Summer is a great time for readers to take a book to the beach or just sit in a lounge chair in the backyard and read a good book. With history in our DNA, we’ve worked to create a great list of books for consideration. The Mr Local History Book & Film Club partners with local libraries and area authors and filmmakers to showcase films and stories from the Somerset Hills. Have an author or filmmaker to share? Let us know.
Our Summer Top Favorites
1. Colonial Taverns of New Jersey by Michael Gabriele
2. Kidnapping the ENEMY by Christian McBurney
3. The Idea Factory by John Gertner
4. Finding Kate: The Unlikely Journey of 20th Century Healthcare Advocate Kate Macy Ladd by Meryl Carmel
5. Jersey Stories by Fred Rossi
6. The Story of an old Farm; or, Life in New Jersey in the Eighteenth Century by Andrew Mellick
7. The Idea Factory by John Gertner
These are just a few of our selections. Take a look at the entire list and see what interests you.
Great Reads with History Around Central Jersey
| Title | Cover | Author | Town/Area | Summary |
| The Gilded Frame (Fiction) |  | Peter Gilbertson | Bernardsville | The Gilded Frame is an historical mystery set in New Jersey’s Bernardsville Mountain Colony, 1912-13, where wealthy, famous, and powerful New Yorkers established country estates around the turn of the 20th century. Kitt and Polly fall in love during a fox hunt, but their romance is put on hold when her brother reveals he is homosexual. Shocked and wounded by the news, their father wants to disinherit him. Dying of cancer and on heavy doses of morphine, however, his competence to do so is questionable. |
| Finding Kate: The Unlikely Journey of 20th Century Healthcare Advocate Kate Macy Ladd |  | Meryl Carmel | Peapack | As the governor of Massachusetts from 1760-1771, Bernard was the local representative of the King of England during the American Revolutionary War. It was he who brought British troops to Boston in 1765, and he who eventually persuaded the king, his ministers and the Parliament that his colony was on the brink of a revolution. This book, a political biography, seeks to reconstruct the process that led the colonists to justify their opposition to Britain by excoriating Bernard as a tyrant |
| The Infamas Governor – Francis Bernard |  | Colin Nicholson | New Jersey/MA | Take a look at all of the Colonial Taverns around New Jersey, including many that are still open today. |
| Colonial Taverns of New Jersey |  | Michael Gabriele | New Jersey | It is a horror film for the ages that has become a cult classic. |
| George Washington’s NEMESIS |  | Christian McBurney | Basking Ridge | The outrageous treason and unfair court martial of Major General Charles Lee during the Revolutionary War |
| Jersey Stories |  | Fred Rossi | New Jersey | Get Fred Rossi’s Jersey Stories Book today – write him directly at Fred T. Rossi jerseystoriesnj@gmail.com or find him on Facebook – Click Here |
| Kidnapping the ENEMY |  | Christian McBurney | Basking Ridge | The Special Operations to capture Generals Charles Lee and Richard Prescott |
| VIRTUAL EVENT: The Deadly Spawn |  | Charles Hildebrandt | Peapack | Scholars have selected this work as culturally important. It is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. |
| The Basking Ridge Historic Oak Tree Project |  | Brooks Betz | Basking Ridge | The keepsake book is a fundraiser that not only includes some of the most touching writings and images, but it also gives back to the community. |
| Somerset Hills History Coloring Book |  | Brooks Betz, Linda Arnold, AAUW | Bedminster, Basking Ridge, Far Hills, Bernardsville, Peapack, Gladstone | The Somerset Hills is a group of five beautiful towns in the northern section of Somerset County, New Jersey including Bedminster, Bernards Township, Bernardsville, Far Hills, Peapack & Gladstone. New Jersey is often referred to as the “Cockpit of the American Revolution” and many of these images tie back to the history of the Revolutionary War and the birth of the great American Experience. |
| History of the Reformed Church at Peapack, N.J |  | Henry Post Thompson | Peapack | Volume 2 documents the prolific estate-building activity in one of the country’s exclusive residential “colonies” between World War I and World War II. Beautifully illustrated and extensively researched. |
| A Bit of Earth in the Somerset Hills: Growing Up in a Small New Jersey Town |  | Gordon Thomas Ward | Bedminster, Basking Ridge, Far Hills, Bernardsville, Peapack, Gladstone | Combining the enchantment of youth with nostalgic memories of the landscape of Somerset, New Jersey, author Gordon Ward recalls in brilliant detail the Bernardsville neighborhood in which he grew up. While the world beyond grappled with Woodstock, Vietnam, Watergate and the era s other great dramas, Ward went to school, played, explored the surrounding terrain, developed friendships, celebrated holidays, found a niche for himself within his family and much more. A Bit of Earth in the Somerset Hills, is a neighborhood tale that will resonate with all whose growing up years were filled with a sense of place |
| Schoolhouses of Early Bernards Township: A Photographic History of Schools |  | Josephine M. Waltz | Bernards Township | A pictorial history of the early schoolhouses of the Bernards Township (NJ) school district, which dates to 1853. Several of the schoolhouses continued in use into the early 1900s and still stand today. |
| New Jersey Country Houses – The Somerset Hills – Volume 2 |  | John K. Turpin , W. Barry Thomson | Bedminster, Basking Ridge, Far Hills, Bernardsville, Peapack, Gladstone | Lavishly illustrated, The Somerset Hills provides a rare glimpse into some of New Jersey’s finest country houses and estates, and the fascinating people who designed and built them. Volume 2 of this stunning series is also now available. |
| New Jersey Country Houses – The Somerset Hills – Volume 1 |  | John K. Turpin , W. Barry Thomson | Bedminster, Basking Ridge, Far Hills, Bernardsville, Peapack, Gladstone | The popular series continues capturing great images from Somerset Hills’ history. |
| In the Somerset Hills (Images of America) |  | Joan Williams | Bedminster, Basking Ridge, Far Hills, Bernardsville, Peapack, Gladstone | The true story of a 1966 flight of two Basking Ridge brothers |
| Flight of Passage |  | Rinker Buck | Basking Ridge | Settled in the first half of the 1700s, Bedminster Township’s fertile fields attracted Dutch, German, and Scottish farmers. During the American Revolution,the town served as a safe haven for the American army. For over a century, following the war, Bedminster returned to its previous way of life as a sleepy little farming community. |
| Bedminster (Images of America) |  | William A. Schleiche | Bedminster | Basking Ridge, Liberty Corner, and Lyons form the nucleus of Bernards Township, a region with a fascinating and long history. |
| The Shooting of Rabbit Wells |  | William Loizeaux | Bernardsville | A White Cop, a Young Man of Color, and an American Tragedy. On a frigid winter’s night in 1973, William “Rabbit” Wells, a young man of mixed race, was shot and killed by a white policeman named William Sorgie outside a bar in Bernardsville, New Jersey |
| Around and About Basking Ridge, Liberty Corner, and Lyons (Images of America) |  | June Kennedy | Bernards Township | n Despite the great numbers of local histories that have recently appeared as by-products of the celebration of New Jersey’s tercentenary, we feel no need to apologize for offering one more. New Jersey, more than any state in the Union, can trace its history only through studies of its individual communities. The complexity and diversity of the state is clearly seen in the small area about twenty miles in length in which Bernardsville is centered |
| A Journey through Peapack and Gladstone |  | Jacqueline Tutton | Peapack & Gladstone | A great history of Peapack and Gladstone with images. |
| Among the Blue Hills: Bernardsville, A History |  | Bernardsville History Book Committee | Bernardsville, Bernards Township | The Somerset Hills; Being a brief record of significant facts in the early history of the hill country of Somerset County, New Jersey and contains stories from the Millington native. New Amsterdam Book Company |
| The Somerset Hills |  | Ludwig Schumacher | Bedminster, Basking Ridge, Far Hills, Bernardsville, Peapack, Gladstone | Scholars have selected this work as culturally important and as part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. It was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. |
| The Story of an old Farm; or, Life in New Jersey in the Eighteenth Century | Andrew D. Mellick | Bedminster, Peapack, Gladstone | The definitive history of America’s greatest incubator of technological innovation. In this first full portrait of the legendary Bell Labs, Gertner takes readers behind one of history’s greatest collaborations between business and science. | |
| Centennial History of Somerset County | 1878 | Andrew Messler | Bedminster, Basking Ridge, Far Hills, Bernardsville, Peapack, Gladstone | The 212-page book is a historic look back at people, places, and activities that we all take for granted as New Jersey citizens today. Many of the names have been honored with township and county names like Carteret, Penn, and more. The journey starts back in 1681. The bound brook, the Middlebrook, the north branch, Pluckemin, and the chimney rock are called out as they become colonized over the next century. |
| Crystal Fire | Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson | Somerset Hills | On December 16, 1947, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain, physicists at Bell Laboratories, jabbed two electrodes into a sliver of the metalloid geranium. The power flowing from the geranium far exceeded what went in; in that moment the transistor was invented and the Information Age was born. No other devices have been as crucial to modern life as the transistor and the microchip it spawned. 364 Pages | |
| The Idea Factory |  | John Gertner | Somerset Hills | The definitive history of America’s greatest incubator of technological innovation. In this first full portrait of the legendary Bell Labs, Gertner takes readers behind one of the greatest collaborations between business and science in history. |
Additional Stories
