Before I even got to Grand Central Station I sat down and wept Book

So much fun reading about Manhattan of 40 years ago. Hanff's breezy style always goes down easy. It's one thing to say I wish I had known a certain author, but with Hanff I feel certain that I have known her. That we've been to a 92nd Street Y event together. (We haven't.)

The first couple of World Trade Center mentions were a punch to the gut, but then I grew grateful that this was one of the sights on her list.

Loved her descriptions of the newly designed Roosevelt Island and the newly reopened Ellis Island. And I took just as much glee in her crotchetiness about the Met Museum. I disagreed with her, but that was the fun of it.

I liked learning that not everyone cried when the old Penn Station was torn down and I giggled over Hanff's "why bother" eyeroll about restoring Grand Central.

This edition contains a section of updates written in the late '80s (if Yuppies seem so quaint now, when will the notion of hipsters disappear?), and it's eerie to read the chapter about the glitz of Trump Tower. Talk about gut punch.

As much as I enjoyed reading about the sights, I savored the little time capsule details the most. The lunch cafeterias. The concern over whether smoking was permitted on tour buses. And all those descriptions of regular streets in various neighborhoods.

If you're like me and wanted to know exactly where Patsy lived and what her husband did: It was the Beresford and he was an attorney.