I knew these books would break my heart. I chose three books from my List, all on the same topic: How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight…
Ta-da! I finished! I’ve been reading Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 in weekly installments, since March of 2022. And now I have finished it. I thoroughly…
In March, I wrote about My Notorious Life, historical fiction by Kate Manning, based on the life of a woman known as Madame Restell. I loved the book. Then, by…
I read this book last year, and have been recommending it nonstop, so it’s about time to commit it to wmtc. My Notorious Life was an obvious book for me…
I’ve been reading Colson Whitehead since his debut novel, The Intuitionist, caught the attention of critics in 1999. With every successive title — each entirely different than the previous one…
On our recent trip to Oregon and California, I made a note every time someone asked me for directions. That may seem like an odd thing to track — unless…
People who read this blog more than occasionally will be aware that I am not a big fan of Americans. Their widespread ignorance, their collective solipsism, their endless bruiting about…
During the pandemic shutdown, there were so many offers of interesting things to do online — cooking, crafting, indoor exercise, art classes, author readings, and on and on. I didn’t…
Give Ben Harper’s old man his due: he got his son a better first job in Alberta than the elder Mr. Harper’s pop got him. Readers with functioning short-term memories…
This story in The New York Times made me miss New York City more than anything has in a very long time. All over the city, artists have created murals…
A piece of New York City died this week. Pete Hamill, a legendary New York journalist and possibly the last of a breed, died yesterday at age 85. Obituaries describe…
I was so very sad to hear that the artist Christo has died at the age of 84. I felt so incredibly fortunate to still be living in NYC when…
The murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers may be the most shocking disturbing of any I’ve been aware of for a very long time, possibly since the murder…
We activists like to paraphrase the legendary labour activist Joe Hill by saying “First mourn, then organize”. Larry Kramer, who died yesterday at the age of 84, defined the phrase.…
Part 2 of All 43 extracts from my novel Silent Lips, which deals with a deadlly virus that leads to New York City being quarantined (available as an eBook for…
How long is a long take? That’s the question I was asking myself as I began watching this mesmerizing film which is basically a lot of long takes in New…
Fans of Robert Caro rejoiced when we learned that Caro, author of nonfiction histories, was writing a book about his writing process. When the book was published, I’m sure I…
Fans of Robert Caro rejoiced when we learned that Caro, author of nonfiction histories, was writing a book about his writing process. When the book was published, I’m sure I…
Fans of Robert Caro rejoiced when we learned that Caro, author of nonfiction histories, was writing a book about his writing process. When the book was published, I’m sure I…
New York City is getting serious about slashing greenhouse gas emissions. Former mayor Michael Bloomberg set out to cut emissions 30 per cent by 2030. The current mayor, Bill de…
