I am no doubt forgetting some here, but here’s the last shopping guide — this for the literary types — of the latest books from local authors, plus some about the neighborhood that will make good coffee table companions.

HOW A KING PLAYS: TIPS FROM A KID CHAMPION
Tribecan and sixth grader Oliver Boydell — who recently won the Scholastic National Championship for his age group — has his second book out on chess (read about the first one here). “How A King Plays: 64 Chess Tips from A Kid Champion” provides practical tips for better chess playing written in clear language for all ages. Oliver is also the narrator for the Audiobook version, if you have a long car ride coming up. Order it from Amazon here.

MAMAN THE COOKBOOK
Local residents Elisa Marshall and Benjamin Sormonte have compiled their sweet and savory recipes into their first ever cookbook, leaving spaces for you to make the recipes your own. Read more about it here and order it here.

THE WASHINGTON MARKET PARK COLORING BOOK
The Friends of Washington Market Park enlisted a Brooklyn illustrator to highlight the special features and creatures of the park for this truly local, 31-page coloring book. You can color in or out of the lines of the gazebo, the water tower and of course the tulips. Order on Amazon here.

WITNESS DOWNTOWN RISING: PAINTING THE WORLD TRADE CENTER
Tribecan Todd Stone has been painting at the World Trade Center site for nearly two decades, and has just release a book of his work. It is a visual diary documenting the destruction and rebuilding of downtown, told by his tenure as the artist-in-residence of the WTC site. He calls it “a portrait of a city working through its pain and a tribute to New York and its people.” Purchase it direct from his website here.

BUILDING BROOKLYN BRIDGE
A historian at Green-Wood Cemetery, Jeff Richman, just published a history of the Brooklyn Bridge, which got a nice write up from NYC writer Kurt Andersen: “If you love Brooklyn or bridges or New York City or cities or 19th century marvels –– or all of the above, as I do –– Building Brooklyn Bridge is a perfect feast, a would-be time-traveler’s delight, overflowing with rare and evocative and fascinating images.” Plus it comes with 3-D glasses. Order it here.

SANDFUTURE
The new release by Justin Beal is an account of the life and work of the architect Minoru Yamasaki, the architect of the World Trade Center. “That Yamasaki’s most famous projects — the Pruitt-Igoe apartments in St. Louis and the original World Trade Center in New York –were both destroyed on national television, thirty years apart, makes his relative obscurity all the more remarkable.” Buy it here at MIT Press.

NEW YORK: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY
An expanded edition of the only comprehensive illustrated history of New York — the tomb by Ric Burns, James Sanders and Lisa Ades has 600 photographs and illustrations that tell the 400-year-long story of the city from its beginning in 1624 up to the current moment as a companion volume to the PBS series. Of course it all starts here, at the initial settlement on the tip of Manhattan. Order it here. 

NAMES OF NEW YORK
If you like the back story on NYC streets and neighborhood names, this book does it, and covers downtown Manhattan with mentions of Tribeca, Battery Park City, Soho and Chinatown. In addition to neighborhoods, the names of major streets ranging from Broadway, Houston, and Lafayette to Elizabeth and Hester are explained and contextualized. By Joshua Jelly-Schapiro. Order it here.

THE LAST PIRATE OF NEW YORK
Not new this year, but a good read by Rick Cohen that takes place downtown. Subtitle: A Ghost Ship, a Killer and the Birth of a Gangster Nation. This is the true story of the bloodthirsty underworld legend who conquered Manhattan, port by port–for fans of Gangs of New York and Boardwalk Empire. Order it here at Penguin.

AND LAST YEAR’S ENTRIES…
The list from 2020 includes a collection of young Black art, fiction set in the streets of downtown, memoir from Michael J. Fox, cocktails from The Dead Rabbit, and more.