A richly detailed and lively account of a community victory against an unscrupulous real estate mogul.
The inside story of a New York community’s fight against the Trump Organization.
The subject of Robinson’s book is “Television City,” a 1985 proposal made by real estate mogul Donald Trump to turn the abandoned Penn Central Railyard on the Hudson River into a massive, 18.5 million square-foot building project that would feature luxury apartments, acres of parking, a lavish shopping mall, and the world’s tallest building as its centerpiece. The author, then a young architect, was outraged by this plan, which would have completely swamped the local communities. He banded together with local lawyers, journalists, artists, and civic preservationists in order to wage what he calls a “turf war” to thwart the Television City plan. (“Turf is a hard-wired connection,” he writes, “it is our home ground, personal territory, sphere of influence … its emotional value is determined by its qualities to sustain life, confer status, or provide security.”) With plenty of detail and long quotes from contemporary documents (the clash was widely reported, month after month), Robison tells the story of the coalition that fought against the development and of the allies they enlisted among activists—like Richard Kahan—and politicians, including New York mayor David Dinkins. He follows the story to the unpredictable victory the activists won against Television City, which eventually became the largely residential Riverside South area. Throughout all of this, the author works the minor miracle of turning largely procedural real estate wrangling into gripping reading. Robinson compellingly details how the Trump Organization swamped the city agencies with superfluous litigation and complained that the American Institute of Architects’ report against Television City was an unfair witch hunt—and how the community, alarmed by “a litany of the unacceptable environmental and social impacts” that Television City would unleash on the West Side, won in the end.
A richly detailed and lively account of a community victory against an unscrupulous real estate mogul.Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2024
ISBN: 9781665763523
Page Count: 326
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A dauntless, moving account of a kidnapping and the horrors that followed.
Enduring the unthinkable.
This memoir—the first by an Israeli taken captive by Hamas on October 7, 2023—chronicles the 491 days the author was held in Gaza. Confined to tunnels beneath war-ravaged streets, Sharabi was beaten, humiliated, and underfed. When he was finally released in February, he learned that Hamas had murdered his wife and two daughters. In the face of scarcely imaginable loss, Sharabi has crafted a potent record of his will to survive. The author’s ordeal began when Hamas fighters dragged him from his home, in a kibbutz near Gaza. Alongside others, he was held for months at a time in filthy subterranean spaces. He catalogs sensory assaults with novelistic specificity. Iron shackles grip his ankles. Broken toilets produce an “unbearable stink,” and “tiny white worms” swarm his toothbrush. He gets one meal a day, his “belly caving inward.” Desperate for more food, he stages a fainting episode, using a shaving razor to “slice a deep gash into my eyebrow.” Captors share their sweets while celebrating an Iranian missile attack on Israel. He and other hostages sneak fleeting pleasures, finding and downing an orange soda before a guard can seize it. Several times, Sharabi—51 when he was kidnapped—gives bracing pep talks to younger compatriots. The captives learn to control what they can, trading family stories and “lift[ing] water bottles like dumbbells.” Remarkably, there’s some levity. He and fellow hostages nickname one Hamas guard “the Triangle” because he’s shaped like a SpongeBob SquarePants character. The book’s closing scenes, in which Sharabi tries to console other hostages’ families while learning the worst about his own, are heartbreaking. His captors “are still human beings,” writes Sharabi, bravely modeling the forbearance that our leaders often lack.
A dauntless, moving account of a kidnapping and the horrors that followed.Pub Date: Oct. 7, 2025
ISBN: 9780063489790
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Harper Influence/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2025
A powerful reiteration of principles—and some fresh ideas—from the longest-serving independent in congressional history.
Another chapter in a long fight against inequality.
Building on his Fighting Oligarchy tour, which this year drew 280,000 people to rallies in red and blue states, Sanders amplifies his enduring campaign for economic fairness. The Vermont senator offers well-timed advice for combating corruption and issues a robust plea for national soul-searching. His argument rests on alarming data on the widening wealth gap’s impact on democracy. Bolstered by a 2010 Supreme Court decision that removed campaign finance limits, “100 billionaire families spent $2.6 billion” on 2024 elections. Sanders focuses on the Trump administration and congressional Republicans, describing their enactment of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” with its $1 trillion in tax breaks for the richest Americans and big social safety net cuts, as the “largest transfer of wealth” in living memory. But as is his custom, he spreads the blame, dinging Democrats for courting wealthy donors while ignoring the “needs and suffering” of the working class. “Trump filled the political vacuum that the Democrats created,” he writes, a resonant diagnosis. Urging readers not to surrender to despair, Sanders offers numerous legislative proposals. These would empower labor unions, cut the workweek to 32 hours, regulate campaign spending, reduce gerrymandering, and automatically register 18-year-olds to vote. Grassroots supporters can help by running for local office, volunteering with a campaign, and asking educators how to help support public schools. Meanwhile, Sanders asks us “to question the fundamental moral values that underlie” a system that enables “the top 1 percent” to “own more wealth than the bottom 93 percent.” Though his prose sometimes reads like a transcribed speech with built-in applause lines, Sanders’ ideas are specific, clear, and commonsensical. And because it echoes previous statements, his call for collective introspection lands as genuine.
A powerful reiteration of principles—and some fresh ideas—from the longest-serving independent in congressional history.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9798217089161
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2025
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