Central Park in the Dark
By Marie Winn
320 pages. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Where does a sophisticated New Yorker go for a night on the town? To a great green oasis where hundreds of exquisite winged insects alight to drink sweet sap from a tree, and swarms of devoted mothers (rhymes with "authors") gather in the dark for a sighting. Marie Winn's deliciously voyeuristic Central Park in the Dark (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) is filled with such glimpses of elusive nocturnal visitors, including sexy slugs, rare owls, and some of the most curious creatures on two legs.