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149th out of 535 books
—
552 voters
New York Diaries: 1609 to 2009
New York is a city like no other. Through the centuries, she’s been embraced and reviled, worshipped and feared, praised and battered—all the while standing at the crossroads of American politics, business, society, and culture. Pulitzer Prize winner and New York Times bestselling author Teresa Carpenter, a lifelong diary enthusiast, scoured the archives of libraries, hist...more
Hardcover, 512 pages
Published
January 3rd 2012
by Modern Library
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First, I have to out myself, I was one of the fact-checkers for this book. But I would have loved New York Diaries in any case. I only got to see the diarists I was checking so I'm reading the book now, luxuriating in all the other entries in the order Teresa Carpenter presents them.
The book is based on a calendar year. On any one day you might see entries from the four centuries Teresa Carpenter researched, and Carpenter picked the best of the best. For instance, April was a lovely spring month...more
The book is based on a calendar year. On any one day you might see entries from the four centuries Teresa Carpenter researched, and Carpenter picked the best of the best. For instance, April was a lovely spring month...more
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"Lately—due to not working and due, too, to observing how much more prestige and authority other people with less ability carry—It seems to me, now that I definitely want rewards during my lifetime, that given a good talent, its recognition and elevation to great are utterly dependent on exploitation and outside funny-business, the personal approach. If someone doesn't do this for you, you must do it yourself." Dawn Powell, 1935 (12)
"Lord, how these films do concern themselves with matter extran...more
"Lord, how these films do concern themselves with matter extran...more
I really wanted to like this book, because it's such a great concept... but honestly, I found it to be kind of boring. I gave it to my dad for his birthday, which was a great choice for him, but probably I should've just left it at that.
May 13
1997
Dreaming of a more civilized place to raise my children, I swerve to avoid a cab that stops short, . . . whereupon a bicyclist calls me a cock and accuses me of trying to kill him. Meaning to explain that I had narrowly averted an accident and to inquir...more
May 13
1997
Dreaming of a more civilized place to raise my children, I swerve to avoid a cab that stops short, . . . whereupon a bicyclist calls me a cock and accuses me of trying to kill him. Meaning to explain that I had narrowly averted an accident and to inquir...more
I really enjoyed this book. It is an ambitious project. I appreciate the enormity of the task of taking diary excerpts from about 166 people, famous and otherwise to chronicle major historical events and the banality of daily life. The book is arranged by date so In the same day entries can be as quotidian as what was for lunch to the beginning of the civil war. It's interesting to read about the fruit trees and hardwood trees suitable for boat making as the Dutch found it in the 17th century. I...more
Going through the year from January 1, the reader is treated to random diary entries by various people who encountered New York City--some residents, some visitors. Most of these were pretty entertaining or apt. I especially liked the English Actor in 1849 who wrote "Let me die in a ditch in England, rather than in the Fifth Avenue of New York City." Obviously not having a good day.
I did feel that the editor was just a little too taken by several of her diarists, especially Judith Malina and Daw...more
I did feel that the editor was just a little too taken by several of her diarists, especially Judith Malina and Daw...more
This would make a great gift for the New Yorker in your life. Diverse diary entries that contain both the best and worst of the city and its inhabitants. The book does a great job of illustrating the tremendous changes in the city over the last 300+ years while making you also feel like New York is virtually unchanged. The struggles of today's residents often mirror those of the people who came before us, whether they were George Washington (incredibly boring diarist), an adolescent girl from 15...more
Didn't make it all the way through this New York Times bestseller. Most intriguing for those of you living in, and intimately acquainted with, New York City. It consists of diary entries starting in 1609, as the title says, and going to 2009. It is arranged like the calendar year, so each successive day is filled with diary entries from a wide range of time periods and persons, some notable, some ordinary citizens. While some threads appear when the same diarist is quoted every few weeks, it is...more
Dec 23, 2011
Kate Childs
added it
Beautiful and compelling book about the stories that make up New York City. As a somewhat recent NYC transplant (three-plus years and counting), I found NEW YORK DIARIES to be fascinating. Walking around New York City is reminder enough of the city’s heritage, but here was a new look into the city that I now called home. Culled from the diaries of some of the most famous (and not so famous) people to walk the streets of New York over the past 400 years, the entries in NEW YORK DIARIES are memora...more
I love reading people's diaries and I love NYC so there was pretty much no option for me other than to really enjoy this book. I appreciated the way that it weaved in entries by well known historical figures with completely unknown people who happen to have written interesting diaries. I love the idea of glimpsing into people's lives and what moves them to write. It was also great motivation to write more in my own diary. I'm never going to reach George Templeton Strong fame if I don't start wri...more
This is not the kind of book that's going to appeal to everybody, but I LOVED it. I'd read a few pages at night, kind of like a book of meditations--often I got sucked in and couldn't put it down after just a few entries (like Lay's potato chips: "bet you can't eat just one...").
The diaries come from visitors and residents of New York over the past four centuries. They include notes by Henry Hudson and other early Dutch explorers, Revolutionary War rebels and Loyalists, politicians, celebrities...more
The diaries come from visitors and residents of New York over the past four centuries. They include notes by Henry Hudson and other early Dutch explorers, Revolutionary War rebels and Loyalists, politicians, celebrities...more
This book is collection of diary entries from people living in NYC. It starts January 1st and goes through to Dec 31, with each date having entries from years ranging from 1609-2009. I would have preferred to read them by year rather than by day. I found the different jumps in time jarring at times. But the collection is still interesting and I always enjoy books that you can open anywhere and start reading.
I really enjoyed the format of this book - diary entries over the past 300+ years, all about New York City, by day. An eclectic mix of writers - from Andy Warhol, to Anais Nin, George Washington, Bella Abzug, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Jack Kerouac, Theodore Roosevelt, Walt Whitman, etc. to many lesser known or unknown diarists. Fascinating, and in the end, a bit much - at times I was enthralled, at times it was blah, blah, blah...too many blahs for my taste, but a nice concept.
This was an interesting premise for a book, but was not all that interesting to read. It was New York City daily diary entries of various people between 1609 and 2009. The more famous people such as President George Washington and TR were of the most interest to me. Most of the rest of them, although informative of the times, were fairly boring and dry reading of diary entries.
I loved the idea of this book: to collect diary entries from different New Yorkers and organize them by calendar days (not years). While the concept is fascinating and I have an abiding love for the city, just being about New York did not give it enough cohesion for me. It ended up seeming like random journal entries strung together and therefore unevenly interesting.
Spanning the course of four centuries, from 1609 to 2009, Teresa Carpenter's "New York Diaries" is a fascinating look into the history of a city as dynamic as its diarists. Whether they're praising or tearing it down, their individual and honest experiences capture the complete evolution of what we've come to know as New York. Although the pre-1880 entries bored me (sometimes I didn't even know what it was referring to) the rest were very entertaining!
I really wanted to like this singular book of days covering four hundred years in the life of New York City. And yet...it was a drag. The layout was fascinating—starting on January 1, and a crapshoot as to what year you'll read from on every subsequent day—but too often I skipped ahead to the end of an entry to see who the author was. It was too easy to avoid entries from people who just weren't that interesting, and despite the list of dramatis personae at the end, I still had little grasp as t...more
Facinating way to study the city - diary excerpts organized by time. Some might find the short entries uninteresting but I enjoyed the snippets of everyday thoughts. Left me wishing I could find out what happened to some of the people in the book. A few had published biographies but most were taken from unpublished diaries and papers.
Started it but could not/did not finish it. It just seemed very choppy, no unity or flow to it. If you want to see how something like this can be done, though in fiction, take a look at Skinny Island, by Louis Auchincloss. This book will not make anyone forget "Here Is New York" or Guys and Dolls for getting the flavor of NYC.
Four centuries of diaries culled from archives and private collections.
Four centuries of history as experienced by individuals.
Four centuries of New York perspectives.
Very Interesting!
Four centuries of history as experienced by individuals.
Four centuries of New York perspectives.
Very Interesting!
Largehearted WORD Books of the Week, Dec. 12, 2012: http://www.largeheartedboy.com/blog/a...
Enticing review from NYT.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/boo...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/boo...
Just seeing Jack Kerouac's diary entry here makes me want to buy this book. For Christmas:)
A delight, from the gorgeous cover to the elegant page design (yes, I notice things like that...)to the superbly curated entries. Such fun to wander around through two centuries of NYC history, through small details from daily lives.
This was brilliant. I loved the way the entries were set up and I loved the ordered randomness of having entries from all different centuries in such a short time. I already love NYC beyond measure and this only gave that love a boost.
Oct 24, 2012
Megan
marked it as to-read
Read also review from Brainpickings blog
This book is RIGHT up my alley.
There are some real gems in here (Teddy Roosevelt's adoration of his first wife, for example) but I would have liked it to be a bit more focused -- social history, military history, etc. Also, the idea of listing all the diary entries by day (starting with January 1) is interesting but didn't really pan out for me -- plus, there are some stories I was following that were all out of order by year. Still, worth picking up for fans of diaries and NYC -- but skip around and read the stuff that inter...more
I loved the diary entrees. The range of timeline and authors is impressive. From George Washington to Andy Warhol. A great book for any lovers of the Big Apple.
I downgraded this book from five stars to four as there were moments that the interest flagged or waned. However, the diary entries do take slices from a wide range of authors, with their own unique visions and versions of life in and around New York City. This book is best read in bits and pieces, not as a straight run-through. The short bios of the diarists at the end of the volume are useful while reading.
974.71 N53276 2012
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Teresa Carpenter is the author of four books, including the bestselling Missing Beauty. She is a former senior editor of the Village Voice, where her articles on crime and the law won a Pulitzer Prize. She lives in Greenwich Village with husband Steven Levy, a senior writer...more
More about Teresa Carpenter...
Teresa Carpenter is the author of four books, including the bestselling Missing Beauty. She is a former senior editor of the Village Voice, where her articles on crime and the law won a Pulitzer Prize. She lives in Greenwich Village with husband Steven Levy, a senior writer...more
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