Photo de l'auteur

Beth Greenfield

Auteur de New York

8+ oeuvres 338 utilisateurs 4 critiques

Œuvres de Beth Greenfield

New York (2006) 122 exemplaires
Lonely Planet : New York City : 2009 : 7th edition (2010) — Auteur — 57 exemplaires
Ten Minutes from Home: A Memoir (2010) 43 exemplaires
Lonely Planet : New York City : 2008 : 6th edition (2008) — Auteur — 39 exemplaires
Miami e le Keys 2 exemplaires
Lonely Planet : New York City : 2009 (2009) — Auteur — 2 exemplaires

Oeuvres associées

Lonely Planet : Mexico (1982)quelques éditions451 exemplaires

Étiqueté

Partage des connaissances

Sexe
female
Nationalité
USA

Membres

Critiques

The book of the city of the films of the books.

Who really needs a guide book to New York? Surely the most filmed and photographed city on earth, you can make your way from that place the giant monkey swung off to the the Statue of Liberty via the medium of car chase, easy.

Actually, not quite. OK, so New York is laid out on a handy grid (except for Greenwich Village where, confronted by streets that actually curved, I got hopelessly lost, which is some achievement because Greenwich Village, like all the neighbourhoods in New York, is actually only the size of a hamlet - 'village' would be pushing it) meaning that navigation should be easy, but it's good to know what's where and if you are heading in the right direction.

A guide book is also useful because the is an awful lot to see and if you are here for a limited time you could fall into the trap of doing the tourist tick list and missing some real gems. For instance, the Museum of Modern Art is a must visit, right? Well, maybe, but the two top floors are a waste of time if you are a European, containing as they do lots of impressionist works that you have probably already seen on loan to a gallery near home where they were better curated. But the guide book informs you that there's another gallery, the Whitney, that has the largest collection of Edward Hopper paintings in the world. Go there instead, and you will see some amazing, American art in America painted by an American (surely the reason you're here in the first place is to experience America, something not best achieved by looking at paintings of French cornfields, no matter how colourful they are).

What's good then is that if you're prepared to put in the time thumbing through the guide book (maybe on the flight over there, if you're not too busy trying to break even on the cost of your ticket by consuming a vast quantity of gratis in-flight booze and nibbles) then you will, essentially, be tipped off about the bits of New York City that haven't appeared in a major motion picture yet.

It also offers some sound advice about some major landmarks. For instance, 'The Top Of The Rock' at Rockerfella Plaza is the best place to get a skyscraper eye view of the city from. If you go up the Empire State Building not only will you queue for two hours but you'll be unable to see...the Empire State Building. For folk like me, who occasionally leave their brains behind when travelling, this is what some might call a good tip, or the bloody obvious depending on your point of view.

New York city is both small, in terms of distance it's a very walkable city, and huge, because they fit so much into it, principally by either stacking it or squeezing it uncomfortably close to something else, usually another skyscraper. So there's a lot to fit in. Despite this, I'd still maintain that the index in the guide needs to be twice the size, and have multiple references to the same thing. I do not want to have to hunt through the thing to find the right page for the subway after first failing to find references to metro, tube or underground.

My selection of this particular guide to New York was based on the reliable test of looking up the same subject in three different guides. This one came up trumps about tipping, especially bartenders. What it failed to mention however was that you should resign yourself to not being able to find an edible meal during your stay in the city.

The map of the city was excellent. Detachable from the book itself, I was able to open it, fold it up, fold it the wrong way and write and draw on it. By the end of three days it was in a sorry state but still legible and much used. The subway map, however, was useless, a complete waste of space as didn't have my electron microscope with me.

Good guide, great city.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
macnabbs | Mar 29, 2011 |
A very sad and moving book. Beth Greenfield writes of the car accident that killed her younger brother Adam and her best friend Kristen. She was 12 at the time of the wreck which seriously injured her father and in which her foot was broken. The accident was caused by a drunk driver. I wish Ms. Greenfield had let us know what happened with the driver of the car that caused the wreck. I also wish she had described in more detail her college years and the years up to the present. This book is her attempt to heal from the wreck and its aftermath. I hope it is helpful for her.
Hard to say that you enjoy a book like this - it was difficult to read. But it was well written and told an important story.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
dablackwood | 2 autres critiques | Jul 5, 2010 |
This was a great book that I was fortunate enough to win an advanced reader copy thru Read It Foreword. I liked it a lot and love the author's writing style. It was a deeply personal story that the author experienced thirty years ago, losing her adopted brother in an automobile accident and losing her best friend, Kristen. In the process she suffered a broken leg and to go thru her own grief and the grief of why was I spared. You can definitely tell that she is a writer and tells the story as if the reader is actually there, experiencing her pain and loss. I really enjoyed this book, it was a little bit depressing however, but a great read anyways. I also love some of the song references and some of the descriptions of things from my childhood that I almost forgotten.… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
lg4154 | 2 autres critiques | Jun 22, 2010 |
Ten minutes from home, coming back from twelve-year old Beth's ballet recital, the family car was hit by a drunk driver. Beth's little brother and only sibling, Adam, and her best friend, Kristen, did not survive. This memoir, written 25 years later, is a heartfelt, touching memoir of grief, of coping and not coping, of the guilt of survival. Beth did not know how to deal with all she was feeling, and her parents, lost in their own fogs, were not able to help. She especially needed her mother and was angry and embarrassed when her mother couldn't be the rock she wanted. Friends didn't know how to react, how to express themselves. Beth felt both alienated from them and craved the extra attention she got.

If there was any mention of what happened to the driver who hit them, I somehow missed it, and I am curious about that.

Nicely written, this memoir is an emotional read but did not strike me as maudlin. It is an adult remembering the emotions of a child and it rings true as what a child would feel, not what an adult would imagine a child would feel. The copy I read was an uncorrected proof and had a few, not too many, mistakes that I assume are corrected in the published edition. One quote I found heartbreaking in the unintentional cruelty it spoke:

“After he was gone, my great aunt Mildred said, ' At least he was only adopted,' and my mom never forgave her.”

Ten Minutes from Home is a lovely little book that will touch anyone who has ever felt loss.
… (plus d'informations)
 
Signalé
TooBusyReading | 2 autres critiques | Jun 10, 2010 |

Vous aimerez peut-être aussi

Auteurs associés

Statistiques

Œuvres
8
Aussi par
1
Membres
338
Popularité
#70,454
Évaluation
½ 3.6
Critiques
4
ISBN
17
Langues
5

Tableaux et graphiques