After reading [b:Dear Los Angeles: The City in Diaries and Letters, 1542 to 2018|39404423|Dear Los Angeles The City in Diaries and Letters, 1542 to 2018|David Kipen|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1522217878l/39404423._SY75_.jpg|61064085] I then wanted to read New York Diaries, which author David Kipen used as a model for his Dear Los Angeles because he liked the format.

Both books start on January 1st and go through December 31st. Each day has diary entries from different people in different years. Famous and not so famous. I love this format! You can turn to any day of the year and see what was happening anywhere from 400 years ago (in the case of New York) or as recently as a year ago (in the case of Los Angeles).

Just like with the Los Angeles book, I found myself intrigued by snippets of New York life, such as:

*Why in the world did women used to weave actual bird nests into their elaborate hairstyles??? Ew.
*President George Washington exercising on his horse.
*Married high society ladies accompanied by their boy toys when out to parties without their husbands.
*Teddy Roosevelt's heartache when his mom and wife died in his arms, hours apart.
*A 10-yo little heiress wanted kid gloves in salmon but was told that color wasn't useful. Then she was given a silk dress but it was the soft kind that doesn't rustle. LOL. She had a green silk dress that she hated so much she was secretly glad when it was splashed by mud from a carriage because the dress could not be cleaned. Another entry finds her walking back and forth on the balcony, crying so much her eyes hurt, because her father wouldn't let her go to the theater with her brother to see the acrobats because Christians shouldn't see such things. Parents crushing childrens' dreams since the 1840s. LOL

Anyway, if you like reading diaries, I highly recommend either or both of those books. In the back are explanations of who each person was and the name of the book if their diaries were published. If they weren't published, it tells you where you can go to see the manuscripts.

I need a book like this for each and every city in the world!!!! If you know of any other cities that have books like this or come across any, please let me know!! ( )

Part of me thinks this curated collection of excerpts -- drawn from the diaries of more than 150 New Yorkers over four centuries: George Washington and other politicians, businessmen, the literati and glitterati and contemporary bloggers -- is a terrific volume of history and “armchair anthropology.”

Another part feels like it’s Facebook, except these 150+ Friends are people fairly unknown to me, and I have 400 years of their updates to catch up on since I last logged in.

Recommended for thoughtful readers willing to take it slowly. The appendix of sources is especially recommended for its short biographies of the diarists and referral to their written works. ( )

Very well done and well selected. Among the surprises: how much the American Revolution affected the city, where a good amount of fighting took place. Lots of interesting tidbits by the likes of Dawn Powell, John Sloan, George Templeton Strong and the navigator for the Half Moon. ( )