The coasts of today's American South feature luxury condominiums, resorts, and gated communities, yet just a century ago, a surprising amount of beachfront property in the Chesapeake, along the Carolina shores, and around the Gulf of Mexico was owned and populated by African Americans. Blending social and environmental history, Andrew W. Kahrl tells the story of African American–owned beaches in the twentieth century. By reconstructing African American...

Caroline Venable has everything her Southern heritage promised: money, prestige, a powerful husband-and a predictable routine of country-club luncheons, cocktail parties, and dinners hosting her husband's wealthy friends, clients, and associates in his successful land-developing conglomerate. To escape her stifling routine, Caro drinks a little too much. But her true solace is the Lowcountry island her beloved Granddaddy left her-an oasis of breathtaking...

The last of August Wilson's ten-play chronicle of the African-American experience, in which Aunt Ester's former home in Pittsburgh is slated for demolition in 1990 to make way for a real estate venture designed to revitalize the area, and Harmond Wilks makes a run for mayor.

Florida has long been a beacon for retirees, but for many, the American dream of owning a home there was a fantasy. That changed in the 1950s, when the so-called "installment land sales industry" hawked billions of dollars of Florida residential property, sight unseen, to retiring northerners. For only $10 down and $10 a month, working-class pensioners could buy a piece of the Florida dream: a graded home site that would be waiting for them in a planned...

The town of Paradise receives a tragic shock when the mayor is discovered dead, his body lying in a shallow grave on a property on the lake. It's ostensibly suicide, but Jesse's has his doubts...especially because the piece of land where the man was found is the subject of a contentious and dodgy land deal. Two powerful moguls are fighting over the right to buy and develop the prime piece of real estate, and one of them has brought in a hired gun,...

"Deena Wood's life has fallen apart in the aftermath of losing her beloved mother, her marriage, and her prestigious job at an Atlanta law firm. She needs what the Geechee people of coastal Georgia call a 'dayclean,' a fresh start. She returns to her childhood home in Brunswick, Georgia, to heal. But her return is anything but the respite she thought it might be. To make peace with all her loss, she often drives through the city. One day, she unwittingly...

"Brianna is the youngest of the three Porter sisters and the only one who chose to stay in the small town of Splendid Lake, North Carolina. She followed in her father's footsteps and became an expert boat mechanic, helping him run their small resort with cabin rentals, a convenience store, and a marina. When Brianna's father unexpectedly dies, Brianna is steeped in grief and guilt--then left alone to clean up the mess. To make matters worse, a constant...

In a hidden enclave in Sag Harbor affectionately known as SANS--Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest, and Nineveh--there's a close-knit community of African American elites who escape the city and enjoy the beautiful warm weather and beaches at their vacation homes. Very few know about this part of the Hamptons on Long Island, and the residents like it that way. Against the odds, Olivia Jones has blazed her own enviable career path and built her name in the...

"Heath Bradford never expressed his attraction to loner Willow Sands back in high school. Now that he's returned to Dead Falls, supposedly to broker a land deal, Willow views him as the enemy. Fiercely protective of the island's ecosystem, she's an obstacle to his development project. But Heath's true purpose for returning is to solve a mystery that's haunted him for years. Then Willow's neighbor is killed, and she becomes the target of a series of...

Told from multiple viewpoints, follows teenaged friends Nia, KeeKee, Faith, and Eve as they experience unexpected life changes the summer a hotel developer purchases their Caribbean community's beloved beach. Change is coming to Pinder Street after a hotel developer purchases their community's beloved beach. When Eve's dad is diagnosed with cancer, she wants nothing more than to trade her worries for some red lipstick and a carefree night. Faith...