The Pine Barrens of New Jersey contain more ghost towns, some say, than the entire American West. In Ghost Towns and Other Quirky Places in the New Jersey Pine Barrens, Barbara Solem-Stull tells the story of the towns that rose up around the iron furnaces, glass factories, paper mills, cranberry farms, and brick-making establishments of the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Loaded with easy-to-use maps and more than 100 photographs and illustrations, the book provides driving directions and self-guided walking tours of many of the Pine Barrens’ most intriguing historic sites and ruins. This is a unique field guide for anyone interested in reading about the history of Pinelands ghost towns and in exploring these long-ago communities firsthand.

Ghost Towns: And Other Quirky Places in the New Jersey Pine Barrens

History

Solem-Stull, Barbara

Americas

Plexus Publishing, Inc.

In his fourth book about the New Jersey Pine Barrens, Howard P. Boyd presents a fascinating study of the natural forces that created this unique ecosystem and a timely review of human development in the region. 
Following a concise introduction to Pine Barrens ecology, Boyd delves into distinctive abiotic factors (physical processes and characteristics such as geological evolution, soils, climate, water, and wildfires) and biotic factors (plants and animals), emphasizing their interrelationships. He lists hundreds of species of Pinelands flora and fauna, surveys threatened and endangered species, explores man's industrial and agricultural industries and their impacts, and offers an important discussion of the dangers current human activity presents to the survival of the ecosystem. 
Howard Boyd's passion for the Pine Barrens--along with his ability to make natural science compelling and comprehensible for lay readers--has never been more evident than in this exploration of the vast ecological area with which his name has become enduringly linked. The Ecological Pine Barrens of New Jersey is a must-read for ecologists, environmentalists, educators, students, and any individual with a serious interest in the New Jersey Pine Barrens and its future survival.

The Ecological Pine Barrens of New Jersey: An Ecosystem Threatened by Fragmentation

Boyd, Howard P.

This evocative historical novel tells the story of Giacinto, who emigrates from Italy in 1912 and becomes a carousel carver during the golden age of the craft in America, and Rosa, the eight-year-old orphan girl thrust into his care.
 In 1939, with war looming and few new carousels being built, Giacinto leaves Philadelphia for the New Jersey shore, where his wildly popular creations require skilled attention after every summer season. The arrival of Rosa from Italy turns a solitary and predictable middle-aged existence on its head. Discovery, adventure, and danger are all met; youthful imagination brings carved stallions to life; and love blossoms in unexpected places.
 The Carousel Carver vividly recreates the world of the immigrant carvers from the inspiration found in fiery horses, big cats, and children's laughter to the clatter, sawdust, and politics of Philadelphia's bustling multicultural workshops. This is an engaging and insightful tale of tolerance, second chances, and what it means for those once adrift to call America home.

The Carousel Carver

Literature & Fiction

Perdita Buchan

United States

Newly engaged Meg Daniels stays behind at the Artistical Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City while her fiancé returns to work securing their employer's Bahamian property from Hurricane Frieda. But she's not alone for long. The talkative stranger with skinny white legs sticking out of wide Bermuda shorts turns out to be Xander Frost, rock idol and frequent Artistical guest, traveling incognito as part of his quest to learn how ordinary people live.A woman recognizes Meg as the amateur sleuth who recently solved a mysterious disappearance from the 1960s, and she asks for help in learning the fate of the sister she last knew as a 19-year-old who ran away from her Ventnor home in 1968. Xander persuades Meg to take the case, and the unlikely duo travel up and down the Jersey shore and beyond to interview the people who had known Sarah Johnson best. As they retrace her steps-and Meg gets a taste of the rock star life-they discover that there might be a sinister reason the trail has been cold for so long. Was she a rebellious teenager who got swept up in the counterculture and broke free of her restrictive family? Or did someone want her out of the way... permanently?

Greetings From Ventnor City (Meg Daniels Mystery)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Jane Kelly

Mystery

Review Nelson Johnson has opened the door on a neglected yet critical aspect of the African-American experience in the modern era. ... The Northside reminds us that black history is American history. --Wendel A. WhiteFrom the grand Boardwalk hotels to the Paradise Club to Chicken Bone Beach, the racism of the times kept Atlantic City's blacks segregated from white tourists. But in response, African Americans built their own city within a city and a unique, tight-knit, thriving community that Nelson Johnson has chronicled here in fascinating detail. --James Perskie, The Press of Atlantic CityThe Northside manages to capture all the subtlety and grit that shaped the lives of people, especially African Americans, in Atlantic City in the mid-20th Century a microcosm of the issues gripping the nation during those turbulent times. A remarkable and inspiring book. --Donna Brazile, political commentator, CNN and ABC, and contributing columnist, Ms. and O, The Oprah Magazine Product Description Nelson Johnson frequently stopped working on Boardwalk Empire to wrestle with how best to handle the thorny subject of race. But he persisted, and the result was a chapter 'A Plantation by the Sea' that inspired this powerful sequel. In The Northside, Johnson brings the untold story of Atlantic City's black community vividly to life, from the arrival of the first African Americans to Absecon Island in the early 19th century through the glory days of the 'World's Playground.' Drawing on dozens of personal interviews and painstaking archival research, he reveals long-forgotten details about the people on whose backs the gambling mecca was built and offers a wide-ranging survey of the accomplishments of more recent generations. Exploited for their labor and banished to the most undesirable part of town, resilient Northsiders created a vibrant city within a city a place where black culture could thrive and young people could aspire to become artists, athletes, educators, and leaders of business, politics, and society. As Nelson Johnson shows in this unflinching portrait, Atlantic City was built on their toil and the Northside was born of their dreams. About the Author Nelson Johnson, whose family's presence in Atlantic County predates the founding of Atlantic City, is a lifelong resident of Hammonton, New Jersey. He practiced law for 30 years and was active in Atlantic City and Atlantic County politics through much of that period.Johnson's previous book, Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City, inspired the critically acclaimed HBO series from Martin Scorsese and Terence Winter.

The Northside: African Americans and the Creation of Atlantic City

NELSON JOHNSON