New Jersey Books

Porambo's book, written during the late 1960's and early 1970's, provides a comprehensive account of the social strife of Newark: before, during, and after words. Porambo gives the lions share of his attention to the marginalized black population of the city, offering vivid(at times painful to read) accounts of the squalor and brutality the were forced to endure. While he gives ample attention to the years preceding the riot and to the riot itself, he also dedicates roughly half the book to what happens in the aftermath, leading up to the election of the city's first black mayor and the infamous citywide teachers strike that followed shortly thereafter. He seldom hides his personal views on the matters he describes, often painting his accounts with frustration and rage.

No Germs Allowed is easy for the lay person to read and to understand. Engagingly written and well organized , No Germs Allowed is a book to keep and refer to, not only for those in high risk groups, but for all who are concerned about preventing common and rare infectious diseases

This great book, by the author of Ocean City, America's Greatest Family Resort, (also a terrific book) is extremely informative. It traces the roots of the famous Ocean City Beach Patrol back to the U.S. Life-Saving Service and details it's history from the days when lifesaving in Ocean City was a volunteer occupation all the way through to the current staff. It is filled with pictures of past, recent past and current lifeguards and is certainly a book which will bring back fond memories for anyone who has ever sat on the Ocean City beachs!

I was impressed with the breath and depth of cards shown in this book. I appreciated the logical presentation of the sections in this book also. If you're looking for an addition to your Ocean City book collection or if you're considering this as a gift for an Ocean City lover, I'd say that you can't go wrong.

A lucid heartbreaking novel about a family in the midst of fragmentation, honestly and eloquently told by the different characters. Tommie Haas is a mother, wife, best friend, and lover. Her husband is voiceless, her children are bitter, and her best friend must try to hold the pieces of the frayed Haas family together. This novel reverberates with hurt, bitterness, and failure but is no less wonderful and telling for that

Very important work. Most enjoyable. A definite read.

"Our Town" is a poignant and powerful legal thriller. This is perhaps a surprising way to characterize a work by UCal, Berkeley policy wonks, published by one of the lesser known university presses, but this book deserves the widest possible readership. It tells the epic, heroic, heart-rending, and true story of the attempt to bring fair housing policy to New Jersey, the most suburban state in the country, and by extension, the most representative of American housing trends. It tells the story of an attempt by the African-American community of Mt. Laurel, New Jersey - a community whose origins date back to the colonial period - to create affordable housing in what was then, in 1968, a largely rural, white township of southern New Jersey. In response to thier request for the necesary zoning approval, the then mayor of Mt. Laurel (and wealthy farmer and late state senator) William Haines told the black community of Mt. LAurel: "if you people cannot afford to live in our town, then you will have to move." (this is a quotation from memory). The legals battles that followed over the next 25 years were epochal for New Jersey and for the country. This story is an epic (not unlike Jonathan Harr's book about the toxic wazste dumps in Massachusetts, A Civil Action) with genuine heroes such as Ethel Lawrence , the black New Jersey woman who led the fight, and even NJ supreme court justices who saw through the racism of Mt Laurel officials and the subtler but equally insidious intransigence of NJ governor Thomas Kean, who, for my money, is the worst villain of the lot. (I am, by the way, a New Jerseyan myself).Everyone who care about racial justice in America should find this book worthwhile. For an essentialy academic study, it is astonishingly moving. I read it in hardcover, when it first came out, mainly because I was attracted by its stylish cover, but it is the kind of book I actively recommend to my friends and family.

I've been going to Long Beach Island for a little over 15 years and so many of the parts of this book made me feel like I was there. Not just the visual descriptions - I could smell it and feel the changes in weather and season. It also introduced me to parts of the place that I don't know about. And to people (characters) who are delightful, interesting, funny and quirky. It reminded me of Cannery Row before I read the same thing someplace else - the characters and the time, a place in transition, people holding on and connecting, but hiding and processing their past. I've given the book as a gift to everyone I know who loves the place or who I wish would love it. Check it out - then go find the other books Mr. Savadove has contributed to and experience the photographer's and the historian's perspective as well.

This book gets it right, mapping the literary landscape of New Jersey. Up to date and thorough, it even references one of my favorite contemporary authors, Christopher Klim!

This book contains some records of the Paramus Reformed Dutch Church, as well as gravestone inscriptions. The Graveyard is a very old one, and lies within land owned by Magdelena Valleau, which was once subject of much controversy surrounding ownership, between Magdelenas father and the Proprietors of East Jersey. Some of the Tombstones are gone now, due to decay and corrosion, and this book contains the inscriptions of stones long ago lost to nature, and is an excellent means of reconstructing a genealogical chart of ones ancestors in this area. familiar names include Ackerman, Zabriskie, as well as a host of other Dutch names. The Church itself is a very old one, existing even prior to the Revolutionary War.