Best of
New-York

2014

Bad Blood


Casey Kelleher - 2014
    Loyalty makes you family.In the underbelly of Soho’s organised crime ring, everyone knows that retired boxer Harry Woods is not one to mess with. And that goes double for his family.Harry has it all: the big house, the flashy cars, and an abundance of wealth. As much as money talks in his world, Harry knows deep down the only thing that really counts is family. Haunted by the sudden death of his wife, he’ll do anything to protect his children, but truth is a heavy burden and hidden secrets can unravel even the strongest of bonds...Without loyalty, family are bound together only by blood. Bad blood.

All Four Stars


Tara Dairman - 2014
    (Just don’t tell anyone that she’s in sixth grade.)   Gladys Gatsby has been cooking gourmet dishes since the age of seven, only her fast-food-loving parents have no idea! Now she’s eleven, and after a crème brûlée accident (just a small fire), Gladys is cut off from the kitchen (and her allowance). She’s devastated but soon finds just the right opportunity to pay her parents back when she’s mistakenly contacted to write a restaurant review for one of the largest newspapers in the world.   But in order to meet her deadline and keep her dream job, Gladys must cook her way into the heart of her sixth-grade archenemy and sneak into New York City—all while keeping her identity a secret! Easy as pie, right?

A Fall of Marigolds


Susan Meissner - 2014
    September 1911. On Ellis Island in New York Harbor, nurse Clara Wood cannot face returning to Manhattan, where the man she loved fell to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire. Then, while caring for a fevered immigrant whose own loss mirrors hers, she becomes intrigued by a name embroidered onto the scarf he carries …and finds herself caught in a dilemma that compels her to confront the truth about the assumptions she’s made. Will what she learns devastate her or free her?  September 2011. On Manhattan’s Upper West Side, widow Taryn Michaels has convinced herself that she is living fully, working in a charming specialty fabric store and raising her daughter alone. Then a long-lost photograph appears in a national magazine, and she is forced to relive the terrible day her husband died in the collapse of the World Trade Towers …the same day a stranger reached out and saved her. Will a chance reconnection and a century-old scarf open Taryn’s eyes to the larger forces at work in her life?

Under the Egg


Laura Marx Fitzgerald - 2014
    Basil E. Frankweiler meets Chasing Vermeer in this clever middle-grade debut.When Theodora Tenpenny spills a bottle of rubbing alcohol on her late grandfather’s painting, she discovers what seems to be an old Renaissance masterpiece underneath. That’s great news for Theo, who’s struggling to hang onto her family’s two-hundred-year-old townhouse and support her unstable mother on her grandfather’s legacy of $463. There’s just one problem: Theo’s grandfather was a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and she worries the painting may be stolen.With the help of some unusual new friends, Theo’s search for answers takes her all around Manhattan, and introduces her to a side of the city—and her grandfather—that she never knew. To solve the mystery, she’ll have to abandon her hard-won self-reliance and build a community, one serendipitous friendship at a time.

When I Was the Greatest


Jason Reynolds - 2014
    This gritty, triumphant debut captures the heart and the hardship of life for an urban teen.A lot of the stuff that gives my neighborhood a bad name, I don’t really mess with. The guns and drugs and all that, not really my thing.Nah, not his thing. Ali’s got enough going on, between school and boxing and helping out at home. His best friend Noodles, though. Now there’s a dude looking for trouble—and, somehow, it’s always Ali around to pick up the pieces. But, hey, a guy’s gotta look out for his boys, right? Besides, it’s all small potatoes; it’s not like anyone’s getting hurt.And then there’s Needles. Needles is Noodles’s brother. He’s got a syndrome, and gets these ticks and blurts out the wildest, craziest things. It’s cool, though: everyone on their street knows he doesn’t mean anything by it.Yeah, it’s cool…until Ali and Noodles and Needles find themselves somewhere they never expected to be…somewhere they never should've been—where the people aren't so friendly, and even less forgiving.

The 40s: The Story of a Decade


The New Yorker - 2014
    This is the era of Fat Man and Little Boy, of FDR and Stalin, but also of Casablanca and Citizen Kane, zoot suits and Christian Dior, Duke Ellington and Edith Piaf. The 1940s were when The New Yorker came of age. A magazine that was best known for its humor and wry social observation would extend itself, offering the first in-depth reporting from Hiroshima and introducing American readers to the fiction of Vladimir Nabokov and the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop. In this enthralling book, masterly contributions from the pantheon of great writers who graced The New Yorker’s pages throughout the decade are placed in history by the magazine’s current writers. Included in this volume are seminal profiles of the decade’s most fascinating figures: Albert Einstein, Marshal Pétain, Thomas Mann, Le Corbusier, Walt Disney, and Eleanor Roosevelt. Here are classics in reporting: John Hersey’s account of the heroism of a young naval lieutenant named John F. Kennedy; A. J. Liebling’s unforgettable depictions of the Fall of France and D Day; Rebecca West’s harrowing visit to a lynching trial in South Carolina; Lillian Ross’s sly, funny dispatch on the Miss America Pageant; and Joseph Mitchell’s imperishable portrait of New York’s foremost dive bar, McSorley’s. This volume also provides vital, seldom-reprinted criticism. Once again, we are able to witness the era’s major figures wrestling with one another’s work as it appeared—George Orwell on Graham Greene, W. H. Auden on T. S. Eliot, Lionel Trilling on Orwell. Here are The New Yorker’s original takes on The Great Dictator and The Grapes of Wrath, and opening-night reviews of Death of a Salesman and South Pacific. Perhaps no contribution the magazine made to 1940s American culture was more lasting than its fiction and poetry. Included here is an extraordinary selection of short stories by such writers as Shirley Jackson (whose masterpiece “The Lottery” stirred outrage when it appeared in the magazine in 1948) and John Cheever (of whose now-classic story “The Enormous Radio” New Yorker editor Harold Ross said: “It will turn out to be a memorable one, or I am a fish.”) Also represented are the great poets of the decade, from Louise Bogan and William Carlos Williams to Theodore Roethke and Langston Hughes. To complete the panorama, today’s New Yorker staff, including David Remnick, George Packer, and Alex Ross, look back on the decade through contemporary eyes. Whether it’s Louis Menand on postwar cosmopolitanism or Zadie Smith on the decade’s breakthroughs in fiction, these new contributions are illuminating, learned, and, above all, entertaining.Including contributions by W. H. Auden • Elizabeth Bishop • John Cheever • Janet Flanner • John Hersey • Langston Hughes • Shirley Jackson • A. J. Liebling • William Maxwell • Carson McCullers • Joseph Mitchell • Vladimir Nabokov • Ogden Nash • John O’Hara • George Orwell • V. S. Pritchett • Lillian Ross • Stephen Spender • Lionel Trilling • Rebecca West • E. B. White • Williams Carlos Williams • Edmund Wilson And featuring new perspectives by Joan Acocella • Hilton Als • Dan Chiasson • David Denby • Jill Lepore • Louis Menand • Susan Orlean • George Packer • David Remnick • Alex Ross • Peter Schjeldahl • Zadie Smith • Judith Thurman

Hello, New York: An Illustrated Love Letter to the Five Boroughs


Julia Rothman - 2014
    Artist, author, and New Yorker Julia Rothman brings humor and tenderness to an eclectic assortment of historical tidbits (how the New York Public Library lion sculptures got their names), idiosyncratic places to visit (where to find the tennis courts at Grand Central Station), interviews with locals (thoughts on love from a Hasidic Jewish landlord), and personal recollections from growing up in the Bronx (fried fish at Johnny's Reef)—all illuminated in her beloved signature style. A uniquely entertaining and informative city guide, this slice of the Big Apple will delight New York locals and visitors alike.

What Was Ellis Island?


Patricia Brennan Demuth - 2014
    In later years, the island was deserted, the buildings decaying. Ellis Island was not restored until the 1980s, when Americans from all over the country donated more than $150 million. It opened to the public once again in 1990 as a museum. Learn more about America's history, and perhaps even your own, through the story of one of the most popular landmarks in the country.

Machine Made: Tammany Hall and the Creation of Modern American Politics


Terry Golway - 2014
    Infamous crooks like William "Boss" Tweed dominate traditional histories of Tammany, distorting our understanding of a critical chapter of American political history. In Machine Made, historian and New York City journalist Terry Golway convincingly dismantles these stereotypes; Tammany's corruption was real, but so was its heretofore forgotten role in protecting marginalized and maligned immigrants in desperate need of a political voice.Irish immigrants arriving in New York during the nineteenth century faced an unrelenting onslaught of hyperbolic, nativist propaganda. They were voiceless in a city that proved, time and again, that real power remained in the hands of the mercantile elite, not with a crush of ragged newcomers flooding its streets. Haunted by fresh memories of the horrific Irish potato famine in the old country, Irish immigrants had already learned an indelible lesson about the dire consequences of political helplessness. Tammany Hall emerged as a distinct force to support the city's Catholic newcomers, courting their votes while acting as a powerful intermediary between them and the Anglo-Saxon Protestant ruling class. In a city that had yet to develop the social services we now expect, Tammany often functioned as a rudimentary public welfare system and a champion of crucial social reforms benefiting its constituency, including workers' compensation, prohibitions against child labor, and public pensions for widows with children. Tammany figures also fought against attempts to limit immigration and to strip the poor of the only power they had—the vote.While rescuing Tammany from its maligned legacy, Golway hardly ignores Tammany's ugly underbelly, from its constituents' participation in the bloody Draft Riots of 1863 to its rampant cronyism. However, even under occasionally notorious leadership, Tammany played a profound and long-ignored role in laying the groundwork for social reform, and nurtured the careers of two of New York's greatest political figures, Al Smith and Robert Wagner. Despite devastating electoral defeats and countless scandals, Tammany nonetheless created a formidable political coalition, one that eventually made its way into the echelons of FDR’s Democratic Party and progressive New Deal agenda.Tracing the events of a tumultuous century, Golway shows how mainstream American government began to embrace both Tammany’s constituents and its ideals. Machine Made is a revelatory work of revisionist history, and a rich, multifaceted portrait of roiling New York City politics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Supreme City: How Jazz Age Manhattan Gave Birth to Modern America


Donald L. Miller - 2014
    Scott Fitzgerald wrote, Manhattan was transformed by jazz, night clubs, radio, skyscrapers, movies, and the ferocious energy of the 1920s, as this illuminating cultural history brilliantly demonstrates.In four words--the capital of everything--Duke Ellington captured Manhattan during one of the most exciting and celebrated eras in our history: the Jazz Age. Radio, tabloid newspapers, and movies with sound appeared. The silver screen took over Times Square as Broadway became America's movie mecca. Tremendous new skyscrapers were built in Midtown in one of the greatest building booms in history. Supreme City is the story of Manhattan's growth and transformation in the 1920s and the brilliant people behind it. Nearly all of the makers of modern Manhattan came from elsewhere: Walter Chrysler from the Kansas prairie; entertainment entrepreneur Florenz Ziegfeld from Chicago. William Paley, founder of the CBS radio network, was from Philadelphia, while his rival David Sarnoff, founder of NBC, was a Russian immigrant. Cosmetics queen Elizabeth Arden was Canadian and her rival, Helena Rubenstein, Polish. All of them had in common vaulting ambition and a desire to fulfill their dreams in New York. As mass communication emerged, the city moved from downtown to midtown through a series of engineering triumphs--Grand Central Terminal and the new and newly chic Park Avenue it created, the Holland Tunnel, and the modern skyscraper. In less than ten years Manhattan became the social, cultural, and commercial hub of the country. The 1920s was the Age of Jazz and the Age of Ambition.Original in concept, deeply researched, and utterly fascinating, Supreme City transports readers to that time and to the city which outsiders embraced, in E.B. White's words, "with the intense excitement of first love."

Chris Stein / Negative: Me, Blondie, and the Advent of Punk


Chris Stein - 2014
    While a student at the School of Visual Arts, Chris Stein photographed the downtown New York scene of the early ’70s, where he met Deborah Harry and cofounded Blondie. Their blend of punk, dance, and hip-hop spawned a totally new sound, and Stein’s photographs helped establish Harry as an international fashion and music icon. In photos and stories direct from Stein, brilliant writer of hits like "Rapture" and "Heart of Glass," this book provides a fascinating snapshot of the period before and during Blondie’s huge rise, by someone who was part of and who helped to shape the early punk music scene—at CBGB, Andy Warhol’s Factory, and early Bowery. Stars such as David Bowie, the Ramones, Joan Jett, and Iggy Pop were part of Stein’s world, as were fascinating downtown characters like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Richard Hell, Stephen Sprouse, Anya Phillips, Divine, and many others. As captured by one of its greatest artists and instigators, and designed by Shepard Fairey, this book is a must-have celebration of the new-wave and punk scene, whose influence on music and fashion is just as relevant today as it was four decades ago.

Beauty


Louise Mensch - 2014
    Set no limits. Be bold. Manhattan is there for the taking in the world of Louise Mensch.Blend it. Sculpt it. Shape it. Use it...There isn't a woman on earth who doesn't have her beauty secrets. But for Dina Kane, beauty is more than just business. It's power. And it is the secret. She's dragged herself up from poverty to Park Avenue. She's rolled with the punches. And she's learned how to win.Now someone is out to destroy her, and all she's built. But they've underestimated Dina Kane. She's staying at the top - and she's happy to wait for the perfect moment to exact her revenge...

How About Never—Is Never Good for You?: My Life in Cartoons


Robert Mankoff - 2014
    Never one to beat around the bush, he explains to us, in the opening of this singular, delightfully eccentric book, that because he is also a cartoonist at the magazine he actually has two of the best jobs in the world. With the help of myriad images and his funniest, most beloved cartoons, he traces his love of the craft all the way back to his childhood, when he started doing funny drawings at the age of eight. After meeting his mother, we follow his unlikely stints as a high-school basketball star, draft dodger, and sociology grad student. Though Mankoff abandoned the study of psychology in the seventies to become a cartoonist, he recently realized that the field he abandoned could help him better understand the field he was in, and here he takes up the psychology of cartooning, analyzing why some cartoons make us laugh and others don't. He allows us into the hallowed halls of The New Yorker to show us the soup-to-nuts process of cartoon creation, giving us a detailed look not only at his own work, but that of the other talented cartoonists who keep us laughing week after week. For dessert, he reveals the secrets to winning the magazine's caption contest. Throughout How About Never--Is Never Good for You?, we see his commitment to the motto "Anything worth saying is worth saying funny."

The 9/11 Dogs: The Heroes Who Searched for Survivors at Ground Zero


Isabel George - 2014
    Not all of them showed human courage. Some of them could only show that they were truly man’s best friend. German Shepherds, Labradors and Spaniels accounted for the majority of the four-legged heroes.Over three hundred search and rescue dogs worked the pile at Ground Zero and the crash site at the Pentagon. For hours they searched, fighting off exhaustion with sheer determination and they continued every day long after the hope of finding survivors had passed.There were faithful Guide dogs who helped their sightless owners out of the Twin Towers and led them to safety showed unstinting devotion in the face of adversity. And later, therapy dogs arrived to bring comfort to the bereaved and confused. At every stage of the operation, dogs were there helping humankind in various roles. And invaluably, they provided comfort and reassurance and lifted spirits by their pure presence.Sadly many of the dogs are no longer with us but their achievements will never be forgotten. Isabel George was fortunate that the people close to the dogs were pleased to be asked to share their stories. This book is to honour the dogs and their people.

Leaving Montana


Thomas Whaley - 2014
     "Saying that Benjamin Sean Quinn had “anger issues” was an understatement. For those who knew him for the shortest amount of time, his life was in order: He was physically fit, had a great job which provided him a house in the suburbs and the material things he desired, a loving, monogamous relationship, two happy, healthy daughters and an established circle of friends. In all accounts, his life seemed perfect. But to those who knew him the longest, they knew he was an idle grenade, waiting for someone to pull the pin. For decades, Ben did his best to conquer his demons; to suppress the anger he accumulated towards his parents, Carmella and Sean, throughout their tumultuous marriage. Ben was their only child; forced to witness and experience things that most adults couldn’t even try to handle. He could not escape them or the anger, and no matter how hard he tried, as he matured, it became a part of him. Ben strived to end the toxic cycle and avoid adopting their pattern as part of his own life. By the time he reached his early thirties, he finally seemed to have it all under control. Then Ben’s father told him a “secret”. One left in Montana when he and Carmella were stationed there forty years earlier. It would exhume the painful memories and suppressed anger that Ben had been avoiding for years and force him to relive his past in order to face his future. Today Benjamin Sean Quinn boards a plane to Billings, Montana. It was time to face the secret head on and let go of the anger that silently ruled his life. It would be the boldest move he ever made, ultimately changing his life and the lives of those around him."

The Organ Takers (The McBride Trilogy #1)


Richard Van Anderson - 2014
    Down but not out, he perseveres and is given a second chance to establish a career in surgery. But, as McBride stands on the threshold of a new life, the malignant underside of his fellow man intervenes. Under the threat of violence, David is forced to perform illegal organ harvests in a makeshift operating room hidden in a dilapidated meatpacking warehouse in lower Manhattan. Unable to resolve the excruciating moral dilemma faced each time he invades the body of an unwilling victim, David McBride fights to free himself from the situation and in the process, loses everything. When he finally loses the last shred of his humanity, he seeks revenge with surgical precision ... and instrumentation.

NYHC: New York Hardcore 1980-1990


Tony Rettman - 2014
    As bands of misfits from across the region gravitated to the forgotten frontier of Manhattan's Lower East Side. With a a backdrop of despair, bands like Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, Murphy's Law, and Youth of Today confronted their reality with relentlessly energetic gigs at CBGB, A7, and the numerous squats in the area.Tony Rettman's ambitious oral history captures ten years of struggling, including the scene's regional rivalries with D.C. and Boston, the birth of moshing, the clash and coming to terms of hardcore and heavy metal, the straightedge movement, and the unlikely influence of Krishna consciousness. With a foreword by Freddy Cricien of Madball, who made his stage debut with Agnostic Front at age seven, NYHC slams the sidewalk with savage tales of larger-than-life characters and unlikely feats of willpower. The gripping and sometimes hilarious narrative is woven together like the fabric of New York itself from over 100 original interviews with members of Absolution, Adrenalin O.D., Agnostic Front, Antidote, Bad Brains, Bloodclot, Bold, Born Against, Breakdown, Cause for Alarm, Citizen Arrest, Cro-Mags, Crumbsuckers, Death Before Dishonor, Even Worse, False Prophets, Don Fury, Gorilla Biscuits, H20, Heart Attack, Inhuman, Into Another, Irate, Judge, Kraut, Leeway, Life’s Blood, Major Conflict, Max’s Kansas City, Murphy’s Law, Nausea, Nihilistics, Nuclear Assault, Numskulls, Outburst, Pro-Pain, Quicksand, Rat Cage Records, Raw Deal, Reagan Youth, Rorschach, S.O.D., Sacrilege, Savage Circle, Sheer Terror, Shelter, Shok, Sick of it All, Side by Side, Skinhead Youth, Straight Ahead, the Abused, the Cryptcrashers, the Mad, the Misfits, the Misguided, the Mob, the Psychos, the Ritz, the Stimulators, the Undead, Token Entry, Underdog, Urban Waste, Virus, Warzone, Youth of Today, and many, many more.MOSH IT UP!

On His Own Terms: A Life of Nelson Rockefeller


Richard Norton Smith - 2014
    In On His Own Terms, fourteen years in the making, Smith draws on thousands of newly available documents and some two hundred interviews, including his subject’s own unpublished reminiscences. Grandson of oil magnate John D. Rockefeller, Nelson coveted the White House from childhood. “When you think of what I had,” he once remarked, “what else was there to aspire to?” Before he was thirty he had helped his father develop Rockefeller Center and his mother establish the Museum of Modern Art. At thirty-two he was Franklin Roosevelt’s wartime coordinator for Latin America. As New York’s four-term governor he set national standards in education, the environment, and urban policy. The charismatic face of liberal Republicanism, Rockefeller championed civil rights and health insurance for all. Three times he sought the presidency—arguably in the wrong party. At the Republican National Convention in San Francisco in 1964, locked in an epic battle with Barry Goldwater, Rockefeller denounced extremist elements in the GOP. But he could not wrest the nomination from the Arizona conservative—or from Richard Nixon four years later. In the end, he had to settle for two dispiriting years as vice president under Gerald Ford. In On His Own Terms, Richard Norton Smith re-creates Rockefeller’s improbable rise to the governor’s mansion, his politically disastrous divorce and remarriage, and his often surprising relationships with presidents and political leaders from FDR to Henry Kissinger. A frustrated architect turned master builder, an avid collector of art and an unabashed ladies’ man, “Rocky” promoted fallout shelters and affordable housing with equal enthusiasm. From the deadly 1971 prison uprising at Attica and unceasing battles with New York City mayor John Lindsay to his son’s unsolved disappearance (and the grisly theories it spawned), the punitive drug laws that bear his name, and the much-gossiped-about circumstances of his death, Nelson Rockefeller’s was a life of astonishing color, range, and relevance. On His Own Terms, a masterpiece of the biographer’s art, vividly captures the soaring optimism and polarizing politics of this American Original.

The Crazy Life of a Kid from Brooklyn


Bill Morgenstein - 2014
    I was on the Stuyvesant baseball team, but because of my working hours, my playing time was limited. My first dream to become a corporate president by the time I was 35 years of age was fulfilled.Experience the ups and downs of a life well lived in Bill Morgenstein's compelling new memoir, The Crazy Life of a Kid from Brooklyn.While first reminiscing upon his childhood in Brooklyn during the depression, Morgenstein traces his life through times of war, peace, and everything in between.At times extremely funny and heartbreaking, The Crazy Life of a Kid in Brooklyn details Morgenstein's enlistment in the US Army, his days running a $55 million dollar company, his despair at losing it all to a scam, and much more.His chance encounters with such historical figures as Sergeant York, Cordell Hull, Sid Gordon, Jomo Kenyatta, and Vince Camuto provide amusing cultural touchstones that reveal a willingness to embrace everything life has to offer.Through all the successful, disappointing, dangerous, educational, and enlightening experiences that have shaped his life, Morgenstein remains philosophical as he explores the roles of ethics, honesty, and unfailing determination in shaping the human experience.

Sugar Hill: Harlem's Historic Neighborhood


Carole Boston Weatherford - 2014
    With upbeat rhyming, read-aloud text, Sugar Hill celebrates the Harlem neighborhood that successful African Americans first called home during the 1920s. Children raised in Sugar Hill not only looked up to these achievers but also experienced art and culture at home, at church, and in the community. Books, music lessons, and art classes expanded their horizons beyond the narrow limits of segregation. Includes brief biographies of jazz greats Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Sonny Rollins, and Miles Davis; artists Aaron Douglas and Faith Ringgold; entertainers Lena Horne and the Nicholas Brothers; writer Zora Neale Hurston; civil rights leader W. E. B. DuBois and lawyer Thurgood Marshall.

The Doorman


Zack Love - 2014
    But below the surface he is sure of nothing but his angst-ridden doubts. And when he realizes that his doorman may be God, or sent by God, he will question things like never before. This novelette is a story of New York doormen, tormented love, empty office life, and the theological questions that arise in response to the horrors of evil.

Burning Bridges


Anna Adams - 2014
    And now that she’s signed with Glitter Records and is working with her longtime celebrity crush, pop singer Matt, Lindsey is determined to win him over. But will burning bridges enable her to achieve her goals, or will she only end up badly burnt?*With a special cameo appearance from Maude Laurent (the French Girl series).This short story takes place before the start of A French Girl in New York.

Tumbleweed


Julia Bramer - 2014
    She fearlessly sets out on her own to make her mark in the world and thinks she’s ready for anything. But nothing prepares her for the sexy Spanish soccer star, Mikel Garro. He’s charming and guileless and sweeps her off her feet. She falls hard, yet love isn’t part of her plan and it’s not to be anyway. Unable to cope with the loss of him, her first love, she abandons love entirely. She seeks solace in the arms of strangers and fame, a tumbleweed rolling where the gusts of wind carry her, and she ends up broken and alone and near death.Will love destroy her or conquer all?

The Liar's Ball: The Extraordinary Saga of How One Building Broke the World's Toughest Tycoons


Vicky Ward - 2014
    Watch as Harry makes the gutsy bid for midtown Manhattan's famous GM building and put almost no money down, landing the billion-dollar transaction that made him the poster child for New York's real estate royalty. Listen in on the secret conversations, back-door deals, and blackmail that put Macklowe and his cronies on top—and set them up for an enormous fall. Vanity Fair contributing editor Vicky Ward skillfully paints the often scandalous picture of the giants who owned the New York skyline until their empires came crumbling down in the 2008 financial crisis. Based on more than 200 interviews with real estate moguls like Donald Trump, William Zeckendorf, Mort Zuckerman, and David Simon, Liar's Ball is the never-before-told story of the egomaniacal elites of New York City. Read about: The epic rise and fall of one of the richest American real estate barons Outlandish greed and cravings for power, attention, and love Relationships built and destroyed by vanity and gossip The bursting of the real estate bubble and its aftermath This is no fiction—this is a real life tale of extravagance, ambition, and power. Harry Macklowe ruthlessly clawed his way to the top with the help of his loyal followers, each grubbing for a piece of the real estate pie. Liar's Ball reveals their secrets and tells the tale of business as usual for this group—lying, backstabbing, and moving in for the kill when things look patchy. From the bestselling author of The Devil's Casino comes an expos??? on the real estate elite that you'll hardly believe.

The Street or Me: A New York Story


Judith Glynn - 2014
    Michelle Browning is 33, drunk and a former beauty queen who nears death after six years of homelessness. Judith Glynn is divorced with grown children and struggles to support herself in her adopted city. After their first hello, neither woman is the same as they embark on a remarkable journey for two years. This memoir is a raw yet enlightening read that graphically depicts the homeless subculture. But as Judith sets out all alone to rescue Michelle is her fixation worth the sacrifice? At stake is whether Michelle will choose possible death in a gutter over Judith's guiding light back into society. Enrolled in Kindle Book Lending that allows users to lend their book after purchasing to their friends and family for a duration of 14 days. For full details, review the Kindle Book Lending Program.

Fava


John Hazen - 2014
    Francine is a rising TV news reporter in New York City. Despite her brains, beauty and a growing following, she is stuck covering local interest stories. That is until her career literally hits the jackpot when the winner of a $450 million dollar lottery tells Francine that he is committed to using his new fortune to avenge his brother's killing at the Pentagon on 9/11. His seemingly crazy plan is backed by more than just money-he is in league with a ruthless and powerful Army Colonel gone rogue, religious extremists and co-conspirators in the highest levels of government. Francine teams with FBI Special Agent Will Allen, one of the few people who believe the threat is real, in a desperate race across three continents to stop the plot before it's too late.

Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Power of Forgiveness: 101 Stories about How to Let Go and Change Your Life


Amy Newmark - 2014
    You’ll read about the freedom that comes from leaving resentments behind and understanding the motivation of the people who hurt you. You’ll also learn how to forgive yourself. You’ll read chapters about: Lessons on forgiving fathers Forgiveness between mothers and children Learning to live with family-through-marriage Patching up rifts with siblings When bad things happen in love and marriage Forgiving friends and colleagues Lessons from the people you meet When a crime has been committed The importance of self-forgiveness

Sparrow Man


M.R. Pritchard - 2014
    In an effort to hide her past and turn herself around, she spent her inheritance from her dead mother on the perfect little house with a white picket fence. Then something terrible happened and Meg got sent to county lockup so her fiancé, Jim, wouldn’t have to. And then everyone started waking up…dead. Good thing escaping from County wasn’t hard. Jim told her exactly how to get free. Now Meg is running and the walking dead are following. In a last ditch effort to find weapons to protect herself, Meg finds Sparrow instead. A tall, strange man with a quirk, Sparrow has an obsession with feathers and the only goal that’s on his mind is finding an old barn on Route 37 with a snowy owl in its rafters. Meg’s headed to Kingston, where she and Jim agreed to meet if they ever got separated. But sometimes, crossing the border brings more than just freedom and protection and safety. Sometimes it brings questions that someone like Meg would prefer not to answer. And everyone keeps asking questions, including Sparrow. He thinks she’s hiding something and he’s not impressed by her stories of the sins she’s been committing all her life. While Sparrow’s the one who’s a bit cracked in the head, it never occurs to Meg that she could be the one who’s not remembering something. Like what really happened that day she killed those seven men.

Standard Romance Story: Fireman Edition


M.S. Willis - 2014
     Through the Standard Romance Story series of novellas, I would like you to embark on a quest of what it would be like – in REAL life – to date these heroes. Our main heroine, Jane, is put through the ringer as she fails, and sometimes, succeeds on her own dates with the typical men found in romance literature. Each book is a new date with a new man – the REAL man – that is nothing like the characters you read about in books. Follow Jane as she dates the standard romance guys in an attempt to find true love: The rocker, the biker, the billionaire, the tattooed bad boy, the firefighter, the lawyer, the vampire, the cowboy, the alpha, the teacher, the movie star, the professional athlete, the fighter and the captor. Which one will finally win her heart?

NY Through the Lens : A New York Coffee Table Book


Vivienne Gucwa - 2014
    It is the perfect setting for the genre, the world's most evocative cityscape, against which candid, memorable moments play themselves out every day.Nearly a decade ago, Vivienne Gucwa began walking the streets of the city with the only camera she could afford a sub-$100 point-and-shoot and started taking pictures. Choosing a direction and going as far as her feet would take her, she noticed lines, forms and structures that had previously gone unnoticed but which resonated, embodying a sense of home.Having limited equipment forced her to learn about light, composition and colour, and her burgeoning talent won her blog millions of readers and wide recognition in the photographic community."NY Through the Lens" is a timeless New York City coffee table book which showcases the stunning results of Vivienne's ongoing quest. Filled with spectacular photographs and illuminated by Vivienne's poetic commentary, NY Through the Lens acts as a beautiful travel guide to the city; it will be a must-read for her many fans and for any lover of New York City photography.

Grand Central: Original Stories of Postwar Love and Reunion


Jenna BlumAmanda Hodgkinson - 2014
    It is a place where people come to say hello and good-bye. And each person has a story to tell.   Now, ten bestselling authors inspired by this iconic landmark have created their own stories, set just after the end of World War II, in a time of hope, uncertainty, change, and renewal….Featuring stories from   Melanie Benjamin, New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator’s Wife Jenna Blum, New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Save Us Amanda Hodgkinson, New York Times bestselling author of 22 Britannia Road Pam Jenoff, bestselling author of The Ambassador’s Daughter Sarah Jio, New York Times bestselling author of Blackberry Winter Sarah McCoy, New York Times bestselling author of The Baker’s Daughter Kristina McMorris, New York Times bestselling author of The Pieces We Keep Alyson Richman, bestselling author of The Lost Wife Erika Robuck, bestselling author of Call Me Zelda Karen White, New York Times bestselling author of After the Rain  With an Introduction by Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Home Front

Scarlett the Cat to the Rescue: Fire Hero


Nancy Loewen - 2014
    See the story unfold as Scarlett the fearless feline risks her life to save her family.

In New York


Marc Brown - 2014
    From its earliest days as New Amsterdam to the contemporary wonders of Central Park, the Statue of Liberty, and the Empire State Building, to the kid-appealing subway, High Line, and so much more, Marc's rollicking text and gorgeous illustrations showcase what he's come to adore about New York after fulfilling his life-long dream to live in the city he fell in love with during a childhood visit. This is at once a personal story from the beloved creator of Arthur, a useful primer for first-time travelers on what to see and do with kids in the Big Apple, and a perfect keepsake after a visit. It's also a great gift for anyone who loves New York, the Crossroads of the World. New York! New York! It's a heckuva town!From the Hardcover edition.

The Good, the Bad & the Beagle


Catherine Lloyd Burns - 2014
    This is a problem, since her bumbling psychiatrist parents won't buy her the puppy she wants or stop meddling in her life at her challenging new school. But things never turn out the way you plan, particularly if you never stop expecting the worst to happen, and haven't taken a chance on being a true friend yourself.

Cat in the City


Julie Salamon - 2014
    He’s as vain as they come, and he won’t admit to being dependent on anyone. But as he discovers the pleasures of friendship, he learns that home really is where the heart is. Or, at the very least, home is where his friends are. And with friends all around New York City, Pretty Boy will always have a place to call home.The author and illustrator team who brought us the New York Times bestseller The Christmas Tree introduce an unforgettable animal adventure in the tradition of A Cricket in Times Square and The One and Only Ivan. The result is a story that will captivate readers of all ages with its warmth and wit.

Disgusting, Beautiful, Immoral


Guy New York - 2014
    The fact that she didn't get angry when she walked in on me with another woman was probably a good indicator, too. But with Kelly, knowing what to expect was a dangerous pastime. We fell in love far too quickly for our own good, and we pushed through every horrible thing we could think to do to one another without looking back. Kelly and I fucked, laughed, and drank our way through the end of the millennium, and we pulled our friends along with us, breaking every rule we could find. It was the spring of 1999, and New York was still getting over her gritty phase as I got over my college phase. Prince was on the radio every five minutes, and the bars still had ashtrays on the tables. The girls danced on the bar at Doc Holidays, and we smoked joints in Tompkins Square Park. But in the end, we needed saving. In the end, all of us needed saving.

North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City


Christopher J. Payne - 2014
    Few people today have ever heard of North Brother Island, though a hundred years ago it was place known to--and often feared by--nearly everyone in New York City. The island, a small dot in the East River, twenty acres slotted between today's gritty industrial shores of the Bronx and Queens, was a minor piece of the New York archipelago until the late 19th century, when calls for social and sanitary reform--and the massive expansion of the city's population--combined to remake NBI as a hospital island, a place to contain infectious disease and, later, other societal ills. Abandoned since 1963, North Brother Island is a ruin and a wildlife sanctuary (it is the protected nesting ground of the Black-crowned Night Heron), closed to the public and virtually invisible to it. But one cannot mistake its abandoned state as a sign of its irrelevance to the city's history and culture. Traces of the extensive hospital campus remain, as do sites linked to notorious people (it was the final home of "Typhoid Mary") and events (the steamship General Slocum sank by its shores). It has stories to tell. Photographer Christopher Payne (Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals), was granted permission by New York City's Parks & Recreation Department to photograph the island over a period of years. The results are both beautiful and startling. On North Brother Island, devoid of human habitation for fifty years, buildings great and small are being consumed by the unchecked growth of vegetation. In just a few decades, a forest has sprung up where once there were the streets and manicured lawns of a hospital campus. North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place in New York City includes a history by University of Pennsylvania preservationist Randall Mason, who has studied the island extensively, and an essay by the writer Robert Sullivan (Rats, The Meadowlands), who came along on one of the rare expeditions.

Gotham Unbound: The Ecological History of Greater New York


Ted Steinberg - 2014
    Ted Steinberg brings a vanished New York back to vivid, rich life. You will see the metropolitan area anew, not just as a dense urban goliath but as an estuary once home to miles of oyster reefs, wolves, whales, and blueberry bogs. That world gave way to an onslaught managed by thousands, from Governor John Montgomerie, who turned water into land, and John Randel, who imposed a grid on Manhattan, to Robert Moses, Charles Urstadt, Donald Trump, and Michael Bloomberg.“Weighty and wonderful…Resting on a sturdy foundation of research and imagination, Steinberg’s volume begins with Henry Hudson’s arrival aboard the Half Moon in 1609 and ends with another transformative event—Hurricane Sandy in 2012” (The Plain Dealer, Cleveland). This book is a powerful account of the relentless development that New Yorkers wrought as they plunged headfirst into the floodplain and transformed untold amounts of salt marsh and shellfish beds into a land jam-packed with people, asphalt, and steel, and the reeds and gulls that thrive among them.With metropolitan areas across the globe on a collision course with rising seas, Gotham Unbound helps explain how one of the most important cities in the world has ended up in such a perilous situation. “Steinberg challenges the conventional arguments that geography is destiny….And he makes the strong case that for all the ecological advantages of urban living, hyperdensity by itself is not necessarily a sound environmental strategy” (The New York Times).

New York in Four Seasons


Michael Storrings - 2014
    Storrings's delightful watercolors capture the energy and excitement of unique New York City events, including the Easter Parade, the Macy's Fourth of July Fireworks, the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, and New Year's Eve in Times Square. He also turns his attention to beloved and well-visited spots such as Central Park, the High Line, Museum Mile, and the beach at Coney Island, presenting these and other landmarks as they change with the seasons. And, each gorgeous illustration is accompanied by a richly entertaining description of the place or the event. An elegant and delightful keepsake, New York in Four Seasons is sure to please fans of Michael Storrings and makes a perfect gift for anyone who's fallen in love with New York City.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Free Comic Book Day Special


IDW Publishing - 2014
    Full of action, excitement and laughs, this is the perfect all-ages comic to get you seeing green!!

The New Colossus


Marshall Goldberg - 2014
    Corruption. Murder. New York in 1880 is a hell of a place to make your living.Nellie Bly arrives at age 24 in Manhattan, lacking connections and money, but blessed with an abundance of courage and a skill for reportage. Within ten months she lands two front-page stories on the country’s most widely-read newspaper, Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. The pugnacious and voluble Pulitzer is so impressed that he assigns her to get to the bottom of a murder that has confounded the police—the untimely death of his friend Emma Lazarus, the controversial poet and activist. Her investigation leads to tense encounters with some of the most powerful and ruthless men of the time, in an era where elected officials are bought and sold, and where greed runs rampant on an unregulated Wall Street. Outgunned and ignoring her contemptuous all-male colleagues, Bly has only two real allies: a doctor who uses scientific techniques to establish criminal behavior, and a theater critic with unlimited access to underground New York. As the pieces fall into place Bly uncovers layer after layer of corruption, getting closer to a dangerous core—and to the truth.

Eating Delancey: A Celebration of Jewish Food


Aaron Rezny - 2014
    It is an area that continues to undergo rapid change but Eating Delancey hopes to capture forever the Jewish cuisine of the Lower East Side. Eating Delancey  is a compilation of gorgeous photographs of classic Jewish food, with profiles and receipes from classic LES Jewish eateries such as Sammy's Roumanian Steakhouse, Russ & Daughters Appetizers, Katz's Delicatessen, Yonah Schimmel Knish Bakery, and Ratner's. These are complimented by celebrity reminiscences from Bette Midler, Jackie Mason, Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, Don Rickles, Fyvush Finkel, Isaac Mizrahi, Lou Reed, Arthur Schwartz and Milton Glaser.

World War 3 Illustrated: 1979-2014


Peter Kuper - 2014
    This full-color retrospective exhibition is arranged thematically, and includes topic of housing rights, feminism, the environment, religion, police brutality, globalization, and depictions of conflicts from the Middle East to the Midwest. World War 3 Illustrated also illuminates the war we wage on each other—and sometimes the one taking place in our own minds. Contributors include Sue Coe, Eric Drooker, Fly, Sandy Jimenez, Sabrina Jones, Peter Kuper, Mac McGill, Kevin Pyle, Spain Rodriguez, Nicole Schulman, Seth Tobocman, Susan Willmarth, and dozens more.

Entrusted: Surrendering the Present (Surrendering Time #1)


Julie Arduini - 2014
    

The Nine Horizons: Travels in Sundry Places


Mike Robbins - 2014
    He never really stopped. In the quarter century that followed he lived and worked in countries as diverse as the world itself.The pieces in this book take the reader from rural Sudan to the headwaters of the Amazon, from Semana Santa in Quito to Buddhist temples in the Himalayas, across Bhutan on a motorbike, into the ancient souk of Aleppo, to the steppes of Central Asia and finally to New York. Along the way there is Ethiopian gin, a sex tourist in Moscow, Kyrgyz women in cycling pants, a surreal toilet in Brussels, echoes of slavery in Brazil, and an encounter with Helen of Troy in Third Avenue. The Nine Horizons is an anarchic snapshot of a troubled but beautiful world in transition.

I Only Know Who I Am When I Am Somebody Else


Danny Aiello - 2014
    That’s easy to see when you begin at the beginning: Raised by his loving and fiercely resilient mother in the tenements of Manhattan and the South Bronx, and forever haunted by the death of his infant brother, Danny struggled early on to define who he was and who he could be. Shoeshine boy, numbers runner, and pool hustler were among the first identities he tried on. After getting into trouble on the streets, he enlisted in the army at seventeen, served in Germany, and was honorably discharged. Later, as an unemployed high school dropout raising a family of his own, Danny was burdened with serious depression by the time he landed a job as a bouncer at a Hell’s Kitchen comedy club. Taking to the stage in the wee hours to belt out standards, Danny Aiello found his voice and his purpose: He was born to act. Performing in converted churches and touring companies led to supporting roles in such films as The Godfather: Part II and Moonstruck, and an Oscar nomination for his role as the embattled Salvatore in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing. For a guy who had never set foot in an acting class, this was supreme validation for being an outsider who followed his heart.In a raw and real chronicle of his gritty urban past, Danny Aiello looks back with appreciation, amusement, and frank disbelief at his unconventional road to success. He offers candid observations on working with luminary directors Francis Ford Coppola, Woody Allen, and Robert Altman, among others, and a vast roster of actors, including Robert De Niro, Paul Newman, Madonna, Cher, and Lauren Bacall. He opens up about friends he loved, friends he lost, and the professional relationships that weren’t meant to be. Above all, Danny Aiello imparts a life lesson straight out of his own experience to anyone who’s ever felt like an outsider: It’s never too late to become who you want to be, to find happiness and fulfillment, and to embrace the winding road to get there.

Last Supper (Literary Collection)


Aaron Cometbus - 2014
    Alongside the renovated lofts are thousands of cramped apartments filled with books and cats, and actual studios where artists work with their hands. Ignored by the hype, without a website, the little shops and thrift stores and squats continue to thrive--sometimes at risk of being displaced, but always at risk of being simply overlooked or dismissed. Last Supper is a love letter to these places and the people who inhabit them: the vibrant beat beneath the bullshit that gives the city its charm.

Evie Brooks Is Marooned in Manhattan


Sheila Agnew - 2014
    Much to Evie’s dismay, she’ll have to go and live with Scott in New York City. Having never owned a pet more substantial than a goldfish, Evie is intrigued by her uncle’s NYC veterinary practice. Scott engages Evie as an assistant in the clinic. Thus begins a series of light-hearted adventures with lovable animals and their sometimes lovable owners. At the end of the summer, Evie has to make the choice of whether or not to return to live in Ireland with her godmother, Janet...

Central Park Song


Zack Love - 2014
    Melinda is a white Manhattan law partner with an artistic soul, trapped by the pressures of corporate law, her wealthy father, and her three-year boyfriend. A charming chance encounter leads to a magical courtship and life-changing choices that make an unlikely New York romance possible.WARNING: 1) this is a PG love story so there is NO HOT SEX in it, and 2) this is a screenplay (which means that it’s formatted differently, and written entirely in the present tense with an emphasis on actions and dialogue rather than inner thoughts). If that hasn’t scared you away yet, all purchase links will be posted here: http://tinyurl.com/CentralParkSong

Footprints in New York: Tracing the Lives of Four Centuries of New Yorkers


James Nevius - 2014
    Rockefeller, Jr.—and use them to guide the reader through four centuries of the city’s story. Beginning with the oldest standing building in the city, , a 1652 farmhouse in Brooklyn, and journeying all the way to the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, the book follows in the footsteps of these iconic New Yorkers. The authors tell the stories of everyone from slave traders and long-forgotten politicians to the movers and shakers of Gilded Age society and the Greenwich Village folk scene. One part history and one part personal narrative, Footprints in New York creates a different way of looking at the past, exploring new connections and forgotten chapters in the story of America’s greatest metropolis. Visit www.footprintsinny.com for more.

Homespun Mom Comes Unraveled: And other adventures from the radical homemaking frontier


Shannon Hayes - 2014
    In spite of being hidden away on her family’s mountain farm in the Northern Catskills, Shannon Hayes’ words rang out around the world when she first published Radical Homemakers, a clarion call to men and women everywhere to make hearth and community the center of an ecologically sustainable future. In the face of fierce criticism, she has become the voice of a new generation of parents, farmers and urban and rural homesteaders committed to a life of self-reliance, economic independence, and community interdependence; free from corporate domination, grueling work schedules, and endless hours in the car driving to soccer games and ballet lessons. But the life path she advocates is not an easy one. It is rife with sticky counters, messy projects, dirty laundry, vomiting children, and dusty shelves. Here, in a collection of 29 essays taken from her popular weekly Tuesday Posts at ShannonHayes.org, Hayes unveils the gritty details of her own radical homemaking life. We see her vulnerabilities, her mistakes, and her greatest lessons as she navigates through myriad topics from family finance and homegrown food, to homeschooling (all the way from sex ed to higher ed), to housekeeping, health care, and the power of community. This collection of heartwarming and humorous tales is sure to energize radical homemakers and inform and inspire countless readers new to this movement to pick up a garden hoe, hang out their laundry, or simply linger a bit longer with friends and loved ones around a home-cooked meal.

A Brush With the Real: Figurative Painting Today


Margherita Dessanay - 2014
    Through individual interviews the book peers into the life and work of each of these artists, discussing their methods, motives, and sources, from art history to the internet and the language of film. The book celebrates the work of 51 artists who are each taking the medium in a new direction: from those who work with appropriation and found images, to those trying to get as close as possible to contemporary reality and first-hand experience, to artists who are simply using painting as a door to parallel or imaginary worlds. The book makes the argument that, since perhaps the early Renaissance, the role fulfilled by painting has never been so vital or timely: in our image-saturated culture, digital technology has given painting and its slow, full-resolution images a new lease of life.

I'll Take New York


Miranda Dickinson - 2014
    No more men, no more heartbreak, and no more pain.Psychiatrist Jake Steinmann is making a new start too, leaving his broken marriage behind in San Francisco. From now on there'll just be one love in his life: New York.At a party where they seem to be the only two singletons, Bea and Jake meet, and decide there’s just one thing for it. They will make a pact: no more relationships.But the city has other plans . . .

First We Take Manhattan


Colette Caddle - 2014
    It's a small business but thanks to hard work and talent, they build up a loyal clientele. Then one day a glamorous young actress buys one of their hats, wears it to the Baftas and suddenly success seems guaranteed. But within weeks, tragedy strikes when Sheila disappears, and is presumed dead. After months of desolation, Sinéad is just beginning to come to terms with her loss when she is given new hope: there has been a sighting of her sister. While she is filled with excitement at the thought that Sheila might be alive, she is haunted by questions. Why would Sheila have deserted her twin without a word? After all, they had always told each other everything … hadn't they?A compelling, emotional story from number one bestseller Colette Caddle.'Caddle can whip up a tremendous love story' Irish Independent'If you like Marian Keyes, you'll love Colette Caddle' Company

Pop-up New York


Jennie Maizels - 2014
    Visit the new World Trade Center and the Empire State Building, feel the urban bustle of Times Square and Grand Central Station, and check out the greenery of the High Line and the Botanical Garden. Filled with fun facts, flaps, and amazing pop-ups, this interactive tour offers plenty of reasons to love New York.

A Bintel Brief: Love and Longing in Old New York


Liana Finck - 2014
    Written by a diverse community of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, these letters spoke to the daily heartbreaks and comedies of their new lives, capturing the hope, isolation, and confusion of assimilation.Drawn from these letters—selected and adapted by Liana Finck and brought to life in her appealing two-color illustrations—A Bintel Brief is a tour of Lower East Side New York, and includes an imaginative conversation with the Yiddish "Dear Abby," Abraham Cahan, The Forward's legendary editor and creator of the Bintel Brief column.From premarital sex to family politics to struggles with jobs and money, A Bintel Brief is an enlightening look at a segment of America's rich cultural past that offers fresh insights for our own lives as well.

The Algonquin Round Table New York: A Historical Guide


Kevin C. Fitzpatrick - 2014
    "It is always a little more than you had hoped for. Each day, there, is so definitely a new day." Now you can journey back there, in time, to a grand city teeming with hidden bars, luxurious movie palaces, and dazzling skyscrapers. In these places, Dorothy Parker and her cohorts in the Vicious Circle at the infamous Algonquin Round Table sharpened their wit, polished their writing, and captured the energy and elegance of the time. Robert Benchley, Parker's best friend, became the first managing editor of Vanity Fair before Irving Berlin spotted him onstage in a Vicious Circle revue and helped launch his acting career. Edna Ferber, an occasional member of the group, wrote the Pulitzer-winning bestseller So Big as well as Show Boat and Cimarron. Jane Grant pressed her first husband, Harold Ross, into starting The New Yorker. Neysa McMein, reputedly "rode elephants in circus parades and dashed from her studio to follow passing fire engines." Dorothy Parker wrote for Vanity Fair and Vogue before ascending the throne as queen of the Round Table, earning everlasting fame (but rather less fortune) for her award-winning short stories and unforgettable poems. Alexander Woollcott, the centerpiece of the group, worked as drama critic for the Times and the World, wrote profiles of his friends for The New Yorker, and lives on today as Sheridan Whiteside in The Man Who Came to Dinner. Explore their favorite salons and saloons, their homes and offices (most still standing), while learning about their colorful careers and private lives. Packed with archival photos, drawings, and other images--including never-before-published material--this illustrated historical guide includes current information on all locations. Use it to retrace the footsteps of the Algonquin Round Table, and you'll discover that the golden age of Gotham still surrounds us.

Christmas in New York #1-4


Jeannie Moon - 2014
    Four unexpected reunions…This Christmas~Jeannie MoonSingle mom Sabrina, who never left her coastal Long Island hometown, reunites with her son’s father–the hockey player who broke her heart. (Author of The Temporary Wife and The Second Chance Hero) (Intermix)A Light in the Window~Jolyse BarnettAdirondack girl-in-transition Jade returns home to her lakeside village to discover the boy next door is all grown up. All I Want for Christmas~Jennifer GracenNew York City academic Cassandra finds magic once again with an Irish musician–the first love she never forgot. (Author of Autumn Getaway and Winter Hopes) (Booktrope)Goodness and Light~Patty BlountRestless Elena reconnects with the kind-hearted stranger who gave her a glimmer of light during her darkest days. (Author of YA novels SEND and Some Boys) (Sourcebooks Fire)

The Yankee Club


Michael Murphy - 2014
      In 1933, America is at a crossroads: Prohibition will soon be history, organized crime is rampant, and President Roosevelt promises to combat the Great Depression with a New Deal. In these uncertain times, former-Pinkerton-detective-turned-bestselling-author Jake Donovan is beckoned home to Manhattan. He has made good money as the creator of dashing gumshoe Blackie Doyle, but the price of success was Laura Wilson, the woman he left behind. Now a Broadway star, Laura is engaged to a millionaire banker—and waltzing into a dangerous trap.   Before Jake can win Laura back, he’s nearly killed—and his former partner is shot dead—after a visit to the Yankee Club, a speakeasy dive in their old Queens neighborhood. Suddenly Jake and Laura are plunged into a conspiracy that runs afoul of gangsters, sweeping from New York’s private clubs to the halls of corporate power and to the White House itself. Brushing shoulders with the likes of Dashiell Hammett, Cole Porter, and Babe Ruth, Jake struggles to expose an inconspicuous organization hidden in plain sight, one determined to undermine the president and change the country forever.

The Last Confession of The Vampire Judas Iscariot


David B. Vermont - 2014
    Or maybe not. After watching the crucifixion of Jesus, Judas despairs over what he has done and fumes that the Messiah he put his trust in has turned out to be just another pretender like all the rest. The toxic mix of emotions is too much for him to bear and Judas commits suicide by hanging himself. He is restored to life by the Devil and made into a vampire apostle. The Devil teaches Judas to manipulate men and history. He becomes a king, a general, a teacher and a blacksmith, whatever is needed to effect the outcome of history and move it towards the goal of his new master. Each time he is ready to move on to his next incarnation he must drink the blood of an innocent victim to be restored to his youthful vigor. But despite his many powers and abilities Judas knows there is one thing he desires and cannot have. Finally Judas meets a laicized priest, Raymond Breviary, and tries to steal from him what he was denied two thousand years before.

The Meat Hook Meat Book: Buy, Butcher, and Cook Your Way to Better Meat


Tom Mylan - 2014
    It means getting what you want, not just what a grocery store puts out for sale?and tailoring your cuts to what you want to cook, not the other way around. For the average cook ready to take on the challenge, The Meat Hook Meat Book is the perfect guide: equal parts cookbook and butchering handbook. Start by cutting up a chicken, and soon you'll be breaking down an entire pig, creating your own custom burger blends, and throwing a legendary barbecue.The Meat Hook Meat Book features more than 60 recipes, plus hundreds of photographs and clever illustrations. With stories that capture the Meat Hook experience, even those who haven't shopped there will become fans.

The Truth About Twinkie Pie--FREE PREVIEW (First 15 Chapters)


Kat Yeh - 2014
    Add a million dollars in prize money from a national cooking contest and a move from the trailer parks of South Carolina to the Gold Coast of New York. Mix in a fancy new school, new friends and enemies, a first crush, and a generous sprinkling of family secrets. That's the recipe for The Truth About Twinkie Pie, a voice-driven middle grade debut about the true meaning of family and friendship.

New York Dog, The


Rachael Hale - 2014
    Capturing both the atmosphere of the city and the personalities of its canine residents, Hale explores the life of the New York dog from many angles, showing dogs taking walks, riding in taxis, lounging in extravagant apartments, shopping in boutiques, visiting spas, dining in restaurants, and much more. From purebreds on the Upper East Side to loveable mutts in Queens, The New York Dog celebrates the wide variety of dogs that live throughout all five boroughs of this great city.

Citix60: New York: 60 Local Creatives Bring You the Best of the City


Viction Workshop - 2014
    Curated by a select group of artists, designers, chefs, architects, musicians, photographers and filmmakers that call each city home, these books provide an insiders look at the hidden gems that make a trip memorable. Museums, notable architecture and sculpture, cultural icons, public events and moreevery necessity is covered, along with up-to-date recommendations on the hottest accommodations, eateries and shops, each imbued with a citys distinctive flair. A handy section on travel tips includes basic information on getting around, as well as on unusual tours to consider and recurring festivals to be aware of to help better plan your trip. Detailed maps and QR codes provide ease of travel and a blank section at the back with lined, gridded and blank pages allows for note taking and sketching. Beautiful photographs throughout set the tone and provide a sense of the aesthetic appeal of each venue. In addition, the dust jacket for each volume unfolds to reveal an illustrated map of each city. Dont forget to pack this small but informative travel guide on your next excursion! Sample contributors include: New York - Jon Burgerman, Yuko Shimizu, Jeff Staple, Tara McPherson, Karim Rashid and Jessica Walsh; London - Jamie Oliver, Angus Hyland, Emily Williams, David Spence, NORM, Cid Cockburn and Osman.

Stone Castles


Trish Morey - 2014
    He'll show her the woman she was meant to be. After ten years pursuing a prestigious career in New York, Pip Martin has returned to the Yorke Peninsula to farewell her dying grandmother. She doesn't intend to linger - there are too many memories in the small country town and not all of them will stay in the past. Like Luke Trenorden, her childhood sweetheart. A man Pip had promised her heart to, until tragedy stole Pip's family away, and a terrible lie tore both their lives apart. Pip cannot deny there is still a spark between them, even amidst the heartache of losing her Gran and the demands of her new life. But it may not be enough to rekindle a love that has been neglected for so long. When a long-kept secret is revealed, Pip is free to go back to the life she thought she wanted... unless Luke can break down the stone castle Pip has built around her heart. "I fell in love, laughed, cried... [an] emotional and page-turning read" - Rachael Johns, bestselling author of Outback Dreams "A story with a heart as vast as South Australia's Yorke Peninsula " - Karly Lane, bestselling author of North Star "Pacey, vibrant, sexy ... and touching. Stone Castles is the perfect package." - Barbara Hannay, bestselling author of Zoe's Muster

The Kashmiri Shawl


Joanne Dobson - 2014
    India, 1857: Anna Wheeler Roundtree, missionary wife, flees her husband's pious tyranny, leaving the safety of the Protestant Mission in which she's spent most of the past decade. Her timing is bad: the train carrying her to freedom steams into the midst of the brutal Indian Rebellion. She is, however, plucked from danger by Ashok Montgomery, a wealthy Anglo-Indian tea planter. Together they escape the angry mobs and find the shelter of an isolated mountain cave. There, for the first time, Anna learns the true nature of love. New York City, 1860: Now a successful poet featured in national magazines, Anna Wheeler is astonished to learn that the daughter she bore upon her return was not stillborn, as she was told, but has been kidnapped. When Anna hears the baby described as "dark-skinned," she realizes that Ashok, the man she'd left behind in the tumult of the rebellion, is the true father, not her blond, fair-skinned husband. In her own racially inflamed nation on the verge of its own war, Anna throws respectability to the wind, learns to take risks, break rules, and trust strangers in a determined search for the little girl. Then a deranged voice arises from her tormented past, making demands that compel her back to India. Anna must confront the evil that set her running in the first place. Will her daring quest for her child, and for the love of her life, end in triumph or in heartbreak?

When Morning Comes


Harmony Evans - 2014
    Her fine mind—and natural beauty—are the reasons she's such an excellent private investigator. But investment banker Isaac Mason isn't like the other men who strive for Autumn's attention. He's easily the sexiest man alive, and while his lean, muscular body screams temptation, his careful manner reveals nothing. Working her way into Issac's world at Paxton Investment Securities, Autumn intends to find out what makes the millionaire tick, while remaining detached in his enticing presence. Autumn hopes that her instincts are right, and that Isaac is innocent of the fraud he's suspected of committing. Otherwise, come morning, will Autumn pay the ultimate price for giving her trust—and her heart—to the wrong man?

Katwalk


Maria Murnane - 2014
     Katrina Lynden has always walked a straight line in life, an approach that has resulted in a stable career and pleased her hard-nosed parents but that has also left her feeling unfulfilled—and miserable. When her best friend suggests they quit their Silicon Valley jobs and embark on two months of adventure in New York City, Katrina balks at the idea but ultimately agrees, terrified yet proud of herself for finally doing something interesting with her life. But when her friend has to back out at the last minute, Katrina finds herself with a tough decision to make. Much to her surprise, she summons the courage to go alone, and the resulting journey changes everything. Along the way she makes new friends, loses others, learns what is really important to her, and finds a way to grow up without leaving herself behind.

Richard Estes' Realism


Patterson Sims - 2014
    1932) is one of the most celebrated adopters of  Photorealism; his paintings are characterized by painstaking detail that mimics the clarity and accuracy of photographs. Estes’ most famous canvases from the 1970s depict New York’s urban landscape, and his manner of painting reflections in a multitude of metal and glass surfaces displays astounding technical skill. In his subsequent career, Estes has continued to demonstrate his superlative ability to show complex plays of light and shadow in Maine seascapes, views of Venetian lagoons, and nighttime street scenes.   Accompanying Estes’ first solo exhibition of paintings in the United States in over two decades, Richard Estes’ Realism surveys fifty years of his work and places him within the historical narrative of realist painting. The authors explore the ongoing modernist dialogue between camera and canvas, and discuss the situation of Estes’ work at the crossroads of painting and photography. Fifty full-page plates showcase the amazing precision of Estes’ paintings, and a thorough chronology and bibliography provide an enlightening account of his life. This handsome book offers a lavish presentation of Estes’ spellbinding body of work that attests to his enduring artistic impact.

There Is No End to This Slope


Richard Fulco - 2014
    His obsession with his part in the death of his best friend Stephanie in high school, is a metaphorical brick wall—blocking him from a fulfilling life. Lenza’s struggles to reconcile his guilt from the past and to enjoy the present sets the tone for Brooklyn native and playwright Richard Fulco’s emotionally charged debut THERE IS NO END TO THIS SLOPE.By day, John Lenza sells textbooks to New York City schools. Like a 21st century Willy Loman, Lenza drifts, letting things happen to him rather than figuring out what he really wants from his work-life and his relationships. At Cobble Hill High School he meets his future wife Emma Rue, an impulsive alcoholic. At a “writerly” coffee shop near his new digs in Park Slope he meets Teeny, an overweight gay man, who mines Lenza’s life for his own material. Richard, a homeless man becomes a voice of reason and a roommate, while Pete the landlord worries mostly about whether Lenza is truly taking special care of those beautiful wood floors in the apartment and, when Lenza loses his job, if the rent will be paid.At one point in THERE IS NO END TO THIS SLOPE John Lenza describes himself as intelligent, perhaps too intelligent to do anything. For him and many of the characters in Fulco’s novel it is hard to find a way to navigate the day-to-day while nurturing a sensitive and creative spirit. Does John Lenza deserve to be tortured by something that happened so many years ago? Or is the event really a safety net that he allows to prevent him from finding out what his true creative potential might be?Through deeply wrought characters and scenes that mirror the angst everyone faces as life happens and years pass, Fulco touches on a fundamental issue that drives great artists to self-destruct. Ironically when Lenza has wrung all he can out of his pained self, it may be the mundane day-to-day that ultimately saves him.

Adirondack Audacity


L.R. Smolarek - 2014
    Ellen wants to escape her demons, namely a step-mother named Helen, and her reputation as the school klutz. A fall down the stairs, in front of the entire varsity football team…while wearing pink polka-a-dot underwear, earns her the nickname “Dots.” And that’s just the beginning. So when a job as nature counselor at Camp High Point in the Adirondack Mountains comes up, it spells escape for Ellen.Her hopes for an idyllic Adirondack summer do not include Vicente Rienz, the camp lifeguard, known to his friends as Vic. Born to an American mother, but a Spanish grandee by birthright of his Mexican father, he is all male, in denim and leather, aloof, arrogant, and very competent at……..everything. Ellen hates him on sight, until the sparks between them ignite into a passion not to be denied. A summer under the stars leads to unforeseen consequences and separation.What began as a teenage romance is rekindled when Ellen and Vic reunite as adults. Seeking answers to the past, they return to the Adirondacks in a quest that turns dangerous for a dramatic conclusion.Adirondack Audacity serves up the titillating flavors of life: romance, drama, hilarious hijinks, a little bit sexy and always fun.Finally the “beach” read comes to the mountains. So grab a glass of wine, curl up in an Adirondack chair …and indulge! Did someone say…… Thirty Shades of Balsam?

Strangers on a Train


Meg Maguire - 2014
    Then his weekend with Brenna progresses to a weekend fling...Ticket Home Encountering her workaholic ex on her commuter train is the surprise of Amy’s life. Especially since Jeff seems hell-bent on winning her back.Thank You for Riding At the end of Caitlin’s commute, her extended flirtation with a handsome stranger finds them facing a frigid winter night locked in an unheated subway station.Back on Track A wine tour isn’t enough to take Matt’s mind off his baseball slump—until sexy, funny Allie plops into the adjacent seat and tells him three things about herself. One of them, she says, is a lie. Then Allie lets slip one truth too many…Big Boy Mandy doesn’t want romance, but monthly role-playing dates with her stranger on a train—each to a different time period—become the erotic escape she desperately needs. And a soul connection she never expected.

The Blues: A Visual History


Mike Evans - 2014
    From the impassioned slide guitar of the Mississippi Delta, to the electric sounds of Chicago's street corners, to the improvised jams of blues- rock, The Blues explores the many forms this quintessentially American music has taken. All the great pioneers are here, including Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith, and John Lee Hooker, along with the many musicians they influenced who put their own unique spin on the genre.  As well as tracing the evolution of the blues through its various styles, this musical journey features profiles of no fewer than fifty key artists—including fact files with biographical information, recording histories and more.

Black Hole Butterfly


Salem - 2014
    While following an assassin's trail through Chinatown, space and time begin to overwrite. A reality storm lashes Manhattan. Overnight, crocodile wrestling becomes a deadly sport, synthetic sex with Egyptian gods is the norm, and the reigning solar power Empire believes Shakespeare authors their universe.They believe if his works are destroyed, the universe will end. The Empire will do anything to protect his legacy, but their enemy, Gasland, wants to annihilate it. It is the beginning of a reality war. When the sky rains ink and paper turns into butterflies Rook soon realizes he's much, much more than a private eye. He is the eye of the reality storm.

Greenwich Village Stories: A Collection of Memories


Judith Stonehill - 2014
    The sixty stories in this collection of Village memories are exuberant, poignant, original, and vivid-perfectly capturing the essence of the Village. Every corner of the Village is represented in the book: recollections of jazz clubs and existentialism on Bleecker Street, rock music at St. Mark's Place, folk singers in Washington Square Park. There are stories of Hans Hofmann teaching modern art on 8th Street and Lotte Lenya performing in The Threepenny Opera on Christopher Street. Decades later, Brooke Shields muses on renovating a brownstone and finding history behind its walls; and Mario Batali lyrically describes a Sunday morning walk through the food markets of Bleecker Street. The stories are complemented by a wide range of photographs by iconic figures such as Allen Ginsberg, Rudy Burckhardt, Berenice Abbott, Saul Leiter, Ruth Orkin, and Weegee. Paintings depict elegant red-brick facades and raffish Hudson River piers, now restored; theater posters spotlight Karen Finley and John Leguizamo. This is a book for those who are already beguiled by the Village as well as those just discovering this fabled place.

Downtown Italian: Recipes Inspired by Italy, Created in New York's West Village


Joe Campanale - 2014
    Now the drinks and dishes that have inspired fanatical loyalty among customers of dell'anima, L'Artusi, L'Apicio and Anfora—including Charred Octopus with Chicories, Impromptu Tiramisu, and a sparking Roasted Orange Negroni Sbagliato—are accessible to home cooks in the first cookbook from executive chef Gabriel Thompson, pastry chef Katherine Thompson, and beverage director Joe Campanale. Gabe Thompson's antipasti, pastas, main courses, and side dishes emphasize simplicity and deep flavor, using the freshest ingredients, creative seasonings, and the occasional unexpected twist---in such dishes as Sweet Corn Mezzaluna and Chicken al Diavolo. Katherine Thompson's desserts are both inspired and downright homey, running the gamut from a simple and sinful Bittersweet Chocolate Budino to the to-die-for Espresso-Rum Almond Cake with Caramel Sauce, Sea Salt Gelato, and Almond Brittle. And all are paired with thoughtfully chosen wines and ingenious Italian-inspired cocktails—Blame it on the Aperol, anyone?—by Joe Campanale, one of the most knowledgeable young sommeliers in New York City.

The Last Hotel


Sonia Pilcer - 2014
    Aging sirens, dreamers, eccentrics and connivers live in a small residential hotel on the Upper West Side. Their tiny suites, separated by cracked plaster walls, are paved withgolden stories, woven together in this novel of funny, intimate moments between neighbors. The Last Hotel reminds us of how New York was once a grittier, poorer city, full ofwarmth and character. It's captured here with the same perfect pitch that has informed Sonia Pilcer's previous work, which the New York Times described as "tough and sweet... touchingly truthful." Hilma Wolitzer, author of An Available Man, writes, "The Last Hotel is a 20th Century ark filled with survivors of history and gentrification. SoniaPilcer brings them all vividly to life with gentle wit and a generous heart."

King of the Hoboes


John Reinhard Dizon - 2014
     Convinced he is more dangerous than helpful, Veronika goes undercover and learns first hand of the trials and tribulations the poverty-stricken must endure. The further underground she goes, the more danger Veronika encounters. The King of the Hoboes turns out to be more vicious and powerful than she ever realized. Now, it is up to her to save the innocent homeless of New York, and the city itself. But can Veronika find a way to take down the false messiah while saving the people she has come to know and love as her own?

The Last Book


Reinier Gerritsen - 2014
    This copy might well make its appearance tucked away in a backpack and taken aboard a subway to read. This is the premise of "The Last Book," the latest body of work by Amsterdam-based photographer Reinier Gerritsen. Gerritsen has taken up the current plethora of books and their readers on New York City's subways as the proverbial canary-in-the-coal-mine, an indicator of the still robust nature of public readership, in the face of its ostensible decline. The work began for Gerritsen as a series of modest observations, and has turned into a series of unexpected, documentary portraits, set against a visual landscape of bestsellers, classics, romance novels, detective thrillers, Bibles, biographies and other printed books. Gerritsen depicts groups of individuals engrossed in the worlds they hold in their hands. From the subtle interactions of passengers and facial expressions to the sociological clues of book titles, a complexly layered narrative is informed by the choices of readers and the melange of New York City's subway riders as they are transported both literally and figuratively, by the books in their hands. "The Last Book" also includes an index/bibliography charting the titles and authors that populate our minds during our daily commutes.

Awkwafina's NYC


Nora Lum - 2014
    Metrocard? Check. Sombrero? (Just a suggestion.) ONWARD!   Let Awkwafina—the Queens-born rap artist of “NYC Bitches” fame—be your guide to the hidden gems of New York City (natives, we’re talking to you, too.) with 10 walking tour adventures that you don’t need a trust fund to enjoy. Travel back in time exploring revolutionary-era Tottenville or Louis Armstrong's house in Corona. Gorge yourself on the haute-cuisine of the street-savvy, from authentic pierogi in Little Poland to steam dumplings in Flushing. Roll with Awkwafina, and she’ll show you the neighborhoods you never knew you were missing (and a few you were missing the point of).

Twice Upon a Time: Listening to New York


Hari Kunzru - 2014
    Nothing but a stranger in this world. Every time I exit the subway I have to make a 360-degree turn to work out which way is downtown. I need a guide. Foodies have the Zagat, swingers have Adult Friend Finder. I choose . . . Moondog.”Internationally acclaimed novelist Hari Kunzru loses himself in the sounds of the New York streets, where the blind musician and composer Moondog aka Louis Hardin spent much of his life playing music on 6th Avenue. As Kunzru’s first impressions of the city blend with Moondog’s “snaketime” rhythms, it is from Moondog that Kunzru learns to listen to the sounds of his environment as a way of understanding the city. In "Twice Upon a Time" we see New York through the eyes and ears of the author of Gods Without Men in a prose poem celebrating New York, and the extraordinary music of Moondog, which is included here, with a binaural sound track.“The next day I take an mp3 player and I make the journey again, accompanied by Moondog’s early music, recordings from the forties and fifties . . . Sounds leak in and out the iPod’s ear buds, layering modern 6th Avenue onto city noise of sixty years ago. Archaeology.”

Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power


Mason Klein - 2014
    A key figure in the development of modern taste and style, she produced and marketed the means for ordinary women to assert their own individuality. Through her conception of the beauty salon as a place of modernist display, she empowered the modern woman to define herself through her choices in taste and decor.  Helena Rubinstein: Beauty Is Power traces the path of this remarkable early feminist and visionary art patron. In Rubinstein’s world, art and commerce blended seamlessly. She ornamented her salons and homes with splendid artworks—Surrealist murals, modernist portraits, Art Deco furniture, Venetian mirrors, and one of the era’s great collections of African and Oceanic art. Her understanding of beauty was similarly expansive and democratic: she saw the face as the site for self-expression and the exploration of identity. The Rubinstein beauty program thus included not only makeup and hairdressing, but also lessons in health, deportment, and culture. Such features, innovative at the time and wildly popular, today provide a fascinating glimpse into popular culture as it affected women in the 20th century.

The Weegee Guide to New York: Roaming the City with Its Greatest Tabloid Photographer


Philomena Mariani - 2014
    During his storied career as the quintessential New York photojournalist, Weegee explored the city's least glamorous pockets, depicting brutal crimes, horrific accidents, tenement dwellers, street vendors, and mischievous kids. And although his perspective was often dark and cynical, he was also tremendously sentimental about his subjects' hard lives. This unique guide offers a series of excursions through Weegee's stamping grounds, from the Bowery to Midtown, the West Side to the East, and with a little Brooklyn thrown in. Divided into eleven neighborhood sections, it includes contemporary and period maps to aid the intrepid explorer or casual rambler as they retrace Weegee's steps from murder scene to car wreck to street fight. Best of all, it features hundreds of photographs--many never-before published and most drawn from the archives of the International Center of Photography--that reinforce Weegee's lasting vision of New York as a city both tough and resilient, a city that never sleeps.

Legend of the Mantamaji: Book One


Eric Dean Seaton - 2014
    Elijah Alexander, New York's hottest, cockiest, and most media-hungry Assistant District Attorney, is about to learn something shocking: he is not even human. He's the last of the Mantamaji, a long-lost race of warriors who once protected humanity when the world was young. Now another Mantamaji, the worst of all their kind, has reawakened to visit doom on all of humanity. Can Elijah accept his past, reject his present life, and learn about his talents, in time to defeat the villain who killed all the other Mantamaji before him? Legend of the Mantamaji is a three-book graphic novel series whose sweeping tale of magic and mystery, heroes and villains, has a fresh look, a modern setting and an ancient beat.

Plan B: A Romantic Comedy


Hailey Mansfield - 2014
    Long-lost childhood friend Tyler made her an offer she couldn’t refuse: rather than get pregnant from an anonymous sperm donor, he would get her pregnant and give her baby financial support. Somehow, he talked her into moving in with him, and now she’s falling for him. The sparks are huge between the two friends, but Celeste knows Tyler doesn’t believe in lifelong commitments to his women, and she’s determined not to fall completely in love with this man. Reviewers of Plan B say: “Great comedy!” “A delightful romance”“Could not put it down!”