50 Hikes in the Lower Hudson Valley, Hikes and Walks from Westchester County to Albany  •  Stella Green  •  Neil Zimmerman GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES An expert, up-to-date guide to walks and hikes, most within an hour of two of New York City, including Hudson Highlands, Rockland County and Harriman Park, the West Hudson Hills and Shawangunks. The authors are past president and vice-president of the New York-New Jersey Trail Conference. With 51 maps, black-and-white photographs and an excellent at-a-glance overview. (NYC90, $16.95)
AAA Spiral Guide New York  •  AAA Publishing GUIDEBOOK •  2005 •  FLEXI-BOUND  • 208 PAGES A handy guide, aimed at first-time visitors to New York, covering the city's greatest hits in depth and with 10 magazine-style articles, walking tours, and street plans. (NYC74, $16.95)
The Accidental Connoisseur, An Irreverent Journey Through the Wine World  •  Lawrence Osborne FOOD •  2005 •  PAPER  • 262 PAGES Oh, what a quest -- and what great fun. Osborne journeys across the world to places like Provence, Tuscany and Sonoma on an animated quest of what makes wine and what makes it good. He stops by New York, San Francisco, Paris, Florence, and Rome to see what people are drinking. He meets plenty of interesting characters along the way (like Robert Mondavi), revealing much about the pleasures of wine (and travel!) We're hoping for a southern hemisphere sequel. (TVL31, $14.00)
The Age of Innocence  •  Louis Auchincloss  •  Edith Wharton LITERATURE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 304 PAGES A dazzling tale of social mores, infidelity and thwarted love in old New York. It is a reflection on the Gilded Age, first published in 1920. Wharton won the Pulitzer Prize for the book -- the first woman awarded this honor. (NYC101, $9.95)
The Alienist  •  Caleb Carr LITERATURE •  1995 •  PAPER  • 599 PAGES A grisly page-turner set on the gas-lit streets of late Victorian Manhattan. A reporter and psychologist (with a little help from Teddy Roosevelt) chase down a Jack-the-Ripperesque killer who's preying on boy prostitutes. Sensationalism (and contrived ending) aside, the novel is especially strong on period detail, evoking the corrupt politics, raucous brothels and smoky train stations of turn-of-the-century New York in all their seedy glory. (NYC69, $7.99)
All Rivers Run to the Sea  •  Elie Wiesel BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1996 •  PAPER  • 464 PAGES Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel recounts his remarkable life, from his childhood in Romania to the horrors of Auschwitz, his days as a young writer in post-war France and New York, his many pilgrimages to Israel, and his ongoing support Jewish of communities. (EUR153, $16.00)
All Things Reconsidered, My Birding Adventures  •  Roger Tory Peterson NATURAL HISTORY •  2007 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES A collection of 42 of Peterson's best columns from Bird Watcher's Digest, including his adventures in Alaska, Russia, Kenya and New York City. (BRD46, $14.95)
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay  •  Michael Chabon LITERATURE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 656 PAGES A dazzling tale that follows its heros from Nazi-occupied Prague to New York and the Antarctic, where US forces are stationed to keep an eye on the Germans. Houdini, the Golem, Hitler, inventor of the superhero Stan Lee and other mostly historical figues make an appearance in the lives of Chabon's protagonists Joe and Sammy. Even if you're not much interested in New York or the golden age of comic books (and are puzzled by swoops and twists of the comic-book plot), you'll appreciate Chabon's flare for language and his characters. It won a Pulitzer. (ANT175, $15.00)
America in the Gilded Age, From the Death of Lincoln to the Rise of Theodore Roosevelt  •  Sean Dennis Cashman HISTORY •  1993 •  PAPER  • 425 PAGES A scholarly, comprehensive history of America in the late 19th-century. First published in 1984. (USA80, $24.00)
American Museum of Natural History, The Official Guide  •  AMNH GUIDEBOOK •  2008 •  PAPER  • 64 PAGES This pocket guide to the habitat groups and halls of the museum features 90 color photographs. (NYC198, $9.95)
American Prometheus, The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer  •  Kai Bird  •  Martin Sherwin BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2006 •  PAPER  • 736 PAGES A big, exhaustively researched biography of the all-too-short life of Robert J. Oppenheimer, many years in the making. The authors (a journalist and literature professor) are interested in the full arc of his life. (SCI99, $40.00)
Andrew Carnegie  •  Joseph Frazier Wall BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1989 •  PAPER  • 1137 PAGES A classic, hefty biography. (USE303, $24.95)
Aquavit and the New Scandinavian Cuisine  •  Marcus Samuelsson FOOD •  2003 •  HARD COVER  • 302 PAGES A wonderfully illustrated cookbook from the renowned chef at Aquavit, New York's premier restaurant for haute Scandinavian cuisine. Marcus Samuelsson was born in Ethiopia, raised in Sweden and trained in France, a background which informs his innovative take on the traditions of Scandinavia. (SCN40, $45.00)
The Architectural Guidebook to New York City  •  Francis Morrone  •  James Iska ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 432 PAGES Tour New York City's architectural icons in this expansive book, featuring some 600 Manhattan buildings. With his seasoned eye, Morrone highlights the aesthetic values of various buildings and teaches novices what to look for when strolling down Manhattan streets. Originally published in 1994, this most recent edition includes a section on Brooklyn and features the Park Slope and Brooklyn Heights neighborhoods. (NYC09, $21.95)
Away for the Weekend, New York  •  Eleanor Berman GUIDEBOOK •  2000 •  PAPER  • 304 PAGES A guide to myriad activities for both adults and children within striking distance of New York, from historical sites to casinos to the great outdoors. With driving directions and information on restaurants and accommodations. (USE131, $16.00)
Away, A Novel  •  Amy Bloom LITERATURE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES Bloom's marvelous fifth novel draws from the real-life particulars of Lillian Leyb, a remarkable Russian immigrant who, settled in New York, took off across America, determined to walk to Siberia and reunite with her young daughter. Bloom draws the reader into 1920s Yiddishkeit New York, Chicago, rough-and-tough Seattle, the Alaskan wilderness in this tender, absorbing tale. The reviewer in Publisher's Weekly raved, "Encompassing prison, prostitution and poetry, Yiddish humor and Yukon settings, Bloom's tale offers linguistic twists, startling imagery, sharp wit and a compelling vision of the past. Bloom has created an extraordinary range of characters, settings and emotions. Absolutely stunning." (USA162, $14.00)
Ballet and Modern Dance  •  Susan Au ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 224 PAGES An introduction to ballet and modern dance, a volume in the "World of Art" series, touching on a variety of popular forms, from the classical to the avant-garde. Illustrated throughout with color photographs. (GEN245, $18.95)
Before and After, Stories from New York  •  Tom Beller LITERATURE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 224 PAGES A stylish collection of essays, most first published on Tom Beller's website devoted to New York writing and New York neighborhoods, mrbellersneighborhood.com. The book is in two parts (it's printed topsy-turvy, so there are two covers), the first just a collection from before September 11, and the second group (many by the same authors) written after the Trade Center tragedy. Quite a few of New York's most distinctive voices are represented here, including Michael Cunningham and Luc Sante. (NYC55, $13.00)
The Best in Tent Camping, New York  •  Aaron Starmer  •  Catharine Wells  •  Timothy Starmer GUIDEBOOK •  2007 •  PAPER  • 224 PAGES Written by former Longitude editor Aaron Starmer, his girlfriend and camping companion Cate Wells, and his master carpenter brother Tim Starmer, this is the final word in camping guides to the Empire State. Detailing the 50 best campgrounds from Long Island to the Hudson, St. Lawrence, Adriondacks and the Great Lakes, it is a handy resource for hikers and families who prefer scenic, quiet and convenient places to pitch a tent. (NYS55, $14.95)
The Big Oyster, History on the Half Shell  •  Mark Kurlansky CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2007 •  PAPER  • 307 PAGES This cultural history of New York, equal parts erudite and entertaining, traces the arc of the city from its founding by the Dutch though the 19th century as seen through the developemnt fo the oyster industry. During the golden age of the oyster boom, which lasted from the 1880s to 1910, the region's oyster beds were producing 700 million osyters a year. (NYC173, $14.95)
The Big Year, A Tale Of Man, Nature, And Fowl Obsession  •  Mark Obmascik NATURAL HISTORY •  2005 •  PAPER  • 272 PAGES Obmascik, himself an over-the-edge birder, recounts with glee and page-turning detail the race to see the most birds in North America in a year, a quest that has his three competitors on the road at a moments notice, heading out in the middle of the night, and combing the beaches. As he so winningly demonstrates, these people are driven. (BRD29, $14.00)
The Birdwatcher's Companion to North American Birdlife  •  Christopher W. Leahy  •  Gordon Morrison NATURAL HISTORY •  2006 •  PAPER  • 1072 PAGES A handsome, fully illustrated survey of the birds of North America, organized A to Z, covering birds, bird biology, conservation and birdwatching. Published in cooperation with the American Birding Association. (NAM21, $19.95)
Bloom's Literary Guide to New York  •  Jesse Zuba GUIDEBOOK •  2004 •  PAPER  • 222 PAGES The setting for numerous modern classics, New York is described here by its literary history, examining both the writers it has produced, and its role as a setting in modern literature. (NYS59, $40.00)
The Boys of Summer  •  Roger Kahn BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2000 •  PAPER  • 480 PAGES The biography of a baseball era -- the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1950s. (NYC70, $15.00)
Breakfast at Tiffany's  •  Truman Capote LITERATURE •  1993 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES In Capote's enduring novel, Manhattan is the island of down-at-the-heels dreamers: taxis and Tiffany's, the equipment of their dreams. Perhaps no book better evokes the romance of New York. It's perfectly written, too. (NYC117, $12.95)
Bright Lights, Big City  •  Jay McInerney LITERATURE •  1987 •  PAPER  • 208 PAGES McInerney's debut novel, on the town in 1980s New York. (NYC84, $13.95)
The Bronfmans, The Rise And Fall of the House of Seagram  •  Nicholas Faith BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2006 •  HARD COVER (USE406, $25.95)
Building a Character  •  Constantine Stanislavski ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1989 •  PAPER  • 334 PAGES An actor's Bible, by the undeniably influential Stanislavski. (TTR21, $23.95)
Catcher in the Rye  •  J. D. Salinger LITERATURE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 288 PAGES Ruminations and travels of 16-year-old Holden Caufield, in a handsome paper edition. It's Salinger's remarkable first novel. (NYC99, $13.99)
Catskill Mountain Guide, Hiking Trails in the Catskills  •  Peter Kick GUIDEBOOK •  2002 •  PAPER  • 237 PAGES An authoritative, pocket guide to walks and hikes throughout the Catskills, including both easy day hikes and multi-day adventures. With a full-color, pull-out map and 90 detailed trail descriptions. We used our tattered, much travelered edition of Kick's Fifty Hikes in the Hudson Valley for years. The man knows how to put together an enjoyable ramble. (NYC91, $19.95)
Charming Small Hotels in New England and New York City  •  Paul Wade  •  Kathy Arnold GUIDEBOOK •  2005 •  PAPER  • 191 PAGES A full page with a color photograph is dedicated to each entry in this guide focused on hotels with 20 bedrooms or less. (USE389, $15.95)
The Cheap Bastard's Guide to New York City, A Native New Yorker's Secrets of Living the Good Life--For Free!  •  Rob Grader GUIDEBOOK •  2004 •  PAPER  • 304 PAGES A collection of ideas for cheap or entirely free eating, living, and entertainment in New York. With chapters on where to go and how to get access to free concerts, movies, haricuts, classes and transportation. Winner of the Lowell Thomas Gold Award for Travel Guidebook of the Year. (NYC161, $14.95)
Christ in Concrete  •  Pietro Di Donato LITERATURE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 223 PAGES A classic novel (often compared to Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath) of working class Italian-Americans on New York's Lower East Side in the days before WWII. Originally published in published in 1939. (NYC138, $15.00)
Christo and Jeanne-Claude On The Way to the Gates Central Park New York City  •  Jonathan Fineberg ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2004 •  HARD COVER  • 224 PAGES This richly illustrated overview of the project -- and companion volume to the exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art -- features a collection of color reproductions of Christo's drawings and collages. The book includes a survey of the career of Christo and Jeanne-Claude by Fineberg, along with four interviews conducted from 1979 to 2003. (NYC151, $65.00)
City Secrets New York City  •  Robert Kahn GUIDEBOOK •  2002 •  HARD COVER  • 542 PAGES A volume in the excellent series by Little Bookroom, City Secrets New York collects dozens of the recommendations of where to go and what to do. It's a connoisseur's guide to the city and its attractions, with personal recommendations by artists, writers, architects and personalities of New York, including novelist Michael Cunningham, neurologist Oliver Sacks, journalist Anna Quindlen, folksinger Pete Seeger, and dozens of others. Organized by neighborhood, each contributor provides a brief profile of a favorite haunt. With detailed maps. Edited by architect and New Yorker Robert Kahn. (NYC66, $24.95)
A Clearing in the Distance, Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Century  •  Witold Rybczynski BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2000 •  PAPER  • 480 PAGES With the possible exception of Robert Moses (see item NYC53), no one has had more impact on the New York City landscape than Frederick Law Olmsted. Two of his masterpieces, Central Park in Manhattan and Prospect Park in Brooklyn, still exert an extraordinary pull on New York City. This is the very well told story of their creator, a 19th-century renaissance man, whose midlife vision of the integration of broad vistas into the urban landscape is very much still with us. (NYC62, $15.95)
The Collected Stories  •  Grace Paley LITERATURE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 386 PAGES This reissue of Grace Paley's classic collection--a finalist for the National Book Award--demonstrates her rich use of language as well as her extraordinary insight into and compassion for her characters, moving from the hilarious to the tragic and back again. Whether writing about the love (and conflict) between parents and children or between husband and wife, or about the struggles of aging single mothers or disheartened political organizers to make sense of the world, she brings the same unerring ear for the rhythm of life as it is actually lived. (NYC163, $17.00)
The Colossus of New York: A City in Thirteen Parts  •  Colin Whitehead CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2004 •  PAPER  • 128 PAGES A lyrical homage to New York in the form of 13 eclectic and inventive vignettes. In the spirit of E.B. White, Whitehead taps the ebullient spirit of the city -- whether Coney Island or Port Authority. (NYC97, $13.00)
Companion Guide New York  •  Michael Leapman GUIDEBOOK •  2000 •  PAPER  • 352 PAGES Organized as a series of walking tours, this guide to Manhattan is a trove of solid practical information and entertaining historical, literary, architectural and political asides. The Companion Guide series, published in Britain, is known for eccentric, opinionated, personable, erudite guidebooks worldwide. (NYC54, $34.95)
The Corrections  •  Jonathan Franzen LITERATURE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 592 PAGES It's really that good -- a dazzling novel of life and love and family and holidays that follows the peregrinations of the Lamberts -- father, mother and offspring -- from New York to Philadelphia to Vilnius (Lithuania). A big, heart wrenching, comic book (and pretty dead on about Eastern European politics). (EUR122, $15.00)
Crawling at Night  •  Nani Power LITERATURE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 240 PAGES Two nocturnal denizens of New York, a widower from Japan and a single mother from North Carolina, stumble through the city and their troubled pasts in this atmospheric debut novel from a former sushi chef. (NYC83, $13.00)
Crooklyn  •  Spike Lee 1994 •  DVD Lee's nostalgic ode to Brooklyn in the 1970s, a semi-autobiographical (the main character is a young girl, not a boy) tale of growing up among the brownstones and bodegas of his beloved city. Infused with period music and with a keen eye for the social ills that plague the neighborhood, it's a heartfelt, honest depiction of an urban childhood. (NYC128, $19.98)
The Decoration of Houses  •  Edith Wharton  •  Ogden Codman ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 294 PAGES The famed novelist and architect teamed up to write this classic on interior design that prescribes the complete design for a "proper residence." First published in 1897, this new edition includes a portfolio of color plates. (ART36, $25.00)
Delirious New York, A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan  •  Rem Koolhaas CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2001 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES The Dutch architect's semi-classic meditation on marvelous, absurd and enchanting New York. (NYC18, $35.00)
Dinosaurs in the Attic, An Excursion Into the American Museum of Natural History  •  Doug Preston BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1994 •  PAPER Preston spins a tale of big personalities, big ambition, unbounding curiosity, greed and collecting fever in this engaging history of the museum. With chapters on Peary's exploits in the Arctic, dino digs in the west, Mongolia, and the many and various collections. (NYC92, $15.95)
Directors on Directing, A Source Book to Modern Theater  •  Toby Cole  •  Helen Krich Chinoy ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1990 •  PAPER  • 479 PAGES A guide to the art of directing theatrical productions, composed of a variety of essays from professionals in the industry. (TTR03, $114.80)
The Dramatic Imagination, Reflections and Speculations on the Art of Theatre  •  Robert Edmond Jones ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1987 •  PAPER  • 157 PAGES A classic, heartfelt collection of essays on all aspects of the theater, from acting and directing to lighting and design. Jones's experience and wisdom are evident throughout, and the books stands as a source of inspiration and instruction for theater professionals and aficionados. (TTR02, $24.95)
Dreamland  •  Kevin Baker LITERATURE •  2006 •  PAPER  • 688 PAGES This first volume in the City of Fire trilogy depicts turn of the century New York in all it's chaotic, corrupt glory. When immigrant Kid Twist saves Trick the Dwarf from being murdered by a local gangster, the pair must seek safety in every corner of the city. Their ensuing adventures in Harlem, on the Lower East Side, at Coney Island and every place in between bring them into contact with characters of all kinds including midgets, hustlers, feminist strikers and even Freud. (NYC159, $14.95)
Drown  •  Junot Diaz LITERATURE •  1997 •  PAPER  • 208 PAGES A collection of 10 stories from a young Dominican-American writer who has split the time in his life between the United States and the Dominican Republic. The stories reflect his cultural experiences, telling of a childhood living in both the slums of New York and the run-down sections of the Dominican Republic. Passionate and evocative, these are tales of tough short life, told with verbal flare. (CRB91, $14.00)
Duty, Honor, Country: A History of West Point  •  Stephen Ambrose  •  Dwight D. Eisenhower  •  Andrew J. Goodpaster HISTORY •  1999 •  PAPER  • 377 PAGES Starting with its formation during the Revolutionary War, renowned historian Ambrose (in one of his first books) follows the history of the United States Military Academy at West Point. First published in 1966, with a forward by former president Eisenhower, this updated edition brings the story of the academy into the present, with commentary by former superintendent Andrew J. Goodpaster. (USE71, $20.95)
Eleanor Roosevelt, 1884-1933, Vol. 1  •  Blanche Wiesen Cook BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1993 •  PAPER  • 608 PAGES A big, popular biography of the premiere First Lady of the 20th century, chronicling her life from her birth in New York City to her husband's inauguration. Most of Eleanor's story unfolds in the Hudson River Valley, where the many branches of the Roosevelt family lived. This is a very readable portrait of a fascinating and complex person. (NYC22, $18.00)
The Empire State, A History of New York  •  Milton M. Klein  •  New York State Historical Society  •  Paula Baker HISTORY •  2001 •  HARD COVER  • 816 PAGES A clear, comprehensive history of New York State, from prehistory to the present. (NYS23, $45.00)
The Empty Space  •  Peter Brook ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1997 •  PAPER  • 141 PAGES A highly influential -- and highly readable -- treatise on the state of modern theater, first published in 1968 but still appropriate today. Legendary English director Peter Brook divides dramatic productions into four categories -- the Deadly Theater, the Holy Theater, the Rough Theater, and the Immediate Theater -- so that he may address the importance and potential of the theatrical form. (TTR01, $11.95)
Eyewitness New York City Pocket Map & Guide  •  Eyewitness Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2007 •  PAPER  • 80 PAGES This superb guide to New York features color photography, easy-to-use foldout maps and top attractions. Convenient and up-to-date with an unbeatable price, this is the guide to carry. (NYC169, $6.99)
Eyewitness Real City New York  •  Eyewitness Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2007 •  PAPER  • 240 PAGES With up-to-date information on what's hot in the Big Apple, this chic guide lists the trendiest local spots to eat, shop, party and relax. Supported by a website so you'll always be on the inside track. (NYC170, $15.00)
F.D.R: An Intimate History  •  Nathan Miller BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1991 •  PAPER  • 608 PAGES A popular biography, first published in 1983. (USE307, $23.95)
Fall on your Knees  •  Ann-Marie MacDonald LITERATURE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 508 PAGES An epic novel following the lives of a Lebanese-Canadian family from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia during the first half of the 20th century. The story is wide in scope, taking place not only in coastal Canada, but also in Europe during World War I and New York City during the "Roaring 20s." Full of hidden family secrets and mounting tragedies, this is a powerful -- and often darkly humorous -- yarn, written by an award winning playwright and actress. (CND49, $16.00)
FDR  •  Jean Edward Smith BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2007 •  HARD COVER  • 880 PAGES Half of this blockbuster bio of Franklin Delano Roosevelt is devoted to his presidential years. (USE409, $35.00)
Feeding a Yen, Savoring Local Specialties from Kansas City to Cuzco  •  Calvin Trillin FOOD •  2004 •  PAPER  • 197 PAGES Boy, Trillin can really write -- and he drags the reader along in his enthusiasm for food and travel (not to mention his neighborhood in the West Village). This slim book, with many of the essays originally published elsewhere, includes Trillin's priceless riff on bagels as bait to lure his daughters home from the West Coast, his quest for the best ceviche with none other than Douglas Rodriguez, as well as 11 other ramblings, many in search of local foods. Trillin casually interweaves stories of his many friends, strong-minded daughters and beloved wife Alice, in whose memory the book is dedicated. (WLD40, $13.95)
The Fervent Years, The Group Theatre and the Thirties  •  Harold Clurman ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1983 •  PAPER  • 329 PAGES The history of a ten-year theater movement in the 1930s, which was focused on politics and method acting, and continues to influence the Broadway scene today. (TTR20, $18.00)
A Field Guide to Eastern Trees  •  George Petrides  •  Roger Tory Peterson FIELD GUIDE •  1998 •  PAPER  • 234 PAGES The classic Peterson field guide. (NAM09, $20.00)
A Field Guide to Trees and Shrubs  •  George Petrides FIELD GUIDE •  1973 •  PAPER  • 234 PAGES The classic Peterson guide to trees, shrubs and vines in Eastern, Central and Southeastern United States. (NAM08, $19.00)
Fierce Attachments  •  Vivian Gornick LITERATURE •  2005 •  PAPER  • 216 PAGES Gornick weaves together memories of her volatile relationship with her mother and her childhood in the Bronx in this acclaimed memoir, first published in 1987. (USE421, $14.00)
First Resorts, Pursuing Pleasure at Saratoga Springs, Newport and Coney Island  •  Jon Sterngrass HISTORY •  2001 •  HARD COVER  • 384 PAGES A history of the evolution of the country's top three 19th-century resort towns and their contribution to the way we view vacation. (USE274, $40.00)
Fodor's Family New York City With Kids  •  Fodor's Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2009 •  PAPER  • 244 PAGES • COMING IN APRIL Local parents cover a variety of interests and tastes for families with kids of all ages in these handy guides. With maps, family-friendly hotels and the five best things to see and do in every neighborhood. (NYC199, $10.95)
Fodor's See It New York City  •  Fodor's GUIDEBOOK •  2004 •  PAPER  • 368 PAGES An inaugural volume in this new line of guides by Fodor's this book is notable for its especially vibrant presentation of the city. Each page displays full-color photos accompanied by much useful information on how to eat, sleep, shop, and sightsee in New York City. (NYC145, $24.95)
Fortune's Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt  •  Arthur T. Vanderbilt HISTORY •  1991 •  PAPER  • 512 PAGES The remarkable history of the accumulation -- and loss -- of the family fortune, told by a descendent. With much attention paid to the lavish Vanderbilt homes. (USE309, $19.95)
The French Connection  •  William Friedkin 1971 •  DVD The seminal gritty New York police film, featuring Gene Hackman as a tough NYC detective trying to head off a heroin shipment from France. The Academy Award Winner includes perhaps the most famous chase scene on New York City streets. (NYC132, $26.98)
Frommer's New York City Day By Day  •  Hilary Davidson GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES A compact shirt pocket guide, ideal for a short visit, featuring remarkably good suggestions for everything from food, hotels and neighborhoods to shopping. With a separate foldout map of the city center. (NYC166, $12.99)
The Fun of It, Stories from the New Yorker's "The Talk of the Town"  •  Lillian Ross LITERATURE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 512 PAGES Longtime "Talk of the Town" reporter Lillian Ross selects standout columns from the section's first 75 years. Funny, revealing and consummately New York, these pieces encapsulate three-quarters of a century in the life of the city. James Thurber, E.B. White and Ross herself are among the featured authors. (NYC48, $16.95)
The Gangs of New York  •  Herbert Asbury HISTORY •  2001 •  PAPER  • 420 PAGES An engaging, gritty history of New York City's underbelly of crime and gangs in the 19th and early 20th century by veteran journalist Herbert Asbury. (NYC186, $15.95)
The Garden Primer  •  Barbara Damrosch NATURAL HISTORY •  2008 •  PAPER  • 668 PAGES Among the virtues of this sensible, exceedingly useful manual to garden planning and plant care are Damrosch's reassuring tone and humor. We turn to it for all our garden-related questions, from picking plants to compost, tools and pests. It's an excellent reference, for both the budding garden designer and the practiced hand. (USA71, $18.95)
George Gaylord Simpson, Paleontologist and Evolutionist  •  Léo F. Laporte BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2000 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES A well-considered biography of the influential evolutionary biologist (1902-84) with a focus on Simpson's scientific contributions. (SCI63, $29.00)
The Gilded Age, A Tale of Today  •  Mark Twain  •  Charles Dudley Warner CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2001 •  PAPER  • 475 PAGES A satirical portrait of American life in the post-Civil War era. First published in 1873. (USA83, $15.00)
The Gilded Age, Essays on the Origins of Modern America  •  Charles W. Calhoun HISTORY •  1995 •  PAPER  • 347 PAGES A collection of 14 historical essays covering industrialization, big business, women, minority experiences, law and more. (USA79, $21.95)
The Gilded Age, Treasures from the Smithsonian Art Museum  •  Elizabeth Prelinger ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2000 •  PAPER  • 112 PAGES An illustrated overview of the art of the era, with minimal text. Includes 52 full-color reproductions of masterpieces from Mary Cassatt, John Singer Sargent, Louis Comfort Tiffany and more. (USA84, $19.95)
The Gilded Age: Edith Wharton and Her Contemporaries  •  Eleanor Dwight CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1996 •  HARD COVER  • 80 PAGES A slim cultural history weaving together the art and literature of the era. (NYC103, $18.95)
Go Tell It on the Mountain  •  James Baldwin LITERATURE •  2000 •  PAPER  • 240 PAGES The powerful, much-celebrated novel of a teen-age preacher In Harlem in the 1930s. (NYC124, $13.00)
Gorilla, My Love  •  Toni Cade Bambara LITERATURE •  1992 •  PAPER  • 177 PAGES Told from the viewpoint of a young black girl growing up in Manhattan and North Carolina at mid-century, these 15 interconnected short stories evoke the troubles and triumphs of a community. Included in this collection are the much-anthologized Raymond's Run and My Man Bovanne. Bambara was an unflagging advocate of justice and civil and human rights, and her stories are shot through with powerful social conscience. (NYC121, $12.95)
The Great Gatsby  •  F. Scott Fitzgerald LITERATURE •  2004 •  PAPER  • 180 PAGES Set in 1920s New York, F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel portrays the Jazz Age in all of its decandence and excess. (USE411, $14.00)
The Great New York City Trivia & Fact Book  •  B. Kim Taylor GUIDEBOOK •  1998 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES A compendium of New York history, neighborhoods, art and culture, sure to appeal to the whole family. (NYC126, $10.95)
Guggenheim Museum Collection, A to Z  •  Nancy Spector ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2000 •  HARD COVER  • 325 PAGES An illustrated dictionary of artists represented in the Guggenheim's collections. Entries detail the artists' lives and works, from Max Beckmann to Bill Viola. It's a compact tour of the history of modern art and of the Guggenheim (although only a portion of the museum's collection is on view at any one time). (NYC36, $29.95)
Guggenheim NY/Guggenheim Bilbao  •  Jeff Goldberg  •  Ezra Stoller ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 80 PAGES The Guggenheim New York and the Guggenheim Bilbao, two of the world's most stunning architectural achievements, are compared through beautiful duotone and full color photographs in this new book. The book is small enough to fit in your hand and it is cleverly devised -- when you flip it over you alternate between pictures of the two museums. (SPN115, $14.95)
A Hazard of New Fortunes  •  William Dean Howells LITERATURE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 449 PAGES A self-made millionaire and a social revolutionary are at odds with each other in a novel set against the background of a 19th-century New York streetcar strike. (NYC201, $16.00)
Heading South, Looking North  •  Ariel Dorfman BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1999 •  PAPER  • 288 PAGES Born in Buenos Aires in 1942, exiled to New York with his parents in 1945, shipped off to Chile in 1955 (where he attended an English school), a graduate of Berkeley, and member of Allende's socialist government who now teaches at Duke University, Dorfman has an astonishing family history and impeccable credentials as a leftist intellectual. This is the man who wrote "How to Read Donald Duck," Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic." In this exhilarating memoir, Dorman interweaves the wild story of his life before 1973 with an account of the coup that put the military dictator Pinochet into power. It's the powerful need to write that holds Dorfman together through all the dislocations, changes of language and identity. (CHI22, $15.00)
Historic Watering Holes of Greenwich Village, With an Architecture-and-History Chaser  •  ListenUp Tours GUIDEBOOK •  2004 •  DVD This nifty package, featuring an insiders walking tour of the village (and particularly its historic taverns), includes an audio tour on DVD, an excellent map of the Village (East and West), recommended cafes and restaurants to stop en route along with interviews and good historical information. Best of all, it takes you on a 2 1/2 mile odyssey along some of the city's most historic, inviting streets from the venerable McSorley's Old Ale House to White Horse Tavern. For adults 21 and over, the feature is pubs! (NYC141, $14.99)
Historical Atlas of New York City, A Visual Celebration of Nearly 400 Years of New York History  •  Eric Homberger HISTORY •  1998 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES Overflowing with maps, charts, and illustrations, this is a marvelous introduction to New York City's history. It's no small task to cover so much of NYC history in so relatively slim a book, but the drawings work wonders -- Homberger manages to condense things into bite-sized, yet very satisfying, pieces. (NYC135, $22.00)
Home Alone 2, Lost in New York  •  Christopher Columbus 1992 •  DVD Macaulay Caulkin is left behind again, but this time in the heart of New York City. He gets into trouble, and saves the day, among the skyscrapers. (NYC134, $19.99)
The Hours  •  Michael Cunningham LITERATURE •  1999 •  HARD COVER  • 230 PAGES A hard cover edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning (and magnificent) novel by friend of Longitude, Michael Cunningham. The book interweaves three tales, one in 1950's Los Angeles, another in contemporary New York, and the final in London (or outside) in the 1920's. Each echoes Virginia Woolf's masterpiece, Mrs. Dalloway. This is simply a marvelous read: deep, dark, yet wondrously full of hope. (NYC72, $23.00)
The Hours  •  Michael Cunningham LITERATURE •  2000 •  PAPER  • 230 PAGES OK, we're biased, since Cunningham is a friend of Longitude's. But trust us, the 1999 Pulitzer-Prize committee was right on the mark. This book interweaves three tales, one in 1950's Los Angeles, another in contemporary New York, and the final in London (or outside) in the 1920's. Each echoes Viginia Woolf's masterpiece, Mrs. Dalloway. This is simply a marvelous read: deep, dark, yet wondrously full of hope. (NYC67, $13.00)
How I Became Hettie Jones  •  Hettie Jones BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1996 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES A memoir of 1950s New York by a woman who married into the midst of the American cultural maelstrom. As a mixed-race couple in lower Manhattan, Hettie and LeRoi Jones (she a leftist Jewish intellectual, he an increasingly militant black poet/playwright later known as Amiri Baraka) had an unusual yet iconic seven-year marriage. This tender, smart memoir captures all the foment of their New York milieu. (NYC40, $14.00)
How to Lose Friends and Alienate People  •  Toby Young CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2003 •  PAPER  • 340 PAGES A laugh-out-loud savaging of the Conde Nast empire by a young British turk who did time at Vanity Fair. The book has created quite a stir in the New York magazine world. (NYC81, $14.95)
The Hudson  •  Carl Cramer  •  Edward J. McLaughlin HISTORY •  1993 •  PAPER  • 338 PAGES First published in the 1939, this is a folk history of the Hudson River from a writer who lived along its banks for much of his life. (NYS22, $25.00)
The Hudson Through the Years  •  Arthur G. Adams HISTORY •  2000 •  PAPER  • 340 PAGES • COMING IN A comprehensive history of the Hudson River from the early settlements of Native Americans to the mid-1990s. With black-and-white photographs throughout. Subjects addressed include the Revolutionary War, industry on the river, and regional art. Originally published in 1983 and revised for the 2000 edition. (USE159, $27.95)
Hudson Valley Map  •  JIMAPCO MAP A road map of the Hudson River Valley from Albany to New York City, at a scale of 1:270,000. With a detailed view of the Catskills, much of Dutchess County, Hudson and other areas of interest. This is the map of the region we keep in the car. (USE199, $4.95)
The Incorporation of America, Culture and Society in the Gilded Age  •  Alan Trachtenberg HISTORY •  1982 •  PAPER  • 260 PAGES A study of the expansion of American capitalism and its effects at the end of the 19th-century. (USA81, $14.00)
Insiders' Guide New York Neighborhoods, A Food Lover's Walking, Eating, and Shopping Guide to Ethnic Enclaves throughout New  •  Eleanor Berman  •  John Coburn GUIDEBOOK •  2004 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES (NYC162, $14.95)
Insight City Guide New York  •  Insight Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER  • 256 PAGES The New York City Insight City Guide combines insightful writing and lavish full-color photography in a portable format with an emphasis on practical information. (NYC197, $16.95)
Insight Guide New York State  •  Insight Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2003 •  PAPER  • 333 PAGES A profusely illustrated overview of New York State, featuring concise essays by well regarded authors on history, nature and culture, hundreds of photos and excellent local maps. (USE176, $23.95)
Jacob Riis  •  Jacob Riis ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2001 •  PAPER  • 128 PAGES This pocket book, one in a series by Phaidon, reproduces 55 of Riis's seminal, policy-changing photographs of New York City's poor and immigrant classes at the turn of the 20th century. It functions as a window into the lives and lots of street children and the working poor. (NYC120, $7.95)
Just Enough Liebling, Classic Work by the Legendary New Yorker Writer  •  A.J. Liebling  •  David Remnick BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2005 •  PAPER  • 560 PAGES Food, boxing, war, Paris, literature, no matter what the subject, quintessential New Yorker essayist A. J. Liebling tackled it with style. Here's a rewarding (and cleverly titled) sampling, published in celebration of the centennial of his birth. As anyone who has read Liebling or read about Liebling would know, "just enough" isn't his style at all. This was a man with a healthy appetite. (NYC146, $15.00)
Kafka Was the Rage, A Greenwich Village Memoir  •  Anatole Broyard BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1997 •  PAPER  • 160 PAGES An affecting, intimate memoir of the intellectual Bohemian life in Greenwich Village in the late 1940s. The author was new to that life in 1946, having just been discharged from the army, and his wide-eyed attitude lends the memoir subdued hilarity. (NYC64, $13.00)
Kingbird Highway, The Story of a Natural Obsession That Got a Little Out of Hand  •  Kenn Kaufman BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2006 •  PAPER  • 336 PAGES Kaufman's absorbing account of coming-of-age as a Wichita teenager on the road in 1973 with a summer's pay in his pocket and the goal of seeing as many birds as he could in a year. He tallied 671, impressive by any account and extraordinary if you count birds per buck. He did it all for $1,000. This cult classic was originally published in 1973. (BRD27, $14.00)
Knights of the Brush, The Hudson River School and the Moral Landscape  •  James F. Cooper ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1999 •  HARD COVER  • 108 PAGES The Hudson River School had enormous influence on the development of landscape painting in America. Critic James F. Cooper analyzes some of the movement's most notable works, looking at the moral obligations and concerns of artists such as Thomas Cole and Frederic Church. Illustrated throughout with color reproductions. (USE198, $39.95)
Knopf Mapguide New York  •  Knopf Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2006 •  PAPER (NYC171, $9.95)
La Storia, Five Centuries of the Italian American Experience  •  Jerre Mangione HISTORY •  1993 •  PAPER  • 560 PAGES A history of the Italian immigrant experience in America. (NYC187, $18.95)
The Last Avant-Garde, The Making of the New York School of Poets  •  David Lehman LITERATURE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 448 PAGES A tremendously entertaining, informative, and anecdotal portrait of the four poets of the New York School: John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Kenneth Koch and James Schuyler. A poet himslef, Lehman captures the Bohemian fervor of midcentury New York in this readable, high spirited account of artistic friendship and collaboration in Manhattan. (NYC75, $16.95)
Last Exit to Brooklyn  •  Hubert Selby, Jr. LITERATURE •  1988 •  PAPER  • 304 PAGES A landmark, explosive collection of loosely connected short stories depicting the sordid criminal underbelly of 1950s Brooklyn. With wonderfully inventive low-life characters and innovative stream-of-consciousness style prose, Last Exit to Brooklyn has become one of the most important and influential American cult classics of the mid-20th century. With gritty sex, drugs, and violence galore, the book was banned in several countries upon its initial publication in 1964. (NYC175, $14.00)
The Last of the Mohicans  •  James Fenimore Cooper LITERATURE •  1981 •  PAPER  • 400 PAGES James Fenimore Cooper's racially complex, anti-nationalist 1826 novel offered early Americans a radical vision of themselves, their history and their future. It's set in rural New York State during the French and Indian War; it's said that then one could walk from Buffalo to New York City under cover of trees. (NYC24, $4.95)
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories  •  Washington Irving LITERATURE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 638 PAGES Traveling to the Hudson River Valley? Stay awake nights with this great, suspenseful yarn -- or rest easy and read some of the American master's gentler short works. (NYC23, $8.95)
Liar's Poker  •  Michael Lewis BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1990 •  PAPER  • 249 PAGES A memoir of the go-go 80's on Wall Street. Michael Lewis, who turned out to be a much better writer than he could possibly have been a bond salesman, chronicles his own 4-year rise at Salomon Brothers (which is only coincidentally connected to Salomon's fall) , from trainee to high-paid trader. A modern classic. (NYC71, $15.00)
Life Along the Hudson  •  Allan Keller  •  Alfred Marks HISTORY •  1997 •  PAPER  • 272 PAGES An impressionistic portrait of the Hudson River from its discovery by Europeans to modern times. With 98 well-integrated illustrations. The author, a newspaperman, covers industry, art and culture. He concludes his brief survey with a personal tour of the stately mansions. First published in 1976. (USE196, $26.95)
Light Years  •  James Salter LITERATURE •  1995 •  PAPER A shimmering novel set in an old estate along the Hudson. Salter spins an absorbing story, rich in the details of daily life, of the unraveling of a perfect family. (NYC65, $14.95)
Lonely Planet New York Encounter  •  Ginger Adams Otis GUIDEBOOK •  2007 •  PAPER With a section of not-to-missed highlights and a calendar of annual events, this lively pocket guide organized by neighborhood includes suggested side trips, along what to see and where to shop, eat, drink and play. With a double-sided pullout map. (NYC179, $11.99)
Long Island Alive  •  Francine Silverman GUIDEBOOK •  2003 •  PAPER  • 583 PAGES A detailed, practical guide to Long Island that promises to keep visitors busy from sunrise to after dark. Includes recommendations for the best places to stay, shop and dine in Nassau and Suffolk counties. With maps, indexes and color photos. (USE282, $17.95)
Lucy  •  Jamaica Kincaid LITERATURE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 176 PAGES Kincaid's transporting tale of a young au pair from the West Indies coming of age in New York. (NYC202, $13.00)
The Magic of Opera  •  J. Merrill Knapp MUSIC •  1985 •  PAPER  • 371 PAGES A comprehensive introduction to the history, structure and forms of opera, written for the general reader. (GEN139, $18.95)
Making the Mummies Dance, Inside the Metropolitan Museum of Art  •  Thomas Hoving BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  1994 •  PAPER  • 429 PAGES As the controversial and enormously powerful director of the Met from 1967-1977, Hoving guided his museum to the top of the global heap. This memoir of backroom brawls, blockbuster shows, financial maneuvers, theft, forgery and the never-mundane daily machinations of the museum world ushers readers behind-the-scenes of the Met's marble galleries. (NYC37, $28.95)
Mammals of North America  •  Roland W. Kays  •  Don E. Wilson FIELD GUIDE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 240 PAGES A comprehensive guide by two noted mammalogists and featuring 108 color plates, illustrating 442 species. Range maps and descriptive text on ecology, habitat and behavior complement the wonderful paintings. (NAM11, $19.95)
Manhattan  •  Woody Allen 1979 •  DVD Classic Woody Allen, from the all-Gershwin soundtrack to the list of Things that Make Life Worth Living. Meryl Streep, Muriel Hemingway, and of course Allen himself star in this romantic comedy about infidelity, dating younger (much younger) women, and the continuing love affair with New York City. (USE334, $19.98)
Manhattan Transfer  •  John Dos Passos LITERATURE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 352 PAGES In this book, Dos Passos takes on New York City in the 1920s, its upper and lower classes, the hopes it inspires in them, the difficulties they endure, and the mood of an era. It's a great big, plumy novel, chock full of incident and opinion. (NYC119, $15.00)
Memoirs  •  David Rockefeller BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2003 •  PAPER  • 560 PAGES This autobiography of John D. Rockefeller Jr. 's youngest son spans David's family, financial career and powerful friends. (NYC109, $17.95)
The Merlot Murders, A Wine Country Mystery  •  Ellen Crosby MYSTERY •  2006 •  HARD COVER  • 256 PAGES (USE374, $24.00)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide  •  Philippe De Montebello GUIDEBOOK •  1995 •  HARD COVER  • 470 PAGES A compact guide to the galleries and holdings of the Metropolitan Museum, with descriptions of 900 works culled from every department, plus 829 full-color illustrations. There's even a section on the Cloisters, the Met's uptown outpost. (NYC38, $19.95)
The Metropolitan Opera Stories of the Great Operas  •  John Freeman  •  Beverly Sills MUSIC •  1997 •  HARD COVER  • 1017 PAGES A two-volume, boxed collection of the complete plots for 225 operas, authorized by the Metropolitan Opera. For each opera, the author provides the composer's biographical information, a list of characters and premiere dates. (NYC15, $50.00)
Minor Characters, A Young Woman's Coming of Age in the Beat Orbit of Jack Kerouac  •  Joyce Johnson LITERATURE •  1999 •  PAPER  • 288 PAGES The vivid memoir of young love and art and the Beat Generation in New York by a noted writer and critic -- and once-upon-a-time lover of Jack Kerouac. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. (NYC77, $15.00)
Miss Lonelyhearts & the Day of the Locust  •  Nathanael West LITERATURE •  1969 •  PAPER West's two classic short novels, one set in New York and the other in Hollywood, dramatically depict the destructive forces of modern American life. The Day of the Locust is the classic novel on the tragic life behind the scenes of Hollywood's golden age. (CAL259, $12.95)
Mobil Travel Guide City Guide New York  •  Mobil Travel Guides GUIDEBOOK •  2009 •  PAPER  • 192 PAGES • COMING IN JANUARY Celebrating 50 years, these practical guides feature the same Mobil star rating system. (NYS76, $16.95)
Modern Art, Impressionism to Post-Modernism  •  David Britt ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 416 PAGES An excellent visual survey of the course of modern art, opening with Impressionism and continuing through to Post-Modernism. The text takes in every major artistic movement of the last 150 years, while the 400-plus color illustrations include masterpieces in all media. (ART09, $29.95)
The Moment It Clicks, Photography Secrets from One of the World's Top Shooters  •  Joe McNally ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 272 PAGES Renowned digital photographer McNally combines his tips for capturing the perfect shot with rich, stunning images in this handsome volume. (ART104, $54.99)
Money, A Suicide Note  •  Martin Amis LITERATURE •  1986 •  PAPER  • 363 PAGES While simultaneously shooting his first feature film in New York and living a decadent lifestyle, John Self, one of London's top commercial directors, discovers how distasteful the pursuit of pleasure can be. (NYC200, $15.00)
Morgan, American Financier  •  Jean Strouse BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR •  2000 •  PAPER  • 848 PAGES An award winning biography that humanizes the powerful turn-of-the-century banker. (USE304, $18.00)
Mrs. Astor's New York: Money and Power in a Gilded Age  •  Eric Homberger HISTORY •  2002 •  HARD COVER  • 336 PAGES An illustrated portrait of aristocratic life in New York's Gilded Age. (NYC106, $29.95)
My Ears Are Bent  •  Joseph Mitchell LITERATURE •  2008 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES The definitive collection of Mitchell's pre-New Yorker columns. These pieces deftly articulate the character and characters of nineteen thirties New York City. (NYC191, $13.95)
Nathaniel's Nutmeg, True and Incredible Adventures of the Spice Trader Who Changed the Course of History  •  Giles Milton HISTORY •  2000 •  PAPER  • 388 PAGES A rousing tale of international competition, greed and exploitation in 17th-century Indonesia. The book revolves around Nathaniel Courthroupe, who held off Dutch marauders on a tiny nutmeg-producing island from 1616-1620 (before being killed). The Dutch eventually got the island (and control over much of Indonesia) but gave the British the island of Manhattan in exchange. It's a great story, well told -- and all true. (INS73, $15.00)
The Navigator of New York  •  Wayne Johnston LITERATURE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 483 PAGES This absorbing historical novel, sure to appeal to those interested in Arctic exploration, mixes up details of the real-life adventures of Robert Peary and Frederick Cook with an invented family history. Johnston's tale revolves around young Devlin Stead, and his growing involvement with the wily Dr. Cook and his circle in New York City. A Newfoundlander with some experience in the ice, Johnston is especially good at invoking the icy expanses of Greenland and the Canadian Arctic. Put this book on your shelf alongside Andrea Barrett's Voyage of the Narwhal. (ARC127, $15.95)
New York Changing, Revisiting Berenice Abbott's New York  •  Douglas Levere  •  Bonnie Yochelson  •  Paul Goldberger  •  Susan Henshaw Jones ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2004 •  HARD COVER  • 192 PAGES In 1935, the photographer Berenice Abbott photographed New York City over a period of five years, in a WPA-funded project which led to the publication of her book "New York Changing." In 2004, New York photographer Douglas Levere retraced Abbott's steps and meticulously reproduced each of her photographs, using the same types of camera at the same time of day and the same time of year. The result is a captivating black-and-white study of the changing atmosphere and architecture of New York City. (NYC144, $40.00)
New York City Trees, A Field Guide for the Metropolitan Area  •  Edward Sibley Barnard FIELD GUIDE •  2002 •  PAPER  • 240 PAGES Published in conjunction with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, this illustrated guide describes 125 local species, including plenty of lore on particular trees and information on tree-watching in the city. Divided into four parts: places to see trees, great trees, a field guide and a section on local resources. (NYC89, $19.95)
New York City: A Short History  •  George J. Lankevich HISTORY •  2002 •  PAPER  • 288 PAGES A concise history of New York from its days as a Dutch outpost to post September 11th. (NYC105, $18.95)
New York Eats (More)  •  Ed Levene GUIDEBOOK •  1997 •  PAPER  • 382 PAGES Forget about the Zagat guide, this is the bible of food-loving New Yorkers. The indefatigable Levene has tramped lovingly from neighborhood to neighborhood (including the outer boroughs!), finding the best in pastry, prepared food, chocolate, cheese, meats, bread and -- of course -- smoked fish. He won our heart by declaring the lox at Russ & Daughters the best in town. (NYC01, $18.95)
New York Living Rooms  •  James Fenton  •  Dominique Nabokov CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  1998 •  HARD COVER  • 128 PAGES How do they live? Dominique Nabokov snapped color Polaroids of 100 mostly famous New Yorkers' living rooms for this curiously fascinating book. Julian Schnabel, Al Sharpton, Elizabeth Hardwick, Louise Bourgeois and Philip Glass all put their possessions and tastes on display in this absorbing portrait of New York's diverse literati (and glitterati). She cannily chose to exclude the people, heightening the voyeuristic pleasure of the book. (NYC41, $29.95)
New York New York  •  Richard Berenholtz CULTURAL PORTRAIT •  2003 •  HARD COVER  • 240 PAGES A mini version of Richard Bernholtz' celebrated photographs of the New York skyline. The book features 220 color photographs, including 12 four-page, fold-out panoramas. The handy book measures just seven by five inches. (NYC136, $14.95)
The New York School  •  Dore Ashton ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1992 •  PAPER  • 246 PAGES A lucid, enjoyable history of the New York art world in the years 1930-1960, featuring Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky and all the rest of the Abstract Expressionists who tore up the town (and chewed on "fine art") in those years. Ashton is an estimable academic critic who can actually write!! (NYC35, $26.95)
The New York Stories of Edith Wharton  •  Edith Wharton LITERATURE •  2007 •  PAPER  • 464 PAGES Few understood turn-of-the-century New York as well, and none depicted the social rituals of its elite better. Here are Edith Wharton's finest New York tales--including "The Dilettante," The Long Run" and "The Rembrandt"-- collected in a single volume. (NYC184, $16.95)
New York Then And Now  •  Marcia Reiss HISTORY •  2006 •  HARD COVER  • 144 PAGES An illuminating photo-essay, showing archival and contemporary photographs of streets, skylines bridges and buildings throughout Manhattan. (NYC165, $18.95)
The New York Times Traveler's Guide to Art Museum Exhibitions 2005  •  Susan Mermelstein GUIDEBOOK •  2004 •  PAPER  • 500 PAGES A guide to 350 U.S. museums and their scheduled exhibits for 2005 written by a team at the "New York Times." With information and dates for traveling exhibitions. (NYC32, $17.95)
The New York Yankees Illustrated History  •  The New York Times SPORT •  2002 •  HARD COVER  • 288 PAGES A history of the New York Yankees featuring archival photographs from the New York Times and the Baseball Hall of Fame. (BBL08, $29.95)
New York, New Jersey & Pennsylvania Map  •  National Geographic MAP This double-sided regional map and itinerary planner, published by National Geographic, provides good detail as well as an overview of geographic features, historical highlights and other local attractions. It includes all of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania on a scale of 1:1,270,000. (USE255, $7.95)
New York, New York: The City in Art and Literature  •  Metropolitan Museum of Art ART & ARCHITECTURE •  2000 •  HARD COVER  • 201 PAGES A celebration of the art and literature of New York. The book brings together paintings, prints, photographs, postcards and other works of art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's encyclopedic collections along with poems, letters, fiction and memoirs by diverse writers. (NYC27, $19.95)
Noah's Garden, Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyards  •  Sarah Stein NATURAL HISTORY •  1995 •  PAPER  • 308 PAGES Stein makes a powerful case for appropriate, ethical landscaping in suburban America in this eloquent testimony to the importance of ungardening. She describes the transformation of her own backyard in Westchester County from suburban monoculture to haven for native plants and animals, including a woodland, hedgerow to attract birds and a meadow. (USE361, $14.00)
Noguchi East and West  •  Dore Ashton ART & ARCHITECTURE •  1993 •  PAPER  • 331 PAGES A biography of the California-born sculptor and multimedia artist Noguchi, written by a pre-eminent historian of 20th-century art. Dore Ashton makes sense of Noguchi's many periods and influences, considering both his Japanese and American inheritances. (ART16, $25.95)
Old New York  •  Edith Wharton LITERATURE •  1995 •  PAPER  • 320 PAGES Four novellas recalling New York society of the mid-nineteenth century. First published in 1924, the pieces include "False Dawn," "The Old Maid," "The Spark," and "New Year's Day." (NYC102, $15.00)
On the Town  •  Stanley Donen 1949 •  DVD Frank Sinatra and his sailor pals do New York, on a 24-hour leave during WW II before they are shipped out to the Pacific. One of the first Hollywood movies ever to be shot on location, it sure made the most of the great New York City sites -- and with the great Leonard Bernstein score, you can't go wrong. (NYC130, $19.98)
One Universe, At Home in the Cosmos  •  Neil Degrasse Tyson  •  Charles Liu  •  Robert Irion SCIENCE •  2000 •  HARD COVER  • 217 PAGES A visually stunning, well-written introduction to the universe for a popular audience, featuring 400 color photos and an authoritative text by a team of experts. The writers include the director of the Hayden Planetarium at the American Museum of Natural History, an astrophysicist at the museum, and a contributing editor at Science magazine. (SCI100, $40.00)
Paradise Alley, A Novel  •  Kevin Baker LITERATURE •  2003 •  PAPER  • 688 PAGES The second novel in Baker's City of Fire trilo