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By David Veasey:  From the seventeenth to the twentieth century, New Jersey's low-lying, sandy coast has been the site of thousands of shipwrecks as ships bound for New York City or Philadelphia foundered on its offshore shoals.  As coastal and international trade dramatically increased after the War of 1812, the federal government was forced to increase safety aids to mariners.  To ensure their safe passage, a series of lighthouses was built and the U.S. Life-Saving Service was created.  More than two centuries of the history of New Jersey's treacherous coast are preserved in Guarding New Jersey's Shore: Lighthouses and Life-Saving Stations.  Gathered from a wide array of sources, more than 200 historic photographs and fascinating, documented text combine to create the only illustrated history of the state's thirty-eight lighthouses and forty-one life-saving stations.  Sandy Hook, built in 1764, is the nation's oldest operating lighthouse. Navesink's Twin Lights was the first lighthouse to use electricity and was the home of Marconi's early radio experiments.  From the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor, which once served as a lighthouse, to Cape May Point, and up the Delaware Bay and River, the fascinating story of protecting mariners from perils "Down the Shore" is presented and preserved in Guarding New Jersey's Shore: Lighthouses and Life-Saving Stations.  

By Arlene S. Bice:  New Egypt and Plumsted Township is a collection of unique vintage photographs, many of which have never before been published.  Beginning with Quaker Clement Plumstead of London, who was granted twenty-seven hundred acres in 1699, this history shows the progression of the township to the mid-1900s.  At the end of the nineteenth century, railroad transportation brought visitors to New Egypt, which blossomed with hotels, guesthouses, the Isis Theatre, and carnivals on Oakford Lake.  Among the images are views of Harker's Grove, a favorite spot for picnics and dancing on the pavilion; Sunday concerts held by local talent in New Egypt; and the open space that has made hunting, fishing, and other outdoor activities popular pastimes for locals and visitors alike.  

By Scott M. Kozelnik:  Lakewood's location close to the Atlantic Ocean via the Metedeconk River sparked an early rise in enterprise in the vicinity.  Some of the earliest businesses in Lakewood included a lumber mill, bog iron mining operations, and a blast iron furnace.  During the latter half of the nineteenth and into the early twentieth century, Lakewood served as one of the premier winter resorts in the United States.  The hotel industry in Lakewood was comprised of several elaborate architectural masterpieces, some of which were believed to be the grandest in the world at the time.  Lakewood's reputation as a "winter sanitarium" attracted the rich and famous from far and wide.  Lakewood is an in-depth pictorial history of the metamorphosis from sleepy mill town, to spectacular resort and entertainment haven, to a bustling industrial center.  Lakewood is a journey to places that have disappeared and an introduction to residents and visitors who have long gone.  John D. Rockefeller, whose estate later became Ocean County Park, and George Jay Gould, who resided at a two-hundred-acre estate called Georgian Court, are just two of the prominent townspeople of Lakewood.  The heroism of firefighters during the 1967 Laurel in the Pines fire, Jimmy Foxx and the 1934 Philadelphia Athletics in action at Princeton Avenue, and a look back at the early days of the annual Ocean County Fair give the reader an awe-inspiring view of Lakewood's past.