Jersey Shore Publications is pleased to bring you "To The Shore Once More, Volume II,"; the sequel and companion volume to the bestseller "To The Shore Once More."; Containing more pages and artwork than Volume I (with 180 pages of text and 144 full-color paintings by more than forty area artists), this coffee table book of prose, poetry, and works of art takes readers on a journey down the Jersey Shore--from the tip of Sandy Hook to the point of Cape May. Join once more acclaimed author and poet, Frank Finale, and his family on a journey through the past and present as he once again captures life along the shore while exploring universal themes that touch us all. These graceful personal essays and poems elicit an emotional response and lingering memory. They are also perfect for reading aloud throughout the year and, as with Volume I, may even become a family tradition in years to come! The essays and poems are organized from north to south taking place in all four seasons in many of the towns and regions along the coast including Highlands, Asbury Park, Ocean Grove, Bradley Beach, Belmar, Spring Lake, Point Pleasant, Seaside, Island Beach, the Toms River area, Bayville, Long Beach Island, the Pine Barrens, Brigantine, Atlantic City, and Cape May. Also inside, you'll find resplendent, full color paintings of some of the loveliest landmarks and locations at the Jersey Shore. Each have been painted by area artists including Paula Kolojeski, Dick LaBonte, Theresa Troise Heidel, Ludlow Thorston, Virginia Perle, Margaret Tourison Berndt, Sheila Mickle, Muriel Rogers, Dawn Hotaling, Stephen Harrington, Dede Esenlohr, Al Barker, Carol Freas, Tine Kirkland Graham, Dennis Foy, Linda Hejduk-Fortin, Pauline Mickle, Sue Oliver, Barbara Cocker, Susan Walsh McLean, and over twenty additional artists. This companion volume is one of the most enchanting and beautiful books about the Jersey Shore ever published. It will bring you closer to the places you love at the Shore and is sure to bring many nights of reading and viewing pleasure--you, your family, and friends will treasure it for years to come. Both volumes are considered by many to be among the best art and literary efforts portraying the Jersey Shore. -- The Coast Star and The Ocean Star; May 17 & 18, 2001 Let others set out for a road trip. I prefer to curl up with V. II and let author Frank Finale be my guide to the treasures between Sandy Hook and Cape May. -- --edited from Diane T. Churchman, The Coast Star and The Ocean Star; May 24 & 25, 2001 This book gives the reader the feeling of being on a perpetual vacation...Volume II is a visual dessert!...a journey you will cherish for generations to come. -- --Donna Crader, The Times..At The Jersey Shore; May 31, 2001 V. II is possibly even better than the first, with remembrances about sites from the Atlantic Highlands to Cape May, [including] southern Ocean Cty. -- --edited from Linda Reddington, The Times Beacon; June 8, 2001 Foreword by George C. Valente The Author On a black and white winterÕs day in January, between reviewing with artist Sheila Mickle the map she was creating as a visual representation of this book and glancing out the window at hungry swans on an ice bank of the half frozen Metedoconk River, I was finally able to see a complete vision of the new essays and poems Frank Finale created for this book. Looking at the legend on the map, Sheila and I discussed the sense of loss that pervades this bookÑthe death and desolation of friends from cancer, murder, and divorce, the devastation of Asbury Park, the tearing down of old Shore landmarks like the Monmouth and Warren hotels, and the life and death struggle of animal life at the Shore, like the swans I was watching as they searched for food on a frozen river. All show struggles and losses and the changes that come naturally with aging and the passing of time, yet Frank Finale writes about each with an affirmation and celebration of lifeÑwith prose and poetry full of love and beautyÑthat keeps the reader going and is at the essence of life for all of us, all in a Jersey Shore setting. He writes of natureÕs changes in "A WinterÕs Sketch": "The wind howls, and the sand responds. Everything is in flux. The beach you step on today will not be the same one you step on tomorrow. But you will never know it. Nature repeats itself endlessly, ever changing, ever unchanged." After the success of "To The Shore Once More" (Volume I), I asked Frank to write a second bookÑa sequel and companion volume to his regional bestseller. He was apprehensive about the one year schedule but agreed. Shortly thereafter, I contacted Rich Youmans, his primary editor of the essays that appeared in Volume I, (most of which were published in COAST Magazine); he also agreed to work once again with his friend, and we were off and running. Thus, the writer and editor that had created some of the most touching and profound essays about the Jersey Shore were no