2024 the best pizza in manhattan review

Price: $14.99
(as of Dec 22, 2024 09:56:06 UTC - Details)

When a twenty-something punk rocker eats a cheese slice from every pizzeria in New York City over the course of two years, he also gets sober, falls in love, and starts a blog. He is the Slice Harvester, and “everyone has something to gain from this tale of blackouts, almost burning out, and too-burned crusts” (Newsweek).

In August 2009, Colin Hagendorf set out to review every regular slice of pizza in Manhattan, and his blog, Slice Harvester, was born. Two years and 435 slices later, he’d been featured in The Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News and on radio shows all over the country. Suddenly, this self-proclaimed punk who was barely making a living delivering burritos had a following. But at the same time Hagendorf was stepping up his game for the masses (grabbing slices with Phoebe Cates and her teenage daughter, reviewing kosher pizza so you don’t have to), his personal life was falling apart.

A problem drinker and chronic bad boyfriend, he started out using the blog as a way to escape—the hangovers, the midnight arguments, the hangovers again—until realizing that by taking steps to reach a goal day by day, he’d actually put himself in a place to finally take control of his life for good. “In this entertaining memoir, Hagendorf mashes up that journey with the topics of addiction, family, punk rock, nostalgia, and love….Full of drinking binges, colorful characters from the punk scene, and random asides, like comparing a slice to Anthony Kiedis, the narrative takes readers on a roller-coaster ride” (Publishers Weekly).

One of NPR’s Best Books of 2015, Slice Harvester “stands out from the pack…wry, witty, surprisingly insightful. Hagendorf veers from the profane to the profound in the same sentence…about chasing ideals, romantic as well as culinary, and how that can be both noble and annihilating” (NPR Books).

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00P434DEW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition (August 11, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 11, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 6947 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 225 pages
Reviewer: Patrick Morganelli
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Pizza-themed But It's Definitely Not Cheesy! Fantastic Memoir that Goes So Much Deeper
Review: After hearing about this book on a random radio interview, I picked it up on a whim. Boy am I glad that I did! Colin Hagendort, aka "The Slice Harvester," while in a "drinking and talking" state with one of his buddies, came up with a plan to eat a plain cheese slice at every single pizzeria on the island of Manhattan, while reviewing each slice on his blog. While this, in itself, could make for a totally engaging read, The Slice Harvester goes so much further, to make this a true 5-star reading experience.Colin intersperses individual review selections from his blog with incredibly easy to relate to stories about his personal life (his childhood, his adolescence, and his present state), the "lives" and histories of different areas of NYC, and the histories of various pizza parlors (and the families who built them). The book has a definite "quest" narrative, where Colin confronts his personal demons during his mission, meets new and old friends and acquaintances along the way, and ultimately triumphs in much more important ways than just finishing all the pizzas!Highlights of the book included Colin "slice harvesting" with movie star Phoebe Cates and her teenage daughter, and (more of a highlight for me), his harvesting mission with personally massively respected Bay Area zine legend Aaron Cometbus (I met him ages ago in the Bay Area)!!! That was a totally unexpected and wonderful surprise!!! The sections of the book that deal with New York pizza history were also fascinating and insightful reads, as well as Colin's descriptions of life growing up in the NY punk scene.Colin's writing style, itself, is spot on. His writing is incredibly clear and direct, yet deeply emotional and absolutely loaded with biting humor. He weaves together deeply personal memoirs and insights seamlessly with the gluey cheese and grease of hundreds of cheese slices! I started reading this book and could not put it down until I reached the last page.Perhaps I am extra partial to this book, and Colin's writing, as I grew up in the early 90's California Bay Area punk scene, read many of the same zines as Colin did during my formative years, and listened to a lot of the same records. I can totally relate to many of Colin's stories as I had lived through similar situations myself in the not so distant past. I also lived in NYC for 5 years, and this book totally took me back there (I have actually eaten at several of the pizzerias he profiled, including Gino's). His portrait of how New York has evolved, for better and worse, over the last few decades is dead accurate.Final recommendation: just buy this book at any cost. Even if you don't like pizza, you will love this!!! 5+ stars!

Reviewer: Maria K
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: easy read, fun
Review: easy read, fun, a little silly and a little depressing. Anyone thinking of becoming a reviewer of items or services should read this to see a different type of review style.

Reviewer: Judi Snt.Cruz
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A north-to-south tour through Manhattan pizzerias and the people encountered there
Review: So far this is a rather unique approach to a personal story as well as to a guide to New York pizza. The author, with his self-proclaimed punk sensibility, has a breezy writing style. That, coupled with the easy-to-read font and line spacing, will make this a quick and fun read prior to my upcoming NY trip. I suspect the book may even delve into more substantial life stories as it progresses.

Reviewer: Michael G. Abrams
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Brilliant
Review: This is not a story about pizza or food. It is the journey of a young man at war with his suburban roots and family expectations who dives into the underground life of the City. After being lost in drugs, alcohol and meaningless relationships, he finds order in a quest to be a popular blogger, and finds peace and meaning in his life by completing his chosen task. Recent interviews and TV spots focusing on his search for the perfect Slice, only diminish this brilliantly written memoir. This is an author we will be hearing from for many years.

Reviewer: Chad and Jenna
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Pizza? Not really.
Review: I guess I misunderstood. I thought I was buying a memoir of pizza eating, not a book about a sad sack punk with a drinking problem who sometimes eats pizza and writes bad reviews about it. His style of prose gets annoying, and I found myself really not caring at all about the author. I even quit reading I was so bored, but finished it to justify spending 15 bucks on this "memoir." Next time focus more on what matters, the pizza. Basically, I'm glad this guys life is back together, but just not a very good book.

Reviewer: Brook Shelley
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Loved this
Review: Knowing Colin, I could hear this book in his voice (and eventually did, as I got to help check his bootleg audiobook version for his grandma. Lol). Such a great tale, with some bio about the slice slingers thrown in. Glad he made it through, and this was a joy to read. Also, damn, alcohol is rough, and it's hella rad he got sober and is thriving now. Read this if you like pizza.

Reviewer: Genor
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great prose from a punk point of view.
Review: I picked this up at the library on a Saturday and finished it later that night. It's not a gripping page-turner by any means, but I was truly engaged in Colin's story. His style of writing is extremely vulnerable, thoughtful and self-deprecating in a truly funny way. While reading, I found myself reflecting a ton on my own Punk experiences, reading Cometbus, making zines, working in dead end food-service jobs, thinking about a wasted youth, and finding resolution with my own demons. His is truly a coming of age story. As others have have stated, the pizza reviews are a component to his story, driving it forward and giving some meaning to his self-discovery, but it also makes you yearn for that heavenly grail of a slice in your version of the "Capitalistic Death Culture". Well written prose and a great read that will stick with me.

Reviewer: jeff soster
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Speedy delivery!
Review: Great buy! Great book!

Reviewer: Matt Shannon
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title:
Review: First off - yes, five stars - the objective criteria for five stars is "loved it", and yes I did.Clever, collected, and ... really clever, you'll find a story that very much is a review of Manhattan's pizzas, true - but also the people in that world. Some samples area available online, and I do suggest you check them out - but this book does a lot better than most conversations in that it changes tone and and immediate topic without ever getting lost, without ever leaving you behind, or without expressing the right amount of honesty - you may find yourself or your friends in the surprising range of characters in a book about pizza reviews, and will probably laugh as much as you chuckle, and I deeply appreciate all that. Not enough books discuss the changing of neighborhoods with references to Black Flag songs not yet invented, and deplorably few let you in on the formative moments when a person finds themselves finding themselves without it appropriately being preceded or (followed by) a lot of vomit.