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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent coverage of NY suburbs
Review: For all New Yorkers anticipating moving to the suburbs and for all out-of-towenrs anticipating moving in the city or in the metropolitan area -- this is an excellent guide to some of the more significant communities in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey. It provides short descriptions of towns and communities within the mretropolitan area -- by reading the book one takes a journey, which leaves a much richer impression of New York and the surrounding area than one would have having just visited Manhattan.
Rating:
Summary: Neighborhood Hunting Made Simple
Review: For many individuals living or planning to move to New York City or its' neighboring suburbs, getting to know the characteristics of the area's many diverse neighborhoods can be very difficult. Moving into the wrong neighborhood can often be both dangerous and unproductive for many outsiders (and even natives) who want to move to due to reasons relating to crime, finances, or proximity to jobs.Well the New York Times has compiled a book of essays about the area's best communities to live in, which should make the job of choosing the right neighborhood much more easier. "If You're Thinking..." provides plenty of statistical and residential information that will prove helpful to anyone looking for new communities in the city. Although the book is very outdated when it comes to rents (a 2 bedroom in story has shot up to $1,200 in 1999) and the author doesn't really cover the recent changes in the ethnic compositions of some neighborhoods (Astoria, Queens is becoming heavily Brazilian, Colombian, and Mexican; Riverdale in the Bronx has seen a huge influx of Dominican immigrants; Inwood in Manhattan has also a huge Dominican population; etc..). Overall this is a good book to review your choices before moving to the area, however I feel that an updated version is needed in the market. If you want to check out updated neighborhood information, then search on the web, however read this book to get a good picture of life in the suburbs (most of the info in the book is still up-to-date).
Rating: 
Summary: Good but incomplete
Review: I have lived in Manhattan for 13 years, and when it was time to buy I picked up this book. I found it fun to read and helpful in understanding for example the commuting times to each area featured, etc. However it does not include every neighborhood, in fact the area where we finally purchased (Ft. Greene Bklyn) isn't even included in the book. Buy this along with the Zany's guide and you'll get the full picture.
Rating: 
Summary: There are better guides out there
Review: I was surprised to find out that areas I thought should be in this guide were not and that areas I wouldn't consider "around New York" were. To me, a neighborhood "in and around New York" might include some NJ towns, but to give as much time to the towns listed in NJ and CT, I think the book would more accurately be titled "all about popular communities in the tri-state area."
I'm disappointed I bought this guide.
Rating: 
Summary: This is what you need to know
Review: It's unclear whether I'm moving to New York at this point, but I didn't want to wait to find out for sure before I got a head start on knowing where I would want to live. I was so happy when I stumbled upon thisbook. Not only does it list neighborhoods in New York, but also in N.J. and Conn. And for each neighborhood, it tells how long it takes to get to Manhattan, so "outsiders" have a point of reference. The only thing lacking in this book is it doesn't contain pictures, but the descriptions are so vivid and thoughtful, it doesn't matter that much. There are, however, some detailed maps, which makes getting used to the geography easier. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: A great guide to living in and around New York City
Review: PLEASE NOTE:...if you want to move to New York, this book would be a great place to start. It tells you everything you'd want to know about the hundreds (115, to be exact) of places you can choose to live here, with information on schools, recreation, commuting, house prices, history, and community atmosphere. The perfect book for anyone coming to New York or contemplating moving around in New York
Rating:
Summary: Good for a broad overview
Review: This book is good for broad overviews of the various neighborhoods in and around New York City. Thus it might be particularly helpful for the reader who is not at all familiar with the Big Apple and its surrounding communities. Not a good source for information on apartment rental markets. Info favors familes with children over the young, single professional.
Rating:
Summary: Good for a broad overview
Review: This book is good for broad overviews of the various neighborhoods in and around New York City. Thus it might be particularly helpful for the reader who is not at all familiar with the Big Apple and its surrounding communities. Not a good source for information on apartment rental markets. Info favors familes with children over the young, single professional.
Rating: 
Summary: Save you money.
Review: This book paints **every** neighborhood in and around NY as being lovely and quaint, even if in reality they are filthy, graffiti-drenched, and not particularly safe. This book complicated my move to NY because, based on it's misinformative "rosey" neighborhood profiles, I went and looked at apartments in a lot of neighborhoods that were filthy and scary. I finally found a great neighborhood to live in, but this book had been no help at all. The sad truth is that not every place in NY is a great neighborhood to live. It's a big city and you have to be careful and avoid the bad places. This book **sinfully** ignores this. It's like they're bending over backwards trying to please every neighborhood council in the city instead of being accurate. I've never felt so ripped off about a book purchase before.
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