New York Books

GREAT book. GREAT shots. This book is simply beautiful. Christophe is amazing at what he does and what he has gotten away with in this book. I definetly reccomend this book to anyone who loves NYC, the subway, or street photography in general. DEFINITE BUY!

this book is a masterpiece of subway photography. the author/photographer caught exactly the feeling you have, when you travel with open eyes in the nyc subway........lots of different faces, bodies, fates,.......individuals.
i have travelled myself in many, many subway systems, but new york, as it is very special place itself, has the most interesting mix of people and he did catch this feeling with his camera.........he did protrait these individuals with the glimmering light of the subway.
a book i will often take to my hands in combination a nice glass of wine to relax and to shift to this amazing place.....

ruediger glatz

Several years of work by a very talented and inspiring photographer. Dramatic pictures, unseen since the Bruce Davidson's Subway. Definitely taking subway pictures to another level.

1.A GREAT BOOK THAT BRINGS A NEW VISION TO THIS WELL DOCUMENTED PLACE
2.A POET AT WORK ,WHO JOINS ROBERT FRANK ,WALKER EVANS,GENE SMITH, IN THE CHURCH OF WHAT IS HAPPENING BABY!
3.A BOOK COLLECTORS ADVICE: BUY A BUNCH OF THESE ,OH WHAT A HOSTESS GIFT!
4.THANKS FOR A BEAUTIFUL BOOK ,MY GUESS IS THEY ARE ALSO BEAUTYFUL PRINTS IN ORIGINAL ,WELL THE PUBLISHER DID THE PHOTOGRAPHER PROUD.
5.POUNCE!!!

This is the splendid autobiography of Shabkar Tsogdruk Rangrol (1781-1851), a yogi who wandered far and wide expressing his realization, as a fully accomplished adept of the Great Completion (Dzogchen).

From the Foreword by HH the Dalai Lama: "Regarded by many as the greatest yogi after Milarepa to gain enlightenment in one lifetime (...) as source of inspiration to Buddhist practitioners and general readers alike." HH Dilgo Kyentse Rinpoche: "As one reads it, one's mind cannot resist being turned toward the Dharma."

This autobiography is full of humor, wit and playful joy, intense self-discipline as well as magnificant flights of imagination. An accessible book full of telling stories, a must-read, must-own for those interested.

"Man -
If you have any self-respect,
A heart in your chest,
Brains in your head, and
Some sympathy for yourself,
Regret your past actions and
Improve your whole behavior.
It's time! It's very late!
- Shabkar

Never have I come across such an inspiring piece of buddhist literature. Plan on having your life and your practice changed forever after reading the life story of this amazing yogin.

Considered as one of the master works of Tibetan religious heritage.
For people who have a connection with Tibetan Buddhism this book is a true treasure. And, dear vegetarians, you are right :-), many Tibetan Buddhists might prefer to ignore the fact, but Shabkar as a non sectarian Tibetan yogi gave up eating meat for the rest of his live when he was 27 years based on his sincere conviction that a Buddhist - at a certain stage - should gave up "the negative act of eating the flesh of beings" (p.232). See also his book Food of Bodhisattvas: Buddhist Teachings on Abstaining from Meat, ISBN 1590301161.

Matthieu Ricard has created a work of art. Remaining true to the poetic beauty of the Tibetan original he has for the first time presented this important work to the west. Also, his notes and appendixes on historical and buddhist backgrounds are invaluable. For the first time the reader is presented with the life of a Tibetan saint and his lineage formerly largely unknown among western students of Tibetan buddhism. A tuely inspiring page-turner !

It is a book about a hero that evrybody thought was perfect. In this book you get to see the life behind the face. There are so many legend and this book so the truth and tells you the miths.

every sentence filled with facts. research done is tremendous. best sports book i ever read.

This biography, although scholarly, is entertaining throughout and easily read. Smelser was a life long baseball fan and his love of the game animates every page. As an undergraduate at Notre Dame, I studied under the author. Now deceased, he was a professor of history. Smelser demanded from his students the thorough research he displays in this book. But he was also a wonderful storyteller. Both qualities are apparent in this work. Like the best biographers, the author has only mild affection for his subject. The Babe's qualities and failings get equal attention. But today, when the word "superstar" is wildly overrused, you see the extraordinary level of fame this man achieved. If you really want to understand the Babe's life, read this book.

Some legends are larger than life. Some legends are made up. Then there's Babe Ruth, than man by which all other baseball players are measured, even today. George Herman Ruth comes to life in this riveting, yet easy to read biography by Marshall Smelser.

You follow the bambino from his early days at St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys to his early days with the Boston Red Sox. You read about his turmoil with the fans, his trade to the New York Yankees, that later became the curse of the Bambino.

Smelser's accounts of Ruth's life from his first wife to the run ins with Yankees manager Miller Huggins to the called shot in the 1934 World Series and so many others, will have laughing on minute and on the brink of tears the very next.

I have always been a great Babe Ruth fan; so reviewing this book was a no brainer. Smelser writing style made it easy for me to read along and finally get a true picture of the man so many either loved or hated. I would highly recommend this book to any serious baseball fan!

"Life's Pleasure: The Ashcan Brush with Leisure" is a wonderful reminder of the Ashcan artists show at the Detroit Institute of Art. Beautifully written and illustrated, "Life's Pleasure" comes highly recommended, especially if you cannot get to the exhibition to see in real life what is rendered by the presses.

While this book is well illustrated ,it has many fine full page reproductions it has many painters of minor importance to the Ash Can school.Gifford Beal looks like an uninspired Dufy..Jerome Myers ,Edward Manigault I can do without. It is interesting to see some of the early work( of the later abstract art) of Arthur B Davies and Alfred Maurer.Few books on these artists discuss the techniques they used. The focus is on subject matter. Something that docents and guides are always talking about when you hear them in the gallery. Maurice Prendergast ,seems a gentler soul than the others,he fits here where he doesn't in other studies of the group.A uniting factor I think is the fluid brushwork of the Ash Can Painters. In the case of Bellows and Sloan composition and unity of the artist brush/touch were hard fought.Doezema's "Representing Woman" essay is a bit superficial Sloan and Bellows had complicated feelings about woman. Dolly was often in his pictures as he wanted to show her as central to his art and life.There is an in depth discussion of the groups use of frames.This is a good companion book for the show at Detroit's Institute of Art.The exhibit will be there thru this month and May 25th. Later it goes to Nashville and then to New York City, You will get more out of seeing the show then what is in this book. I am satisfied that I will be able to see Sloan's "New York" at the Smart Museum of the University of Chicago.Life's Pleasures still has the dark palette of these painters. Their interest in color is something that is only hinted at in the biography of Sloan.It is this limited palette that may have led Maurer and Davies to become all out abstract artist.My fault isn't with the book it is the focus of the exhibit.We are seeing more art shows nowadays that seek approval for a hungry subject matter public , in the Fifties there were many shows that sought to expand the awareness the public have of the visual principles of first rate artists. Katherine Kuh for one was instrumental in putting on shows of Leger,Rothko . With helpful commentary that showed that she knew what it was all about. But! I am glad to see a revival of interest in publications of this important school of American Art.

We are finally recognizing the importance of the Ashcan Artists to American and world art. This book should be in everybodys' library who likes art, particularly American Art.

Relatively few primers offer in-depth details on the Ashcan artists: a school of early 20th-century American artists whose work centered around New York City life. Here the underworld of the City was often displayed - and LIFE'S PLEASURES is the first book to explore the lighter side of the Ashcan artists' works, featuring leisure scenes in cafes, bars and parks and movies. You'll recognize the artists' names ' Edward Hopper, Rockwell Kent, John Sloan - and the essays offer further insights on New York culture and artistic sentiment, making LIFE'S PLEASURES a top pick for both New York and college-level art libraries.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Terrific novel. Such a genuine, non-judgemental look at extra-relational relations (a euphemism if there ever was one), and so skillful at portraying how society deals with pedophilia. I was also impressed that a man caught the classic "Queen Bee-ness" of Mary Ann's character, and how her sidekicks were so driven by fear of her disapproval. I sympathized will all the characters, even the slimeballs. I sensed that the author didn't quite catch the "dialect" of three-year-old speech. Something to work on for his next great novel!

This is a wise and humane novel and one of the very few American novels to deal with marital and extramarital sex with honesty and understanding. Both the plotting and the characterization are exceptional and I hope this book finds a much wider audience.

I haven't seen the movie and don't know if I intend to. I just wanted a great book, and this was definitely a perfect choice! It's the kind of story that pulls you in immediately, and you can't put down, even though it's really time to go to bed!

There is suspense, electricity, and a twist. It should go on your list if you ever wonder about having a lover. Or want to read about someone who took the plunge.

Little Children was my favorite movie of 2006, and also my sister's favorite. So someone gave my sister a copy of the book it was based on. After she finished it, she gave it to me. It is a lot like the movie, only longer, since it doesn't have a two hour time limit. There are many extra scenes here that didn't make it into the movie. Much more background into the characters' past. One main difference between the book and the movie is that the actors in the movie don't match the descriptions of the characters in the book (not that they have to). The main difference plotwise is that the character of Ronnie meets a different fate in the book and the movie. Anyway, this is a great book which I enjoyed very much.

This book is a treasure and a new classic. I've given several copies to friends and family. If we're very lucky, this story of a six year-old boy 'Little Lion', will be just the beginning of a long-term relationship between children and a wholy original character that is adorable, eccentric and very special.

In addition to being an engrossing, colorful read, and a great way to introduce or reinforce the values of tolerance and individuality, Little Lion is also a beautifully written, poetic work of children's literature. In the much more eloquent words of Jamaican scholar Dr. Elsa Leo Rhynie, "Little Lion is a book that should be in the library of every Caribbean boy and girl...The flow of rhyming is like music to a child's ear."

With great animation and just the right inflections, this book is perfect fodder for bedtime reading for toddlers.
Since I am determined for my chil to be literate by the time she is 3, I have been reading to my daughter since infancy and now she mocks my behavior by grabbing one of her numerous books and reading to herself.
I introduced this book t her after meeting the author in a bookstore and having it signed. My 2 year old fell in love with it immediately ! The next day I saw her in her favorite chair, trying to mock my voice while flipping through the pages. Mind you, this was only after ONE reading!
Ms. Magnus has that "it" Oprah raves about .. to write outstanding children's books. This book has a storyline any child can relate to and appreciate. This is a highly recommended one for your child's library.
The illustrations are outstanding as well.
This one is right next to my other favorite "Please Baby Please"
PICK THIS ONE UP... YOUR CHILD WOULD LOVE YOU FOR IT!

I simply love this story! Little Lion is truly an inspiration to children and adults regardless of ethnicity or cultural background. The illustrations are vibrant and fun, and the themes and tenets of the story are witty and heart warming.

I fell in love with this inspiring story. I'm Jamaican so I really appreciated the cultural references, but I've shared Little Little with some of my American friends and they enjoyed it too. My son, who is almost two, also loves it. He's particularly fond of Little Lion's shoes and socks (the illustrations are great).

There's a sea-horse race in this book. Not just a sea-horse race, but a sea-horse race inside a giant diamond-shaped tank of oxygenated fluid that also holds a beautiful submerged woman dancing and creating music with the movement of her locks of hair, sometimes enhancing the gyration of her head with sudden tosses and jostles of her hips. There's not only that, but several automaton devices that use flotation and buoyancy to drive their mechanic parts and act out various historical and mythological scenes. Like Voltaire suddenly doubting his atheistic doctrines, or Atlas kicking a celestial object, or Pilate being branded on the forehead.

All of that takes place inside the gigantic diamond-like tank of oxygenated fluid. A very lustrous fluid.

By the way, the English translation sometimes calls the sea-horses "hippocampi." Don't be confused: in context, it means sea-horses. It's not talking about parts of a brain. You might be thinking, "well there's no possible room for confusion there!", but au contraire. Because inside the tank is also a floating head/face of Danton, composed exclusively of the preserved nerves and musculuture, without any bones or skin. And re-animated with expertly applied electrical currents, courtesy of Canterel and his cat.

And they're not just any sea-horses. They're sea-horses equipped with "setons" attached to a shining golden sphere that they themselves created by kneading together small globulets of golden wine that Canterel pours into the tank and lets float down to them.

The entire episode I'm talking about took place long after the book had already left my jaw on the floor. In short: read it. You know that "dream-like" quality that hyped books supposedly possess? Say, like "Amnesia Moon"? Well Raymond Roussel accomplishes all that without any narrative tricks, without any deception, without any ill-defined or sensationally blurred "boundaries between dream and reality" or any of that nonsense. Roussel accomplishes his feats the old fashioned way: with elbow grease, and imagination. He accomplishes it by giving everything to you, not hiding things from you.

Who is the Canterel I mentioned above? Canterel-- a name that one should never utter aloud except on bended knee-- has the wealth and quirk of Willy Wonka, combined with the wealth and ingenuity of Bruce Wayne. Which makes for a very rich, very marvelous fellow. His estate and private collection puts both of those men's assets to shame, quite extravagantly.

As you already know, the book is a narrated trip through some of Canterel's exhibits. He aims to please, though. So don't think that the book will lack character, plot, or suspense just because it's a sort of museum-tour. There's stories within stories that explain the exhibits. And they have everything that archetypically good "stories" have, and more: love, betrayal, forgiveness, fantastic magnanimity, loss, disgrace, lust, vindication. I was breathless waiting for the resolutions of certain tales, practically jumping off my reading-bench to cheer for the characters, or otherwise immobilized by the revelations and vicissitudes.

Did I mention that nerves/musculuture of Danton's head are set into physiological motor motion by an electric current provided by a swimming cat whose hairless body acts as a battery after eating a specially-designed pill and is trained to stick its head into a long metal hat-like cone which becomes its electrode terminus?

And it's all described soberly, no tricks. By the way, Roussel (though there's a chance it's the translators doing, since I haven't and couldn't read the original French) tells his stories, tells the motivations and actions of characters, with a very skillful use of words, using strong descriptive verbs and nouns. The sentences held together with a unique power. Many times I took great pleasure in re-reading certain sentences, because they were said so absolutely perfectly. Of course, that should be the hallmark of a professional writer, but I don't find it too often.

So anyway you'll feel like you're there. You won't even have any disbelief to suspend. At certain points, like a particular early exhibit that I won't name, I said to myself, "There's no going back, this is too fantastic, there's no POSSIBLE EXPLANATION of this, Roussel has crossed the line, this is uncanny and totally unrecoverable at this point, I feel exploited!," and I kept reading, kept reading-kept reading, "by god, no, by GOD HE'S DONE IT!, he's doing it, by god Canterel, Roussel, you've done it, my good holy god unbeliEVABLE!!! Whew. Wow." I had to close the book for a minute and lean against a fence, nodding my head uncontrollably. When you close this book and put it on your shelf when done, you'll keep suspecting that it's about to burst open and spill out its contents all over your room, neighborhood, and city-- and you'll feel like an angry god for actually having the ability to close the book and contain it.

Book will take your breath away. If not check your pulse. Or, try something else. Bye.

I used to have so much fun reading this book. I remember I miraculously found a copy in some book shop on the far southside of Chicago for $8. One night I was drinking with some classmates shortly after class and I made the mistake of lending this irreplacable book to one of them, which of course the fool never returned nor probably ever read or if he did appreciated. May every curse be piled upon your perfidious little name, punk, which it is a blessing I can't remember it was so long ago.
I remember the first time I read Impressions of Africa, right after graduating high school. I was a naive young admirer of Duchamp at the time, and I kept seeing these references to Roussel, and the description of Impressions made it sound like a travel book. Had I known him then I might have expected something like a French William Cobbett. Ha! I don't think I realized something definitely strange was going on in those pages until I reached the part with the father and his sons echoing their voices off of each other's chests with their shirts being stuck to their skin "by some sticky substance", -- the word "substance" somehow set me laughing for a solid twenty, thirty minutes, and all the hilarity, the absurdity of the Incomporables' show that had gone on before were finally apparent to me. I have been a lover of Roussel ever since; the only casualty was my perspective of Duchamp's accomplishment, which is as Duchamp himself admitted greatly indebted to Roussel's.
Locus Solus is the book Roussel wrote after Impressions and the two make a pair unlike any other in literature. Locus is presided over by Martial Canteral, a figure right out of Jules Verne, who Roussel once said was a name that should not be spoken aloud "except on bended knee," -- hm, yes -- Canterel is a famous scientist and inventor, and the book is set at his estate where a group of distinguished figures have been invited to a tour of guided by none other than its owner and director. The book follows the tour as one of the eyewitnesses, and the sights along the way are so bizarre, the machinery so complex and beyond any reasonable utility, it quite defies any attempt to describe the effect here. One impression I think that merits a word or two is the apparent lack of emotion in the book. I would say that there is a great amount of sadness and tragedy in the book that adds a kind of under-layer parallel to the encoded sentences of Roussel's method. The vitallium episode, in which Canterel invents a "certain chemical" that makes the bodies of the dead become animate again (but are still dead) has a very particular strain of anguish and loss inherent in its concept. And then there is also the weariness of the visionary experienced by the reader, the author, and the characters being audience to so many impossibilities one after the other piled up so high there is an actual physical exhaustion after the conclusion. And then of course there is also the tragedy of the author himself, who had both novels lavishly adapted for the theater, and created two of the most colossal failures in the history of drama, causing riots and scandal at the showings and humiliation to the author. He ended up a pitiful man, addicted to drugs and having spent all his fortune, he killed himself in his forties with a great dream "of a glory that shall outshine that of Victor Hugo or Napoleon."
This is not a book for everyone, perhaps even for very few. However there is no good reason these two books are out of print. It is long past time they are reprinted and Roussel be given the honor he deserves.

i read this book when i was about 13 and i have been wanting to read it again for 17 years. i remember it only vaguely, but i know it was good. please mister publisher, print it again.

Roussel's novels are giant puzzles, in which he describes images and stories that have a unique carnival logic. Punning relationships generate textual rebuses (rebi?), in a way that makes the reader aware of the book as a mechanism, but Roussel gives too few clues to really understand it. In Locus Solus, Roussel gives a tour of the museum garden of an eccentric millionaire, who, like Roussel himself, collects with a frenetic and psychedelic rationalism. Please, Riverrun Press, reprint this book.

Pros
ý In depth information about Long Island
ý Geographic arrangement of chapters is very helpful
ý Excellent descriptions of attractions

Cons ý Maps are very small

The Bottom Line - If you are traveling around Long Island, keep this book in the car. Long Island Alive! packs a lot of information into a portable package. With a cover price of $, you'll get your money's worth.

Description
ý A travel guide for visitors to Long Island and a resource guide for those who live here.
ý You'll find information about places to stay, restaurants, museums, and historical landmarks.
ý This book also lists houses of worship, parks, movie theaters, animal hospitals and shelters, etc.

Long Island Alive! author Francine Silverman has put together a wonderful resource both for visitors to Long Island and those who live here. You'll find information about museums, dining, houses of worship, animal shelters, shopping, and entertainment. Long Island Alive!, published by Hunter Publishing, Inc., is arranged geographically using the Long Island Expressway as the dividing line between Nassau and Suffolk Counties' North and South Shores. Looking for a museum on the North Shore of Nassau County or somewhere to get a light bite on the South Shore of Suffolk? You'll find it in this book. Do you need to find a farm market? It's in here too. Keep this chubby paperback in your car. You never know when it will come in handy. Dawn Rosenberg McKay -

If Long Island Alive is not the definitve guide book for Long Island travel, I don't know what is. This was my first experience reviewing a travel guide, and it was a delightful surprise. Anything the traveler could possibly want or need to know can be found between these covers.

Of particular interest to me was the Long Island history. Beginning with the ice age - which created the unique topography - to the Native Algonquian Indians, progressing through early Dutch and English settlers, the island's history is fascinating. Ms. Silverman also describes the geology and geography and provides detailed maps. It is a diverse land of pine barrens and beaches, state parks and golf courses, hiking trails and woodlands. I was thinking "Wow!" before I'd finished reading the introduction.

The book is arranged rather handily into distinct areas of Long Island - Nassau County, Suffolk County, and Fire Island. The author then breaks down each area into points of interest and backs up her information with first hand impressions, phone numbers, websites, helpful tips and intriguing tidbits.

Sources of transportation available by car, rail, bus, plane, plus directions are provided. Available lodging and restaurants in each area and price ranges are clearly listed. Whether you are interested in museums, the arts, farmer markets, romantic getaways, cruises, outdoor activities, family fun, or world class night life, that information is listed. There's something of interest for everyone and choices to suit every pocket book. This guide also contains practical information, such as banks, hospitals, veterinary clinics, houses of worship, and which destinations are handicapped accessible. If you're wondering if children or pets are welcome, you'll find that information too.

Long Island Alive is complete with any information the traveler could possibly want to know. And it's entertaining reading to boot. Highest recommendation.

Reading a guide book is usually something one does before going to the destinations it describes. Francine Silverman's Long Island Alive! is not only an informative book for prospective Long Island visitors, but it is also an entertaining read for armchair travellers. Silverman writes in a narrative form that makes the reader feel a native Long Islander is showing her around the largest island ajacent to the Continental U.S.

The book is divided into seven geographic headings: Nassau County's North and South Shores, Suffolk County's North and South Shores, Fire Island, and Suffolk County's North and South Forks. Farm markets are listed at the back of the book.

From helpful, child-friendly tips to detailed historical descriptions of various landmarks, the author offers the reader useful and timely information. Each geographic section is divided into helpful subcategories for transportation, lodging, shopping, recreation and restaurants. Above and beyond the traditional guide book, Long Island Alive! has Web site suggestions for the curious reader to learn even more than its numerous pages entail. Silverman includes enough historical background to whet the reader's appetite, all the while making him or her want to learn more by visiting the places described.

Long Island's size is not its only impressive facet: the sheer number of fascinating historical places that Silverman depicts makes the reader want to pack her bags yesterday to experience Long Island first hand. Being a masterful writer, Silverman uses clear language to detail the most intriguing tidbits about the island. She inserts trivia in an appropriate manner between more somber entries such as the Holocaust Memorial of Nassau County. "The giraffe is the symbol of Great Neck - for obvious reasons" follows philanthropic opportunities at the Friends of the Arts which sponsors various music festivals and a children's workshop throughout the year. She captures the history of Long Island while simultaneously emphasizing its contemporary offerings. From Walt Whitman's birthplace to the local bar scene, this guide has it all.

My father recently told me that I am the 12th generation descendant of Robert Jackson, one of the founding proprieters of the Hempstead settlement on Long Island. If I ever make a trip to Long Island to visit my forefathers' birthplace, Long Island Alive! is the first thing I will pack.

Christine Louise Hohlbaum
American author of Diary of a Mother: Parenting Stories and Other Stuff
http://www.diaryofamother.com

We residents of Long Island will be tickled pink with the author's thorough research of Long Island's length and breadth, 100 miles long and 20 miles across at its widest point. It will also provide a sweeping view for the visitor to the island. Before it was named in 1614 by Dutch explorer Adrian Block, our island was home to Indians for thousands of years and Indian names from Amagansett "plenty of good water" to Wyandanch, the chief who befriended the white settlers, are still many across the island.

Silverman's exhaustive investigation of every aspect of Long Island gives the reader a complete picture of every area, covered and explained. From geographical details of its two counties, with Nassau and Suffolk's north and south shores, and latter's north and south forks, all readers' questions are answered, from its largest ethnic group (Italian Americans, 27 percent( to its highest point (Jayne's Hill in Melville at 400 feet above sea level). We are flat!

The author's 10 reasons to visit Long Island (and we should be proud) are 1) 23 state parks and more than 50 county parks; 2) superb restaurants; 3) scenic waterways, 4) gilded-age mansions open to the public; 5) world-class concert halls and arenas; 6) hundreds of miles of white sandy beaches; 7) more than 100 museums; 8) 7,000 structures built prior to the 20th century; 9) unique architecture and 10) animal refuges and preserves. Sounds like something for everyone.

From recreations of all sorts from biking and hiking, horseback riding and fishing to golf, tennis, boating and beaches (the 2,400-acre Jones Beach State Park and famous beach draws six to seven million visitors from around the world each summer). In this, the nation's fourth wealthiest area, residents support 1,196 shopping centers in addition to chain stores, boutiques and shops, found in virtually every town. Long Island is described as a microcosm of New York City, offering something for everyone, from restaurants and late night bars with live music, to celebrated concert halls featuring top names in entertainment, lounges, piano bars, comedy clubs and nightclubs. The book lists festivals, events, medical facilities, houses of worship, etc. in addition to accommodations and restaurants across the county, with price scales for each.

Under Nassau County's North Shore, the reader is afforded an interesting listing and description of specific "Mansions to Museums" - from the Falaise Castle to the Tee Ridder Miniature Museum. Detailed information is given as well for the county's South Shore, before venturing to the less-densely populated Suffolk County.

This lesser-known area of Long Island, its many historic sites from Stony Brook's Grist Mill to its wildlife preserves, its Film and TV Foundation and its many family-fun facilities, music, theatre and art offerings, spas, cruises, all sports, shopping, museums, accommodations, restaurants and more, are presented in detail by the author. From its South Shore's William Floyd 1724 famed Bayard Cutting Arboretum to its picturesque North Fork with its 25 wineries welcoming the public for visits and tasting and farm stands featuring fresh picked crops from the area's vast farmlands are many and popular with natives and tourists alike.

Its celebrated 32-mile Fire Island with its pencil-thin barrier beach, no more than a half mile wide from ocean to bay, with its 17 communities' 200 families year round are joined by thousands of visitors every summer. No road or cars here and it's reached by ferry.

"Let's not forget the island's famed Hamptons, which the author describes as "like nowhere else on the planet," with celebrities underfoot on the streets, markets, restaurants and shops. Like Long Island's Gold Coast, excess wealth abounds, with real estate up to "$ million a pop." All this plus award-winning beaches, museums, windmills, historic sites, water and land sports and lots of shopping, from surfboard to sand paintings and a wide choice of high-tone fashion; a shopper's paradise even for merely the "window-type." Restaurants, theatre, dancing and live entertainment are available after dark. The road to the Hamptons is a traffic nightmare during summer weekends, with tourists vying for the view of "life among the super rich on America's Riviera."

Easy-to-read maps accompany each area text, excellent advice for additional sources and a helpful index afford readers easy access to Long Island Alive!'s ample array of Long Island information, border-to-border, coast-to-coast...

I am a commuter from Connecticut and drive in to the city at least once or twice a week (for meetings). Parking is a real killer, as I have meetings all over the city and never really know where to park. My wife used to give me a hard time about how much I spend on parking and bought me this book so I would spend less. At first I was reluctant and I didn't understand how to use it very well, but as soon as I read the "how to" it was a breeze. Now my wife is happy because I spend less parking and I am happy because it is one less thing to worry about when I know where to park. Anyone who drives to the city knows that a bad parking experience can ruin a day.

Don't Drive in NYC without it!
Driving through Manhattan's over 1000 garages is one of the most stressful experiences. You don't know if you're getting ripped off until you pull into the garage, and by then it's too late to back out because there are 2 cars behind you (I'm sure all NYC motorists have experienced this). Having LOTS in your glove-box eliminates this problem since it lets you know where the garages are and how much it will cost you to park. I was also impressed at how easy it was to use. You would think that a book that has anything you could possibly want to know about 1000 garages (rates, locations, address, phone number, specials, etc.) would be confusing, but it is actually very simple. It never takes me more than a minute to know where to park, and the first time I used it I saved the price of the book.

I find that this manual is very easy to follow. This past week I have saved over $30 in parking, so I was compelled to write this review. Anyone who has ever driven in the city will appreciate this guide.

This book is very cool. It has around 100 color-coded maps that compare garages based on price. All you have to do is flip to the neighborhood you are parking in and it will immediately tell you which garages are the most expensive and which are the cheapest :)

Another great thing about the book is that you know where all the garage locations are so you know exactly where to park. One of the most frustrating things I've experienced as an NYC driver is pulling into a garage 4 blocks from my destination because I don't know if there is a garage closer to where I'm going. When I get to where I have to be I realize there was a garage across the street and it was cheaper to park in!

I absolutely loved this book. Maybe, because I am both Italion and Catholic. It brought back so many good memories. I didn't want it to end. A heartwarming and interesting book. I hope Trigiani writes more of these great books.

this is a great book- so hard to put down, really make you laugh a cry- a true gem

Being Italian and born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, I really enjoyed this book. Lucia is a girl before her time in the 50's but is also a little naive about love and life. It is a fun book, with heartwarming family life, happiness and some sadness but always enjoyable. I recommend this book. This is the first book I have read by this author but it will not be the last.

Adriana Trigiani is one talented writer. I read the Big Stone Gap Trilogy and loved it so picked up this one too and glad I did. This is now one of my all-time favorite books. This is a story of a 25 year old Italian girl in NYC in the 1950's and her life with family, love and work. Lucia was such an easy character to fall in love with. We read this book in our book club and everyone loved it. I would recommend this book to anyone. It's a very fun and easy read. Will keep your interest!