Thursday, March 7, 2019

Only in New York

Book 19 of my 2019 Reading Challenge
read from February 9 - 18

Only in New York: 36 True Big Apple Stories Spanning 55 Years and 5 Boroughs
by M.G. Crisci

Summary (via NetGalley)
published 2018

An accomplished storyteller with a New York accent, M.G. Crisci portrays his experiences with people, their struggles, triumphs, loves and jealousies that meandered through his extraordinary life.
It is said that you can't take New York out of a New Yorker. Only in New York is a collection of short stories that are steeped with the richness of the author's skill in depicting his ethnic heritage, colorful neighborhoods, and childhood friends, along with a tapestry of clients and colleagues that were central to his New York-based career.
Throughout each of the individual narratives, readers will become acquainted with local restaurants, favorite Italian dishes, adventures in advertising and misadventures on Wall Street. In the end, it is the author's self-effacing humor that communicates his enjoyment of these twists and turns on the mean streets and upmarket avenues of New York City.

My Opinion
3 stars


*I received an electronic copy of this book via NetGalley and would like to thank the author and/or publisher for the opportunity to read and honestly review it*

This would be an amazing gift of a book if I was related to him or knew him.  His illustrations at the beginning of each story were a cute addition to this light, enjoyable read.  They were the kind of stories passed around while shooting the shit where it doesn't take anything away from them even if they aren't all exact black/white quotable truth (or maybe they are and he's led an amazing, fantastical life).  They weren't the most politically correct but it was in an 'old person can kind of slide by' kind of way, where you'd roll your eyes and say, "You can't say things like that anymore!!!" if you were talking to him in real life.

At first I was letting typos, missing words, and grammar things slide by both because of the kind of book it was and because I never know how much is NetGalley formatting and how much is what the author submitted.  But then I saw he's written other books so I started critiquing a bit more, ending up at 3 stars.

Quote from the Book
*Since I read this from NetGalley this may not be the exact quote in the final copy*

"I'm an imperfect being who has lived an imperfect life. Through it all I have loved my New York, the streets, the people, the meter of the place. There is nothing like it anywhere in the world."

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