This week's notable praise begins right here in the streets of Boston. As the Hub of the Universe sits down to read together (unified for the first time), here are just a few items we would like to celebrate:

In an online poll, Boston Globe readers chose Stephen Puleo's Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 as Boston's first ever "One Book, One City" selection. Coming in a close second place was Michael Patrick McDonald's memoir All Souls: A Family Story from Southie. It was exciting watching the two Beacon books neck and neck in the polling all week, and we are proud that both have had such a lasting impact on readers and our city.

The Sunday edition of the New York Post featured an opinion piece by Gail Dines, author of Pornland, about how an entire generation of men has been jaded by the overabundance of hardcore pornography at their disposal. The Washington Post's Express Night Out featured an interview with Dines about her personal experience writing this book.

Jeremy Adam Smith, author of The Daddy Shift, editor of Are We Born Racist? and the newly awarded 2010-11 Knight Fellow at Stanford University, recently appeared in the July issue of Parents magazine with his take on the reality of being a new dad as well as the expectations and responsibilities of staying home. You can also watch him on the Today Show in a segment on stay-at-home dads.

Steve Wilson's book, The Boys from Little Mexico, paints a portrait of an all-Hispanic boys' soccer team in Oregon en route to the state championship. In a special soccer book post commemorating the World Cup on Nancy Pearl's Book Lust blog, Wilson's book received notable mention as a must-read. The House of Soccer blog also gave it a great review, which makes us want to shout, "Gooooooaaaaaallll!"