"Employing oral histories to flesh out the economic, political, and cultural facts of this Caribbean frontier, McManus interviewed residents from all periods of the island's immigration and development: American settlement during the first quarter of the century; Japanese, Jamaican, and Cayman Island immigration during the second quarter; and its radical transformation, after 1960, by the presence of thousands of young Cubans from the main island who became its permanent residents and were joined, temporarily, by students from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Her interviews describe life on the island as remembered by both immigrants and natives - from pirates, soldiers, and planters to housekeepers, fisherman, and students - and include testimony from the last American on the island."--BOOK JACKET.

"When otherworldly forces descend on their town of Whispering Pines, conspiracy theorist Rae, who's searching for her lost father, and Caden, who's haunted by the ghost of his brother, must band together to save their home"--Provided by publisher.

Most people think of New Jersey as a suburban-industrial corridor that runs between New York and Philadelphia. Yet in the low center of the state is a near wilderness, larger than most national parks, which has been known since the seventeenth century as the Pine Barrens. The term refers to the predominant trees in the vast forests that cover the area and to the quality of the soils below, which are too sandy and acid to be good for farming. On all sides, however, developments of one kind or another have gradually moved in, so that now the central and integral forest is reduced to about a thousand square miles. Although New Jersey has the heaviest population density of any state, huge segments of the Pine Barrens remain uninhabited. The few people who dwell in the region, the "Pineys," are little known and often misunderstood. Here McPhee uses his uncanny skills as a journalist to explore the history of the region and describe the people—and their distinctive folklore—who call it home.