This supplement to a recent Fox series on the Mob delivers page after page of mug shots, bodies, and all the other little creature comforts these goons call home. Watch the story of the Mafia in the New World unfold from boatride across the Atlantic to the speakeasy all the way up to the rise ( and fall ) of the Teflon Don. This book is perfect for anyone interested in the Mob, or for those canaries in a cell who can't remember what life on the outside is really like

This book shows incredible insight into the new era of Irish emigrants. It is very well written by the author who obviously has first hand experience of this exciting new generation of Irish in America. These people are there under such different circumstances to some of our ancestors. A great book and I love the cover.

What a terrific way to remember the 2000 Subway Series -- a collection of personal, touching, exciting and funny pieces from some of America's biggest literary (and baseball) names. Pete Hamill has brought together a roster including Yogi Berra, George Will, Andy Borowitz and Frank McCourt to make the Subway Series come alive all over again. It's a book to treasure, and it would make a great Christmas present for fans of the Yankees or Mets -- or of great writing, period.

Pete Hamill is one of the best and savviest newspapermen who ever drew breath, and this book is his eloquent, angry, provocative call for saving American newspapers from themselves and the bean-counting, self-important owners and managers who have no instinctive grasp for the news business. Hamill, former editor-in-chief of THE NEW YORK POST and THE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, writes with energy and power, evoking the great days of the newspaper business without marinating himself or the reader in smarmy nostalgia. Reading Hamill's cogent formula for revitalizing American newspapers as they enter the twenty-first century, you want to believe that American journalism's best days can be ahead, rather than in the past. This book is a true instant classic and a public service of the highest order; Thomas Paine would have been proud, and Joseph Pulitzer would have been delighted. -- Richard B. Bernstein, Adjunct Professor of Law, New York Law School, and Daniel M. Lyons Visiting Professor in American History, Brooklyn College/CUNY (and I used to carry a press card).

Buy this book for all the journalists you know and love -- and don't forget the publishers. Veteran New York newsman Pete Hamill has the solutions to so many of the problems plaguing modern newspapers: sliding standards of accuracy, the blurring of the line between news and entertainment, stagnant circulations in the midst of population growth. It will inspire those who want to be journalists and remind the veterans why they fell in love with news in the first place. NEWS IS A VERB should be required reading in every newsroom and journalism school.

This book reminds me why I want to be a journalist. I have read and re-read News Is a Verb and each time it never fails to excite and inspire me. Mr. Hamill's notions of the purpose of a newspaper and ideas about how to effectively cover a city are inspirational. In addition, News Is a Verb has greatly improved my impression of tabloid papers -- a genre which I previously scorned, and was sometimes wrong to do so. My only criticism of Mr. Hamill is that he does occasionally appear bitter over the several misfortunes of his career, despite his disclaimer to the contrary. In particular, his personal attack on Donald Trump, though perhaps understandable, is a little over-exuberant. He loses a little credibility here, I think. His distrust of newspaper publishers is probably well-founded. That one caveat aside, this is a fabulous book and deserves attention from anyone interested in the field of journalism.

Edward Robb Ellis' "A Diary of the Century," a 578 page book collecting selections from diaries spanning 68 years, opens with a typically stylish introduction by Pete Hamill and closes with an index, the latter being the first place I looked after acquiring this mammoth volume. Searching for familiar names, I found Elvis Presley to whom Ellis refers on page 539 in an entry dated January 8, 1993, what would have been the King of Rock and Roll's 58th birthday: "Elvis Presley stamps went on sale today, much to my disgust. Years ago, when he was being discharged from the army, I was one of many reporters interviewing him. I remember asking him how he could justify his enormous wealth when school teachers were being underpaid. He gave me a non-answer with a smile and extreme politeness."

That little passage suggests that, though he may be an excellent diarist, Ellis must have been a lousy reporter, one completely lacking in the objectivity supposedly required by the

profession. If Elvis had had access to Ellis' diary, he might have answered Ellis' question with a question of his own: "How can YOU justify asking ME that question when you did not ask it of Grace Kelly, who not only acquired enormous wealth in her acting career, but married into more millions by bagging Prince Rainier of Monaco?"

Ellis interviewed Kelly in 1956, an experience detailed in his entry of January 11 that year. His questions to her are never more challenging than this one: "Will you see the prince today?" (p. 232) Ellis didn't ask Clark Gable's widow how her late husband justified the millions he made when school teachers were underpaid, nor did the reporter grill composer Irving Berlin on the matter either. Apparently it was alright for Kelly, Gable, and Berlin to make millions because Ellis appreciated their "talents," but Presley and rock and roll didn't pass muster with "America's Greatest Diarist," as Ellis is called on the jacket of his book, and, therefore, it was wrong for Presley to strike it rich. The question, if it was worthy of being asked at all, should have been directed at a society that values performers more than it does the teachers in whose hands our children's education is placed.

That being said, Ellis' book is a worthwhile read for anyone interested in fine writing and a purely subjective (and, as noted, sometimes hypocritical) account of life as it was lived and observed by Ellis in the 20th century.

I rec'd this book in 1997 and have relished it ever since. It's a wonderful read and gives great insight into the last 80 or so years. Ellis died in 1998, but his books leave a lasting legacy.

First rate. A good luck at the past century by a keen observer

This is the first Danielle Steel book I've read, but I simply loved it!! It's a great heart warming story. Although it leaves you wondering about the two main character's future, the book gives me hope... hope that there is a love two people can share, a true love that sees no judgment, just feeling... it gives me hope for the main characters... and it gives me hope that one day I'll just walk into some new place and who knows... lightning could strike... and my life will change for the better. Somewhat perdicable, although I would have preferred a different ending... some stories are wonderful to read even if you know how it unfolds. I hope there will be a sequel about Maribeth and Tommy... a made-for-tv-movie about this would be nice too.

The Gift by Danielle Steel is one of the best books that I have read so far. I am not an avid novel reader and I have to say that I am hard to impress. This book is about a happy couple with two lovable chidren, Tommy and their little precious daughter Annie. There is nothing else they could ask for in this world. On a Christmas Eve, a terrible thing happened, their youngest daughter Annie died of acute mengingitis. The whole family was devastated and the happy family was shattered into pieces. After months of sorrow, a girl named Maribeth came to their life. She had managed to bring back the happy smiles into their faces. It was her who gave them the most precious gift of all, a baby just like Annie that could bring back the joy and love they once had. The Gift will make you want to read until the end, non-stop. It is a love story, not just about teenagers falling in love, but also a story about a family bringing back love into their life. Danielle Steel makes me want to read some of her other novels hoping to get the same interest that I had with this novel. So if you are like me who hardly reads and wants to read something that will interest them and something they could relate to, this is the perfect book for you. I am absolutely giving this book a rate of perfect 10!!!!!

The book, The Gift by Danielle steel is a heart warming book. It has some adventures, comedies, and tear jerking parts. I got hooked on this book and couldn't stop reading it until I was finished. As the book opens, little Annie Whittaker is a happy little girl that her parents could not want more from. Whittaker's are a family of four: John, Liz, Tommy, and Annie. Tommy is Annie's older brother. He was an only child until he was ten. The parents, John and Liz, really wanted another child, but finally after three miscarriages they had Annie. Annie and Tommy got along so well and always loved to be around each other, unlike most siblings. It was near Christmas and the children were excited! At this time they were 5 and 15. One morning, two days before Christmas, they woke up to a town filled with snow. They went outside and made a snowman. That night, Tommy went to tell Annie good night and noticed her head was hot. Thinking nothing about it, he didn't tell his parents. In the morning, Christmas Eve, Annie woke up with a really high fever. They sent her to bed. It was Christmas, and Annie was still asleep. It was always a thing for Annie to wake up bright and early on Christmas. She woke up and barely moved. She fell back to sleep, and they took her to the doctor. There she was put into a hospital with Meningitis, a very futile disease. She died on Christmas and the Whittaker's lost they're only Christmas Gift. After this scene had ended it takes you to the home of Maribeth. She is going to a dance and her father won't let her wear the dress she wants to. At the dance, she gets pregnant. When she realizes that the father won't take care of the baby with her, her parents send her to a nun adoption home to have her baby. When Maribeth arrives there, she is horrified. She leaves there and goes to Omaha to get job. She is a waitress at a restaurant. One night, a guy who is always eating supper there, walks in and stats talking to Maribeth. His name is Tommy Whittaker. They get to know each other better and they become great friends and fall in love. While all of this happening, John and Liz are still very upset about Annie. They barely even talk to each other or Tommy. They never have meals together, and that's why Tommy is always at the restaurant. When Tommy founds out she is pregnant, he tells his parents, and with the parents wanting a child, they are willing to adopt the baby. Seven months later, John and Liz Whittaker are the parents of a baby girl, Kate. After the birth is over, Maribeth, not wanting to go back, goes to her home. She has to go back for school and her worrying family. She leaves Tommy behind but she will always love him and he her.

Pete Hamill is a New York Treasure. Hamill grew up in blue collar Brooklyn in the 40s and 50s in a working class "dysfunctional" famlly. His father had lost a leg during a soccer match in distant Belfast prior to his immigration to the United States, His hardworking, wise and wonderful mother raised a large family while remaining faithful for a drinking husband who was a heavy drinker by night and a low paid employee at many jobs during the day.
Hamill takes us with us on his boyhood as he dreams of becoming a cartoonist. From the streets of Brooklyn where stickball reigned to incarceration in a Mexican jail the life tale woven by Hamill has many unexpected twists and turns. Despite his many faults Hamill has succeeded as a famed newspaper columnist and novelist. His book is easy reading and better than the much more heralded works by Frank McCourt.
The language used by Hamill is rough, often scatological and may be offensive to genteel readers. However I found it well written and engaging. The book is worth a read by anyone interested in Irish American culture, newspaper life or the journey of a man from poverty to prominence.

Pete Hamill's name should be familiar to everyone in the New York area: in addition to rubbing shoulders and bending elbows with New York City's elite, his celebrated articles in the NY Post eventually landed him the highly coveted job of editor. In A Drinking Life, Hamill recounts the story of his life, with a particular emphasis on his childhood in Brooklyn. The son of a heavy-drinking, one-legged, Irish immigrant, Hamill lost his innocence early and found refuge drawing his own comic books and playing the street tough. This dichotomy seems to follow him throughout his life: on the one hand his roots have made him a brawler, a drinker, and a swaggering toughguy; on the other, him mother's influence helped to shape a sensitive young man who couldn't stand the site of blood on the face of his street fight victims and who longed for the life of a bohemian artist in Greenwich Village. In time, Hamill leaves his drawing and illustrating behind and begins to write.

Throughout all of this, there is much drinking; however, to call this a book about alcoholism would be inaccurate. This is a memoir of a life... one to which drinking is inextricably tethered, but not one that revolves around the art of drinking. Hamill began drinking early, and then as a reporter spent most of his time in bars, and his storytelling ability leaves no doubt that he was probably the center of attention in these bars more often than not. In the end he kicks the habit, for fear that he has been peforming his life rather than living it. He still visits his old drinking haunts, but now sits there quietly with a Coke in hand.

This memoir is well told, and Hamill sees himself with a very clear eye. His voice is unarguably that of a reporter: there is very little fanfare or elaborate language, and the story of his life is always moving. Fortunately for the reader, it is an eventful life, filled with street fights in Brooklyn, mischief at camp, passionate sex with mysterious women, gunshots and jail in Mexico, and much more. The memoir genre is growing tired lately, but this is one of the books that set the craze off, and it is easy to see why.

Every time I read a book by Pete Hamill it's as if I never left New York. Here I am, once again, transported back in time to Brooklyn. It's been fourty years since I was there but after pete's latest book, who knows? Hamill vividly again paints his pictures about growing up in Brooklyn for his readers to get easily engulfed in. Putting down a Hamill book about his sorted drinking in the dumpy brooklyn bars is impossible for this reader. there were lots of credible witnesses to his insane drinking life in Brooklyn and I'm one of them. Stepping up a notch and moving his addiction to across the east river didn't stop the patterns of his compulsion and his story of those events and times will have you gripped in his clenching writing style. This book is a must for Broooklynites from the fourties through the nineties. Pete Hamill loves New York for a lot more than the bars he hung out in but they play a major role in his life and times. Then, there were the people he drank with, wrote about, fought with and equally conquered and lost. A master writer with a drinking problem taking on people, some not worth the effort, results in a very powerful book that bites and chewsat you with love and humour.

I won't give the ending away. I wouldn't dare. But be warned, it is bizarre. I think it ruined the book. And if you are a Colorado reader reading this for Gov. Owen's "book club", this book is worth a read in spite of the ending. All of us Colorado folks will be asking the same question...why did the good Governor choose THIS book?

This is a book that is rich with setting. Hamill paints a post- WWII Brooklyn, filled with tenements, ethnic code and spunky kids playing stickball in crowded streets. He paints pictures of bored priests at mass, snowy city avenues, and a lonely rabbi in a run-down synagogue. Hamill also addresses prejudice in such a genuine manner. Religious prejudice (Catholic v. Jew as well as Nazi v. Jew), Racial prejudice (black v. white in the baseball world) and some economic prejudice are scattered throughout this book as the main character, young Michael Devlin, tries to make sense of a cruel and hate-filled world.

In Snow in August Young Devlin witnesses the near death beating of a local Jewish merchant by an Irish-American gang member. And in this event he has to examine many issues. He has to determine why the Jews who live in his neighborhood are so despised. He then sees a connections with how many whites in America despise Jackie Robinson for being the first black baseball player, and young Devlin is bothered by the hatred that seems to pepper his world.

Because Devlin refuses to buy into the anti-semetic notions, he befriends the lonely rabbi. Because of this, he becomes a target of the gang member that beat the Jewish merchent, and the boy has to figure out how to keep himself and his mother safe from their violence. And that is where the story fizzles...because the ending is so out of step with the rest of the novel. The book moves from thought provoking to cartoonish in a single chapter. I keep asking myself, "What symbolism is happening here that I am not getting?" but I can't figure it out.

It is worth a read, but be ready to say, "Huh?" when you get to the end.

An Irish Catholic boy meets and befriends an Orthodox Rabbi in 1947 Brooklyn; the boy teaches the Rabbi baseball and learns Yiddish; they experience hatred and racism writ both large in Nazism and the Brooklyn Dodgers (Jackie Robinson's team), and small in the neighborhood gang of hoodlums; and the boy re-creates the Golem to rescue the good guys in their deepest trouble. If this sounds hokey and perhaps cliched, it is. Nonetheless, Pete Hamill's beautiful 1997 novel Snow in August suspends disbelief, tells an old fashioned touching story, and absolutely carries the day despite the unbelievable deus ex machina ending. This is a book set in a cynical time and place that triumphs over cynicism and hatred. I recommend it to all hopeful readers, and especially to young folks and baseball fans.

Pete Hamill has written a truly marvelous story. A real page turner hard to put down novel "Snow in August." has a remarkable feel for the late 1947s. How well I remember the snow storm in the days of that year traipsing blocks with my grandfather from Morris Avenue to Jerome Avenue in the Bronx to check on his car parked in a gas station lot. The friendship between Rabbi Hirsch and young Michael is heartwarming. Their friendship, Michael working as the Shabbos Goy, the rabbi teaching this 11 year old Irish alter boy Yiddish and Michael teaching him correct English and the in and outs of baseball is captivating. Terrorized by a local gang of anti-Semitic hoodlums the main characters are caught up in hate and violence that only a miracle can bring to an end. Michael questions why can't his comic book super heroes come to his aid. Instead he conjures up a golem, not unlike the golem of the past century from Poland, which was told to him by his rabbi friend. There is more. To tell more would ruin the book for you. You must seek it out in the book store or in your library's holdings. It's a must read. For me my next read will be the "Golem.

I agree with the reviewer who wrote that the question posed by the title could have been answered in 10 pages. The music matters, and no one got inside a song like Frank Sinatra.

That said, Hamill is a marvelous writer and this is a terrific read for those who are unfamiliar with his story. I devoured every page anyway. The quotes by Sinatra are fascinating, and Hamill's admittedly remote acquaintance with his subject (they met several times in New York) lends this relevance and legitimacy. Hamill also dwells on what is commonly considered the apex of Sinatra's career, his classic albums at Capitol, and even takes a swipe at Gordon Jenkins' string-laden efforts during this period -- so, not a good book if you want an overview of Sinatra's musical legacy. If Sinatra saw enough in Jenkins to have him as an arranger from the 1950s through the '80s, clearly there is something that Hamill is missing that Sinatra cherished.

But -- this is Hamill's heartfelt homage to someone whom he considers an artistic hero of sorts, and his rather narrow focus is completely appropriate for this sort of book.

I would recommend this book to any Sinatra fan. However, you should also read Will Friedwald's "The Song is You" for an exhaustive story of the music. I also enjoyed Donald Clarke's "All or Nothing At All", which is more of a biography with pertinent commentary.

I have dozens of Sinatra albums, and I still discover amazing new aspects to music that I have heard for years. Sinatra definitely matters, and this book was written by another guy who misses him.

I purchased this book fully knowing what the title proposes. We all know it's the music. I give it four stars because it's about FAS and written by someone who knew and liked him, although it strays a bit from what is a great premise. It's also quite honestly a classy *looking* little volume. The cover won me over as much as the title. Are there design awards for these things? It's been sitting on top of my collection of Sinatra books for a couple of months since I was savoring it, waiting for just the right time and mood to read it in one sitting. It's definately a book for the true fan to have (after I secured my own copy I got 2 others from friends who know my love for anything Frank). I ate up every quote from Frank in the book, and the author's accounts of personal meetings with the man. It seemed to me the author showed us this could have been a much more detailed and thorough biography in the making. At times I felt I could have been in the middle of the most comprehensive account of the singers life and history of the 20th century, and not just reading an essay about why he matters. I was not turned off by this. I just got a good reading on his "times" that I enjoyed but wasn't counting on it. What is in here about Frank is important enough to read whatever some people may think is not relavant. Frank is important enough to music and this country to write about anything connected to him. It is a good read, written and packaged with class by a good writter who knows his subject. Incidently, Hamill is the type of guy that the Sinatra children should seek out next time they need a good contributor to balance out any new cd releases liner notes. I cringed when I saw the intro on the '57 In Concert cd by Kelsy Gramer. Those of you who have it know what I mean. *Any* work put out there about Frank deserves class...

When Frankie died, I felt I had lost an uncle. Not the uncle you hear from when misfortune occurs or fortunes are won. No, the kind of uncle who is there like a guardian angel, guiding and protecting you. For me, Frank Sinatra was my American Uncle, symbolizing the rich, great country I always heard about and envisioned through his music. I remember first hearing him while being tossed toward the ceiling by my real uncle, on a wet, stormy day in Australia. I had never heard a voice like that before, and after I slammed into the ceiling, and the family stood around waiting for me to cry, I simply sat, dazed, still listening to this new magnetic voice. I didn't know it at the time, but I was listening to America. Hamill's book returned me to that never-fogotten afternoon. For Hamill, in his elegant spot-on prose, doesn't just write about Frank, he writes about a country which changed the world. When he states that Crosby was America's Husband, while Sinatra was America's Lover, he hits it right on the head. Hamill writes what I've always wanted to say, about Frank, his times, and the world which Ol Blue Eyes helped to change. From its cover art to its last sentence, this is one elegant piece of work. I'd never read any of Hamill's work before, but now I have a new treasure to uncover, if any of his other offerings come close to this. As Frank would say, "It's marvelous, baby."

The author, a sociology professor at City University of New York, was raised in the Big Apple and has lived most of his life in the area. In 1979 he bought a 24-foot New England catboat, built on Cape Cod in 1910, and proceeded to fix it and sail it around the New York area.

With this book he presents a portrait -- and sketchy history -- of the city from an angle few people know it. Structuring the story as a fairly continuous though interrupted sail from his home in Long Beach, around the southern tip of Rockaway and into Jamaica Bay, then into Upper New York Bay and the East River, and ultimately to Long Island Sound, Kornblum offers both close-up looks at the water and shoreline, and their past history.

The approach is light and pleasant: Few stories -- whether of the freezing disaster of the privateer "Castel Del Rey" in New York harbor in 1704, knowledgeable black sailors impressed by the British Navy in the War of 1812 and jailed in England for refusing to serve against the US, various ferry disasters, or the vagaries of Robert Moses -- last more than a page or three. The only sections where Kornblum lingers are in Jamaica Bay (its environmental degradation and return), and the dockside concrete industry that built New York's towers and for which the author worked as a kid. Manhattan itself is quickly bypassed though given a loving nod, and there is no venturing into the Hudson side.

In the typo sweepstakes, the book does all right, although it says "mechanical break" on p. 156 when "brake" was meant, and I believe I saw an unintended sentence fragment on p. 143. Most egregious, the great A.J. Liebling is identified on p. 103 as "Libeling" (though the name is correct in the bibliography)! A pity there apparently are youthful editors (I don't suppose there is such a thing as a proofreader in publishing anymore) who do not know this great journalist's work backward and forward.

Another ominous development -- to this reader, anyway -- is that the lovely cover photograph is an unreal composite. Different photographers are credited for different portions of it. I find this vaguely disturbing.

The writing is definitely four-star quality or better. Here's my favorite passage: "Up another shadowy bend stood two snowy egrets, with their outrageous yellow boots and platinum punk haircuts. How chic, these mudbank sushi bars. The egrets were spearing for sand bugs, moving along the edge of the marsh with the herky giant steps of students at a party stepping over empty beer cans."

I give the book only three stars because it is slight. Probably an excellent gift for the average non-reader who happens to love sailing or New York City, or the casual reader who knows little about either, but I would have liked to know more.

This is the account of a sailboat cruise, but rather than crossing an ocean the author travels maybe 40 miles from home, into the maelstrom that is NY harbor. It's an interesting book, sort of, but I expected more history of the harbor, more about what the place is, and less of the author's personal experience.

I expected the former thanks to a review in the NY Times, I think -- some newspaper, anyway -- that suggested it was less an ecological than an historical journey. Without this preconception, I probably would have liked the book more. If you're from NYC, it's worth a read, but there are many better sailing accounts if you want hairy-chested adventure, or to learn something about sailing in general. There are also better books about ecology of the shoreline.

But the style is pleasant and the author seems like a man who would be an enjoyable sailing companion. That's worth three stars.

This is a delightful view of some of the Big Apple's waterfront. William Kornblum writes well, and I am pleased to meet the family, friends, and acquaintances of his journey. Having explored much of our city, and having studied many of the coasts from opposite shorelines, I nevertheless learned much from Kornblum's views from his catboat. I also enjoyed his flash-backs, particularly his days as a youth working at the Transit Mix dock. As another reader noted, the book has a few errors that should have been caught. The A train travels neither through The Bronx nor over Williamsburg Bridge (p. 91). In Red Hook, the parish school is within the Brooklyn diocese, not archdiocese (p. 122). When I find errors on topics I know well, I begin to worry that the publishing industry has a problem with fact-checking in non-fiction. Yet, I must say that this book is a thoroughly enjoyable meeting of humans, views, and story. I recommend this book as a gift.