Arts & Entertainment

Summer Reading 2013: New Books with a Jersey Connection -- 'Bruce'

A comprehensive new biography of the man known to rock fans worldwide simply by his first name -- or by the honorific, "The Boss."

Peter Ames Carlin’s biography of New Jersey’s -- or at least Gov. Chris Christie’s –- favorite son, Bruce Springsteen (published by Touchstone), is a must-own for any fan. 

In "Bruce," Carlin delves deep into the life and music of the rock legend. Carlin chronicles the influences and life of The Boss from his ancestors through the current tour. He discusses extensively how Bruce's life affected his music and how his music offers a reflection of his life. 

From "Greetings from Asbury Park" to "Wrecking Ball," Bruce offers fans details they've never heard before, and new takes on the stories they've heard thousands of times. The excerpts below give a peek at some of the very personal stories from Springsteen’s childhood and even earlier that shaped his life and the man and artist he would become.

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THE PLACE I LOVED THE MOST

THE TRUCK COULDN’T HAVE BEEN moving fast. Not down a sleepy residential street like McLean. If it had just turned in from Route 79—known in Freehold, New Jersey, as South Street—it would have been going even more slowly, since no seven-ton truck could round a 90-degree corner at a fast clip. But the truck had the height and breadth to all but fill the side road and sweep the other cars, bikes, and pedestrians to the side until it grumbled past. Assuming the other folks were paying attention to the road ahead.

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The five-year-old girl on the tricycle had other things on her mind. She might have been racing her friend to the Lewis Oil gas station on the corner. Or maybe she was simply a child at play, feeling the spring in the air on a late afternoon in April 1927.

Read more at NJSpotlight.com

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