Codella secures justice of a sort in this taut true-crime tale, which varies from by-the-numbers to genuinely exciting.
Tough-talking memoir of a street cop turned detective who battled the druglords of New York City’s Lower East Side.
Alphaville, or Alphabet City, may now resemble “Epcot center, or one of those streets in southern college towns where kids go to get drunk on weekends,” but, as NYPD stalwart Codella—paired with musician and ghostwriter Bennett—writes, it wasn’t always that way. Before the Dinkins and Giuliani cleanup-and-sanitization operations in the distant late ’80s, the “Loisaida” was the turf of a particularly tough bunch of hoods who sold drugs and committed extremely brutal murders; one collected the eyes and teeth of his victims in a mayonnaise jar, apparently just for grins. Enter Codella, descended from wise guys, cops and good citizens—in short, a normal Italian boy from Brooklyn, but with a particular bent for the street and urge to clean things up himself. He found his nemesis and match early on in drug kingpin “Davey Blue Eyes,” who always seemed to be a step ahead of the good guys, managing even to get away from a seemingly impenetrable ring of armed cops. Now nicknamed “Rambo,” Codella and his partner spent their waking hours bringing the criminals to justice, with a finely honed sense of indignation: “I felt like the only law that mattered, and these fuckers had broken it…they were fucking with me just by existing, just by what they were doing to the people around them.” The upshot, however, is worthy of Serpico; it would spoil things to say more, but suffice it to say that Blue Eyes is probably still breathing free air somewhere.
Codella secures justice of a sort in this taut true-crime tale, which varies from by-the-numbers to genuinely exciting.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-312-59248-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2010
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular...
A neurosurgeon with a passion for literature tragically finds his perfect subject after his diagnosis of terminal lung cancer.
Writing isn’t brain surgery, but it’s rare when someone adept at the latter is also so accomplished at the former. Searching for meaning and purpose in his life, Kalanithi pursued a doctorate in literature and had felt certain that he wouldn’t enter the field of medicine, in which his father and other members of his family excelled. “But I couldn’t let go of the question,” he writes, after realizing that his goals “didn’t quite fit in an English department.” “Where did biology, morality, literature and philosophy intersect?” So he decided to set aside his doctoral dissertation and belatedly prepare for medical school, which “would allow me a chance to find answers that are not in books, to find a different sort of sublime, to forge relationships with the suffering, and to keep following the question of what makes human life meaningful, even in the face of death and decay.” The author’s empathy undoubtedly made him an exceptional doctor, and the precision of his prose—as well as the moral purpose underscoring it—suggests that he could have written a good book on any subject he chose. Part of what makes this book so essential is the fact that it was written under a death sentence following the diagnosis that upended his life, just as he was preparing to end his residency and attract offers at the top of his profession. Kalanithi learned he might have 10 years to live or perhaps five. Should he return to neurosurgery (he could and did), or should he write (he also did)? Should he and his wife have a baby? They did, eight months before he died, which was less than two years after the original diagnosis. “The fact of death is unsettling,” he understates. “Yet there is no other way to live.”
A moving meditation on mortality by a gifted writer whose dual perspectives of physician and patient provide a singular clarity.Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-8129-8840-6
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
An intriguing approach to identifying and relating to one’s emotions.
An analysis of our emotions and the skills required to understand them.
We all have emotions, but how many of us have the vocabulary to accurately describe our experiences or to understand how our emotions affect the way we act? In this guide to help readers with their emotions, Brackett, the founding director of Yale University’s Center for Emotional Intelligence, presents a five-step method he calls R.U.L.E.R.: We need to recognize our emotions, understand what has caused them, be able to label them with precise terms and descriptions, know how to safely and effectively express them, and be able to regulate them in productive ways. The author walks readers through each step and provides an intriguing tool to use to help identify a specific emotion. Brackett introduces a four-square grid called a Mood Meter, which allows one to define where an emotion falls based on pleasantness and energy. He also uses four colors for each quadrant: yellow for high pleasantness and high energy, red for low pleasantness and high energy, green for high pleasantness and low energy, and blue for low pleasantness and low energy. The idea is to identify where an emotion lies in this grid in order to put the R.U.L.E.R. method to good use. The author’s research is wide-ranging, and his interweaving of his personal story with the data helps make the book less academic and more accessible to general readers. It’s particularly useful for parents and teachers who want to help children learn to handle difficult emotions so that they can thrive rather than be overwhelmed by them. The author’s system will also find use in the workplace. “Emotions are the most powerful force inside the workplace—as they are in every human endeavor,” writes Brackett. “They influence everything from leadership effectiveness to building and maintaining complex relationships, from innovation to customer relations.”
An intriguing approach to identifying and relating to one’s emotions.Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-21284-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
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