Town Histories

In 1971, a small-town high school baseball team from rural Illinois playing with hand-me-down uniforms and peace signs on their hats defied convention and the odds. Led by an English teacher with no coaching experience, the Macon Ironmen emerged from a field of 370 teams to become the smallest school in Illinois history to make the state final, a distinction that still stands. There, sporting long hair, and warming up to "Jesus Christ Superstar", the Ironmen would play a dramatic game that would change their lives forever.

His drug- and alcohol-fueled antics made world headlines and engulfed a city in unprecedented controversy. Toronto mayor Rob Ford's personal and political troubles have occupied center stage in North America's fourth-largest city since news broke that drug dealers were selling a videotape of Ford appearing to smoke crack cocaine. Reporter Robyn Doolittle was one of three journalists to view the video and report on its contents in May 2013.

From one of the most beloved Western authors comes an epic historical tale of adventure and romance in the great wilderness. Against the epic backdrop of the building of the Union Pacific Railroad across plains and deserts and through the mountains to meet up with the Southern Pacific in Utah comes a sprawling, historical tale. Warren Neale is a brilliant civil engineer who is constantly confronted with construction problems. He is sided by Larry Red King, a Texas gunfighter and friend.

Winsor Glanvil pays court to Louise Carney, heiress to a fortune, and she agrees to marry him. The marriage is opposed by big Jack Rutledge, a jealous rival and formidable foe, so Glanvil and Louise plan to be married in a sequestered valley by a local clergyman. Rutledge and his supporters, learning of the plan, arrive in the valley ahead of the two and seize Glanvil. Glanvil is beaten mercilessly and Rutledge disfigures him, destroying one side of his face with the cutting edge of a spur. Rutledge then rejoins his gang in the clergyman’s house.

In the summer of 1860, more than 50 years after the United States legally abolished the international slave trade, 110 men, women, and children from Benin and Nigeria were brought ashore in Alabama under cover of night. They were the last recorded group of Africans deported to the United States as slaves. This book reconstructs the lives of the people in West Africa, recounts their capture and passage in the slave pen in Ouidah, and describes their experience of slavery alongside American-born enslaved men and women.

Clint Belmet's parents were killed in a Comanche raid when he was young, but that hasn't stopped him from taking a job leading freight caravans on the old Santa Fe Trail, from Saint Louis, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico - a route that goes right through Comanche territory. Here is the raw, primitive West of the early pioneers, great caravans of freighters rumbling across the deadly prairies, risking attack by Comanche.

In its youth, Portland, Oregon, was a bit like a rough-and-ready logging camp with a gritty, hard-punching deep-water port. Lusty lads dallied with hard-eyed beauties in dark alleys, and captains forked over “blood money” to buy men for their crews from shanghai operators. From the seedy waterfront to the notorious North End, Portland's sin sector offered vices packaged in pint glasses and perfumed corsets.

Royalty...it was more than just a word to her. It was her life. But not for long. Marlie loved her family dearly, even when she didn’t like them very much. But their life wasn’t the life she wanted for herself. Maggie had always fulfilled her responsibilities, she’d always done exactly as she was expected to...she knew no other way. Until now...until after reading a letter from her father suggesting she visit her niece and learn how to do as she pleased every once in a while, including the joy of eating pizza at her slightest whim. The last thing Maggie expected when she showed up at ...

Clarinda, Iowa, population 5,000, sits two hours from anything. There, between the cornfields and hog yards, is a ball field with a bronze bust of a man named Merl Eberly, a baseball whisperer who specialized in second chances and lost causes. The statue was a gift from one of Merl's original long-shot projects, a skinny kid from the ghetto in Los Angeles who would one day become a beloved Hall of Fame shortstop: Ozzie Smith.

Jade Colton and Jasen Prospero are still adapting to their new wealth, thanks to their discovery of Choctaw Indian Chief Greenwood Leflore’s buried gold. Meanwhile, their friend and FBI Special Agent Elizabeth Keys has finally convinced private investigator Marcus Bianco that it’s time to consummate their flirtatious relationship. Things are looking good, so naturally, the group falls headfirst into another mystery. On a midnight journey down the Natchez Trace, Jade and Jasen have a ghostly encounter at Windsor Ruins, the crumbling remains of a once great antebellum plantation. Soon ...

When a drought reveals a sunken town beneath Seabreeze’s lake, Charlotte Greenfield and retired detective Luke Harrison uncover long-buried secrets—secrets someone is willing to kill to keep hidden. As they unravel a web of corruption, greed, and tragedy, they must race to expose the truth before it’s lost beneath the surface forever.

Another fascinating journey from best-selling travel writer - David Gardner. Follow David and Wendy as they explore the less-traveled hilltop towns of Tuscany and Umbria. In this journey, they seek an Italy beyond the tourist loop, taking a deep-dive into two distinct and historic regions where life slows and community thrives. These are places that have survived and flourished throughout millennia, maintaining their traditional roots. Travel with this couple as they move beyond the sanitised snapshots to uncover what it means to be Italian in these small, close-knit communities. It is in ...

An eighty-year-old man returns to his childhood hometown for what he believes to be the final time. His trip down memory lane ends with a fall that is similar to one he took when he was four years old. Like before, he awakens in a hospital after the fall. Has he died? Is his life passing in front of his eyes while being judged? The hospital, people, and even his home and small body are just as he remembered them so many years before. Join Tim as he takes his second trip through life and breathes new life into a dead village.

In April 1945, Linz was one of Nazi Germany's most vital assets. It was a crucial transportation hub and communications center, with railyards brimming with war materiel destined for the front lines. Linz was also the town Hitler claimed as home and had long intended to remake as the cultural capital of Europe, filling its planned Fuehrermuseum with world-famous art stolen from his conquered territories.

From city streets to City Hall and to Midtown corporate offices, Saving Stuyvesant Town is the incredible true story of how one middle-class community defeated the largest residential real estate deal in American history.

Before the Reckoning, there was the Rising. In the wake of the Civil War, the prairie town of Coldwater, Kansas is still finding its shape—restless, divided, and perched on the edge of change. For Will Mertens, a quiet German immigrant carving a life from the unforgiving soil, the war never reached his doorstep—but its consequences are everywhere. When Mary Harper, the defiant daughter of a local matriarch, falls into his life, their union will challenge every unspoken rule of Coldwater’s rigid social order. As the years pass, Will and Mary build something rare: a family, a farm, a ...

Who knew buying a chest of odds and ends at a yard sale could be dangerous? In an instant, Emily London goes from being thrilled to fighting for her life. Luckily, Quinn Lawson is there to save the day. The moment Quinn saw Emily, he knew he found the treasure he’d been looking for in his life. Now, the only problem is keeping her safe. Together, they search his family history to figure out what is so important about an old key and his great-grandmother’s sewing box that some would kill for.

“A well-plotted and highly-emotional historical novel. A FINALIST and highly recommended.” - A Wishing Shelf Book Awards Finalist "It was difficult to tell what was lightning, air fire or ground fire. It seemed we were trying to navigate a sky filled with fireworks within the middle of a storm. The plane shuddered, losing altitude in a dive that was too steep and too fast. Concerned that the stalling engine's fire and tail rip may ignite the load of ammunition within, I instinctively banked, aiming offshore to the water below." Maddy survived and now she wants to know why. Racked with ...

Welcome to Beaumont Cove, a slowly decaying tourist town at the edge of the world, and the place where Maggie James’s worst fears for her estranged twin sister, Lilly, have come true. Lilly is dead, and Maggie has arrived to identify her body. Lilly’s husband, Mike, is in custody for her murder. With the help of the local sheriff, a retired private investigator, and a strange but friendly carnival psychic, Maggie begins to uncover the truth about what really happened to her sister. But the truth comes at a price....

Will a little meddling from Granny Mae and a touch of mistletoe magic be enough to turn enemies into lovers in time for a merry Christmas? Meredith: Returning to Kings Valley was supposed to be simple: revive my family’s beloved café and keep our town’s traditions alive. I never imagined my biggest challenge would be Kris Knight, the smooth-talking developer with grand plans to modernize our historic inn. From the moment we met we were at odds—our visions for the future couldn’t be more different. But a surprise kiss under the mistletoe has turned everything upside-down. Suddenly, ...