“It comes down to this: Do you want to live in the greatest city in the U.S.A. or do you want to save $2,000 a year and live in the suburbs of St. Louis? It sure sounds like some of you are disappointed in New York because you never figured out how to live here.”Read more at location 201

"These essays are about a city that too often forgets what its past has to offer and sometimes shortsightedly foregoes its future. New Yorkers are consumed with the present. Yet the chief constant in a city that began celebrating its quadricentennial in 2009 is change"

Less a narrative and more a collection of the author's podcasts with some footnotes to update the stories from their original air date. Roberts has a nose for NYC due to his time with the Daily News & NY Times and is an intriguing story teller. While this collection is somewhat dated-most pieces date from 2006-2008-the NYC they discuss has been present for the last 400 years and will likely be here in 400. Of particular interest were his stories on doormen, subways and the NYC pop culture connection. I didn't care for this as much as I did his [book:Grand Central: How a Train Station Transformed America|15018872], but it was an enjoyable, quick read ( )

I picked up this book from the library based on a recommendation of a fellow LTer, and I was excited to read it since I had just come back from my trip to New York. I had never heard of Sam Roberts before, but I was pleased to find that he has a great writing style! Each mini-essay (taken from podcasts he's done for the Times) explores the people, history, and personal stories he has about New York. At 3-5 pages each, they provide fun snippets and make the book a breeze to read. It would be fun if he did an updated version with more recent essays.

My only complaint is that I wish some of the essays were longer! ( )

This is one of those books that only a New Yorker could love. A compilation of brief tidbits about aspects of “The City” that most never think about, to outsiders from Omaha or Hot Coffee, Mississippi who have never visited this will come off as a, well, only-in-New-York-who-gives-a-crap type of book. I represent the in-between set. I visit often but have never been a resident; I could almost conduct walking tours throughout large swaths of Manhattan, yet I don’t know jack about the other boroughs. Predictably then, I find that the essays vary in interest. New York’s obviously an amazingly complex, multi-faceted metropolis and I think Roberts’s various pieces parallel, perhaps even exude, that aspect. That being said, some of this is so site specific and/or fleeting that I can’t imagine anyone but residents of a specific four-block area might really care. Some Manhattanites – like their elite, implant-packed SoCal brethren – have a fetish about the “right” zip code? How disappointing. How long does it take to change a light bulb on East Ninety-sixth Street? I would guess that it depends on the current administration. Generally, this is an enjoyable aggregation of New York-specific anecdotes written with a refreshing levity. I just doubt this will garner mass appeal. ( )

Not good- maybe they are better stories in podcast format, but it's unlikely. ( )