Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 2004. dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - SIGNED on the title page. Braff's very funny first novel of growing up in a Jewish suburban family in the 1970's. The title gives a good clue to the contents, but here is more from the front flap: 'Take one adolescent boy with an overactive imagination and a flourishing libido. Add a narcissistic father who can shower his children with love one minute and verbally cut them to shreds the next. Take a mother who seems to be always "out" and three siblings at various stages of development. Hire a sexy babysitter to take care of the kids and move them all to a new house in a leafy green New Jersey town in the 1970s, and you've got the makings of a comic and heart-wrenching novel of suburbia.' 259 pp. ISBN: 1-565124200.

Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 2004. dj. SIGNED hardcover first edition - INSCRIBED on the title page "To--- you have inspired a lot in me!" . Braff's very funny first novel of growing up in a Jewish suburban family in the 1970's. The title gives a good clue to the contents, but here is more from the front flap: 'Take one adolescent boy with an overactive imagination and a flourishing libido. Add a narcissistic father who can shower his children with love one minute and verbally cut them to shreds the next. Take a mother who seems to be always "out" and three siblings at various stages of development. Hire a sexy babysitter to take care of the kids and move them all to a new house in a leafy green New Jersey town in the 1970s, and you've got the makings of a comic and heart-wrenching novel of suburbia.' 259 pp. ISBN: 1-565124200.

Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 2004. dj. Hardcover first edition - Braff's very funny first novel of growing up in a Jewish suburban family in the 1970's. The title gives a good clue to the contents, but here is more from the front flap: 'Take one adolescent boy with an overactive imagination and a flourishing libido. Add a narcissistic father who can shower his children with love one minute and verbally cut them to shreds the next. Take a mother who seems to be always "out" and three siblings at various stages of development. Hire a sexy babysitter to take care of the kids and move them all to a new house in a leafy green New Jersey town in the 1970s, and you've got the makings of a comic and heart-wrenching novel of suburbia.' 259 pp. ISBN: 1-565124200.

New York: Broadway Books, (2001.) dj. Hardcover first edition - Fascinating account of the events of the summer of 1916, when a rogue great white shark attacked swimmers along the NJ shore - and even a mile from the coast in a creek - killing three adults and one boy, and leaving another badly injured, triggering mass hysteria & launching the most extensive shark hunt in history. While modern science now tells us that shark attacks are exceedingly rare and limited to just a few species, and it is still undecided on whether or not the concept of a "rogue shark" is accurate, these events helped inspire Peter Benchley's classic novel (and movie),"Jaws" . The story of the shark's attacks is juxtaposed against a picture of America in the late Edwardian age, at the beginning of a period of rapid change, both culturally and technologically, an America not yet committed to participating in the war in Europe, but on the verge. Map, sources, bibliography. Illustrated endpapers. 317 pp,. ISBN: 0-767904133.

Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Books, 1987. dj. Hardcover first edition - A book in which Cheuse attempts to come to terms with his "old world" father, a Bolshevik aviator who had defected, an intertwining of his father's story, of Cheuse's own youth in New Jersey, and the account of the trip Cheuse took to Russia. "As an aspiring young writer, Cheuse was entreated by his father, Philip, to read his manuscript of his adventures as an airplane pilot for the Red Army Air Force. . . Nearly 20 years later, four years after his father's death, Cheuse, now an established writer, does read the manuscript, is entranced by this brave young pilot he'd only barely known, and decides to travel to Russia with his own son, Josh, to visit the scenes of his father's childhood and youth." (Library Journal) Photographs. 308 pp. ISBN: 0-879052732.

Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books / Chicago Review Press, (2012) dj. Hardcover first edition - When the federal government, despite the "new deal, " pulled back from direct relief, control was returned to local authorities. "On February 25, 1938, the reviled poormaster [of Hoboken, NJ], Harry Barck wielding power over who would receive public aid died from a paper spike thrust into his heart. . . News of the poormasters death brought national attention to the plight of ten million unemployed living in desperate circumstances. A team led by celebrated attorney Samuel Leibowitz of 'Scottsboro Boys' fame worked to save Scutellaro from the electric chair, arguing that the jobless mans struggle with the poormaster was a symbol of larger social ills." We are still living in a time when these issues - endemic poverty, and the inadequacy of public assistance - are vital. Map, photographs, notes, index. 308 pp. ISBN: 978-1613744185.

By the author, (1996). SIGNED first edition - Autobiography of a man born in 1926 into a Portuguese family in Shanghai and who lived there with his family during World War II - leaving in 1946 for the United States, where he attended a school of pharmacy in Philadelphia, relocated to South Dakota, enlisted in the military during the Korean War and retired as a Colonel. Written to tell his grandchildren of the 20 years in Shanghai and the fifty years that followed in the United States. He was also very involved with the Boy Scouts so the chronology of special events in his life includes both attending World Jamboree and his promotions in the military. Illustrated with many photographs. INSCRIBED inside the front cover and dated in 1996. Very uncommon - WorldCat has a listing, but does not show any holdings. 114 pp.