The subject matter (the evolution of suburbia, from architecture to economics to neighborhood/community culture, on Long Island NY) is interesting, and the authors' writing style is refreshingly readable, especially for an academic work. But somebody did a positively *horrible* job proofreading and cleaning this up for publication. The sheer number of typos and even improperly formated bits (such as the second and third block quotes and footnoted items in the first chapter) honestly shocked me. I actually flipped back to the publication page, about 20 pages in, to doublecheck whether my copy might be an uncorrected ARC. The sloppiness really undercut my enjoyment of the reading and even my trust of the work, which was a shame. ( )

I think there are better books about the history of suburbia, but the second half of Picture Windows was a great study of the original Levittown on Long Island. I especially appreciated the discussion of recent changes in the racial and ethnic demographics of Long Island, as well as the economic difficulties resulting from de-industrialization and illegal work practices. The authors present a more positive, though still critical, view of suburbia that is missing in most scholarship. ( )