The best books about New York City

Who was Annie Londonderry? She captured the popular imagination with her daring 'round the world trip on two wheels. It was, declared The New York World in October of 1895, "the most extraordinary journey ever undertaken by a woman."

But beyond the headlines, Londonderry was really Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, a young, Jewish mother of three small children, who climbed onto a 42-pound Columbia bicycle and pedaled away into history. Reportedly set in motion by a wager between two wealthy Boston merchants, the bet required Annie not only to circle the earth by bicycle in 15 months but to earn $5,000 en route, as well. This was no mere test of a woman's physical endurance and mental fortitude; it was a test of a woman's ability to fend for herself in the world.

I was a member of the first class of Sesame Street graduates—kids who were preschoolers in November 1969, when the program premiered. The further away I got from this formative era, the more I realized that it was a unique time in which childhood and children’s television were completely reinvented. Programs such as Sesame Street, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, The Electric Company, Schoolhouse Rock!, Zoom, and Free to Be... You and Me weren’t just TV shows. Together, they constituted a social movement. They respected the emotional intelligence and interior lives of children.

Sunny Days is my attempt to capture this era with joy, humor, and a suggestion that we can hit such noble heights again.

My book tells the story of the fight to rebuild the WTC site, from days after the Twin Towers collapsed, in September 2001, to the opening of the memorial on the 10 year anniversary of the attacks. It’s a portrait of clashing voices, belonging to victims’ families, local residents, wealthy leaseholders, first responders, and designers, among others, all of whom felt an intense sense of ownership over this sixteen-acre piece of land. For a moment, and due to extraordinary events, the city's most powerful people had to answer to an aggrieved public about the land’s future. My book chronicles the messy compromises and bitter feuds that followed—and that ultimately remade Lower Manhattan.

I maintain that those in power have not taken the initiative to stop police brutality. Instead, the victims of police brutality have embarked on a crusade to stop police domination of black people. Groups that have not received enough attention have led the campaign to end police abuse.

Fight the Power looks at the efforts of the black press, especially the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Jr.’s the People’s Voice, in the struggle to end police brutality. I argue that at the heart of police brutality is the amount of power police have over citizens, thus, reform measures, such as racial sensitivity training, diversity training, body cameras, and community policing will not work. A sure way of eliminating police brutality is to reduce the power of the police and to find ways to allow citizens to determine how police operate in their communities

I’ve taught nineteenth-century African American literature classes for years. Much of what shows up on college courses dedicated to this subject are narratives of slavery and suffering. While slave narratives are undoubtedly necessary reading, my students asked for other stories to read as well: chronicles of Black aspiration, resilience, and professional success. My book, Educated for Freedom is one such story. 

In the 1820s, few Americans could imagine a viable future for black children. Even abolitionists saw just two options for African American youth: permanent subjection or exile. Educated for Freedom tells the story of James McCune Smith and Henry Highland Garnet, two black children who came of age and into freedom as their country struggled to grow from a slave nation into a free country.

I’ve taught nineteenth-century African American literature classes for years. Much of what shows up on college courses dedicated to this subject are narratives of slavery and suffering. While slave narratives are undoubtedly necessary reading, my students asked for other stories to read as well: chronicles of Black aspiration, resilience, and professional success. My book, Educated for Freedom is one such story. 

In the 1820s, few Americans could imagine a viable future for black children. Even abolitionists saw just two options for African American youth: permanent subjection or exile. Educated for Freedom tells the story of James McCune Smith and Henry Highland Garnet, two black children who came of age and into freedom as their country struggled to grow from a slave nation into a free country.

In March 2020, the usually crowded streets of Midtown Manhattan were empty, stores were closing, people were afraid to go out. But homeless people were still on the streets, cold and very hungry, and much less able to panhandle in the deserted city. 

Unable to ignore their suffering, the author and her husband started walking the empty streets in their neighborhood, handing out food to the men and women they met. As they showed up, trust replaced the fear and suspicion that had existed within them, as well as within the homeless people they befriended. They listened as the homeless revealed their daily struggles living on the streets, as well as the details that had led to their homelessness. 

George Scialabba is a prolific critic and essayist known for his incisive, wide-ranging commentary on literature, philosophy, religion, and politics. He is also, like millions of others, a lifelong sufferer from clinical depression.

In How To Be Depressed, Scialabba presents an edited selection of his mental health records spanning decades of treatment, framed by an introduction and an interview with renowned podcaster Christopher Lydon. The book also includes a wry and ruminative collection of "tips for the depressed," organized into something like a glossary of terms—among which are the names of numerous medications he has tried or researched over the years. Together, these texts form an unusual, searching, and poignant hybrid of essay and memoir, inviting readers into the hospital and the therapy office as Scialabba and his caregivers try to make sense of this baffling disease.

Cora Saros is determined to join the family business—theft and intergalactic smuggling—but she's a total disaster. After landing in prison following a heist gone wrong, she strikes a bargain with the warden: He'll expunge her record if she brings back an ancient treasure rumored to grant immortality. 

Skeptical but out of options, Cora assembles a crew from her collection of misfit cellmates—a disgraced alien warrior; a cocky pirate without a ship; and a glitching culinary robot—and takes off after the fabled prize. But the ragtag group soon discovers that not only is the mysterious treasure very real, but they're also not the only crew on the hunt for it. And it's definitely a prize worth killing for.