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Jazz

Jazz
  • Author(s): Toni Morrison
  • Location(s): New York City (NYC)
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): Mainly 1920s

Joe Trace – in his fifties, door-to-door salesman of beauty products, erstwhile devoted husband – shoots to death his lover of three months, impetuous, eighteen-year-old Dorcas. At the funeral, his determined, hard-working wife, Violet – who is given to...

Last Exit to Brooklyn

Last Exit to Brooklyn
  • Author(s): Hubert Selby Jr
  • Location(s): Brooklyn
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Horror
  • Era(s): Mid 20th Century

Last Exit to Brooklyn remains undiminished in its awesome power and magnitude as the novel that first showed us the fierce, primal rage seething in America’s cities. Selby brings out the dope addicts, hoodlums, prostitutes, workers, and thieves brawling...

Let it Rain Coffee

Let it Rain Coffee
  • Author(s): Angie Cruz
  • Location(s): Dominican Republic, New York City (NYC)
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): Modern

Essentially the story of Esperanza and her father in law Don Chan, and their fractured relationship. Don Chan joins the family in New York shortly after his wife dies in the Dominican Republic. Esperanza recalls the country as largely...

Let the Great World Spin

Let the Great World Spin
  • Author(s): Colum McCann
  • Location(s): New York City (NYC)
  • Genre(s): Fiction
  • Era(s): 1970s

In the dawning light of a late-summer morning, the people of lower Manhattan stand hushed, staring up in disbelief at the Twin Towers. It is August 1974, and a mysterious tightrope walker is running, dancing, leaping between the towers,...

Madwoman

Madwoman
  • Author(s): Louisa Treger
  • Location(s): Roosevelt Island
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Historical
  • Era(s): Late 19th Century

In 1887 young Nellie Bly sets out for New York and a career in journalism, determined to make her way as a serious reporter, whatever that may take. But life in the city is tougher than she imagined. Down...

MAILBOX: A Scattershot Novel of Racing, Dares and Danger, Occasional Nakedness, and Faith

MAILBOX: A Scattershot Novel of Racing, Dares and Danger, Occasional Nakedness, and Faith
  • Author(s): Nancy Freund
  • Location(s): California, Kansas City, New York City (NYC)
  • Genre(s): Young Adult
  • Era(s): 1970s

The Drue family moves from New York to Small Town, USA in the ’70s, and they may never fully fit in. Thirteen-year-old Sandy’s parents encourage her curiosity, her imagination, and her challenge of social conventions – but not without...

Man on Wire

Man on Wire
  • Author(s): Philippe Petit
  • Location(s): New York City (NYC)
  • Genre(s): Autobiography/Memoirs
  • Era(s): 1974

Philippe Petit chronicles the day day in 1974 when he illegally walked across a tightrope suspended between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. As early as the late 60s, in France, Petit resolved to carry out this...

Manhattan ’45

Manhattan ’45
  • Author(s): Jan Morris
  • Location(s): New York City (NYC)
  • Genre(s): Travelogue
  • Era(s): 1945

In 1945, New York City stood at the pinnacle of its cultural and economic power. Never again would the city possess the unique mixture of innocence and sophistication, romance and formality, generosity and confidence which characterized it in this...

Manhattan Down

Manhattan Down
  • Author(s): Michael Cordy
  • Location(s): Manhattan
  • Genre(s): Fiction, Thriller
  • Era(s): Contemporary

THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS JUST SAID GOODNIGHT. On the anniversary eve of the 9/11 terror attack, New York swelters under a heat dome of record temperatures. Even the global leaders assembled at the UN HQ are forced to...

Manhattan, When I Was Young

Manhattan, When I Was Young
  • Author(s): Mary Cantwell
  • Location(s): New York City (NYC)
  • Genre(s): Autobiography/Memoirs
  • Era(s): 1950s, 1960s

Greenwich Village, middle of the twentieth century, an intimate portrait of a young woman as she negotiates her way through work, love and parenthood. Beautifully written and insightful.

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