New Jersey Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff [Paperback]

Peter Genovese (Author), Pete Genovese (Author)

Book Description

Series: Curiosities Series | Publication Date: March 2003

New Jersey--home of "The Sopranos,' ten-story-high landfills, and the ugliest highway in the history of pavement (the New Jersey Turnpike), also claims the world's best spaghetti, nicest sandwich, and biggest ice cream cone, not to mention world-famous crabs, cheesesteaks, chili dogs, peanut brittle, and milkshakes. But it's not all about food. Within these pages you will discover animal actors, the nation's oldest nudist camp, and International Castor Oil Association (which is taking new members).

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

New Jersey Curiosities is your round-trip ticket to the wildest, wackiest, most outrageous people, places, and things this state has to offer. Writer Peter Genovese has combed New Jersey for one-of-a-kind gems that make his home state truly unique.
You'll meet the undisputed Weenie Queen of Garfield, visit a hot dog shop that doubles as the Famous Monsters of Filmland Shrine, and groan at one-liners from the only blind waiter/stand-up comedian in New Jersey. You'll learn the proper way to cook a garbage can turkey, get the skinny on the real birthplace of baseball, and hear the story of Waving Willie, New Jersey's friendliest roadside character. You'll feel the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat at the New Jersey Cockroach Derby and then relive the OK Corral shoot-out, carry a coffin down Main Street, and shoot cap guns at bad guys in Wild West City.

About the Author

Manasquan resident Pete Genovese is a feature writer for The (Newark, NJ) Star-Ledger and author of Roadside New Jersey, Jersey Diners, and The Great American Road Trip: US 1, Maine to Florida. Winner of various state press association awards, he was also nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for his Rwanda series. He oversees and writes the Munchmobile series, and authors a weekly food review column, "Eat with Pete."

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Globe Pequot; 1st edition (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762725273
• ISBN-13: 978-0762725274
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,538,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #53 in Books > Travel > United States > States > New Jersey

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a normal persons "weird NJ", December 27, 2003

By 

jerseybookseller (nj) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New Jersey Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Paperback)

Being a fan of Weird NJ for several years, I recently decided to try out other books that chornicle the strange, unusual and the funny stuff that can be found within our borders. I found this to be a very decent, relatively comprehensive guide to those weird roadside items of the book's title.

The author, Peter Genovese, is a writer for the Star Ledger, and runs a regular series about good places to grab lunch at, and has also written several other NJ based books about such things as diners, the jersey shore, and a previous book on weird stuff in NJ. He clearly has qualifications to write such a book, and it's obvious he enjoys Weird NJ, as many of the items referenced can be found in Weird NJ.

In fact, this book is really a cross between Genovese Munchmobile column and the Weird NJ Roadside Guide. This book really is not comparable to the Weird NJ book recently published by the Marks, in that they are two different books. The Weird NJ book is all about stories and myths, and although you can go out and visit some of the things referenced in the book, it isn't meant as a travel guide. This book is, and it functions quite well. It features many things not found in the Weird NJ Guide and really does deserve a spot on any weird NJ fans book shelf.

Some people like his first roadside guide better, while others found that book totally useless/. I can't compare the two books but I can say that this book is thoroughly enjoyable and worth the money.

Pluses: interesting trivia and factoids about NJ
minuses: pictures are B&W

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The perfect offbeat travel guide for NJ, December 29, 2003

By 

B. Pomeroy "bpomeroy54" (Sewell, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: New Jersey Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Paperback)

A great read for fans of Weird NJ, regional history and the offbeat in general, Peter Genovese's book is both entertaining and informative. Unlike Weird NJ, you won't find much about ghost stories, UFO sightings and urban myths in "New Jersey Curiosities"; instead, the focus is on real, specific locations that have down-to-earth yet interesting histories.

One of the nice features of this book is that the curiosities are organized by region, so you can easily look up the oddities in your area. Genovese also includes specific directions to aid in sightseeing. One area of improvement would be to include more pictures, but other than that, it's a superb travel guide.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Stick With His Other Books, March 16, 2003

By 

Vallerie (New Brunswick, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New Jersey Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Paperback)

While this book was okay, I was kind of disappointed. It seems to just be rehashed articles from the author's previous two books, Roadside NJ and Jersey Diners, without all of the great pictures that originally accompanied them. I would recommend buying one of those books, which are still published by Rutgers University Press, rather than this one.