By Dan Murphy
Hopefully all of us can find some time this summer to relax and read a good book – preferably on a beach somewhere. Two books with a Yonkers angle caught my eye as suggested summer reading material.
Former reporter and Yonkers City Council President’s Officer staffer Laura Fahrenthold has written “The Pink Steering Wheel Chronicles,” which presents a moving portrait of her life told with unflinching honesty about marriage, motherhood, and mourning after the sudden death of her husband, Bloomberg journalist Mark Pittman.
A former NY Daily News crime reporter and 14-year editor at Woman’s World magazine, Fahrenthold shares her adventures and misadventures, her deeply-layered love story, and her hilarious slice of life dispatches at home and on 31,152-ash-spreading miles across the U.S. and Canada in an RV with her eyeball-rolling teens and a stray dog in tow, where the pink steering wheel becomes her spiritual GPS.
Fahrenthold explains that the book, which was an Amazon “Hot New Pick,” is a recap xxxxxx of the effort to heal her family and daughters after the death of their father, and the road trip they took that forced the family to heal. “It was a way to be a family again,” she said. “In order for my girls to heal, they would need a lot of love, a lot of fresh air, and a lot of sunshine.”
The author’s honesty and ability to explain their experiences are life lessons for everyone who has to deal with loss.
Fahrenthold served as press secretary to Yonkers City Council President Chuck Lesnick. She returns to her Yonkers roots with a book signing this Saturday, June 30 from 2 to 4 p.m. at Barnes & Noble on Central Park Avenue.
Patricia Vaccarino has penned “YONKERS Yonkers!” about the old Yonkers Carnegie library, which was torn down in one of the worst acts of bad redevelopment and lack of foresight in the city’s history.
Vaccarino left her hometown of Yonkers at age 17 and never looked back… kind of. She remembers returning to Yonkers to visit her grandmother, and standing in front of the Finast grocery store in Getty Square, she saw a friend she knew from long ago, Donna Gendelman, carrying an armload of books. Vaccarino asked her what she was doing with the books.
“I’m returning them to the library,” Gendelman replied.
Vaccarino pointed to the Yonkers City Hall, close to where the library once stood. A gaping hole in the ground was all that remained.
The destruction of the library might be the darkest hour in the city’s history. The Carnegie Library was razed to make room for a bridge to New Jersey that never materialized, and yet, the site of a dry cleaner’s owned by a Yonkers City Council member was preserved.
Vaccarino never forgot the library that once stood as a beacon of hope and inspired her to become a writer. Now a historical photo of the library is on the cover of her controversial book, which sheds light on the true underpinnings of racism. The friendship between gutsy white girl Cookie Colangelo and shy black boy Herman Lynch captures the harsh, sometimes hilarious realities of being black or white in working-class Yonkers.
“YONKERS Yonkers!” takes place during one of the most turbulent times in American history, 1969-71. Experience Woodstock, the music of the times, the Vietnam War, a bad president in the White House, upheaval in society, and the fundamental breakdown of social order. The reader will never forget the metaphor and imagery of the owl, the beauty of the Sumac trees, and the powerful portrayal of what it means to be a human being.
“Yonkers Yonkers!” is a literary fiction for adults and young adults. It is available on Amazon, in libraries, and in select book stores, and can also be purchased at the Yonkers Barnes & Noble.
Enjoy your summer, Yonkers.
