This week the Library News blog will be highlighting everyone’s second favorite mid-Atlantic state, New Jersey! So grab your flip flops and head east with us each day this week. 

Summer Reading: Books Set at the Jersey Shore?

“Where in your library can I find books set at the Jersey shore?” the woman asked. Working at Falvey’s Learning Commons service desk, I searched the library’s catalog for “New Jersey” (as Subject) and “shore” (as All Fields):

Saving New Jersey’s Vanishing Shores

A Naturalist along the Jersey Shore

A Pictorial History of Selected Structures along the New Jersey Coast

Against the Deluge: Storm Surge Barriers to Protect New York City

Chance of a Lifetime: Nucky Johnson, Skinny D’Amato, and How Atlantic City Became the Naughty Queen of Resorts

“No,” she sighed, “I’m interested in summer reading: you know, fiction.”

I thought I’d find ideas for titles on Amazon.com, so I searched it for New Jersey shore fiction. I received 486 hits, including—

Summer’s Point by Margaret Palmer

Shore Stories: an Anthology of the Jersey Shore by Kay Boyle, Robert Pinsky, Stephen Dunn and Christopher Cook Gilmore

Missing by the Midway: An Ocean Grove Mystery (Volume 1) by Heath P. Boice

Murder Down the Shore: A Jersey Shore Mystery by Beth Sherman

Avalon by Gina Miani

Pop’s Place by Ed Buhrer

Shoretown by Dan Milczarski

High Tide by Tom Bruno

Dead and Breakfast (Asbury Dark) by Lori Bonfitto

Moondreams by Dean P. Johnson

The Methuselah Gene: A Science Fiction Adventure Thriller (New Millenium Writers Series) by Sal DeStefano

Wrong Beach Island (a Meg Daniels Mystery) by Jane Kelly

The results also included juvenile books (Nicky Fifth at the Jersey Shore, etc.) and several items related to the “Jersey Shore” television series. I tried avoiding the name of that TV show by changing my Amazon.com search to New Jersey beach fiction. The 479 results included many duplicates from my previous search. It also showed such titles as

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Book 1) by J.K. Rowling and Mary GrandPré

Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy by E L James

What to Expect When You’re Expecting, 4th Edition by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel

none of which, I suspected, were set at the Jersey shore (or beach).

I also searched flashlightworthybooks.com, which offered Creepers by David Morrell and Dunk by David Lubar. And goodreads.com recommended Chili Pimping in Atlantic City: The Memoir of a Small-Time Pimp by Michael “Mick-man” Gourdine.

“But I was hoping to find a library book,” she clarified. “I’m trying to save some money.”

Remembering that the Delaware County Library System has a branch right down the street, in Wayne, I searched DCLS’s catalog: The Boardwalk Mystery and Black Jack Jetty: a Boy’s Journey Through Grief are both in the children’s section. And Jersey Angel and Touched are listed as “young adult fiction.”

“Down The Shore by Stan Parish looks good. I’ll get that.”

I wrote down the book’s call number and handed her the slip of paper: “Let me know whether you recommend it.”
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Got summer reading? Falvey Memorial Library has Popular Reading and fiction to satisfy your need to read something fun.