An officer in the Mexican army bequeathed his name to the crescent-shaped basin once known as Castro's Valley. Driven to ruin by squatters, drought, and gambling debts, he sold a portion of his cattle ranch to Methodist minister Zachariah Hughes, who built a church and school in what is now Crow Canyon. The one-room, redwood school Hughes christened Eden Vale educated about 50 children until a group from the burgeoning town to the south, “Hayward's,” stole it by wagon in the dead of night. Undaunted, Castro Valley, delineated from its now friendly neighbors by hills, Lake Chabot, and an independent spirit, built and fully supported its own Redwood School. It has now developed into one of the most populous unincorporated areas in the United States.

The Hayward area is a region in California made up of a city, Hayward, and two unincorporated towns, San Lorenzo and Castro Valley. The three communities share a common history, but each has unique individual stories--such as failed gold miner and entrepreneur William Hayward, who established a stagecoach stop and boardinghouse in 1851 that quickly attracted a diverse group of settlers and led to the establishment of the city of Hayward. Other legendary locals include Castro Valley historian Lucille Lorge, whose grandfather owned the first business in Castro Valley; English sailor Harry Rowell, who jumped ship in San Francisco Bay and was later known as the "King of the Rodeo" for his rodeo stock; and San Lorenzo Village developer David Bohannon, who changed the San Lorenzo farming area into a sprawling suburban center and the first planned community during World War II.

Child's memories of the Holocaust in Warsaw, then Paris and America - 1941 to 1955

Historian Brian Butko follows the highway across 14 states. Memoirs and historic landmarks come to life in full color.

The Alienist meets the magical mystery of The Ninth House as W. M. Akers returns with the third book in his critically acclaimed Jazz Age fantasy series set in the dangerous Westside of New York City, following private detective Gilda Carr’s hunt for the truth—one tiny mystery at a time. The Westside of Manhattan is desolate, overgrown, and dangerous—and Gilda Carr wouldn’t have it any other way. An eccentric detective whose pursuit of tiny mysteries has dragged her to the brink of madness, Gilda spends 1923 searching for something that’s eluded her for years: peace. On the revitalized waterfront of the Lower West, Gilda and the gregarious ex-gangster Cherub Stevens start a new life on a stolen yacht. But their old life isn’t done with them yet. They dock their boat on the edge of the White Lights District, a new tenderloin where liquor, drugs, sex, and violence are shaken into a deadly cocktail. When her pet seagull vanishes into the District, Gilda throws herself into the search for the missing bird. Up late watching the river for her pet, Gilda has one drink too many and passes out in the cabin of her waterfront home. She wakes to a massacre. Eight people have been slaughtered on the deck of the Misery Queen, and Cherub is among the dead. Gilda, naturally, is the prime suspect. Hunted by the police, the mob, and everyone in between, she must stay free long enough to find the person who stained the Hudson with her beloved’s blood. She will discover that on her Westside, no lights are bright enough to drive away the darkness.