CHRISTMAS GOODIES

Included among my gifts were:

Poems of New York

Selected & Edited by Elizabeth Scmidt

Knopf US$12.50

Another in the 50-odd strong Knopf's Everyman's Library Pocket Poets series. More than 80 poets are represented from Walt Whitman, born 1819 and the city's first flaneur and lyric poet, through to Nathaniel Bellows, born 1972, and in between including such luminaries as Amy Lowell, William Carlos Williams, Dorothy Parker, E.E.Cummings, W.H.Auden, Grace Paley , Gerald Stern, Erica Jong, and Allen Ginsberg.

Here's my favourite so far, it says so much about the significant and very obvious multi-ethnicity of this great city. It is by Grace Paley, who died earlier this year:

THE NATURE OF THIS CITY

Children walking with their grandmothers

talk foreign languages

that is the nature of this city

and also this country

Talk is cheap but comes in variety

and witnessing dialect

there is a rule for all

and in each sentence a perfect grammar

CITY WALKS: NEW YORK

50 Adventures on Foot

Chronicle Books $14.95

Bustling and vibrant, New York City is a great walking city. The cards in this boxed set guide you through 50 walking adventures, offering detailed maps and insider information. From Battery Park and the Finabcial District to Nolita's quaint boutiques and the art galleries of Chelsea to the vast Central Park and the vaulted ceilings of Grand Central Station, to the Brooklyn Heights Esplanade with its superb Manhattan skyline views. They are all here plus a lot more. We are having fun by picking a card at random and then heading off to visit that area.

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS

Grandama Moses/Clement Moore

Universe $17.95

This is a most beautifully illustrated version of this most famous of American Christmas stories for children. On Boxing Day while looking about the Tribeca branch of Barnes & Noble I located no fewer than 17 versions of this book, differing only in format and illustration. Grandma Moses is for me the stand-out in a crowded field.

Grandma Moses (1860-1961) is one of the most important self-taught artists of the 20th century, achieving a celebrity that transcended the normal boundaries of the folk-art movement. In the post-WWII years, Moses (born Anna Mary Robertson) was one of the most successful and famous artists in America.There are over 269,000 Google entries for her.

Clement Clarke Moore was an academic, author, and poet who lived and worked in New York City. He is best known for writing this classic Christmas poem, first published anonymously, in 1823. He died in 1863.

100 MUST-READ CRIME NOVELS

Richard Shephard & Nick Rennison

A&C Black UK pds5.99

If you are keen on crime fiction, like me, or don't read it at all, and wonder why others are so keen on the genre, then this little book is for you.

More than 100 titles are reviewed, alphabetically by author, and a further 500 recommended. One of the very positive features is that both UK and US crime writers are featured.

I immediately picked out all my favourite authors - Sara Paretsky, James Ellroy, Sue Grafton, P.D.James, Minette Walters, Lawrence Block - and was pleased to find them all there.