New & Coming Soon

This board book takes you through a day of fun at the Louisiana Children's Museum!

Filled with pretend play; follow along where you can pretend to be a turtle, a chef, a veterinarian, a boat captain and more! This book is the culmination of a project led by Shannon Kelley Atwater during her time in residence at LCM in fall 2025. The illustrations featured throughout the book we collaboratively created with help from museum guests. Each page features drawings and color additions from real life kids and their caregivers!

Amy and her pup, Charlee, go on an adventure to the nearby library in search of a cookbook. This book encourages young readers to use their manners, to share, to be proud for accomplishing a goal they set out to do, and introduces them to things they might see in a library. For added fun, readers get to search for Charlee, as he is hiding throughout the book.

Celebrating a new baby? Made with love and powdered to perfection, this new baby book is sure to make you smile. 

Mama Au Lait and her three little beignets are headed to their new home in the French Quarter. Follow the clues from Papa Chicory’s stories to reunite the family in this super sweet tale.

How did Boudin Boy and Cracklin' Dog become brave bayou buddies? When Boudin Boy hears a cry for help, he runs fast-fast at full-blast to rescue a tiny pup with a super-duper-quick kick. Using his swamp know-how and daring do, he and his new friend Cracklin' Dog outwit these disgusting foes bent on having a boudin and cracklin' snack.

Readers who enjoy the peacefulness of cemeteries and those who are interested in the history of California alike will enjoy this insightfully crafted guide to the cemeteries of Sacramento County. Beneath the oak canopies and sun-drenched fields of Sacramento County lie silent witnesses to more than a century of local history. Sacramento County Cemeteries takes readers on a visual journey through the region’s burial grounds, from early family plots to expansive memorial parks, capturing the evolving story of the community through the places where its people rest. Guided by compelling imagery and thoughtful context, this book explores the cultural legacy of Sacramento through its cemeteries. Each site reveals a piece of the past—stories of native peoples, performers, civic leaders, immigrants, and even a few beloved animal companions—preserved in stone and landscape. More than a pictorial archive, this book is a tribute to the lives, memories, and past that continue to shape the region.

Colette Kavanaugh is a resident and business owner in Arden-Arcade, Sacramento. She is a member of the Old City Cemetery Committee and performs annually in the Lantern Tours at the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery. She has also published a book celebrating the Arden-Arcade community. Photographs in this book come from the Sacramento Room at the Sacramento Public Library, the Center for Sacramento History, the California State Library, and local historical societies.

Join Andrew Warburton, author of Fairies of New York and Fairies of New England, as the deep, but often overlooked, deep roots of fairy lore in the mist-shrouded mountains of Northern Appalachia.

The magic of Old World folklore lingers in Northern Appalachia’s hills and hollers. From banshees to tommyknockers to mischievous elves, myriad fairy spirits populate the stories of the region’s mountain folk. The Little Hunchbacked Man who dwelled in corners of Pennsylvania Dutch homes. Pixies whose knocking warned of explosions in West Virginia’s mines. A red-haired fairy whose magical arrows tormented the Scots Irish of Kentucky’s Cumberland Mountains.

In this vivid and well-researched history, Andrew Warburton gathers the region’s forgotten fairy stories—from tales about “ancient pygmies” in Ohio to a psychiatrist’s account of photographing fairies in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.

Sports fans will find the historic photos and stories included in Sports on the Jersey Shore both enlightening and as entertaining as their favorite games. The Jersey Shore region encompasses communities in Monmouth, Ocean, Atlantic, and Cape May Counties. It is a region rich in athletics, and since the late 19th century, several athletes from the region have had significant impacts on sports like baseball, swimming, and football, among many others. The Jersey Shore communities have been connected to notable sports figures, including Doc Cramer, Gertrude Ederle, and Vince Lombardi. Over the years, the region has also been a favorite destination for star professional athletes in search of training camps and facilities along New Jersey’s scenic seashore. Athletes, especially boxers and baseball players, have flocked to the Jersey Shore to hone their skills and prepare for some of the biggest events in sports history. 

Matthew H. Ward is a historian and journalist who specializes in sports, the Jersey Shore, and Philadelphia history. He is the coauthor of Boxing in Atlantic City with John DiSanto and The Raritan Bayshore with John Allan Savolaine.

A vivid portrait of power, privilege, and peril in colonial Charleston.

Eighteenth Century Charleston was a city built on water, wealth, and whispers—where the harbor brimmed with merchant ships and war vessels, and status was measured in wharves, wine cellars, imported porcelain, and family names that could open every door. This is colonial Charleston at its peak: a thriving Atlantic port fueled by rice and indigo, shaped by transatlantic trade, and held together by tightly woven kinship networks that blurred the line between commerce and political power.

At the center is Rebecca Brewton Motte—born into privilege, married into influence, and forced by fire, disease, and revolution to become far more than a genteel figure in a drawing room. Through the interconnected worlds of the Brewtons, Mottes, Pinckneys, and their allies, the story reveals how South Carolina’s elite built fortunes, constructed iconic townhouses, navigated epidemics and natural disasters, and managed sprawling plantations with enslaved labor powering every “luxury” detail.

But this is not a postcard version of the past. Alongside elegant architecture and consumer culture sits the raw reality of colonial life: malaria, yellow fever, smallpox, hurricanes, legal constraints on women, and the destabilizing pressure of war and British occupation. Moving from Charleston’s grand streets to backcountry plantations, this biography-driven history shows how one woman’s life illuminates the larger machinery of colonial South Carolina, the American Revolution, and the fragile world that made—and nearly unmade—an Atlantic empire. Historian and author Alexia Helsley details this remarkable history. 

Ghost stories from the Florida Keys have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery! 

Welcome to the spooky Florida Keys!  

Stay alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms.

Did you know that the Key West Shipwreck Treasure Museum is haunted? Or that the waters off Key Largo are home to sharks and ghostly pirates? Can you believe the Keys' most famous resident is a haunted doll named Robert⏤and if you don't follow his rules, he might just put a CURSE on you?

Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see the Florida Keys forever, and have you sleeping with the lights on!

Ghost stories from Maine’s Haunted Lighthouses have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery! 

Welcome to the spooky lighthouses of Maine! 

Stay alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms.

Did you know that a ghostly crew of shipwrecked sailors haunts the shores near Boon Island Lighthouse? Or that Hendricks Head is home to a mysterious "Lady of the Dusk"? Can you believe that when the fog rolls in at Owl's Head Lighthouse, a phantom sea captain still stands watch . . . long after his final voyage?

Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see Maine’s lighthouses forever, and have you sleeping with the lights on!

Featuring recipes from WYES PBS’s A Chef’s Journey, this collection brings the flavors of New Orleans to life through the recipes of Edgar “Dook” Chase IV. Alongside dishes showcased in the series, this book includes additional recipes that highlight his creativity and mastery of New Orleans cuisine.

Dook Chase is an acclaimed New Orleans chef and restaurateur, best known as the executive chef and co-owner of the legendary Dooky Chase’s Restaurant. A fourth-generation member of the iconic Chase family, he proudly carries forward the culinary and cultural legacy established by his grandparents, Leah and Edgar Chase Jr.



Dook brings a thoughtful, contemporary approach to the kitchen while honoring the classic Creole cuisine for which the restaurant is known. In 2025, the Chase family was awarded the James Beard America’s Classics: South Award.

Ghost stories from Northern California have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery! 

Welcome to spooky Northern California! 

Stay alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms.

Did you know that Alcatraz Island is home to evil phantoms and ghostly prisoners? Or that the Winchester Mystery House is swarming with spirits? Can you believe the old captain who wanders the decks of the Delta King Hotel late at night . . . might be a ghost? 

Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see Northern California forever, and have you sleeping with the lights on!

Ghost stories from Flagstaff, Arizona have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery! 

Welcome to spooky Flagstaff! 

Stay alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms.

Did you know a phantom bellboy haunts the Hotel Monte Vista? Or that long-departed souls who once worked the rails still linger at Flagstaff's historic train depot? Can you believe that when the sun goes down over this quiet mountain town . . . the spirits come alive?

Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see Flagstaff forever, and have you sleeping with the lights on!

Lovers of Grand Rapids history and the paranormal will thrill to this spine-tingling tour of homes.

You’ve walked by them. You’ve driven past them. Behind the innocent façades of houses dotting the streets of Grand Rapids are secrets...and ghosts.

In Heritage Hill, a Victorian woman wanders hallways at night, and a house-proud handyman hides the tools of anyone trying to alter his home. On the northwest side, a child’s shadow runs the halls, mocking the family who lives there. Across the river, a red-eyed entity follows homeowners, and some unknown force tears a decorative sign from its hooks and hurls it across the room. Civil War soldiers give a child a coin from 1889. A homeowner is dragged by her ankles, and faces are seen in the television.

Follow Julie Bonner Williams through the doorways and down the halls of Grand Rapids' most haunted houses.

Ghost stories from the DC Metro Area have never been so creepy, fun, and full of mystery! 

Welcome to the spooky DC Metro Area! 

Stay alert! Ghosts lurk around every corner. Even the most unexpected places might be haunted by wandering phantoms.

Did you know that the White House is home to American presidents⏤both living and dead? Or that in Gaithersburg, Maryland, a headless horseman rides on Game Preserve Road? Can you believe an old zookeeper at the Smithsonian's National Zoo still cares for his beloved animals . . . from beyond the grave?

Pulled right from history, these ghostly tales will change the way you see the DC Metro Area forever, and have you sleeping with the lights on!

Join Andrew Warburton, author of New York Fairies and New England Fairies, as he explores the deep, but often overlooked, roots of fairy lore in the mist-shrouded mountains of Northern Appalachia.

The magic of Old World folklore lingers in Northern Appalachia’s hills and hollers. From banshees to tommyknockers to mischievous elves, myriad fairy spirits populate the stories of the region’s mountain folk. The little hunchbacked man who dwelled in corners of Pennsylvania Dutch homes. Pixies whose knocking warned of explosions in West Virginia’s mines. A red-haired fairy whose magical arrows tormented the Scots-Irish of Kentucky’s Cumberland Mountains.

In this vivid and well-researched history, Andrew Warburton gathers the region’s forgotten fairy stories—from tales about “ancient pygmies” in Ohio to a psychiatrist’s account of photographing fairies in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.

Reflections, Musings, and Withdrawals

In hunting, “buck fever” strikes when excitement for a big deer makes it hard to shoot straight. For upland hunters, that same surge of adrenaline comes with the thunderous flush of a grouse. But “grouse fever” is more than a fleeting rush—it’s a lasting fixation on all things grouse: the birds, the dogs, the coverts, the literature, and the camaraderie of trusted hunting companions. Author Andrew Marshall Wayment calls Idaho home, where he has spent twenty-five years pursuing five species of grouse: ruffed, dusky, sage, sharp-tailed, and Franklin’s.

Through recollections, essays, and artwork, Andy explores this enduring affliction and affirms his long-held adage: “I never met a grouse I didn’t like.”

What truly haunts Virginia’s college campuses?

Colleges are more than classrooms and quads. They are living relics where history lingers and, sometimes, refuses to stay quiet. A phantom hugger roams the President’s House at William and Mary, and the grave-robbing secrets of historic medical schools refuse to be forgotten. A strange mist engulfs Cemetery Road of the University of Virginia. Rumors swirl of the cursed Ogden Circle at Hampton University and of hidden passageways and witches at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Blending folklore, history, and mystery, author Sharon Pajka reveals a supernatural side of academia, where legends linger, spirits wander, and the past and present walk hand in hand. 

The history of New York is inseparable from the history of sailing on the Hudson River. Beginning with Henry Hudson in 1609 the Dutch and English extended their empires into the Hudson Valley and extracted its bounty via sail. 

Control of the Hudson River was a lynchpin for American victory in the Revolutionary War and New York City's 19th-century rise to global prominence was powered by the sailing vessels on its waterways. Upriver, sloops and schooners delivered goods from the nation's interior and international whaling businesses operated from Hudson and Poughkeepsie and Kingston and Newburgh became noted shipbuilding centers. Yacht racing and ice yachting emerged as popular sports among wealthy families like the Astors and Roosevelts. Sailing clubs preserved these traditions into the 20th century. Since the 1960s, activists including Pete Seeger have used sailboats to galvanize a movement to revive the river ecosystem. Today, the river is home to new generations of sailors continuing these traditions into a fifth century.

Steve Schwartz has sailed and captained numerous sailing and motor vessels on the Hudson River since the 1970s. He and James Malchow are both captains on the Hudson River ferry sloop Woody Guthrie. Images in this book, collected from local libraries, historical societies, the New York State Archives, Library of Congress, and private collections, capture the people, places, and ships that have made the Hudson River an important sailing center for over four centuries.

Two centuries of Oregon’s homegrown music history are explored and documented in this new retrospective.

Rare photographs evoke bygone days, digging deep into the area’s rich folk and country roots; old-timey 1890s brass bands; Roaring Twenties dance orchestras; 1950s jazzniks, rockabilly cats, and doo-wop groups; 1960s “Louie Louie”– fueled garage rockers andpsychedelic hippie bands; 1970s blues dudes and punk pioneers; 1980s New Wave artistes, metalheads, hip-hop heroes, and pop stars; and Oregon’s quirky post-grunge, alt-rock, and Americana movements. Discover how a scrappy backwoods region built a fiercely independent music scene that has produced scores of beloved musicians along with gold and platinum record award-winning stars.

In 1944, as the Allied forces advanced across the vast Pacific Ocean toward Japan, the US Army could not relocate the large aircraft repair depots fast enough to keep up with the front line. Thus, Operation Ivory Soap was the Army’s secret project to deploy ships capable of repairing and maintaining bombers and fighters at sea. 

A specialized group of approximately 3,000 Air Corps soldiers underwent unique training for their new, nautical lifestyle. They jokingly referred to themselves as “sailjers.” The capabilities they brought to the Pacific proved vital to Allied success in World War II. These men served in Guam, Tinian, Saipan, Iwo Jima, and Okinawa, but their journey began at the Grand Hotel in Point Clear, Alabama. This is their story.

Thomas Key grew up in Point Clear, Alabama, just one mile south of the Grand Hotel. He spent his summers running barefoot around the property and hearing the stories of the hotel’s secret operation during World War II. In 2013, after 10 years in the Marine Corps, Key moved back to Point Clear. He earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Vanderbilt University and a doctorate in history from Liberty University. Thomas and his wife, Elizabeth, are raising their four children in Point Clear.

Chelsy Clark Proper, director of the Berkeley County Museum, has selected images from various sources and called on some of the area’s most knowledgeable people to share the diverse story of this once sleepy community. Through maps, photographs, and paintings, Goose Creek traces its history from settlement to the present day.

Only a decade after the settlement of Charleston on the coast, English and French families made their way up the Cooper River to Goose Creek. The waterway, and then the parish and town, was likely named for the gooseneck-like bends in its path. Because of this early settlement date, Goose Creek is home to the second-oldest church building in the state as well as one of the oldest homes. Historically the location of great wealth but also great poverty, Goose Creek has always attracted all kinds of individuals. From the early Goose Creek Men to the national attention received by Gertrude Legendre and Medway Plantation, Goose Creek has claimed a spot in the minds of people across the world. Since officially incorporating as a city in 1961, Goose Creek has grown by leaps and bounds and shows no signs of stopping. What began as vast plantations has now become the eighth-most populous municipality in the state.

Long Beach Station stands as one of the most remarkable and enduring landmarks on the Long Island Rail Road.

The Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) is the oldest railroad in the country still operating under its original name. Of the 126 LIRR railroad stations, two are located on the island of Manhattan with the Long Beach Station being the only other that is not located on geographic Long Island. Situated on the barrier island of Long Beach, trains must travel over a bascule drawbridge, going over the Reynolds Channel waterway, to reach the Long Beach terminal. Train service began in 1880 at Long Beach as a means for city dwellers to get to a beach resort. When the island started to become heavily residential in the early 1900s, the existing station building was erected in 1909. A short walk from the world-renowned boardwalk and the Atlantic oceanfront, this station has an annual ridership of over three million. The ridership spikes during summer months, when the LIRR heavily promotes “Take the Train to the Beach.” The station building is an architectural gem, with three huge brick archways on the front, a Spanish-style roof, and Moravian tiles imbedded in the exterior stucco walls on all four sides. 

Dare to explore the Heart of Michigan as you’ve never seen it before.

In its small towns and regional hubs, Mid-Michigan contains chilling paranormal histories that have long remained hidden. Mannequin-like apparitions stroll past students in the halls of Grand Blanc High School’s East Campus, one of several Mid-Michigan educational institutions said to harbor hauntings. At Clare’s Doherty Hotel, the restless ghosts of gangsters and their victims terrorize unwary guests. Predators become prey at the Bengel Wildlife Center in Bath Township, and glowing-eyed figures stalk Curwood Castle in Owosso after dark.

World-renowned paranormal researcher, author, and Bay City native Nicole Beauchamp draws on firsthand investigations, local legends, and archival research to reveal the spirits that still linger in the shadows of local landmarks.

Haunting stories of the bloodiest single day in American history.

In 1862, the Antietam Battlefield ran red with blood. Spanning the fields, ridges, lanes, and bridge crossings of Sharpsburg, Maryland—from the East Woods and West Woods to Bloody Lane, Burnside Bridge, and the Antietam National Cemetery—more than 160 years of eyewitness accounts, folklore, and unexplained encounters have emerged from that deadly day.

Nearly twenty-three thousand soldiers were recorded as killed, wounded, or missing, and there are many whose spirits reportedly still linger. One is reportedly a spectral drummer boy, often identified as Private Charlie King of the 49th Pennsylvania Volunteers, who was just thirteen years old when he died. General Mansfield is rumored to eternally travel up Smoketown Road, re-creating his final ride before he succumbed to a mortal wound. A ghostly woman in black haunts the Bloody Lane, and shadowy figures can sometimes be seen around Burnside Bridge and the old Piper farm.

Author Mark P. Brugh explores the powerful intersection of history, memory, and the supernatural across one of America’s most storied landscapes.

The Dark Side of the Palmetto State   

With a rich history dating back to 1788 and beyond—including pirates, war, secession, death, debauchery, and disease—South Carolina is home to many legends. Read about the ghost of a small child that wanders a historic home in York. Witness the strange occurrences that have happened for years at the Newberry Opera House. Learn about the site of a massacre in Long Canes that still holds the remnants of its victims. See a train depot in Belton that’s called the most haunted place in the state. Author John G. Clark Jr. walks readers down a tightrope between the world as it exists today and the dark past and side of South Carolina. 

Burbank is known as a haven from the craziness of nearby Hollywood, but the city has a dark underbelly.

Nellie May Madison shot her husband to death at their home in 1934 and became the first woman to be condemned to death in California. The brutal 1953 murder of Mable Monohan inspired an Oscar-winning movie, but that didn’t save Barbara Graham and her killer collaborators from the gallows. In the decades that followed, infamous and violent offenders such as the “Dating Game Killer,” the “Toolbox Killers,” and “Night Stalker” Richard Ramirez hunted for victims in the area, while slayings of detectives, private eyes, bookies, and secret gamblers piled up in the cold case files of the police department.

Award-winning author and journalist James T. Bartlett explores the sinister side of Burbank history.

Celebrate fifty defining moments in Pennsylvania sports history.

Few states in the nation can boast as vibrant and fascinating a sports heritage as Pennsylvania. With the Immaculate Reception, Franco Harris transformed a struggling Steelers franchise into a legendary one. On the other side of the state, the Philadelphia Flyers once struck a symbolic blow during the Cold War by overwhelming CSKA Moscow. The origins of pro football possibly lie in Greensburg, and an NFL title was “stolen” in Pottsville. The greatest college football team no one’s ever heard of hails from Carlisle, and college football’s oldest rivalry still rages between Lafayette and Lehigh. The most dominant performance ever in professional basketball took place in Hershey, where the great Wilt Chamberlain poured in one hundred points in a single game.

Historians David Finoli and Tom Rooney bring these stories—and many more—to life in this thrilling ride through all things sports in the Keystone State. 

Savor the unexpected and altogether delectable history of Chinese food in the Queen City

While a smattering of chop suey houses were sprinkled around Cincinnati around the turn of the twentieth century, Wong Yie was the first to present the cuisine to non-Chinese Cincinnatians as a new, exotic, and upscale dining experience with his Gold Dragon in 1911. Despite challenges from the Chinese Exclusion Act, which exacerbated the already massive difficulties faced by Chinese immigrants, Yie’s restaurant spawned more than eighty Chinese restaurants in the city, famed spots such as the Canton, the Wah Mee, and the Fortune Kookie. Proprietors like Mike Wong of Oriental Wok and Johnny Chu of KungFood Chu’s AmerAsia keep our local Chinese food culture alive and evolving.

Author and food etymologist Dann Woellert delves into the fascinating and mouthwatering history of Chinese food in Cincinnati. 

Detroit Lions: A 1950s Dynasty offers a compelling photographic narrative of the history of a revered team. This retrospective of the Detroit Lions’ glory years is an evocative reminder of what the cheering at Briggs Stadium was all about. Behind such storied figures as quarterback Bobby Layne, halfback Doak Walker, and defensive stalwarts Yale Lary, Joe Schmidt, and Jack Christiansen, coach Buddy Parker’s squad dominated the National Football League for much of the Eisenhower decade. The three-time world champions—competitive, colorful, controversial, and a mainstay on that marvelous new medium called television—helped make professional football a Sunday ritual in Detroit and around the country.

Journalist and author Richard Bak has been writing about his native Detroit for more than 40 years. His many works include biographies of Joe Louis, Ty Cobb, and Henry and Edsel Ford as well as histories of Tiger Stadium, the Detroit Red Wings, and Detroit’s Negro Leagues. He has won book awards from the Society for American Baseball Research and the Professional Football Researchers Association and two Emmy Awards as the writer and coproducer of the Tiger Stadium documentary Stranded at the Corner. 

Explore the spooky side of Havre de Grace, one of Maryland's most historic towns.

Since its founding in 1785, the historic town of Havre de Grace has weathered its share of tragedy. Over the centuries, loss, hardship, and untold sorrow have left this eighteenth‑century gem alive with restless spirits and unexplained supernatural phenomena. Among the town’s most haunting legends is that of a mysterious woman of the night said to drift silently across the third floor of the American Legion building. Unable to let go after a violent death, a young lady’s spirit roams the State Theater. On foggy nights, strange figures are seen drifting along the waterfront. Lights flicker in buildings untouched by time. And the river—always moving, always murmuring—seems to carry voices from the past.

Step into the shadows with Lisa Unruh-Lopez to explore the chilling stories of Havre de Grace.

Virginia’s Haunted Highways is a chilling journey through the forgotten corners of the Old Dominion, where every mile of cracked asphalt and winding highway whispers stories of bloodshed, betrayal, and the unexplained.

From colonial-era graveyards and Civil War battlefields to ghost towns, haunted roadsides, and legendary bridges, bone-deep local legends and first-person encounters await. You’ll meet outlaws and soldiers, nurses and mourners, spirits who never left, and roads that offer far more than scenery.

With a storyteller’s eye and a historian’s passion, author Michael Kleen is your guide to the haunted heart of Virginia—where the past is never past, and the road ahead may vanish in the fog. Buckle up. The ghosts are waiting.

Containing stories from the historical record and interviews with today's practitioners, Maryland Witchcraft has a little something for the history buff, the modern wiccan, and the merely curious alike.

In the dark history of witchcraft in America, other states dominate the popular mind, but Maryland, too, has blood on its hands.

Found guilty of witchcraft, Rebecca Fowler met her death by hanging. If she had been accused in a different colony, the end would perhaps have been different, but in Maryland, witchcraft meant death. The end was not so quick for Moll Dyer. Chased out of her house by fearful neighbors, she fled into the bitter winter night. Facing similar accusations, Hannah Edwards and Virtue Violl stood trial but escaped such a dire fate.

Drawing on stories of ancient witchcraft and shamanism and accounts of European witch trials, author Trish Hoffman unfolds the history of Maryland witches from the colonial era to the present day.

The Rock River Valley is best known for its beautiful scenery and recreational opportunities. But like the Rock River itself, there is a darkness that lies just under the surface.

This region’s history is filled with eerie tales of ghostly encounters that suggest that the line between the living and dead is thinner here. The river starts near Waupun, Wisconsin, where the nearby Wisconsin State Prison Cemetery contains a dark entity that haunts the grave of the man that killed her. It travels southward through towns with veiled stories of things that go bump in the night. Towns like Beloit, Wisconsin, where the students at the local college have shared stories of the entities that linger in the halls.

Crossing the state line, the city of Rockford, Illinois, has its own claims of ghostly encounters. The river finally joins the Mississippi in Rock Island, Illinois. Ghosts of the gangsters that once called this area home still reign at the Rock Island Roadhouse.

Author Kathi Kresol weaves together the legends, history, and personal encounters with the spirits of the dead all along the route of this historic river.

Chilling tales of the supernatural

Ghostly legends are usually associated with the turreted fortifications found throughout Europe and the English countryside. However, New England is also home to several haunted castles filled with paranormal activity, each boasting its own unique legends and lore.

The medieval-style Hammond Castle in Gloucester, Massachusetts, is said to be haunted by the ghost of its former owner, John Hays Hammond Jr. Meanwhile, Castle Craig, which overlooks the Hanging Hills in Meriden, Connecticut, is rumored to be guarded by a legendary black dog, believed to be a harbinger of death.

From New Hampshire’s Searles Castle to Belcourt of Newport, author Sam Baltrusis uses careful research and firsthand accounts to explore the history and mystery surrounding some of New England’s most haunted castles.

A vivid portrait of power, privilege, and peril in colonial Charleston.

Eighteenth-century Charleston was a city built on water, wealth, and whispers—where the harbor brimmed with merchant ships and war vessels and status was measured in wharves, wine cellars, imported porcelain, and family names that could open every door. This is colonial Charleston at its peak: a thriving Atlantic port fueled by rice and indigo, shaped by transatlantic trade, and held together by tightly woven kinship networks that blurred the line between commerce and political power.

At the center is Rebecca Brewton Motte—born into privilege, married into influence, and forced by fire, disease, and revolution to become far more than a genteel figure in a drawing room. Through the interconnected worlds of the Brewtons, Mottes, Pinckneys, and their allies, the story reveals how South Carolina’s elite built fortunes, constructed iconic townhouses, navigated epidemics and natural disasters, and managed sprawling plantations with enslaved labor powering every “luxury” detail.

But this is not a postcard version of the past. Alongside elegant architecture and consumer culture sits the raw reality of colonial life: malaria, yellow fever, smallpox, hurricanes, legal constraints on women, and the destabilizing pressure of war and British occupation. Moving from Charleston’s grand streets to backcountry plantations, this biography-driven history shows how one woman’s life illuminates the larger machinery of colonial South Carolina, the American Revolution, and the fragile world that made—and nearly unmade—an Atlantic empire. Historian and author Alexia Helsley details this remarkable history. 

Jacksonville and Northeast Florida may be famous for pristine beaches, championship golf, and the nation’s oldest city, St. Augustine, but beneath the surface lies a rich and often overlooked history waiting to be rediscovered. Florida author Ron Whittington uncovers the forgotten stories, lost landmarks, and colorful characters who shaped the region from the Civil War to modern times. Dive beneath the St. Johns River to explore the wreckage of a sunken Union steamship. Discover how the mineral-rich waters of Doctors Lake once attracted the nation’s wealthy elite seeking health and luxury. Meet the visionary developer who transformed the sandy marshes of Ponte Vedra into the world-famous Sawgrass resort and golf destination. And uncover Jacksonville’s surprising role as a military and industrial powerhouse during World War II. Whittington brings to life the people and events that made Jacksonville a cultural crossroads and economic engine for the Southeast. From Gilded Age travelers to wartime heroes, this book reveals how Northeast Florida’s past continues to shape its identity today. Whether you’re a lifelong resident, newcomer, or history lover exploring the Sunshine State, this is an unforgettable journey through the stories time almost forgot.

April 1861 marked the beginning of America’s darkest trial, and nowhere was its shadow more immediate than the waters of Hampton Roads and the Outer Banks. As President Lincoln faced the chaos of rebellion, Southern secessionists seized forts, arsenals, and naval yards throughout the South. Yet one stronghold refused to fall: Fortress Monroe, the “Gibraltar of the Chesapeake.” From this powerful bastion on Virginia’s coast, Union forces launched bold campaigns that would define the early course of the war. Their presence threatened Confederate supply lines and opened the way to North Carolina’s vulnerable shoreline. Across both regions, two vital canals linked the Confederate heartland to the coast, transforming Hampton Roads and the Outer Banks into a single, high-stakes theater of war. Historian Matthew Ericson unites these interconnected battles into one compelling narrative. Witness the Union buildup at Fortress Monroe, General Ambrose Burnside’s daring victories along the Carolina coast, and the legendary clash of ironclads that changed naval warfare forever. Richly detailed and deeply researched, these stories reveal how these coastal conflicts shaped the Union’s early strategy and turned the tide in a war for the nation’s very survival—a forgotten front that deserves its place in Civil War history.

The Architecture of Chicago’s Beverly Hills/Morgan Park is the first complete large-format visual record published of these Southwest Side twin communities in Chicago. The historic and significant architecture and distinctive landscape of these neighborhoods is gorgeously captured by Mati Maldre in hundreds of photographic plates, maps, and illustrations, supplemented by essays by Timothy Barton, Harold Wolff, Robert Wagner, and Paul Sprague.

Many of Chicago’s most important designers are represented in this community, including Frank Lloyd Wright, George Washington Maher, Daniel H. Burnham, Robert E. Seyfarth, Dwight H. Perkins, Robert S. Smith, and Walter Burley Griffin. This community also called on noteworthy local architects, including Harry Hale Waterman, Rudolph P. Boehm, and John Todd Hetherington and his son Murray. The book also documents nationally and locally designated historic districts such as the Ridge Historic District, Longwood Drive, the Walter Burley Griffin Place District, and the Beverly/Morgan Park Railroad Station District, as well as individual designated historic houses.