely helpful in my personal life. The authors, a psychologist/ motivator, and her husband, a classical music conductor, give anecdotal examples of their points, which seem to go on too long. Nonetheless they make some valid points. The book could have been shorter and more to the point. Nonetheless, I would recommend it for its advice on Giving an A and Being the Board, as helpful to those who must work with difficult people.

I participated as a book giver in the recent World Book Night, and chose Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks as my book because it was non-fiction, which I enjoy. I thought I should read it before handing out free copies in public. Skloot's book is hard to categorize. It is a little bit of history, popularized science, autobiography, and sociology. Henrietta Lacks was part of an African-American family of subsistence tobacco farmers living in rural Clover, Virginia. Descended from slaves, her family life of extreme poverty included fighting off incestuous cousins, sleeping on dirt floors and dangerous working conditions. Her cousin, who eventually married her, was not faithful, and infected her with more than one venereal disease. She was the mother of five children, one of whom is likely mentally retarded, although the medical diagnoses of those days used the indescribably cruel category of idiocy. As a result of being infected by her unfaithful husband with HPV, Henrietta contracts cervical cancer. She is treated in the "colored" section of Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. Scientists at Hopkins, without explaining what they were doing, keep a tissue sample of her cancerous cervix, which turn out to be the source of the first human cells capable of reproducing in a laboratory. The cells, named HeLa, after its donor, are involved in the testing of the polio vaccine and hundreds of other scientific projects. Yet the donor of the cells dies shortly after they are harvested and is buried anonymously in her family's poverty stricken shack compound. Skloots researches the life of Henrietta Lacks, locates and meets with her surviving children, and describes their lives, which are a cross section of modern African-American life. One daughter, Deborah, works two jobs, while taking care of her grandchildren and living from paycheck to paycheck. A son, as a result of the untimely death of Henrietta, becomes an alcoholic murderer, eventually landing in jail and converting to Islam. The retarded, deaf daughter is cruelly institutionalized in a segregated mental institution, never to be seen by the family, which hardly knows she exists. I found the organization of the book difficult, since Skloots uses a multiple flashback technique, which sometimes results in repetition. The sympathetic way in which she portrays the survivors of Henrietta Lacks was very touching and informative. I found the exposition of ethical issues a little murky, but perhaps that is the point. The cells were taken from a patient without her permission, but given the low educational levels prevalent at that point in history, it is difficult to say if informed consent could have been given. Rebecca Skloots injects herself into the story in a way which is common among science popularizing authors today, but she most likely would not have been able to gain the insights into the history of the Lacks family. One thing I found haunting is the question whether the typical African-American family can ever survive generations of illegitimacy and ignorance. Skloots' tone is hopeful and positive, but reading between the lines, I wondered if that is justified. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a bestseller, and has won its author a lot of critical acclaim. I found it a little bit flawed, and it seemed to raise a lot more questions than it could possibly answer, so I gave it a 4 out of 5, but I would nonetheless recommend it, and I am glad that I helped distribute copies of it on World Book night.

Olive oil, especially extra virgin olive oil, is an essential ingredient in Italian cuisine, and the cuisines of a lot of other Mediterranean cuisines. There was quite a lot I did not know about olive oils before I read this book. The book even helped me understand my grandparents' own peculiar feelings about cooking with olive oil versus animal fats, which they abhorred. You see my grandparents were from the section of Italy known as Apulia, (the heel of the boot) which has been for centuries, and is today the epicenter of the olive oil world. Not only are massive amounts of olive oil produced in Apulia, but it is also an area where olive oil is often mixed with inferior oils for fraudulent purposes. Tom Mueller visits the subject of corruption in the olive oil industry, which is rife, and the various kinds and classifications of olive oil, the history of olive oil, how it influenced ancient Greek culture, how it was used not merely as foodstuff, but as a cosmetic, a skin treatment, a lubricant, a fuel, a religious ritual and a cultural icon. Mueller could have used a better editor, as I found the organization of the book a little confusing, but nonetheless it was a fascinating read. Highly recommended for any foodie.

I loved this book. Written in 1926 but still fresh today. Marion and George Kerby are ghosts who enliven banker Cosmo Topper's staid life. Light reading, yet satisfying.

Willy Vlautin has created an unusual novel about a teenage boy from a dysfunctional family, whose temporary salvation is an old beaten up horse from the dying world of thoroughbred horse racing on the West Coast. He drifts from one heart breaking situation to another, trying to find the stability in his life that many of us take for granted. Intensely heart-wrenching and original, the story of an innocent boy lost in the world of homeless teenagers and street urchins really spoke to me.

The great hurricane of 1938 was a meteorological freak-- it arose so quickly the national weather bureau did not even forecast it. Forty foot high waves crashed onto the beaches of Long Island and New England. The city of Providence, Rhode Island had water up to the second floor of its high rises. In an era before satellites, radar, and TV, the public was unprepared, and many suffered, hundreds died harrowing deaths. The storm was so ferocious it knocked down church steeples and trees in northern New England, hundreds of miles inland. Cherie Burns does a great job of summarizing this disaster which left many people dead, homeless, or scarred. The book is also very good at capturing a time just before World War II, when people were still reeling from the Depression. Very informative.

I absolutely love Dianne Hales, but this book, one of her earlier works was a bit disappointing. Compared to her outstanding book on the Italian language, Ms. Hales attacked the subject of sleep in a rather perfunctory way. This book is over twenty years old, and I am sure the research is out of date.

The Inevitable is a collection of essays about death. There is some really good writing here. The chapters by David Gates, Kyoki Mori, and Lynne Tillman are especially strong. The essays will help you to confront, what really is the central fact about death, that it is inevitable.

The bar which is the subject of this book is only about two miles from my home, so I felt obligated to read it. The author, whose father was an alcoholic disc jockey, was forced to live with his grandfather in a house just a few steps from a bar. His uncle, a man in his twenties, takes the young boy under his wing, and teaches him much about the life of a seventies party animal, cruising to the beach in an old Caddy, drinking beers to erase a hangover, and going to Shea Stadium to see the Mets play through a haze of intoxication. J. R. Moehringer eventually gets into Yale University, and becomes a writer. A true memoir, and an homage to the village of Manhasset on the North Shore of Long Island.

Not one of Thoreau's better known works, this collection of essays about two visits the author made to Cape Cod is a fascinating window into the life of Cape Codders in the 1850s. Their lives were more like seamen than land occupiers, so intimately tied were they to the sea and its perils. Good reading during hurricane season.

If you tend to be sloppy and leave a lot of files out in your work area, you can be made to feel pretty guilty when you read about all the supposed advantages of organization. The authors debunk the myth that organization is the key to success, and argue that a little disorganization can often lead to more creativity. I found the book to be a great source of inspiration that sometimes unintended benefits can arise from the natural state of being a little bit messy. A Perfect Mess is a perfect delight to read.

Henry David Thoreau wrote a series of essays, here collected in book form, after visits to Cape Cod, primarily its eastern end, where the National Seashore is, and from Eastham, through Truro to Provincetown. He describes the peninsula as really being a part of the sea where shipwrecks occur frequently and "wreckers," i.e., persons who walk the beach combing it for flotsam and jetsam from shipwrecks, are an accepted class of vocation. Thoreau's description of his encounter with a family in Wellfleet, as he spends the night with an oysterman family, is priceless, with the old man of the family spiting tobacco juice in the fireplace adjacent to the breakfast food being cooked. An unusual but valuable example of Thoreau's writing. His descriptions of the agricultural practices and the native fauna are a glimpse into life in the 1800s.

Mark Kurlansky is an author of non-fiction books on quirky topics, like Cod and Salt, both of which I enjoyed very much. This latest work by Kurlansky is definitely in the peculiar category, and can fairly be described as an essay on the utility and meaning of questions. The book is written in a format, in which nearly every sentence, save a quotation from Rilke, is in question format. The format is a challenge, but comes across as slightly gimmicky and tedious. Nonetheless, I enjoyed reading this book, which is short, and quite easily digested, but not easily forgotten. I think it would be a great gift for people who like to think outside the box.

Dr. Francisco Gonzalez-Crussi is a medical doctor who can write, and who has an obvious love of literature and history. There are a few other such doctors, including Leonard Shengold, a psychiatrist, and Sherwin Nu, a surgeon. Dr. Gonzalez-Crussi is a pathologist, dissecting bodies after the patient dies to help other doctors treat with the insights gained. In his books, Dr. Gonzalez-Crussi dissects history, and literature, and life, and Carrying the Heart is one of his better books. He looks at the bizarre fad among the upper crust for enemas in eighteenth century France, as well as the many, numerous bizarre theories of the role of the uterus. Read Dr. Gonzalez-Crussi, and you will have read a great essayist.

Leonard Shengold,MD, a clinical psychiatrist, and classic Freudian, loves literature. In Delusions of Everyday Life, he states his case that we all harbor delusions, as a result of our personality formation from infantile states into adulthood. Applying his theory to a wide cross-section of classic literature, he offers insights which are helpful in our everyday affairs. The word narcissist is bandied about these days, but Dr. Shengold takes the time to examine in great detail the myth of Narcissus, and the use of the term by practicing psychiatric professionals, especially Freudians. Very enjoyable reading.

I read this book specifically because it was recommended by Powell's Books, and I am glad I did. I found it to be a very emotional experience. The protagonist is a 15 year old boy who is a very decent fellow living in a completely indecent world. I found traces of Catcher in the Rye and Huckleberry Finn in this story, but the first person narrator, whose name is not even revealed until well into the book, is, unlike Holden Caulfield, incredibly non-judgmental. The writing style is a very direct description through a fifteen year old's eyes of the underside of the Northwest, and the characters, whether it is Charley's father, who disappears for days, or Del, a horse trainer, who cheats on small time quarter horse claiming stakes, have no moral compasses. I cried by the time the book was over.

Is the physical world separate and apart from the words we use to describe it, or is language a part of the world as it describes it. Mark Doty analyzes some excellent poetry as he wrestles with the question of what makes good descriptive writing. As much philosophy as about the art of writing.

This beautifully illustrated book is actually an extended essay on the reasons we find seashells so pleasing. Valery, a poet, avoids getting into a scientific or biological discussion, and instead uses the topic of conchology as a launching point for a discussion on the meaning of beauty, chance, design and esthetics.

The 6-Week Cure for the Middle-Aged Middle is an excellent introduction to the theory that abdominal fat is much worse for you than other types of fat. It also has an innovative way to deal with a middle_aged gut with some controversial suggestions.

Inflammation is a process your body uses in certain situations, such as to combat injury, or infection. Chronic inflammation, however, is an unhealthy condition where the body's own tools do not turn them self off, and instead cause insidious harm, such as cancer, liver disease, diabetes, joint disorders and heart disease. The Inflammation Syndrome:Your Nutrition Plan for Great Health, Weight Loss, and Pain-Free Living, by Jack Challem, explores how you can prevent this very harmful process from getting worse through diet. The topic of inflammation is relatively new to medicine, and experts are just beginning to understand its relationship to any number of diseases. This book can set you on to the road to health.

52 Loaves is one of those humorous yet informative books written in a conversational style, not unlike a "Shouts and Murmurs" column in the New Yorker. William Alexander, a fifty something exurbanite, describes trying to make the perfect loaf of craft bread. He interweaves his story with vignettes of his life, married to a doctor in their Hudson Valley home, and working the bookselling scene as the author of the bestselling, similarly breezy book about growing heirloom tomatoes. The style is light, tasteful, bubbly and witty, not unlike a good piece of bread. Alexander, in trying to learn what makes the perfect loaf, gets some unexpected lessons about life along the way. This book is very amusing and will inspire me to try to do some baking. It leaves the readers with lots of terrific scientific and historical trivia as a bonus. I gave it four out of five stars because I am trying to watch my carbs.

Not another book by an American woman living in Italy! I thought when I saw this one on the shelves. What possibly could there be to say that would be the least bit interesting? But this is not a book about some yuppie buying an old villa in Tuscany, or Verona, or where have you. Instead this is about the Italian language, and setting up "home" in Italy by learning what it is that defines Italy, its language. Italian, we learn, is a relatively young invention, and its creators are delightfully described in this book. As someone who has listened to the learn Italian tapes in preparation for a vacation, I identify with Dianne Hales' longing to become fully versed in Italian, a language that is musical. It is also a language that provides an identity and a nation to a group of very different provinces. I loved this book, and cherished reading it, going back and rereading some of the chapters. A gem for Italophiles and lovers of languages.

Translators are the poor stepsisters of the literary world. They get little appreciation, their pay is low, and the work is difficult to say the least. Edith Grossman, known for translating Spanish poets, both classical and modern, defends her profession ably. One tiny snit-- she quotes Andres Dubus III, who engages in a little Bush-bashing, snarking about how dumb Americans are, and how a former President confused Slovenia with Slovakia. Would that there were some equal condescension for a President who thinks Austrian is a language. But that is just a pimple on an otherwise beautifully complected book about the travails of translating, and probably 85 per cent of the readers of this book did vote for the latter gaffe-master President. A marvelous essay, overall, particularly the chapter about the difficulties of translating poetry.

In the self help genre, the prison in the title is both literal and figurative. John Wareham counsels business executives and prisoners on Rikers Island and finds they are both victims of the same self destructive thinking. Some good advice sprinkled with some jargon that I found a little tedious.

Julie Morgenstern is a productivity guru, who writes with a fresh style. Her books have helped me tremendously, both in my work and in my life.

I bought this book for my child, but I read it myself. It evokes "Catcher in the Rye" as it takes place in Manhattan in another era, the early sixties. The protagonist, a young adolescent living with his parents in Gramercy Park, gives a first person account of his adventures, making friends, early dating, and Oedipal arguments with his father, a lawyer. The references to different New York landmarks, some no longer extant, added a nostalgic layer to my enjoyment.

Matthew Pearl undoubtedly loves the author Edgar Allen Poe. The sheer amount of scholastic effort that went into this novel is impressive. Unfortunately, it does not come off as terribly readable or interesting. Pearl should have hired a good editor.

This book gave me such pleasure. An historical novel, but with the assurance that many of its details are supported by fact, that puts you right in the heart of the Yalta Conference, a meeting of the three victors of World War II, Churchill, FDR and Stalin. The conference took place about two months before FDR's death. The Betrayal in the sub-title refers to the acquiescence by FDR to many of dictator Josef Stalin's demands, in part because of naive idealism and in part because of FDR's increasing feebleness, all to the detriment of the West, which in defeating Hitler, had only enabled another fanatical murderer to gain power. I could not put this book down. It is as readable as any book, yet there is much substance. A remarkable insight into one of the twentieth century's most remarkable men, Winston Churchill.

My eleven year old son and I read this book together. What an extraordinary work. The protagonist is thrown into a survival mode by an unlikely set of circumstances. The narrative transforms him from a typical urban or suburban teenager whose life revolves around getting fed cheeseburgers into dealing with wolves, bears, and other wildlife in the northern Canadian wilderness. Completely and utterly gripping, and moving.

Very original take on the woman detective. Set in Botswana, this book is as much an homage to Africa, and to humanity as it is great light mystery fare. Great book to read on a plane. Wonderful characters. I am hooked, and plan to read the whole series in order.

I chose to read this book because I thought it might offer some insight into theological matters. It turns out that Aviad Kleinberg is a history professor, not a theologian. However, this was a joyous read regardless of his specialty. The premise: examining what the Catholic church traditionally identified as the seven deadly sins from an historical point of view, charting how the interpretation of those sins has changed from the ancients to modern times. Being Jewish, and having studied the Talmud, Professor Kleinberg is a natural at exposing the nuances of sin. This book was a bestseller in Israel, written in Hebrew. Translated into English, it makes for a marvellous collection of essays on life. I recommend it.

Positive thought can have a host of unexpected consequences--nearly all of them good. The author, a psychology professor, offers scientific, as well as anecdotal proof of this theory. Unfortunately, the writing is a little repetitious and dry. Fredrickson touches on meditation and Zen wisdom, but a glaring omission is any reference to Christianity, which has much overlap with Fredrickson's findings. Nonetheless, worthwhile to read.

This is a manual intended for use by a specific segment of the legal profession--appellate attorneys. However, it is written in a non-technical and largely jargon-free manner so it is accessible to a lay reader. I found it to be informative as to the process by which courts decide the law. Antonin Scalia is an associate justice of the nation's highest court, and well known as right wing icon, whose legal credentials are never successfully attacked. Yet there is zero politics in this book. Bryan Garner is a law professor well known for his legal writing seminars where he pushes a new, clearer, simpler writing style. The two authors work well together to produce a manual for attorneys that I found to be helpful and which may be informative to non-lawyers interested in the majesty of the law. It is not burdened with too many war stories or anecdotes, just concisely written advice.

Rex Ward translated these ancient Greek myths into living, captivating stories. I found this to be a thoroughly enjoyable, easily digestible version of the Greek myths, which are a part of a culture. The tales of Hercules, Jason and the Argonauts, Daedalus and Icarus, foundations of modern culture, are all here, well told and splendidly illustrated.

Harry Mount takes a seemingly stuffy topic like the "dead" language of Latin and enlivens it. Who else could start a book about Latin by talking about Angelina Jolie's tattoo? Seems crazy, but he does so to make a point-- though a dead language, Latin still exerts a huge influence on us in many ways not readily apparent. I loved the way this was written. Entertaining--just what a good read is about.

What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life, by Avery Gilbert, approaches the sense of smell, a sense that seems to confound any simplistic approach. Gilbert analyzes at length the Proustian concept that the sense of smell is closest to our long term memories. Mr. Gilbert works as a smell consultant, although he does not give us a clear idea as to what exactly that entails. While there are some very enlightening scientific lessons about our noses and our sense of smell in this book, overall, it seems to be incomplete.

Commensalism. That's what sociologists refer to as the bond you get from eating together. To Italian families, it's glue. And no truly Italian family meal is complete without a glass of wine. Sergio Esposito, born in Naples and moving to drab, cold Albany, New York in 1974, realized that simple fact at an early age. This book is his memoir, as he rose from being a waiter, to a sommelier, to being one of the most notable wine sellers in Manhattan, specializing in high end, exclusively Italian wines. Maybe because I am Italian, the anecdotes of his family life resonated within me, but this book made me both laugh and cry within the first fifty pages. Frankly, though I love wine, I can't afford most of the wines Esposito sells with his partner, Joe Bastianich, in their 16th Street store, but this book makes me want to drop in just for a chance to meet the author. You will learn a lot about Italian wines from reading this book.

Kathleen Parker makes many valid points in her collection of essays, Save the Males. Feminism, societal upheaval, the prevalence of porn, and the breakdown of traditional societal norms make many male roles seem superfluous. Parker points out the insidious dangers of using the male of the species as only a sperm donor, and demonstrates the very real losses we as a society suffer when the traditional role of fathers in two-parent nuclear families is viewed as old fashioned and unessential. Parker is not calling for a return to the Ozzie and Harriet days of the fifties, but is quite astute in pointing out the unspoken, unintended effects of much social change in the past half century. Critics may unfairly try to pigeon-hole Parker as just another social conservative trying to move us backward in time; her breezy writing style delivers much keen insight, and fresh thinking in a search for new solutions that doesn't demonize men.

Integrity is an intriguing subject for a book. Killinger, a psychologist, examines how we lose our integrity, which she defines by example. In so doing, she approaches the subject from a number of different disciplines, but she is most comfortable from her own perspective as a counselor. The book is flawed by a tendency to speak to its readers in pop-psych jargon, but I did get some inspiring messages from it.

Well worth acquiring just for its bibliography. Strauss explains why the sport which is quintessentially amateur remains popular--its adherents seek the same glory as ancient warriors! Philosophy, middle aged guy learning a new avocation, fitness, history, a little of everything.

Barbara Goldsmith presents a concise, cogent biography of one of the twentieth century's great figures. Marie Curie suffered through a painfully poor childhood, the loss of her mother at an early age, and prejudice to become the first female Nobel prize winner. Madame Curie's life story is told simply, yet movingly in a well written fashion. The bizarre twists of her life, her discoveries, and her personal triumphs over many setbacks are tied together nicely in this readable work.

This book popularizes a chapter of the history of science, medicine, and publishing in a refreshingly breezy fashion. It is the story of two doctors named Henry, Henry Gray, the author of the most famous medical textbook in the world, Gray's Anatomy, and its often uncredited illustrator, Henry Vandyke Carter. Using original sources, including Carter's personal diaries, Bill Hayes, relates the lives of these two giants to his own life, as an author. There are insights into human anatomy as well, for those interested in the more readable aspects of medicine. A thought provoking work.

A good introduction to the Alexander Technique, a method invented by Frederick Mathias Alexander, an English actor who developed voice problems. His realization that his voice problems were causally connected to his posture led him to investigate how we stand, sit, walk and do the everyday activities. This book is not a substitute for lessons from a trained Alexander Technique teacher, but a good accompaniment for those interested in taking such lessons.

Think Hitler was evil? He only killed six million or so. think Stalin was? He only killed twenty million or so. This is the story of a world leader who was responsible for the deaths of seventy million human beings, yet for some reason, Mao's story gets glossed over. Jung Chang and her husband, Jon Halliday, do an admirable job de-bunking many myths about the man who led China into Communism. I found it to be gripping, and hard to put down. The biographers used many original sources, including letters and poetry from one of Mao's wives, whom he treated as inhumanely as he treated everyone else. Read this book and realize that the People's Republic of China was founded by one of the most ruthless terrorists ever to have lived.

It usually isn't pretty. The details of what happens to a human being as he exits the world is often shielded from us. Dr. Nuland, a world famous Yale trained surgeon, takes a quite literary approach as he explains the medical processes that leads inevitably to the demise of each individual on this planet. The first chapter, in which the author recalls his first attempt, as a 22 year old medical student, to save a patient dying of a massive coronary attack is gripping. So too, is his description of growing up in a tiny Bronx apartment being raised by his ancient Yiddish grandmother. As you will learn from reading the book, the more you deal with death, the less you have to fear from it, though it is seldom pretty or tranquil.

I don't care if you wear dirty wifebeaters and sweat pants all day. If you like to read good essays, Russell Smith can write. The historical, and social foundations of what constitutes good taste in clothing are examined at length, with remarkable prose as a by-product. And, excellent advice if you are interested in looking your best.

I loved this book! Nicholas Antongiavanni, (a pseudonym) wrote this exploration of men's clothing, and the messages said clothing sends, in a style mimicking Machiavelli. That may sound tedious, or stilted, but it actually reads spendidly. Mr. Antongiavanni wants men to dress better, and explores the relationship between good tasteful clothing, and the power that can be obtained from it. Lots of practical advice is here too, with detailed information about shoes, suits, sports coats, with a little history thrown in. You will never look at a man's suit in quite the same way after reading this book. And, you may save up enough money to get your own "bespoke" clothing.

Mel Stottlemeyr was a rookie a year out of high school when he became a star pitcher for the New York Yankees in 1964, pitching in three World Series games, with such illustrious teammates as Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, and Joe Pepitone. Just as Mel's career was taking off, a once mighty sports dynasty went into serious decline, and Mel never had a chance to pitch on a World Series championship team. He had a great career on a mediocre team, only to have arm troubles just as the Yankees got great again in the 70s. Mel went on to become one of the best pitching coaches in the business, with the Mets, Astros and later, the Yankees, as they once again became a dynasty under Joe Torre. Along the way, this class act of a ballplayer describes the loss of a son, his own battle with cancer, and does so with the same dignity and grace he displayed on the field. Great summer reading.

I loved Natalie MacLean's approach to wine drinking in Red, White and Drunk All Over. Enjoy, that's the main emphasis, says Natalie, and you can even get drunk once in a while. Her writing is light and brisk, and she reveals a lot of secrets in the alcoholic beverage industry. Definitely an anti-snobbery approach, and very, dare I say it, refreshing.

Read a fictional murder mystery, and you'll often find logic and reason used to solve the mystery. Real life murders seldom have the easy resolutions and time frames that fictional accounts provide, however. Jon Nordby, in real life, the son of a doctor, was fascinated by fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, and his uses of logic and science to solve crimes. Nordby entered premedical study, but then turned to philosophy and became a student of logic. This is not an easy book to read, as Nordby explores the philosophical underpinnings of science, which are then applied in the everyday world by forensic specialists. Using his own personal experience as a forensic consultant, Nordby sets forth ten different deaths, and shares his insights into the limitations of rational thought toward resolving the causes of those deaths. The resolutions are not always as neat as fiction. A very dense book, Dead Reckoning, can be rewarding and edifying.

Jill Fredston, was born to successful upper middle class parents and raised in suburban Westchester County, New York. Her normal life path would have been to go to law school, or marry a doctor, have kids, and drive them to the mall and lacrosse practice in an expensive SUV. Instead, Jill followed her early obsession with rowboats, and became a world class rower in college. From there she moved to Alaska, and met her husband, a scraggly, previously married dyslectic. The two explore the northern reaches of Alaskan wilderness in two boats, his a kayak facing forward, and hers, an ocean going rowboat scull. The tales of encounters with polar bears are well written, and make for terrific reading. Cheers to an author who took a less traveled path.

An interesting book which is difficult to pigeon-hole in any particular category. Not precisely a history book, yet it examines the history of wood, and its importance and symbolism to different times and cultures. I found it a little long winded, and yet there is much of interest here, such as the history of wood in sporting equipment, hunting and war weapons, housing, religion, furniture, musical instruments, etc. Chock a block full of quaint facts and sharp insight, I would recommend this book. One of those books which will make you appreciate much of the world around you normally taken for granted.

If, like me, you are a resident of a city, you have probably wondered just what lies under our feet in major cities. Alex Marshall's Beneath the Metropolis The Secret Lives of Cities, looks at eight major cities, and examines the infrastructure below street level. Breezily written, yet full of information, you will learn about Moscow's astounding secret subway, Paris' underground library, how Chicago reversed the flow of a river, Mexico City's extremely modern and clean subway, and Sydney's bunkers. Enjoyable reading for those who like popularized science and history.

I truly enjoyed this book, a mixture of essays, anecdotes, history and science regarding one of the most polarizing creatures on the planet, the pigeon. You either love them or hate them, and Andrew D. Blechman does a very good job of analyzing why. For the record, it made me much more sympathetic and appreciative of these "rats with wings" as their detractors call them.

You will never look at the world, or yourself, or your loved ones, quite the same, after reading this book. Instead of thinking of germs and viruses as things which occasionally invade us when we are sick, Gerald N. Callahan's Infection, the Uninvited Universe, explains how the evolution of every living thing on earth is intertwined with the evolution of bacteria, germs, prions, virues, retroviruses, and how this co-existence has impacts in unexpected ways, such as causing or contributing to behavior, our sanity, or lack thereof. Truly fascinating reading, well written and easy for laymen to understand, but not dumbed down science.