Every decade or so, a young, very smart, often photogenic woman comes along and produces a book that identifies an ugly fact of female life in America. Susan Brownmiller, Naomi Wolf and Susan Faludi have all contributed to this canon. Now attempting to join them is Ariel Levy, who presents us with the problem of Read More
Every decade or so, a young, very smart, often photogenic woman comes along and produces a book that identifies an ugly fact of female life in America. Susan Brownmiller, Naomi Wolf and Susan Faludi have all contributed to this canon. Now attempting to join them is Ariel Levy, who presents us with the problem of Read More
Courting Justice: From New York Yankees vs. Major League Baseball to Bush vs. Gore, 1997-2000, by David Boies. Miramax, 416 pages, $25.95.
When titans of industry, attorneys general of the United States and Democratic Presidential candidates needed to lawyer up during the last 10 years, they all turned to David Boies. Son of a Midwestern high-school Read MoreThe Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to Do What's Right , by Thane Rosenbaum. HarperCollins, 368 pages, $24.95.
Every nonfiction writer of any resourcefulness knows that the best place to find great stories-after the stacks in the New York Public Library, that is-is in the courthouse. I'm always amazed that judges Read MoreWhen it came crashing down, in late summer of 2000, the fall of the Irreplaceable Artifacts warehouse on Houston was one of the more spectacular building collapses in pre-9/11 New York memory. The four-story 19th-century structure was a downtown landmark, piled to the rafters with monumental friezes, plaster busts, gargoyles and brass doors. The emergency Read More
NewYork civil-rights lawyer Michael Ratner was in the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday,flankedbythe mother of one of the Guantánamo detainees he has represented for the past two years, unsure what to expect. After an hour, he was pleasantly surprised. First, Sandra Day O'Connor, and then Justices Souter, Breyer, Kennedy and even Scalia, indicated through their questions Read More
After nearly 10 years of hounding, the bank that serves as executor for tobacco heiress Doris Duke's billion-dollar estate has agreed to compensate the caretakers of her beloved dogs.
The settlement in the long-running dispute over the $100,000 Duke dog trust came in a stipulation filed earlier this month at the New York State Surrogate Court: Read MoreAmerica's Inadvertent Empire , by William E. Odom and Robert Dujarric. Yale University Press, 285 pages, $30.
There are two things we can count on finding in the daily newsfeed in this sad season. The first is a photograph of gore in Iraq. The second is the cheerfulphrase "spreading democracy," or a variation thereof, recited Read MoreHating, resenting, reviling Martha Stewart was always a guaranteed ice breaker. Bring up her name in a group, share your loathing and make some new friends. Maybe even get a hot stock tip.
I've always been rather stunned by the venom this woman provoked in otherwise mild-mannered people-men and women who, often enough, knew more than Read MoreIt's been nearly nine years since Peter Neufeld's name entered the national consciousness along with Marcia Clark, "the White Bronco" and "the house on Rockingham." By destroying the credibility of the prosecution's best evidence-the blood trail from Nicole's body to O.J.'s car-Mr. Neufeld, with longtime partner Barry Scheck, is as responsible as Johnnie Cochran for Read More
Brian Alexander, a former pilot and the lawyer who represents the largest number of air and ground victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, is well acquainted with the kind of accident that leads to smoking jet wreckage. He spends his days contemplating loose wing screws, glitchy software, expanding vapor on hot tarmac, or inattentive, chattering Read More
French feminists took to the streets last week protesting the professional striptease lessons being offered to female shoppers by the new lingerie department at the Galeries Lafayette, Paris' version of Macy's. That they cared at all would come as a surprise to anyone who's spent any time in the French capital in recent years. This Read More
A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl, by Mariane Pearl with Sarah Crichton. Scribner, 320 pages, $25.
If Mariane Pearl, widow of murdered journalist Daniel Pearl, had written a really bad book, it would have been hard to criticize. After what she's been through-six months pregnant, losing a husband whose Read MoreFor weeks now, the concerned e-mails have been rolling in, between the penis-enlargement spams and the low mortgage-rate ads:
"Are you guys okay over there?" "Just checking in. Worried about you!" "Is it still okay to send our grandson to school?" "Must be weird to be there now!" Americans just can't imagine a nation not responding Read MoreCad: Confessions of a Toxic Bachelor , by Rick Marin. Hyperion, 284 pages, $23.95.
Everyone knows that Manhattan is filled with women who can status-check in a nanosecond. A flick-of-the-eyes subway scan tells them if the shoes are Prada or knockoff, how much the purse cost, whether the highlights came from Anna Wintour's latest salon Read More
