Representative Media Excerpts for "Beacon Hill"

The Boston Herald, Dana Bisbee, December 20, 2002

"Born in Beijing, Li-Marcus has lived on Beacon Hill for eight years...she has both the outsider's objectivity and the insider's passion for this neighborhood."

Post and Courier, Elise S. Wald, January 5, 2003

"Moying Li-Marcus captures the energetic distinctiveness of the historic Boston neighborhood."

Harvard Magazine, November-December 2002

"She gives an illustrated account of the Hill's long, colorful saga, from Christmas Eve caroling to the Battle of the Bricks to a just-hatched community scheme to help keep older residents in their homes.

Swarthmore Magazine, Kaori Kitao, September 2003

"...she is free of jaundiced eyes that might hinder an heirloom Bostonian. But she is also an insider with an intimate knowledge of the neighborhood because it is her own backyard." "Li-Marcus writes...efficiently but charmingly...but also delivers novel observations."

Northeastern University Magazine, Susan Diesenhouse, November 2002

"Through spare, agile prose, she puts historic events into perspective by relating them to the ideas and values of the hill's residents: individual freedom, intellectual curiousity, responsible community, enterprise, and diversity." Li-Marcus's crisp style and detailed research offer the reader a fascinating walk through almost four centuries of a neighborhood's evolution, which often mirrored the growth of our nation."

The Beacon Hill Times, Karen Cord Taylor, November 12, 2002

"Everything about the book is refreshing". "The writing style is intelligent, without the self-congratulatory tone that can make some books about the neighborhood seem so provincial." "...Li-Marcus is sophisticated. She understands the complexity of the Hill and weaves stories of the famous and the infamous, the rich, the poor and the middling, the activists and nay-sayers, the innovators and the traditionalists, the black and white, Irish and Asian."