Big Shot: from New Yorkers, edited by Max Kozloff.

1. City Room Timesman Arthur Gelb’s memoir of nearly half a century at the paper gets going when a plane hits the Empire State Building and concludes when Jayson Blair torpedoes Howell Raines. (Putnam; $29.95.)

2. Ghostly Men Franz Lidz sets down the story of the Collyer brothers, the two demented souls who lived in a Harlem mansion crammed with 40 years of urban detritus until 1947, then became a tabloid sensation. (Bloomsbury; $19.95.)

3. The Colossus of New York Acclaimed novelist Colson Whitehead’s thirteen impressionistic essays channel his native city via myriad fleeting viewpoints in an occasionally affecting homage to E. B. White. (Doubleday; $19.95.)

4. Who Sleeps With Katz Were James Joyce a New Yorker with a light touch, Ulysses might look something like Todd McEwen’s novel of a (lyrical and literal) ramble from Morningside Heights to the West Village. A man with terminal lung cancer, trying to track his fatal cigarette, should appeal to prohibitionists and nostalgic smokers alike. (Granta; $18.95.)

5. New Yorkers: As Seen By Magnum Photographers More than 150 photos spanning 60 years drive home the city’s motion, romance, filth, sex, strife, and glamour in Max Kozloff’s thematically organized collection. (powerHouse; $45.)

Related:

• Archive: “Top Five”
• Articles by Boris Kachka
• Table of Contents: Nov 3, 2003 issue of New York | Subscribe!