Reading about New York

I love the idea for this group. I don't have the time to pursue all 50 myself, but I'm delighted that somebody has had the idea to put this list together.

I'm going to let somebody else take a stab at the infinite universe of books set in and around New York City, and limit myself to a few 'upstate' New York State titles (...and I'm sure I'll be back as more occur to me...).

Drums Along the Mohawk
James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans

Richard Russo's Mohawk and Empire Falls.

Now I have to go brood about the non-fiction.

Here are some recommendations:

The Alienist by Caleb Carr

The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr

Sleepless Nights by Elizabeth Hardwick

Slaves of New York by Tama Janowitz

Books by Edith Wharton

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving

For more "upstate/non-NYC" books:

Top pick: Fool on the Hill by Matt Ruff - it's modern/urban fantasy set at Cornell University in Ithaca; involves a battle of the humans, the dogs, and the invisible sprites who live around campus against Rasferret the Grub, his army of rats, and the various things he brings to life (Mack trucks, mannequins, the Dragon Day dragon). Lots of fun.

Snakebite Sonnet by Max Phillips is also at least partially set in Ithaca; not the best book ever, but an enjoyable enough story of childhood love grown up.

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George is set in the Catskills.

fyrefly98 - I'll second the Fool on the Hill.

The top New York-ish non-fiction I've read lately is Wedding of the Waters: The Erie Canal and the Making of a Great Nation.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is one of my all time favorite reads. Here is a review from Amazon.com:

Francie Nolan, avid reader, penny-candy connoisseur, and adroit observer of human nature, has much to ponder in colorful, turn-of-the-century Brooklyn. She grows up with a sweet, tragic father, a severely realistic mother, and an aunt who gives her love too freely--to men, and to a brother who will always be the favored child. Francie learns early the meaning of hunger and the value of a penny. She is her father's child--romantic and hungry for beauty. But she is her mother's child, too--deeply practical and in constant need of truth. Like the Tree of Heaven that grows out of cement or through cellar gratings, resourceful Francie struggles against all odds to survive and thrive.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is an adorable book. I must re-read it soon.

The Saturdays is a lovely children's book; I can't recall if the sequels (when they move from NYC to the country) are set in NY state or elsewhere.

Farmer Boy (going back to my Little House obsession) is set in Malone, NY, and is Almanzo's childhood story.

Some non-fiction recommendations:

Hélène Hanff's Apple of My Eye (this one caused me to bust out crying in public - you can read my review to see why).

Also, E.B. White's This is New York and William Beebe's Unseen Life of New York as a Naturalist Sees It. And I can't fail to mention Wise Men Fish Here, about Frances Steloff and the Gotham Book Mart!

Like As_You_Know_Bob, I hesitate to start thinking about all the fiction set in New York City, but if you like mysteries, those by Lawrence Block give a very good feel for the city as it is today, and those by Maan Meyers (the husband/wife team of Martin and Annette Meyers) provide an historical perspective.

The Island at the Center of the World by Russell Shorto is a very readable story of the early Dutch history of Manhattan.

Paul Auster is a NY based author. I've read two works by him- one I really loved, one I really didn't care for.

And then there's Bonfire of the Vanities (touchstone not loading) by Tom Wolfe which I loved when it came out (it does give a great picture of 80s NYC), but which I think would seem dated now.

Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem

>1 AsYouKnow_Bob: ... Empire Falls is set in Maine, but I believe Richard Russo's Nobody's Fool is set in New York.

Julia Spencer-Fleming's mysteries are set in New York ... In the Bleak Midwinter, A Fountain Filled with Blood, Out of the Deep I Cry, To Darkness and To Death, and All Mortal Flesh.

A seasonal suggestion: Miracle on 34th Street.

There's the classic time-travel story featuring Central Park, the Dakota, etc: Time and Again.

Who wrote the books about Eloise at (was it?) the Plaza? And another favorite from childhood: The Little Red Lighthouse and the Great Gray Bridge.

And how about Arsenic and Old Lace? I have a copy somewhere.

Has anyone mentioned Ed Mcbain's 87th precinct novels, set in a fictional NYC?

Who wrote the books about Eloise at (was it?) the Plaza?

Yes it was the Plaza and it was Kay Thompson and we had a lovely time only Skipperdee got lost under the tree but Weenie found him and almost ate him! And then we rollerskated down the hall for ice cream.

(Grin) Thanks, lilithcat.

My choices for fiction and non-fiction highlighting New York City are both by Pete Hamill: Downtown; My Manhattan for non-fiction, and Forever: a novel.
If you like amateur sleuthing, try to get your hands on some of the old Frances & Richard Lockridge mysteries; the Mr. and Mrs. North series are set mainly in the New York City of the 1940's; the Captain Heimrich series takes place in suburban New York State-Putnam and Westchester Counties.

A Fan's Notes by Frederick Exley
Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
William Kotzwinkle's The Fan Man takes place in a wonderfully imagined 1960's East Village

an obvious choice, but essential: The Great Gatsby

How about one of my all-time favorites, Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin, which features upstate New York, as well as NYC?

Also, E. L. Doctorow's World's Fair and The Waterworks.

Something Happened and The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit are both literary works centered around upper-/middle-class, white, commuter familymen working in Manhattan from Connecticut in the years after the Second World War--classic image, I think. Shows the social structure and preoccupations of the time very well.

I fell in love with 19th century New York City culture after Jack Finney's Time And Again, and it lead me to read the non-fiction Upper West Side Story, which is an historical account of the buildings, street, and people of the UWS.

In reference to the first message:

Didn't Russo's Book Empire Falls take place in Maine?

Some other books that I recall that take place in NYC

Relic & Reliquary by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. They go on to write a whole series based on the FBI agent featured in those two books. The agent travels all over but still returns often to NYC.

Step on a Crack by James Patterson

The Contest by Matthew Rielly

The following book covers both Upstate and NYC (though a bit more towards the former in terms of actual "setting") during the inter-war period:

Heir to the glimmering world by Cynthia Ozick.

Two of the recent Joyce Carol Oates' novels, Rape a Love Story and The Gravedigger's Daughter are set in upstate New York in the Buffalo area.

Herbert Asbury's rollicking The Gangs of New York is an absolute must.

The Big Oyster is about NYC's historic oyster population and includes recipes etc. An interesting tidbit and some food for thought.

Just finished Island of Tears by Troy Soos. The novel is set at the time of the opening of Ellis Island, and deals with crime, official & police corruption, and the plight of newly-arrived immigrants.

How about John Gardner's books -- The Sunlight Dialogues set in Batavia, NY and Nickel Mountain set in the Catskills -- and T.C. Boyle's story, "Greasy Lake" is classic upstate NY. Then there's Daddy Long Legs by Jean Webster, an early 20th c YA novel set in Chautauqua county.

Recently finished a YA book called Speak set near Syracuse. Listing it here as the weather and scenery play a role in the story.

Though rebeccanyc's beaten me to listing Russell Shorto's The Island at the Center of the World, it's far from the only history book about New York City -- let alone the state as a whole.

While a particular event, rather than the city/state's history, is the main focus, David von Drehle's Triangle is a good account of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. Just keep in mind that once you get to part about the fire, you'll want to avoid reading it over lunch.

I am about to start reading The Hudson: A History by Tom Lewis and will report back when I finish it.

Just finished Kaaterskill Falls, which is set in a small community in the eastern Catskills (not resort areas), and in Washington Heights (upper Manhattan). Excellent.

Hocus Pocus is set in upstate New York. Not my favorite Vonnegut but it had it's moments. Had some of the same "everything's gone to hell" atmosphere that Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five had. The text was broken up into sections of really odd length and all the numbers were shown in numerals rather than spelled out, which was actually somewhat more disconcerting than expected.

I thought of another one - Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates, a great novel that takes place in the NYC suburbs and Manhattan.

I recently found out Revolutionary Road is being made into a movie with Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet. It's hard for me to see this novel as a movie at all, but that casting certainly doesn't help.

The Natural History of uncas Metcalfe by Betsey Osborne is set in central New York, in one of those small towns up there. It's really good with the setting.

And as for Manhattan and everything around there, almost anything by J.D. Salinger.

One more (that I have loaned out and only recently entered) is David McCullough's The Great Bridge.

Beautiful Lies by Lisa Unger takes place mainly in the Villiage of New York City

I recently found an old favorite, The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope, a novel that takes place near Goshen, Orange County, New York and focuses on events in the American Revolution.

The book has a charming set of family ghosts, an old house, and an appealing storyline connecting the 18th and mid-20th century.

The Submission is a great new one. There are just so many! Here's a comprehensive list with both books and authors...

http://avidreader25.blogspot.com/2012/08/reading-states-new-york.html