Marking the debut of a gifted new writer, The Bookmaker teems with humanity, empathy, humor, and insight.At the heart of Michael J. Agovino's powerful, layered memoir is his family's struggle for success in 1970s, '80s, and '90s New York City—and his father's gambling, which brought them to exhilarating highs and crushing lows. He vividly brings to life the Bronx, a place of texture and nuance, of resignation but also of triumph. The son of a buttoned-up union man who moonlighted as a gentleman bookmaker and gambler, Agovino grew up in the Bronx's Co-op City, the largest and most ambitious state-sponsored housing development in U.S. history. When it opened, it landed on the front page of The New York Times and in Time magazine, which described it as "relentlessly ugly."Agovino's Italian American father was determined not to let his modest income and lack of a college education define him, and was dogged in his pursuit of the finer things in life. When the point spreads were on his side, he brought his family to places he only dreamed about in his favorite books and films: the Uffizi, the Tate, the Rijksmuseum; St. Peter's, Chartres, Teotihuacán. With bad luck came shouting matches, unpaid bills, and eviction notices.The Bookmaker is both a bold, loving portrait of a family and their metropolis and an intimate look into some of the most turbulent decades of New York City. In elegant and soaring prose, it transcends the personal to illuminate the ways in which class distinctions shaped America in the last half of the twentieth century.

Product Description: There are now more ways than ever to gamble-casinos, corner stores, the internet-and as a result, there are also ever more "problem gamblers," individuals who gamble compulsively to their own detriment. While gambling is promoted as fun and glamorous, the reality is usually very different...read more

Between three and six million Americans are compulsive gamblers. Losing Your Shirt takes a compassionate, nonthreatening approach to the problems families encounter with compulsive gambling. In this easy-to-read and valuable resource for any gambling addiction program, readers will find stories from compulsive gamblers and their families that demonstrate how the addiction affects relationships, methods of recovery for the addict, and coping skills for family members.

Describes the symptoms of compulsive gambling, and recommends ways for the families of gamblers to persuade them to enter treatment, and to regain control over their own lives