你在纽约会有什么奇遇？ 逃逸到帝国大厦顶层赴一次浪漫约会？在“新”市中心布鲁克林发掘新潮精品时装店和旧式拱廊酒吧？在Babbo品尝大厨Mario Batali的拿手好菜——特制羊脑或米兰猪蹄？在超棒的新现代艺术博物馆里，思索毕加索的作品？三位音乐家》或波洛克的作品One？戴香奈尔特大号时髦眼镜，挽迪奥手袋。着巴宝莉套装？在Arlene’s Grocery欣赏独立乐队现场表演，或在摇滚卡拉OK中当一回明星？ 本书在手，事半功倍：全彩的活页地图为你轻松导航；当地作者推荐最棒的餐厅、俱乐部、剧院、博物馆等等；精心挑选的精华景点、路线和网络资源，助你在短期旅行中得到最大收获；纽约客与你分享心情：采访杂货店老板、三轮车夫和新闻系学生。

19世纪末20世纪初的纽约，曾被人们称为镀金时代。那时城市日新月异，财富滚滚而来；艾迪斯-沃顿，范德比尔特家族，洛克菲勒家族，世界名人众星闪烁。作者没有因循旧轨，而是另辟蹊径，记叙了这个镀金时代的另一面，不是显出绅士风度和高尚谈吐的那一面，而是充斥着弱肉强食的争斗和危险的那一面。她选取了当时许多轰动性的真实事件，从大批纽约平民狂热围观一个豪华婚礼引起互相践踏的悲剧，到一头动物园大象因性狂躁而导致长达9小时的伤人破坏奇闻；还记述了各种各样的人物，如Stanford White, William Merritt Chase, 半夜仁慈乐队，异国舞蹈演员Little Egypt，等等。

As cities have gentrified, educated urbanites have come to prize what they regard as "authentic" urban life: aging buildings, art galleries, small boutiques, upscale food markets, neighborhood old-timers, funky ethnic restaurants, and old, family-owned shops. These signify a place's authenticity, in contrast to the bland standardization of the suburbs and exurbs. But as Sharon Zukin shows in Naked City, the rapid and pervasive demand for authenticity--evident in escalating real estate prices, expensive stores, and closely monitored urban streetscapes--has helped drive out the very people who first lent a neighborhood its authentic aura: immigrants, the working class, and artists. Zukin traces this economic and social evolution in six archetypal New York areas--Williamsburg, Harlem, the East Village, Union Square, Red Hook, and the city's community gardens--and travels to both the city's first IKEA store and the World Trade Center site. She shows that for followers of Jane Jacobs, this transformation is a perversion of what was supposed to happen. Indeed, Naked City is a sobering update of Jacobs' legendary 1962 book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Like Jacobs, Zukin looks at what gives neighborhoods a sense of place, but argues that over time, the emphasis on neighborhood distinctiveness has become a tool of economic elites to drive up real estate values and effectively force out the neighborhood "characters" that Jacobs so evocatively idealized. With a journalist's eye and the understanding of a longtime critic and observer, Zukin's panoramic survey of contemporary New York explains how our desire to consume authentic experience has become a central force in making cities more exclusive.

When Vahram Muratyan began his online travel journal, "Paris versus New York", he had no idea how quickly it would become one of the most buzzed-about sites on the Internet - it garnered more than a million and a half page views in just a few months, and the attention of savvy online critics. Now Muratyan presents his unique observations in this delightful book, featuring visually striking graphics paired with witty, thought-provoking taglines that celebrate the special details of each city. "Paris versus New York" is a heartfelt gift to denizens of both cities and to those who dream of big-city romance.

书中，作者讲述了“创意之城”纽约长达150年的创意产业发展路径，展示了创意产业对纽约经济的巨大助推力。社交圈子、夜生活、时尚看门人、媒体集团、文化艺术政策、口碑营销等因素共同营造了创意产业萌芽的环境，在一次次经济衰退和繁荣的循环之间，引爆了文化商品化的潮流，推动了创意产业的崛起和创意经济时代的到来。 当下，创意经济的软实力备受瞩目，本书给了我们探索创意经济发展的全新视角。

本书是作者从当代视角 (尤其是911以后) 对纽约的城市历史与再生历程的深入而生动的描述，全书几乎涉及了纽约城市发展和城市的所有重要节点，由于作者复杂的学习和知识背景与兴趣，所以表述极为生动，且因为查阅了大量史料，并且引用了大量历史图片，又使本书稿在具有可读性的基础上不乏深度。作为普及型的城市/建筑读物，此书既保持了足够的专业水准 (如大量的城市/建筑背景资料的运用)，又融入了可观的文本与图像的阅读的快感 (充满全书的诗意的语言和精美的图片)，另外，由于历史背景与时间的相近，作者也在文本中保持了足够的人文关怀。