Most people donâ€t know this about Bayonne resident Grace Harney when they tell her to play their lottery tickets every day at Garden State News—sheâ€s a writer, and has been since she was a kid. 

And recently, Grace Harney released her debut novel, Crows.  A young adult paranormal mystery, Crows follows foul-mouthed teenage psychic Annie Murphy as she confronts her brother in the disappearance of his witch-girlfriend.  Set in the dead of winter in the fictional Pennsylvania town of Raven City, Annie learns the hard way that seeing isnâ€t always believing.

Self-published on March 17^th of this year, the paperback version of Crows is now available for sale exclusively at Garden State News, which is located at 456 Broadway, Bayonne, across from W. 21^st Street. 

If youâ€d like more information, please call Garden State News at (201) 339-1385.  Or visit www.graceharney.com. 

Grace Harney is a pen name.

The post LOCAL HUDSON COUNTY WRITER RELEASES DEBUT NOVEL first appeared on River View Observer.

THE PAUSE THAT REFRESHES – Performance Artists Antonia Wright (L) and Ruben Millares (R) of Miami, Florida, recently came to the Jersey City Free Public Library in search of books for the latest incarnation of their art installation – a wall of books. With 14 boxes of weeded books to spare at the Main Library shown packed into their vehicle, Antonia and Ruben built a small wall, checking out a couple of titles. Notice Ruben is reading Ray Bradburyâ€s seminal work, Fahrenheit 451, a book after his own heart, for this wall is an homage to books!

JERSEY CITY, NJ   April 4, 2012 – Performance artists Ruben Millares and Antonia Wright recently came to the Main Library in Jersey City to abscond with 14 boxes of books that were weeded from the library branches†collections. The use for the books can raise an educated eyebrow…

            They came in search of books for their art installation at the Fountain Art Fair, which was held in mid-March in New York City. From Miami, both artists have been doing this installation of books as a “homage to the book, a celebration” and a commentary on how reading in libraries has gone digital.

            The actual installation is a wall of books, which create a chance for people to view the titles, pick up the books – even walk away with a book – while demonstrating an appreciation of The Book.

            Once done, what do they do with the books? “We either use them for another performance,” said Antonia Wright. “Store, sell them, or re-create the installation, as they are cite-specific,” added Ruben Millares.

            The two links below illustrate the installation. The first is the artists†statement, submitted on Antonia Wrightâ€s website. The second is a video of the performance.

http://antoniawright.com/projects/3/23.mfw

http://rubenmillares.com/video.php

For the latest on programs, events, and special announcements please follow the Library on Facebook or Twitter at Jersey City Free Public Library. Visit us on the web at www.jclibrary.org. As of April 3, 2012, the Jersey City Free Public Library has 211,641 valid card members.

 

The post 2 Performance Artists Request & Receive Weeded Books from Library for Art Installation Honoring The Book first appeared on River View Observer.

 Like a femme fatale in a “dime novel” Jersey City has had its share of bumpy roads, raw deals and men that done her wrong. But the past is the past and take a look at her now, bustling with new construction and waterfront with a skyline of skyscrapers that have given the old girl a much-needed facelift and a shot at the brass ring.  

At the 4^th annual Book Fair hosted by Jersey City’s Free Public Library on Sat, Sept. 10^th in Jersey City’s beautiful Van Vorst Park, twenty local and no-so-local writers will exhibit their newly published books – all with some connection to Jersey City.  Many of these writers have taken their experiences and/or fascination with Jersey City’s past and placed them on the pages of their new books, not just as a backdrop to the action, but as one of the characters that grabs your attention like a cold-blooded blonde with a pearl-handled Derringer.

The event is free and run by Jersey City’s hard-working library staff hip to fostering new and established writers.

When you stroll over to the park that day, you’ll meet Eunie Guyre, author of  “Happy Victory: Celebrating a Jersey City Childhood,” (publisher: Xlibris, 2011) the story of a little girl who revisits the Polish household she shared with her father, grandmother and aunt in Jersey City when her mother was hospitalized in a sanitarium. And although it seems like a sad story, Guyre emphasizes that hers was a happy childhood nurtured by a loving Jersey City family.

“The book is a tribute to my father,” Guyre says from her New Hampshire home. “I was 14 months-old when my mother went into a sanitarium for tuberculosis and she died there when I was 7. The book is a collection of short stories from birth to eighth grade. We lived on 3^rd Street in Jersey City, that was our first house, and then we moved to Greenville. I attended Sacred Heart and the book has a lot of funny Catholic and Polish stories. My Polish grandmother would read the obits. If the dead person had a Polish name, off we went to the funeral parlor.”

Fascinated by Heavyweight Champion Jack Demsey, a colorful boxing figure and World Heavyweight Champ from 1919-1926, writer Jim Waltzer’s book “The Battle of the Century: Dempsey, Carpentier, and the Birth of the Modern Promotion” (Praeger Publishing) tells the story of the infamous bout that took place in Jersey City on Montgomery and Cornelison Streets and promoter Tex Rickard, described as one of the best fight promoters of the 20^th century. Rickard erected a special stadium for the heavyweight champ and his opponent, Georges Carpentier, and 90,000 spectators came to Jersey City to see them fight.  

“The focus of the book is how the promotion came to be in the first place,” Waltzer says. “It was promotion that went beyond sports and entertainment. This was the one that set the standard for those that followed in the 20^th century. This was the first event in a big way to bring together celebrities, prominent people from all different fields – bankers, Hollywood stars, roughnecks, you name it. They were at ringside. This took the whole promotional arts to another level for a single event.”

Waltzer, a Philadelphia resident, has written more than 600+ features, mostly for regional magazines. In 2001, Rutgers University Press published his nonfiction book “Tales of South Jersey,” and in 2007, Five Star Mysteries published his first novel, “Sound of Mind.” He’s now working on a new book, a crime novel based in Atlantic City.

Maureen K. Wlodarczyk, who lived in Jersey City until she was five and whose family has been a part of Jersey City’s fabric since the 1840s will be at the fair promoting her second book, “Young & Wicked: The Death of a Wayward Girl (Publisher: Ultra Media Publications, 2011) The story is about the doomed relationship between two petty criminals, William Flannelly and Polly Sexton. They were criminals in love, who lived in the fast lane of the 1890s in Lower Manhattan.

 Wlodarczyk was researching her Irish ancestors when she came upon her distant relative, Flannelly, and accounts of his relationship with Sexton who lived like “Bonnie and Clyde” outlaws.

“A few months later, down in the Bowery, they had a falling out and she wound up dead by his hands,” Wlodarczyk says. “He goes to trial on the Lower East Side for murder. He’s sitting in the Tombs and crosses paths with people who are famous and infamous of the 1890s, the Tammany Hall people like William Devery who was to become New York City’s Chief of Police. I wondered how a little punk from Jersey City jailed in the Tombs could cross paths with Devery and top Tammany Hall commissioners.”

Also at the Book Fair, photographer and writer Alina Oswald of Jersey City will present her three books: “Vampire Fantasies”  a collection of vampire-inspired photographs; Journeys Through Darkness (a biography of  a blind photographer), and “Infinite Lights: A Decade of 9/11 Tribute Lights,” which is a collection of 9/11-related photography.

“Although I wasn’t in New York on 9/11, I made it a point when I moved here in 2003 to photograph all the ceremonies, the lights in the night,” Oswald says. “I made it a point to take pictures.”

The Book Fair will also feature Thomas Belton and his book, “Protecting New Jersey’s Environment: From Cancer Alley to the New Garden State,” Cherese Bracey and her mystery “The Case of the Withering Books,” Elijah M. Brown and his book, “Missing Pages, Out of My Life,” “Taco” by John E. DeJesus, “Those Sweet Nothings” by Cynthia Fabian, Jacqueline Hallenbeck’s “Poem-atic,” Sandra Guzmán’s “The New Latina’s Bible: The Modern Latina’s Guide to Love, Spirituality, Family, and La Vida,” Judith Natelli McLaughlin’s “Poems on Fruits & Odes to Veggies,” Clarence Matthews’ “Jacob’s Rite of Passage & Teen Jacob,” Valerie A. Mitchell’s “Emotional Rollercoaster: A Depicted Mind,” Peter O’Reilly’s “Oh Really, O’Reilly,” Jane Pedler’s “Wisteria Rose,” Alyssa Pierce’s “Caroline & Rebecca’s Day at the Beach,”  Keith Smith’s “Men in My Town,” JoAnne Williams “Escaping from the Victim or Volunteer Role in Your Relationship,” and Edna C. Zalenski’s “Los Cuentos de mi Abuelito,” (“Stories of My Grandfather”.)

Many of the fair’s featured writers praise the Jersey City Library, especially the New Jersey Room and the help they received during their research. “They allowed me to use images from their collection,” Wlodarczyk says. “They’re wonderful people and a valuable resource.”

The annual book fair is co-sponsored by the City of Jersey City’s Cultural Affairs Division, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy and the Municipal Council. Chairwoman of the Book Fair is Assistant Library Director Sonia Araujo.

“We are so happy it’s the fourth annual,” Araujo says. “When we see all the people who come to the book festivals, we know we’re on the right path.” 

 A Tale of Our City

Jersey City Free Public Library’s

4^th annual Book Festival

Sat, Sept. 10, 2011, 10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Van Vorst Park

Opposite Main Library

472 Jersey Avenue

(Corner of Montgomery Street)

Jersey City

For more info: (201) 547-4500

 

 

 

 

 

The post TALES OF OUR CITY: Jersey City becomes the Main Character at Upcoming Book Fair first appeared on River View Observer.

Way to Wealth Book

 
Jack Vincent is a loving father of four who married at 17 and quickly learned responsibility. He read Way to Wealth, and its message transformed him. His lifelong application of its principles has made him a multiple award-winning successful business, real estate, and insurance entrepreneur for a quarter of a century. He is now passing the keys to success to readers. Young people and adults ready to change their lives can benefit from this bookâ€s transformative message of hope.

Each copy purchased provides the reader opportunities to directly ask Jack Vincent questions online; he handles his own email. His goal is to get a million copies of this life-changing book to the public. Just because Vincent rewrote a book about financial prosperity does not mean he is selfish; on the contrary, he has offered to donate copies to religious organizations, libraries, schools, and individuals unable to afford it. Those in need can click on “Request for Donation” on his website for more information.

Jack Vincent is living proof the wisdom in this book changes lives and leads to financial success. Fans can find and follow Jack Vincent on Facebook by his name and on Twitter as “AskBenFranklin.” The book is available through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or upon request from local bookstores. Readers can even buy a limited number of signed copies for $12.95 and find other interesting information at Jack Vincentâ€s website at: www.TheWayToWealthBook.com.

*The River View Observer and its parent company Ad Vantage Publishing Inc. does not  make any claim of financial prosperity after reading this book.

This is soley the opinion of its author. This post about the book is purely for entertainment reasons, and your information about such books being in the market place.

The post Reading- Benjamin Franklin’s comeback – founding father gives financial advice first appeared on River View Observer.

When Walt Disney wrote to a Minnesota man on November 29, 1935, he never dreamed what that letter would be worth one day. Typed on his “Silly Symphony” letterhead, with a large Mickey Mouse in orange and black, it is today something of a holy grail for Disney collectors.

For six years, Disney’s “Silly Symphony” cartoons won Academy Awards and brought about the birth of among many other characters, Donald Duck. Signed with his cartoonists’ pen, Walt Disney’s letter, with its Mickey Mouse envelope, is estimated to sell in the Nov. 12th
Yonkers auction of Cohasco, Inc., for $3,500-$5,000.

Six hundred other lots of collectibles in the auction include:

The world’s largest private collection of U.S. Capitol Building
memorabilia. Capturing the heart of a collector, 575 items every one
showing the famed structure, were gathered over decades. The one-of-
a-kind collection even includes a shoe, a miniature piano, and a bell,
all depicting the Capitol Building. This year marks the 150th
anniversary of the arrival of the model for the Statue of Freedom,
which sits atop the Capitol dome (pre-sale estimate, $2,000-$4,000).

A letter from New Orleans writing of the “dreadful gale of wind”,
certainly a hurricane, in 1837. Part of a 245-item archive of life in
New Orleans and the Old South, the original letters and documents
describe the lost world of steamboats, cotton trading, plantations,
great wealth, the early frontier, sugar, tobacco, and slavery
($48,000-$60,000).

“The Pamphlet That Shaped A Nation,” a 26-page booklet printed in
Spring 1776 by the same man, John Dunlap, who printed the Declaration
of Independence on the night of July 4th. Included in the Library of
Congress’ online presentation, “Creating the United States,” only
three other original examples of this pamphlet are known ($1,500-
$2,500).

Advertising booklet for one of the very first hybrid cars, the 1905
Gas-Au-Lec of Peabody, MA. Combining gas, steam, and electricity,
only four cars were ever built ($110-$140).

Description of the fabled, “Letter From Jesus,” in an English
schoolboy’s notebook of 1698-1702. According to tradition, King Abgar
wrote to Jesus, asking for help in curing his illness; he received a
reply, and was visited and cured by one of Jesus’ disciples ($400-$600).

An 1816 letter of a plantation overseer, ordering striped fabric for
slaves’ clothing ($90-$120).

And many other unusual historical items, in thirty-four categories.
Including the most valuable and unusual lot which is just that: an
empty lot, but with a secret. Hiding in plain sight in downtown
Yonkers, just behind the auction house, is one of the most ancient
African- American historical sites in the country. Forgotten for
years, it dates to 1682, surpassing even the Manhattan Burial Ground
by about eight years. While not in any auction, the Liberation Lawn
harbors over thirty specific points and periods of African-American
history, a high number for historical sites of any kind. These points
include: the formal entry tended by slaves of the richest couple in
old New York, George Washington’s 1776 encampment, land impacted by
the very first freedom law of its kind in America over 75 years before
the Emancipation Proclamation, rare written documentation of the
Underground Railroad on site, and much more.

City plans call for this Liberation Lawn, adjoining the Philipse Manor
Historic District, to be strip-excavated, then flooded with cement,
for a garage and condo. Efforts of local citizens to preserve
Liberation Lawn are ongoing. Its secrets were rediscovered by a
rather astonished Bob Snyder, Cohasco V.P., who published them in the
Yonkers Historical Society’s Quarterly. Snyder remarked, “That so
many key chapters in history occurred on one modest piece of land is
extraordinary. It’s highly likely that the number of historical
discoveries about Liberation Lawn’s role in slavery and freedom in
America will continue to grow. But we’re racing the clock.”

About Cohasco, Inc.: Established 63 years, Cohasco is a dealer in and
auctioneer of manuscripts, books, antiquarian materials and
collectibles. Over the years they have handled the sale of numerous
prominent collections, in a range of fields, from colonial to
Confederate, medieval to modern. Recent highlights included the
lamps that illuminated Lincoln’s wedding, an archive of the Duryea,
America’s first “mass-produced” automobile, and the Bible owned by
Martin Luther King, Jr.’s mother, setting a world record price for
a twentieth-century Bible.

For more information, please contact Bob Snyder at:

Cohasco, Inc.
ESTABLISHED 63 YEARS
P.O. Drawer 821
Yonkers, NY 10702

Phone: (914) 476-8500
Fax: (914) 476-8573
E-mail: info@cohascodpc.com
Website: http://cohascodpc.com

The post RARE LETTER OF WALT DISNEY’S “SILLY SYMPHONY” DISCOVERED first appeared on River View Observer.