So – we’ve got the borough of Brooklyn done, and Queens has been sorted. I bet you thought I was going to The Bronx next, right? Not so.

I thought it would be nice to thrown a little love Staten Island’s way. Oh I know they get tetchy sometimes but you can’t take all that talk of secession seriously. It’s like a small kid declaring really loudly that he’s running away so that someone will stop him. We understand, SI. And we love you anyway. Never fear, Da’ Bronx. Your turn is coming.  We’re just gonna put SI a treat as part of our new outlook for the new year and build up it’s virtual bookshelf next.

• Haunted History of Staten Island
• Jewish Community of Staten Island, The (NY) (Images of America)
• Secret Places of Staten Island: A Visitor’s Guide
• Staten Island
• Staten Island (NY) (Then and Now)
• Staten Island, Vol. 2: A Closer Look (Images of America: New York)
• Staten Island: Isle of the Bay (Making of America: New York)
• Staten Island’s Greek Community (NY) (Images of America)
• That Ever Loyal Island: Staten Island and the American Revolution
• Not one but TWO children’s books on the ferry:
  • Riding the Ferry With Captain Cruz
  • A Staten Island Ferry Tale

As was the case with Queens, a lot of the most current non-fiction on Staten Island is pictorial with commentary. There was a great deal of serious scholarship and reports published in the first half of the 20th century but – as you might expect – much of that is now out of print. I’m starting to think a 5 volume history of the city (one volume per borough) might not be a bad idea . . . It wouldn’t be cheap and it wouldn’t be the kind of thing someone would pick up on a whim but I can see a place for it. Hmmmm.