New Jersey Books

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."

I grew up in Monmouth County and have been interesting in its railroad history ever since. Looking through this book brings back the memories. The photos of the last run of the "doodlebug" in May 1962 are especially nostalgic as I left Monmouth County myself a few days later and have never been back. Tom Gallo and Bill Longo have done an excellent job. My only problem is with the cookie-cutter format of the Arcadia series which treats every photograph the same. Surely they could hire a layout artist to mix things up just a bit.

This is a neat pictorial compilation of the railroads of northern south jersey from the times when everyone traveled by train. I've driven by many of the remnants and abandoned roadbeds many times and wondered what trains use to run there and why. And now I know. This is easy to read, with concisely captioned pictures, line by line, many from turn of the century, but most in the pre and post WWII era. I found reading the book very rewarding although I needed a map to find all the locations shown.

This is a great little reference book for those who travel the NJ waterways and/or have an interest in the history of the NJ lights. In addition to the more well known NJ lights such as "Old Barney" at the Barnegat Inlet and Twin Lights in Sandy Hook, Gately's book lists them all, including some which no longer stand.

Although very interesting, many of the listings leave the reader wanting more details. I hope a new edition, at some point, will provide more!

For those who love lighthouses -- traveling to them, photographing them, and reading about them -- Bill Gately's Sentinels of the Shore is a welcome guide and a lovely little tome anyone would be delighted to receive as a gift. It's also an important tribute to numerous historically significant lighthouses, such as Navesink Twin Lights, a unique set of multiple beacons that once served as a testing station for new optics and illuminants; Sandy Hook, the oldest standing, operational lighthouse in the U.S. and an excellent example of Colonial architecture; the Statue of Liberty, herself a lighthouse that still lifts a symbolic beacon over New York Harbor; and stately Barnegat Light, guardian of New Jersey's "Graveyard of Ships" and one of the state's most-visited sentinels. Inside, readers will find up-to-date information and color photos of about 30 other lighthouses. The defunct lightships also are included, along with historical sketches and rare archival material. There's a friendly, full-color foldout map showing the location of the lights and detailed directions for travelers. The author, an active preservationist and member of several lighthouse societies, has done a thorough job researching and presenting the lights of the Garden State, past and present. This one is priced right, pretty, and useful, but also enjoyable. It can go easily from the car glove box to the sitting room coffee table to the bedside bookshelf.

I was assigned this book back in 1998 when I took Prof Rockland's Urban Adventure course at Rutgers University one summer. I always got very nervous when the professor assigned a book that (s)he wrote. Was I pleasantly surprised! I was inspired, I was in awe of the adventures.

I recommend this book to anyone who wants to get insprired to take an urban adventure - just walk out your door, and explore your hometown, see what you discover!

I gotta give the author some credit for participating in activities than millions of Americans do every day - canoeing, biking, hiking, etc. However, very, very few Americans do this along overdeveloped NJ highways or in urban drainage ditches that were once bucolic streams, so I give Mr. Rockland many bonus points for originality.

Rockland has a sharp, entertaining writing style that held my interest throught this book, and this collection of stories was a great complement to Looking for America on the NJ Turnpike, his first work.

This book is based on the true story of John Emil List, a mild-mannered accountant and religious zealot who cold-bloodedly slaughtered his entire immediate family execution style in 1971. The author states that she "novelized" this book and that is obvious. But the facts are shown albeit with a lot of "padding", information she couldn't possibly have known, such as conversations within the family, etc. Still, having researched the story, I found this book to be truly entralling. List was a Mama's boy of the first degree. Born to a woman who married her own cousin's father, they were devout Lutheran German immigrants who lived in their own world in Michigan. Mother List, (it was her maiden name AND her married name), never let young John, her only child, be a boy or a man, for that matter. His dysfunctional childhood and upbringing almost certainly played a large part in what he did to his family. His wife, who had been married before to a soldier who died in the Korean war, had contracted syphilis from him. She met John as a lonely and very bereaved widow. She was John's first and only love. They married and had three children together, Patricia, John Jr. and Freddie. Helen, (John's wife), had a daughter, Brenda, from her first husband. She was very unhappy, especially when Mother List lived with them, and Helen knew how much her mother-in-law disapproved of her. Helen slowly began to lose her health and her mind due to syphilis of the brain. In this book, she is portrayed as a pretty much worthless person, bad wife and mother. But the woman was very ill. John would mow his lawn in a suit and necktie. An extremely eccentric man, his neighbors soon learned to just let them alone. He was a veteran of World War 2 and Korea, he was highly educated and intelligent. But he lost job after job, because of his inability to have relationships with people, he was truly a "cold fish", almost a robot. When they bought an old mansion in Westfield, N.J., (with the help of his mother's money), he continued to get fired from his jobs. He held the position of vice-president of a major New Jersey bank for a while, but lost that too. Faced with three teen-agers in the age of Aquarius he felt he had lost all control, and control was something John List had to have. He couldn't control his wife, who was going insane, he couldn't control his 16-year-old daughter, who was taking acting lessons, dressing as a hippie and embracing the occult, and he had gone through all his mother's considerable amount of money, (she was living on the third floor of the dilapidated mansion),he came to the conclusion that to save them all from the certain entrance to eternal hell, he made a plan and kept it. He shot his wife in the head in the kitchen as she drank her morning coffee. Then he went upstairs and shot his 85-year-old mother. As his children returned home from school, one by one, he executed them as well. He was very methodic, made extrodinary plans, such as having the mail and newspaper stopped, sent notes to the kid's schools claiming they would be out of state for a while, left lights burning in the house, and after placing the bodies of his wife and children on sleeping bags in the ballroom, YES, ballroom, he found his mother too heavy to move, so he left her upstairs where he shot her. He turned on macabre funeral music and got in his car and disappeared. He left letters for family members, friends and his pastor, to whom he confessed his crime, stating that it was God's will.The five bodies lay decaying for nearly a month before they were found. The neighbors noticed the lights flickering and going out one by one. Finally family friends checked on them and called the police. The man remained free for 18 years, remarried and took on a new identity, "Robert Clark". Thanks to John Walsh and the TV show "America's Most Wanted", and the extrordinary talent of forensic artist Frank Bender, who constructed a clay bust of what he thought John List would look like 18 years after the crime, a neighbor realized who he was, and he was finally arrested and given a life sentence for his heinous crimes. Incidentally, I'm 51 years old now, and if Patricia's father hadn't murdered her when she was sixteen, she too would be 51.

I read Mary Ryzuk's book some years ago, but seem to have lost it, and want to find another copy. This was a really interesting book about John List and his family, the murders J. List committed, his escape for almost 20 years, and the final apprehension due in large part to a tip given on "America's Most Wanted," the TV show. I'd definitely recommend this one.

This book was an enjoyable read. It's perfect to use as a reference book for looking things up while driving by in the car. More importantly, if you are planning your trip in advance you will find yourself reading through it like you would an interesting history book. Having lived in New Jersey for quite some time I was impressed with the accuracy of the information as well as the "cute" little inside comments. The author definitely visited the locations before writing about them. This is a book that will be useful to locals as well as tourists in both NJ and PA. Nicely done!

As a New York City resident who likes to make weekend forays to interesting and beautiful places, I found this book chock full of useful road trip suggestions. Far from being a dry list of 'must see's' this book combined just the right amount of practical information (who, what, why, where, when, and how), historical background, colorful descriptions of some less than mainstream attractions and most appreciated of all, humor. This book is very user feindly and fun to read. I give it five stars.

The story is of a young, honest cop going against the crooked establishment. The characters are well described and believeable. It is a good, gritty read.

Fun, intriguing, great characters, you can actually like and feel you know. Bill Kent is funny, insightful, and creative! Where can I find his other work?

A Way of Desert Spirituality?
My final decision to review the "Plan of Life of the Hermits of Bethlehem," in spite that this delightful book is a compendium of spiritual directives, by an experienced abbot for his own monastic community, which on joining his Laura have vowed to be obedient to the hermits' rules. Mine was a persuasion reading an apologetic review of Fr. Romano's other book, "In the silence of Solitude," reported by my Amazon Favorite AmeriCopticLailac, since she drew parallels with Orthodox mystical spirituality, as reported in a recent English release of the sayings of the Desert Fathers in; "Orthodox Prayer Life: the interior way."

Western Monastic Traditions:
Although John cassian was the first to establish monastic communities in Marseilles, according to established Coptic traditions. The schema faded out until St. Bernard of Cleurvaux restored it to its original zenith. Father Romano is now emulating St. Bernard earnest zeal to persue real contemplative monasticism that get you all the way in.
I recognize in this book a return to the central mission of the desert for the hermits of Bethlehem: The Scheme of monasticism, and Fr. Romano spelled it clear: The Plan of Hermetical Life.
Bethlehem stands as a 'doorway' to the wilderness of your own heart; is in positive response to our Lord saying that, "The kingdom of God is within you" Luke 17:21. Jesus taught also that He is "the way, the truth, and the life" John 14:6

A Hidden Life of Prayer:
"One ought always to pray and not to lose heart." Luke 18:1
a. The freeing of the soul; Detachment in kenosis
b. Purification of the heart
c. Contrition of the spirit
d. Faith in Perseverance
e. Struggle and Constraint
f. Bridling the mind
g. Holy silence
h. Unceasing prayer
i. Access into the Father's presence

A Monastic Schema:
Comparing the above scheme of the Macarian friars of Scetes in Nitria with those of Bethlehem you will notice a striking similarity. No wonder, they are all sons and daughters of Anthony by the Lord promise, to whom Anthony offered all he got, only that the Macrians lack canon 603!
This is a book to be read by novices, retreaters, and all devotees of spiritual renewal, by a modern Desert Abba that has choosen to name himself after one of the great missionary monastic elders, Abba Ogin (Eugene) and his Syrian brotherhood of the bearers of the Cross, commemorated to this day in the Coptic Diptych prayed word to word by both Catholic and Orthodox Coptic Christians.

I myself have read a few books on christian monasticism, including many by Thomas Merton. This book I found to be thoroughly enjoyable. It is basicaly the Plan of Life for these Hermits. It is a christian book. It speaks alot about the influence of the Desert Fathers on their plan of life. This is a book of Desert Spirituality. It discusses some basic and simple elements to the eremetical life. I dont think anyone grounded in the christian faith will have much trouble understanding the ideas in this book. And for those fans of the Desert Fathers this book is a must read. It was a peaceful and prayerful book.

The beauty of this book lies in the fact that it does not attempt to analyze or comment upon. It simply presents the stories of ordinary men and women of this century in more or less their own words. All their lives in some way revolved around the dark world of Pennsylvania coal mining in the anthracite area of the Panther Valley. They are all refreshingly human, wonderfully straightforward, and tell deeply moving stories. Each in his or her own way reflects the rich cultural and ethical traditions brought here from European shores. The beauty of the book is its utter simplicity in approaching the mystery of the human personality against the backdrop of the drudgery of labor. It's a wonderful slice of life.

Most of us don't have books written about the neighborhoods and local institutions that we grew up with. This is particularly so for places off the beaten path like the Pennsylvania coal regions. I grew up in the 50's and early 60's just a few miles from the coal towns that form the geography of Mr. Dublin's book and went to some of the same schools as his narrator's children. My family worked for the coal companies and the garment factories at various times. These stories ring true from my experience - the reliance on family, the acceptance of 50 mile commutes to work rather than leave the area, the accurate concern that everyone for miles around knows your family business. The real value of this book for me is that these narratives show the commonality of experiences that I thought were unique. And, it also fills in many gaps about the social forces at work that I didn't realize existed in the lives of that generation. They shielded us from the dangereous aspects of some jobs, the lack of job security, labor-management tensions, and the potential need to migrate to make a living. For those readers without the personal ties to the coal regions this book provides a view of how tough the "golden years" of the 50's were for some Americans.

The book wreck valley 2 By Daniel Berg is an excelent guide for sports divers and tech divers alike. Daniel Berg brings out and discribes the history of the ships that once sailed the long island sound and Atlantic . If anyone,. not just divers is interested in north east ship wrecks this is the book for you

I found this book very useful in gathering information about the different ship wrecks I have dove on in New Jersey. I highly recomend this book to all wreck divers and ship wreck enthusiasts alike. This book has lots of good photographs and drawings pertaining to the wrecks. You will not be disappointed in purchasing this book.