About Town: Cool Reads for Hot Days

What better way to spend a hot summer day than to sprawl out on a lounge chair, ice cold drink in hand, and read, read, read? Be it by Nook or by book, we’ve got some great reads written by local authors. This is just the first of our Patch Summer Reading Lists. We’d love to hear what’s on your summer reading list so drop us a line and let’s get this Patch booklist started.

Local Authors Summer Reading List

Cutty, One Rock : Low Characters and Strange Places, Gently Explained, by August Kleinzahler.

Growing up in Fort Lee next door to Anastasia gave Auggie Kleinzahler a lot of stories to write about. Recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, Griffin Poetry Prize, Berlin Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, Auggie is the author of ten books of poetry as well as Cutty, One Rock: Low Characters and Strange Places, Gently Explained, a collection of autobiographical essays that include stories about growing up in Fort Lee. Perhaps his greatest accomplishment was being awarded the title of Fort Lee’s First Poet Laureate.

Auggie was a guest of honor at one of our cocktail parties and we must say, that man can tell a great story about Fort Lee. If you’re longing for a taste of the good old days, read Cutty, One Rock.

We Became Like a Hand: A Story of Five Sisters, by Carol Ortlip.

I think everyone in Fort Lee went to school with one of the Ortlip girls. Carol, the eldest, has written a beautiful autobiographical story about her and her sisters as they grew up on the cliffs of the Palisades. Born into a famously artistic Fort Lee family, Ortlip takes you on an emotional rollercoaster ride as she depicts the story of five young girls trying to cope with their mother’s severe depression while trying to preserve a strong sense of family unity. Ortlip paints a delicately detailed portrait not only of her family, but of Fort Lee in the 1960s and 70s. This is a must read.    

The Bribe, by Philip Ross

What would happen if the mob offered the Mayor of Fort Lee a bribe regarding the development of the undeveloped track of land in the center of town? That did happen in 1974. It happened to Fort Lee Mayor Burt Ross. The Bribe, written by Ross’s brother, Philip, takes you through Ross’s ordeal almost minute by minute. The secretive telephone calls, the chief of police waiting outside of council chambers should someone try to harm the Mayor, the wire taps, the clandestine meetings, the $500,000 bribe that was offered to Ross. The Bribe reads like an episode of 24.

The Antidote to Prejudice and It Has To Do With Seeing,Two Volume Collected Poems of Moira Bailis, by Moira Bailis.

Cherished Fort Lee Poet, Moira Bailis, just released two books of her poetry that are available on-line to order. They are, simply, memory alive. Beautifully written, a delicious read.  

Editor's Note: Moira Bailis was the subject of Fort Lee Patch features earlier this year after her collected works were published and she appeared at a reading of her poems. (Read full article here, and see video of Bailis reading her own poems here)

From a Town on the Hudson: A Japanese Woman’s Life in America, by Yuko Koyano

Published in 1996, this little book tells a very big story of one woman’s quest to move her family from Japan to Fort Lee and how she overcame a language barrier in her new home. Her eye for detail is impeccable; her voice affectionate. Her depiction of Fort Lee in the 1980s is like reading a modern-day version of de Tocqueville. She gives a great firsthand account of trying to register her children at Holy Trinity School and School No. 3. This 108 page book is a wonderfully inspirational read.   

The Hellhound of Wall Street: How Ferdinand Pecora’s Investigation of the Great Crash Forever Changed American Finance, by Michael Perino.

Perino, a law professor at St. John’s University and Leonia resident, recounts the 1933 investigation into Wall Street’s abuses, centering the story on the 10-day interrogation by Ferdinand Pecora, chief counsel of the Senate Committee on Banking and Currency, of the executives from the National City Bank (which would eventually become Citigroup). Theme sounds familiar, doesn’t it? This meticulously researched book is a must for anyone who likes to read a well-written story about history repeating itself.

Cooked: An Inner City Nursing Memoir, by Carol Karels.

Leonia resident and Bergen County Historian Carol Karels has published more than just books on history. Cooked: An Inner City Nursing Memoir is based on Chicago’s Cook County Hospital; the same hospital that ER was based on and the hospital where she worked while attending nursing school in the early 1970s. In it, Karels recounts her experiences working in the largest hospital in the country. The raw details of her recall are haunting when she relates how she assisted the medical staff wash the “vermin-infested bodies of the homeless,” deal with the violence and confusion of drug addicts and try to communicate with doctors who were not fully fluent in the English language. This is a terrific read for anyone who loves to watch Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice or who was a fan of E.R., Chicago Hope, and St. Elsewhere.

Karels has also authored “The Leonia Line:Stories About Leonia 1668-1993,”and “Leonia Legacies: Voices Then, Voices Now.” She has also edited, “The Revolutionary War in Bergen County: The Times That Tried Men’s Souls.”

Five-Finger Discount: A Crooked Family History, by Helene Stapinsky.

Stapinsky, who counts many in Fort Lee among her fans, wrote this funny, tough and unforgettable story of her Jersey City family of swindlers, embezzlers, bookies and mob wannabes. It’s more dysfunctionally funny than the Sopranos. Stapinski knows how to tell a great story.

If you know of any local authors I have left out, please email me. Also, email me with more suggestions for summer reading and I'll add them to the list that's being compiled.