20 (More) New Books for New York, New York

As soon as I finished compiling a list of books for the post, Required City Reading: 25 New Books for New York, New York, published in early November, many more titles presented themselves. Some were published later, but other notable books appeared earlier in the year. A few came out in 2009, but the paperback is now available. As with the former list, these are titles that involve New York as a prominent setting.

• Thomas Kramer, New York in Postcards 1880:1980: The Andreas Adam Collection (Scheidegger & Spiess; University of Chicago Press, October 2010). The 900 postcards, culled from an enormous personal collection, reveal historical changes, lost landmarks, and the modern cultural history of New York, from one style and art movement to another.

• Norval White, Elliot Willensky, and Fran Leadon, AIA Guide to New York City (Oxford, June 2010). The most indispensable guide to New York architecture, frequently cited on these pages, is now significantly updated to include new buildings and new thoughts on old buildings. Witty, opinionated and educational, required reading for anyone interested in the built environment of New York.

• The Staff of the New York Historical Society Library, When Did the Statue of Liberty Turn Green?: And 101 Other Questions About New York City. (Columbia University Press, September 2010). FAQs to the Library's staff and their answers. Humorous and informative urban history.

• Reuel Golden, NEW YORK: Portrait of a City (Taschen, September 2010). Coffee table book with 600 pictures by famous photographers and from several archives of the metropolis from 19th century days to the present.

• James Sturm and Brandon Elston, editors, Denys Wortman's New York: Portrait of the City in the 30s and 40s (Drawn and Quarterly, November 2010). Cartoonist Wortman is not well-known, but these vivid drawings of vintage New York are worth a full appreciation,

• Danielle Trussoni, Angelology. (Viking, March 2010). The story centers on fallen and bad angels, some of them living in Manhattan. When you're tired of vampires and zombies, try bad angels cavorting with the Rockefellers.

• Kenneth T. Jackson, editor, The Encyclopedia of New York City: Second Edition (Yale, December 2010). Epic work on the city includes 800 new entries. Its 1,584 pages address most all the questions about the city. With 700 illustrations, too.

• Mosette Broderick, Triumvirate: McKim, Mead & White: Art, Architecture, Scandal, and Class in America's Gilded Age (Knopf, October 2010) A new story and analysis of the one of the most influential architecture firms of the turn of the century, with emphasis on the differences among the three. The scandal mentioned in that title belongs to Stanford White.

• Larry Stempel, Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater (W.W. Norton & Company, September 2010). Beginning with the Astor Place Opera House riot of 1849, Stempel traces the evolution of one of America's best-known art forms, while illuminating the themes of the most important musicals. A hefty tome with 826 pages.

• Jazz: Herman Leonard (Bloomsbury, October 2010). Photographer Leonard opened a studio in Greenwich Village the the years following WWII, a golden age for the neighborhood and for its jazz scene. HIs images of Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Billie Holiday, and more have become the iconic images associated with the jazz greats.

• Patti Smith, Just Kids (Ecco/HarperColllins, November 2010, paper) Now in paperback, the memoir by rock legend Smith has won a National Book Award. Here's the New York of Hotel Chelsea, the punk scene, William Burroughs, and most of all, a friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

• Edmund White, City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s and 20s (Bloomsbury, September 2010). Now in paperback, novelist White's account of his move to Manhattan in 1962, encountering a changing gay culture, the city's literati, and his own literary ambitions.

• Jim Carroll, The Petting Zoo (Viking, November 2010). A posthumous novel from the writer best known for The Basketball Diaries centers on the story of a painter's emotional breakdown. The famous artist's first meltdown occurs in the Central Park's petting zoo. A visit from a raven will soon follow.

• Sam Wesson, Fifth Avenue, 5 a.m.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman (Harper Studio, June 2010). A social history of the making of a quintessential movie associated with glamorous New York. The film's director, Blake Edwards, passed away this week. (Walking Off the Big Apple's take on Capote's version of Holly Golightly appears here.)

• Amanda Hesser, Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century (Norton, October 2010). Those with the old Craig Claiborne New York Times Cookbook will get a whole new experience with this volume, though Claiborne appears, too. This is one ambitious cookbook, as much fun to read in the living room as in the kitchen.

• Vivian Cherry's New York (powerHouse Books, November 2010). Fifty years of surprising photographs of New Yorkers. Sometimes, it's one thing to shoot New York scenes, and a whole other thing to capture the people who live here. Cherry, a former dancer, knows how people react to their spaces.

• Alphaville: 1988, Crime, Punishment, and the Battle for New York City's Lower East Side by Michael Codella and Bruce Bennett (Thomas Dunne Books, November 2010). Back in the 1980s, the drug trade often made life difficult for longtime residents on the Lower East Side. Codella, a retired NYPD detective sergeant, writes a noir-ish account of the battle for the neighborhood.

• Patrice Farame, editor, AAD New York: Art Architecture Design (teNeues, November 2010). Great-looking guide to art, museums, art galleries, and architectural landmarks, listing the must-see stops for NYC cultural travelers.

• Phoebe Hoban, Alice Neel: The Art of Not Sitting Pretty (St. Martin's Press, December 2010). Artist Neel (1900-1984), best known for her uncompromising portraiture, is a good subject for Hoban's smart gaze. A 2007 documentary made by her grandson and a 2010 retrospective in Houston have sustained an interest Neel's art, politics, and personal life.

• Debbie Macomber, Call Me Mrs. Miracle (Mira, September 2010). Set in the only independent family department store left in New York, on 34th Street no less, the story involves greed and poverty and holiday wishes. Suitable for those who like Hallmark specials and tales described as "heart-warming."

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A New York Spring Calendar: Blooming Times and Seasonal Events

See the UPDATED 2018 CALENDAR HERE . Updated for 2017 . At this time of year, thoughts turn to spring. Let's spring forward to blooming times, the best locations for witnessing spring's beginnings, and springtime events in the big city. While the occasional snow could blow through the city, we're just weeks now from callery pears in bloom and opening day at the ballpark. In The Ramble, Central Park. mid-April Blooming Times • Central Park Conservancy's website lists blooming times within the park. During the month of March we begin to see crocus, daffodils, forsythia, snowdrops, witch-hazel, and hellebores. Species tulips will emerge in several places, but the Shakespeare Garden and Conservatory Garden are particularly good places to catch the beginning of Spring blooms. Central Park near E. 72nd St., saucer magnolia, typically end of March. • Citywide Blooming Calendar from New York City Department of Parks & Recreation April is u

Museums in New York Open on Mondays

Please see this post for current announcements of reopenings . Please consult the museum websites for changes in days and hours. UPDATED September 23, 2020 Advance tickets required for many museum reopenings. Please check museum websites for details. • The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) reopened to the public on August 27 , with new hours for the first month, through September 27: from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday to the public; and from 10:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. on Mondays for MoMA members on ly. Admission will be free to all visitors Tuesday through Sunday, through September 27, made possible by UNIQLO. See this new post on WOTBA for a sense of the experience attending the museum . • New-York Historical Society reopened on August 14 with an outdoor exhibition, "Hope Wanted: New York City Under Quarantine,” in the rear courtyard. The exhibit by activist Kevin Powell and photographer Kay Hickman will highlight how New Yorkers weathered the quarantine

25 Things To Do Near the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)

(updated 2016) The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) at 11 W. 53rd Street is near many other New York City attractions, so before or after a trip to the museum, a short walk in any direction could easily take in additional experiences. Drawing a square on a map with the museum at the center, a shape bounded by 58th Street to the north and 48th Street to the south, with 7th Avenue to the west and Park Avenue to the east, proves the point of the area's cultural richness. (A map follows the list below.) While well-known sightseeing stops fall with these boundaries, most notably Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the great swath of famous Fifth Avenue stores, cultural visitors may also want to check out places such as the Austrian Cultural Forum, the 57th Street galleries, the Onassis Cultural Center, and the Municipal Art Society. The image above shows an intriguing glimpse of the tops of two Beaux-Arts buildings through an opening of the wall inside MoMA's scu

25 Things to Do Near the American Museum of Natural History

After visiting the American Museum of Natural History, explore attractions on the Upper West Side or in Central Park. Visitors to New York often run around from one major tourist site to the next, sometimes from one side of the city to the other, and in the process, exhaust themselves thoroughly. Ambitious itineraries often include something like coffee in the Village in the morning, lunch near MoMA, a couple of hours in the museum, a ride on the Staten Island Ferry in the afternoon, cocktails at the midtown hotel, a quick dinner, and then a Broadway show. It's a wonder people don't pass out at the theater. While sitting on the steps of the American Museum of History, consider exploring the Upper West Side and nearby sites of interest in Central Park. There's a better way to plan a New York trip. Consider grouping attractions together geographically. Several posts on this site address this recommended approach. The Wild West of the Tecumseh Playground Groupin

The High Line and Chelsea Market: A Good Pairing for a Walk

(revised 2017) The advent of spring, with its signs of growth and rebirth, is apparent both on the High Line , where volunteers are cutting away the old growth to reveal fresh blooms, and inside the Chelsea Market, where new tenants are revitalizing the space. A walk to take in both can become an exploration of bounty and surprise, a sensual walk of adventure and sustenance. A good pairing for a walk: The High Line and Chelsea Market Walking the High Line for a round trip from Gansevoort to W. 30th and then back again adds up to a healthy 2-mile walk. Regular walkers of the elevated park look for an excuse to go there. Especially delightful is showing off the park, a model of its kind, to visitors from out of town. A stroll through Chelsea Market. Time check. If you haven't stopped into Chelsea Market lately, you may want to take a detour from the High Line at the stairs on W. 16th St. and walk through the market for a quick assessment or a sampling. Among the sampli

25 Things to Do Near the Metropolitan Museum of Art

(updated) Sitting on the steps in front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of those iconic things to do in New York City. On a sunny day, the wide steps can become crowded with the young and old, the tourist and the resident. It's tempting to stay awhile and soak in the sun and the sights. Everyone has reasons for lingering there, with one being the shared pleasure of people watching along this expansive stretch of Fifth Avenue, a painting come to life. Certainly, just getting off one's feet for a moment is welcome, especially if the previous hours involved walking through the entirety of art history from prehistoric to the contemporary. The entrance to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue The Metropolitan Museum of Art should be a singular pilgrimage, uninterrupted by feeble attempts to take in more exhibitions along Museum Mile. Pity the poor visitor who tries "to do" multiple museum exhibitions in one day, albeit ambitious, noble, and uplift

Taking a Constitutional Walk

A long time ago individuals going out for a walk, especially to get fresh air and exercise, often referred to the activity as "taking a constitutional walk." The word "constitutional" refers to one's constitution or physical makeup, so a constitutional walk was considered beneficial to one's overall wellbeing. (Or, as some would prefer to call it, "wellness.") The phrase is more common in British literature than in American letters. As early as the mid-nineteenth century, many American commentators expressed concern that their countrymen were falling into lazy and unhealthy habits. Newspaper columnists and editorial writers urged their readers to take up the practice of the "constitutional" walk. One such essay, " Walking as an Exercise," originally printed in the Philadelphia Gazette and reprinted in New England Farmer , Volume 11, 1859, urges the people of farm areas to take up walking. City dwellers seemed to have the

Introducing Birds of Inwood

Introducing a New Website It's been a moment since I posted last. Please forgive me. I have been in the forest down the street. After spending many of my leisure hours taking photographs of birds in my local neighborhood of Inwood, I am introducing to you a new website featuring these beautiful and often enigmatic creatures. It's called Birds of Inwood . As I write there, "Inwood is my Amherst." With time, my advancing age, and the pandemic, I have learned to find depth and beauty in places close to home. I have also found to my delight that designing a new website presents great opportunities. Birds of Inwood is pretty flashy! The birds are even larger than life on these new pages! Please visit. You'll be glad I didn't call it "Flying Off the Big Apple." Check out my forest home. - Teri

14 Useful Mobile Apps for Walking New York City

Texting and walking at the same time is wrong. Talking on the phone while strolling down the street is wrong. Leaving the sidewalk to stop and consult the information on a cellphone, preferably while alone, is OK. What's on Walking Off the Big Apple's iPhone: A List Walkmeter GPS Walking Stopwatch for Fitness and Weight Loss . While out walking, Walkmeter tracks routes, time, speed, and elevation. This is an excellent app for recording improvised or impromptu strolls, especially with many unplanned detours. The GPS function maps out the actual route. The app keeps a running tally of calories burned while walking, useful for weight loss goals. Another welcome feature is the ability to switch over to other modes of activity, including cycling. An indispensable app for city walkers. $4.99 New York City Compass , designed by Francesco Bertelli, is an elegant compass calibrated for Manhattan, with indications for Uptown, East Side, Downtown, and West Side. While facing a cert

Visiting New York on a Monday

Mondays are OK. Let's have a look at some of the museums open Mondays - • American Museum of Natural History • Jewish Museum • Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) • National Museum of the American Indian • Neue Galerie • Guggenheim Museum • South Street Seaport Museum Any of these museums could be paired with a nearby restaurant or bar, making a complete full afternoon or day in New York. Monday is especially good for a museum visit, because the crowds tend to be thinner, and restaurants, too, tend to be less busy than on a weekend. A fun museum and bistro walk on the Upper West Side would be a combination of the American Museum of Natural History and the nearby Cafe Lalo on W. 83rd St. I also would suggest a pairing of the Neue Galerie with a nearby cafe, but the two cafes inside the musuem are so good, why go anywhere else? Image above: The Guggenheim on left and Beaux-Arts townhouse on right. View from E. 88th St. by Walking Off the Big Apple.

Walking Off the Big Apple

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