Well, I liked it, not as much as "Paris to the Moon" but I am having a hard time saying why. Maybe Paris seems exotic to me so a NYC writer's essays on life in Paris are fascinating whereas, since I lived in NYC, essays on life in NYC seem less interesting. Also, I had a really hard time with the essay on Gopnik's therapy - I lost a little respect for him, and that is not good when the reader is expected to credit the writer with insight sufficient to merit attention to his essays. If you don't have a lot of respect for the writer, can you care whar he has to say on a particular topic? Fortunately, Gopnik redeemed himself with the Purim story essay which I loved, so I was back in his corner, but the book zigged and zagged in a way that Paris to the Moon did not.

I know this review is a bit fuzzy. I suppose the outcome is that I would definately read Gopnik's next book so that either means I did not dislike this book all that much, or I am a hopeless optimist!

Both a sweet book, full of fondness and warmth, and thought provoking about what it means to be alive in modern times. I enjoyed it.

pretentious new york drivel. (i give it 2 stars just for it's references to life in the nyc)

My reading society is currently reading this one (it was my choice this month). I found it heart-warming and bathed in its knowledgable teller's thoughts.

I didn't expect this book to be so witty and laugh-out-loud funny. The author and his young family move back to NYC from 5 years in Paris, and readjust to life in Manhattan and learn to be NY'ers with kids. That's the entire story but it's engaging and sharply observed, as well as wry in the mid-section of the book (post 9/11). I would recommend it to all my NYC friends!

For anyone who has ever been fascinated by New York City, lived there, or has young children.

Loved From Paris to the Moon, found this one pretentious and unreadable. Gave up (gasp) about 80 pages in.

Worth a read, especially if you're a New Yorker (or wish you were), or a Gopnik fan. However, not nearly as wonderful as his 'Paris to the Moon'.

I love Gopnik and Paris to the Moon may have been one of my favorite books, but while I love New York and fantasize about living there, this didn't quite reach the five stars I would give to his Paris book. I found his description of his daughter's imaginary friend, Charlie Ravioli, who was too busy to play with Olivia so charming, and I think his thoughts on child-rearing, whether in NY or elsewhere, were astute and could be part of a manual for parents anywhere. I had a lump in my throat reading about teacher, art critic and friend, Kirk Vardandoe, who coached his son's football team and taught them all such valuable lessons for football and life. The fears and insecurities that arise after 9/11 and then recede as daily life with children and work must continue, and the way his son deals with these fears is briliantly rendered. All-in-all a great book and one I would highly recommend to any parent and to anyone who loves New York.

Gopnik starts out with New York clichés (apartment-search malaise, private schools, shrinks, Judaism) but hits his stride with the more hopeful, less jaded stories like "Bumping into Mr. Ravioli" and the one about the Giant Metrozoids.

Gopnik and his wife decide to move with their family from Paris back home to New York City. The chapters of the book consist of little stories about Gopnik’s kids, about life in New York City after living in Paris, about New York after 9-11. The subject of the chapters is not important. Gopnik has a way of writing so well, so thoughtfully, that the real subject is clearly living itself. Trying to battle what Gopnik calls “the screens,” the video and computer and game screens that have taken over the lives of Gopnik’s children and all American children, was the chapter that hit closest to my heart.

Written by a writer for the New Yorker, an ex ex-pat's renewed view of New York and the New York City life. Lots of it is too true and eerily parallel to so many of us New Yorkers. All current ex-pats from New York should read this to make you more homesick than you are now - you know who you are!

A good friend of mine gave me this book because based on the title, she thought it was about bringing up kids in NYC. Since I thought I knew all about this subject, I let it sit on my shelf for 6 months and recently opened it and to my surprise, the title is a misnomer - editors take note. Yes, it is about a family moving back to NYC after living in Paris for 5 years, but the references to children and children's activities and observations are minute. So, now my friend will be disappointed, not me.

This collection of essays about living in the Big Apple is hilarious, more fun than a Seinfeld episode and if you are one to find humor in a person who is adept at self deprecation, you will find this a great read!