Lost in Jersey City


Book Description

From the author of The Woman Who Was Not All There comes an inventive novel about a woman who discovers she can triumph over bigger challenges than she ever thought possible. After seven years in a stale marriage, Ida Terhune leaves Baton Rouge for Jersey City, where she undergoes an amazing transformation.




Left Bank of the Hudson


Book Description

"For nearly twenty years, a small, dedicated band of artists rented studio space at 111 1st Street, a former tobacco warehouse near the Hudson River waterfront in Jersey City, New Jersey. These artists eventually became engaged in a fight for their survival within the building and a city undergoing gentrification"--







Jersey City to Escobar's Colombia


Book Description

It was more than shock waves that went through downtown Jersey City in the sixties and early seventies, the Vietnam era. Forty or more people I was familiar with succumbed to alcohol and drugs. No one seemed to give any advice, only do as I say. No hugging, no loving, only surviving. Parents that talk more to themselves than to us. Fear, despair, and insecurities on my mind. Never had thoughts of my future, only to find out years later how things would change... Colombia, South America in the early nineties. Was introduced to Os, who changed much of Colombia, and the reward for the deeds I accomplished were the most beautiful women in the world. Os was a ruthless man, no nonsense, and on a mission to eliminate the drug lords. You will not learn compassion here, no pity, little love I was told, but my biggest mistake was love with a daughter of a right-hand man of Escobar who was called El. The table was always full of profiles of beautiful women. I went through hundreds, sometimes three a day, until she came along. This is not a love story. This is the hardcore truth from the streets to the moto girls killers...




Second Thief, Best Thief


Book Description







Remembering South Cape May


Book Description

Few would imagine that the land currently occupied by the Nature Conservancy's Cape May Migratory Bird Refuge, or "the Meadows, "? was once the picturesque Jersey Shore town of South Cape May. By the early twentieth century, a striking hotel and homes designed by renowned Victorian-era architects dotted the landscape. Residents and visitors alike spotted rumrunners racing across the beachfront during Prohibition and endured World War II with German submarines lurking just offshore. But by 1954, barely a trace of the town remained except for about twenty of the original houses, which were moved a mile away. Join one of the town's last residents, Joseph Burcher, as he chronicles life in South Cape May before the angry Atlantic swallowed this serene town.




Jersey City 1940-1960


Book Description

Photographer Dan McNulty was a Jersey City resident who spent most of his time working in his familys funeral home. McNultys photography was a mere sideline, but this fact did not affect the high artistic quality of the images of the city that he produced during the 1940s and 50s. During the two decades of McNultys work, Jersey City experienced many changes. The powerful political machine of Mayor Frank Hague was brought down after thirty years in 1949 by the reform team of John V. Kenny, and this period also saw the end of the citys success in the railroad industry. In the 1950s, the first large housing projects were constructed in the city; other sweeping developments in this sphere would follow in the 1960s. McNulty documented these changes and others that resulted during this twenty year period through dramatic photographs of vacant railroad terminals, dynamic commercial and residential districts, successful factories and manufacturing plants, and significant WPA projects such as the Jersey City Medical Center and Roosevelt Stadium.




The Lost Legends of New Jersey


Book Description

In Reiken’s “affectionate but tough-minded second novel, he captures the poetry of the New Jersey condition, circa 1980, with a rare precision” (The New York Times Book Review). A New York Times Notable Book of the Year A Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Year Romeo and Juliet in northern New Jersey? Yiddish constellations in Asbury Park? A garbage dump in the Meadowlands that’s filled with old musical instruments from a high school marching band? Love and sex, hockey and snorkeling, a family that is falling apart despite the best intentions—this is what Frederick Reiken has delivered in his brilliant second novel. But the real subject is true love, the one and only—known in Yiddish as b’shert. Anthony Rubin, the young protagonist, isn’t sure whether he’s found it with his neighbor, Juliette, daughter of a reputed Mafioso. His mother, who quits the family after her husband’s affair with a neighbor, doesn’t believe in true love at all. But his father does, and so does Anthony’s grandpa, who meets the love of his life at 78. Reiken is known for creating characters you feel you’ve known all your life, for mapping landscapes with profound intimacy and wonder. In The Lost Legends of New Jersey, he “reminds us that when good literature comes along, it feels, like true love itself, as if something legendary is occurring” (The Washington Post). “A beautifully told story of bad choices, good intentions, and the price of intimacy.” —Chicago Tribune “Reiken has created a rich, seductive mythology out of the ordinary places and people of the Garden State.” —Los Angeles Times




New Jersey Noir


Book Description

Discover the darker side of the Garden State with this anthology of gritty mystery stories. Akashic Books continues its award-winning series of original noir anthologies, launched in 2004 with Brooklyn Noir. Each volume is compromised of all-new stories, each one set in a distinct location within the geographical area of the book. In New Jersey Noir, a star-studded cast of authors sifts through the hidden dirt of the Garden State. Featuring brand-new stories (and a few poems) by Joyce Carol Oates, Jonathan Safran Foer, Robert Pinsky, Edmund White & Michael Carroll, Richard Burgin, Pulitzer Prize–winner Paul Muldoon, Sheila Kohler, C.K. Williams, Gerald Stern, Lou Manfredo, S.A. Solomon, Bradford Morrow, Jonathan Santlofer, Jeffrey Ford, S.J. Rozan, Barry N. Malzberg & Bill Pronzini, Hirsh Sawhney, and Robert Arellano. Praise for New Jersey Noir “Oates’s introduction to Akashic’s noir volume dedicated to the Garden State, with its evocative definition of the genre, is alone worth the price of the book . . . Highlights include Lou Manfredo’s “Soul Anatomy,” in which a politically connected rookie cop is involved in a fatal shooting in Camden; S.J. Rozan’s “New Day Newark,” in which an elderly woman takes a stand against two drug-dealing gangs; and Jonathan Santlofer’s “Lola,” in which a struggling Hoboken artist finds his muse . . . . Poems by C.K. Williams, Paul Muldoon, and others—plus photos by Gerald Slota—enhance this distinguished entry.” —Publishers Weekly “It was inevitable that this fine noir series would reach New Jersey. It took longer than some readers might have wanted, but, oh boy, was it worth the wait . . . More than most of the entries in the series, this volume is about mood and atmosphere more than it is about plot and character . . . It should go without saying that regular readers of the noir series will seek this one out, but beyond that, the book also serves as a very good introduction to what is a popular but often misunderstood term and style of writing.” —Booklist, Starred Review “A lovingly collected assortment of tales and poems that range from the disturbing to the darkly humorous.” —Shelf Awareness