The author's co-op building was in the throes of rehabbing when she received a call in the middle of the night saying that everyone had to leave, that the house, which dated from the early 1800's, was likely to collapse at any moment. In trying to discover what went wrong, structurally, Greider delved into the history of the house, and, making lemonade from the lemon life handed her, wrote a book about the house, the history of the place where it stood, and the people who had preceded her there. Unfortunately, she intersperses this history with often incoherent philosophical musings on the nature of "home", and with descriptions of her aggravating co-owners and the trauma of not being a millionaire anymore (although still having a very large family home in a high-toned Virginia suburb to which to escape). Had she left the latter portions in a private journal, where they belong, this would have been a much better book.

(NOTE: This is an ARC.)

I am taking this to BC in DC for release.

This was left on the BookCrossers-only book buffet at the 2011 BookCrossing Convention in Washington, DC. I plan to continue its journey via bookray or RABCK.

Giving to ResQgeek the next time I see him, as he expressed an interest in reading it.

LittleWhiteBird and mariocat did too, in case he needs help deciding what to do with it when he's done. :)

Received this from melydia yesterday. While the concept of the book is intriguing, the mixed review does make me wonder. We'll see how it goes...

How would I react to the news that my home was structurally unsound and was to be condemned? That is probably an unanswerable question, but I’m reasonably certain that I wouldn’t be inspired to research the entire history of my property. However, that is exactly what the author has done in response to the demolition of the place she called home, a co-op building on East 7th Street in the East Village of New York City. The result of that (obviously intensive) research is this book, which is a weird hybrid of social history of the New York’s Lower East Side, personal memoir of home ownership and philosophical musings on the meanings of place and home.

I suspect that what you get from this book will depend greatly on the expectations you bring to it. I was looking for a history of a place, and for me, those portions of the book that explored the history of this corner of New York were the most effective parts of the narrative, touching on the greater history of New York City (including a fair amount of details about the Dutch colonial period that I was largely unfamiliar with), and spotlighting the immigrant experience of New York that has shaped so much of that City’s personality and culture. The stories of the subsequent waves of immigrants who came to New York in search of a better life showed how their experiences were both similar in many ways, but how each story was unique in its details.

On the other hand, the other characteristics of this book struck me as less compelling. The memoir aspect included some interesting insights into the issues involved in owning a co-op and dealing with the structural demise of a home, but the tone felt whiny and self-centered, and I simply didn’t care enough to feel any great empathy. And the exploration of the meanings of place and home, while interesting at an abstract level, simply felt distracting in this context and didn’t really add anything to the story. Ultimately, this is a bit of a mixed bag, and it is hard to say for sure if the strengths outweigh the weaknesses.

ResQgeek brought this to meet-up today and I thought it looked rather interesting. Not fascinating, mind you, so it won't be at the top of Mt. TBR, but at some point I should get around to reading it.

I selected this book from Mt. TBR because the January reading theme was buildings. It took me a little bit longer to finish it, since I also started grad school in January and had a heavy reading load there. But I am glad to have read it. The beginning was a bit slow to capture my interest, but I became hooked as I went along and enjoyed this microcosm of American history. I am not a huge fan of NYC, but I am tempted to visit this neighborhood if I ever get a chance, even though the aspects of it that I enjoyed most are long past. It would be like visiting the grave of a famous historical figure, to pay respect to what was and the legacy left behind.

This book is going to meet-up with me tomorrow. AuthorAuthor had expressed an interest in reading it, but if she doesn't attend or has changed her mind, it will go home with someone.

Any future reader or recipient of this book is encouraged to leave a journal entry here on the BookCrossing site to let prior readers know the fate of the book. You can make an anonymous entry without joining the BookCrossing movement, but if you are interested in joining, it is a free and spam-free community where your contact information is not shared with others. Best of all, members receive private messages via e-mail from books like this one when those books are journaled, allowing for long-term relationships between books and readers.

6of8 handed me this book. at our meetup today.

Hmmm! I'm not sure if I want to read it. I'll browse through it, but I will most likely forego reading it and just bring it to the next BCinDC meet-up and hand it off to authrorauthor.

I was told that authorauthor wants this book so i'm passing it along to her!

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