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.

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.

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.

Iron Bound is a gritty, authentic account of street gangs and life in the margins of Newark, New Jersey's Ironbound district, at the start of the 60's. With all the elements of a noir mystery and a crime drama, it's Leach's insight into human nature and his ability to evoke place and moment that elevates the narrative to a complex examination of the tenuous relationships of people mired in conflict and fear -- amazon.com.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Set in a close-knit Newark neighborhood during a terrifying polio outbreak in 1944, a “book [that] has the elegance of a fable and the tragic inevitability of a Greek drama” (The New Yorker)—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American Pastoral. Bucky Cantor is a vigorous, dutiful twenty-three-year-old playground director during the summer of 1944. A javelin thrower and weightlifter, he is disappointed with himself because his weak eyes have excluded him from serving in the war alongside his contemporaries. As the devastating disease begins to ravage Bucky’s playground, Roth leads us through every inch of emotion such a pestilence can breed: fear, panic, anger, bewilderment, suffering, and pain. Moving between the streets of Newark and a pristine summer camp high in the Poconos, Nemesis tenderly and startlingly depicts Cantor’s passage into personal disaster, the condition of childhood, and the painful effect that the wartime polio epidemic has on a closely-knit, family-oriented Newark community and its children.

She's a She-Orc on the streets, and a Princess in the sheets... Ymir has heard rumors of possible trouble with the merfolk because the fish people are not to be trusted. But everyone's favorite barbarian turned scholar has other things to worry about. He's working on forging another ring, running a business, and studying for his alchemy exams. The women of Old Ironbound aren't making that easy. There's a greedy fairy who won't take no for an answer, his dwarven girlfriend is sampling aphrodisiacs, and now Gatha, the she-orc librarian, is showing some interest in him-but only if he can defeat her in battle. Meanwhile, the seas around the Majestrial Collegium Universitas are boiling with trouble. Someone is coming for an ancient artifact inside the Librarium Citadel, and if they get it, the continent of Thera will never be the same again. Disclaimer: Barbarian Alchemist 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.

For the first time in forty years, the story of one of America's most maligned cities is told in all its grit and glory. With its open-armed embrace of manufacturing, Newark, New Jersey, rode the Industrial Revolution to great prominence and wealth that lasted well into the twentieth century. In the postwar years, however, Newark experienced a perfect storm of urban troublesùpolitical corruption, industrial abandonment, white flight, racial conflict, crime, poverty. Cities across the United States found themselves in similar predicaments, yet Newark stands out as an exceptional case. Its saga reflects the rollercoaster ride of Everycity U.S.A., only with a steeper rise, sharper turns, and a much more dramatic plunge. How Newark Became Newark is a fresh, unflinching popular history that spans the city's epic transformation from a tiny Puritan village into a manufacturing powerhouse, on to its desperate struggles in the twentieth century and beyond. After World War II, unrest mounted as the minority community was increasingly marginalized, leading to the wrenching civic disturbances of the 1960s. Though much of the city was crippled for years, How Newark Became Newark is also a story of survival and hope. Today, a real estate revival and growing population are signs that Newark is once again in ascendance.