The Theban Mysteries by Amanda Cross

Although Kate Fansler is on sabbatical in this book, she finds herself teaching at her old high school, one of New York's most exclusive schools for girls, when the leader of the senior seminar on Antigone finds herself on bedrest (unrelated to the mystery!). Kate is mystified by youth culture and finds a number of young people struggling with the Vietnam War and the draft. The mystery develops slowly (the body doesn't even appear till the second half of the book), and Fansler's much more adept at spotting the questions of group dynamics (and an elementary form of consciousness-raising) than I was.  Like the other books I've read in this series, the mystery has a certain old-fashioned feel to it, but I enjoyed it.

Poetic Justice by Amanda Cross

In this mystery as Kate Fansler is trying to cope with the disruptions of student protests at the University last spring, she finds herself dragged into a struggle between the undergraduate college and the college for adult students--a struggle that quickly turns deadly. The book seemed a little dated in some aspects--especially in its language and the way people treat each other--but the concerns about how to govern a university still are very relevant. The book also seemed much more interested in academia and its politics than in the murder mystery itself, which was wrapped up very quickly, and more by Fansler's fiancé than by her own work.

New York Intellect: A History of Intellectual Life in New York City from 1750 to the Beginnings of Our Own Time by Thomas Bender

This book gives a comprehensive intellectual history of New York City. Bender contends that intellectual life in New York has always been different from Europe--so if we look for European structures, we'll be disappointed. Instead, he traces three types of intellectual involvement: civil, literary, and academic. He contends none of these structures has been completely successful in developing intellectual life, and that a city that could embrace all three would be ideal. In this book, Bender thinks a lot about the relations between intellectual life and democratic society, ultimately contending that intellectual life has to be open to all and a vibrant part of city culture for the optimal situation. I found this book very diligent in providing convincing evidence to support its arguments. The three trends are very clearly defined, but the book could trace their relationships to each other a little more clearly.

The Colossus of New York by Colson Whitehead

This collection of essays is part travel writing, part memoir, and part creative non-fiction. It gives a beautiful blazon of New York: a portrait in parts. The writing at times is descriptive and at times is in dialogue with its reader, who is always a both a visitor to and resident of New York. I was impressed by the spatial reasoning that this book displays.