Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
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Americans love to hear good fish stories. We expect the angler to exaggerate his skills, along with the almost insurmountable weather conditions and, most importantly, the size of the elusive finned beast. Romantic notions of the great outdoors and philosophical ruminations must also be included in the tale, because as any weekend warrior will admit fishing is a sport of chance, and the odds do not favor the human species.

Ian Frazier expertly follows the above narrative recipe in The Fish’s Eye, and the result is a delicious concoction of humorous, often self-deprecating essays that cover more than 20 years of chasing the Big One. Frazier, author of On the Rez, hauls his pole and tackle box to a few unlikely fishing holes for some unusual observations. There is New York City’s Harlem Meer, for instance, where even the most amateur handler of bait can catch key rings, plastic globes and the arm of a doll. While fishing in the urban riparian areas of the East Coast for striped bass a fish that can top the scales at 60 pounds or more Frazier makes perhaps the only striper-New Yorker comparison in modern literature. Coming from his expert pen, this could be the start of an entirely new canon. “Striped bass are in many respects the perfect New York fish,” he writes. “They go well with the look of downtown. They are, for starters, pinstriped; the lines along their sides are black fading to light cobalt blue at the edges. The dime-size silver scales look newly minted, and there is an urban glint to the eye and a mobility to the wide predator jaw. If they could talk, they would talk fast.” Many bait and bullet publications proffer advice on how to survive a blizzard with only a postage stamp and a fountain pen. “I wish I had down-to-earth wisdom like that to impart,” Frazier says, “but when I search my knowledge, all that comes to mind is advice that would cause me to run and hide after I gave it.” He is too modest. Through these easy-flowing essays, Frazier shows us that all the wisdom we will ever need to know is within a short walk of the nearest river. Stephen J. Lyons writes from Monticello, Illinois.

Americans love to hear good fish stories. We expect the angler to exaggerate his skills, along with the almost insurmountable weather conditions and, most importantly, the size of the elusive finned beast. Romantic notions of the great outdoors and philosophical ruminations must also be included…
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Mark Twain observed that "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Readers will certainly find much familiar in the history that Paul Strathern chronicles in Napoleon in Egypt. A great Western power, angered by the behavior of a Middle Eastern regime, sends an army to set things right and bring good government to the downtrodden masses. The resulting occupation is marred by atrocities and cultural misunderstanding, incites a rebellion and starts a larger war. The invaders are ultimately defeated by attrition and mismanagement.

But as a mirror of modern times, Napoleon Bonaparte's doomed 1798 venture into the Nile valley and the Levant is imperfect. Napoleon, as Strathern admirably proves, viewed Egypt as merely the first step on his journey to personal glory. He planned an overland invasion of south Asia and India, thereby repeating the accomplishment of his hero, Alexander the Great. The revolutionary government in France had no control over Napoleon during his three years in the Middle East – thanks largely to a British naval blockade – making him not just a military governor, but de facto Sultan of Egypt and ruler of all he surveyed. Napoleon tried to introduce reforms to the suspicious, xenophobic population. But even the presence of a contingent of French savants – intellectuals from all branches of science and the arts – seemed aimed more at burnishing Napoleon's ego than improving Egypt. That the savants made real contributions to science during the occupation is now a footnote in any field except Egyptology, which was founded during those difficult years.

Ultimately, Napoleon's invasion brought him the glory he desired, but in an unintended way. The broader war it started allowed him to seize control of France and most of Europe. Strathern, a prize – winning novelist as well as a historian, has probed Napoleon's complex personality, both the megalomania for which he is vilified and the military prowess for which he is admired, and has in the process created a highly readable lesson in the rhymes of history.

Chris Scott writes from Nashville.

Mark Twain observed that "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Readers will certainly find much familiar in the history that Paul Strathern chronicles in Napoleon in Egypt. A great Western power, angered by the behavior of a Middle Eastern regime, sends an army…

Ah, the New York City Marathon – it's the stuff of legend, from the sight of thousands upon thousands of people piling on to the Verrazano – Narrows Bridge to the personal dramas played out on the streets of Manhattan. In A Race Like No Other, Liz Robbins has created an engrossing, edifying and moving chronicle of a day in the life of the marathon and its participants. Mile by mile, runner by runner, she explores what it was like to participate in the 2007 race. Robbins has worked as a sportswriter for 17 years, the last nine at the New York Times, and she is a master of her craft: she deftly combines historical fact with creative interpretation, statistics and time – splits with detailed description.

She discusses the specifics of the race and explains logistics (Where do runners put their extra clothes and gear during the race? And, um, what's the bathroom situation?). Robbins describes the founding, history and changes to the race, and provides plenty of interesting tidbits – the marathon was founded in 1970, and 749,791 people have crossed the finish line since then; the 2007 race had 39,195 competitors, including Lance Armstrong and Katie Holmes.

But the author's focus isn't on celebrities; while she does follow elite runners like Martin Lel, a Kenyan who won the race in 2003 but wasn't able to run in the intervening years due to injury, she also introduces Pam Rickard, a recovering alcoholic who runs to regain her sense of self and forget her time in jail just one year prior, wheelchair athlete Edith Hunkeler and young cancer survivor Harrie Bakst. A Race Like No Other is a satisfying read for many reasons, not least because Robbins' writing is fluid and engaging, and she offers an unprecedented inside look at a storied event. But most of all, it's fascinating to learn what motivates the marathoners to keep running no matter what sort of walls they hit.

Linda M. Castellitto laces up her sneakers in North Carolina.

Ah, the New York City Marathon - it's the stuff of legend, from the sight of thousands upon thousands of people piling on to the Verrazano - Narrows Bridge to the personal dramas played out on the streets of Manhattan. In A Race Like No…

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Some of the most prominent figures in early jazz and the glory days of pop music make their bows in Richard M. Sudhalter’s Stardust Melody: The Life and Music of Hoagy Carmichael and James L. Dickerson’s Just for a Thrill: Lil Hardin Armstrong, First Lady of Jazz. Had Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981) written no other song but Star Dust, his place in music history would be secure. But that tune, which dates back to 1926, was essentially just the beginning of his luminous career. Ahead lay such destined-to-be standards as Georgia on My Mind, Heart and Soul and In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening. Sudhalter, who is a jazz musician himself and a prodigious researcher, presents a sensitive, meticulously documented account of Carmichael’s life as a composer, recording artist, actor and radio and television personality. Central to understanding Carmichael, Sudhalter asserts, is understanding his unwavering affection for his home state of Indiana. To Carmichael, Indiana symbolized the mythic rural home and simple life (both metaphors for youth) that he yearned for. He was born in Bloomington, spent most of his early years there and attended Indiana University. Although he studied law and was finally admitted to practice, it was always jazz that fascinated him. His bands played proms and fraternity parties throughout the region. During this period, he met and began performing with his major musical influence, the brilliant but doomed cornetist Bix Beiderbecke. A procession of gifted lyricists, including Frank Loesser and Johnny Mercer, wrote the words to Carmichael’s melodies. But Sudhalter’s research shows that Carmichael often came up with themes and key phrases and sometimes heavily edited the lyrics provided him. This goes a long way toward explaining why his songs have such a consistent voice and point of view. After Carmichael moved to Hollywood to write songs for the movies, he gradually began to act in them as well. His signature role was Cricket, “the laid-back, laconic, piano-playing sage,” in the 1944 Bogart and Bacall classic To Have and Have Not. Later, he moved into television drama. His big disappointments, Sudhalter says, were that he never wrote a successful Broadway musical nor a long-form “serious” piece, even though he tried both. With the advent of rock n’ roll in the mid-1950s, Carmichael’s run as a popular songwriter came to an end. Just for a Thrill, Jim Dickerson’s biography of Lil Hardin Armstrong, is built more on admiration than information. Except for her songs, documentary remnants of this second wife of Louis Armstrong are scarce. But this doesn’t make Dickerson’s assertion of her musical importance any less valid, and he has performed heroically in tracking down and interpreting the biographical tidbits that do remain.

Lillian Beatrice Hardin was born in Memphis in 1898. She studied piano there and enrolled briefly at Fisk University in Nashville before moving with her mother to Chicago in 1917. After taking a job demonstrating sheet music, she was invited to join a local band. From then on, she worked principally as a performer. Both she and Louis Armstrong were married to other people when they met. But in 1924, they tied the knot, and she became, in fact if not in name, his manager. She also wrote songs for him to record and played on many of his sessions. As Armstrong’s career flowered, however, and his infidelities became more flagrant, the artistic commonality that once held them together slowly vaporized. They divorced in 1938.

Dickerson credits Lil with nagging Armstrong to become a headliner with his own band instead of playing the loyal sideman in someone else’s group. Although he was a supreme trumpet player even as a young man, Dickerson says, Armstrong was too shy and reticent to assert himself. This was where Lil came in. To compensate for a paucity of autobiographical material, Dickerson contextualizes what he has, describing in great detail, for instance, the turn-of-the-century Memphis Lil grew up in. He also chronicles Armstrong’s life. In her later years, Lil Hardin Armstrong saw such stars as Ray Charles, Nancy Wilson and Peggy Lee record her songs. She ran a restaurant, designed clothing (including stage costumes for her ex-husband) and taught music and French. On Aug. 27, 1971, just over a month after Louis Armstrong died, she performed at a concert in his memory. As she finished her opening selection, St. Louis Blues, she collapsed at the piano and died. She was rumored to have been working on her autobiography, but Dickerson says it has never surfaced. Edward Morris reviews from Nashville.

Some of the most prominent figures in early jazz and the glory days of pop music make their bows in Richard M. Sudhalter's Stardust Melody: The Life and Music of Hoagy Carmichael and James L. Dickerson's Just for a Thrill: Lil Hardin Armstrong, First Lady…
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The National Book Award-winning author of How We Die presents another poignant, intelligent narrative humanity’s remarkable ability to endure. Lost in America is a touching account of Nuland’s family history, and it focuses largely on the author’s father, Meyer Nudelman, a Jewish immigrant who arrived in America during the early part of the 20th century. Bringing the crowded tenements of New York City vividly to life, Nuland delivers an affectionate profile of the man, a displaced traveler who never quite feels at home in the midst of fast-paced American culture, and who demands a difficult sort of loyalty from his children. Over the course of the book, as he questions what it means to be a son, the author deftly blends history and autobiography into an unforgettable story. This is a wonderfully detailed retrospective and a profound exploration of the meaning of home and family.

The National Book Award-winning author of How We Die presents another poignant, intelligent narrative humanity's remarkable ability to endure. Lost in America is a touching account of Nuland's family history, and it focuses largely on the author's father, Meyer Nudelman, a Jewish immigrant who arrived…
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D.H. Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider by Lawrence scholar John Worthen reveals the author of Lady Chatterly’s Lover to be a man estranged from almost everyone around him, including his own family. Nevertheless, this conflicted and difficult man left an important literary legacy still celebrated almost a century later.

D.H. Lawrence: The Life of an Outsider by Lawrence scholar John Worthen reveals the author of Lady Chatterly's Lover to be a man estranged from almost everyone around him, including his own family. Nevertheless, this conflicted and difficult man left an important literary legacy…

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