Fans pick 81 books like The Season of You & Me

A girl’s discomfort with puberty is only part of the story. The other part is 11-year-old Margaret growing up in an interfaith family with a Jewish father and Christian mother.

Margaret struggles to find a religious identity. She must contend with her father’s mother who hopes she embraces Judaism and her conservative Christian maternal grandparents who reject their daughter’s interfaith marriage. This powerful coming-of-age story has gotten recent attention from a recent film and challenges from book bans. For me, it’s another example of Judy Blume’s insight, humor, and humanity.

Everything about this book screams New Jersey. The setting, the voice, the colorful cast of characters surrounding the main character, Dave Raymond, a guitarist for a wedding band called The Wishbones with a serious case of arrested development. Musicians and those on the cusp of marrying one (like I was when I first read this novel) will fall in love with this book for all its humor and quirky charms. I’ve read and loved every one of Tom Perrotta’s novels and short story collections, but this is the book that inspired me to proudly embrace my inner Jersey girl when I finally decided to write my first novel.

I was honored to read an early draft of this novel by fellow human and Jerseyite, Val Emmich, and was immediately taken with the voice of Joan, a 10-year-old girl with a special condition that gives her the ability to remember everything, but is afraid of being forgotten. To remedy that, she wants to win a prestigious songwriting contest by writing a song that makes people both want to dance and cry (two of the strongest feelings in her opinion). So she strikes a deal with Gavin, an adult songwriter who she believes can help her make that happen. Jersey City is the primary setting for this novel, a city that along with its many other charms, offers spectacular views of the New York City skyline. 

One of the first modern cozy mysteries I have ever read, Stephanie Plum is zany, ridiculous, and laugh-out-loud funny. Basically, she’s a bounty hunter, and she gets her man and solves mysteries despite herself. Her Grandma Mazur is quite possibly one of the best sidekick characters ever invented. Funerals may or may not involve dead bodies, but Granny Mazur will be there anyway, even if it means stealing a corpse. Especially if it means stealing a corpse! Stephanie has a habit of losing cars and getting stuck driving a very old boat of a car (Big Buick), which deprives her of looking as cool as she’d like. Well, she isn’t exactly a put-together gal, so that’s okay. 

The initial books in the series are almost a coming of age—a chance at a career, a chance or two at romance, and family shenanigans that almost kill her with good intentions. This… show more.

Dominick Mazzagetti retells the history, culture, and landscapes found along the Jersey Shore in his nonfiction book The Jersey Shore: The Past, Present & Future of a National Treasure.

This book is a well-researched labor of love and discusses how the area from Sandy Hook to Cape May rose from being undeveloped sandy acres of land in the late 1600s to grand tourist resorts in the late 1800s.

I’ve used Mazzagetti’s book as research for articles and other works I write, especially about shipwrecks and Superstorm Sandy’s devastating impact in 2012. His clear voice engages and informs in a way that makes the place I call home come alive.

As a lifetime shore resident, I gravitate to books set at the beaches of New Jersey, and such is the case for Katie Runde’s debut novel The Shore.

Her core growing-up memories stemmed from both living at the shore and from her family’s boardwalk/beached based businesses. She used her experiences to craft a deep and moving novel about how Brian Dunne’s wife, Margot, and two teenage daughters, Liz and Evy, come to terms with unimaginable grief and loss.

When I interviewed Runde for an article I wrote for Jersey Shore Magazine, we bonded over shared experiences of transforming grief into writing beautiful stories set at similar shore locations despite very different journeys for our main characters. The Shore helped me to examine my own grief through different lenses.

I loved this short story. The main character picks up an antique doll during one of his travels for his daughter. The doll’s name was Alice, and she was very creepy. I could imagine every feet patter and slam against the door with the author’s great way of describing details in the setting. The doll was on a mission and nothing was going to stand in her way. I enjoyed the twist regarding the bed and breakfast owner.

Ironically, as a wordsmith, I absolutely adore the universal hilarity of physical comedy, an art form that transcends the need for words. So, I was immediately drawn to the slapstick antics of calamitous Trenton, NJ rookie bounty hunter Stephanie Plum. In this book, Stephanie is hot on the trail of bail jumper Kenny Mancuso. Low on expertise but learning fast, high on resilience, and despite the help she gets from friends and relatives, Stephanie is targeted by a loathsome adversary. Lula, Stephanie’s soon-to-be-sidekick, was first introduced as a minor character in the debut of the series, One for the Money.

Lula is a zaftig black ex-hooker who somehow squeezes her size 16 body into a size 10 spandex bodysuit. Lula’s wisecracking, street-smart philosophy is to always shoot first and ask questions later. In this second book of the series, Lula becomes a continuing character with her role as a file… show more.

I love this book despite the incredible discomfort I experience every time I read it.

Diving in the cold waters of the North Atlantic on a good day is no picnic. But diving deep into the wreck of a mystery U-boat, not knowing if you are going to come out? Epic.

I just recently listened to the Audible book while driving back from an undersea research project in a van filled with young scientific divers. The climax had us all squirming in our seats!

There are a lot of legends regarding New Jersey and its role in the Civil War, including bogus stories that the state was considering joining the Confederacy. This book was the first attempt at relating the actual story of the state and the war. While it can be criticized in some respects, it is largely correct, and details the history of each of New Jersey’s units in the conflict. It is an invaluable starting point and a resource for anyone writing about the state and its role in the Civil War.