The Nature of New York: An Environmental History of the Empire State: "David Stradling's survey of New York's nature over four hundred years--from the Lenape and Leatherstocking to Levittown and Love Canal--is a marvel of environmental writing. In at times heartbreaking detail, he reminds us that New York, like anywhere, is a living place--pristine, violated, cleansed, preserved--where humans are just one organism, a part of and apart from the destiny of the place."

Ship Ablaze: The Tragedy of the Steamboat General Slocum. "Edward T. O’Donnell’s incisive narrative races with the doomed steamer Slocum up New York’s East River, illuminates the thousand obscure lives lost, and picks through the negligence for which no one was held sufficiently accountable."

Waterworks: A Photographic Journey Through New York's Hidden Water System. "Stanley Greenberg’s photographs of New York City’s waterworks capture the essence of urban life, the tension between the vigor and the devourings of crowded human habitation: the obscure, subterranean, dank habitats of its pure lifeblood flowing from distant mountains through the faucets of millions"