Lisa Belkin – författare

A food editor befriends a chicken in his Queens backyard. A ten- year-old child prodigy learns quantum physics. A thief in Rome steals 1,000 euros-from the bottom of an outdoor fountain. These are the stories that make us smile, wonder, and think. They are real-life stories about real-life people, all of which have appeared on the pages of The New York Times. A perfect primer on humanity, Tales from the Times will introduce young readers to people and places that captivate the mind. There are certain human-interest stories that people just can't stop talking about-twins separated at birth or a five-year-old taking his mother's car for a joyride. Now, in this wonderfully eclectic compilation of articles, readers will find many of the most talked about stories from The New York Times. With stories from Randy Kennedy, William Grimes, Charlie LeDuff, Nicholas D. Kristof, Lisa Belkin, Jane Gross, and many more favourite New York Times reporters and columnists.

Independence Day weekend, 1960: a young police officer is murdered, shocking his close-knit community in Stamford, Connecticut. The killer remains at large, his identity still unknown. But on a beach not far away, a young Army doctor, on leave from his post at a research lab in a maximum-security prison, faces a chilling realisation. He knows who the shooter is. In fact, the man—a prisoner out on parole—had called him only days before. By helping his former charge and trainee, the doctor, a believer in second chances, may have inadvertently helped set the murder into motion. And with that one phone call, may have sealed a policeman’s fate.Alvin Tarlov, David Troy and Joseph DeSalvo were all born of the Great Depression, all with grandparents who’d left different homelands for the same American Dream. How did one become a doctor, one a police officer and one a convict? In Genealogy of a Murder, journalist Lisa Belkin traces the paths of each of these three men—one of them her stepfather. Her canvas is large, spanning the first half of the 20th century: immigration, the struggles of the working class, prison reform, medical experiments, politics and war, the nature/nurture debate, epigenetics, the infamous Leopold and Loeb case and the history of motorcycle racing. It is also intimate: a look into the workings of the mind and heart.Following these threads to their tragic outcome in July 1960, and beyond, Belkin examines the coincidences and choices that led to one fateful night. The result is a brilliantly researched, narratively ingenious story, which illuminates how we shape history even as we are shaped by it.

Life''s Work is the story of one woman''s search for balance -- and the realization that it can''t be found. It is the story of modern motherhood, where true happiness is often reached when you finally give up and give in. A few years ago, while trying to make sense of her own hectic world, award-winning journalist Lisa Belkin was asked to write a very personal column for The New York Times. She called it "Life''s Work" because it was about the intersection -- or, more accurately, the collision -- of life and work. Since then she''s been inundated with stories of other people trying to catch their "balance": the CEO father-to-be who restructured his entire company so he would have time to see his baby, the divorced mom who thought she might have to give away the family iguana because the store that sold live food closed before she got home from work. But after hundreds of columns and thousands of reader e-mails, Belkin has yet to hear from a single person who has everything neatly under control. Finally, while trying to confer with her editor from a cell phone in her pediatrician''s office, she reached an epiphany: No one can do it because it can''t be done. With natural wit and hard-won wisdom, Belkin takes on the myth of the Supermom. Fans of her "Life''s Work" columns will find them at the heart of this book, but they will also find the life lived behind those columns -- stories of her husband, who really deserves more attention; of her two young sons, who might eat more vegetables and fewer chicken nuggets if she had more energy; of her editors, who expect her to fit some work into a day filled with school plays and science projects; and of her mother, who is always happy to offer advice about how things used to be. The book that results is a conversation between a columnist and her readership, between a work-from-home mom and her generation. Lisa Belkin''s Life''s Work speaks to anyone trying to find meaning in a world where work has become life (and vice versa). Hers is the funny, poignant, and always dead-on story of trying to do it all...and learning that doing just some of it is enough.

Over the Independence Day weekend in 1960 a young police officer is murdered, shocking his close-knit community in Stamford, Connecticut. The killer remains at large, his identity still unknown. But on a beach not far away, a young Army doctor, on leave from his post at a research lab in a maximum-security prison, faces a chilling realisation. He knows who the shooter is. In fact, the man—a prisoner out on parole—had called him only days before. By helping his former charge and trainee, the doctor, a believer in second chances, may have inadvertently helped set the murder into motion. And with that one phone call, may have sealed a policeman’s fate.Alvin Tarlov, David Troy and Joseph DeSalvo were all born of the Great Depression, all with grandparents who’d left different homelands for the same American Dream. How did one become a doctor, one a police officer and one a convict? In Genealogy of a Murder, journalist Lisa Belkin traces the paths of each of these three men—one of them her stepfather. Her canvas is large, spanning the first half of the 20th century: immigration, the struggles of the working class, prison reform, medical experiments, politics and war, the nature/nurture debate, epigenetics, the infamous Leopold and Loeb case and the history of motorcycle racing. It is also intimate: a look into the workings of the mind and heart.Following these threads to their tragic outcome, Belkin examines the coincidences and choices that led to one fateful night. The result is a brilliantly researched, narratively ingenious story, which illuminates how we shape history even as we are shaped by it.

In this highly acclaimed book (the basis of a new HBO miniseries, produced by David Simon, creator of The Wire) Lisa Belkin brings to life a landmark public housing case in Yonkers, New York in riveting detail. What began with a judge's order to build scattered-site public housing in middle-class neighbourhoods, ended in the near destruction of a city - sparking prejudices, fanning emotions into flame and eventually leading to murder and suicide. Belkin's sympathetic portrait of the people at the centre of this crisis - hopeful, fearful, greedy, manipulative, the gamut of human behaviour - is page-turning to its powerful, redemptive end.

In this highly acclaimed book (the basis of a new HBO miniseries, produced by David Simon, creator of The Wire) Lisa Belkin brings to life a landmark public housing case in Yonkers, New York in riveting detail. What began with a judge's order to build scattered-site public housing in middle-class neighbourhoods, ended in the near destruction of a city - sparking prejudices, fanning emotions into flame and eventually leading to murder and suicide. Belkin's sympathetic portrait of the people at the centre of this crisis - hopeful, fearful, greedy, manipulative, the gamut of human behaviour - is page-turning to its powerful, redemptive end.