Crossword puzzle fans will eat up this entertaining stew of history, arcana and personalities in this memoir–cum–instruction manual by longtime Newsday
crossword editor Newman and Wall Street Journal
deputy books editor Lasswell. And woven into the mix is a great lesson in how to engineer a midlife career switch. Newman, an advocate of "new wave" crosswords, gleefully describes his "war" with "pedantic" Eugene Maleska, the New York Times
crossword editor from 1977 to 1993, a David-vs.-Goliath tale. But Newman doesn't neglect the nuts and bolts about difficulty levels (contrary to popular belief, Sunday isn't the hardest puzzle of the week: it's about midweek-level, but bigger), the types of clues used by constructors and the most effective ways to approach puzzle solving (start with an easy clue and try to fill in that entire section before moving on). Newman touts the health benefits of puzzling, citing studies that show it can help ward off Alzheimer's and senile dementia. He also provides some interesting trivia bits, among them, that the late Seagram's chairman Edgar Bronfman's passion for puzzles helped Newman finance a Lincoln Town Car, and many of the puzzles appearing in daily newspapers are constructed by prison inmates. (Nov.)
