AUBURN — Chad Gramling emailed a friend in Wisconsin last spring, inviting him to join a fantasy baseball league. Instead, Gramling ended up fulfilling his own fantasy — writing a book about baseball.

“Baseball in Atlanta” was written by Paul Crater and was published last month. I found it very enjoyable because it deals with the entire history of the sport in Atlanta. Generations of Atlanta citizens were entertained by the Atlanta Crackers, a superb minor league team who played for years at Ponce de Leon Park.

Ever since first white settler David Denny constructed his cabin off Elliott Bay and with his companions renamed the fledgling community of Duwamps in honor of their friend, Chief Sealth, the city of Seattle and its surroundings have been shaped by men and women of Irish ancestry.

Historical architecture is in abundance in Rapid City. Downtown is a prime location for historical buildings and authors Adrienne Merola Kerst, Jean Kessloff and Patrick Roseland managed to get many old pictures of the buildings put together into “Images of America: Rapid City Historic Downtown Architecture.”

SCOTTSDALE – Historian/ author Joan Fudala traces the history of the community from a tiny farming village east of Phoenix to the nowtony tourist destination that has a thriving arts and cultural community in her book about Scottsdale, done for the Images of America series.

On a chilly, gray afternoon fit for a funeral, hundreds of somber passengers climbed aboard city trolleys for one last ride. The Akron Transportation Co. held a public wake 60 years ago for its old railway system.

San Diego State University anthropology professor Seth Mallios unearthed the secrets buried in San Diego's cemeteries for his new book which reveals the results of the San Diego Gravestone Project.

It was once a stagecoach rest stop, then it was a railway stop. It was once on the other side of the Tennessee state line. Major General William Tecumseh Sherman escaped capture there, and after the Civil War, its "public square" housed a deer and peacocks inside a white picket fence.

Back when a telephone was still a rare commodity and e-mail had not yet been dreamed of, Manchester residents had a reliable way to get same-day messages across town. They sent post cards.

The recovering wilderness we now know as Great Smoky Mountains National Park has much more to offer than scenic vistas and biological diversity. A wealth of history lies buried just beneath the surface.

GREATER AKRON — A new book is part celebration for the 70-plus years of the Akron Railroad Club and part history of the area’s railroad past. “Akron Railroads” was written by Craig Sanders, a member of the Akron Railroad Club and a professor of journalism at Cleveland State University.

At an Everett cafe, John Keane opens a book titled "Irish Seattle." In a lovely and lilting accent, he begins to read.

On a windy day last week, Cecile Jensen and Russell Burns, director of the historic Mt. Elliott Cemetery in Detroit, counted their paces across a snowy stretch of ground at the back of the sprawling site. Using directions from a century-old ledger, they were determining the location of an unmarked grave.

In an ocean of oysters and clams, Bill Devine turns to the Italians and the Koreans. In a sea of shrimp and scallops, he reaches for the Greeks and the Serbs. Devine is the face of Faidley’s Seafood at the famous Lexington Market, which is the face of America.

CLIFTON -- On the night of Sept. 22, 1940, famed radio commentator Walter Winchell endorsed a suggestion from a Clifton schoolgirl.

In another Miami, a train taking the curious into the Everglades picked up passengers at a stop on the western edges of what is now Little Havana. The three cars of the Everglades Railway were originally pulled by a 'powerful African American known simply as `George,' '' the book Images of America, Little Havana, says. Later, the railway was reduced to one car pulled by a mule, it continues.

Gloria Brown loves history. And she loves Medina. So it seems natural that she would want to share those two loves with others. And one of the best ways Brown thought to do that would be through a book.

Organized crime in this country has always been mainly urban, ethnic, money-driven and violent. It goes without saying then that Detroit and the bad boys — the REAL bad boys — have had a date with each other from the very start.

Johns Island farming history lives in GMLc’s memory as a tomato picking shed, where teenage GMLc worked one summer grading the fruit.

Thousands drive by the boarded-up brick structure at the corner of Fourth and Clinton streets each day. The innocuous, dreary building probably doesn’t even register in most motorists’ consciousness.

Joan Fudala isn't a Scottsdale native but she calls it her hometown. And with the release of her new book, "Images of America: Scottsdale," she hopes that feeling will spread. "In a place like Scottsdale, where so many people are new, to have a connection to what's been here before, we feel more like it's our hometown, our adopted hometown," Fudala said.

Journalists Kathy Catrambone, a Near West Side resident, and Ellen Shubart have written Taylor Street: Chicago’s Little Italy. At more than 125 pages, the book contains scores of photos of Near West Side people and institutions that showcase the area’s life and times and help explain family, church, neighborhood, and employment issues from the 1880s to the present.

The following information and photos are provided by Canyon Lake resident Elinor Martin, whose family ranched in the area of Canyon Lake and Menifee Valley since the late 1800s. Elinor’s pictorial book, “Images of America: Canyon Lake,” is on sale for $19.99 at the Canyon Lake Market, Pepe’s Restaurant and Pack, Wrap and Post, as well as at the POA Member Services desk.

South Lyon resident Greg Tasker vividly remembers the taste of Sanders fudge as a child. When he moved to the East Coast as an adult, his parents continued to keep his taste buds fresh by sending him products from Sanders stores. When Tasker returned to Michigan in the 1990s, Sanders stores were absent from the metropolitan Detroit community. "When I came back and they were gone, I was astonished," he said. "I really sort of missed it."

Arcadia Publishing continues its popular Images of America series with the introduction of a new title, Cypress Gardens, by Mary M. Flekke, Sarah E. MacDonald, Randall M. MacDonald.

Arcadia Publishing’s series Images of America enlists various authors to research the history of a certain town or area. Endnotes in the books state that Arcadia is the leading local history publisher in the United States, with more than 3,000 titles in print. Formats are similar and attractive: about 130 pages, a few early maps, a minimum of writing (they have a word limit), and a maximum (180) of well-annotated photos.