New Jersey Books

This is good book although I don't usually use it as my first source. The pictures are looking up at the underside of the wings which is great if you go hawk watching at migrattion time and there are lots of them but I use North American Raptors by Wheeler/Clark more because it has great pictures and hawks I usually see are either flying by or are sitting on a telephone wire/tree branch. Still, its a good reference and has info on migration that you don't get in other books. Its good as a supplement to other hawk books

"Hawk Watch" is the best beginning guide to hawk watch identification and procedures available. Its large format and clear line drawings make it an excellent field reference. The text is direct and accurate. I am site compiler for a hawk watch, and this is the only reference that I urge my volunteers to purchase. Despite the fact that this work is limited to the species found in the eastern US, western birders would still find much of the text quite useful.

There are several appealing qualities to this story - animals, children who don't always agree or get along with each other, a secret conspiracy that would fall apart if the parents found out, a bully that is ingeniously bested. I loved this book as a preteen and still read it through high school.

As a child, I read this book over and over again, as it totally appealed to my desire to have my own menagerie of animals. I'm so excited to find it again to share with my own children, as my copy was completely worn out. I wholeheartedly agree that this book is a "lost treasure."

this book is about someone who cares about our youth.now she is a politician im happy to see this.as a police officer in camden city i know there is hope for the younger generation.my name is bob chew #1152 . mary previte tells a good story and the funny thing is it's true

Ms. Previte describes the lives of inner city youths with grim realism and touching detail. Drawing on years of personal experience, her stories capture both the callousness and the vulnerability of young offenders. Similarly, the author's intriguing initiatives cut through political rhetoric with a no-nonsense approach that combines compassion and discipline. Thus, the book provides valuable insight for all concerned about current debates on crime and poverty. Hungry Ghost's real value, however, lies in its power to sadden as well as encourage. Ms. Previte's tragic tales leave readers grieving the loss of young lives, yet her unfailing hope convinces us that even "a mustard seed of faith" can move mountains. --from the "Significant Books in Western Religion" class, The College of William and Mary

You might expect a book put together by three professors to be boring, pompous and dull - but Italian American Writers On New Jersey, edited by Jennifer Gillan, Maria Mazziotti Gillan and Edvige Giunta, exceeds expectations.

It's enlightening, enlivening and thought-provoking.

Great literature reminds you of where you've come from.

Here, the bitter and the sweet in poetry and prose maps the past and transitions to where we stand today, in New Jersey and across America.

This anthology crisscrosses the state from Ocean City to Greenwood Lake and Jersey City to Trenton.

Some writers may be familiar to you, and others brand new. (Many will strike you as worth the time to scounge out long lost copies of their work.)

For instance, Combat Zones by Louise DeSalvo is not your typical Italian American remembrance - but much of it is the mystery about relations - the father's piecemeal labor and kitten-drowning - all hit close to home. And it's only the second page.

Throughout are many most-interesting stops in between at Short Hills, Paterson, Seaside Heights and Hillsdale. But you might be bewildered when you seek out Arlington and Cranwood and West Plains.

You see, this anthology of poetry and prose doesn't discern the fiction from the nonfiction.

As if Pietro di Donato's Hoboken: Three Circles of Light would be classified as something that is so real it couldn't be fiction. Or Bill Ervolino's Wood-Ridge could be anything but completely true.

This book appeals not only to Italian American in New Jersey, but to IA's named Gustafson in Ashtabula, Ohio, as well as Smith in Nutley.

Here, the tip of the iceberg, is a good place to learn of one's heritage and to capture the common experience we've had to get where we are today.

This cross section of Italian American writers, the New Jersey who's who among contributors, is a great place to start your private Italian American library, your legacy for your descendents.

This collection presents a commonality that had lain dormant in stories that were scattered.

My only peeve is that in a few instances Italian is used without translation. That, too, reminds me of growing up Italian American in New Jersey.

Some day, every state will wish it had Italian American writers telling its tales in poetry and prose. For now, it's time to read this one and join the call for another volume.

I have just finished reading Italian American Writers on New Jersey, an amazing collection of works--works previously almost entirely unknown to me, yet in their themes as familiar to me as my own face. The anthology teems with people and places from the past and present; people and places that, despite their imperfections, I remember and revere; people and places who have never before, I think, been given such broad and fair-minded treatment. As I read each page, I laughed, I cried, I winced at the marvelously crafted stories they told. I wanted the book to go on forever. For many years I've heard that in professional publishing circles Italian-themed works are discouraged because "Italians don't read." Thank you to the three editors, and to Rutgers University Press, for proving that Italians certainly can write.

A masterfully written and meticulously researched
history of Nazi sympathizers in the Newark NJ area during the era from Hitler's rise to power until the start of World War 2, and the reactions and efforts of Newark's then large Jewish community to deal with the Hitler-sympathizers.

The book also contains the story of the Newark Third Ward legendary "Minutemen" ... youthful Newark Jewish musclemen, mobsters, and ex-boxers who broke up Newark-area Nazi rallies, cracked heads, and otherwise disrupted and made life miserable for the Hitler-followers.

The author, Warren Grover, is a native Newarker and Jewish community leader, as well as a Newark historian who relied on scores of interviews and insider sources who makes the reader feel like he or she is there as part of the action.

A book for all ex Newarkers and those with an interest in Newark
or Newark-Jewish history, and not to be missed.

-- Nat Bodian

This book is well-researched, well-written and well argued, but at its core the author's message is immoral. He glorifies the use of Jewish gangsters to beat up Nazi sympathizers in Newark during the 1930s. He also defends a wide range of government actions which denied these Nazi sympathizers their First Amendment rights.

It would be one thing if the Jewish gangsters were defending the Jewish community in Newark from Nazi abuse and harassment, but the author provides no evidence of this. Rather the Jewish gangsters, who called themselves the Minutemen, went out of their way to attack Nazi meetings and beat up the participants. I guess you could call these attacks pre-emptive, but Grover fails to show that the Jewish community was in danger of immanent attack. The author seems to believe that the mere presence of Nazis in public justified the use of violence against them. As obnoxious as Nazis were and are, that is a dangerous notion.

In making these thugs into heroes, Grover ignores that they were largely immunized from the consequences of their actions. Despite their flagrant use of violence, they always escaped serious punishment. Why? Because they were under the protection of a Jewish crime boss, who fixed things with the authorities. You call that heroism?

Finally these same gangsters were running protection rackets, corrupting unions and breaking strikes. And you can be sure that most of the victims of their criminal behavior were Jews. They were also used to prevent a rally in support of union organizing in Newark, lead by legendary socialist leader Norman Thomas, who, of course, was an enemy of anti-Semitism.

That Grover has no problem with this, as long as the Minutemen were beating up Nazis too, shows misplaced loyalties.

Still, it is an interesting book and a good read.

Though a literature teacher by trade, I love photography and historical photography. More than any other "Images of America" fire service book I have seen [and I have seen a bunch] this one provides BOTH the essence of the service in its people AND a good look at the apparatus and facility of New Jersey's Forest Fire Service. I like it!

since i'm interested in the subject material i found the book very interesting especialy the post wwii pictures

Optimality Theory in Phonology: A Reader

An excellent introduction for those wishing to become acquainted with the most recent developments in generative phonology. For those interested in an in-depth understanding of the application of this theory in phonology, the author provides exercises at the end of every section. This makes the work extremely useful as a textbook for advanced upper-division undergraduates or for second-semester graduate students.

The book is one of the most clearly-written and easily-understood of its type. The author, the godfather of optimality, is almost unparalled in his command of the material

This book is transfered from the original paper of Prince & Smolensky in 1993. This book talks a lot of details and backgrounds of Optimality Theory. There are few empirical issues in this book such as syllable or foot structure. It spends most of time to talk a lot about the constraint ranking and factorial typology. If you want to know how OT works well with phonology or prosodic morphology, you'd better read Rene Kager's book. If you are the beginer of phonology and just want to take a look of OT, you'd better choose the Diana Archangeli's book. The footnotes of this book/paper are usually long and a bit hard to read (sometimes almost two third of the page). Of course, OT has changed a lot in the past decade, a lot of constraints in this book are overdue. This book could disapoint those who want to know more OT's works of phonology or in other linguistic areas, but it is absolutely an important one!!!

This book is a must read. It's well-written, deeply researched, short and eye-opening. Balmer shows how Dutch Reformed religion faced pressure from within and without that led to assimilation to English culture, which meant a turn to revivalist evangelicalism or the Church of England. How this developed, from the 1660s to the 1780s, is what Balmer tells in this book. It deserves a place on the shelf of everyone interested in religion in America and who is concerned about retaining a confessional tradition. One may find Darryl Hart's The Lost Soul a good way to follow A Perfect Babel.

This book explores the collision of English and Dutch culture in New York, formally New Netherland, after the colony's fall to the English in 1664. Balmer uses the fortunes of the Dutch Reformed Church as the benchmark for assessing the condition of Dutch culture as a whole. I am giving four stars because I would have liked a little more background on pre-1664 Dutch culture than Balmer provides. Nonetheless, anyone desiring to acquire a well-rounded understanding of Colonial North American history should read this book.

Once upon a time, suburban America existed mainly as an adjunct to our older cities. Trolley lines and Model T's allowed former city residents to "spread out" in greener neighborhoods, while retaining access to the city's employment, shopping and professional services. Eventually, the suburbs grew independent of the urban centers; with mega-malls and edge-city office complexes, today's suburbanites need never tread the "Broadways" and "Market Streets" of old.

When I was growing up in suburban New Jersey in the late 1950s and 1960s, enclosed malls and glass office buildings existed more on paper than along the highways (although the first ones soon became popular). Instead, there was a near-by city where I was taken whenever I needed a penicillin shot, a suit, a whipped-cream birthday cake, or a pair of glasses. I would spend most Sunday afternoons and every important holiday visiting my grandparents in that city - i.e., Passaic, NJ. Passaic and its namesake river defined the geography and economy of my own neighborhood. All roads led to Passaic; the important ones, anyway. Over time, however, Passaic lost its regional significance. Other than an occasional rock concert at the Capitol Theater, there was little reason to go to Passaic.

I now regret that. Passaic was a place with character, home to many interesting characters. Thus, I was delighted to recently come across two books about Passaic and its socio-geographic extension across the river, Wallington. They were written by two fellows who are interesting characters themselves. One is Bob Rosenthal, who writes of growing up during the Depression and WW2 in "Wonderful Passaic". The other is Bill Michalski, who simultaneously grew up in Passaic and later Wallington, and lived to tell of it. He didn't live by much; some of Michalski's adventures in his book, "Poland on the Passaic", are quite harrowing!

Both authors flourished within a few miles of each other. Both had grandparents who came over from eastern Europe. And yet, there is surprisingly little overlap between their daily lives. They went to different schools, tended to different religious traditions (sometimes reluctantly), and spent their free time in different places doing different things. But that's the spice of urban life -- all the different possibilities that coexist within a mile or two. You can pick out some referents confirming that both authors were proximate in space and time. E.g., the Main Street shopping district; Rutts Hut, a famous hot-dog joint in nearby Clifton; citronella for mosquitoes; worries about polio; humiliating remedies for poison ivy; visits to anti-aircraft gun batteries (in northern Passaic for Rosenthal, in eastern Wallington for Michalski; obviously Passaic was important to WW2 air defense planners); and the significance to both men of the Korean War.

And despite the many differences in their temperaments, interests and family traditions, Rosenthal and Michalski have a lot in common. They were both among the first in their families to go to college, assume professional careers, and serve their county in important ways. Their books focus on humor, but have their tender moments too: Rosenthal recalling his grammar school girlfriend and an incident that ended their friendship, and Michalski reminiscing about the pet crow that he brought up. And they both exhibit a mix of independence, talent and pluck. Enough pluck, in fact, to believe that their growing-up stories were entertaining and find book publishers willing to take a chance on finding a couple thousand interested readers.

Bob Rosenthal and Bill Michalski have helped me to understand various things about my parents (who hailed from these same towns). And they provide a valuable lesson on how Americans got by in less prosperous times - and even laughed, in spite of the hardships! I hope that America's robust economy and high standards of living will hold despite a future that promises global warming, oil scarcity, continued terrorism, deepening debt, and intensifying global competition. If not, though . . . perhaps the frugality of Michalski's mother, along with Grandpa Rosenthal's belief in America and education, will be needed once more.

P.S. Would love to see a collaboration by these guys with their reflections on the U.S. today. Title: "America-on-the-Passaic".

Bill Michalski was a featured storyteller at our 2007 Tellabration! event at the World Peace Sanctuary in Wassaic, NY. His humorous nature and sharp memory made for a delightful night of stories of his boyhood during a time many of us would find difficult to survive. He writes like he talks so reading his book is like having this congenial and light-hearted gentle man sitting right beside you. May Peace Prevail on Earth!

I found this book to be very interesting. This is through its discussion of how a Republican can win statewide office (through a dramatic landslide) and govern with reasonable effectiveness in a heavily urbanized (and Democratic) state with a significant minority population (living in New York, I can appreciate this situation). Kean is definitely a national spokesman for the center-right of the GOP, and it is too bad that he never tried to advance politically beyond New Jersey. As a moderately conservative Republican (moderate with respect to "hot button" social issues), I think that the Republican Party needs to do more to incorporate Kean's outlook. He has a strong record to show for his brand of Republicanism.

I lived in New Jersy during Mr. Thomas H. Kean's many years in the legislature and as governor. Polite, courteous and gallant to a fault,he nonetheless was firm and decisive when necessary. Widely respected he had that rare quality that led all even his political adversaries to like and respect him. This autobiographical book is enlivened with many anecdotes of his years in public service. It provides the reader with insight into his highly honed core values, his sense of humor and his truly gifted leadership. His talents were such that members of the opposing political party voted for him to be their Assembl;y Leader. The scion of an established and comfortable New Jersey family, he could have coasted through life. But like Theodore Roosevelt he chose to "fight the good fight."