Travel Books

An outstanding book, kept my interest waiting to see what happened next. As a frequent visitor to Aruba, it was hard to tell what was fact and what was fiction. I can't wait until the next time I see Charlie (Nov/Dec) to get on the invitation list to one of his parties!!!
Daniel is a gifted writer and I can't wait until the sequel is published.

The author capture me immediately with this book. I was pulled to Aruba and the characters and felt as if I was there and knew everyone. One of the best books I have read in a very long time and I am anxiously awaiting the sequel now. Cannot recommend it highly enough.

Great read... especially for anyone that's ever been to Aruba. It gives a completely different view of the island, away from the glitzy hotels and restaurants that tourists usually see. Through this novel, I feel that I got to know the island that I love better than I had in nine trips there. Definitely worth reading!

I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this book. I am a 17 time visitor to Aruba and this book put me right on the island. It is not the Aruba that we are used to seeing. It is the dark side of the island. An Island Away details the lives of four people and how all their lives cross. Charlie is an artist and a bar owner. Luz is a prostitute working for 90 days on the island. Sam is a transplanted Aruban who made his fortune in Miami and is returning to retire and live on the island. Beck is a tugboat captain whose boat goes down in a storm and washes up on Aruba. This is a very real story of survival, romance and "how it used to be" in modern day Aruba. An Island Away takes you on a tour of the seamy side of paradise detailing the lives and loves of the aforementioned characters who are painted as colorful and resorceful survivors in a world where the weak get swallowed up and spit out

As someone who has been traveling to Aruba for the past 15 years, I loved An Island Away. Daniel actually made me feel like I was right there while the story was being told.

I look forward to the sequel... and, can't wait to see what happens to my two favorite characters ~ Luz and Captain Beck! Hurry Daniel, I'll be back in February, and would love to read the new book while on island.

Thanks for a great story!

This is a dead on compilation of the most misunderstood segment of our population. Photos are honest and terrific. I have shared the book with many people and they are all capitivated.

Although my teenagers are in their 30's now-I read this with much interest. The photography was beautiful and captured the spirit of these people. You could see that they really trusted Robin and her camera. A wonderful idea. A wonderful book for me to share with my children-who have children and for friends who are wondering who their teens really are! Thanks to Robin and Robert and to Umbrage who let them tell and show their story!

I sat down with this book with the intent to peruse, but found myself totally absorbed for the entire evening. The photographs are amazing on their own, but the coupling with interviews opens up the experience - I found myself wishing I had been in that car with Robin as she explored the teen world. Robin has left me with wanting more... I'll be sharing this book with my teenage daughter to offer perspective on her life in this day and age.

This is such an extraordinary collection. The kind to be viewed over and over again in different moods and for different insights. In particular I recommend this collection for libraries and other resource rooms where teenagers roam - my own high school students have been glued to it since it arrived and I love hearing them reflect on what they see. Thank you Ms. Bowman for providing us with this entry into our past, present, and future, and for those young people who are young right now - for giving them insight into their peers - near and far.

My 15 year old received this book as a Christmas present. It has remained out and open since then. All of her friends have picked it up and found entries that they found interesting and compelling. The book truly represents the cross-section of the teen experience in America. The author's compassion and concern for the teens as individuals is evident throughout the profiles, allowing it to speak to the universal truth about making it through those teen years. "It's Complicated" indeed.

John Midas is a great book! My favorite part is when he fights the serpent. He gets stuck in the serpent's mouth. If you want to know what happened then read the book.

John and his family go to Australia for Christmas and when they go to Ayers Rock the adventure begins. Mr. Ngoru tells John not to go in but he doesn't listen and he goes in anyway. There on the other side of Uluru, he meets the aborigines. If you want to know more, read John Midas in the Dreamtime. The book was great because the adventure was about the aborigines and I learned more about the aborigines.

This book is great! It has a lot of action. John goes to Australia. John goes to Ayers rock and finds a cave. When John runs in, he finds himself in the dreamtime. John has to teach the aborigines how to survive. If you want to find out more, read the book. I would recommend this book because it taught me how it was a long time ago in the dreamtime.

By Mark A. Durham

I am now 25 and still remember this book very fondly. It includes elements of time travel, a foreign country, the aboriginal culture and some fantastic beasts. What more could a kid ask for? I must have read it when I was ten years old or so. I'm not sure why it got a negative editorial review, maybe the critic is out of touch with kids!

John Midas in the Dreamtime By Patric Skene Catling
In this book John and his family are going to Australia,for their winter vacation.John is looking for a real adventure,which he's not getting.When John enters a forbidden cave, he gets lost in time.He goes into Dreamtime! John is bumping into weird situations like crying kangaroos.John meets the Aborigines and soon realizes these people don't really know much.John is going to have to teach them how to make fire and things like that.When John comes to a hard situation with the Rainbow Serpent what will happen? Will John be a hero and save the day? To find out read John Midas in the Dreamtime.It is an excellent book. John Midas in the Dreamtime is very adventurous.Maybe it will start making you daydream about the Dreamtime.If you like adventurous books you'll LOVE John Midas in the Dreamtime!

The first few pages of this book drove me to my dictionary repeatedly. Hardly a single page left me without the intense need to dive into my dictionary - and an excellent dictionary at that. I found more often than not that the words searched for were not there, or that the meanings that made sense were obscure, or idiosyncratic. I realized quickly that I could not possibly get through the entire book that way and decided to just relax, understand what I could, and forget about struggling with what I could not. Mr. Millman is an independent soul and he makes up words, uses slang I am not familiar with and also uses obscure words in common and sometimes uncommon ways. I think this delights him. His travels delighted me. And Mr. Millman appears to be a delightful, jocular person who is comfortable in strange, lonely places. I am glad to have been taken on this trip with him through his book. I highly recommend this book particularly to people who are not so compulsive as to need to understand every nuance of what they are reading. Unfortunately for me, I am that compulsive person. Like Mr. Millman's journeys, it is often a journey into an unknown place.

As one who loves adventure travel I rate this as one of the best accounts ever for one chasing through this part of the world. It was especially meaningful as I have traveled the same route...The Shetlands, The Faroes, Iceland, Greenland and Labrador. How much fun to re-live it through the eyes of Lawrence Millman. Unlike Millman, I never had the chance to meet and live with the folks like he did. His encounters with the locals are so funny and engaging that you'll find yourself laughing throughout the book. If you are the least bit interested in this part of the world, read this book first and you'll hardly be able to wait to start your trip. This man is truly a great story teller and the kind of guy you'd just like to sit down with and rehash his adventures. What a great book!

There is a reason why every rating here (so far) is 5 stars - read it and you will find out why.

The best travel book I have ever read. I picked it up becasue I had been in a couple of the places covered in the book. Millman truly captures the sense of place, people, life and environment and is funnier than you can ever imagine travel writing being. He gets involved with the locals and this leads to our discovery of some very interesting local customs. He provides the best description of being sea sick that I have ever read - I could almost feel it!

I have loaned this book to so many people that it is dog-eared. It is the book we always talk about year after year and have great laughs.

A June through October vagabondage in the shadows of the Viking far-farers. Lawrence Millman wanders from Norway to Newfoundland by way of the Faeroes, Iceland, and Greenland. His engaging mix of descriptions of the local color and his own wry humour make for some fine and entertaining reading. Written in a journal travelogue style with just enough history and customs mixed in to tempt you to visit these "last places".
An excellent adventure story. Highly recommended.

Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts

As a polar regions travel junkie, I devoured Millman's account of his journey through the Faeroes, Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, and places in between. I thought he did an admirable job of relaying the harships of life (especially in Greenland) while always coming back to the mysterious appeal that this region holds for many.

This is a fine book to add to your Little House collection. It's interesting reading even if you never travel to the sites.

I read a number of the Little House books recently, and when I finished I was fired up to learn more about Laura and her family. Even though I can't plan a trip in the near future to visit the places Laura called home, I loved reading about each spot in THE LITTLE HOUSE GUIDEBOOK.

Each chapter discusses the location of each "little house," including places that Laura lived in but didn't write about. Almanzo Wilder's homes are also included. We see photographs and read descriptions of what each place looks like now, how and when each spot was honored as a Laura Ingalls Wilder historical site, along with suggestions for interesting places to visit and stay.

The first chapter, which deals with "the little house in the big woods" of Pepin, Wisconsin, tells the tale of how Charles and Caroline Ingalls (Laura's parents) were among the earliest settlers of western Wisconsin. One interesting note: the house in the big woods was actually the Ingalls's home twice. The family sold the land once, moving to Kansas. However, the buyer quit making payments and the Ingalls returned. As with many of Laura's little houses, the original cabin is gone but visitors can tour a replica.

The next chapter discusses the setting of LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, near Independence, Kansas. Here we learn more about the land issues between the Native Americans and the settlers, which eventually prompted the Ingalls to leave their prairie home.

The following chapters cover Plum Creek, near Walnut Grove, Minnesota; the Masters Hotel in Burr Oak, Iowa (covered in OLD TOWN IN THE GREEN GROVES, written by Cynthia Rylant); and De Smet, South Dakota (otherwise known as "The Little Town on the Prairie" and also covered in the books BY THE SHORES OF SILVER LAKE, THESE HAPPY GOLDEN YEARS and THE FIRST FOUR YEARS).

Laura and Almanzo eventually moved to the Ozarks in Mansfield, Missouri, where they established Rocky Ridge Farm. Here, visitors can tour their white farmhouse, kept just as the Wilders had it in the 1940s and 1950s, along with the Rock House that daughter Rose had built for Laura and Almanzo in 1928.

Almanzo's houses come next: his boyhood farm home in Malone, New York, still stands and can be toured. Almanzo's parents moved to Spring Valley, Minnesota; although their Minnesota farmhouse is long gone, rabid Wilder fans may want to visit the town museums and the graveyard where Almanzo's brother Royal is buried.

Speaking of fans, THE LITTLE HOUSE GUIDEBOOK is fascinating for Laura's many admirers. It's eye-opening to read about these various locations. The photographs by Leslie A. Kelly are a fine addition, giving readers a view of each area and a peek into how people lived back in Laura's time.

--- Reviewed by Terry Miller Shannon

It is best for anyone who plan to travel to all sites of where Laura is born and raise and lived in. I am serious considering to go to some sites myself after read that book. It is great book.

Many Minnesotans have visited the original Wilder sites, but this book contains infomation that was new to even a jaded "Wilder" fan!

William Anderson has done a fabulous job in painstakingly documenting everything there is to see from New York to South Dakota that has anything to do with Laura Ingalls Wilder's "Little House" series. Ever wondered what happened to Pa's fiddle? Or if the house dug out from the banks of Plum Creek is still intact? This book has the answers. Complete with color photographs, addresses, phone numbers and maps, as well as ample background information, The Little House Guidebook is a must have for Little House fans everywhere. Even if you never get to visit these places, this book will take you there.

This is an interesting debut novel and a welcome addition to the time travel genre. It is a well told tale that evokes another time, long ago. It is also a tale of love.

Two people from New Jersey, each on the run from a broken romance, go to Scotland. Maggie Hobbs is there on vacation. Alex MacKendiman is accompanying his aunt to a gathering of his clan near Dunnedin, Scotland. Maggie and Alex meet at the clan gathering. They also meet a mysterious stranger, Mairi, who pushes them through a portal in time. Before they know it, they are in a medieval Scotland of six hundred years ago.

As luck would have it, Alex is the doppelganger of a long ago ancester of the same name. It appears that his ancestral namesake has been visiting in England for some time. When Alex and Maggie arrive in medieval Scotland, he is mistaken for his returning ancester, who also happens to be the laird's son. Maggie is taken to be his leman, as Alex has been betrothed to Anice, daughter of the head of the MacNab clan.

From here on in, their adventures fly fast and furious, as Alex and Maggie struggle to fit it and get the lay of the land in order to survive, until they can figure out a way to return to the present. There are many pitfalls to avoid and many customs to adopt in order to make their trek through time a safe one. In the process, they fall in love.

What happens to Alex and Maggie is entertaining and interesting, as they traverse a veritable minefield of differences between past and present. It is only through their growing love, however, that they will find the link necessary to effect a return to their time. Will they make it? Read this book and find out. You will not be disappointed.

This is my favorite type of time travel in which both main character travel through time in order to learn a lesson. This is an incredible debut for Ms. Brisbin. Her writing style is so vivid and emotional that I felt as if I'd been pushed through the arch right along with Maggie and Alex! I experienced their confusion, fear, and pain, their courage, joy, and love. I watched as Alex's true character emerged and his emotions blossomed, up close and personal. I laughed, cried, and hurt for the two of them. The touching epilogue was the perfect ending to a perfectly delightful read! I highly recommend this novel and wait with baited breath for the November sequel "A Matter of Time". --------- Leslie Tramposch - Pghromance

Having both "stars" of the novel travel through time together is refreshing! A great story that is very realistic as far as customs, language and behavioral qualities of the time traveled to; and the frustration, worries and determination of the couple trapped in another era. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK!!!

Maggie and Alex are from the present day and are sent back in time together. It is not like any other time-travel books I have read. The secondary characters in the story are well developed and believable. I felt so sorry for the treatment Maggie recieved frrom Anice (Alex's betrothed). I wished she would give her a good slapping instead of taking all the snide remarks from Anice and her maids. She was just a spoilt little brat who thought she was better than everyone around her especially Maggie. Anice did change at the end of the book when she realised that the Alex she thought was betrothed to wasn't her Alex, but an imposter. I thought the real Alex who prefered to be called Sandy was a perfect match for Anice. He was just as bad as she had been to Maggie. This book is a great read and I can't wait to read the sequel to this book. I highly recommend it to any time-travel fans out there. Keep up the good work Terri.

A bit of a take-off on the Outlander premise of a circle of "singing stones" that can transport through time, albeit these stones were removed from the circle and built into an archway of a building. Our hero and heroine meet at a clan gathering, get shoved through the archway and are transported back through time. I could never figure out what year it was, I recall Edward III being mentioned as England's king, and King David being the son of Robert the Bruce, so my research says sometime in the 14th century.

Anyway, our hero Alex is a double for the laird's son and heir Alesander who has been away for five years in London with the Scott king David (who was being held as a hostage by the English). So he is mistaken for the young heir, and Maggie is taken as his leman (mistress). Lots of ups and downs follow our H&H as they try to understand what's happened, and try to find their way home without being killed for pretending to be what they're not.

All in all very entertaining, but you do have to suspend some disbelief. I am sorry, but no man of the our times (most especially an ACCOUNTANT!!) could go back to the 14th century and pick up a sword and even have a clue to what he was doing, let alone convince his peers that he was adept at it. Also, the author wrote the story so that Alex picked up a Scottish brogue and Gaelic when they went back in time, but no one noticed Maggie's lack of English accent, let alone that she was from New Jersey. For those and a few other discrepancies I give it 4 stars instead of 5.

Note: if you are looking for something for a younger reader, this would not be a good choice. It's a bit of a bodice ripper, with more sexual content and descriptions than is appropriate for a young teen.

Savoured the book from start to finish. It took me 2 weeks to read the last 20 pages because I did not want it to end. I am looking forward to reading the next Gillian adventure.

Everyone loves an adventure (or at least reading of one) and most of us will never take a boat from China to America. Envious of this one, I curled up by my fireplace and read Mr. Ding's Chicken Feet with a taste for the fascinating journey of a Caucasian woman on a boat full of Asian men. I was not disappointed.

The author sets sail on an ocean of cultural difference and wins over the hearts of the crew - a rough and salty bunch who sit spellbound by her in English class.

Because of the obvious vast expanse of ocean to cross, you know that the author is going to have to face a few things she has probably never had to before, and deal with them. There is, after all, no escape on a small boat in the middle of the ocean.

Kendall reveals the color of the crew over the course of the journey as if she were polishing up tarnished brass. It was great fun to read about the men as they blossom at the hand of their teacher...though the revelations were not one-sided.

Not surprisingly, I felt the poignancy at the sight of land, which meant having to say goodbye.

Kendall writes with an unpretentious clarity, humor and heart. I definitely recommend it.

Ji Lians book very good. Makes me laugh. Have to laugh and wake up husband to read good part. I like this book. I like especially page where I am mention. I am Li. I am beautiful asian/american. Not Chinese. I too, don't like chicken feet.

In Mr Ding's Chicken Feet, the author, Gillian Kendall, comes across at first as maybe a little naive and unwary. She is a risk-taker. Her apparent lack of serious doubt about the whole enterprise, her trust in her fellow human beings not to harm her and her faith that it would all work out made me a little nervous on her behalf. But she is vindicated by the experience and it is her empathy and geniality that are the keys to her success. Observing Kendall's openness to life and her willingness to reach out across cultures became one of the pleasures of reading the book. A cynical reader such as I am found it instructive to watch her interest in humanity unfold and be repaid.

Her story really takes off once the ship leaves shore. Then it leaves behind any experience I and probably most readers have had. Shipboard life with a completely male crew who mostly speak very fractured English seems so weird and challenging that you half expect the book to be a story of failure -- perhaps noble failure but depressing nonetheless. So it's very satisfying that she actually makes a difference to the sailors' English and lives. She is inventive in her methods and determined to give her employers their money's worth and thereby wins the crew's respect and affection.

Kendall can write -- just see her description of the terrible storm at sea. It had me rigid with tension. Shades of Conrad in Typhoon. She has a distinctive and likable tone of voice. The book tells an optimistic story in an unpretentious way and gives you faith in the power of empathic teachers (and English!).

I spent the academic year of 1999/2000 teaching English in Shenzhen. I spoke no Chinese, at the time, and had no formal teaching experience. So I could definitely relate to Gillian's frustrations, culture shock, and malentendus. It's 1991 and Gillian is a grad student in Galveston, TX. The semester is coming to a close and she spies an ad on the bulletin board for an ESL teacher aboard a ship sailing from Shanghai to Galveston. After a hard sell Gillian manages to land the job aboard the all male ship. The company flies her to Shanghai where she boards the ship. The reader witnesses her feelings about being the only woman on the ship; loneliness and some sexual harassment egged on by the only other American on board. She experiences a Sapphic awakening as she realizes in her state of isolation that she doesn't have any romantic feelings for her boyfriend. She manages to break through the cultural, gender, and language barriers to form some attachments to her students and especially Mr. Ding, the cook. The book is riddled with faux pas but the funniest part, I would say, is when she saves Mr. Ding by hurling the violent Panamanian vendor into the Canal.

This is THE definitive book of New York City trivia. More than just informative and intelligent, it's truly fun. It's a great gift for an NYC smart aleck who thinks they know everything about the city, or for anyone who wants to learn a whole lot about what is, of course, the capital of the world. Apparently the author biked from Queens to Manhattan across the 59th Street bridge at an age when most kids wouldn't be allowed to walk to school on their own. So this is clearly a 40-year or so labor of love. Most of all, it's fun. A great buy.

Celebrate New York City with this book, one of the best ways to explore all of what is special about New York City! From the novice to the tourist, from the born and bred to the commuter who works in New York City or just for the curious planning a visit...this book has it all. Little known interesting facts will make your every day stroll down the block into a history lesson. Fun for the holidays to quiz your friends and family.

You won't be able to put it down. Test your own knowledge. Written in an easy reading style, yet thorough and detailed enough to challenge and entertain at the same time.

Enjoy!!!

Definitely a fun and interesting read. It doesn't take a trivia lover to enjoy this book. Volume 2 has its way of sparking your interest on triv-bits about NYC (even those that you normally wouldn't care to know). Once again, only John Barbieri can show you how to really appreciate NYC.

John Barbieri makes the 'second time around' even sweeter, with Mr New York's Trivia Quiz Volume 2. Mr. Barbieri has a talent in bringing us tid bits of information about the greatest city in the world, but with his own unique and entertaining spin. Run, don't walk, and buy this entertaining read.

I give this book a "10". I just couldn't put this book down. You think you know New York, but now you really know New York after reading it. It's a must have even if your not from New York. This book is proof of why there's no place like New York. New Yorkers are the most wonderful people in the world. Only a true New Yorker could write such a wonderful book. This book brings back such great memories growning up in New York. You cover 38 topics, 563 pages on sports, boroughs, politics, theatre etc... I had to go and buy another book because my friends took it and they won't give it back. Thanks for writing it.

THE NEW TIME TRAVELERS: A JOURNEY TO THE FRONTIERS OF PHYSICS straddles the line between science fiction and science fact, offering both college-level science libraries and general-interest public lending libraries a lively survey of scientific inquiry based on a group of theoretical physicists at the California Institute of Technology who undertook a serious investigation of the possibilities of pastward time travel and its possibilities. Their inquiry tried to determine the viability of time travel: their results blends science and philosophy in a lively survey perfect for either casual reading or classroom debate.

When I was a kid I was completely mesmerized by the Time Tunnel -- a 1960s sci-fi series about two research scientists who become trapped in a top secret portal through time. David Toomey doesn't have my beloved Dr. Tony Newman (played memorably by James Darren, in form-fitting corduroy) but his book is populated by scientists who, if not quite as sexy, are just as captivating. I found myself fascinated by the book's take on the scientific community and how it works -- how concepts evolve over time, and also, maybe even especially, how ideas can migrate back and forth between scientists and the world of science fiction. Toomey does a great job of making the science itself accessible, but for me the really careful description of how scientific insight builds over time, how epiphanies large and small, new and sometimes pretty old, accumulate and eventually become theories, was worth the price of admission alone. The politics of science research and publication is also really present in the book -- I got a good sense of how on-the-ground professional factors shape the high-flying theory in play. It was a great read.

Many casual lay readers may find some of these intriguing space time concepts difficult to visualize. Many more and better pictures would have made this book more accessible. For the description of dynamic ideas like "time machines" a picture is indeed worth a thousand words. If you have seen a Nova TV program on space time you know what I mean.

A gripping read about what is often a daunting topic, Time Travelers takes us on an intellectual and imaginative journey through science, science fiction, and the lives of scientists. Books on these topics can often be obscure or overly fanciful. This one is delightfully alive, and Toomey is never less than careful in both the physics and speculations about time travel. A lesser writer would have fudged the facts to make room for fantasy, but Toomey builds a smart and powerful (though qualified) case for a kind of time travel that retains enough fantasy to keep the pages turning but never scrimps on the facts. Another fine effort by an excellent writer.

Anytime that I have picked up a book about the space-time continuum and quantum physics I feel that the adventure begins. Unfortunately the adventure can end quite early if the writing is thick and obscure as a tunnel that connects two black holes. Mr. Toomey's book, however, is extremely readable. In fact I couldn't put it down. He manages to explain complex ideas and theories very clearly and understandably. I enjoyed this book very much and encourage anyone with an interest in time travel to pick it up and give it a read. This is a fun book!

Gillian Zoe Segal's book, New York Characters, is outstanding- the best photography book I've ever seen/read! The photographs featuring prominent New Yorkers are incredible. Each one captures the true essence of the "character" and truly comes to life on the page. The characters are all photographed in their natural environment, and as Segal points out and demonstrates in her book it is New York's characters that make "it the greatest city in the world". In addition to her photographic genius, Segal writes beautifully. The vignettes's about the characters are intersting, informative, humorous, and touching. No coffee table should be without a copy of New York Characters. It makes the perfect holiday gift for New Yorkers as well as out-of-towners because everyone loves or has an interest in New York, right? Furthermore, all of the proceeds of the book sales are going to the September 11th fund. So what could be more gratifying than supporting the city's recovery effort by buying this wonderful book for yourself, for your friends, for your family...? I feel confident in saying that anyone who picks up New York Characters will enjoy it immensely. What will Segal do next? I can't wait....

Gillian Zoe Segal's book, New York Characters, is outstanding- the best photography book I've ever seen/read! The photographs featuring prominent New Yorkers are incredible. Each one captures the true essence of the "character" and truly comes to life on the page. The characters are all photographed in their natural environment, and as Segal points out and demonstrates in her book it is New York's characters that make "it the greatest city in the world". In addition to her photographic genius, Segal writes beautifully. The vignettes's about the characters are intersting, informative, humorous, and touching. No coffee table should be without a copy of New York Characters. It makes the perfect holiday gift for New Yorkers as well as out-of-towners because everyone loves or has an interest in New York, right? Furthermore, all of the proceeds of the book sales are going to the September 11th fund. So what could be more gratifying than supporting the city's recovery effort by buying this wonderful book for yourself, for your friends, for your family...? I feel confident in saying that anyone who picks up New York Characters will enjoy it immensely. What will Segal do next? I can't wait....

I got a copy of this book and the other night three friends and I made a bet as to who had seen the most "characters" in real life. Sad to say I was not the winner but did pretty well with 24 and came in second. Anyway, it's a great book and a kick to get the real stories behind some of the interesting people we see around town. Highly recommended.

If you admire great photography and exquisite prose and feel the slightest attachment (or wish you did) to New York, then Gillian Segal's book is for you. I moved from New York a little over ten years ago and was determined to keep in touch with the city I love. However, it was only a matter of time before I lost touch with what really made New York special: the people's unique personalities. Gillian's book has allowed me to reestablish contact with the city that I still like to call home. Now, when my colleagues in Providence ask me what to do in New York, I no longer provide them with a mundane and outdated list of restaurants and sites. Instead, I refer them to Mrs. Segal's book. I inform them that in its pages is where they can find the real New York. Everything from great food, The Egg Cake Lady, to a wonderful opera on 57th street, performed by Opera Man, to a great jogging partner, the Mayor of the Reservoir (he is featured on the cover) can be found in "New York Characters".

If you are a New Yorker, a former New Yorker, or someone new to the City, you should own this book. The photography is both penetrating and compelling, and the characters featured are truly fascinating. It's like the Zagat of New York people. I hope the author comes to Los Angeles to do a book on characters here (there are plenty)!