Tales from the Times: Real-Life Stories to Make You Think, Wonder, and Smile, from the Pages of the New York Times

By The New York Times

Book Overview

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 new 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 .

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312312334
• ISBN13: 9780312312336
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.3" x 8.8"
• Age Range: 12 to 18 years
• Grade Range: Grade 7 to Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

You'll want to share these stories :-)

TALES FROM THE TIMES is a book for readers of every age. Executives will find one-minute-musings. Children will be delighted by the wonder and humor. Vacationers will discover a book filled with short stories to fill an afternoon by the shore, on the plane, or in the cabin. People of all ages will turn the pages one tale at a time, and laugh, ponder and smile. The idea for the book was born at a backyard barbeque where New York Times staff found they had something in common: their children's bedtime stories often consisted of articles from the paper. From there, an idea grew into a collection of stories of the unusual, the uplifting, the perplexing and the wonderful. Take the Treaty Oak, a 500-year-old live oak tree from Austin, Texas, whose fate is in the hands of those who love it. Or Jacob DeHaven's nearly half a million-dollar loan to the Continental Congress. Read about the man committed to honoring the ancient city of Beijing's fallen wall, brick by brick. Find out what happened to the wishing coins tossed into Italy's Trevi Fountain. Learn why you might opt not to drive through Moscow during the winter holidays. Smile as you read about the romance of Hubert and Mildred, who met each other at a nursing home in New York. Raise an eyebrow at just how far kids will go, to school that is, in Terlingua, Texas. Shake your head at the extent to which unfounded gossip incited a community to hysterics in Orangetown, New York. Find out why Iceland wants to import alligators. Yes, alligators. Listen as Mrs. Wilber hears her husband's voice for the first time since first meeting him in 1946. Lisa Belkin has edited and cleverly categorized the stories into sections: Changing Lives, Animals, School, Sports, Families, Language, Faraway Places, Closer to Home and Trying to Get Along. There is a story for everyone, waiting to warm your heart, within the pages of TALES FROM THE TIMES. 4.5 out of 5 Tales Reviewed by True North gottawritenetwork.com May 18, 2005

Tales for Movie Makers

This collection of human interest stories from the New York Times follows several volumes of the Wall Street Journal's Middle of the Page column and The New York Times's own collections of science articles. No matter how religiously you read the newspaper, you will have missed or forgotten most of these stories. In fact, most of the stories are forgettable. But some of them will stick with you. I enjoyed reading about a man who had lived in a terminal at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris for over ten years. So that's where Spielberg got his idea for the movie! There is a story about twin girls who didn't know the other existed until they were sixteen and finally found each other. Shades of Parent Trap. Some of the stories are a little too heartwarming to be believable, but who's to say? The first story of a man who helps a homeless New Yorker find his mother and get a second chance at life becomes too much when there is a follow-up story after a year that finds the formerly homeless man living with his mother and playing piano at church every day. I'd rather be homeless.If you love stories about child prodigies and lost pets who find their way back home, or if you are a film director looking for your next big project, Tales from the Times may be just the ticket.

a Sophisticated Version of Chicken Soup for the Soul

In many ways THE NEW YORK TIMES is America's newspaper, and overall its reporting is among the best in the country (its recent case of plagiarism not withstanding). For those who do not get the opportunity to read the TIMES all that often, TALES FROM THE TIMES may be the next best thing. In many ways the work is a sophisticated version of THE CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL, and like the works in the CHICKEN SOUP series, the book captures a reader's heart and gives a reader stories to contemplate and remember. This is a compilation of human interest articles originally published in the paper. The articles are divided into various topics. While some of the articles are based on somewhat well known news stories, such as the young man who played in the Little League World Series but did not know his actual birth date, most are ordinary stories that come to life from the pens of the TIMES gifted writers. There is a variety to the stories and cover a range of human situations. This work would be an excellent resource for teachers as well as those interested in journalism.