It seems yesterday's plea for the return of the Gridskipper of yore was unnecessary, though it did not fall on deaf ears. Both Lockhart Steele and Ben Leventhal assure us that "by fall you'll see a new plan in place, featuring more of the Gridskipper you loved restored, with, perhaps, a tweaked format and plenty of new material."

And that's not all; it turns out that the trademark maps will soon be showing up on the rest of the Curbed network's sites. I'm so relieved, and excited to see what the new maps (especially those on Racked) will look like!

From: hamptons.guestofaguest.com:

While I lived in Paris, Gawker's urbane travel site Gridskipper was my bible, a somewhat snarky, vastly knowledgeable guide to all things unFrommered. When I left, my brain was crammed not with french, but with the French, and where they allez-y-ed for the most tolerable free bar meals, scenic public sexcapades, sludgiest chocolat chaud... tidbits that I'd eagerly pass on to future expats. When I came back to New York, Gridskipper again rose to the occasion, though I relied on it less.

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I've been waiting for what seems like ages for my mother to finish Jhumpa Lahiri's new book. Actually, I keep pilfering it to use as a lunch companion, and then forgetting to return it, thus incurring wrath and impeding its eventual arrival to my nightstand. Unaccustomed Earth is a compilation of eight mid-length stories revolving around the struggles of second generation Indian Americans and their immigrant parents to combine two worlds.

These stories are not always easy to read, but they are beautifully, and quietly written, and managed to put me, a caucasian american, into the uncomfortable, shifting shoes of Bengali immigrants and their children. If you like books that sweep you into a never-before-imagined-but-very-real world, you'll love this one. 

[Image via Random House]