It has been raining inside at Wolfe & Kron Books.

On Monday, July 6th 2026, downpours hit New Jersey, submerging streets, basements, and businesses. As floodwaters rose, the shorelines of local lakes crept onto lawns, and roads turned into rivers.

When Fin arrived at the store, having driven through the worst of the storm, they found books already swelling on the shelves, and water spreading across the hardwood floor. She scrambled to move books, stickers, shirts, and posters out of harms way, but the damage had already been done. Enough water had already poured down from the ceiling to saturate over 1000 books so thoroughly that they could be wrung out like a sponge. The damage spanned ¾ of the store’s shelves, and as Fin removed books to either set to dry, or when too far gone, to be disposed of, some left pieces behind, to be scraped off the shelves later.

This wasn’t the first time the store had been closed due to this leak, it first preventing the store’s reopening in February, after snow from Winter Storm Fern melted and flooded from above. The landlord and his building super promised that repairs had been made, but since the water came from outside the space rented by the bookstore, there was little to be done.

No rent abatement was offered after either leak, with the landlord going to so far as to threaten eviction if any amount of rent was withheld or not paid on time.

Just when the summer was looking to finally be a successful one, with locals and tourists alike making Wolfe & Kron Books their go-to for beach-reads beyond the usual best seller list, instead bills are piling up, and shelves are empty while time is taken up on an insurance claim.

We’ll be doing an auction eventually, but putting that together takes time, and drying out books requires time too. Fin was about to hire in staff for the summer and beyond, and has been able to bring on one new person as official Events Coordinator, but to hire anyone else, there needs to be money in the bank to make sure they can get paid.

Wolfe & Kron Books is a Certified UEZ [Urban Enterprise Zone] Small Woman / LGBTQ Owned Business …but it’s not a non-profit. Taxes will be paid for any money that comes in through this GoFundMe, but beyond that, all the money will be going to paying rent, utilities, and new employee wages–important since they all need to be trained while Fin is also trying to put the store back together …for the third time!

The hope is that insurance will cover damaged inventory enough to buy new books to fill the shelves, and that they’ll cover some amount of lost revenue, enough to make sure the following month’s rent will be covered.