New Books Publishing Today
There's something uniquely satisfying about discovering a new book that brings your own backyard to life, those meticulously researched local histories that uncover forgotten stories, reveal hidden connections, and help us see familiar streets and neighborhoods through fresh eyes. Today marks the release of several compelling local history titles that promise to deepen our understanding of the places we call home. Whether you're a history buff eager to explore your community's past, a newcomer wanting to understand the roots of your adopted city, or simply someone who believes that the most fascinating stories are often the ones that happened right around the corner, today's releases offer rich discoveries waiting to be made.
Let's explore the local history books making their debut and uncover the hidden tales of our communities.
Tulsa has always been vital to Route 66. In 1920, as the automobile was altering American life, good roads were nonexistent. Tulsa businessman and civic leader Cyrus Avery led the charge to transform the patchwork of dirt and mud trails that linked cities into a national system of paved highways, culminating in the creation of Route 66 in 1926.
For this, Avery is known as the “Father of Route 66.” Through the Great Depression, World War II, and the country’s postwar prosperity, the “Main Street of America” permeated culture through song, literature, movies, and even a television show. All the while, Tulsa—the “Magic City” with a petroleum pedigree—hosted travelers with big-city services and shopping in an Art Deco setting. And then, the road was gone. It was replaced by the faster, straighter interstate highway system in 1985. The signs came down and the double sixes disappeared until another Tulsan, Michael Wallis, brought them back. In 2024, Tulsa officially became the “Capital of Route 66.” Travelers from around the globe get their kicks at exciting attractions from Buck Atom Space Cowboy to Meadow Gold Mack and Mother Road Market to Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza. Again, neon dances in the Capital of Route 66.
The farmlands and rural areas of Iowa are no stranger to the weird, dark and mysterious. Learn about a terrestrial sighting from 1903, a creepy cryptid that terrorized the town of Van Meter. Find out about Bigfoot sightings in Calhoun County. Peer under the waters of Lake Okoboji to find a huge lake monster. Read the history of a frightening sculpture based on a story by Franz Kafka and hear a premonition that predicted a devastating fire. Five-time Bram Stoker Finalist author Michael McCarty and Professor Emeritus Bruce Walters forge a twisted path through shadowy, Gothic Iowa. Do you dare follow?
Historic Winter Storms of New Jersey
On December 26, 1947, an unpredicted storm buried Newark in twenty-six inches of snow. A record-setting nor’easter on January 22, 2016, unleashed sixty-mile-per-hour wind gusts, six-foot drifts and snowfall depths of thirty inches in Bernards Township and Long Valley. But no storm was more infamous than the so-called Great White Hurricane. Coming when the science of meteorology was in its infancy, the blizzard of 1888 left tens of millions at the mercy of a vicious three-day nightmare with tragic loss of life and property that no one saw coming.
Settlers in Kinsley, Kansas, predicted that their home would be the next “great metropolis.” Booms and busts came and went, and Kinsley never realized this dream. Instead, this town, once described as “Wild and Woolly,” much like its neighbor, the infamous Dodge City, fostered the cultural activity of a city many times its size. Its poets and artists intermingled with vagabond entertainers, snake oil swindlers, hypnotists, multilingual automatons, elocutionists and Shakespeareans. By the 1910s, there was a published poet on every street and an aspiring actor around every corner. Local stars even went on to Hollywood and New York. Historians Joan Weaver and William Wolfgang explore how this remote community earned its recently rediscovered title, the “Drama Capital of the West.”
Founded in 1769, this small fortress and mission was the seedling for the twenty-one missions and four presidios that followed. It was here that Franciscan priest Junípero Serra planted the first Catholic cross in what became Alta California. The nearby harbor provided a safe port for sailing ships from all over the world, ensuring a steady stream of goods and supplies. Over its many decades, the San Diego Presidio was home to Spaniards, Mexicans, Native people and, toward the end, Anglo-Americans. Its cemetery became the final resting place for many of them.
Screw Capital of the World. Forest City. Home of the Rockford Peaches of A League of Their Own fame. Rockford, Illinois, has many identities, most oriented toward the past. These days, the fastener industry has mostly rusted away, the trees are less plentiful than they once were, and professional women’s baseball is no more. What defines Rockford today?
According to The Rockford Anthology, it’s the people. Those who grew up here, who came by choice or by circumstance, or who decided to leave. People who lost someone or found a voice or built community here.
In this installment of Belt’s City Anthology series, the people of Rockford represent themselves in essays, poetry, and photographs. Here, you’ll meet someone who found the space to start a business after leaving the crowd in Chicago. Academy Award–nominee Bing Liu takes you on a personal tour of his childhood houses and the ghosts that lurk there. A local attorney and activist shares how the city pushed back when ICE wanted to bring a detention center to Rockford. And you’ll learn why New York Times bestselling author Kimberla Lawson Roby, stand-up comedian Ashley Ray-Harris, and an introverted expat living in Taiwan always say they’re from Rockford . . . not Chicago. Whether through stories of growing up or chronicles of fights to make the city better, a sense of Rockford’s present—and future—starts to come into focus.
Join the Coastal Cannonball in this exciting new All Aboard adventure.
From the recording legacy of Muscle Shoals to suiting up for your own space mission, All Aboard, Alabama! showcases the rich history and diverse experiences young travelers can enjoy in Alabama. Try on an Egyptian mask, taste your first Moon Pie, and follow in the footsteps of heroes. Climb aboard and take a lap around the track!
And of course, if you didn't see your town in this week's releases, check out our zip code search tool and find your place in history.