New Jersey Books

Here is something rare. Rachel van Dyke was a young American woman who wrote a diary from 1810 to 1811. Unpublished in her lifetime. Indeed, almost certainly never meant to be published. In her diary, she poured out the circumstances of her life and surroundings, and her hopes and dreams.

She was clearly an educated, middle to upper class woman, at a time when any such education for a woman in her social class was somewhat unusual, though not unknown. The diary is quite literate. Its value to us is as a mirror into the lifestyle of women of the early 19th century. Because the literature from that time that was published by women is very scarce. Social mores were against it. So that some writers, like George Sand, felt compelled to adopt male pseudonyms. Those women that somehow did get published had to conform to the expectations of men.

This diary, however, was presumably not subject to that censorship. A rare find. There are suggestions of a demure romantic interest with one of her male acquaintances.

The book ends on an uncertain note. Unlike a novel, there is no clear ending. Historians have been unable to trace her life afterwards. She disappeared into the fabric of American society. One can only hope that she lived it well.

I started reading "Lies" in the bathtub and I couldn't put it down! It's "smart women/foolish choices" and (not) having it all in one novel. It has a dashing hero (Stuart Brandon) you love to hate; a fresh, fascinating setting (New Jersey's Pine Barrens); and conflicts of autonomy that ring as true for the 21st century as for the 18th when the book takes place. And, as one of the jacket reviews says, "the nature writing is lyrical."

The story weaves real "lanes and legends" of the mysterious Barrens with characters based on historical figures like The Black Doctor of the Pines, "Pine Robber" Joe Mulliner, and an eccentric industrialist trying to build a utopian community.

Story events aren't just "plunked in"; they arise from the ecology of the area, the technology of the time, and the motives and passions common to men and women in all times.

"Romance" doesn't have to be a dirty word; it's a literary tradition going back to "Jane Eyre." "Lies" is romance without guilt with people, places, and writing worth remembering. Read it once for the story and again just to savor it.

I actually bought this book because I was working on a class project for Labor Relations and needed to read Chapter 7. Once I got the book, though, I realized that I had actually gotten a treasure. This book will help any HR professional who wants to think strategically and find a way to quantify the value of any organization's most valuable commodity-its people. The book is surprisingly easy to read and understand.

It contains very helpful and useful information. I would recommend this book very highly.

I bought the 1993 edition while I was living in Central NY and can only comment on the Central NY listings. I found the format easy to skim through and the maps/directions extremely helpful. All the information you might want is included--phone numbers, hours of operation, genres sold, etc. Occasionally the description of a store's offerings was not quite right, or the place in question no longer existed, but such changes can happen when there are several years between editions. I intend to buy the edition for NC once I get moved in.

Contrary to the title, this book only covers the NJ during its deployment during Lyndon Johnson's War. There is no real coverage of WWII or Reagan era. I believe that the hardcover version of this book had a different title.

As a story of the New Jersey during the 60's, this is a great book. Most books use photographs of the 80's NJ or the WII NJ. This books shows what it was like between these eras (The NJ fired more 16" shells during this deployment than during WWII). There are many excelent photographs.

I laughed out loud a lot. The strip scene in the restaurant is the sexiest thing I've read all year and the ending is the funniest! Love to see more from this guy.

"The Vietnamization of New Jersey (An American Tragedy)" is a genuinely funny play in the classic Christopher Durang style. Still, it is plagued by a problem I have noticed as prominent in his other works: Durang can't end his plays. In this one, the ending is strangely incompatible with the rest of the play and has a bad plot. Sadly, the same applies to nearly all his work I have read; "Titanic," one of his more unsuccessful works, had all the characters change personas at the end and do very strange things, and "'Dentity Crisis" had a sudden change in the characters too. In fact, of all Durang's work that I have read or seen performed (a total of nine or ten), the only two plays which do not feature incoherent endings are "Beyond Therapy" and "Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You," which are easily his best. The verdict? "Vietnamization" is a good play, with lots of humor and a hilarious analysis of America, but the poor climax brings down the total.

This is a modern reprint of two nineteenth-century vocabularies of the Delaware (Lenape) Indian language (one of them in the unusual Sanhican dialect). It is a very small volume, and there is no phonetic key. An interesting book from a historical linguistics perspective or if you'd like to learn a few words of Delaware, but don't buy it expecting to learn how to speak the language.

Bicultural Americans may recognize a part of themselves or the people they've grown up with in this story of a Ukrainian family living on American soil, but not quite yet a part of America. The rituals, superstitions, songs, and celebrations described are familiar, evoking smiles of memories and nostalgia. This book stays with you, prompting an occassional rereading.

This book gives a wonderful overview of the kind of devotion that we as humans, as God's creatures, should have for Him. Roger takes the reader through different adventures, highs and lows, in his life and how the power of prayer helped him through. The tales are true and inspiring. The book is an easy read, but is full of meaning. It can be read at any age, but I believe that the reader would have to be over the age of thirteen to get the most meaning out of it. It's an uplifting read.