Tag Archives: New York

NEW YORK CITY–THE BOOK LIST

DESTINATON: New York City — NYC — New York, New York –Manhattan — Brooklyn – Central Park

New York Skyline from Liberty Island on a rainy day
New York Skyline from Liberty Island on a rainy day

THE LIST

After recently reviewing a mystery novel about a Hasidic Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn and another about the area around Grand Central Terminal, I got curious about how many books about New York City I (or guests) have reviewed in the past five and half year. Answer: A Lot. Here are links to the reviews, and a tiny bit of what we had to say about each.

A Journey into Dorothy Parker’s New York by Keven C. Kirkpatrick.  “Skeptical, witty, cynical, smart, fashion conscious and status obssessed–it is hard to know whether Dorothy Parker accurately reflected New York City, or created our image of New York City.”

Night view from Warwick Hotel, NYC
Night view from Warwick Hotel, NYC

The Warwick Hotel.  This is not a book review, but a travel experience about a hotel I loved in Manhattan. One of my all time favorite articles. “Over 78 years the Warwick Hotel has seen plenty of brash newcomers come along, blocking its views and dwarfing its 36 stories. But the location still can’t be beat.”

Charming Billy by Alice McDermott.  An Irish-American family in NYC. “McDermott has written a small miracle of a book.”

Blood Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton. In this guest review by food writer Casey Barber, we are introduced to a memoir of the creator of the NYC restaurant PRUNE. Casey says, “With each successive trip to visit her Italian in-laws, Hamilton’s desire to become familial and to please the clan with perfect dinner party, recapturing the expansive, welcoming lamb feasts of her youth and the ‘salty, sweet, starchy, brothy, crispy’ simplicity of meals at Prune, becomes all-encompassing.”

Statue of Liberty
Statue of Liberty

Not for Parents: New York City, A Lonely Planet series.  This guest review by Jennifer Close shows how the guidebook for kids appeals to the younger set. “This isn’t your typical guidebook. It doesn’t list locations, cost or hours of operation but that is okay because it is meant for children and your children will be with you on the trip, right?”

Buddhaland Brooklyn by Richard C. Morais. “This new novel, like meditation, encourages calm thoughts and some new insights into oneself and one’s culture. But it brings  some laughs, too.”

All Those Things We Never Said by Marc Levy. Maybe you’ll like this father-daughter, semi-fantasy more than I did. Or just see the movie Just LIke Heaven with Reece Witherspoon. About the book, I said, “Instead of thought-provoking moments, we get a collection of fortune cookies from her father.”

Mumbai New York Scranton by Tamara Shopsin.  The author, a graphic artist, is part of the family that has a venerable restaurant in NYC, Shopsin’s , on the lower East side. “Mumbai New York Scranton is like a painting by  Juan Gris–the artist combines simple objects and each viewer recreates meaning as they view it. So this memoir of a year in the life of a native New York artist  leaves plenty of room for the reader’s own thoughts.”

42, movie about the life of Jackie Robinson, guest review by Jane Boursaw, gives a historic view of Brooklyn. Although Ebbetts field no longer exists, you can still visit Brooklyn. Jane says, “Even if you’re not a sports-movie nut, “42″ is an amazing, inspiring film and also a great history lesson.”

Central Park

Another section of The Mall at Central Park.

Central Park, edited by Andrew Blauner, is a collection of literary works set in Central Park. This photo post features my own images of Central Park approached as a literary journey.

I Never Knew That About New York by Christopher Winn.  A guidebook with a difference. “Now the British know-it-all has invaded New York City.  Does he know things about New York that even dedicated New Yawkers haven’t discovered? We’ll wager he does.”

Terminal City by Linda Fairstein. A crime novel set in Manhattan. “Fairstein has done enough research to fill a separate book about the history, the dimensions of the building , the tunnels, the hidden spaces, the art work, the homeless who live underground, the pattern of transportation in and out–moving people on foot and by rail.”

Invisible City by Julia Dahl.  A crime novel with a murder in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn and the inner workings of a New York City tabloid. “Rebekah picks her way through a minefield of people (newspaper editors, cops, Hasidic Jews) who never seem to be telling the whole truth.”

What Changes Everything by Masha Hamilton.  Although her 31 Hours, which I have not reviewed here, is set entirely and chillingly in New York City, What Changes Everything is mostly about Afghanistan with key portions in Brooklyn. I recommend both. Here’s what I said about What Changes Everything,  “The culture of Afghanistan and the culture of a tagger in Brooklyn are portrayed with loads of detail because Masha Hamilton knows them both.”

New York with Murder, a Rookie Journalist and Hasidic Jews

Destination: Brooklyn, New York

Book: Invisible City by Julia Dahl (NEW summer 2014) [Review of MacMillan audio book read by Andi Arndt]

I’m back in New York City. Unfortunately it is only an armchair journey, but certainly an interesting one . I’ve moved from Terminal City in Manhattan, which we discussed a couple of weeks ago, to Invisible City in Brooklyn, a worthy first mystery novel by Julia Dahl.

In Invisible City, you will become acquainted with two worlds that may be as foreign to you as a small principality in Asia, even though it takes place in the middle of the quintessential American City.

The first, less exotic but nevertheless holding plenty of “I didn’t know that” moments, is the world of Rebekah Roberts, a young journalism graduate who works as a stringer for a sensationalist New York newspaper.  She is learning her craft on the hoof as she sets off each day to follow whatever story the newspaper editors assign her — interviewing people, gathering facts, but not actually writing a story. Someone in the newsroom does that.

Hasidic Jewish Men
Hasidic Jewish Men, photo from Flickr

Until, that is, she becomes embroiled in the murder of a Hasidic woman in Brooklyn, and as she becomes more confident in her judgment as a journalist, she also grows in her understanding of her own life.  Rebekah’s mother was a Hasidic Jew, who gave birth to Rebekah as a result of a temporary experiment in living outside the faith.  While the girl was still very young, her mother, Aviva,  left her with her father and Rebekah knows nothing about either Aviva or the Hasidic Jewish culture.

So we follow along as Rebekah (who has kept the Jewish spelling of her name, despite never practicing Judaism) learns what it is like to be a Hasidic woman and why her mother may have left the community, and even more puzzling to the motherless girl, why her mother returned to her faith, abandoning Rebekah and her father.

Rebekah picks her way through a minefield of people (newspaper editors, cops, Hasidic Jews) who never seem to be telling the whole truth. A key character is Saul Katz, a police liason to the insular Jewish community who knew her mother.  That brings up the question of whether Rebekah  spends so much time on this story  because she is seeking justice for the murdered woman, or seeking her lost mother. She  not only gains some maturity as a journalist during her investigation of the murder, but she gains in personal maturity as well.

Hasidic Jew Family
Hasidic Family. Photo from Flickr
Hasidic wedding
Hasidic wedding. Photo by Eliot Margolies

There are many surprises–even shocks–awaiting Rebekah, and the reader about the way the isolated Hasidic Jewish community functions.  Particularly the lives of the women.

Personally, I also was surprised and nearly shocked by the practices of the journalistic community as well.

Author Julia Dahl has worked as a journalist for various newspapers and websites, and like Rebekah has a Jewish mother and a Christian father.  She lives in Brooklyn, which makes for vivid recreation of the life of the city.

In listening to an audio book, frequently the voice of the reader can make the difference between sticking with the book, or giving up on it.  At first I thought I would find Andi Arndt’s high pitched rendering of Rebekah to be annoying, but ultimately it worked to remind me constantly of how young and naive Rebekah was. Plus, Arndt was able to present a variety of characters and clearly delineate them for my ear.

Invisible City will be a great audiobook for you to slip in the CD player as you head off for a road trip this summer, or a good book to curl up with in print on electronic form as you chill out. And you just may get hooked by Rebekah, and be waiting for the next installment of her journalistic adventures in NYC.

This interview will fill you in on her process in writing Invisible City, and give you a suggested book in case you want to learn more about the ultra Orthodox Jews.

Note:  MacMillan Audio sent me an audio book for review. However, my opinions are always my own and I am not obligated to review the books they send.

You will find links to Amazon here, as well as links to informative articles.  The Amazon links are affiliate links meaning A Traveler’s Library benefits when you shop through those links. Thank you.

 

 

 

A Halloween Tale: Living the Legend of Sleepy Hollow

CULTURAL TRAVEL

By Jessica Voigts

Destination: Tarrytown New York

Book: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in 1858 painting
The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane, Painting by John Quidor, 1858, Smithsonian Museum of American Art. From Google Art Project.

A headless horseman, riding through the night; the disappearance of the schoolteacher; the tale of unrequited love – all these come together in the classic and much-beloved story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Beautifully written by Washington Irving, this short story is a creepy tale, one that sneaks up on the reader and lodges in the memory, several turns of phrase coming back at you at odd times throughout your life.

Legend of Sleepy Hollow, 1907 edition
The Book, 1907 edition, from Wiki Media, used with Creative Commons license.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was published in 1820, and is set in Sleepy Hollow, which is located near Tarrytown, New York. You may have read Washington Irving’s many other tales, including Rip Van Winkle. The treasures of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow lie in the compelling descriptions, which make you feel as if you are there in the story with Ichabod Crane…

“Not far from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a little valley among high hills which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook murmurs through it and, with the occasional whistle of a quail or tapping of a woodpecker, is almost the only sound that ever breaks the uniform tranquillity.
From the listless repose of the place, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of Sleepy Hollow.”

“Just ahead, where a small brook crossed the road, a few rough logs lying side by side served for a bridge. A group of oaks and chestnuts, matted thick with wild grapevines, threw a cavernous gloom over it.”

In the story, Ichabod Crane is a schoolteacher – quite a learned man, having “read several books quite through.” He (rather unsuccessfully) courts the beauty Katrina van Tassel, who is also being courted (successfully, we might add) by the strong Abraham “Bram Bones” van Brunt. One night after a harvest party at the van Tassels’, Crane rides home. He meets and is chased by a headless creature, riding hellbent alongside him with a specific purpose in mind. And what comes next will send shivers down your spine…

“Just then he saw the goblin rising in his stirrups, in the very act of hurling his head at him. Ichabod endeavored to dodge the horrible missile, but too late. It encountered his cranium with a tremendous crash – he was tumbled headlong into the dust, and Gunpowder, the black steed, and the goblin rider passed by like a whirlwind.”

Sleepy Hollow Legend in etching
“Ichabod pursued by the Headless Horseman”, an etching from Le Magasin Pittoresque, 1848, from Wikimedia in public domain.

Ichabod Crane was never seen again.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (get it free here on Guttenberg) is one of those classics I read again each year – along with Robert Burns’ poem Halloween , Robert Burns’ tale Tam O’Shanter (1790), and tales of the Wild Hunt (epitomized by Bürger’s Der Wilde Jäger [the Wild Huntsman], 1796).

If you, too, are a fan of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, you can visit the Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, where the main spooky action of the tale was set (you can also visit another legend of Sleepy Hollow, this one in the cemetery of the church.

“An opening in the trees now cheered him with the hopes that the church bridge was at hand. He saw the whitewashed walls of the church dimly glaring under the trees beyond. He recollected the place where Brom Bones’s ghostly competitor had disappeared. ‘If I can but reach that bridge,”‘thought Ichabod, ‘I am safe.’ Just then he heard the black steed panting and blowing close behind him; he even fancied that he felt his hot breath.”

Legend of Sleepy Hollow Story Teller
Jonathan Kruk performing at Old Dutch Church
Photo © Tom Nycz

And if you’re lucky to visit the Hudson Valley around Halloween, book a ticket to see Master Storyteller Jonathan Kruk, accompanied by Jim Keyes on the organ, bring The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to life  at the Old Dutch Church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old Dutch Church then 

Legend of Sleepy Hollow church then
Etching of Sleepy Hollow’s old church from 1864 edition of Legend of Sleepy Hollow. In public domain, from WikiMedia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And The old Church now:

Sleepy Hollow Old Church Now
Old Dutch Church of Sleepy Hollow, NY, USA. Oldest church building in New York and featured in Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. Creative Commons license.