No comments about Rand McNally Rochester, New York (Rand McNally Folded Map: Cities).

No comments about Hagstrom Greene County, New York Street Map.

3 comments about Radical Walking Tours of New York City.

1. I've tried several of Bruce's actual Radical Walking Tours, which he still conducts in person. He researches, writes and organizes his work better, or more consistently, than he sometimes delivers it in person. But they are always stimulating as social history, leftist political history, labor and industrial history, and even humor. Easily among the best tours I've tried here in NYC and I've tried several.

   Many "stops" in his tours have changed my very sense of certain NYC blocks & neighborhoods.

   This book is also fascinating browsing history as well as one of the coolest specialty travel guides I've looked over. Good for new and veteran New Yorkers alike.




2. I wanted more information on the events and places than he provided. No doubt that Mr. Kayton is a terrific tour guide and NYC needs more scholarly guides; the typical guide in this great city is HORRENDOUSLY inept and ignorant. Other parts of the city, aside from the Lower East Side and Villages should have been covered - I can't imagine that no radical never called Murray Hill, Times Square, Turtle Bay, etc., home.



3. This is a guidebook with a hard left political point of view on absolutely everything (as in communist or anarchist, not liberal). Not to be alarmed, however. My evaluation of the book is especially for those, like me, who do NOT share these views. Rather than off-putting, I found Kayton's historical comments to be concise, virtually always intersting, and highly relevant to an appreciation of the neighborhoods in question. The Greenwhich Village walk, for ecample, focuses on sites that have been the homes of famous leftists (John Reed, Emma Goldman, the Rosenbergs), left-leaning writers (Edna St. Vincent Millay), alleged bad guy capitalists (Mayor Jimmy Walker, Mayor Ed Koch), as well as important places in the history of labor (the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire), abolitionism, civil rights, gay rights (the Stonewall Inn demonstrations), and anti-war protest. The slice of New York history that these places represent comes alive from a perspective that resembles the participants'. Finally, Kayton's humor and energy more than outweigh the silliness of some of his views. I recommend it if you're looking for something different.

5 comments about New York in the 50s.

1. Although younger than Wakefield, I was around NYC, especially the Village, in the '50s & I was really looking forward to "looking back" at a unique time & place. This book was a real disappointment, unfortunately, with little more to offer than big (& not so big) names & parties. I found it very superficial & self-promoting, in effect light weight *gossip*, which in the end is very shrewd on the part of author & publisher, but oh so cynical.



2. There's a time-honored prerequisite for living the if-I-can-make-it-there life in NYC -- you, and your friends, and the 'hood/bars/restaurant/flats/local characters, etc. assume, by default, all the criteria for being a legitimate 'Scene' or 'Movement' save one: Time. But that one you can ignore because one of your mind's eyes has alreayd projected itself far into the future, so that it can look back and watch you watching yourself and your chums making glorious History!...

   That said, I found the title of this book misleading... Wakefield has written an eminently personal memoir, not a history. The telling plods on and on in his cranky, cracked little voice, fusty-bachelor-to-the-core, praising the bygone zany antics of Westvillagers yet falling back (with a literary blush, no less) so repetitively on an unnecessary "but we were from the 50s, we didn't do that" mantra each time his narrative requires the mention of some "beatnik" act -- "free" love, pot, psilocybin, etc. -- so unsure of himself, so inextricably mired in that same narrow, embarrased, small-town midwestern ethos he spends most of the book trying to convince us he had escaped from in the headily free atmosphere of the Village, that he comes across like a stuttering prude. I was ultimately left unconvinced. Wakefield never quite seemed sure of what he wanted to say -- especially in the case of a character like Kerouac. He hems and haws and sidesteps the issue.

   It's nice to read about those people, his friends, sure, but in the end, none of them came across as nearly as interesting as others (and other memoirs) from/of the same era. Another old fart jumping on the memoir bandwagon -- another memoir of 50s New York -- truly as innovative, as challenging and as necessary as another Rolling Stones album and/or tour. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz




3. I found this book inspiring, funny, and beautifully written. It carried me to a time, before cell phones, the internet, dvds and instant communications, when the written word mattered, when books and magazines and letters were greeted with high anticipation and made a difference in people's lives. When books mattered, ideas mattered, friendships were the stuff of life, and art was not only a creative expression but an affirmation, a challenge to take the high road, to live life to the fullest. This book will put zest in your soul. I recommend it highly.



4. I loved this book! Then again I loved "Wonderful Town," and "Manhattan." I was born in New York, and remember sneaking away to take the subway from the Bronx at age 8 in 1950 to catch glimpses of the glittery awsomeness of Manhattan. Leaving New York in 1954, I returned as an adult much later and made friends who had been part of the dizzying scene of the fifties ...intellectuals, bohemians. Reading this book so vividly recreates an era that, as the cliche says, will be no more. Perched between the Gotham of the 1930's, the art deco towers, the Met, the Frick, and the Space Age of the 1960's there was a post-war mecca for the arts and letters. New York was the center of it all. I have no idea how this book will be perceived by those who have not experienced this period, at least in some way. Perhaps that is the story of some of the reviewers who didn't like it. But for me, the book is like candy.



5. Evocative portrait of Manhattan by a novelist from Indiana who was enthralled by big city life when the Beats were roaming the Village and booze was the drug of choice. Wakefield smartly divides his book into chapters on subjects like jazz, analysis and his ever-present literary ambitions. The nostalgia makes one yearn for the NYC recreated here when living there was affordable for almost anyone.

2 comments about The Croton Dams and Aqueduct (Images of America: New York).

1. At 128 pages, with a photo or drawing on every page, and two on some, this book might seem slight on text. Far from it! The author relates and explains the history of the consecutive dams and of the aqueduct that supplies Croton River water to New York City.

   Those who have seen the present dam, presumably many millions, must have been impressed, as I was, by its handsome, curving, mass, its picturesque formidability. How pleasant and instructive, then, to follow step-by-step its construction and to see the faces of those who did the hard work! Christopher Tompkins sets scenes, too, that the imagination can supplement: "This photo shows the Bowery at Croton Dam, whose name had become a place-name, with cheap rooming houses, bordellos, saloons, and plenty of crime. Italian and Irish immigrants called the Bowery home and enjoyed its many vices but lived in separate areas."

   Just as the new dam took long to build, (1892-1906), the book takes some time to read because it is packed with detail. But it rewards repeated visits, to absorb the intricacy of the building and the "many tempestuous episodes" involving the Croton River and man's efforts to control it. Art and nature happily blended.




2. "The Croton Dams and Aqueduct" is a pictorial history of the construction of the New Croton Dam and the creation of the New Croton Reservoir at the end of the nineteenth century. Today the Croton system contributes more than ten percent (typically 100 to 150 million gallons per day) to the water supply of 9 million people. The quality of Croton water is as good today as it was at the beginning of the twentieth century. It meets all federal health standards. Despite this, New York City intends to build a $1 billion filtration plant (to filter water that does not need to be filtered). The consequence of the filtration plant scheme will be the abandonment of protection of the Croton Watershed. Many of today's watershed residents appreciate the reservoir system that lends so much to the beauty of the area, but also see New York City as a distant imperial power whose officials often have little regard for the integrity of the watershed.

   The conflict between Croton Watershed residents and New York City is not new. The book offers glimpses into life one hundred years ago at the time of the construction of the dam. Homes, farmland and roads were flooded. Much of the Huntersville settlement was inundated. Some houses were moved uphill above the new water line. Even the dead were disturbed. Tompkins reports that the Water Commissioners, the predecessors to today's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), contracted to have the remains moved. However, according to Tomkins, local lore has it that "only the stones were moved". That local lore persists.

1 comments about The Used Book Lover's Guide to the Mid-Atlantic States: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania & Delaware (Used Book Lovers' Guide Series).

1. I bought the 1993 edition while I was living in Central NY and can only comment on the Central NY listings. I found the format easy to skim through and the maps/directions extremely helpful. All the information you might want is included--phone numbers, hours of operation, genres sold, etc. Occasionally the description of a store's offerings was not quite right, or the place in question no longer existed, but such changes can happen when there are several years between editions. I intend to buy the edition for NC once I get moved in.

No comments about Hiking Long Island: A Comprehensive Guide To Parks And Trails (Hiking Long Island).

No comments about Meyer Berger's New York.

5 comments about The Angel of Forgetfulness.

1. Wonderful novel that will keep you spellbound. Excellent read and a book you'll want to share with others.



2. I read the other reviews and felt compelled to take the reviews down a notch. The novel works when it disquiets the reader and challenges your notions of appropriate and productive behavior. It works less well when delving into the world of fantasy. Still, one of the best reads of 2005, but be prepared to stick with it past page 200 when the more personal story tapers off and the fanciful story dominates.



3. Memphis and Arkansas in the 60s. The Lower East Side in the 1900s. Heaven. The depths, heights, sidespins and blind alleys of magical realism. The stage. An attic in Prague. The Catskills. Where up is down. (Somewhere else you want to go maybe? Ingrate!)
   
   I hestitate to call this the culmination of Stern's work only because that would leave him nowhere to go. His individual sentences are more poetic than most author's books. His realism is real, his magic is Magic, and his weaving of the two is seamless.



4. ...and putters a bit. For the record, I'm usually a tough reviewer of books and only review books that I either really love or abhored. This book and I, ah, our first night was magic. There was laughter, some tears, time and space became distorted, the line between reality and fiction frayed, and then a kiss... by an old decrepit relative whose relation has never quite been pinned down. Which is how this book opens.
   
   Our love affair hit a good stride towards the middle; we were looking to the future and I felt we had really bonded. But I began becoming a bit bored with our relationship, began sneaking in other books behind the Angel's back. We carried on our romance as before but we both knew something had died. After a while, I just was waiting for the end.
   
   When the end came, I felt good about our relationship; it was fun and definitely had its moments. I'd probably take it up again if I hit a cold spell.



5. I did not fall in love with the plot of this book as much as I fell in love with Stern's characters. You will enjoy spending your time with them during the read and will remember them all as if you really got to know them.

No comments about Sylvia Plachy: Goings On About Town: Photographs for The New Yorker.