Timothy鈥檚 Year in Books

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2024

5,396

pages read

books read

Timothy

Shortest Book

212

pages

Longest Book

464

pages

Average book length in 2024

317

pages

Most Shelved

75,855

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Timothy鈥檚 average rating for 2024

4.8

Highest Rated on 欧宝娱乐

4.67 average

Timothy鈥檚 first review of the year

it was amazing

The view from my dining room used to be what realtors in New York call an open-city view. Water tanks, church steeples, parapeted penthouses, one roof deck鈥� but if you knew where to look, you could see, at night, the illuminated top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, a 70-story building that is 50 blocks distant. And from my apartment鈥檚 single east-facing window, you could see the top few floors of 731 Lexington Avenue, a 55-story building where Bloomberg The view from my dining room used to be what realtors in New York call an open-city view. Water tanks, church steeples, parapeted penthouses, one roof deck鈥� but if you knew where to look, you could see, at night, the illuminated top of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, a 70-story building that is 50 blocks distant. And from my apartment鈥檚 single east-facing window, you could see the top few floors of 731 Lexington Avenue, a 55-story building where Bloomberg L.P. is headquartered.

But in the last decade, my view has been transformed with the emergence of three supertall skyscrapers that are, by definition, more than 1,000 feet in height. These buildings are One57, the Steinway Tower (111 West 57th), and 432 Park Avenue and I like them because they have defeated an otherwise dull and unfocused view. In what was a utilitarian vista of rooftops, they are new and flashy hotspots.

In her enjoyable BILLIONAIRES鈥� ROW, Katherine Clark tells the stories, as well as provides the backstories, of these three supertalls, as well as two other supertalls鈥�220 Central Park South and Central Park Tower鈥攖hat are blocked from my view by a 30-story mediocrity at 96th and Broadway. Interestingly, the developers of only two of these buildings鈥擥ary Barnett and One57 and Steve Roth at 220 Central Park South鈥攎ade money.

So, what are these buildings? Well, they certainly are powerful statements, with three of these buildings鈥�111, 432, and 220鈥攓uite beautiful. And yes, they spire over Central Park. But they don鈥檛 overpower the park; instead, they just happen to be very tall buildings that seem, more than anything, to be in competition with each other.

On the other hand, I can鈥檛 say that I like to walk by these buildings, three of them on 57th Street, because they have an aura of exclusivity. And they are, in fact, designed to be off-putting at street level, with the hoi polloi not invited. But this is not new to New York, with, say, the pre-war apartment buildings on Park Avenue鈥攚here you are also not invited鈥攇uarded by phalanxes of doormen and porters. I suppose what differentiates these supertalls from Park Avenue is their brazen ostentatiousness.

Regardless, this is a good book and maybe definitive about the appeal these buildings. Clark, btw, traces the existence of these building and their appeal back to the seminal Trump Tower on 56th and Fifth, which opened in 1983. For that building, Trump never intended to compete for buyers with the snobby cooperatives on Park Avenue. Instead, he wanted to sell to the showy Italian guy who drives a red sports car and owns a business and has a much younger wife. From the start, you see, Trump wanted to sell to foreigners and vulgarians, and he had the smarts to realize that this demographic is large enough to support a handful of luxurious tall buildings. From this perspective, these supertalls are reminiscent of Trumps casinos, which are infamous for their bankruptcies.

Ethan, stop griping, already!

Rounded up and recommended. ...more

罢滨惭翱罢贬驰鈥橲 2024 BOOKS

it was amazing

Death and the Assassin's Blade by Phillip Strang

it was amazing

Timothy鈥檚 last review of the year

it was amazing

Symbiotic families in treacherous rivalry

VENGEANCE, Benjamin Black鈥檚 fifth installment in his Quirke series, is a mystery about two symbiotic families that are in treacherous rivalry. One family, the Delahayes, is Protestant, has aristocratic pretensions, and considers itself the dominant force in the successful transportation partnership of Delahaye & Clancy. Meanwhile, the second family, the Clancys, is Catholic, operates as fixers and problem Symbiotic families in treacherous rivalry

VENGEANCE, Benjamin Black鈥檚 fifth installment in his Quirke series, is a mystery about two symbiotic families that are in treacherous rivalry. One family, the Delahayes, is Protestant, has aristocratic pretensions, and considers itself the dominant force in the successful transportation partnership of Delahaye & Clancy. Meanwhile, the second family, the Clancys, is Catholic, operates as fixers and problem solvers in business, and considers itself the indispensable family in the partnership. In VENGEANCE, it is, once again, Quirke鈥檚 inclement Dublin in the 1950s and the second generation at D&C now runs the show, even though Victor Delahaye, who has an unscrupulous young wife, and Jack Clancy, who is a philanderer, are contemptuous of each other. But this does not explain why Victor, an accomplished sailor, takes Jack鈥檚 twenty-something son Davy, who hates sailing, for an ocean sail, rants at him, and then鈥�.well, just read the book. But it begins with a suicide and a cowardly man鈥檚 attempt to murder.

The plot of VENGEANCE is driven by the actions of the Delahaye family, which includes Jason and James, Victor鈥檚 identical twin sons, his spinster sister Maggie, and his second wife Mona. By the way, here鈥檚 what Sylvia, Jack Clancy鈥檚 wife, has to say Mona:

鈥淢ost people who gave parties, Sylvia supposed, gave them in the hope that their guests would enjoy themselves and go home happy. Evidently Mon鈥檚 intention was the opposite of this. She seemed to wish that everyone should have a good time, only she had a peculiar notion of what having a good time should involve. She did not want people standing about with drinks in their hands, chitchatting: arguments, insults, challenges, fights, even fistfights, these were the kinds of things Mona wished her parties to inspire. And if matters were not going her way鈥he was fully prepared to step in and set them awry. Mona had a genius for provocation. She stirred things up without seeming to鈥︹€�

In VENGEANCE, Benjamin Black (John Banville) once again has Quirke, a pathologist, and Inspector Hackett, a subtly relentless police officer, join forces. Interestingly, this team exists because Hackett, who is an ordinary man from the country, feels the toffs in Dublin talk down to him when he investigates crime without the logy-brained Dr. Quirke. And this certainly proves to be the case when Hackett, without Quirke, interviews the evasive Jason and James Delahaye. Then, he is no match for their slickness and sense of superiority, which render his cop stratagems ineffectual. Interestingly, the skillful Black later turns things topsy-turvy, when he shows the smug, shallow, and not very smart twins in interaction with Mona, who they underestimate.

In VENGEANCE, Jack Clancy has instigated some accounting shenanigans that will, according to Black, shift control of D&C from the preening and pretentious Victor. But, I gotta say that the mechanisms of this back-office takeover make no sense whatsoever. Here, I recommend that Black, if he decides to do more business-based mysteries, show an early draft to his accountant.

Regardless, VENGEANCE is an entertaining mystery and recommended.
...more

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