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Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul 84 reviews
Karen Abbott
Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2008
Something Different but Wonderful
I love to read non-fiction historical books. Often, however, I find they can be bias or dull. "Sin in the Second City" was neither. Karen Abbott offers a broad and informative look into the under-belly of Chicago at the beginning of the 20th century. She paints an exciting picture of the Everleigh sisters, their "club," opposition and other interesting characters.
While I don't want to give ...
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Dark City: A Novel (Dark City)476 reviews
Frank Lauria (Adapter), Lem Dobbs, ...
St. Martin's Press, 1997
The Definitive Version?
The main criticism I had about the original DVD release of this movie was the opening voiceover, which I felt was unnecessary and contained major 'spoilers'. It now transpires that this was added at the insistence of the studio who did not trust the audience to have the wit or patience to follow the story as it unfolds.
Thankfully, this new version omits the voiceover and adds a few other minor ...
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The Death and Life of Great American Cities (Modern Library Series) 64 reviews
Modern Library, 1993
Great read
I bought this book as a required reading for school. It was very easy to read and covered many interesting topics. I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in learning more about the urban environment.
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Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone (Vintage)153 reviews
Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Vintage, 2007
A damning indictment
Since I lived for a year in Baghdad's Green Zone, I felt it was necessary for me to read what happened before I got there, under L. Paul Bremer, bureaucrat extraordinaire. That is why I recently found myself reading Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.
To say that the Bush Administration and its chosen Iraq occupation overlords made poor choices during and immediately ...
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The City of Ember (Books of Ember)397 reviews
Jeanne Duprau
Yearling, 2008
Not exactly my reading level, but...
I was 21 when I read this last summer, but, despite the the 9-12 reading level, I loved it. I spent a month out of the country and was desperate for a book to read by the pool. The City of Ember was so much more than just something to pass the time. I actually found it very entrancing and endearing. I highly recommend this book to anyone of any age.
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A Tale of Two Cities (Penguin Classics) 52 reviews
Charles Dickens
Penguin Classics, 2003
Rewarding
Some honest disclosures. My strongest academic credentials relevant to literary criticism are that I minored in English. I have never been a "student" of Dickens. I enjoy Shakespeare plays in the same manner that I enjoy analyzing baseball games: I always get the point and relish in the general purpose of the production, but there are finer nuances that are beyond me and most of the people ...
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City of Thieves: A Novel41 reviews
David Benioff
Viking Adult, 2008
An Amazing Story
This book was amazing. The siege of Leningrad took over 900 days before it was finally broken. The war in the east is much neglected here in the USA, but as desperate as it was, the war in the west was nothing as brutal or costly as the war in Russia. The numbers speak for themselves. In the west, there is a dearth of lore about the eastern front. This book provides a day to day account of ...
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City of God (Penguin Classics)38 reviews
Augustine of Hippo
Penguin Classics, 2004
Tough going, but worth it
It took me about five months of off-and-on reading to slog through City of God--it was time well-spent. Here is one of the rare 1000-page books that not only deserved its length, but could have been longer.
What astounded me about reading St. Augustine was how relevant he is, even after 1600 years. The vast majority of what he discusses throughout this monumental book still matters--only the ...
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Sex and the City40 reviews
Amy Sohn
Collins Living, 2008
Great movie Great book
Hi, I bought this book one month ago and in my opinion there is only a word to describe it: Great!
I suggest you to buy it... if you love "Sex and The City" you will love this book.
Monica from Rome (Italy)
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The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America759 reviews
Erik Larson
Vintage, 2004
magical
not many books transport you to a time of great changes like this one does. for the too brief of period I have lived in the book I have lived the rise of a nation and the dawn of great evil and vision. wonderfull depictions, great people and amzing time.
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City of Ashes (Mortal Instruments)37 reviews
Cassandra Clare
Margaret K. McElderry, 2008
The Compulsive Reader's Reviews
The past few weeks have been hectic for Clary Fray to say the least, and they only seem to get even more so in the sequel to Cassandra Clare's popular debut City of Bones. Clary's mother still hasn't awoken from her strange sleep induced by Jace and Clary's father, Valentine, and Jace is having troubles coming to terms with his true parentage.
Things only get more complicated when an ...
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City at the End of Time 8 reviews
Greg Bear
Del Rey, 2008
AWESOME BOOK!!! But Not For Everyone
I just finished reading Greg Bear's "City At The End Of Time." It was a real page turner for me. I can understand why others would see him dipping into fantasy and all these things, but I just don't agree. Since no one really knows what happened BEFORE the universe came into being, any interpretation is as good as any other.
This book is for people who love sci-fi, and like it stuffed full ...
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The Image of the City4 reviews
Kevin Lynch
The MIT Press, 1960
The psychology of urban designs
This book describes mental maps obtained from residents in several cities such as Boston, Los Angeles and Jersey City. The mental maps were materialized on paper through an interview process and combined with maps from many individuals. And the results are surprising. Each map is a composite image of the city (and hence, the book's title) that reveals not only the character of the place, ...
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A Tale of Two Cities (Dover Thrift Editions)380 reviews
Charles Dickens
Dover Publications, 1998
Dickens made a believer out of me.
Dickens does a superb job in conveying how insensitivity of careless brute can meet pitiless vengence.
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Sex and the City203 reviews
Candace Bushnell
Grand Central Publishing, 2006
Carrie Fever
I'm an absolute Sex and the City nut. Been addicted to the show for years. Happy to finaly have the book it all come from.
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Invisible Cities86 reviews
Italo Calvino
Harvest Books, 1978
Reads like poetry
A ruler of an empire so vast he has never seen most of it, and a foreign traveler who describes for him the cities he has visited. The narrative voice is poetic, even nostalgic, and the story derives from a conversation between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo, a conversation which is interrupted by a series of vignettes describing the many fantastical cities that Marco Polo has seen, dreamed of, or ...
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The City Reader (Urban Reader Series)3 reviews
LeGates/Stout
Routledge, 2007
The Best Intro to Urban Planning I've Ever Read
As a first year Urban Planner, this book was on the required readings list for our course. This book gave me the edge to all my fellow students because it provided a detailed sample through a historical and progressive manner. It provides the fundamentals of the great thinkers in Urban Planning. It also covered and introduced me to further research on areas such as design and sociology, ...
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City of Refuge: A Novel37 reviews
Tom Piazza
Harper, 2008
Will Make You Pause and Think
I've never set foot in New Orleans in my life and live about 2,000 miles away. Yet, like many people I spent a lot of time in front of a television three years ago watching what unfolded with Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent breech of the levies and disaster that hit the city.
I remember that I often had asked "Why?" during that time. Such as, "Why didn't those people get out?" Another ...
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A Tale of Two Cities: 150th Anniversary (Signet Classics)
Charles Dickens
Signet Classics, 2007
150TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION With dramatic eloquence, this story of the French Revolution brings to life a time of terror and treason, and a starving people rising in frenzy and hate to overthrow a corrupt and decadent regime.
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Bright Lights, Big City94 reviews
Jay Mcinerney
Vintage, 1984
Much before the loss of the innocence
Jay McInerney's funny and smart debut "Bright Lights, Big City" was published about 25 years ago. The current Vintage Contemporary edition features in its cover a drawing of a men entering the Odeon and the Twin Towers in the background - as if we all needed to remember this was a book written much before the loss of the innocence.
The set is New York in the middle 1980s, when AIDS wasn't the ...
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