Crime takes a vacation at the Shore in Chris Grabenstein’s breathtakingly paced first novel, Tilt a Whirl (Carroll & Graf, $23.95), set in the fictitious town of Sea Haven.

Seen in: Jersey Shore, Shore News

My ancestors arrived in New Jersey before General Washington set up his first camp. Trying to rake the leaves from my family tree is a full-time job.

Seen in: Jersey Living

Actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, in the role of Seinfeld’s Elaine Benes, may have stolen his secret soup recipes in one of the show’s most famous episodes, but Al Yeganeh, the real Soup Man, may have the last laugh.

Seen in: Eat & Drink, Reviews

NJ Monthly has all the best towns and schools in the Westfield area. Plus a day trip to Westfield.

Seen in: Towns & Schools

“I think almost every person likes chocolate. I mean, there are very few who don’t,” says Laura Waitze Zuckerman, a Bridgewater resident who parlayed her own passion for chocolate by starting Yummie (908-285-1494; yummiecookies.com), a mail-order confectionery, in December 2004.

Seen in: Jersey Celebrities, Jersey Living

Day Trip to Montclair - New Jersey Monthly - Best of NJ

Seen in: Towns & Schools

Here’s a catch-22 for the modern age: How do you get inside the head of a suicide bomber? If you’re John Updike, you set your 22nd novel in Paterson, where six 9/11 hijackers, including Hani Hanjour, the pilot of the plane that flew into the Pentagon, lived in the spring of 2001.

Seen in: Jersey Celebrities, Jersey Living

The 40th anniversary of the Newark race riots is coming up this July, and Brett Ellen Block has just written a crime novel, The Lightning Rule (William Morrow), with the riots as a backdrop.

Seen in: History, Towns & Schools

If you can’t hack another day fighting holiday traffic and tempers as you scour downtown stores and the mall for gifts, why not try shopping via desktop or laptop? Herewith, some holiday advice from the cybertrenches.

Seen in: Gift Guides, Jersey Living, Style & Shopping

Holidays at the office can be a minefield of faux pas. To avoid hurt feelings and misunderstandings, your goal at this time of year should be to follow whatever is the commonly accepted tradition where you work.

Seen in: Jersey Living, Style & Shopping