Many people think that the "baby boomers" all became successful and wealthy. Raanan Geberer´s New York-based "The Diner Under the El," however, shines the spotlight on people usually ignored in fiction. These are people who are somewhat shy, or don´t have the type of outgoing self-confidence idealized by American society, and are often made to suffer for it. "The Diner Under the El" takes place from 1987 to 1991, and focuses on three young Jewish men in their mid-thirties from the Pelham Parkway neighborhood of the north Bronx, N.Y. Every week, they go to singles events, and afterward, they meet at the "diner under the el" to commiserate. Change inevitably comes to their lives. One loses himself in ultra-right-wing conspiracy theories and sadistic sexual fantasies; the second, a would-be rock musician, sees his paste-up job becoming rapidly obsolete; and the third finds salvation with an off-beat woman who introduces him to poetry, New Age mysticism and pop psychology, with hilarious results. Author Raanan Geberer describes "The Diner Under the El" as something like "Seinfeld," but with a tragi-comic twist. Enjoy!
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From Gabrielle Hamilton, bestselling author of Blood, Bones & Butter, comes her eagerly anticipated cookbook debut filled with signature recipes from her celebrated New York City restaurant Prune. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PUBLISHERS WEEKLY NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE SEASON BY Time • O: The Oprah Magazine • Bon Appétit • Eater A self-trained cook turned James Beard Award–winning chef, Gabrielle Hamilton opened Prune on New York’s Lower East Side fifteen years ago to great acclaim and lines down the block, both of which continue today. A deeply personal and gracious restaurant, in both menu and philosophy, Prune uses the elements of home cooking and elevates them in unexpected ways. The result is delicious food that satisfies on many levels. Highly original in concept, execution, look, and feel, the Prune cookbook is an inspired replica of the restaurant’s kitchen binders. It is written to Gabrielle’s cooks in her distinctive voice, with as much instruction, encouragement, information, and scolding as you would find if you actually came to work at Prune as a line cook. The recipes have been tried, tasted, and tested dozens if not hundreds of times. Intended for the home cook as well as the kitchen professional, the instructions offer a range of signals for cooks—a head’s up on when you have gone too far, things to watch out for that could trip you up, suggestions on how to traverse certain uncomfortable parts of the journey to ultimately help get you to the final destination, an amazing dish. Complete with more than with more than 250 recipes and 250 color photographs, home cooks will find Prune’s most requested recipes—Grilled Head-on Shrimp with Anchovy Butter, Bread Heels and Pan Drippings Salad, Tongue and Octopus with Salsa Verde and Mimosa’d Egg, Roasted Capon on Garlic Crouton, Prune’s famous Bloody Mary (and all 10 variations). Plus, among other items, a chapter entitled “Garbage”—smart ways to repurpose foods that might have hit the garbage or stockpot in other restaurant kitchens but are turned into appetizing bites and notions at Prune. Featured here are the recipes, approach, philosophy, evolution, and nuances that make them distinctively Prune’s. Unconventional and honest, in both tone and content, this book is a welcome expression of the cookbook as we know it. Praise for Prune “Fresh, fascinating . . . entirely pleasurable . . . Since 1999, when the chef Gabrielle Hamilton put Triscuits and canned sardines on the first menu of her East Village bistro, Prune, she has nonchalantly broken countless rules of the food world. The rule that a successful restaurant must breed an empire. The rule that chefs who happen to be women should unconditionally support one another. The rule that great chefs don’t make great writers (with her memoir, Blood, Bones & Butter). And now, the rule that restaurant food has to be simplified and prettied up for home cooks in order to produce a useful, irresistible cookbook. . . . [Prune] is the closest thing to the bulging loose-leaf binder, stuck in a corner of almost every restaurant kitchen, ever to be printed and bound between cloth covers. (These happen to be a beautiful deep, dark magenta.)”—The New York Times “One of the most brilliantly minimalist cookbooks in recent memory . . . at once conveys the thrill of restaurant cooking and the wisdom of the author, while making for a charged reading experience.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"ESSENTIAL READING FOR FANS OF JANE JACOBS, JOSEPH MITCHELL, PATTI SMITH, LUC SANTE AND CHEAP PIEROGI."--VANITY FAIR An unflinching chronicle of gentrification in the twenty-first century and a love letter to lost New York by the creator of the popular and incendiary blog Vanishing New York. For generations, New York City has been a mecca for artists, writers, and other hopefuls longing to be part of its rich cultural exchange and unique social fabric. But today, modern gentrification is transforming the city from an exceptional, iconoclastic metropolis into a suburbanized luxury zone with a price tag only the one percent can afford. A Jane Jacobs for the digital age, blogger and cultural commentator Jeremiah Moss has emerged as one of the most outspoken and celebrated critics of this dramatic shift. In Vanishing New York, he reports on the city’s development in the twenty-first century, a period of "hyper-gentrification" that has resulted in the shocking transformation of beloved neighborhoods and the loss of treasured unofficial landmarks. In prose that the Village Voice has called a "mixture of snark, sorrow, poeticism, and lyric wit," Moss leads us on a colorful guided tour of the most changed parts of town—from the Lower East Side and Chelsea to Harlem and Williamsburg—lovingly eulogizing iconic institutions as they’re replaced with soulless upscale boutiques, luxury condo towers, and suburban chains. Propelled by Moss’ hard-hitting, cantankerous style, Vanishing New York is a staggering examination of contemporary "urban renewal" and its repercussions—not only for New Yorkers, but for all of America and the world.
A behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of a top New York restaurant goes into the kitchens to capture the everyday drama, crises, organization, and culinary expertise of Le Bernardin, in a volume that also includes some of the institution's signature modern French dishes.
DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Chile & Easter Island is your indispensable guide to this beautiful part of the world. This fully updated guide includes street maps of cities and towns, plus unique illustrated cutaways, floor plans and reconstructions of the must-see sights. Vibrant full-color photography will help you visualize your destinations as you discover Chile and Easter Island one region at a time. Detailed listings will inform you of the best hotels, restaurants, bars, and shops for all budgets. Explore local festivals and markets, day trips and excursions, gorgeous beaches and national parks, and find your way effortlessly around the region. DK's insider tips and cultural insight will help you explore every corner of Chile and Easter Island, as if you were a local. DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Chile & Easter Island-showing you what others only tell you. Now available in PDF format.
BORN OF HEAVEN. BUILT IN HELL. HUNTED BY BOTH Meet Luci-va, daughter of Lucifer. She’s a nephilim, a demon-human hybrid, a violent immortal forbidden by God. But Luci-va doesn’t care. She’s a deadly, mischievous diva with a burning addiction to the consumption of souls. Luci-va works for Hell and she loves her work. But everything changes when the Archangel Mikha’el delivers her a life-shattering truth. She is not Luci-va, demonic spawn of Lucifer. She is Michelle, Mikha’el’s angelic daughter, abducted as a child, spirited to Hell, and raised as Lucifer’s own. Her mind reels. Betrayed by the only father she knows, her happy universe is shown a lie. Her world crumbles. Spiraling into despondency, she exiles herself to the deepest bowels of Hell. There, she makes a shocking discovery; a secret prison housing a savagely tortured angelic legion. Compassion tears through her and she vows to free her brutalized brothers. Torn by the redemptive promise of her oath and her mad desire to return to her familiar life of consuming souls, she is at a crossroads, Michelle or Luci-va, who is it to be? All she knows for sure is that either choice will put her on a path to war with the forces of Heaven and Hell. In M. Meehan’s epic fantasy, Mikha’el’s Daughter: The Book of Redemption, the lines between contemporary culture and theology, mythology, and fantasy are gloriously blurred. Its voice is now, while its themes are eternal. For readers who want something truly different, thoroughly entertaining, and thought-provoking all at the same time, this is that rare novel that delivers on every page.
Why would two talented and employable young graphic designers start up their own practice without any clients, in the midst of a recession, and in a city brimming with world-renowned designers? Karlssonwilker inc.'s tellmewhy is the improbable story of such a venture -- or act of bravura or insanity -- on the part of Hjalti Karlsson and Jan Wilker, and offers a telling, humorous, and always human insight into the workings of a young startup design studio, showcasing every single project they did in their first two years. A book as iconoclastic as their designs, tellmewhy features fresh stories of karlssonwilker's ordinary office live and its less-than-romantic tales about rooftop parties, battles with immigration, language obstacles, missed meetings, and money problems. Despite these stories -- and because of others -- karlssonwilker has produced an impressive body of work in two short years. Tellmewhy shows the happy endings, including signage for a Philadelphia restaurant, logo designs for a New York fashion house, and CD packaging for both independent and major music labels. And it presents the few unrealized designs, like an ad campaign for a TV network. All share the designers' creative and humorous take on design. Karlssonwilker intersperses these examples with its singular illustrated diagrams, faux flow charts linking the partners' biographies, work, social lives, and whatever comes to their unique minds. Tellmewhy offers both inspiration and caution for designers everywhere. A foreword by former employer Stefan Sagmeister recalls karlssonwilker's start in his design office.
