2 comments about Ghostly Gotham: New York City's Haunted History.

1. I love Ghost stories and such in general. I found the book very interesting on places who knew they were ever haunted. The layout i like by neighborhood. I gave it four stars because I put the book down wanting more...



2. I enjoy reading haunted books about places I am going to visit. I decided to purchase this book because it had gotten decent reviews on this website. However, I was very disappointed. I personally like a little more story and a little more on what happens during the hauntings. This book gives you one or two page descriptions on the place and who haunts it. I could find this information out by talking to someone who works there. If you are interested in a good book that is filled with good stories that might send chills up your spine, forget this book. If you are looking for a 2 second read about a place that might be haunted this is the book for you.

3 comments about Sex in N.Y. City: An Illustrated History.

1. Ms. Maddex has created an interesting and well-researched book that allows the reader to learn a bit more about New York City's vast sexual history over the centuries. Starting with Dutch settlements in the 1600's all the way through to the current times, the book attempts to canvas New York City's sex culture through individual stories and news snippets accompanied with illustrations and/or photos. Some of these individual snippets on each page are extremely interesting as there are stories plucked directly from the headlines of the time. Moreover, Ms. Maddex attempts to catalog the history of women and gays over the centuries.

   This book adds a new dimension if you have lived in NYC and have an appreciation for its rich history. The only drawback is that after I completed the book, I wasn't sure what Ms. Maddex was trying to say besides just cataloging the sex culture of NYC over the centuries. I wanted some overarching theme that tied all of the stories together more tightly. But regardless, you will be entertained.




2. This is a garbled, confused assessment of sex in New York City. Its awe-struck yet condescending faux-poetic descriptions say more about the author's inflated sense of self than the topic about which she writes. It's some of the worst writing I've ever come across.



3. I loved this book--heard about it from artist friends in NYC. It's got terrific visuals--the stuff the author found is really unique and HOT. Really enjoyed the writing too--a lot of fun. Not all that boring theory you get from the campus types. This is a great gift book--I already got it for my cousin's birthday in Mexico. Plus it has nifty design so is like a coffee table book you can leave out when people visit. Wish all books on sex were like that--sort of classy with lots to look at.

No comments about Rand McNally Syracuse, Utica & Rome, New York street guide.

No comments about YOURGUIDE To the Irish Pubs of New York, Second Edition.

2 comments about Climbing in the Adirondacks: A Guide to Rock and Ice Routes in the Adirondack Park.

1. The definitive guide on the Adirondacks. While not including every cliff, this guide is critical for all Adirondack rock climbing.



2. A well written and easy to follow guide to the best climbs in the ADK's. Don gives the important information while allowing the climber to experiance the adventure of Adirondack climbing.

1 comments about Bruce Davidson: Central Park.

1. Bruce Davidson's "Central Park" is a compelling look at one of the world's most unique urban places. Unlike "Brooklyn Gang" or "Portraits," Davidson shoots his subjects here with a wide-angle panoramic camera. The result is fascinating as the images meld odd angles, distorted bodies and expansive views, and at no point does it come across as cliched or gimmicky. Instead, the photographs are hopeful, intimate, and revealing. Davidson shows us some of the park's secret places, but mostly he has discovered, through his visual explorations, the secret of what makes Central Park an essential part of New York life.

No comments about Dublin Castle and the 1916 Rising.

1 comments about The Color of a Great City (New York Classics).

1. Dreiser is considered a major American novelist, and like many writers, he spent a good portion of his career working for newspapers and magazines. The thirty-eight sketches here originally appeared in various New York newspapers and Dreiser's own magazine, The Bohemian. Around 3-10 pages each, they are vivid portraits of New York City between 1900-15, but not of the high life. Rather, the pieces "are the very antithesis.. of all that glitter and glister that made the social life of that day so superior. Its shadow, if you will, its reverse face." This was a time when, as he writes in his foreword, "...the city, as I see it, was more varied and arresting and, after its fashion, poetic and even idealistic then than it is now" and there were "greater social and financial contrasts."
   
   The pieces can be roughly divided into those about people, those about places, and a few more abstract pieces about the mood of a place or time. All are drawn from his years of wandering the streets with an observant and curious eye, and those about people tend to be the strongest and of most interest to the contemporary reader. As Dreiser wrote, "I was never weary of spying out how the other fellow lived and how he made his way." Anyone interested in the social history of New York will find such pieces as "Bums", "The Toilers of the Tenements", "The Track Walker", "The Pushcart Man", "The Bread-Line", "Our Red Slayer" (about a butcher in an abattoir), "The Man on the Bench", "The Men in the Dark", "The Men in the Storm", "The Sandwich Men" and others well worth reading. his writing on place tends to be very good too, especially in "The Waterfront", "The Car Yard", "A Vanished Seaside Resort", "A Wayplace of the Fallen", "The Bowery Mission", and "Christmas in the Tenements." Less interesting are his more clunky poetical musings, such as "The Flight of Pigeons", "On Being Poor", "The Realization of an Ideal", "The Beauty of Life" and "The Freshness of the Universe." The prose throughout is a little clunky and old-fashioned, but the subject matter is what's important, and as Dreiser writes "they bear, I think, the stamp of their hour."

5 comments about Christmas in New York.

1. Daniel Pool has scored again! The social historian who delighted me with What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew, as well as his second book, Dickens' Fur Coat and Charlotte's Unanswered Letters, has written a delightful, entertaining, fact-crammed little book on the Christmas holidays in New York.

   The photographs are great fun, since so many of them recapture important moments of the past. The design of the book makes it luxurious to hold and easy to read.

   This book is the stocking-stuffer par excellence because it is learned, visual, and, most important, fun!




2. I bought this book to share with my three sons, as we are taking our first family vacation to New York this Thanksgiving, and I was looking for something to enhance their appreciation of the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectactular. Without even looking I knew the author was a New Yorker. Reading this book feels like listening to a narrative by someone in your family, describing the charm of your own home town to a young adult or out of towner. Of course this town is New York City-the very heart of the Christmas Spirit in the United States! This book gave me what I was looking for and so much more. As if the sheer sight of New York at Christmas isn't enough, the history and stories shared by the author has deepened my love of the Holidays, this sensational city and the people who experienced it in the past and in the years to come.



3. This book couldn't be made better if you tried. Daniel Pool did an excellent job describing New York at Christmastime. From Rockefeller Center to Tiffany's & Co. This book describes everything to see, from store windows to parades, to movies.

   This is a must have for anyone visiting New York this holiday season, and a beautiful book to add to any collection.




4. What I truly loved about this book, aside from it's fun, compact, easily tote-able size, is that it tells the story of many beloved New York holiday landmarks and traditions, from the Thanksgiving Day Parade to the Tree at Rockerfeller Center. As a New Yorker, these are integral aspects of Christmas--Celebrated and admired year after year with little question or understanding as to where their traditions stemmed. This book takes you back to the first windows ever displayed on 5th Ave, while telling fun, quirky stories about the Macy's Parade balloons and how in the early years, they were actually released into the air at the end of every parade. This was eventually halted when an airplane almost crashed into one, and ships on the Atlantic reported strange floating sea creatures! I have always loved New York during the holidays and I feel as if this book has increased my appreciation of them by giving me a greater connection to their origins. It's a quick read, which is good in one aspect, (it covers a lot of topics) but you don't get a whole heck of a lot of detail on each topic. Though, it is just enough to keep you interested and moves you right along to the next topic. The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is becuase none of the photographs in the book are color. Personally, I would have been willing to pay slightly more for the book to get color pics.. You just dont do justice to Christmas anything in black and white--but its nice that there are a few pictures, especially that of the first Rockerfeller Christmas tree ever, that workmen erected on the then construction site during the depression. The men spent so much of their time their, they got their own little tree and decorated it with cans and other things that were strewn about... But truly this book would have been much improved if color photographs were included. Otherwise this is a fun coffe table table medley of history and tradition!



5. it was ok. interesting reading, but no color photos except for the jacket. That was disappointing.

No comments about Naser-E Khoshraw's Book of Travels.