Summary: Publisher Summary 1 A collection of travel essays on Boston includes selections by fifteen of the city's best writers, including architecture critics Robert Campbell and Jane Holtz; novelists Patricia Powell, Susan Orlean, and Anita Diamant; journalist Scott Kirsner; and columnist Derrick Jackson, among others. Original.   Publisher Summary 2 Full of established writers and fresh voices, a rich collection of essays celebrates Boston's past, present, and future This collection presents a vivid new portrait of Boston through the writing of fifteen of the city's finest authors. Fresh eyes are cast upon the urban landscape and psyche, with provocative pieces by architecture critics Robert Campbell and Jane Holtz Kay, and by Jack Beatty on Boston's political past and present. Boston has long been known as a literary city, but novelist Patricia Powell offers a new take on the literary landscape and the immigrant experience. Susan Orlean offers up a loving tribute to the city she left and then returned to. Best-selling novelist Anita Diamant celebrates her discovery of a true spiritual home in Boston, while Boston Globe columnist Scott Kirsner investigates what makes Boston a powerhouse of scientific and technological innovation. All Souls author Michael Patrick MacDonald pens a moving essay on gentrification and what it means to old neighborhoods like Southie, while Boston Globe columnist Derrick Jackson looks at Boston as a laboratory for advancing race relations. No book about Boston would be complete without a discussion of sports, so Howard Bryant, author of Shut Out and columnist for the Boston Herald, explains the city's recreational obsession. All of these writers and more offer an illuminating profile of the city that many people consider the birthplace of America.   Publisher Summary 3 Boston has persevered through the bad old days to thrive, and more, to make a kind of statement about the good city. The good city is innovative and fun, it is prosperous, it strives for justice and sustainability, but above all, it is alive. -From the Introduction by Paul Grogan The Good Citypresents a vivid new profile of Boston through the work of fifteen of the city's finest writers. Robert Campbell and Jane Holtz Kay on Boston's embrace of lively urban density James Miller on the city's intellectual history Jack Beatty on Boston's colorful political past and present Patricia Powell on the literary landscape and the immigrant experience Susan Orlean on the city she left and now loves John Hanson Mitchell on how nature revives the metropolis Anita Diamant on Boston as a spiritual home Scott Kirsner on Boston as a powerhouse of scientific and technological innovation Alan Chong on the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the arts in Boston Lynda Morgenroth on the city's neighborhoods Michael Patrick MacDonald on gentrification and what it means to old neighborhoods like Southie Derrick Jackson on Boston as a laboratory for advancing race relations Howard Bryant on the city's obsession with sports Irene Smalls on seeing the city through the eyes of a child.