The Ironbound

The Ironbound district of Newark, New Jersey, has been known by many names over the years - Down Neck, the East Ward, the Meadows. There was even a time in the early days when locals called it Texas, owing to its remote setting in the marshes around the mouth of the Passaic River. Then everything changed. Newark boomed with industrial growth, and the Ironbound grew right along with it. The Morris Canal was completed in 1832, followed in short order by the first of several railways - the "iron" that eventually gave the neighborhood its name. Factories went up, immigrants poured in, and the Ironbound became a "district of industrial uproar ... its people ... a hodge-podge of nationalities ... speaking many old-world tongues." In these richly illustrated pages, Edward A. Jardim tells the story of the Ironbound with all the humanity and dynamism of the neighborhood itself - the shifting populations; the political intrigues; the fortunes and follies; the saints, sinners, and ordinary joes. It's a story of struggle and aspiration, of social change and economic upheaval, and, perhaps most important, of an urban community shaped by industrialization and its aftermath.

The lands to the South are full of depraved women driven mad by forbidden sorcery. Now that sounds like fun for a barbarian from the Black Wolf Clan. The barbarians of the frozen north live to fight, drink, hunt, and screw, and Ymir is a true son of the Ax Tundra, until a demon curses him with magic. Orphaned by battle and banished by his tribe, Ymir heads south to Old Ironbound, a university where the rich and well-connected learn to master magic. Will Ymir's traditions and pride lead him to failure? Or will the centuries of knowledge-and the lusty human, elven, orcish, and dwarven noblewomen-give him limitless power? Either way, while his days are all about studying and scheming, his nights are filled with wild sex in the beds of beautiful women. Because in the lands of the South, there are few men, and those Southern women have needs. Disclaimer: Barbarian Outcast is a steamy slice-of-life harem adventure in a magic university on another world. The sex scenes are explicit but don't get in the way of the story as it slowly unfolds. Enter a brand-new world from Aaron Crash, the bestselling author of the American Dragon series.

At a bus stop in a run-down New Jersey town, Darja, a Polish immigrant cleaning lady, is done talking about feelings; it’s time to talk money. Over the course of 20 years, and three relationships, Darja negotiates for her future with men who can offer her love or security, but never both. Award-winning playwright Martyna Majok’s IRONBOUND is a darkly funny, heartbreaking portrait of a woman for whom love is a luxury—and a liability—as she fights to survive in America.

Gulnash the Betrayer is coming to Old Ironbound, and he's coming for blood! Ymir just wanted to finish his second year, craft the next Akkiric Ring, and enjoy the summer in the company of his beautiful women. But Old Ironbound has been chosen as the location of the orc blood games, and all the ruling families of the surrounding kingdoms have come to make sure the worst scourge of the Blood Steppes, Gulnash, loses his life on the pit sands. If Ymir can win the day, the three major cities of the Blood Steppes are his by right. But Ymir's summer isn't all just about rogue orcs. A woman, long dead, haunts the halls, filled with a lust that defies imagination. A damaged mermaid princess is causing trouble, but this time, it's sexy trouble. And the leaders of the Midnight Guild finally reveal themselves...and strike! Ymir has never faced bigger challenges, and he'll have to brave new enemies and find new allies in a battle royale that will be both bloodier and more erotic than ever before. Disclaimer: Barbarian Gladiator is a steamy slice-of-life harem adventure in a magic university on another world. The story burns slow and hot, as hot as the depraved women in Ymir's life. The sex scenes are explicit. You've been warned. Enter a brand-new world from Aaron Crash, the bestselling author of the American Dragon series.

There's something new, dark, and sweet at Old Ironbound Ymir made a vow to master magic and to take care of his women. To do that, he'll stay at the Majestrial Collegium Universitas, but he'll stay on his own terms. He has a new business idea that will make life at the college sweeter and keep all the scholars randy. Ymir's new business scheme requires a kitchen girl: the flirty dwarf named Toriah Welldeep, whose cheerful smile hides a broken heart. It's not all work, though, and he finds love, laughter, and passion with Jennybelle Josen and Lillee Nehenna, though the elf maiden is struggling to come to terms with the short lifespan of her new family, and something is giving Jenny nightmares. Could it be one of the new professors working at Old Ironbound? The incoming teachers are not what they seem. Is the Midnight Guild coming to finish what they started? Barbarians don't wait for assassins to murder them in their beds. Barbarians murder first. Disclaimer: Barbarian Assassin is a steamy slice-of-life harem adventure in a magic university on another world. The story burns slow and hot, as hot as the depraved women in Ymir's life. The sex scenes are explicit. You've been warned. Enter a brand-new world from Aaron Crash, the bestselling author of the American Dragon series.

An ancient evil has come to Old Ironbound-is it a dragon or is it something else? Ymir has obtained six of the eight Akkiric rings-the rings that allowed Aegel Akkridor and his wives to live for a thousand years-but the more he studies, the closer he comes to learning the secret behind the great vempor's death. A secret that may mean death for Ymir and his wives as well. With a murder in Four Roads, his supply of xoca beans gone, new information about the Fayee, a demon king on the march, and rumors of a dragon, Ymir barely has time to please his women and flirt with the Princept of the school. Are these distractions from the destruction to come, or will Ymir need all the help he can get to face the darkness descending on Old Ironbound? Disclaimer: Barbarian Dragonslayer is a steamy slice-of-life harem adventure in a magic university on another world. The sex scenes are explicit but don't get in the way of the story as it slowly unfolds. Enter a dark fantasy world from the mind of Aaron Crash, the bestselling author of the American Dragon series.

Canada Reads 2005 Winner! In a David and Goliath style battle to the finish, Rockbound by Frank Parker Day triumphed over Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood and was declared the 2005 Canada Reads winner. In a series of debates that aired on the CBC in February, panelist Donna Morrissey, author of Kit’s Law and Downhill Chance, passionately championed this 1928 novel about life and nature on the small maritime island of Rockbound. The victory has brought this Atlantic Province favourite back into the limelight and is receiving nationwide attention, appearing on several bestseller lists across the country. After its initial publication, Rockbound remained in out of print status until 1973, when the University of Toronto Press acquired the rights to publish as part of their “Literature of Canada Prose and Poetry in Reprint” series. It was reprinted with an introduction by Allan Bevan of Dalhousie University’s English Department. In 1989, Gerald Hallowell, an editor with the University of Toronto Press, rescued Rockbound from the backlist of the UTP catalogue. The book was reprinted with an afterword by Gwendolyn Davies, Dean of Graduate Studies and Associate Vice-President (Research) at the University of New Brunswick. UTP had been selling around 200 copies of the book per year, until Donna Morrissey selected it for the Canada Reads debates. Since then, UTP has sold over 35,000 copies and it has been reprinted three times! The University of Toronto Press would like to thank Donna Morrissey for her superb defense of the book and all of the people at the CBC for their support and encouragement. A complete synopsis of the debates, as well as an interactive timeline for Rockbound and Frank Parker Day can be found on their website, www.cbc.ca/canadareads/index.html. Copies of Rockbound can be found in abundance at the University of Toronto Bookstore, www.uoftbookstore.com, or at your local bookstore. To the harsh domain of Rockbound -- governed by the sternly righteous and rapacious Uriah Jung --comes the youthful David Jung to claim his small share of the island. Filled with dreamy optimism and a love for the unspoken promises of the night sky, David tries to find his way in a narrow, unforgiving, and controlled world. His conflicts are both internal and external, locking him in an unceasing struggle for survival; sometimes the sea is his enemy, sometimes his own rude behavior, sometimes his best friend Gershom Born, sometimes his secret love for the island teacher Mary Dauphiny; but always, inevitably, his Jung relatives and their manifold ambitions for money and power. The balance of life on Rockbound is precarious and thus fiercely guarded by all who inhabit its lonely domain, but just as a sudden change in the direction of the wind can lead to certain peril at sea, so too can the sudden change in the direction of a man's heart lead to a danger altogether unknown. Enormously evocative of the power, terror, and dramatic beauty of the Atlantic sea, and unrelenting in its portrait of back-breaking labour, cunning bitterness, and family strife, Rockbound is a story of many passions-love, pride, greed, and yearning -- all formed and buffeted on a small island by an unyielding wind and the rocky landscape of the human spirit.

Written from first-hand experience, it brings to life the early years of Karekare and neighbouring farming and logging settlements, at a time when car and air travel were starting to end the isolation of these stunning locations.