For displaced, misplaced, and nostalgic ex-Bronxites
THE BRONX BOARD BOOKSTORE
| These books were selected for their connection with the Bronx. If you have roots in the Bronx, then these should be part of your library. This list will be updated on a regular basis, so you should check back frequently. Please note that the prices shown are subject to change. | ||
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Wow!
by David Perez Our Price: $10.00 Paperback Availability: Usually ships within 3 days |
Perez is a writer and journalist who was born and bred in the
South Bronx. Wow! is a novella-like tale that takes place in
the 1960s, and follows the author trying his best to be "cool"
in a Bronx neighborhood where being smart in school isn't
something to brag about. It's a coming-of-age story with a
distinctly Latino perspective.
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The War of the Rosens
by Janice Eidus List Price: Our Price: $10.17 You Save: $4.78 (32%) Paperback Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours |
Set in 1965, The War Of The Rosens details the
lives of an eccentric Jewish family in the Bronx who are forced
to face the limitations and complexities of love and faith.
Charismatic but volatile Leo Rosen, a self-described "politically progressive Jewish atheist," tries to convince his 10 year-old daughter, Emma, that there is no God. Emma grapples with her conflicted feelings. Drawn to what she perceives as "the poetry" of Faith, she worries that if God does exist, He will punish the Rosens for being bad Jews. Leo's wife, Annette, unappreciated by her family, fantasizes about running away like a "rebellious teenager." But what everyone is unaware of is that 13-year-old May has disturbing physical symptoms, which she keeps a secret because of her fear of doctors. Willful May, who is wildly jealous of Emma, convinces herself that she isn't ill, but that God is testing her to see if she deserves Marvin Ludwig, the boy she loves from afar. The Rosens are dreamers. They are all trying to change things, to map their own dreams of a world in which the meanings of "Faith" and "Love" will one day be fully understood and realized, to create some possibility of a future, which becomes the most essential dream of all. Written in the tradition of Myla Goldberg's Bee Season , Janice Eidus' War Of The Rosens will stay in your heart forever. |
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Jew Boy
by Alan Kaufman Our Price: $10.80 Paperback Availability: Usually ships within 2 to 4 weeks |
Jew Boy tells the story of a child in the Bronx growing up in
the complex shadow of his mother's survival of the Holocaust in
Europe. Physically abused by a woman whose horrifying
experiences have left her emotionally scarred, Alan Kaufman is
forced to deal with the demons haunting his mother as he
struggles uncomprehendingly with his Jewish identity. He escapes
from his crazy home life to the school yard, only to find one
kind of savagery exchanged for another. He experiences the first
pangs of adolescent sexuality, undergoes the ritual of an
American bar mitzvah, and re-creates himself as a mindless
football fanatic on his high-school team, joining in its
sadistic rituals and drills. In one of the high points of his
narrative, he hitchhikes across the United States and, on the
way back, hops an eastbound freight train that brings him
face-to-face with the very phantoms he had sought to escape.
Kaufman's odyssey finally takes him from an Israeli kibbutz and
the Israeli army to his descent into alcoholism on the streets
of New York, until at last, finding in poetry the gift that is
true to his being, he also finds sobriety in San Francisco.
Kaufman's coming-of-age account is by turns hilarious and
terrifying, written with irreverent humor and poetic
introspection. Best of all, its authentically American voice,
with its headlong energy, joy, and sensitivity, call to mind the
best of Jack Kerouac and Henry Miller. Jew Boy touches on themes
rarely explored in American writing-the pain, guilt, and
confusion of American-born children of Holocaust survivors, and
what it means to be a Jew in post-Holocaust America. But above
all it burns with the universal humanity of a brilliantwriter
embracing the gift of life with a fierce passion that will leave
no reader untouched.
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Surviving Sarah
by Dinah Leigh Our Price: $21.95 Paperback Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours. |
In the Bronx of the 1940's, two sisters and their half-brother
struggle for childhood happiness under abnormal conditions and
circumstances imposed on them by their single-parent mother's
psychotic moods. The men who fall in love with her also are
affected. It's an emotional story that will elicit tears and
laughter, and pangs of memories from those who will recognize
the Bronx of that era.
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McNamara's Old Bronx
by John McNamara Our Price: $20.00 Paperback Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours |
A fun book, with a plain title. Though it sounds more like a
biography, this work is a compilation of newspaper articles
written over the years. There are many interesting and sometimes
peculiar tidbits from almost every neighborhood of The Bronx.
Catchy headlines, brief passages, and a conversational style,
make it great reading. Presidents, sports, games, movies,
treasures, a respected professional counterfeiter, animals, and
more are all part of this book. Did you know that the Titanic
"sank" in the Bronx River? This book may also serve as a source
of ideas for creative writing. When you read McNamara's Old
Bronx, you can finally tell those "old-timers" in your family or
neighborhood, a thing or two. The Osgood File of The Bronx - and
beyond. This book covers The Bronx like no other publication.
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Bronx Accent: A Literary and Pictorial History of the Borough
by Barbara Unger and Lloyd Ultan (Editors) List Price: Our Price: $18.96 You Save: $5.99 (24%) Paperback Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours. |
Bronx Accent, edited by Unger and Ultan, is a collection of
fiction, nonfiction, and poetry written by various people, some
current residents, some former residents, and others who have
never lived there but have some affinity to the borough.
Several historical photographs are included. The book won the
New York Society Library Award for best book on borough history
as well as many other grants and awards.
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The Bronx: A History
by Evelyn Diaz Gonzales Our Price: $24.95 Paperback Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours |
Ms. Gonzalez has produced a scholarly, comprehensive examination
of the history of the Bronx as it changed from rural villages
and farmland to a thriving, urban commuter borough and a
patchwork of diverse, multicultural and multi-ethnic
neighborhoods. Replete with photographs, maps, illustrations,
and neighborhood-by-neighborhood chapters, this book provides
fascinating and very useful information that was missing from
all the history courses we took at school. The transformation
of the "wonderful Bronx" into a national symbol of urban decay,
and its subsequent renewal are discussed with intelligence and
insight. Any former Bronxite will benefit from this wealth of
knowledge.
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The Pigskin Rabbi
by Willard Manus Our Price: $15.00 Paperback Availability: Ships within 24 hours |
How does a rabbi convert the entire U.S. to Judaism? The
answer, of course, is by becoming a football hero, in this wild
tale by Willard Manus. In the hilarious first chapter, Ziggy
Cantor, a rabbinical school graduate and son of a Bronx rabbi,
has fled to Holland to study Spinoza, to experiment with
secular ideas, and to engage in his chief love, football, far
from his father's critical orthodox eye. There he is discovered
by a Giants scout, and Ziggy, a natural, becomes the Giants'
quarterback who turns his team from a perennial loser to a
Super Bowl winner, thereby pervading America with Jewish
culture. Ziggy calls plays in Yiddish, the team wears Giants-
logo yarmulkes, his grandmother serves chicken soup from the
sidelines and his receiver, a cocksure swaggerer, even
undergoes ritual circumcision in order to become a Jew. Still,
Ziggy is dogged by murderously jealous teammates, by anti-
Semites and especially by his own conscience: has he betrayed
his tradition? Making love to a shiksa, playing a game on Yom
Kippur and his father's death all bring up doubts. But in the
end, Ziggy gets it all: the gentile lover, the Super Bowl
victory, fortune and fameAand he still becomes a rabbi at the
end. This is a typical sports and sex fantasy, replete with
aggressive male bonding and the requisite model and cheerleader
dream girls.
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In My Father's Bakery: A Bronx Memoir
by Marvin Korman Our Price: $22.00 Hardcover Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours |
From the Publisher: "This beautifully written remembrance
restores to life - in all its color, humor and magic - a
vanished New York neighborhood of European Jews, Irish
Catholics, and others as it was during the Depression and
through World War II. The author unrolls before you prizefights
in the Bronx Coliseum, baseball in the original Yankee Stadium
and pinochle in the bakery backroom. Yet bread, the staff of
life, is at the center of this work. In an easygoing, novelistic style, Mr. Korman delivers such vivid portraits of bakery regulars that you, too, will feel you are in the bakery, eating devil's food cake and eavesdropping (while pretending to do homework) as scenes of crisis or celebration spill before them. The author's powerful vignettes focus on individuals: among them the grocer, the baker and the local bookmaker. You will also meet a local politico, a lonely wartime wife, gypsy tinsmiths, and a magician who is not the only closely observed character who pulls surprises out of his hat. Marvin Korman is too keen a chronicler to serve up mere nostalgia along with the bakery's recipe for butter cookies, the one with the maraschino cherry in the middle that mother mailed to their boys in the service. Mr. Korman's stories are delivered fresh-baked and warm, with irony enough to assure a memorable bite." |
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Report from Engine Co. 82
by Dennis Smith List Price: Our Price: $11.20 You Save: $2.80 (20%) Paperback Availability: Ships within 24 hours |
The tragic events of September 11, 2001, have given us all a
newly reinforced respect and admiration for the brave and
fearless firefighters who risk their lives to save others on a
daily basis. Written in 1972, Report from Engine Co. 82 is
probably the most famous memoir ever written by a firefighter.
Dennis Smith worked in the South Bronx area of New York City, a
poverty-ridden neighborhood where day-to-day existence was
perilous even under "normal" circumstances. Smith tells us what
life was like back then, as he worked alongside his brave - and
often bawdy - fellow firefighters as they tried to save the
lives of others. For anyone who's ever wondered what it takes to
race into a burning building, here's the real deal.
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Valhalla: For Heroes Only
by Joseph J. Murphy Our Price: $21.99 Paperback Availability: Ships within 2-3 days |
Valhalla is the important and stirring third entry in Murphy's trilogy that began with A White Sport Coat and Pink Carnation and Duty, Honor, Country. This is required reading for anyone seeking insight and knowledge about those who paid the ultimate price to preserve our nation's freedom. In light of September 11th, this is a timely and significant remembrance of the men who left the Bronx and achieved entry into Valhalla...
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Duty, Honor, Country
by Joseph J. Murphy Our Price: $21.95 Paperback Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours |
From the author of "A White Sport Coat and a Pink
Carnation", this picks up after graduation from St.
Helena's, as the author faced the military and lear
ned quite a different set of catechisms...
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A White Sport Coat and A Pink Carnation
by Joseph J. Murphy Our Price: $31.99 Hardcover Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours |
"On a lark, four St. Helena High School seniors celebrate an
18th birthday party in the school cafeteria. The only problems
were that the school was closed for the night, and they brought
along a keg of beer for the party. Nuns living above hear the
commotion and phone the police, causing all Hell to break
loose."
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Sewer Balls
by Steven Schindler Our Price: $11.95 Paperback Availability: Ships in 4 to 6 weeks |
Set against the backdrop of the Bronx in the early '60s, "Sewer
Balls" is a blunt, quirky, novel of how city kids with no money
but lots of imagination make the most out of what they have.
Was it fun? Was it scary? Was it the best time of their lives?
Fuhgedabowdit."
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The Bronx: It Was Only Yesterday, 1935 - 1965
by Lloyd Ultan and Gary Hermalyn Our Price: $25.00 Hardcover Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours |
The sequel to The Beautiful Bronx and another stunning
collection of photographs of the Bronx. This is another
must-have, so you shold order this one while it's still
available!
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The Bronx in the Innocent Years: 1890 - 1925
by Lloyd Ultan and Gary Hermalyn Our Price: $25.00 Hardcover Availability: Ships in 24 hours |
Another excellent collection of photographs and essays from the
Ultan-Hermalyn team. It's not likely that these books will
remain available for long, so you're advised to grab them
before they're gone.
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The Wanderers
by Richard Price List Price: Our Price: $10.66 You Save: $2.34 (18%) Paperback Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours |
Richard Price's first novel is a classic portrait of the Bronx
of the early sixties. Based on the gang that lived in and
around Parkside Projects (where Richard grew up), the novel
evokes much of the angst and emotion that accompanied teenage
life in the boroughs. As a past Bronxite, you're sure to find
something in this story that will spark a personal memory.
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Bloodbrothers
by Richard Price List Price: Our Price: $11.40 You Save: $0.60 (5%) Paperback Availability: Usually ships in 2-3 days |
This is the long-awaited paperback release of Richard Price's
novel about a blue-collar family in the Bronx, and the son who
is torn between his father's values and his own aspirations for
a better life.
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World's Fair
by E. L. Doctorow List Price: Our Price: $10.17 You Save: $4.78 (32%) Paperback Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours |
The astonishing novel of a young boy's life in the Bronx of the
1930s, a stunning recreation of the sights, sounds, aromas and
emotions of a time when the streets were safe, families stuck
together through thick and thin, and all the promises of a
generation culminate in a single great World's Fair.
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Billy Bathgate
by E. L. Doctorow List Price: Our Price: $11.25 You Save: $3.75 (25%) Paperback Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours |
Like an urban Huck Finn coming of age in the Bronx in the
1930s, Billy Bathgate was the protege of Dutch Schultz, one of
the most abominable gangsters of his time, but one of
life's great teachers as well.
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Dreaming of Columbus: A Boyhood in the Bronx
by Michael Pearson Our Price: $24.95 Paperback Availability: Ships in 10 to 13 days |
"...recreates the Bronx of the 50's and 60's...Irish-Catholic
culture filled with light and shadows...the boys and girls who
shared his neighborhood...few writers go home as successfully as
Pearson."
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Bronx Primitive: Portraits in a Childhood
by Kate Simon List Price: Our Price: $11.20 You Save: $2.80 (20%) Paperback Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours |
Kate Simon's 1982 memoir has been prominent in several "best
books" lists. It follows her own life as an immigrant child
growing into adolescence in the Bronx. Her prose is
evocative, sensitive, and well suited for ex-Bronxites
searching for nostalgia as well as young adults trying to
understand what keeps the Bronx alive in so many who have long
left that place.
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The Diner Under the El
by Raanan Geberer Our Price: $21.99 Paperback Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours |
"'The Diner Under the El' takes place place from 1987 to 1991,
and focuses on three young Jewish men in their mid-thirties
from the North Bronx, N.Y. Every week, they go to singles
events, and afterward, they meet at the 'diner under the el' to
commiserate. For the most part, they are set in their ways, but
inevitably, change comes to their lives. One loses himself in
ultra-right-wing conspiracy theories; the second sees his paste-
up job becoming rapidly obsolete; and the third finds salvation
with an off-beat woman who introduces him to poetry, New Age
mysticism and pop psychology, with hilarious results."
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Crossing Highbridge
by Maureen Waters List Price: Our Price: $18.96 You Save: $5.99 (24%) Hardcover Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours |
"The first in her family born in the United States, Waters grew
up the 'Bronx Irish' daughter of two unforgettable immigrants:
her storytelling, former revolutionary father, and her fierce,
IRA-supporting mother. Her life in postwar New York City was
colored by Catholicism and strong cultural links to "the other
side" - by Irish step dancing, the melodies of Thomas Moore,
and the rituals, inflections, and harrowing memories impress
ed on her. Sex was a mystery. Schoolgirls wore below-the-knee
blue serge uniforms with starched white collars and cuffs.
Brutal treatment at the hands of the nuns who ran her college
drove Waters to transfer to a secular school."
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The Bronx: Lost, Found and Remembered
by Stephen Samtur and Martin Jackson Our Price: $29.95 Hardcover Availability: Usually ships within 2-3 weeks |
A collection of photographs and narratives from the publisher
of Back In the Bronx magazine.
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