Our Boston, Andrew Blauner
Our Boston, Andrew Blauner
List: $22.95 | Sale: $16.07
Club: $11.47

Our Boston
Writers Celebrate the City They Love

Author: Andrew Blauner

Narrator: various narrators, Peter Berkrot, Johnny Heller, Malcolm Hillgartner, Jim Meskimen, Joe Barrett, Bernadette Dunne, Bronson Pinchot, Carrington MacDuffie, Susan Boyce, Kevin Kenerly, Meredith Mitchell, Ralph Lister

Unabridged: 10 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/15/2014

Synopsis

What defines Boston? Its history? Its landmarks? Its sports teams and shrines?Perhaps the question should be, who defines Boston? From Henry David Thoreau to Dennis Lehane, Boston has been beloved by many of America's greatest writers, and there is no better group of men and women to capture the heart and soul of the Hub. In Our Boston, editor Andrew Blauner has collected both original and reprinted essays from Boston-area writers past and present, all celebrating the city they love. In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, they responded to his call to celebrate this great city by providing almost all brand-new works, and forgoing royalties in order to support the survivors and their families.From Mike Barnicle to Pico Iyer, Susan Orlean to George Plimpton, Leigh Montville to Lesley Visser, Pagan Kennedy to James Atlas, here is a collection of the best essays by our best writers on one of America's greatest cities.

About Andrew Blauner

Andrew Blauner is the founder of Blauner Books Literary Agency. He is the editor of Coach: 25 Writers Reflect on People Who Made a Difference; Brothers: 26 Stories of Love and Rivalry; and Central Park: An Anthology. He is also coeditor of Anatomy of Baseball. A graduate of Brown University and Columbia Business School, he is a member of PEN and the National Book Critic Circle.

About Kevin Cullen

Kevin Cullen is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who has written for the Boston Globe since 1985, and he was the first to raise questions about Whitey Bulger’s relationship with the FBI. A frequent commentator on NPR and the BBC, Cullen has won major journalism prizes, including the Goldsmith Prize, the George Polk Award, and the Selden Ring Award.

About André Aciman

André Aciman is the New York Times bestselling author of Call Me By Your Name, Out of Egypt, Eight White Nights, False Papers, Alibis, Harvard Square, Enigma Variations, and Find Me. He is the editor of The Proust Project and teaches comparative literature at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

About Charles McGrath

Charles McGrath is a writer at large at The New York Times, and was formerly editor of The New York Times Book Review and deputy editor of The New Yorker. He is the coauthor of The Ultimate Golf Book and a frequent contributor to Golf Digest. McGrath lives in New Jersey.

About Madeleine Blais

Madeleine Blais was a reporter for the Miami Herald for years before joining the faculty of the School of Journalism at the University of Massachusetts. She is the author of In These Girls, Hope Is a Muscle, Uphill Walkers, and The Heart Is an Instrument, a collection of her journalism. Madeleine lives in Amherst, Massachusetts.

About George Howe Colt

George Howe Colt is the bestselling author of November of the Soul: The Enigma of Suicide and The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American Summer Home, which was a National Book Award finalist and a New York Times Notable Book. He lives with his family in Massachusetts.

About Susan Orlean

Susan Orlean has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 1992. She is the New York Times bestselling author of several books, including The Library Book, Rin Tin Tin, and Saturday Night, as well as The Orchid Thief, which was made into the Academy Award–winning film Adaptation. She lives with her family and her animals in Los Angeles and may be reached at SusanOrlean.com and on Twitter @SusanOrlean.

About David Michaelis

David Michaelis is the author of two bestselling biographies, including N. C. Wyeth, which won the Ambassador Book Award for Biography and Autobiography, given by the English-Speaking Union of the United States. He lives in New York City.

About Jabari Asim

Jabari Asim is a writer and multidisciplinary artist. He directs the MFA program in creative writing at Emerson College, where he is also the Elma Lewis Distinguished Fellow in Social Justice. He has written for the Washington Post and is the former editor-in-chief of the NCAAP magazine The Crisis.

About Lesley Visser

Lesley Visser is the most highly acclaimed female sportscaster of all time. She is the first and only woman in the Pro Football Hall of Fame; the only female sportscaster to have carried the Olympic Torch; the only woman to have presented the championship Lombardi Trophy at the Super Bowl; and the first woman on the network broadcasts of the Final Four, Super Bowl, and NBA finals. She was voted the Outstanding Female Sportscaster of all Time by the National Sportscasters of America, and was also elected to the Sportswriters Hall of Fame for her work at the Boston Globe, national magazines, and CBS.com. Visser was the first and only woman to win the Billie Jean King “Outstanding Journalist” award, and has been honored as the first woman Lombardi Fellow, named a Sports Business Journal “Champion,” and also elected to the Sports Museum of Boston. A graduate of Boston College, which awarded her an honorary doctorate in 2007, she has been on the board of the V Foundation for Cancer Research for more than twenty years, while also serving on the board of NYU’s “Sports and Society.” Visser has mentored young women for decades, while speaking at colleges and businesses around the world. A sportscaster at CBS for more than twenty-five years, she also spent nearly ten at ABC Sports, where she became the first woman on Monday Night Football while also covering the World Series, World Figure Skating, World Skiing Championships, and Triple Crown. She has been voted one of the “Women We Love” by Esquire magazine and one of “Five Ideal Dinner Guests” by GQ. Most recently, she was honored by the Muhammad Ali Center as a “Daughter of Greatness,” in recognition of her leadership and dedication to activism and pursuit of justice. She and her husband, Bob Kanuth, a former captain of Harvard Basketball, live in Bay Harbor Islands, Florida.

About Hugh Delehanty

Hugh Delehanty is a former editor for Sports Illustrated and People. He is also the co-author, along with Phil Jackson, of the bestselling memoir Sacred Hoops.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Kavish on March 24, 2020

Uneven at times, but replete with gems, both full stories and mere sentences, about my most favorite place.......more

Goodreads review by Doreen on February 17, 2014

I rate this book as 'amazing' because of its effect on me, personally. Published after the tragedy in Boston, Patriots' Day 2013, this book honors the city of Boston. It honors and memorializes those who were injured or killed on that day, as well as the brave souls who sought to help them. It's a......more

Goodreads review by Katy on April 19, 2023

I have lived in the Boston area all my life, but sadly, most of these essays did not resonate with me. There were a few poignant and moving ones that really captured the heart, stubbornness, curious spirit, and resilience of Boston, but sadly this was mostly a sea of waspy, elitist voices of yestery......more

Goodreads review by Bob on October 17, 2013

if you're at all familiar with boston, this is a good collection. some great and evocative writing herewith.......more

Goodreads review by Bernard on August 24, 2021

The essays were uneven, some outstanding, others less so. But as a mosaic of people's perspectives on Boston, especially following the horror of the Marathon bombing, it touched my hearts. Some spoke specifically to my neighborhood of Dorchester -- Mike Barnacle had a piece on Dorchester Avenue (AKA......more

Quotes

“Our Boston is a stellar anthology, a love letter to a resilient city penned by an all-star team of writers, from Lehane to Updike to Orlean, among others. This book is as full of history and surprises as the city itself.” Tom Perrotta, New York Times bestselling author

“For anyone who loves great writing and learning about the lives of great writers. It’s an absolute gem of a book—as perfect as a Legal lobster dinner or a Toscanini’s sundae.” Seth Mnookin, New York Times bestselling author

“Our Boston gives us skilled, knowing, warm, observant writers who embrace the city personally, pointedly, suggestively, and in so doing tell us so very much about our country, ourselves. Their Boston is a telling reminder of a nation’s story.” Robert Coles, Pulitzer Prize–winning author

“Like the remarkable city to which they pay tribute, the pieces assembled in this book are diverse, engrossing, illuminating, emotional, funny—and glorious. Anyone who loves or has ever loved Boston will want a copy.” Claire Messud, author of The Emperor’s Children

“A distinguished, eloquent, and deeply felt testimony evoking not only the shadow on our hearts but also the resolve and vitality of this great American city.” Alec Wilkinson, author of The Ice Balloon

“Read this book if you have ever lived in Boston and want to remember the unique pull of the place; if you’ve never lived in Boston and want to understand its unusual charm; if you currently live in Boston and want to see reflected in these pages a metropolis that thrums with innovation and warmth at the same time.” Lauren Slater, author of Opening Skinner’s Box

“A collection of nonfiction pieces by an impressive array of writers…A must-read for everyone who already cares about Boston and anyone looking beyond the tourist guides for a more intimate view of this iconic American city.” Booklist

“The quality of the writing is uniformly high…worthy and moving.” Kirkus Reviews

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List