Best of
New-York

2005

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bronx is Burning: 1977, Baseball, Politics, and the Battle for the Soul of a City


Jonathan Mahler - 2005
    Buried beneath these parallel conflicts--one for the soul of baseball, the other for the soul of the city--was the subtext of race. Deftly intertwined by journalist Jonathan Mahler, these braided Big Apple narratives reverberate to reveal a year that also saw the opening of Studio 54, the acquisition of the New York Post by Rupert Murdoch, a murderer dubbed the "Son of Sam," the infamous blackout, and the evolution of punk rock. As Koch defeated Cuomo, and as Reggie Jackson rescued a team racked with dissension, 1977 became a year of survival--and also of hope.

The Works: Anatomy of a City


Kate Ascher - 2005
    When you flick on your light switch the light goes on--how? When you put out your garbage, where does it go? When you flush your toilet, what happens to the waste? How does water get from a reservoir in the mountains to your city faucet? How do flowers get to your corner store from Holland, or bananas get there from Ecuador? Who is operating the traffic lights all over the city? And what in the world is that steam coming out from underneath the potholes on the street? Across the city lies a series of extraordinarily complex and interconnected systems. Often invisible, and wholly taken for granted, these are the systems that make urban life possible. The Works: Anatomy of a City offers a cross section of this hidden infrastructure, using beautiful, innovative graphic images combined with short, clear text explanations to answer all the questions about the way things work in a modern city. It describes the technologies that keep the city functioning, as well as the people who support them-the pilots that bring the ships in over the Narrows sandbar, the sandhogs who are currently digging the third water tunnel under Manhattan, the television engineer who scales the Empire State Building's antenna for routine maintenance, the electrical wizards who maintain the century-old system that delivers power to subways. Did you know that the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is so long, and its towers are so high, that the builders had to take the curvature of the earth's surface into account when designing it? Did you know that the George Washington Bridge takes in approximately $1 million per day in tolls? Did you know that retired subway cars travel by barge to the mid-Atlantic, where they are dumped overboard to form natural reefs for fish? Or that if the telecom cables under New York were strung end to end, they would reach from the earth to the sun? While the book uses New York as its example, it has relevance well beyond that city's boundaries as the systems that make New York a functioning metropolis are similar to those that keep the bright lights burning in big cities everywhere. The Works is for anyone who has ever stopped midcrosswalk, looked at the rapidly moving metropolis around them, and wondered, how does this all work?

The Mayor of MacDougal Street


Dave Van Ronk - 2005
    A pioneer of modern acoustic blues, a fine songwriter and arranger, a powerful singer, and one of the most influential guitarists of the '60s, he was also a marvelous storyteller, a peerless musical historian, and one of the most quotable figures on the Village scene. The Mayor of MacDougal Street is a first-hand account by a major player in the social and musical history of the '50s and '60s. It features encounters with young stars-to-be like Bob Dylan, Tom Paxton, Phil Ochs, and Joni Mitchell, as well as older luminaries like Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, and Odetta. Colorful, hilarious, and engaging, The Mayor of MacDougal Street is a feast for anyone interested in the music, politics, and spirit of a revolutionary period in American culture

The Big Oyster: History on the Half Shell


Mark Kurlansky - 2005
    With The Big Oyster, Mark Kurlansky serves up history at its most engrossing, entertaining, and delicious.

Lonely Planet New York City


Lonely Planet - 2005
    Food truck, deli, pizza parlor, pub – eat your way through a world of food; take a sunset stroll across the Brooklyn Bridge for romantic views of amber skies; and take in a spectacular show on Broadway – all with your trusted travel companion. Get to the heart of New York City and begin your journey now! Inside Lonely Planet’s New York City: Colour maps and images throughout Highlights and itineraries help you tailor your trip to your personal needs and interests Insider tips to save time and money and get around like a local, avoiding crowds and trouble spots Essential info at your fingertips - hours of operation, phone numbers, websites, transit tips, prices Honest reviews for all budgets - eating, sleeping, sightseeing, going out, shopping, hidden gems that most guidebooks miss Cultural insights provide a richer, more rewarding travel experience - covering history, people, music, landscapes, wildlife, cuisine, politics Covers Lower Manhattan & the Financial District, SoHo & Chinatown, East Village & Lower East Side, West Village, Chelsea & the Meatpacking District, Union Square, Flatiron District & Gramercy, Midtown, Upper East Side, Upper West Side & Central Park, Harlem & Upper Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens. eBook Features: (Best viewed on tablet devices and smartphones) Downloadable PDF and offline maps prevent roaming and data charges Effortlessly navigate and jump between maps and reviews Add notes to personalise your guidebook experience Seamlessly flip between pages Bookmarks and speedy search capabilities get you to key pages in a flash Embedded links to recommendations' websites Zoom-in maps and images Inbuilt dictionary for quick referencing The Perfect Choice: Lonely Planet’s New York City is our most comprehensive guide to the city, and is perfect for discovering both popular and offbeat experiences. Looking for just the highlights? Check out Pocket New York City, our handy-sized guide featuring the best sights and experiences for a shorter trip. About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world’s number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we’ve printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You’ll also find our content online, and in mobile apps, video, 14 languages, nine international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more. ‘Lonely Planet guides are, quite simply, like no other.

Little Chapel on the River: A Pub, a Town and the Search for What Matters Most


Gwendolyn Bounds - 2005
    There she became one of the rare female regulars at the old pub and was quickly swept up into its rhythm, heartbeat, and grand history -- as related by Jim Guinan himself, the stubborn high priest of this little chapel. Surrounded by a crew of endearing, delightfully colorful characters who were now her neighbors and friends, she slowly finds her own way home.Beautifully written, deeply personal, and brilliantly insightful, Little Chapel on the River is a love story about a place -- and the people who bring it to life.

John Lennon: The New York Years


Bob Gruen - 2005
    Presents a summary of the innovative musician's life during his nine years in New York City, together with a collection of 150 full-color photographs and reminiscences on the stories behind the photographs.

CBGB OMFUG: Thirty Years from the Home of Underground Rock


Hilly KristalLisa J. Kristal - 2005
    Little did he know when he opened his club under a flophouse on the Bowery that it would become the birthplace of a new era of music in New York City - Punk. While the letters CBGB ultimately didn't describe the music the club was renowned for, OMFUG (Other Music for Uplifting Gourmandizers) still represents what the club provides for all voracious consumers of music. These pages pay homage to a musical and cultural landmark. It is a spectacular photography compilation which features some of the most celebrated artists in musical history and chronicles the last 30 years of rock and roll. It also showcases photographs of famous patrons, including Andy Warhol, Allen Ginsberg and Jim Jarmusch.

Weird New York


Chris Gethard - 2005
    The Pilgrims probably landed here first, and recorded history got the geography wrong, because really, everything started here. We have the Yankees and the Mets, plus the Giants and the Jets, even if they are, for some weird reason, in New Jersey. And we have trout, lots of cows, the Catskills, the Baseball Hall of Fame, a really big waterfall, and we're the birthplace of Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore, for Pete's sake.But there's something else, something we've got so much more of. We've got a great big quantity of . . . weirdness. Yes, our level of bizarreness is so high that we enticed an out of stater to become a New Yorker and chronicle it all. With notepad in hand and apples in pocket for nourishment, author Chris Gethard scouted the state's highways and byways in search of the odd and the offbeat. He tracked down impossible-to-believe tales, only to discover odd grains of truth that give the stories just enough credibility to make one feel . . . slightly uneasy.So turn the pages and visit Long Island's Big Duck, travel down Moan and Groan Road in, of all places, a town called Hope, and sample the Jell-O Museum in Le Roy. Drive by the abandoned insane asylums that blanket the state?big surprise. By all means avoid the screaming and gunshots of House Road, but do coast up Spook Rock Road, say hi to Jumper and Grumpy at America's largest pet cemetery, and knock on Eunice Welsh's crypt (she might knock back). Be lured into the water, if you're really dumb, by the Lady of Lake Ronkonkoma, and next time you're in Staten Island, beware of Bigfoot?he's found his way out there.Yes, it's a grand state, and it's clear why we all sing "I Love New York" with such fervor. A brand-new entry in the best-selling Weird U.S. series, Weird New York is filled with all the good stuff your history teacher never taught you. So get on the road with Chris for a great adventure. We guarantee it'll make you love New York that much more.Chris Gethard served as the associate editor of Weird NJ magazine for over four years. While there he helped write and edit the book, Weird NJ, and co-authored its follow-up, Weird U.S. Chris is also an actor and comedian, has contributed writing to shows on Comedy Central, and has acted on a number of TV programs, including Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He is a performer and teacher at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Manhattan.Chris grew up in West Orange, New Jersey, a few short blocks from the laboratory where Thomas Edison once put on public electrocutions of a variety of animals. Now he lives in Astoria, Queens, just a stone's throw from the Hell Gate section of the East River where over one thousand people perished in the General Slocum steamboat fire of 1904.

The King of Mulberry Street


Donna Jo Napoli - 2005
    He is a stowaway, traveling alone and with nothing of value except for a new pair of shoes from his mother. In the turbulent world of homeless children in Manhattan’s Five Points, Dom learns street smarts, and not only survives, but thrives by starting his own business. A vivid, fascinating story of an exceptional boy, based in part on the author’s grandfather.

The Brooklyn Follies


Paul Auster - 2005
    Divorced, retired, estranged from his only daughter, the former life insurance salesman seeks only solitude and anonymity. Then Glass encounters his long-lost nephew, Tom Wood, who is working in a local bookstore—a far cry from the brilliant academic career Tom had begun when Nathan saw him last. Tom's boss is the colorful and charismatic Harry Brightman—a.k.a. Harry Dunkel—once the owner of a Chicago art gallery, whom fate has also brought to the "ancient kingdom of Brooklyn, New York." Through Tom and Harry, Nathan's world gradually broadens to include a new circle of acquaintances. He soon finds himself drawn into a scam involving a forged page of The Scarlet Letter, and begins to undertake his own literary venture, The Book of Human Folly, an account of "every blunder, every pratfall, every embarrassment, every idiocy, every foible, and every inane act I have committed during my long and checkered career as a man." The Brooklyn Follies is Paul Auster's warmest, most exuberant novel, a moving, unforgettable hymn to the glories and mysteries of ordinary human life.

Steinberg at the New Yorker


Joel Smith - 2005
    Avidly sponsored by The New Yorker, he arrived in Manhattan the following year, only to join the military on a worldwide tour of duty, which he chronicled in the pages of the magazine. Through the 1950s, Steinberg's acute, spontaneous, fluid line was in constant demand among periodicals and book publishers throughout Europe and the United States. In sixty years, he worked with every editor The New Yorker has had, and he created art of every category it employed, including covers, cartoons, spot drawings, illustrations for Profiles, and multi-page portfolios. All 87 of Steinberg's covers are seen here in full colour, as well as colour drawings which originally appeared in black and white, and 25 thematic plate sections which explore his defining preoccupations. The accompanying essay by art historian Joel Smith considers Steinberg's work in the context of the magazine's evolution, during and after World War II, from a humorous weekly to one of the defining standard bearers of taste and intelligence in American letters.

Christmas in New York: A Pop-Up Book


Chuck Fischer - 2005
    Its unique construction combines original art by Chuck Fischer with photography of famous New York City landmarks and past holiday celebrations. Each pop-up spread will include short histories, architectural legacies, anecdotes, and fun facts contained in mini-pop-ups, pullouts, removable booklets, and other extras. Destined to become a treasured keepsake, CHRISTMAS IN NEW YORK has been a perennial bestseller for years to come.

Young, Sleek and Full of Hell: The Alleged Gallery 1992-2002


Aaron Rose - 2005
    Book by

Fuzz One: A Bronx Childhood


Vincent Fedorchak - 2005
    Through Vincent Fedorchak's hilarious deadpan narration of a wild existence wrought with adolescent braggadocio, we are taken on a rough journey through a deteriorating Bronx jungle-wonderland where property value was plummeting and kids ruled the streets. Whether executing a bizarre graffiti mission in another borough with all the insanity of a special ops soldier, fearlessly tracking down Satan-worshippers camped out in the old castles in Van Cortlandt Park, or being the first white boy inducted into the infamous Ebony Dukes street gang, Fedorchak never flinches. Filled with hundreds of never-before-published photos of graffiti art and Bronx cityscapes, as well as first-hand accounts of the exploits of legendary graffiti artists such as DONDI, BLADE, COMET, NOC 167, BOOTS 119, and others, Fuzz One is a guided tour of a heretofore uncharted Bronx underworld. This epic tale of youth gone awry fully captures an important era of cultural upheaval in New York City's history. It is set apart from other memoirs via the inclusion of more than 300 images, nearly all in color, that give the volume strong historical, anthropological and cultural appeal.

February House


Sherill Tippins - 2005
    It was a fevered yearlong party fueled by the appetites of youth and by the shared sense of urgency to take action as artists in the months before America entered the war.In spite of the sheer intensity of life at 7 Middagh, the house was for its residents a creative crucible. Carson McCullers's two masterpieces, The Member of the Wedding and The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, were born, bibulously, in Brooklyn. Gypsy Rose Lee, workmanlike by day, party girl by night, wrote her book The G-String Murders in her Middagh Street bedroom. Auden -- who along with Britten was being excoriated at home in England for absenting himself from the war -- presided over the house like a peevish auntie, collecting rent money and dispensing romantic advice. And yet all the while he was composing some of the most important work of his career.Sherill Tippins's February House, enlivened by primary sources and an unforgettable story, masterfully recreates daily life at the most fertile and improbable live-in salon of the twentieth century.

Slavery in New York


Ira Berlin - 2005
    It was a fact about New York that nearly always elicited comment from European visitors. "It rather hurts a European eye to see so many negro slaves upon the streets," one Scottish traveler complained."—from Slavery in New YorkThe recent discovery of the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan reminded Americans that slavery in the United States was not merely a phenomenon of the antebellum South. In fact, for most of its history New York was a slave city.Edited by Ira Berlin, the Bancroft Prize-winning author of Many Thousands Gone, and Leslie Harris, Slavery in New York brings together twelve new contributions by leading historians of slavery and African American life in New York. Published to accompany a major exhibit at the New-York Historical Society, the book demonstrates how slavery shaped the day-to-day experience of New Yorkers, black and white, and how, as a way of doing business, it propelled New York to become the commercial and financial power it is today.Powerfully illustrated with images from the New-York Historical Society exhibit, Slavery in New York will be the definitive account of New York's slave past.

The Destruction of Lower Manhattan


Danny Lyon - 2005
    These buildings were used during the Civil War. The men were all dead, but the buildings were still here, left behind as the city grew around them....The passing of buildings was for me a great event. It didn’t matter so much whether they were of architectural importance. What mattered to me was that they were about to be destroyed. Whole blocks would disappear. An entire neighborhood. Its few last loft occupying tenants were being evicted, and no place like it would ever be built again. The streets involved were among the oldest in New York and when sections of some were closed by the barriers of the demolition men, it meant they would never be opened again.” —Danny Lyon In late 1966, Danny Lyon returned to New York City, having just finished The Bikeriders. He was twenty-five. Living in a loft on the corner of Beekman and William Streets in Downtown Manhattan, Lyon saw that half the buildings on Beekman Street were boarded up, about to be demolished. That year an incredible sixty acres of mostly nineteenth-century buildings were slated for demolition, all below Canal Street. The seven-acre site where the Twin Towers would eventually stand was being cleared, a new ramp added to the Brooklyn Bridge, Pace University expanded, and the Washington Market was being moved to the Bronx. Whole sections of Lower Manhattan were being turned into rubble. Lyon thought of the title The Destruction of Lower Manhattan first, and then made a record of each building before it was demolished. The book was released by Macmillan Publishers in 1969, and remaindered a few years later; the copies sold for one dollar each. It has been a collector’s item ever since. Thirty-eight years after these photographs were made, many of them are the only record that survives of entire blocks that once lined Fulton Street, and West Street along the Hudson. Because of the disaster that would strike the city a generation later, New Yorkers have taken on a renewed and fervent interest in the architecture of their city. This work is a major contribution to that new world. For Lyon, these buildings in their last days standing were the embodiment of a beauty and pathos that people walking by in the street seldom noticed at the time. Those feelings were preserved in the photographs that today survive exactly as the young author intended, as a memory and a record of what was.

Fish Sticks: The Fall and Rise of the New York Islanders


Peter Botte - 2005
    The dynasty quickly crumbled, however, and the team found itself in a seemingly never-ending freefall.One embarrassing episode after another befell the once-mighty Islanders: Kirk Muller balked at being traded to the team; the team's classic logo was replaced with one that was vehemently ridiculed, earning the team the nickname "Fish Sticks"; a slick con artist managed to buy the team with nothing more than his charm; the team failed to make the playoffs seven seasons in a row as miserly owners purged players salaries; Hall of Fame great Bryan Trottier feuded with the team and blocked the retirement of his jersey; embattled general manager "Mad Mike" Milbury couldn't do anything to get himself fired.Yet, having finally hit bottom after enduring countless trials and near-unbelievable tribulations, the team has begun its climb to the top. New owner Charles Wang has brought not only a desire to return the Islanders to their place of pride, but also the money to do it. The team experienced a remarkable resurgence during the 2001–'02 season. Ticket sales have skyrocketed since that breakthrough success, with the team expecting to fight its way back into the playoffs for a second straight season.

New York State Of Mind


Billy Joel - 2005
    From the "movie stars in their fancy cars" at Radio City Music Hall to Chinatown, from the Empire State Building to a Central Park carriage ride, this colorful portrait of the city's most beloved landmarks is a joyous celebration of a great American city.

Up from Orchard Street


Eleanor Widmer - 2005
    Long-widowed Manya is the family’s head and its heart: mother of dapper Jack, mother-in-law of frail and beautiful Lil, and adored bubby of Elka and Willy. She’s renowned throughout the teeming neighborhood for her mouthwatering cooking, and every noontime the front room of the flat turns into Manya’s private restaurant, where the local merchants come to savor her hearty stews and soups, succulent potato latkes and tzimmes, preserved fruits and glorious pastries. She is just as renowned for her fierce sense of honor, her quick eye for charlatans, and her generosity to those in need. But Manya is no soft touch–except, perhaps, where her adored granddaughter Elka is concerned. It is skinny, precocious Elka who is her closest companion and confidante–and the narrator of this event-packed novel. Through Elka’s eyes we come to know the fascinating characters who come in and out of the Roths’ lives: relatives, eccentric locals, doctors, busybody neighbors–as well as the many men who try fruitlessly to win voluptuous Manya’s favors. We live through the bittersweet world of these blunt, earthy, feisty people for whom poverty was endemic, illness common, crises frequent, and zest for living intense. Money may have been short but opinions were not, and their tart tongues and lively humor invest every page. In this riveting story lies the heart of the American immigrant experience: a novel at once wise, funny, poignant, anguishing, exultant–and bursting with love.From the Hardcover edition.

A Journey Into Dorothy Parker's New York


Kevin C. Fitzpatrick - 2005
    Taking the reader through the New York that inspired, and was in turn inspired by, the formidable Mrs Parker, this guide uses rarely seen archival photographs from her life to illustrate Dorothy Parker's development as a writer, a formidable wit, and a public persona.

Great Houses of New York: 1880-1930


Michael C. Kathrens - 2005
    An introduction discusses New York City's architectural history. An appendix with

White Savage: William Johnson and the Invention of America


Fintan O'Toole - 2005
    In New York by 1738, Johnson moved to the frontiers along the Mohawk River, where he established himself as a fur trader and eventually became a landowner with vast estates; served as principal British intermediary with the Iroquois Confederacy; command British, colonial, and Iroquois forces that defeated the French in the battle of Lake George in 1755; and created the first groups of "rangers," who fought like Indians and led the way to the Patriots' victories in the Revolution.As Fintan O'Toole's superbly researched, colorfully dramatic narrative makes clear, the key to Johnson's signal effectiveness was the style in which he lived as a "white savage." Johnson had two wives, one European, one Mohawk; became fluent in Mohawk; and pioneered the use of Indians as active partners in the making of a new America. O'Toole's masterful use of the extraordinary (often hilariously misspelled) documents written by Irish, Dutch, German, French, and Native American participants in Johnson's drama enlivens the account of this heroic figure's legendary career; it also suggests why Johnson's early multiculturalism unraveled, and why the contradictions of his enterprise created a historical dead end.

The Mythic City: Photographs of New York by Samuel H. Gottscho, 1925-1940


Donald Albrecht - 2005
    Gottscho, the preeminent architectural photographer of his generation, captured it. Through his lens, New York of the 1930s became the quintessential modern metropolis, a round-the-clock city in which night was as charismatic as day. Rigorously editing out the Depression-weary city's more seamy aspectsits tenement slums, breadlines, and soup kitchensGottscho presented a dreamlike Gotham of skyscrapers and penthouse luxury that literally and figuratively glowed with glamour's sheen. His gimlet eye focused on the bold interplay of sun and shadow, dramatizing the chiseled forms of Manhattan's signature skyline and bridges. The Empire State and Chrysler buildings, Rockefeller Center, the Plaza, the George Washington BridgeGottscho brought them all to sparkling life. In this beautifully produced, landmark book, historian Donald Albrecht presents 175 of Gottscho's extraordinary images of the city, from the Battery to Harlem. An introductory essay tells the story of this legendary photographer, describing his working methods and philosophy, while placing his work in the broader context of photographic history. The exhibition The Mythic City will open at the Museum of the City of New York in the fall of 2005.Published in association with the Museum of the City of New York.

Twenty-One Elephants and Still Standing


April Jones Prince - 2005
    But some wondered just how much weight the new bridge could hold. Was it truly safe?One man seized the opportunity to show people in Brooklyn, New York and the world that the Brooklyn Bridge was in fact strong enough to hold even the heaviest of passengers. P. T. Barnum, creator of “The Greatest Show on Earth,” would present a show too big for the Big Top and too wondrous to forget.

Boss Tweed: The Rise and Fall of the Corrupt Pol Who Conceived the Soul of Modern New York


Kenneth D. Ackerman - 2005
    Ackerman—an investigative historian of the first order. Ackerman's vibrant, accessible, and altogether captivating Boss Tweed is a biography of the legendary figure who "bribed the state legislature, fixed elections, skimmed money from city contractors, and diverted public funds on a massive scale." During his reign at Tammany Hall and then in a variety of elected posts, including as U.S. senator, Tweed wielded almost total control over New York State and City politics, before his unparalleled zealotry and remorseless disregard for the law led to his imprisonment. Yet, as the author shows, Tweed's positive political contributions have been largely overlooked. From one of the most talented new historians to have emerged in recent years, this book presents a thrilling story of the master manipulator who tried to make all of New York the instrument of his own ruthless ambitions, and succeeded—for a time. More than sixty photos and political cartoons by Thomas Nast are featured throughout.

The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of José Robles


Stephen Koch - 2005
    Hemingway was fuming; Dos Passos was caught off guard. They were there to witness the Spanish Civil War firsthand, but something more personal was going on: as Spain was unraveling thread by thread, so was their friendship." "Dos Passos was widely regarded as the literary voice of America's new socially engaged generation - his face had been on the cover of Time the week the war broke out. And he had long considered Hemingway one of his best friends. Yet they were completely opposite in personality, with Dos Passos's calm temperament and mild manner standing in stark contrast to Hemingway's machismo. Dos Passos was probably oblivious even to Hemingway's envy of him - an envy that was soon to erupt into full-blown resentment." "They had arrived in Spain as comrades, leftist writers-in-arms. But when Dos Passos went looking for his close friend Jose Robles - a Spanish-born Johns Hopkins professor who had moved back to Spain to help save the Spanish Republic - Robles was nowhere to be found. Dos Passos's search for Robles would eventually take his literary career and his friendship with Hemingway to the breaking point." Stephen Koch explores the short time the two men shared in Spain, and how their split changed the life and work of each man - and changed the course of American literature. The Breaking Point is the story of two lives at the intersection of friendship and murder, of love and death, and of literature and history.

What Is Life Worth?: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Fund and Its Effort to Compensate the Victims of September 11th


Kenneth R. Feinberg - 2005
    Just days after September 11, 2001, Kenneth Feinberg was appointed to administer the federal 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, a unique, unprecedented fund established by Congress to compensate families who lost a loved one on 9/11 and survivors who were physically injured in the attacks. Those who participated in the Fund were required to waive their right to sue the airlines involved in the attacks, as well as other potentially responsible entities. When the program was launched, many families criticized it as a brazen, tight-fisted attempt to protect the airlines from lawsuits. The Fund was also attacked as attempting to put insulting dollar values on the lives of lost loved ones. The families were in pain. And they were angry. Over the course of the next three years, Feinberg spent almost all of his time meeting with the families, convincing them of the generosity and compassion of the program, and calculating appropriate awards for each and every claim. The Fund proved to be a dramatic success with over 97% of eligible families participating. It also provided important lessons for Feinberg, who became the filter, the arbitrator, and the target of family suffering. Feinberg learned about the enduring power of family grief, love, fear, faith, frustration, and courage. Most importantly, he learned that no check, no matter how large, could make the families and victims of 9/11 whole again.

Mongo: Adventures in Trash


Ted Botha - 2005
    Decorating his apartment with the furniture and objects he found on Manhattan's streets, he soon realized he wasn't the only person finding things of value in the garbage, and he began meeting all kinds of collectors. Mongo is Botha's remarkable record of his travels among these varied and eccentric people-an appropriately addictive tribute to this longtime, universal phenomenon.

ABC NYC: A Book About Seeing New York City


Joanne Dugan - 2005
    From subway signs to building graffiti, NYC's letters are represented everywhere you walk: M is for Manhole cover, T is for Taxi. A child's guidebook to life in New York, "ABC NYC" beautifully captures the visual vocabulary of the city kid with bold black-and-white photographs and vibrant letters found in some of the most surprising places. Perfect for the youngest set learning the alphabet or collectors of New York memorabilia, "ABC NYC" is as striking and energetic as the city it reveals.

Jackie Robinson: Baseball's Great Pioneer


Jason Glaser - 2005
    Written in graphic-novel format.

Williams-Sonoma Foods of the World: New York: Authentic Recipes Celebrating the Foods of the World


Carolynn Carreño - 2005
    Williams-Sonoma New York, which includes recipes such as Puerto Rican Black Bean Soup, New York Cheesecake, and more sophisticated fare like Polenta Crostini with Chanterelles, is a celebration of the big apple and its favorite foods.

Melanie in Manhattan (Melanie Martin Novels)


Carol Weston - 2005
    Miguel, the cute boy she met in Spain, is visiting New York, and this time Mel gets to be his tour guide. From the Empire State Building to the Statue of Liberty, from the Central Park Zoo to the Brooklyn Bridge, Mel and Miguel are off on their own adventures. But—uh-oh!—Mel also meets a boy in math class. And while she is learning lots about the Big Apple, she is also learning it’s harder than you think to like two guys at one time.From the Hardcover edition.

New York Stories: The Best of the City Section of the New York Times


Constance Rosenblum - 2005
    This famous line from the 1948 film The Naked City has become an emblem of New York City itself. One publication cultivating many of New York City's greatest stories is the City section in The New York Times. Each Sunday, this section of The New York Times, distributed only in papers in the five boroughs, captivates readers with tales of people and places that make the city unique.Featuring a cast of stellar writers Phillip Lopate, Vivian Gornick, Thomas Beller and Laura Shaine Cunningham, among others New York Stories brings some of the best essays from the City section to readers around the country. New Yorkers can learn something new about their city, while other readers will enjoy the flavor of the Big Apple. New York Stories profiles people like sixteen-year-old Barbara Ott, who surfs the waters off Rockaway in Queens, and Sonny Payne, the beloved panhandler of the F train. Other essays explore memorable places in the city, from the Greenwich Village townhouse blown up by radical activists in the 1970s to a basketball court that serves as the heart of its Downtown neighborhood.The forty essays collected in New York Stories reflect an intimate understanding of the city, one that goes beyond the headlines. The result is a passionate, well-written portrait of a legendary and ever-evolving place."

Space, the City and Social Theory: Social Relations and Urban Forms


Fran Tonkiss - 2005
    Space, the City and Social Theory offers a clear and critical account of key approaches to cities and urban space within social theory and analysis.

The Downtown Book: The New York Art Scene 1974-1984


Lynn Gumpert - 2005
    This book charts the intricate web of influences that shaped the generation of experimental and outsider artists working in Downtown New York during the crucial decade from 1974 to 1984. Published in conjunction with the first major exhibition of downtown art (organized by New York University's Grey Art Gallery and Fales Library), The Downtown Book brings the Downtown art scene to life, exploring everything from Punk rock to performance art.The book probes trends that arose in the 1970s and solidified New York's reputation as arbiter of the postmodern American avant-garde. By 1974, the hippie euphoria of the previous decade, with its optimism, free love, and paeans to personal fulfillment, was over. In its place emerged a new kind of experimentation--in art, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. The seven essays featured here examine from different perspectives how Downtown artists constantly pushed the limits of both traditional media and the art world. Art critic Carlo McCormick addresses the energy, power, drugs, and nonstop erotic motion that propelled the scene. Music historian Bernard Gendron explores how minimalism, loft jazz, and Punk all occupied the same Downtown spaces. RoseLee Goldberg, the noted scholar and critic of performance art, looks back at ten years of its ascendancy Downtown. English professor Robert Siegle casts a critical eye on the literature of the Downtown scene. Librarian and archivist Marvin J. Taylor surveys Downtown as both geography and metaphor, and grapples with the question of how best to organize and preserve materials that often challenge the very notion of the archive. The book also includes seminal essays on the critical theories underlying Downtown art, by Brian Wallis; and on Downtown film, by Matthew Yokobosky.The essays are intercut with personal reminiscences by such renowned pioneers of the Downtown scene as Eric Bogosian, Richard Hell, Lydia Lunch, Ann Magnuson, Michael Musto, and Martha Wilson. More than 150 striking photographs feature Downtown denizens and galleries; works by Cindy Sherman, Keith Haring, and many other artists; and hotspots such as CBGBs and Club 57. Hip and provocative, The Downtown Book provides a rare glimpse into the cauldron of the New York artistic counterculture--and the colorful characters who inhabited it. EXHIBITION SCHEDULE: ? Grey Art Gallery and the Fales LibraryNew York UniversityJanuary 10 - April 1, 2006 The Andy Warhol MuseumPittsburgh, PennsylvaniaMid-May to September 4, 2006 Austin Museum of ArtAustin, TexasNovember 11, 2006 - January 28, 2007 (tentative dates)

The Devil's Own Work: The Civil War Draft Riots and the Fight to Reconstruct America


Barnet Schecter - 2005
    Placing the riots in the context of social tension and reform from the 1840s through the 1870s, Barnet Schecter sheds new light on the Civil War era and on the history of protest and reform in America.

A Fire in Their Hearts: Yiddish Socialists in New York


Tony Michels - 2005
    The movement, founded in the 1880s, was dominated by Russian-speaking intellectuals, including Abraham Cahan, Mikhail Zametkin and Chaim Zhitlovsky. Socialist leaders quickly found Yiddish essential to convey their message to the Jewish immigrant community, and they developed a remarkable public culture through lectures and social events, workers' education societies, Yiddish schools, and a press that found its strongest voice in the mass-circulation newspaper Forverts. Arguing against the view that socialism and Yiddish culture arrived as Old World holdovers, Michels demonstrates that they arose in New York in response to local conditions and thrived not despite Americanisation, but because of it. And the influence of the movement swirled far beyond the Lower East Side, to a trans-national culture in which individuals, ideas, and institutions crossed the Atlantic. New York Jews, in the beginning, exported Yiddish socialism to Russia, not the other way around. States well into the 20th Century and left an important political legacy that extends to the rise of neo-conservatism. A story of hopeful successes and bitter disappointments, A Fire in Their Hearts brings to vivid life this formative period for American Jews and the American left.

Children of Ellis Island


Barry Moreno - 2005
    Having left behind their homes in Europe and other parts of the world, they made the voyage to America by steamer. Some came with parents or guardians. A few came as stowaways. But however they traveled, they found themselves a part of one of the grandest waves of human migration that the world has ever known. Children of Ellis Island explores this lost world and what it was like for an uprooted youngster at America's golden door. Highlights include the experience of being a detained child at Ellis Island--the schooling and games, the pastimes and amusements, the friendships, and the uneasiness caused by language barriers.

Happy Feet: The Savoy Ballroom Lindy Hoppers and Me


Richard Michelson - 2005
    It was a night to remember, when blacks and whites, rich and poor, all came together to dance! This inspiring story of the world-famous dancing palace and home of the Lindy Hoppers is told from a father to his son, Happy Feet. It's Happy Feet's favorite story--after all, he was born on the very night the Savoy opened. And he hopes that one day he'll make his own dancing debut at the legendary ballroom . . . because with a lot of hard work and a little Savoy magic, anything is possible.Includes an author's note with biographies of Swing-Era dancers.

Frommer's New York City Day by Day


Hilary Davidson - 2005
    Day by Days are the only guides that help travelers organize their time to get the most out of a trip.Full-color package at an affordable price Star ratings for all hotels, restaurants, and attractions Foldout front covers with maps and quick-reference information Tear-resistant map in a handy, reclosable plastic wallet Handy pocket-sized trim Features: New York for Fashionistas, New York For Music Lovers, New York's Greatest Buildings, and more New York City Day by Day is the perfect answer for travelers who want to know the best places to visit and the best way to see the city. This attractively priced, four-color guide offers dozens of itineraries that show you how to see the best of New York City in a short time--with bulleted maps that lead the way from sight to sight. Featuring a full range of thematic and neighborhood tours, plus dining, lodging, shopping, nightlife, and practical visitor info, New York City Day by Day is the only guide that helps travelers organize their time to get the most out of a trip. Inside this book you'll find:Full color throughout with hundreds of photos and dozens of maps Sample one- to three-day itineraries that include Offbeat New York, Greenwich Village, Romantic New York, and more Star ratings for all hotels, restaurants and attractions clue readers in on great finds and values Tear-resistant foldout map in a handy, reclosable plastic wallet Foldout front cover, with at-a-glance maps and quick-reference info

Jihad in Brooklyn: The NYPD Raid That Stopped America's First Suicide Bombers


Samuel M. Katz - 2005
    But on July 31, 1997, the last place he wanted to be was home, where two of his roommates-young, angry Palestinians-were proudly showing off the bomb belts they planned to detonate on a packed rush-hour subway train. Barely able to stifle his panic, the Egyptian told two policemen his story. Within minutes, they were in a Brooklyn precinct house, and the NYPD's famous Emergency Services Unit was on their way. The brave men of the NYPD ESU staged a daring 5 AM raid on the sweltering, filthy tenement apartment, stopping the terrorists- who literally had their fingers on the switches of the bombs. Hundreds-perhaps thousands-of lives were saved. This is their frightening, true story.

Race of the Century: The Heroic True Story of the 1908 New York to Paris Auto Race


Julie M. Fenster - 2005
    The seventeen men who started the New York to Paris auto race were an international roster of personalities: a charismatic Norwegian outdoorsman, a witty French count, a pair of Italian sophisticates, an aristocratic German army officer, and a cranky mechanic from Buffalo, New York. President Theodore Roosevelt congratulated them by saying, “I like people who do something, not the good safe man who stays at home.” These men were doing something no man had ever done before, and their journey would take them very far from home.Their course was calculated at more than 21,000 miles, across three continents and six countries. It would cross over mountain ranges—some as high as 10,000 feet—and through Arctic freeze and desert heat, from drifting snow to blowing sand. Bridgeless rivers and seas of mud blocked the way, while wolves, bears, and bandits stalked vast, lonely expanses of the route. And there were no gas stations, no garages, and no replacement parts available. The automobile, after all, had been sold commercially for only fifteen years. Many people along the route had never even seen one.Among the heroes of the race were two men who ultimately transcended the others in tenacity, skill, and leadership. Ober-lieutenant Hans Koeppen, a rising officer in the Prussian army, led the German team in their canvas-topped 40-horsepower Protos. His amiable personality belied a core of sheer determination, and by the race’s end, he had won the respect of even his toughest critics. His counterpart on the U.S. team was George Schuster, a blue-collar mechanic and son of German immigrants, who led the Americans in their lightweight 60-horsepower Thomas Flyer. A born competitor, Schuster joined the U.S. team as an undistinguished workman, but he would battle Koeppen until the very end. Ultimately the German and the American would be left alone in the race, fighting the elements, exhaustion, and each other until the winning car’s glorious entrance into Paris, on July 30, 1908.Lincoln’s Birthday, February 12, 1908 . . . The crowds gathering on Broadway all morning were not out to honor Abe Lincoln, either. They were on the avenue to catch sight of the start of the New York-to-Paris Automobile Race. There would only be one—one race round the world, one start, and one particular way that, for the people who lived through it, the world would never be the same. The automobile was about to take it all on: not just Broadway, but the farthest reaches to which it could lead. On that absurdity, the auto was about to come of age.“By ten o’clock,” reported the Tribune, “Broadway up to the northernmost reaches of Harlem looked as though everybody was expecting the circus to come to town.” The excitement was generated by the potential of the auto to overcome the three challenges most frustrating to the twentieth century: distance, nature, and technology. First, distance: in the form of twenty-two thousand miles of the Northern Hemisphere, from New York west to Paris. Second, nature: in seasons at their most unyielding. And third, the very machinery itself, which would be pressed hard by the race to defeat itself. Barely twenty years old as a contraption and only ten as a practical conveyance, the automobile couldn’t reasonably be expected to be ready to take on the world. But there were men who were ready and that was what mattered.—From Race of the CenturyFrom the Hardcover edition.

The Moon Key


J.R. Stampfl - 2005
    Original.

Jim Crow Moves North: The Battle Over Northern School Segregation, 1865-1954


Davison M. Douglas - 2005
    In fact, many northern communities, until recently, engaged in explicit southern style school segregation whereby black children were assigned to colored schools and white children to white schools. Davison Douglas examines why so many northern communities did engage in school segregation (in violation of state laws that prohibited such segregation) and how northern blacks challenged this illegal activity. He analyzes the competing visions of black empowerment in the northern black community as reflected in the debate over school integration.

Field Guide to Meat: How to Identify, Select, and Prepare Virtually Every Meat, Poultry, and Game Cut


Aliza Green - 2005
      This practical guide includes more than 200 full-color photographs of cuts of beef, veal, pork, lamb, game, and poultry as well as more than 100 different kinds of cured meats and sausages. Cross-referenced with the photographs are in-depth descriptions of the cuts, including basic history, location in the animal, characteristics, information on how to choose the cut, and flavor affinities. Step-by-step preparation directions tell you whether the item is best marinated, braised, grilled, roasted, or pan-seared.   Trips to the butcher’s aisle will no longer be intimidating, and you’ll never end up with a cut that’s too tough for dinner.

Let It Rain Coffee


Angie Cruz - 2005
    Now, with humor, passion, and intensity, she reveals the proud members of the Colón family and the dreams, love, and heartbreak that bind them to their past and the future. Esperanza risked her life fleeing the Dominican Republic for the glittering dream she saw on television, but years later she is still stuck in a cramped tenement with her husband, Santo, and their two children, Bobby and Dallas. She works as a home aide and, at night, hides unopened bills from the credit card company where Santo won't find them when he returns from driving his livery cab. When Santo's mother dies and his father, Don Chan, comes to Nueva York to live out his twilight years with the Colóns, nothing will ever be the same. Don Chan remembers fighting together with Santo in the revolution against Trujillo's cruel regime, the promise of who his son might have been, had he not fallen under Esperanza's spell. Let It Rain Coffee is a sweeping novel about love, loss, family, and the elusive nature of memory and desire.

Miracle in the Mist


Elizabeth Sinclair - 2005
    Steve Cameron has lost faith in himself and his professional skills. The possibility of miracles in his business seems nonexistent. Then a mysterious bag lady in Central Park talks him into taking a vacation at a cabin in the Hudson Highlands. But this isn't just any cabin. It's a gateway. Village Healer Meghan Peese has been waiting for Steve, waiting to heal yet another broken spirit who has entered the magical, misty valley. This time, however, with this person, something goes terribly wrong. Meghan has fallen in love. But Steve must leave to fulfill his destiny. And Meghan cannot leave the village with her memory intact. Besides, a destiny of her own awaits. All they can cling to is love, faith, trust, and a miracle in the mist.

Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation


Peter L. Bernstein - 2005
    Best-selling author Peter Bernstein presents the story of the canal's construction against the larger tableau of America in the first quarter-century of the 1800s. Examining the social, political, and economic ramifications of this mammoth project, Bernstein demonstrates how the canal's creation helped prevent the dismemberment of the American empire and knit the sinews of the American industrial revolution. Featuring a rich cast of characters, including not only political visionaries like Washington, Jefferson, van Buren, and the architect's most powerful champion, Governor DeWitt Clinton, but also a huge platoon of Irish diggers as well as the canal's first travelers, Wedding of the Waters reveals that the twenty-first-century themes of urbanization, economic growth, and globalization can all be traced to the first great macroengineering venture of American history.

A Subway for New York


David Weitzman - 2005
    Thousands of passengers paid the nickel fare to experience what it was like to ride beneath Broadway and other traffic-clogged city streets from lower Manhattan to the Upper West Side. Here is the story of the daring and demanding construction project that made it possible for the city’s first “straphangers” to travel miles in minutes.In a lively fact-filled text and incredibly detailed pictures, gifted technical artist David Weitzman brings the mechanics of this incredible public works project to life and captures the can-do spirit of engineers and workers. This is a book for any fan of trains, tunnels, and tracks.