Up in the Old Hotel


Book Description

Saloon-keepers and street preachers, gypsies and steel-walking Mohawks, a bearded lady and a 93-year-old “seafoodetarian” who believes his specialized diet will keep him alive for another two decades. These are among the people that Joseph Mitchell immortalized in his reportage for The New Yorker and in four books—McSorley's Wonderful Saloon, Old Mr. Flood, The Bottom of the Harbor, and Joe Gould's Secret—that are still renowned for their precise, respectful observation, their graveyard humor, and their offhand perfection of style. These masterpieces (along with several previously uncollected stories) are available in one volume, which presents an indelible collective portrait of an unsuspected New York and its odder citizens—as depicted by one of the great writers of this or any other time.




Where Do Steam Trains Sleep at Night?


Book Description

Take the train to dreamland with this board book version of the chugging bedtime tale, the perfect companion to Where Do Diggers Sleep at Night? and Where Do Jet Planes Sleep at Night? Have you ever wondered what little trains do when it’s time for bed? Same things you do! Steam trains, freight trains, subways—and more!—wash up, have a snack, load their teddies for storytime, and get rocked to sleep by mommy and daddy trains beneath a blanket of stars. Little one-track-mind train lovers will be tickled to see how bedtime is just the same for their favorite vehicles as it is for them. “Train lovers will be sure to take this bedtime read for a ride.” —School Library Journal




Our Subway Baby


Book Description

This gentle and incredibly poignant picture book tells the true story of how one baby found his home. "Some babies are born into their families. Some are adopted. This is the story of how one baby found his family in the New York City subway." So begins the true story of Kevin and how he found his Daddy Danny and Papa Pete. Written in a direct address to his son, Pete's moving and emotional text tells how his partner, Danny, found a baby tucked away in the corner of a subway station on his way home from work one day. Pete and Danny ended up adopting the baby together. Although neither of them had prepared for the prospect of parenthood, they are reminded, "Where there is love, anything is possible."




The Situation in Flushing


Book Description

Memoir of the author's boyhood in the early 1900's in a small village in southwestern Michigan.




Say Darling


Book Description

A riotous story about an Indiana author who packs up his family and moves 900 miles (by car in a heat wave with four children) to take up residence in Connecticut where he will commute to New York City to work with the team who will transform his book into a musical comedy.




The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition


Book Description

For the first time—and in the best translation ever—the complete Book of Disquiet, a masterpiece beyond comparison The Book of Disquiet is the Portuguese modernist master Fernando Pessoa’s greatest literary achievement. An “autobiography” or “diary” containing exquisite melancholy observations, aphorisms, and ruminations, this classic work grapples with all the eternal questions. Now, for the first time the texts are presented chronologically, in a complete English edition by master translator Margaret Jull Costa. Most of the texts in The Book of Disquiet are written under the semi-heteronym Bernardo Soares, an assistant bookkeeper. This existential masterpiece was first published in Portuguese in 1982, forty-seven years after Pessoa’s death. A monumental literary event, this exciting, new, complete edition spans Fernando Pessoa’s entire writing life.




Before We Were Strangers


Book Description

From the USA TODAY bestselling author of Sweet Thing and Nowhere But Here comes a love story about a Craigslist “missed connection” post that gives two people a second chance at love fifteen years after they were separated in New York City. To the Green-eyed Lovebird: We met fifteen years ago, almost to the day, when I moved my stuff into the NYU dorm room next to yours at Senior House. You called us fast friends. I like to think it was more. We lived on nothing but the excitement of finding ourselves through music (you were obsessed with Jeff Buckley), photography (I couldn’t stop taking pictures of you), hanging out in Washington Square Park, and all the weird things we did to make money. I learned more about myself that year than any other. Yet, somehow, it all fell apart. We lost touch the summer after graduation when I went to South America to work for National Geographic. When I came back, you were gone. A part of me still wonders if I pushed you too hard after the wedding… I didn’t see you again until a month ago. It was a Wednesday. You were rocking back on your heels, balancing on that thick yellow line that runs along the subway platform, waiting for the F train. I didn’t know it was you until it was too late, and then you were gone. Again. You said my name; I saw it on your lips. I tried to will the train to stop, just so I could say hello. After seeing you, all of the youthful feelings and memories came flooding back to me, and now I’ve spent the better part of a month wondering what your life is like. I might be totally out of my mind, but would you like to get a drink with me and catch up on the last decade and a half? M




Breaking Night


Book Description

In the vein of The Glass Castle, Breaking Night is the stunning memoir of a young woman who at age fifteen was living on the streets, and who eventually made it into Harvard. Liz Murray was born to loving but drug-addicted parents in the Bronx. In school she was taunted for her dirty clothing and lice-infested hair, eventually skipping so many classes that she was put into a girls' home. At age fifteen, Liz found herself on the streets. She learned to scrape by, foraging for food and riding subways all night to have a warm place to sleep. When Liz's mother died of AIDS, she decided to take control of her own destiny and go back to high school, often completing her assignments in the hallways and subway stations where she slept. Liz squeezed four years of high school into two, while homeless; won a New York Times scholarship; and made it into the Ivy League. Breaking Night is an unforgettable and beautifully written story of one young woman's indomitable spirit to survive and prevail, against all odds.




Spells & Sleeping Bags


Book Description

The hilariously entertaining third book in the Magic in Manhattan series, following Bras & Broomsticks and Frogs & French Kisses, from the New York Times bestselling author of the Whatever After series! At long last, Rachel's powers have arrived and she's a bona fide get-your-broom-ready witch! And it's happened just in time. No Manhattan for her this summer—she's spending her vacation at Camp Wood Lake. But she's having some serious issues: Mosquitoes in the Adirondacks are incredibly thirsty. Her stepmom keeps sending embarrassing feminine hygiene care packages. She accidentally zapped away all her clothes. And there's a backstabber in her cabin intent on making life miserable. Good thing Rachel's a witch. "Sure to delight" —School Library Journal "Will be eagerly grabbed by fans of Bras & Broomsticks and Frogs & French Kisses . . . plenty of entertaining mishaps." —Booklist