There are as many versions of Greater Cincinnati as there are residents of the region. That’s roughly two million different perceptions of the city.

In Cincinnati in 50 Maps, editor Nick Swartsell and cartographer Andy Woodruff present over fifty ways of looking at the Queen City, from its early roadways and Indigenous earthworks to its shifting neighborhood borders. A visualization of relative population density can tell one story, and one showing where jobs are clustered tells another. New maps with up-to-date data sit beside historical maps that show things like exactly how communities were razed to make room for highways. Broken up into five sections—Mapping the Past, the Shape of Cincinnati, Communities and Culture, Getting Around, and Health and Environment—these visual representations show both the commonalities and the contradictions of an ever-changing American city.

These maps present reported statistics in new ways, and they represent the things that make Cincinnati the unique place that residents know and love: Find every place you can get Cincinnati chili, the location of every public stairway, and where the infamous Cincy traffic is worst.

Anyone who calls or ever called Cincinnati home will find something familiar, something surprising, and something revealing in this glossy, full-color volume.

With unexpected twists and compelling characters, Don’t Feed the Lion explores how young people grapple with antisemitism, prejudice, allyship, and the courage to speak up.

"This book . . . gives kids the tools to recognize and stand up to hate.” —Jake Tapper, CNN Anchor and New York Times Best-Selling Author

Annie and Theo Kaplan have a family ritual: every Friday night they celebrate Shabbat with their energetic, immigrant grandparents. But this Shabbat, which happens to fall on Annie’s eleventh birthday, isn’t like the others. Thirteen-year-old Theo’s soccer hero—Wes Mitchell—has posted an antisemitic message that quickly goes viral, leaving his parents disgusted, his sister enraged, and Theo himself clobbered by a torrent of confusion, anger, sadness, and a deep desire to just ignore it. 

Antisemitism quickly affects the entire Kaplan family in various ways. Theo’s teammates think Mitchell’s comments were no big deal, and Theo notices an uptick in anti-Jewish commentary around school. A rare act of rebellion draws Annie into the fray, and a new classmate shows that ignoring pain is no way to get through it.

Don’t Feed the Lion asks readers of all backgrounds: What will you do when it’s your turn to choose?

Author Joshua Womack tells the story of those who lived, breathed and sweated in one of Cleveland’s most iconic landmarks. In Cleveland, there’s a place where sweat, steak and friendship collide. Tucked away on a dead-end road in the once-bustling area of Kinsman, the Schvitz is where men have come for decades to let it all hang out. Wrapped in towels and mystery, this nondescript, utilitarian building has captured the hearts and pores of many. There’s a lot of questions around the Schvitz. Is it just a Jewish thing? Why is it where it is? Why do men (and now, more recently, women) love this place?

This full-color book of maps, one of Belt Publishing’s 50 Maps Series, presents the capital and biggest city in Ohio like you’ve never seen it before. 

Columbus is a place perpetually in search of an identity. Once called a “cow town,” it is now a sprawling metropolitan area and home to the behemoth Ohio State University. How can one best represent the city, in all its complications and contradictions? 

One way is through maps, as editor Brent Warren and cartographer Vicky Johnson-Dahl explore here. These fifty-plus maps show things that are inherently Columbus, from ComFest to the present and former locations of the city’s iconic arches. But you will also find maps that offer surprising ways of looking at the city, whether charting immigrant populations, LGBTQ+ landmarks, or mass transit that was never actually built. Divided into four sections—Situating the City, Getting to Know the City, Getting Around, and People and Places—Columbus in 50 Maps will excite current, former, and future Columbusites as well as people with an interest in the region or creative urban cartography.

In the summer of 2014, a strange thing happened to one of the largest freshwater bodies on the planet: Lake Erie’s western shore turned bright green with toxic algae that could have killed 400,000 Ohioans. Stranger still, it was kind of Patrick Wensink’s fault. Okay, partially his fault, but also to blame was industrial corn farming, greenhouse gasses, the Worst Road In America, his attraction to toxic relationships, Richard Nixon, Charles Dickens, cyanobacteria, high school bullies, and, most importantly, the untold history of the Great Black Swamp: a large swatch of what is now Ohio and Indiana that was once a dangerous, malaria-ridden wetland.

Toxic green algae has become a global problem. While the scientific community scrambles to find a solution, Wensink discovers that the answer might be hiding in his former home, a million acres of table-flat farmland so desolate that even other Ohioans look down upon it.

Great Black Swamp: Toxic Algae, Toxic Relationships, and the Most Interesting Place in America that Nobody’s Ever Heard Of mixes ecological reporting, Midwestern history, and memoir. As Wensink travels through Northwest Ohio, he tells us about his childhood there, his failing marriage, American history, Lake Erie, and the hopeful ecological interventions scientists are performing in the former Great Black Swamp. 

Remembering two palaces of retail

For generations, Scranton’s two big department stores, The Globe Store and Oppenheim’s Scranton Dry Goods Company, affectionately known as “the Dry,” dominated retail in the Electric City. Facing each other on Wyoming Avenue, they created special memories for those who walked their sales floors with attractive displays, special events, community service and elaborate Christmas decorations. Many fondly recall the steamship round of beef carved to order at The Globe’s Charl-Mont Restaurant or waving to customers passing by on the escalator from the Dry’s mezzanine Tea Room. Together, the two stores brought the best the world had to offer to Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Join Scranton-area native Daniel J. Packer Jr. and step through the iconic revolving doors into a bygone era of shopping in grand style.

Proudly printed in America, this definitive 1812 edition of Thomas Jefferson's landmark work continues to inform the rules and procedures of the United States House and Senate today.

As vice president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson presided over the Senate. To improve its procedures, he wrote A Manual of Parliamentary Practice. First published in 1801, Jefferson’s Manual has been the basis for the rules of Congress ever since. In 1812, a second edition of the Manual was published with Jefferson’s input, marking his final word on the book.  Now, for the first time, Jefferson’s Manual of 1812 is printed with all of Jefferson's additions, along with an introduction detailing the history of the text and tracing the discovery of Jefferson’s revisions. This new edition includes Jefferson’s additions that serve as the basis for changes to the “House Rules and Manual,” published by the U.S. House of Representatives in 2025.  Author Brian Alexander presents groundbreaking research using Jefferson’s own writings in this historic Manual of Parliamentary Practice, now in its definitive edition.

Diana Bahnson Overbey, executive director of Historic Bethabara Park, uses archival maps, drawings, portraits, and photographs to tell Bethabara’s story, from 18th-century backcountry settlement to 21st-century historic site.

In 1753, the Moravian Church purchased 98,985 acres of land in the Piedmont of North Carolina and established the town of Bethabara. It grew into a bustling trades town by the 1760s but transitioned into a small farming community in the 19th century, with fields of crops planted next to the 1788 church. Ministers remarked on the muddy, rutted roads and the wayward behaviors of their congregation. Bethabara’s significance as the first Moravian town in North Carolina was not forgotten, however, and in 1903, thousands turned out for the 150th anniversary celebration. That celebratory spirit was kindled again in the 1950s when Edwin Stockton decided Bethabara needed to be preserved for future generations. Acreage containing the original settlement was purchased, and archaeologist Stanley South conducted a groundbreaking archaeological dig during the 1960s to uncover the foundations of the original structures, which had been left undisturbed beneath farmland for over a century. Historic Bethabara Park opened to the public in 1966. Today, the site covers 183 acres and includes four restored historic buildings as well as a reconstructed village and gardens.

Join author and comedian Mike Bridenstine for a show business story unlike any other. In 2001, an aspiring comedian in Kansas City named Kyle Parris performed what can be described as the most infamous open mic set of all time. And it took place at one of the most infamous clubs in the history of stand-up—Stanford & Sons—which was owned by one of the most notorious and colorful families in comedy history. This book tells the story of that set, as well as the story of the Kansas City comedy scene, from the boom times of the ’80s, when comics like Sinbad and Eddie Griffin got their starts, to the 2000s, when Nikki Glaser got hers. There are a lot of twists, turns and wild characters along the way, including some recent headlines in the Hollywood trades.

After the 1776 Battle of White Plains, Westchester County became known as the “Neutral Ground.” But there would be no peace here. Occupied by neither side, it was a place where no one could remain neutral amid clashes by detachments of the contending armies, as well as violence by groups of bandits, vigilantes and partisans. Families were driven from their homes, and violence flared between once peaceable neighbors. Espionage played a major role as well, culminating in the Arnold-André conspiracy, which nearly ended the war in a British victory. Local historian Stephen Paul DeVillo details the colorful personalities and diverse military units that shaped the course of the conflict.