Best of
New-York

2010

Just Kids


Patti Smith - 2010
    An honest and moving story of youth and friendship, Smith brings the same unique, lyrical quality to Just Kids as she has to the rest of her formidable body of work--from her influential 1975 album Horses to her visual art and poetry.

Patti LuPone: A Memoir


Patti LuPone - 2010
    Looking back, I can find gifts and life lessons in every one.” The legendary Patti LuPone is one of the theatre’s most beloved leading ladies. Now she lays it all bare, sharing the intimate story of her life both onstage and off--through the dizzying highs and darkest lows--with the humor and outspokenness that have become her trademarks.With nearly 100 photographs, including an 8-page four-color insert, and illuminating details about the life of a working actor, from inspired costars and demanding directors to her distinct perspective on how she developed and honed her Tony Award–winning performances, Patti LuPone: A Memoir is as inspirational as it is entertaining. And though the title might say “a memoir,” this is ultimately a love letter to the theatre by a unique American artist.Raised on Long Island’s North Shore, Patti discovered her calling at the age of four and knew that she was destined for the stage. A prodigiously gifted child, she was one of only 36 young actors chosen for the inaugural class of The Juilliard School’s Drama Division, where she fought near-constant criticism from her instructors, and here describes those early years with disarming frankness. From the heady days of her early twenties—crisscrossing the country as a founding member of the classical repertory theatre ensemble, The Acting Company--to her early success on Broadway, her four-year stint as Libby Thacher on the television series Life Goes On, her loving marriage to Matt Johnston, and much, much more, Patti chronicles her professional and personal life with inimitable candor and wit.  With its insightful retrospective of her career-defining turns, both on Broadway and abroad, in Evita, Les Misérables, Anything Goes, Sunset Boulevard, Sweeney Todd, and Gypsy, Patti LuPone: A Memoir reveals the artist’s deeply felt passion for music and the theatre and is, in the end, the compelling and quintessential tale of an exceptional life well lived.

Girl in Translation


Jean Kwok - 2010
    Disguising the more difficult truths of her life like the staggering degree of her poverty, the weight of her family’s future resting on her shoulders, or her secret love for a factory boy who shares none of her talent or ambition. Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles.Through Kimberly’s story, author Jean Kwok, who also emigrated from Hong Kong as a young girl, brings to the page the lives of countless immigrants who are caught between the pressure to succeed in America, their duty to their family, and their own personal desires, exposing a world that we rarely hear about. Written in an indelible voice that dramatizes the tensions of an immigrant girl growing up between two cultures, surrounded by a language and world only half understood, Girl in Translation is an unforgettable and classic novel of an American immigrant-a moving tale of hardship and triumph, heartbreak and love, and all that gets lost in translation.

Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, Cancer, and Kathie Lee


Hoda Kotb - 2010
    Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair, and Kathie Lee is a memoir of lessons Hoda Kotb has learned along her journey, from breast cancer survivor to Today Show anchor.

Beasts of New York


Jon Evans - 2010
    A violent, epic, action-packed urban quest full of very eccentric, often hilarious, extremely dangerous characters who also happen to be animals — the wildlife of New York City, to be exact.

Glorious


Bernice L. McFadden - 2010
    Blending the truth of American history with the fruits of Bernice L. McFadden’s rich imagination, this is the story of Easter Venetta Bartlett, a fictional Harlem Renaissance writer whose tumultuous path to success, ruin, and revival offers a candid portrait of the American experience in all its beauty and cruelty.Glorious is ultimately an audacious exploration into the nature of self-hatred, love, possession, ego, betrayal, and, finally, redemption.Bernice L. McFadden is the author of six critically acclaimed novels, including the classic Sugar and Nowhere Is a Place, which was a Washington Post best fiction title for 2006. She is a two-time Hurston/Wright Legacy Award finalist, as well as the recipient of two fiction honors from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA). McFadden lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she is working on her next novel.

Winter's End


Ruth Logan Herne - 2010
    But that's all put to the test when she's called to care for surly Marc DeHollander's dying father. Marc's struggling to keep his cattle farm afloat while dealing with his father's illness. He doesn't have time to fall for the beautiful hospice nurse. But as the frigid New York winter turns to spring, can he find a place for Kayla--and the Lord--in his heart?

Unhooking the Moon


Gregory Hughes - 2010
    When she foresaw her father’s death, she picked up her football and decided to head for New York.Meet her older brother Bob: Protector of the Rat, but more often her follower, he is determined to find their uncle in America and discover a new life for them both. On their adventures across the flatlands of Winnipeg and through the exciting streets of New York, Bob and the Rat make friends with a hilarious con man and a famous rap star, and escape numerous dangers. But is their Uncle a rich business man, or is the word on the street, that he something more sinister, true? And will they ever find him? Hughes has created a funny, warm, unique world that lives and breathes. Like I Capture the Castle, Breakfast at Tiffany's, The Curious Incident, Hughes’ story and characters will resonate for many and for years to come.

Girl Vs. Superstar


Robin Palmer - 2010
    Parker, but it gets so much worse when her mom announces that she's going to marry Laurel Moses's dad. Yes, that Laurel Moses - the TV-movie-music star who makes Hannah Montana look like some random kid from the sticks. Suddenly, Lucy's life is turned upside down and sideways. All Lucy wants to do is get through the day without totally embarrassing herself too much, but that's hard to do when you're the less-pretty, less-talented not-quite sister of a mega superstar.

Threads and Flames


Esther M. Friesner - 2010
    It's overwhelming, awe-inspiring, and even dangerous, especially when she discovers that her sister has disappeared and she must now fend for herself. She finds work in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory sewing bodices on the popular shirtwaists. Raisa makes friends and even-dare she admit it?- falls in love. But then 1911 dawns, and one March day a spark ignites in the factory. One of the city's most harrowing tragedies unfolds, and Raisa's life is forever changed. . . . One hundred years after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, this moving young adult novel gives life to the tragedy and hope of this transformative event in American history.

Chronicles of Old New York: Exploring Manhattan's Landmark Neighborhoods


James Roman - 2010
    Discover 400 years of innovation through the true stories of the visionaries, risk-takers, dreamers, and schemers who built Manhattan. Witness life during the city’s earliest days, when Greenwich Village was a bucolic suburb and disease was a fact of daily life. Find out which park covers a sea of unmarked graves. Explore the city’s dark side, from the slums of Five Points to Harlem’s Prohibition-era speakeasies. Then see it all for yourself with guided walking tours of each of Manhattan’s historic neighborhoods, illustrated with color photographs and period maps.

Diamond Ruby


Joseph Wallace - 2010
    She’s got street smarts, boundless determination, and one unusual skill: the ability to throw a ball as hard as the greatest pitchers in a baseball-mad city.From Coney Island sideshows to the brand-new Yankee Stadium, Diamond Ruby chronicles the extraordinary life and times of a girl who rises from utter poverty to the kind of renown only the Roaring Twenties can bestow. But her fame comes with a price, and Ruby must escape a deadly web of conspiracy and threats from Prohibition rumrunners, the Ku Klux Klan, and the gangster underworld.Diamond Ruby “is the exciting tale of a forgotten piece of baseball’s heritage, a girl who could throw with the best of them. A real page-turner, based closely on a true story” (Kevin Baker, author of Strivers Row).

Cheetah Chrome: A Dead Boy's Tale: From the Front Lines of Punk Rock


Cheetah Chrome - 2010
    It’s a tale of success--and excess: great music, drugs (he overdosed and was pronounced dead three times), and resurrection.The Dead Boys, with roots in the band Rocket from the Tombs, came out of Cleveland to dominate the NYC punk scene in the mid-1970s. Their hit “Sonic Reducer” soon became a punk anthem. Now, for the first time, Cheetah dishes on the people he’s known onstage and off, including the Dead Boys’ legendary singer Stiv Bators, Johnny Thunders of the New York Dolls, the Ramones, the Clash, Pere Ubu, and the Ghetto Dogs, as well as life at CBGBs, a year with Nico, and more.Straight from the man, these are the backstage stories that every punk fan will want to hear. Never mind the Sex Pistols, here’s Cheetah Chrome!

I Lego N.Y.


Christoph Niemann - 2010
    is an imaginative look at life in New York City constructed entirely out of LEGOs. Designer and illustrator Christoph Niemann was inspired to create a series of miniature New York vignettes out of his sons' toys after a few cold and dark winter days in Berlin. The former New Yorker then posted photographs of his creations along with his handwritten captions on his New York Times blog. Resident and honorary New Yorkers around the world responded enthusiastically to the clever and minimalist inventions, which captured both the iconic (the Empire State Building) and the mundane (man standing on a subway platform) in fewer LEGO pieces than one might think possible. This book includes all of the original images, plus thirteen new creations. The resulting collection is delightful in its simplicity and moving in its ability to cature the spirit of life in New York in so few strokes. Also available from Christoph Niemann: Abstract City and Sunday Sketching.

The Fires: How a Computer Formula Burned Down New York City--And Determined the Future of American Cities


Joe Flood - 2010
    The RAND Corporation had presented an alluring proposal to a city on the brink of economic collapse: Using RAND's computer models, which had been successfully implemented in high-level military operations, the city could save millions of dollars by establishing more efficient public services. The RAND boys were the best and brightest, and bore all the sheen of modern American success. New York City, on the other hand, seemed old-fashioned, insular, and corrupt-and the new mayor was eager for outside help, especially something as innovative and infallible as "computer modeling." A deal was struck: RAND would begin its first major civilian effort with the FDNY. Over the next decade-a time New York City firefighters would refer to as "The War Years"-a series of fires swept through the South Bronx, the Lower East Side, Harlem, and Brooklyn, gutting whole neighborhoods, killing more than two thousand people and displacing hundreds of thousands. Conventional wisdom would blame arson, but these fires were the result of something altogether different: the intentional withdrawal of fire protection from the city's poorest neighborhoods-all based on RAND's computer modeling systems. Despite the disastrous consequences, New York City in the 1970s set the template for how a modern city functions-both literally, as RAND sold its computer models to cities across the country, and systematically, as a new wave of technocratic decision-making took hold, which persists to this day. In "The Fires," Joe Flood provides an X-ray of these inner workings, using the dramatic story of a pair of mayors, an ambitious fire commissioner, and an even more ambitious think tank to illuminate the patterns and formulas that are now inextricably woven into the very fabric of contemporary urban life. "The Fires" is a must read for anyone curious about how a modern city works.

The Great Hangover: 21 Tales of the New Recession from the Pages of Vanity Fair


Vanity Fair - 2010
    A collection of stories from Vanity Fair magazine about the current financial crisis by some of the country’s best business journalists, including Michael Lewis (Moneyball, Liar’s Poker), Bryan Burrough (Barbarians at the Gate), and Mark Bowden (Black Hawk Down), edited by Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, and with an introduction by Cullen Murphy (Are We Rome?).

Myth Man


Alex Mueck - 2010
    He is a lion, and the religious cattle his prey. A serial killer is focused on severing religion's stranglehold on humanity in order to cleanse the world of superstitions, religious leaders, and gullible citizens. Myth Man is preparing to unleash an unholy vengeance. Lieutenant Dominick Presto is one of New York City's finest police detectives. While the obese Presto battles prejudices from within his own department, he matches his wits with one of the most sensationalized killer in the city's history. But Myth Man fears no one. And the murder spree begins. Hailed as the Son of Satan by the local newspapers, Myth Man uses hidden contacts and disguises as he moves from victim to victim, while Presto attempts to decipher his psychotic mind in order to predict his next move.The serial killer has a plan. And soon the world will come to know him, celebrate him, and perhaps worship him-for he is Myth Man.

National Park Quarters Collector's Quarter Folder 2010-2021: 50 States, District of Columbia & Territories


NOT A BOOK - 2010
    Everyone either has or knows someone who has been given a coin folder as a child and gone on to fill it with cents, nickels, dimes, or quarters.The state quarter program has been one of the most successful in the U.S. Mint's history. It has brought collecting to the mainstream. Riding on the coat tails of the state quarter program, the America the Beautiful series comes at a time when the public is familiar with searching and saving quarters from circulation. A total of 56 quarters honoring a national site from each U.S. state and territory will be issued from 2010 to 2021.

The History of American Graffiti


Roger Gastman - 2010
    This book provides a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the roots of a subculture that has managed to movemainstream without losing its edge.

Over Here!: New York City During World War II


Lorraine B. Diehl - 2010
    Diehl—lifetime resident of the Big Apple and author of The Late, Great Pennsylvania Station and Subways—relates the true story of New York City during World War II. From the Brooklyn Naval Yard to Times Square nightclubs, from children’s Mickey Mouse gas-masks to victory gardens in Rockefeller Center, Over Here! is a nostalgic portrait of the Greatest Generation and the Empire City. Including anecdotes from famous New Yorkers and visitors such as Angela Lansbury, Walter Cronkite, and Barbara Walters, and richly illustrated with more than 80 period photographs, Over Here! is an inspiring tribute to New York City during the Great War.

Clara and Mr. Tiffany


Susan Vreeland - 2010
    But behind the scenes in his New York studio is the freethinking Clara Driscoll, head of his women’s division. Publicly unrecognized by Tiffany, Clara conceives of and designs nearly all of the iconic leaded-glass lamps for which he is long remembered.Clara struggles with her desire for artistic recognition and the seemingly insurmountable challenges that she faces as a professional woman, which ultimately force her to protest against the company she has worked so hard to cultivate. She also yearns for love and companionship, and is devoted in different ways to five men, including Tiffany, who enforces to a strict policy: he does not hire married women, and any who do marry while under his employ must resign immediately. Eventually, like many women, Clara must decide what makes her happiest—the professional world of her hands or the personal world of her heart.

Green-Wood


Allison Cobb - 2010
    Nonfiction. Allison Cobb wanders Brooklyn's famous nineteenth-century Green-Wood Cemetery and discovers that its 500 acres hills and ponds, trees and graves mirror the American landscape: a place marked by greed, war, and death, but still pulsing with life. The book is a testament to what survives and an elegy for what is lost, the long dead, the landscape itself, but especially those who died in the Twin Towers and in the United States's ongoing wars."

Hunting Season: Immigration and Murder in an All-American Town


Mirta Ojito - 2010
    The teenaged attackers were out "hunting for beaners," their slur for Latinos, and Lucero was to become another victim of the anti-immigration fever spreading in the United States. But in death, Lucero's name became a symbol of everything that was wrong with our broken immigration system: porous borders, lax law enforcement, and the rise of bigotry. With a strong commitment to telling all sides of the story, journalist Mirta Ojito unravels the engrossing narrative with objectivity and insight, providing an invaluable peephole into one of American's most pressing issues.

Vidal: The Autobiography


Vidal Sassoon - 2010
    His memoir begins with surprising and often moving stories of his early life—his time at the Spanish & Portuguese Jewish Orphanage in Maida Vale, fighting fascists in London's East End, and fighting in the army of the fledgling state of Israel in the late 1940s. He then discusses his extraordinary career, during which he cut the hair of everyone who was anyone—including Mary Quant, Grace Coddington, Twiggy, Rita Hayworth, and Mia Farrow; launched salons all over the world; founded the hairdressing school that still bears his name; and became a global brand. He also shares the passions that drive him—architecture and beautiful women, Israel and anti-Semitism, family ties and season tickets at Chelsea. The compelling memoir of a genuine fashion icon who reinvented the art of hairdressing.

Subway


Christoph Niemann - 2010
    A father.Two children.And more than 840 miles of track.What does it addup to?Something thrilling.Are you ready for Subway?

Zombies! Episode 1: Shawn of the Dead


Ivan Turner - 2010
    Shawn of the Dead is the first of a series of episodes that focuses on the more personal aspects of people as they face their regular lives against the backdrop of a zombie infection.Shawn Rudd is an almost average high school senior on his way to meet up with his secret lover when he encounters what appears to be a zombie. His reaction to this encounter will change the course of his life forever.Detective Johan Stemmy and his partner are called in to investigate a strange murder. The victim's time of death predates the murder by several hours. As the word "zombie" begins to enter their vocabulary, Stemmy and his partner must begin to redefine their experience as homicide detectives and accept what simply cannot be.Join these and other characters as they try to live their regular lives despite intrusion of zombies into the populace. With the rules of society altered forever, can society survive?

Arthur's Story: A Love Story


Kathleen Valentine - 2010
    His resourcefulness, industry, and good fortune contribute to creating a future -- but so does a mysterious "guardian angel". This is a "quietly wonderful" (Clair Higgins, "Queer Bent for the Tudor Gent") story about young Arthur Silver, his mentor Ralph Jonas who teaches him to create spectacular gardens, and the mysterious woman who made his new life possible. Heartwarming and inspirational.

You Have Given Me a Country: A Memoir


Neela Vaswani - 2010
    Combining memoir, history, and fiction, the book follows the paths of the author's Irish-Catholic mother and Sindhi-Indian father on their journey toward each other and the biracial child they create. Neela Vaswani's second full-length work thematically echoes such books as The Color of Water, Running in the Family, or Motiba's Tatoos, but it is entirely unique in approach, voice, and story. The book reveals the self as a culmination of all that went before it, a brilliant new weave of two varied, yet ultimately universal backgrounds that spans continents, generations, languages, wars, and, at the center of it all, family.Neela Vaswani is the author of the short story collection Where the Long Grass Bends (Sarabande Books, 2004). Recipient of a 2006 O. Henry Prize, her fiction and nonfiction have been widely anthologized and published in journals such as Epoch, Shenandoah, and Prairie Schooner. She lives in New York City.

Zinester's Guide to NYC: The Last Wholly Analog Guide to NYC


Ayun Halliday - 2010
    Whether you're looking for scam-able coffee or a place to grab a Japanese breakfast, art supplies, volunteer opportunities, or a 4-story Korean bathhouse, the ZG2NYC has it all. Anecdotal and opinionated, the ZG2NYC has listings from over twenty New York-based zine publishers, toiling under the benevolent umbrella of Ayun Halliday (Chief Primatologist of The East Village Inky zine, author of No Touch Monkey!) “The best way to experience the city is to really participate in it," Halliday says. "Why watch the parade when you can march in it? People should know that they can guest bartend, play bike polo in Sara Roosevelt Park, create a public park in a parking space on National Park(ing) Day, and submit the 5-minute movies they shoot on the boardwalk to next year's Coney Island Film Festival.” Like our Portland guide, the pocket-size NYC book is divided into illustrated, user friendly sections (Bars! Pizza! Historic buildings! Veggie options! Open mics! Craft supplies! The keys to low-budget NYC romance!) that give up the goods for first-timers and native New Yorkers alike.

The Nora Ephron Bundle: I Feel Bad About My Neck and I Remember Nothing


Nora Ephron - 2010
    

Denys Wortman's New York: Portrait of the City in the 30s and 40s


Denys Wortman - 2010
    Sturm immediately took note of the masterful drawings—casual, confident, and brimming with personality—and wondered how this cartoonist escaped his radar. After some online sleuthing, Sturm connected with Wortman's son, who relayed that an archive of more than five thousand illustrations was literally sitting in his shed in dire need of rescuing. For more than thirty-five years, the illustrations had been fighting such elements as hungry rodents, rusty paper clips, and even a blizzard. Wortman's son also had drawers full of his father's correspondence, including letters and holiday cards from William Steig and Walt Disney. Original artwork by artists and personal friends—including Peggy Bacon, Milt Gross, Isabel Bishop, and Reginald Marsh—were also saved. The fact that Wortman's luminary peers held him in the highest regard, coupled with his artistic prowess, makes his absence from both fine art and comics history puzzling. So Sturm and Brandon Elston set out to create a beautiful tribute to the forgotten master.Denys Wortman's New York is not only a tribute to Wortman; it is a tribute to New York, the city that sparked Wortman's voracious creative output. From coal cellars to rooftops, from opera houses to boardinghouses, Wortman recorded the sailors, dishwashers, con artists, entertainers, pushcart peddlers, construction workers, musicians, hoboes, society matrons, young mothers, secretaries, and students who collectively made the city what it was and is today.

Feivel's Flying Horses


Heidi Smith Hyde - 2010
    This book is a work of historical fiction based on the stories of Jewish woodcarvers who came from the Old Country and turned their talents to carving carousel horses on Coney Island.

The Best Things to Do in New York: 1001 Ideas


Caitlin Leffel - 2010
    Organized by theme–including Eating and Drinking, 24-hour New York, Shopping and Spending, Arts and Culture, Views and Sites, the Great Outdoors, and Classic New York–and packed with detailed, helpful indexes organized by neighborhood and by category, this is simply the most fun and comprehensive guidebook to New York City ever. The Best Things to Do in New York crosses genres and boroughs to explore every aspect of the most diverse and exciting city in the world. Written from experience by two people who love the city, and featuring priceless tips from expert contributors–from authors on their favorite bookstores to architects on the city's best buildings–The Best Things to Do in New York is much more than just a guide.

Lady Gaga: Me & You


Posy Edwards - 2010
    It looks back to her beginnings, and her long, hardworking climb to fame. The Lady's millions of followers will love all the gossip from the Gaga tour bus (including the dish on her friends and romances) and insider info on how Gaga created her unique style. Featuring stunning photographs and an exclusive pull-out poster, this is a fun peek inside the life of Lady Gaga!

The Essential Guide to Business for Artists and Designers - Revised and Updated


Alison Branagan - 2010
    This excellent guide is designed to help artists acquire vital knowledge and skills to develop a vision and strategy for the future and make that vision into a successful business. Specific topics that are covered include: self-employment v. employment; starting up a business; funding and sponsorship; building networks; self-promotion; legal issues and creative crime; negotiation tactics and contracts; records, taxes and basic bookkeeping; trading via the Internet, innovation and future trends. All in all, this is a thorough guide for all budding artists who want to start up a business.

Epiphany


J.L. Merrow - 2010
    He can hardly believe his luck when it seems that Gray feels the same way. One steamy afternoon later, Vinnie is on top of the world. But are there things that Gray just hasn't been telling him?

Rough Justice: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer


Peter Elkind - 2010
    By his late forties, he'd gone from Princeton to Harvard Law to dramatic success as a prosecutor and attorney general to the governorship of New York. Many thought he would become the first Jewish president of the United States. Then came the prostitution scandal that shocked and mystified the nation. Peter Elkind's definitive account gets at all sides of this complex man: the well-intentioned do-gooder, the aggressive lawyer, the hardball politician, the dutiful son, the loving husband and father, and the secretive "Client 9" of the Emperor's Club escort service. Elkind interviewed dozens of key sources ranging from Spitzer's family, friends, and closest aides, to targets of his high-profile investigations, to central players in the prostitution ring. He reveals many groundbreaking new details about Spitzer's rise, his short time as governor, and the way his enemies plotted against him. The result is a gripping, almost Shakespearean narrative-a tragedy of one man's noble intentions and fatal flaws and the powerful forces (both internal and external) that destroyed him.

Nature Guide to the Northern Forest: Exploring the Ecology of the Forests of New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine


Peter J. Marchand - 2010
    Readable and enlightening, this book explores topics such as human’s influence on the history of the wild, adaptation of species at high elevations, the turning of the seasons, winter, and climate change. Includes illustrations and photographs to help readers identify plants and animals.

The Northern Forest Canoe Trail: Enjoy 740 Miles of Canoe and Kayak Destinations in New York, Vermont, Quebec, New Hampshire, and Maine


Northern Forest Canoe Trail - 2010
    The official guide to the NFCT, published bythe Mountaineers , written by the NFCT.

Through Time: New York City


Richard Platt - 2010
    Detailed artworks tell the story of a specific location as it changes with time. As they explore each scene, readers learn about the people who lived in this place, looking at their beliefs and ways of life.Through Time: New York City tells the story of the Big Apple from its native American origins to the present – including the arrival of European settlers, the growth of trade, immigration, and great feats of engineering such as the Brooklyn Bridge. Along the way, the book explores major events in world history, such as the Revolutionary War and the famous Wall Street Crash.

Kay Thompson: From Funny Face to Eloise


Sam Irvin - 2010
    A multi-threat entertainer and a world-class eccentric, Kay Thompson was the mentor/best friend of Judy Garland, the vocal guru for Frank Sinatra and Lena Horne, and the godmother/Svengali of Liza Minnelli (who recreated Thompson’s nightclub act in her 2009 Tony Award–winning event, Liza’s at the Palace). She went to school with Tennessee Williams, auditioned for Henry Ford, got her first big break from Bing Crosby, trained Marilyn Monroe, channeled Elvis Presley, rejected Andy Warhol, rebuffed Federico Fellini, got fired by Howard Hughes, and snubbed Donald Trump. She coached Bette Davis and Eleanor Roosevelt; she created nightclub acts for Marlene Dietrich and Ginger Rogers; and when Lucille Ball had to sing on Broadway, Kay was the wind beneath her wings, too. Kay’s legion of fans included Queen Elizabeth of England, King Juan Carlos of Spain, and Princess Grace (Kelly) of Monaco. Danny Kaye masqueraded in drag as her; Noël Coward and Cole Porter wrote musicals for her; and The Beatles wanted to hold her hand. She was a charter member of the Rat Pack, costarred in a whodunit with Ronald Reagan, and directed John F. Kennedy’s Inaugural Gala. The dame cut a wide swath through the arts. After conquering radio in the 1930s she commandeered MGM’s vocal department in the 1940s, where she revolutionized the studio’s greatest musicals with her audacious arrangements, from The Harvey Girls to Ziegfeld Follies. In the 1950s she became the highest-paid cabaret attraction in the world with her groundbreaking act "Kay Thompson and the Williams Brothers," featuring her young protégé—and secret lover—Andy Williams. In a stunning feat of reinvention, Thompson next became the bestselling author of Eloise (first published by Simon & Schuster in 1955), chronicling the mischievous adventures of the six-year-old mascot of The Plaza, spawning an industry that is still going strong today. Then Kay took the silver screen by storm as the "Think Pink!" fashion magazine editor in Funny Face, stealing the film right out from under Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire. The Thompson saga swells from small town wannabe to international headliner, dissolving into self-destruction and madness—the storyline usually reserved for a rags-to-riches potboiler—yet with unexpected twists, outlandish turns, and a last-minute happy ending that, even by Hollywood’s standards, is nothing short of preposterous. But that is Kay Thompson. Fascinating. Frustrating. Fabulous!

The Edge of Whiteness


Joe Montaperto - 2010
    It is 1969 and Brooklyn is smoldering in the aftermath of the recent race riots. The family of young Joey Montaperto flees their beloved Italian neighborhood, for a New Jersey suburb so painfully white that it makes the TV show, 'My Three Sons', seem exotic. Ironically, when the high school there is then later forcefully integrated, the sensitive Joey is confronted with an even more brutal racial conflict. Unexpectedly rescued from a hallway ambush by a murderous, yet artistic, loner, he is subsequently introduced to a fascinating new world of hip black culture. Finding his soul and 'soul' in the writings of Malcolm X, he also experiences a doomed first love affair with a sizzling, but heroin plagued, Puerto Rican hairdresser. Ultimately, he undertakes a spiritual foray into the study of Islam - which all serves to cause a major conflict within his Catholic family and the Mafia restaurant where he is employed as a dishwasher.

The Lonely Phone Booth


Peter Ackerman - 2010
    Everyone used it from ballerinas and girl scouts, zookeepers and birthday clowns, to cellists and even secret agents! The Phone Booth was so beloved that people would sometimes wait in line to use it. Kept clean and polished, the Phone Booth was proud and happy...until the day a businessman strode by and shouted until a shiny silver object, "I'll be there in ten minutes!" Soon everyone was talking into these shiny silver things, and the Phone Booth stood alone and empty, unused and dejected.

Everleigh in NYC


Cathleen Holst - 2010
    On a whim, Everleigh and her BFF Christina visit a voodoo priestess while celebrating Mardi Gras in the Big Easy, where an unspoken wish is granted, unknowingly altering the course of Everleigh's life. Two years later, her dreams are set to come true when she lands her dream job as a columnist for New York's premiere fashion magazine, Tres Magnifique. Everleigh's life quickly becomes complicated when her ex re-declares his love for her, and she meets Robert Cates, only to discover three things: 1)She is extremely attracted to him. 2) She has the bizarre ability to hear his thoughts. 3) He is her new boss. Everleigh takes a long awaited bite from the Big Apple, but are her eyes bigger than her appetite?

Larry Gets Lost in New York City


Michael Mullin - 2010
    Along the way he loses Pete and his family in the city's famous subway system. Finally after an exhausting day of adventures, Larry is reunited with his family at the top of the Empire State Building. This book takes young readers on a dog's-eye view of the greatest city in the world. Sidebar entries enhance the story, offering fascinating factoids about the places Larry visits.

When Did the Statue of Liberty Turn Green?: And 101 Other Questions about New York City


Nina Nazionale - 2010
    Who was the first woman to run for mayor of New York? Why are beavers featured on the city's official seal? Is it true that a nineteenth-century New Yorker built a house out of spite? These questions involve people, places, buildings, monuments, rumors, and urban myths. They concern sports, food, transportation, the arts, politics, nature, and Central Park, among many other subjects. Taken together, they attest to the infinite stories hidden within the most intriguing metropolis in the world.In "When Did the Statue of Liberty Turn Green?" the staff of the New-York Historical Society Library answer more than a hundred of the most popular and compelling queries. The endlessly entertaining entries in this book feature hard-to-find data and unforgettable profiles, sharing snapshots of New York's secret history for all to enjoy. Drawing on the library's extensive collections, the staff reveal when the first book was printed in New York, whether the story of Harlem residents presenting rats to government officials is true, who exactly were the Collyer brothers and why were they famous, and why premature babies were once displayed in Coney Island. For readers who love trivia, urban history, strange tales, and, of course, New York City, this book will delight with its rich, informative, and surprising stories.Look inside to learn:How "Peg-Leg" Peter Stuyvesant lost his right leg Whether Manhattan used to have cowboysHow the New York Yankees got their nameWho was Pig Foot MaryWhy the Manhattan House of Detention is called the TombsWho was Topsy and how she electrified New York CityHow many speakeasies were open during ProhibitionWhat occurred every May in the nineteenth century to cause so much commotionWhen penguins were stolen from the Coney Island Aquarium

Five Hundred Buildings of New York


Bill Harris - 2010
    Each building is featured in a rich, fine-resolution duotone photograph. Information including the building's name, its address and location, and year of completion or renovation is included underneath the image. A brief description of each building, which highlights its distinctive features and places it in historical context, is included at the back of the book.

The Northside: African Americans and the Creation of Atlantic City


Nelson Johnson - 2010
    But he persisted, and the result was a chapterâ��"A Plantation by the Sea"â��that inspired this powerful sequel.In The Northside, Johnson brings the untold story of Atlantic City's black community vividly to life, from the arrival of the first African Americans to Absecon Island in the early 19th century through the glory days of the "World's Playground." Drawing on dozens of personal interviews and painstaking archival research, he reveals long-forgotten details about the people on whose backs the gambling mecca was built and offers a wide-ranging survey of the accomplishments of more recent generations.Exploited for their labor and banished to the most undesirable part of town, resilient Northsiders created a vibrant city within a cityâ��a place where black culture could thrive and young people could aspire to become artists, athletes, educators, and leaders of business, politics, and society. As Nelson Johnson shows in this unflinching portrait, Atlantic City was built on their toilâ��and the Northside was born of their dreams.

New York City at Night


Marcia Reiss - 2010
    New York City at Night is a stunning blend of aerial photographs of the city's iconic skyline and most famous landmarks as seen through the lens of world-famous aerial photographer Evan Joseph. During the daytime, the Empire State Building is a large-shouldered, gray giant on the horizon; but at nighttime, this 120-story Art Deco gem is enchanting. See this landmark building all lit up, and enjoy sparkling views from the deck of its Observatory and beyond. A tourist book to break the mold! New York City at Night offers a dramatic new perspective of the world's favorite destination.

When Midnight Comes


Lori Handeland - 2010
    Newly dead Jack Keegan may be doomed to wander the earth forever with only a lantern to light his way unless he atones for the sins of a lifetime. His love for Lucia Casale may be the only thing that can save him.

Pocket Rough Guide New York City


Martin Dunford - 2010
     The Pocket Rough Guide to New York City is your essential guide to the cultural capital of the United States, with the all the key sights, restaurants, shops, and bars in an easy-to-use format, and a full-color pull-out map.Whether you have an afternoon or a few days at your disposal, kids in tow or a tight budget to stick to, Rough Guides' itineraries help you plan your trip, and the "Best of New York" section picks out the city's highlights you won't want to miss, from the world's foremost Natural History Museum to exhilarating viewpoints like the towering Empire State and elegant Brooklyn Bridge.Divided by area for easy navigation, the Places section is written in Rough Guides' trademark honest and informative style, with listings of the must-see sights and our pick of the best places to eat, shop, stay — and stay out late — in the city that never sleeps.All the sights, accommodation, restaurants, shops and bars are pinpointed on full-color maps, and there's also a handy pull-out map for easy navigation. The Pocket Rough Guide to New York City takes you right to the heart of Manhattan and the vibrant outer boroughs so you can make the most of your time.

Manhattan Projects: The Rise and Fall of Urban Renewal in Cold War New York


Samuel Zipp - 2010
    Focusing on four iconic Manhattan projects--the United Nations building, Stuyvesant Town, Lincoln Center, and the great swaths of public housing in East Harlem--Zipp unearths a host of forgotten stories and characters that flesh out the conventional history of urban renewal. He shows how boosters hoped to make Manhattan the capital of modernity and a symbol of American power, but even as the builders executed their plans, a chorus of critics revealed the dark side of those Cold War visions, attacking urban renewal for perpetuating deindustrialization, racial segregation, and class division; for uprooting thousands, and for implanting a new, alienating cityscape. Cold War-era urban renewal was not merely a failed planning ideal, Zipp concludes, but also a crucial phase in the transformation of New York into both a world city and one mired in urban crisis.

My Shadowed Past


David Selby - 2010
    Peace, protests and Dark Shadows.In My Shadowed Past, actor-writer David Selby reflects on a pivotal time in his life and career— a turbulent and vital period in the 1960s when America was experiencing profound social and political changes.It was an era in which civil rights marches and anti-war rallies were rampant as the youth movement organized in the streets and on campuses across the nation, demonstrating for peace and equality.In the midst of the turmoil and tension was a daily afternoon escape—an opportunity to become drawn into a Gothic world of fantasy, suspense and romance on the ABC-TV serial Dark Shadows.Selby joined the cast in 1968 as the mysterious Quentin Collins, and now, four decades later, documents the ongoing devotion to Dark Shadows and its special historical context.