BookCourt's Top Books About Brooklyn

There are three bookstores within three blocks of my house. They range from: The Community Bookstore which is a collection of mostly used books in a catacomb like setting on the corner of Warren and Court Street (Not to be missed). The Barnes and Noble "GIGA-Book-PLEX" on 106 Court. And my favorite place - BookCourt on Court and Pacific. After browsing the more organized Barnes and Noble I head over to BookCourt to buy the books there. Yesterday I stopped by and put together a list of the books they had about Brooklyn. Here are the links and if you can go there and buy them even better!

  1. Brooklyn Is¿Southeast of the Island: Travel Notes by James Agee and Jonathan Lethem
  2. The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher by Debby Applegate
  3. The Brooklyn Follies: A Novel by Paul Auster
  4. Brookland: A Novel by Emily Barton
  5. Brooklyn by Name: How the Neighborhoods, Streets, Parks, Bridges and More Got Their Names by Leonard Benardo and Jennifer Weiss
  6. The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn (Neighborhoods of New York City) by Kenneth T. Jackson and John B. Manbeck
  7. The Brooklyn Rail Fiction Anthology by Donald Breckenridge and Jen Zoble
  8. History of the Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn in Ireland and America by Emmett Corry
  9. How Music Grew in Brooklyn: A Biography of the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra by Maurice Edwards
  10. PatchWork Planet
  11. Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem
  12. Fortress of Solitude
  13. The Brooklyn Bridge: The story of the world's most famous bridge and the remarkable family that built it. (Wonders of the World Book) by Elizabeth Mann and Alan Witschonke
  14. Water Street by Patricia Reilly Giff
  15. Metropolis: A Novel by Elizabeth Gaffney
  16. An Unlikely Cat Lady: Feral Adventures in the Backyard Jungle by Nina Malkin
  17. The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride
  18. The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn Bridge by David McCullough
  19. Brooklyn: A State of Mind by Michael W. Robbins and Wendy Palitz
  20. The Brooklyn Reader: Thirty Writers Celebrate America's Favorite Borough by Andrea Wyatt and Alice Leccese Powers
  21. The Buddha from Brooklyn: A Tale of Spiritual Seduction by Martha Sherrill
  22. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (P.S.) by Betty Smith
  23. The Skin Between Us: A Memoir of Race, Beauty, and Belonging by Kym Ragusa
  24. Brooklyn: An Illustrated History (Critical Perspectives on the Past) by Ellen M. Snyder-Grenier
  25. Not for Tourists Guide to Brooklyn 2007 (Not for Tourists)
  26. Brooklyn Bridge by Lynn Curlee
  27. Streetwise Brooklyn (Streetwise) by Michael Brown
  28. Flying over Brooklyn by Myron Uhlberg
  29. Old Brooklyn in Early Photographs, 1865-1929 by William Lee Younger
  30. Jews of Brooklyn (Brandeis Series in American Jewish History, Culture, and Life) by Ilana Abramovitch and Sean Galvin
  31. Beer School: Bottling Success at the Brooklyn Brewery by Steve Hindy, Tom Potter, and Michael R. Bloomberg
  32. Battle of Brooklyn 1776 by John J. Gallagher

Comments

Debby Applegate said…
Thanks so much for including me in your Brooklyn Books list. I've heard wonderful things about BookCourt many times but have never been there myself so take special pleasure in your post. I'm doubly honored to be featured on their shelves and in your blog.

With warm thanks I am yours,
Debby Applegate, author of The Most Famous Man in America: The Biography of Henry Ward Beecher
Unknown said…
Your welcome Debby. If you are ever in the neighborhood - please let me know. It would be nice to meet you in person and perhaps a more in depth interview.
Anonymous said…
I agree, BookCourt is the best bookstore around. The only problem with the place is that is impossible to just stop in for a minute or two; somehow, hours evaporate in there.

One book not on your list (which I discovered inside BookCourt) is the delightful "I Live in Brooklyn" written and illlustrated by Mari Takabayashi. Next time you are there, pick up a copy.