1 comments about At Home in Hudson Valley.

1. At Home in the Hudson Valley is a beautiful book packed with brilliant photographs. The houses in the book are distinctive and original, the pictures capture the spaces as well as the ideas and personalities of the people who made them. Allison Serrell and the photographer Meredith Heuer pull the vitality and creativity of the Hudson Valley through the pages of the book.

5 comments about Subway Style: 100 Years of Architecture & Design in the New York City Subway.

1. Interesting - The book is copyright 2004 by the Metropolitan Transit Authority. The legal name for the parent agency is Metropolitan TRANSPORTATION Authority. So is this book legal?



2. After having seen too many books narrating the history, especially the first years, of the NYC Subway, this book is quite a surprise. Stunning photographs, with interesting details!



3. Finally a book that appreciates New York's iconic subway system..yeah London has the clean and modern "Tube" and Paris has it's efficient "Metro", but the most famous or infamous and most recognizable is the NYC "Subway". The images in this book are fantastic and the text kept me interested all the way to the last word. I really came away with an appreciation for the history of this great transportantion system and it's surprising beauty..who knew? Highly recommended.



4. I've always appreciated the unique style and details of the NYC subway system. And being a history affecionado as well, this book satisfied my curiosity. A nice blend of historical description, nice collection of photos. I think ultimately it's more on the photo side, but there are succinct captions for each of them.
   
   This is not really a thorough history book but I would describe more as a jumping point should you decide it's something you want to know more about.



5. This book is a beautiful catalog of the visuals associated with the New York City subway system. I have seen books with pictures of the cars, but no other book shows the stations, the history of the transit maps, subway advertisements, even the various designs of tokens that have been used. It's a great job and I'm happy to give it a 5-star rating!

3 comments about Beat Generation in New York: A Walking Tour of Jack Kerouac's City.

1. It would be next to impossible to find these places on your own. Even more impossible to learn as much about each of the sites as is presented in this guide. Each tour follows a logical route and there are plenty of stops that you probably never would have thought of--eg. Serpico's apartment, the former site of Thomas Wolfe's East 8th St. apartment. Using this guide is a great way to see the Village, East and West. And the insight will keep you reading even as you're moving to the next stop. Take your time. Spread the tours over a couple of afternoons. And linger for a while in Washington Square.

   A great companion to this book is "The Beat Generation in New York." I wouldn't recommend carrying this heavy book around with you, but after you've finished the tours, open the book to look at the pictures taken at many of the places you've just visited.




2. of course anyone who lives in new york city can tell you where the white horse and cedar tavern are, but do they all know that where sam goody now stands on sixth avenue and ninth street is the very same place that the cafeteria kerouac wrote about extensively in visions of cody once stood?

   this book is filled with a lot of well-known and plenty of not so well known places where various members of the beat generation ate, performed, lived, got drunk in, or otherwise played out their lives. the tours are broken down by area and there are clear directions to help you find where you're going (even if the place no longer exists). each tour also begins with a street map of the area covered and clearly numbered destinations, which was very helpful, although i did wish that the book had also come with an overview map of all manhattan and destinations so that i could more easily combine tours or skip around to places of interest if i didn't want to follow a complete tour.

   each stopping place in the tour book includes a paragraph or two on why the place is important to beat history and who/what occured there. although the title of the book claims that new york was "jack kerouac's city," the tours really include many of the other important beat figures as well as a few others that were influenced by the beat movement, such as bob dylan.

   this is a great way for beat aficionados visiting new york to get a taste of the city, and a fun way for locals to spend an afternoon or two discovering new spots and seeing familiar places in a new light.




3. Having moved to New York not long ago, I've been devouring the history and architecture of the city. This book blends the best of both, adding a third party to the mix -- literature. Dividing the city -- mostly Manhattan -- into eight two-hour walking tours, this guidebook offers literary references, beat-gen biographical information, and urban commentary in a useful, insightful style. The book is due an update -- the Gotham Book Mart has moved and several once-vacant lots are no longer undeveloped -- but this book has made for several wonderful walking weekends, and I know I'll retrace my steps in the future.

1 comments about 25 Bicycle Tours in the Hudson Valley: Scenic Rides from Saratoga to Northern Westchester County (25 Bicycle Tours Guide).

1. We bought the book and used is exclusively to prepare and conduct bicycle trips in the Hudson valley. The trip length and route layout suites the occasional to average trained cyclist. The routes are using mostly side roads which makes the trips safe and pleasant. The indication of the mileage for each step make sure than no turn or remarkable viewpoint is missed. The abstract that precedes the detailed description of each tour is a good help to pick a route for the day. We highly recommend the book to anyone who has a interest in cycling in the Hudson Valley. Hopefully there will be more cyclists in the future as this area is great to be explored and enjoyed from the bicycle.

No comments about Fodor's New York State, 1st Edition (Fodor's Gold Guides).

1 comments about Museums of New York City: A Guide for Residents and Visitors (Westholme Museum Guides).

1. This book will go with me in my purse at Christmastime in New York! A real must for artists.

1 comments about The Cool Parent's Guide to All of New York, 4th Edition: Excursion and Activities in and around our city that your children will love and you won't think ... (Cool Parents Guide to All of New York).

1. This is a decent guide for parents in NYC, though mostly of children who aren't napping in the middle of the day anymore. I liked the portion where they list little excursions you can do with your kids that don't take all day (i.e. would take maybe a few hours). Good representation of all 5 boroughs, something you don't see in a lot of these (most tend to be Manhattan-centric). There's definitely something in here for everyone. I discovered a number of things that look really interesting and different (e.g. you can go down a manhole in the middle of a Brooklyn NY street to see old train tunnels) - b/c they're right - who wants to keep taking kids to museums all the time? You get about an hour in, if you're lucky, before boredom arrives. The other thing I liked was that the guide is up-to-date - sometimes these guides aren't. This one even listed a Trader Joe's in Brooklyn that's not open yet, but coming soon.

2 comments about Spooky New York: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore (Spooky).

1. New York has a rich heritage of folklore. The author of Spooky New York has picked 30 great stories to share. My favorites are story number 4 entitled "Redemption", story number 9, called "The Rising of Gouverneur Morris" and story number 21 called "Henry Hudson and the Kaatskill Gnomes". The book has 30 stories and all 30 are told in an interesting manner, some of the stories have surprise endings. A few popular folklore legends are recounted such as "The Maid of the Mist". This is a great story to read for anyone visiting Niagara Falls. The story provides some background material and reads in an interesting manner. If you are planning a visit to the Rochester area the first story in the book called "The White Lady of the Lake" may interest you. The setting for the story is the Durand - Eastman Park. The park is on Lake Ontario, a great setting for a picnic. You may even be able to find the stair's mentioned in the story. There are several great stories about the New York City area, There's an Empire State Building ghost story, a story about buried treasure on Liberty Island and many more fasinating tales. I highly recommend this book.



2. I really enjoyed Schlosser's latest book. I own the whole series, and I read Spooky New York as soon as it arrived from Amazon (which happened to be a traditional dark and stormy night.) There were a couple of stories, High Hat and the Hermit's House in particular, that troubled my dreams that night! Of course, typical of Schlosser, there were also some characters that made me chuckle out loud.
   
   Quite a number of stories took place around New York City. I had no idea that Central Park, the Empire State Building, and Ellis Island had ghost stories associated with them. Also, Captain Kidd left buried treasure on Liberty Island, the Devil had a fiddle contest in Brooklyn, a monster once roamed Wall Street, and a Revolutionary War hero rose from his Bronx grave to defend his widow and baby son.
   
   Highly recommended!

No comments about The Hamptons Book: Including the North Fork and Shelter Island, A Complete Guide, Fifth Edition (A Great Destinations Guide).

No comments about Let's Take The Kids!, 3rd Edition: Great Places to Go in New York's Hudson Valley (Let's Take the Kids!: Great Places to Go in New York's Hudson Valley).