"It’s about immigrants; it’s about people figuring out and then conquering an unfamiliar marketplace; it’s about all of the brilliant ideas that came to these guys as they invented the department store."

"I read this book in Kindergarten. As a child born to immigrants, it reminded me that even though things can look different to the outside eye, in the end they are all the same, and all taste delicious."

"Kazin’s book is a wonderful depiction of life in the world of Jewish immigrants. His wanderings through the city are described in loving, careful detail. Like Woolf’s essay on her childhood, Kazin captures aspects of consciousness that seem so subtle as to be impossible to express. This book is a neglected masterpiece."

"One of the most beautifully told family sagas in world literature. Exploring gender identity, ethnic identity, American dream, immigrants, family memories and collective myths… but to me this is primarily a novel about belonging—how we fail but still somehow find the hope and the will to continue to try to belong."

"Well recently I watched Grand Illusion, which I haven’t seen in several years — no, I’ll say another one instead: There’s one called Toni, that’s Jean Renoir before Grand Illusion, before Rules of the Game, and it’s set in the south of France and they’re Italian immigrants who’re working, who’re laborers working in the South of France. It’s very beautiful, kind of lyrical and very sad; a great Renoir movie. I don’t know if it’s seen that much anymore. It’s great."

"You may recognize Diane Guerrero’s name from Orange Is the New Black and Jane the Virgin, but her memoir is about the tragedy that struck her in her childhood. When she was just 14 year old, she came home to discover that her parents and brother had been arrested and were being deported back to Columbia. Diane got to stay in the US because she was born here. At a time when immigrants are living in more fear than ever, Guerrero’s book is a must-read."

"You may recognize Diane Guerrero’s name from Orange Is the New Black and Jane the Virgin, but her memoir is about the tragedy that struck her in her childhood. When she was just 14 year old, she came home to discover that her parents and brother had been arrested and were being deported back to Columbia. Diane got to stay in the US because she was born here. At a time when immigrants are living in more fear than ever, Guerrero’s book is a must-read."