I’m an amateur amateur historian, someone who watches a good Ken Burns documentary and feels qualified to recount the entire history of Jazz. While I love combing through historic records for a story, I like to let historians do most of the heavy lifting for me. My boss and friend Joe Earle published this book about the history of Decatur, a.k.a. Mister Hipster’s Neighborhood.

“Images of America: Decatur” is Joe’s compilation of that long and interesting history, the product of hours spent at the DeKalb History Center. Joe’s homespun style and humor make for good company and makes this book a must-have for any Decatur library, coffee table or sun room.

Joe’s a long-time resident of Mr. Hipster’s Neighborhood. He lives on Clairmont Road. I’m not quite sure how he backs that old Saturn into 9 a.m. traffic without creating front-page news. Joe tells the best stories from the glory days at the AJC. I like to call them his war stories. Even the ones I’ve heard before are worth hearing again.

You can order your copy over at Amazon.