Aug 12, 2025

New Books, Available Today

Every Tuesday, we publish new books set in towns just like yours. This week is no exception.

Scroll down to see if your hometown made the list!

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Cover image for Haunted Waterbury & the Naugatuck Valley, isbn: 9781467159012

Haunted Waterbury & The Naugatuck Valley by Michael J. Bielawa

Waterbury and the Naugatuck Valley have a rich and varied history, but some of its darker chapters have remained hidden. These include an abandoned road guarded by an invisible entity, factory ghosts, a monstrous serpent, unnerving cemetery lore, demonic houses and a haunted restaurant. Once declared dead due to decades of being inundated with industrial and chemical pollutants, the Naugatuck River has been brought back to life by environmental stewardship, which has been a welcome benefit to residents. However, the river’s cleanup has also awakened supernatural stories that carve a paranormal path from the stream’s source in northwest Connecticut to its confluence with the Housatonic. Local author and historian Michael Bielawa reveals the eerie dark side of the river and this fabled valley.

Cover image for Haunted Portage, Wisconsin, isbn: 9781467156509

Haunted Portage, Wisconsin by Shellyey Mordini and Sharon Hart Addy

Every night at 8:15 p.m., a homeowner watched a transparent man wearing a stovepipe hat and carrying a suitcase walk through her living room. A child playing with a dowsing rod in her grandmother’s house communicated with the spirit of a boy lingering in the attic. A young lady looking at an old, empty house saw an old woman move a curtain and peek at her, but when she blinked, the curtain and the old woman were gone.

Cover image for Filipinos in the San Fernando Valley, isbn: 9781467162203

Filipinos in the San Fernando Valley by Joseph Bernardo

Filipinos comprise the largest Asian American community in the place that some have deemed “America’s Suburb.” Although a small number of Filipinos formed farm laborer communities in Los Angeles’s San Fernando Valley beginning in the 1920s when the area was largely an agribusiness hub, most Filipinos settled in the valley when the post–World War II bedroom community largely integrated beginning in the 1970s and 1980s. From the postindustrial age to the present, thousands of Filipinos flocked to the San Fernando Valley seeking affordable homeownership and a suburban quality of life, helping to change the makeup of communities, neighborhoods, schools, and even suburbia itself. Filipinos in the San Fernando Valley traces the historical and cultural shifts of this quintessential suburb through the lens of generations of Filipinos who made the valley their home.

Cover image for Haunted Noble County, Indiana, isbn: 9781467156066

Haunted Noble County, Indiana by Mark R. Hunter and Emily Jane Hunter

Noble County boasts small-town charm and attractions all year long.

And ghosts. The county’s only movie theater is patrolled by the well-known manager, who died in 1995. Two of the highest hills in the state are haunted, one after a hanging and another because of a murder immortalized by Indiana’s poet laureate. The sprawling Kneipp Sanitarium received a visit from the Virgin Mary herself and became a battleground of good versus evil. Former residents of the county poor farm still roam the building. Then there’s the “Thing in the Basement.”

Haunted Lenawee County by Dr. Julieanna Frost

Punctuated by quaint towns, historic tourist sites, rolling farmland, recreational areas and picturesque lakeside escapes, Lenawee County also has its darker side.

A ghostly woman in white is said to haunt the Clinton Inn, and specters at the Adrian’s Croswell Opera House refuse to give up the limelight. Around Cambridge Township, Native American spirits cannot rest due to a disturbed grave. The former Mineral Springs Hotel of Adrian is haunted by guests that never checked out. A shadowy creature lurks around the small village of Ridgeway, and an evil spirit cursed a lake near Manitou Beach.

Cover image for Allentown Fairgrounds, isbn: 9781467162579

Allentown Fairgrounds by Kelly Ann Butterbaugh

As times changed, so did the Allentown Fairgrounds, and these early days are captured forever in photographs.

In 1889, those who organized the Allentown Fair decided to buy a lot at Seventeenth and Chew Streets in Allentown—the new Allentown Fairgrounds. The area was large enough for a racetrack, a grandstand, exhibition buildings, stables, and a picnic grove. The racetrack and grandstand were built in time for the harness racehorse Dan Patch to set his world record there in 1905. The grassy midway gave a home to trapeze routines, psychic tents, Ferris wheels, and belly dancers. From 1917 to 1918, the fair paused, and the fairgrounds were used as a US Army Ambulance Corps training ground known as Camp Crane. When the fair returned, a stage was added for vaudeville acts and George Hamid’s dancing shows. Later, the stage began to book performers like Guy Lombardo, Roy Rogers, Cher, and the Osmonds. The new “Million Dollar Midway” featured thrill rides, and the fairgrounds added year-round events, including a weekly indoor farmer’s market.

Cover image for Mystery of the Haunted Graveyard, isbn: 9781455628575

Mystery of the Haunted Graveyard by Kelly Young-Silverman

Gracie isn’t one to make friends with the living, but she quickly bonds with a graveyard groundskeeper’s son, who vows to help her on her quest. Together, they set out to find the ghost of another Gracie Watson, who happens to be buried at Bonaventure Cemetery. Like any great adventure, what they find is nothing like what they expected.

Cover image for I Know My Texas Colors, isbn: 9781455628339

I Know My Texas Colors by Paul Schexnayder

Tex the armadillo is learning his Texas colors.

Waltz across Texas with him and see how colorful his state can be, from the blue in the bluebonnets to the green of a prickly pear cactus.

The Wild Girl of Catahoula by Yvette Landry, Illustrated by Cullen Bernard

Every Sunday, Mike and Yvette could be found sitting on the porch listening to Pop recount stories of growing up near the Catahoula swamp. Tall tales of creatures that could only live in nightmares…an old hag with long, boney fingers, a tree that comes to life, and a wild girl who keeps “toe-kens” from her human encounters. Tall tales, yes, and none of them true…right?!

Yet when the family outing to visit Tante Nana, deep in the backwoods of Catahoula goes awry, Yvette soon discovers that strange things happen where the black trees grow.

If you're interested in reading more about your hometown, take a look at our full catalog.