Wrap Up Post: NY Challenge

Well, I have finished my first challenge!! Yahoo!! Ok - it only took one book to finish it but never mind - its an accomplishment!

Jill at Fizzy Thoughts hosted the NY Challenge to get people excited for BEA being held in NYC next week (next week - that came up quickly!). The rules were simple - read one book set in NY between the start of the challenge and May 15th. Jill also hosted 3 mini-challenges:

Feb: Create a list of ten things about NY - I wrote about my ten favorite places to read in NYC - maybe you can visit one or two if you are in town for BEA?
Heather from Age 30+ . . . A Lifetime of Books won the prize that month for her post on her ten favorite things about NY - her post draws attention to some of NYC's best so check it out before you come to the city for BEA!

Mar: Jill combined NY with women's history month and asked us to write about a "woman, NY, history" - I chose to write about Jackie Onassis and I won the prize that month! I received a lovely Strand coffee mug, pen and tin of mints. Thanks, Jill!

Apr: We were asked to compose a poem - my life at work fell apart that month and I could not summon any creative juices (there are few there to begin with!) so I did not participate in the April mini-challenge. But check out the poem written by Jenna from Little Bird - it was the winner that month!

For the challenge, I read a book I had been waiting to read for some time - Brooklyn by Colm Toibin (review here). It is a quiet story about an Irish immigrant living in Brooklyn in the 50's.

Thanks to Jill for hosting an excellent challenge and I look forward to welcoming everyone to the Big Apple next week!

Review: Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

Brooklyn: A Novel by Colm Toibin
From Amazon.com: Committed to a quiet life in little Enniscorthy, Ireland, the industrious young Eilis Lacey reluctantly finds herself swept up in an unplanned adventure to America, engineered by the family priest and her glamorous, "ready for life" sister, Rose. Eilis's determination to embrace the spirit of the journey despite her trepidation--especially on behalf of Rose, who has sacrificed her own chance of leaving--makes a bittersweet center for Brooklyn. Colm Tóibín's spare portrayal of this contemplative girl is achingly lovely, and every sentence rings with truth. Readers will find themselves swept across the Atlantic with Eilis to a boarding house in Brooklyn where she painstakingly adapts to a new life, reinventing herself and her surroundings in the letters she writes home. Just as she begins to settle in with the help of a new love, tragedy calls her home to Enniscorthy, and her separate lives suddenly and painfully merge into one. Tóibín's haunted heroine glows on the page, unforgettably and lovingly rendered, and her story reflects the lives of so many others exiled from home.

My Review: This slim novel is written in Toibin's signature spare style - on the surface it may seem like little is going on but the power lies in observations stated in simple sentences. In the first half of the book (approximately 125 pages), we meet Eilis in Co. Wexford and follow her across the Atlantic to 1950's Brooklyn where she lives in a boardinghouse and works in a department store on Fulton St. Eilis also meets Tony, a first generation Brooklynite, and without much enthusiasm begins a relationship with him. At times, I was frustrated by Eilis's lack of passion for Tony - he so obviously cared for her and she seemed indifferent at times. But as the novel progressed, it was clear that her love for Tony, although not wildly passionate, was certainly a slow burn. After a tragedy at home, Eilis returns to Ireland and grapples with the life she left behind including obligations to her mother.

This novel obviously deals with the theme of immigration. Toibin does an excellent job of depicting the life of an immigrant as one caught between two worlds. As Eilis tries to assimilate into life in Brooklyn, she also aches for the familiarity of her home and family in Ireland. In this quote, the Eilis's homesickness is palpable:

"She had been keeping the thought of home out of her mind, letting it come to her only when she wrote or received letters or when she woke from a dream in which her mother or father or Rose . . . appeared. She thought it strange that the mere sensation of savouring the prospect of something could make her think for a while that it must be the prospect of home."

And when she returns to Ireland, she finds she doesn't as easily fit there as she would have hoped:

"She had put no thought into what it would be like to come home because she had expected that it would be easy; she had longed so much for the familiarity of these rooms that she had presumed that she would be happy and relieved to step back into them, but, instead, on this first morning, all she could do was count the days before she went back."

As the daughter of immigrants with a grandmother who returned "home" to Scotland twice only to realize as much as she didn't feel settled in NY, she also no longer belonged back home, the loss of belonging and home experienced by immigrants resonates for me. Toibin's spare, bleak style only makes this loss that much more poignant in Brooklyn.

I am a fan of Toibin's work and Brooklyn is no exception - it is moving in a very quiet way and stays with you after you read the last page.

This book meets the criteria for the Ireland Reading Challenge , NYC Challenge, "place" category of What's In a Name? "Win Win" category of Twenty Ten Challenge

A New York Woman: Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

As part of the NYC Challenge hosted at Fizzy Thoughts, we have been asked to feature a post that focuses on "women, New York, and history". I ran that meta-data through my brain and it somehow gave back Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. As I thought it through, however, it actually made a lot of sense - Jackie O is a NY woman with an indelible place in U.S. history. Although she lived in many places throughout her life - Newport, RI; McLean, VA; Washington, DC; France, and Greece, she was born and raised in NY and spent significant portions of her adult life in the city.

The intensely private Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis sought refuge in NY following the assassination of her husband, JFK in 1963. I thought this quote from the New York Times offered an interesting perspective on her choice of NYC:

New Yorkers might be considered the most private of all Americans; urban apartment-dwelling grants anonymity to those who seek it. And so she moved to New York in 1964 to an apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue.

Although she fought for her privacy even in NY and was briefly driven out of the city by fears for her children's safety, Jackie returned to NYC and lived in her apartment at 1040 Fifth Avenue
until her death in 1994. Jackie built a life for herself and her children in the city - in addition to working at Doubleday as an editor, she became a patron of many charities.

She dedicated her efforts, in particular, to two of her most loved NYC landmarks - Central Park and Grand Central Station. In recognition of her work with Central Park Conservancy, the Central Park Reservoir was renamed the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. Overlooked by her 5th Avenue apartment, the reservoir was a frequent jogging destination for Jackie. The reservoir is literally an oasis in the middle of the Park and a favorite spot of mine for a relaxing walk or even an easy jog.


Grand Central Station (or its lesser known, albeit official name - Grand Central Terminal) is a NYC landmark and a destination in and of itself as opposed to merely a terminal that you pass through as you catch a train out of the city. In the late 70's, there were plans to erect a 55 story tower over GCT which would require the demolition of some of the terminal. Along with other city leaders, Jackie fought to preserve the landmark by legally blocking the right to erect the tower. The effort was ultimately successful and Grand Central was beautifully restored in 1994.



By dedicating herself to causes tied so inextricably to NYC, Jackie demonstrated her love for the city and was able to give back to the city that provided refuge for her and her family. Her life in NYC came full circle upon her death when her funeral was held at St. Ignatius Loyola Church - the same church in which she was baptized in 1929.



For further reading on the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, check out America's Queen: The Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

10 Great Places to Read in NYC

Jill at Fizzy Thoughts is hosting a NY Challenge (woo hoo) to coincide with the lead up to BEA and BloggerCon. I keep promising no more challenges but how could I resist this one? I am a born and bred NY-er plus the requirement to read only one book set in or about NY before May 15, 2010 is totally do-able! Read all about the challenge over here.

Each month there will a mini-challenge. February's Mini-Challenge is to post a list of 10 things about NYC. Here is my list of where to read in the city - some of these locations are a little futher afield than the immediate vicinity of the convention center but I hope that attendees will explore a little while they are here - or use this info for another trip to the Big Apple!

1. Subway or Bus - with no car, most of my transport is via public transportation (or foot but I don't read while I walk) and I do quite a bit of my daily reading while I zip around the city on buses and subways. The mass transit system in Manhattan can seem overwhelming but it is an affordable way to get most place across the 5 boroughs and there is some great people-watching to boot. Hopstop.com is a great resource to help navigate the city via public transport

2. Central Park - The Park is really a jewel in the city and a must-see if you come to NYC. All that wide open green space in the midst of the concrete jungle is a sight not tbe missed. CP is big and there are lots of places to read in there but one of my favs is Sheep Meadow - I have whiled away many a summer afternoon with book there soaking up the sun!

3. Border's Columbus Circle - Ok - Border's Bookstore is available in most cities but I like this location for a few reasons - its on an upper floor of the Time Warner Center overlooking Central Park (cool location - central to a lot of things in the city), there are comfy chairs scattered about and there is a cafe in there with gourmet snacks, sandwiches etc from the gourmet shop Dean and Deluca - yummy treats while you read - what more can one ask for?

4. Housing Works Bookstore Cafe - Housing Works is the largest community-based AIDS service organization in the United States and they provide lifesaving services, such as housing, medical and mental health care, meals, job training, drug treatment, HIV prevention education, and social support to more than 20,000 homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV and AIDS. This cafe/ used book store is one of the ways they raise the money they need to do all this great work - and its a great used bookstore and place to hang while you read to boot!
5. Bryant Park - a Park with its own blog - wow! But that, of course, is not why I like Bryant Park as a great reading locale. It a small, manageable with seating scattered about and its location behind the Main Branch of the NY Public Library (see below)makes it an ideal place to sit with a book and a sunny afternoon.

6. New York Public Library - Main Branch - the main branch of the NYPL is a landmark building and certainly a sight in it's own right. There are reading rooms throughout the library where you can relax with a good book and just surround yourself with literature. There are even docent-led tours if you want to explore the history and architechture of the building.
7. Tea Lounge - this is a great little cafe/tea shop/lounge in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. They have a lovely tea/coffee bar where they serve organic coffees and also a real bar with wine, cocktails and beer, including the local Brooklyn Lager and salads, sandwiches and treats from the cafe. There are lots of comfy couches to sit and read or listen to the live music that is often there in the evening.

8. 'Snice - another great cafe (I see a theme developing here) that is totally open to letting you stay awhile - perfect for reader looking for a perch and something to eat and drink. This cafe's specialty is vegetarian eats.

9. Columbia University - this campus is an oasis of lush lawns amidst the hustle and bustle of the city. There are 25 libraries across campus and lots of places both indoors and out to nestle in with a good book.

10. Orchard House Cafe - this is really my neighborhood favorite. This coffee shop is about 3 blocks from my apartment and is a great place to sit and read and enjoy a really good cup of coffee and a lite bite. They actually have a few bookshelves scattered about where patrons leave books for others to read or pick-up. I have spent many an afternoon in there catching up with my latest book.

Hope you get to check out at least some of these places out when you are in the Big Apple!