tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16985767714959654822024-03-18T07:38:46.262-07:00Michigan in BooksDedicated to book reviews and news concerning Michigan literature including; fiction, history, travel, biography, current events, industry, the Great Lakes, and the Michigan experience in all its many facets. The emphasis will be on new adult books but the blog will also revisit classic books about Michigan, and will review children's books that may be of interest to teachers.Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-67399549948343301732024-02-26T09:33:00.000-08:002024-02-28T04:46:49.983-08:00<p> Post # 93 February 26, 2024</p><p>Quote for the Day: "In this uncertain climate the hopes of the eager watcher for spring are doomed to many and many a disappointment." Bela Hubbard. Memorials of a Half-Century in Michigan and the Lakes Region. 1888.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Reviews</u></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><u><br /></u></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><u>His Sword A Scalpel: General Charles Stuart Tripler MD, USA. Jack Dempsey, ed.</u></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">The Civil War ended more than a 150 years ago and an estimated 60,000 books have been written about it. Even with that many books on the subject the Michigan Civil War Association shows it is still a fertile ground to plow by writers and researchers. This is the first biography of an army doctor who was instrumental in organizing and building the medical wing of the Army of the Potomac. </p><p style="text-align: left;">Charles Stuart Tripler was born in 1806 in New York, graduated medical school in 1827, went to West Point and was commissioned an assistant surgeon in 1830. He served in various posts including Detroit where he met his wife and made Michigan his home. He was a distinguished battlefield surgeon in the Mexican-American War and just prior to the Civil War wrote <i>A Manual of the Medical Officer of the Army</i> <i>of the United States</i> and <i>Hand-Book of the Military Surgeon. </i>Both books proved to be indispensable to the influx of doctors with no experience as battlefield surgeons or the general campground duties of a regimental doctor. The Battle of Bull Run proved the medical service incapable of caring for the wounded. Days after McLellan was handed the reins to the Army of the Potomac Tripler was ordered to Washington and appointed Medical Director of the Army of the Potomac.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I found this well-written book endlessly interesting because it describes an aspect of the war I have read little about. I was especially fascinated by the description of Triplet's gargantuan task of reorganizing the Army of Potomac's medical forces. This ranged from redesigning ambulances, to accrediting regimental surgeons, determining all the equipment needed for frontline hospitals, how to requisition materials, sanitary campground duties, advice on how to treat certain wounds and dozens of other duties. I was also absorbed by the description of how the wounded were cared for on the peninsula campaign because the army was frequently on the move battle after battle. I have read almost nothing on that part of the campaign. The book paints General Triplet as a man of sterling character and devoted to providing the best care for the wounded. It is a shame he wasn't treated better for his service to his country and the thousands of wounded who received better medical care due to his leadership.</p><p style="text-align: left;">This book is a major contribution to the history of Michigan in the Civil War and a fine testament to an all but forgotten Michigan Civil War hero. And here's hoping the Michigan Civil War Association finds more overlooked subjects and events in the War Between the States worthy of publication.</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiIZ2r4xJn-E7XU50dSXAIwykIT2_RexSZfxuymwxooIiO01sV1cv7XBkTQC3FBUrZ9EBxaxRjl-Spl2rxl9S8J0BpmeBy1Y7Z3S3akVS3FrUsts2o8FKYOW72ubWBWSywAbdtPIh5FGwlBFxlx5G4nfXsoG8PcGm13SZhdH6PtPGtvjHjW0SAZMnbhjdk" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="335" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiIZ2r4xJn-E7XU50dSXAIwykIT2_RexSZfxuymwxooIiO01sV1cv7XBkTQC3FBUrZ9EBxaxRjl-Spl2rxl9S8J0BpmeBy1Y7Z3S3akVS3FrUsts2o8FKYOW72ubWBWSywAbdtPIh5FGwlBFxlx5G4nfXsoG8PcGm13SZhdH6PtPGtvjHjW0SAZMnbhjdk" width="161" /></a></div><br />His Sword A Scalpel: General Charles Stuart Tripler, MD, USA. Jack Dempsey ed. Mission Point Press, 2023, 289p., $24.95.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><u>Church Lady Chronicles: Devilish Encounters by Terri Martin</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div><br /></div><div>No writer in the Upper Peninsula has a better formula for mixing satire with slapstick comedy and producing grins, chuckles and laughter than Terri Martin. Much of her success is due to inventing a uniquely oddball Yooper characters strong enough to feature in and become the narrator of a book of short stories. In this specific case we are talking about Bea Righteous a loyal member of the Budworm United Methodist Church (BUMC) who has voluntarily appointed herself a keen-eyed watchdog dedicated to keeping a cunning Satan from slipping into her congregation. </div><div><br /></div><div>Bea Righteous sees Satan's influence everywhere and her attempts to rid him from the church and her fellow worshipers is often disastrous and always humorous. The good lady is the equivalent of a tack on a pew for all her fellow church goers and even the minister who she endlessly pesters. This includes telling him he must stop working on a eulogy and go find the person who took up two parking places. The Devil made him do it and it must be stopped. The author could have easily turned Bea into one an irritating and unlikeable holier than thou characters. Instead she's a wonderfully comic character totally unaware of her helplessly funny self righteousness. </div><div><br /></div><div>One of my favorites stories is the account of the consequences resulting from Miss Righteous bringing a tray of deviled eggs (what was she thinking) to a church buffet. Bea carried the Devil in the door and the result was two injured, all the food abruptly parting company with the tables, and an attempted theft squished (it seems the appropriate word) by Bea. Who by the way has an almost ironclad excuse that relieves her of even an iota of responsibility for the Deviled Egg Affair. This is a comic gem.</div><div> </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhE71BrPo48GfHHqfhtTOw-S3NCmPqFsCe2Q_b_E_1qymCs0AKU2GpG306IPDGrXekI_mk67jhr4Vy80een_EyG711P0Yd2h_7x6i7TYS7zpusTRVNOTvol6fl4ERjTEHvg7UcwKNB7NCXV4Q_wizQPKXbiyyOjrdy9QFjzqnrz9fEVZ4SwiW-J41hiOvk" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="625" data-original-width="402" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhE71BrPo48GfHHqfhtTOw-S3NCmPqFsCe2Q_b_E_1qymCs0AKU2GpG306IPDGrXekI_mk67jhr4Vy80een_EyG711P0Yd2h_7x6i7TYS7zpusTRVNOTvol6fl4ERjTEHvg7UcwKNB7NCXV4Q_wizQPKXbiyyOjrdy9QFjzqnrz9fEVZ4SwiW-J41hiOvk" width="154" /></a> </div></div><div>Church Lady Chronicles: Devilish Encounters by Terri Martin. Gnarly Woods Publications, 2020, 136p., </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><u>Murder for Treasure: Booty is in the Eye of the Beholder by Dave Vizard</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div>This is the seventh novel featuring Bay City journalist Nick Steele and it is both a compelling mystery</div><div>and a realistic portrayal of how journalists research and build a story. This story begins when a widow askes Steele to look into the death of her husband. It was ruled an accidental death but the widow is sure her husband was murdered. Nick Steele is moved by the widow's certainty and his journalistic curiosity leads Steele into a tale of five friends who decades earlier recovered a treasure from a ship that went down just north of Saginaw Bay in 1871. Two of the five friends have recently died. Both deaths were ruled accidental but Steele and his journalist partner find the rulings very questionable. </div><div><br /></div><div>The author is a retired journalist and writes authoritatively on how a paper's newsroom operates and makes Steele's dogged pursuit of the story seem very realistic. The ship that went down with the treasure, the R. G. Coburn, was an actual 193-foot steamer that sank on October 15, 1871 just north of Saginaw Bay in a storm with a loss of 32 passengers and all but one of her crew. The wreckage has never been found. It is unknown if the Coburn carried a fortune in gold but I like the fact that the author tied his story to a dramatic piece of local history. The reporter's dedication to their story gets them in trouble in the newsroom and local agencies when their investigation uncovers shoddy work by city and county employees. There are surprising revelations and plot twists every few pages and the closer Steele and his partner get to the truth the more danger they face.</div><div><br /></div><div>The author has a knack for making even minor characters believable and interesting. It was also a pleasure to read a well-written novel set against the beautifully painted backdrop of Saginaw Bay and the Thumb area. It will leave readers with an itch to explore the southeast coast of the Saginaw Bay area. And this reviewer is left impatiently waiting for the 9th novel in the Nick Steele series.</div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJuTA5jMzYIEpw7KnHxCYV4YQ22OjOWD3Llt2XuNu0btuGsntncEVDQBZ4OnTdKo-uzHdqcFTX9sKhpp6-NjfMy-7GHRjbqV4KbOSemhYI9GjilzXDXXZUnOqgGbJHIipDfWh9ttmoMCxd3BZ13PUq7G6Gn5Xk99VYIJWd9dYj0WSj_8rs0ts6GI_U7Xo" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="267" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhJuTA5jMzYIEpw7KnHxCYV4YQ22OjOWD3Llt2XuNu0btuGsntncEVDQBZ4OnTdKo-uzHdqcFTX9sKhpp6-NjfMy-7GHRjbqV4KbOSemhYI9GjilzXDXXZUnOqgGbJHIipDfWh9ttmoMCxd3BZ13PUq7G6Gn5Xk99VYIJWd9dYj0WSj_8rs0ts6GI_U7Xo" width="160" /></a></div><br />Murder for Treasure: Booty is in the Eye of the Beholder by Dave Vizard. Independently published, 2023, 259p., $15.95.</div></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><u>Classic Restaurants of Michiana by Jane Simon Ammeson</u></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>This odd but interesting book is filled with the unexpected and contains almost none of the expected. First off, for readers unfamiliar with or never heard of Michiana it is an area in southwestern Michigan and northern Indiana most frequently used by radio and TV stations who broadcast within that area and businesses trying to draw customers over state lines. The heart of the area is comprised of seven counties of which only Berrien and Cass are in Michigan. Secondly, this is not a guide to great eating in Michiana but a history of restaurants within the area beginning with stage coach stops.</div><div><br /></div><div>The book is filled with a stew of interesting historical and gastronomical tidbits from how codfish were shipped fresh from the east coast to a stage stop in Michigan and were still edible. The cod were made into codfish balls when the stage stop was established in 1836 and it's the oldest business in Michigan still doing business in its original building. Today you can't get a codfish ball at the Old Tavern Inn cheeseburgers are recommended. The author does a good job of describing early stage coach stops and all manner of eateries up to roughly to the turn of the 21st century. I was impressed by the number of swank motels and resorts that sprung up along Lake Michigan and inland lakes during the 1930s and found it surprising they did so well in the Depression. The book even includes long gone soda fountains, food carts, and drive-ins. I find it somewhat amusing this is a guide, by and large, to restaurants you can't eat in because they no longer exist. </div><div><br /></div><div>Ah, but there are fascinating chapters on the religious group the House of David and their various restaurants, including a vegetarian one, their fine gardens and theme parks, and a famous barnstorming baseball team. Not sure how his got into classic restaurants but there's a chapter on Al Capone getaways here and I must admit it makes good reading. But back to food. There is a nice chapter on the influence of immigrants on area eateries from Chinese and German restaurants to Greek diners.</div><div><br /></div><div>Obviously this was not the book I expected when cracking the cover. But it proved to be interesting, informative, and full of photographs, historical menus, and surprising pleasures. In an imperfect tally there seems to be more Michigan sites than those from Indiana.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi24CNaDIcKaMswqpmlGkohuY-4cIE_DEEqNpBK0HvCRoxRsw-Vqig4AiVz5YhCbNwvq5xgcHhz5DM0kbtBo2_449s6ogeOPCGf05nNUQZe6ZqGSd_KzWeCgpUAtb3_BIYIYq3cFTefsRL9DsfyINVYa6Ng6m5EBLsaB6GKTE2uB7oQUgdkrYIbr7hP2TM" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="451" data-original-width="300" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi24CNaDIcKaMswqpmlGkohuY-4cIE_DEEqNpBK0HvCRoxRsw-Vqig4AiVz5YhCbNwvq5xgcHhz5DM0kbtBo2_449s6ogeOPCGf05nNUQZe6ZqGSd_KzWeCgpUAtb3_BIYIYq3cFTefsRL9DsfyINVYa6Ng6m5EBLsaB6GKTE2uB7oQUgdkrYIbr7hP2TM" width="160" /></a></div><br />Classic Restaurants of Michiana by Jane Simon Ammeson. American Palate, 2023,157p., $24.99.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-2241657975993422312024-01-22T10:34:00.000-08:002024-01-22T10:34:11.067-08:00<p> Post # 92 January 22, 2024</p><p><br /></p><p>Quote for the Day: The Keweenaw Peninsula is, "... a mere thumb of land poked like a testing finger into the cold, blue waters of Lake Superior. ...it is as scenically -- and historically -- exciting as any spot in the United States. Angus Murdock. Boom Copper. 1943.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span><u>Reviews</u></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><u><br /></u></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><u>Mysterious Michigan: The Lonely Ghost of Minnie Quay, The Marvelous Manifestations of Farmer Riley, The Devil in Detroit and more by Amberrose Hammond</u></p><p style="text-align: left;"><u><br /></u></p><p style="text-align: left;">The word mysterious in the title of this consistently fascinating book covers a lot of ground. Peculiar, haunting, paranormal, unexplainable, incomprehensible, and just plain weird all fit nicely. Many of the stories deal with ghosts and the fascination of communicating with the dead, which the author explains grew in popularity with the birth of the Spiritual movement in the 1840s. Grand Rapids was an early hot bed of spiritualism and crackpot mediums. One of which talked a widow into giving much of her wealth to her medium because she would soon be meeting her husband. The medium failed to explain it would be by way of poisoning. Not to be outdone a Detroit medium talked a sucker out of most his money then murdered him. My favorite is the story of Michigan's richest man. He died in 1875 leaving behind a divorced wife and a current one. Of course they went to trial contesting the will and one of the parties called a witness who took the stand and promptly went into a trance.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The author presents some memorable hauntings and ghost stories. One of the best concerns the ghost of Minnie Quay. Minnie was 15 and lived in a small village in the Thumb bordering the west coast of Lake Huron. One day she caught the eye of a sailor and whenever he was in town they could be seen walking together. Vicious rumors started circulating including that she was pregnant. When the rumors reached her parents they didn't believed their daughter's denials. Embarrassed, heartbroken, and ridiculed by the town she drowned herself. They say her lonely ghost can be seen walking the shoreline looking for her sailor. An autopsy proved she was a virgin. It was a local legend until a lumberjack composed a song about Minnie that spread her sad story across the state. And because of the song her story became part of Michigan's folklore. It is surprising how many of the ghostly accounts in this book have become Michigan folklore including the Devil in Detroit.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Hammond also presents several mind boggling, unexplainable paranormal stories. A home in Jackson had a poltergeist. Anything not nailed down could coming flying across the room. University professors came to witness and stayed to study it. Then there is the female dentist from Bay City who let spirits use her hands to paint stunning surrealistic paintings. She usually never even looked at the canvas while hand and brush moved across it. Critics raved about the paintings and they were hung in some of New York's finest galleries. Spirits answered questions through her and accurately predicted the future. She defied explanation.</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">From haunted roads, mysterious lights, monsters, a witch killer, to 1920 when Ouija Boards out sold bibles in Ann Arbor this is a great ghostly read. </p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhHcjfCt5rPRk6bv4Ex9Hm8E0tj268VxPcu4RSHFJ2Lslxg8UQhHt3K3yfmaWMapQNn9mUzeYkgcrZi52KxTa0pIltEMvEr8l472ycP53qEHqyYaG0-8mm0ui8KqKWt0-C2esaQU-T0rWtodUZMH3HkNlLAyj9xzZppl3HQEfE1E1cw_3qa3AV0yAuScik" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="80" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhHcjfCt5rPRk6bv4Ex9Hm8E0tj268VxPcu4RSHFJ2Lslxg8UQhHt3K3yfmaWMapQNn9mUzeYkgcrZi52KxTa0pIltEMvEr8l472ycP53qEHqyYaG0-8mm0ui8KqKWt0-C2esaQU-T0rWtodUZMH3HkNlLAyj9xzZppl3HQEfE1E1cw_3qa3AV0yAuScik" width="160" /></a></div><br />Mysterious Michigan: The Lonely Ghost of Minnie Quay, The Marvelous Manifestations of Farmer Riley, The Devil in Detroit and more by Amberrose Hammond. History Press, 2022, 158p., $21.99. <p></p><div><br /></div><div><u>Brockway Mountain Stories: The History of Brockway Mountain Drive and Keweenaw Mountain Lodge by Paul LaVanway</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div>Originally this book was two separate publications and their titles make up this book's subtitle. They first appeared as a series of stories in the Keweenaw County Historical Society's publication "The Superior Signal" before being published as booklets. Long out of print, the booklets have been reprinted and updated. They tell the stories of two Keweenaw County's most striking and memorable tourist attractions. Both have become state treasures, were work relief projects of the Great Depression, and significant in proving that the tourist industry could replace the playout and closed copper mines of the Keweenaw Peninsula and county.</div><div><br /></div><div>The Brockway Mountain Drive is the highest above-sea-level road between the Alleghenies and the Rockies. To call it scenic is a gross under statement. The road climbs the spine of Keweenaw's West Bluff for one of the most beautiful and spectacular views in the Midwest. In one direction the bluff slopes down in a green carpet of trees to Lake Superior that spreads to the horizon. The immensity, and the shifting hues of the Great Lake is jaw dropping. On the other side of the road the West Bluff drops way in a near vertical wall of rock. Wherever you look the view is stunning and unforgettable. The scenic road was first suggested in the 1920s. But planning and construction didn't begin until the Great Depression work relief programs made them possible. The book is a detailed history of the planning and creation of the road. It was built by hand except for two work horses, "Nick & Dickie." </div><div><br /></div><div>The Great Depression proved disastrous for Keweenaw County with 75.2 percent of the population on relief. It was the highest in the country. In 1933 the Civil Workers Administration (CWA) asked states for submissions for public projects of lasting value. The Keweenaw County Road Commission was awarded funding for a Keweenaw Park and Golf Course. Thirty years later it was renamed the Keweenaw Mountain Lodge. The site selected was 1 mile southeast of Copper Harbor on a heavily wooded plateau overlooking Lake Superior. The site set the tone for the lodge. The lodge reflected the Arts and Craft Movement and camp architecture. Over 18,000 trees were cut for the fairways with pine and spruce logs debarked and set aside for the clubhouse. The hardwoods were given to the workers as firewood. The book covers the history of the Mountain Lodge in detail from public ownership to private and back to public, its expansion, discovery by the middle class after WWII, and its effect on area tourism.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is an important addition to Michigan history and should garner readership from the thousands who have visited these two remarkable sites.</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhZu9X3ac3f-zyxvWQb-3fY7OGTwII4UFYeNeZkeHuKJKtwVrycteis7UneLV83b8cKGJsBPof47jLrzO5ZaTSfkj4edXU2TNO-lAAacOVpVjBtVIhPmRxnjNUeZfE8qQ0L5_S9uD1thuWHcGaO64LqGulc6fzpXo3clArhNI78-kS3s-Rn2ektl0ZNR-c" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="518" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhZu9X3ac3f-zyxvWQb-3fY7OGTwII4UFYeNeZkeHuKJKtwVrycteis7UneLV83b8cKGJsBPof47jLrzO5ZaTSfkj4edXU2TNO-lAAacOVpVjBtVIhPmRxnjNUeZfE8qQ0L5_S9uD1thuWHcGaO64LqGulc6fzpXo3clArhNI78-kS3s-Rn2ektl0ZNR-c" width="311" /></a></div><br />Brockway Mountain Stories: The History of Brockway Mountain and Keweenaw Mountain Lodge by Pail LaVanway. Mudminnow Press, 2023, 90p., $25.95.</div><div><br /></div><div><u>A Father's Arms: A Diary by Captain Robert A. Maynard</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div>The author spend nearly a year in constant combat either on or near the front lines during WWII. He survived Anzio, the invasion of the southern France, and the hard fought battles when the Allies finally set foot on German soil. When he returned home and for many years thereafter he avoided talking about his war times experiences. In 1980 when he retired from Cadillac and moved to Suttons Bay, partly from memory and partly from a diary he kept for a year in combat, Capt. Maynard wrote his wartime diary. He says he wrote it for his family and hopped it would be handed down to future generations. It will be and not just because his daughter had it published. This book is a living testament to the men who served our country and sharply illustrates that those who survived WWII carried it with them for the rest of their lives. It is also a testament to the remarkable character and devotion to duty of the author.</div><div><br /></div><div>This slim book is filled with great stories, plenty of photographs, and concludes with a profound question. After Pearl Harbor he tried to enlist in both the Navy and Marines but failed to pass their physicals. So he tried the Army. He was told to strip naked and sit in a small room and await the doctor. The doctor opened the door, didn't enter the room, and told to Maynard to stand up then bend and touch his toes. That was the physical and he passed it. He quickly learned Army rules. One of which was, "Do as the Army does, not what you think is best." Then there is the memorable experience of taking communion at Anzio while being the target of German artillery. He was trained as a field artillery officer but when he reached Europe he was transferred to tank destroyers. Why, because they found tank destroyers were often used as supplementary artillery and it was easier to train field artillery officers to be tank destroyer officers than the other way around. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the final piece of the book he graphically describes seven times during combat his life hung by a single thread of a spider's web. Like the time he and two others heard an incoming artillery round and all three dove for the same small depression. The round exploded and knocked Maynard senseless. He somehow was the first into the slim dip in the earth. The other two who landed on top of him were dead. How had he survived seven separate occasions during the war when death seemed certain? It is a profound question that seems unanswerable. He must have lived with it for the rest of his life. </div><div><br /></div><div>Robert Maynard's children have stipulated that all proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to to the Veterans of Foreign Wars of Michigan. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhkNQvryhQIVB_luDUKsnogUfwk0yCh8IzDL4jsET3FilLAhtD4bgTryNwiDM-qF9fyHNP9dYskujJFwPArxt5qjU8C1AdykfHxoDpcD-kYf7Ap8cFJEkr9LgxSdWOYbXaN78T8d6vTsSL1p874GEJvaGogKuz_J13D4cYTwxyhGFS2wxK2jgSOKRFlLQs" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="309" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhkNQvryhQIVB_luDUKsnogUfwk0yCh8IzDL4jsET3FilLAhtD4bgTryNwiDM-qF9fyHNP9dYskujJFwPArxt5qjU8C1AdykfHxoDpcD-kYf7Ap8cFJEkr9LgxSdWOYbXaN78T8d6vTsSL1p874GEJvaGogKuz_J13D4cYTwxyhGFS2wxK2jgSOKRFlLQs" width="185" /></a></div><br />A Father's Arms: A Diary by Captain Robert A. Maynard. Mission Point Press, 2023, 125p., $29.95.</div><div><br /></div><div><u>Detroit Style Pizza: A Doughtown History by Karen Dybis</u></div><div><u><br /></u></div><div>A Detroit style pizza, who knew? I sure didn't, even when I'd eaten one. But I knew what I'd just ate was different and awfully good. This book is nothing less than a culinary history of the Detroit style pizza from its originator to chefs who have taken the humble pizza to the level of high cuisine.</div><div><br /></div><div>Gus Guerra the owner of Buddy's Pizzeria is given credit for serving the first Detroit style pizza in 1946. His mother-in-law is said to have brought the recipe from Sicily where it was a traditional Sicilian street pizza. They tinkered with the recipe endlessly before putting it on the menu where it quickly became a hit. The steps in making a Detroit style pizza differ significantly from making the traditional pie. First comes the dough which has a higher water-to-flour content than the average pizza dough. Next Pepperoni is pressed into the dough. Cheese is the next layer. It is a blend of shredded or cubed brick cheese spread to the very edges of the pan. Finally a light tomato sauce is carefully ladled over the cheese or applied by flicking it off the end of a spoon. Some pizzerias apply the sauce before baking the pie while others add it after the pie is baked. Either before or after the pie is baked in a square pan, with high sides that are slightly angled outward.</div><div><br /></div><div>The book does a nice job of covering the chefs who have refined and added their own touches to the Detroit style pizza since it was introduced in the 1940s. It also clearly explains why it is a recognizable style the equal of either the Chicago or New York styles. The book presents a short history of Russo's chain of take out Detroit style pizzas. That's where I got my first taste of one and probably I'm just one of thousands. The Detroit style became known world wide when it won first prize in the 2012 World Pizza Expo. In a fitting conclusion an appendix contains recipes for a Detroit style pizza sauce and The "Loui Loui" Detroit Style Pizza with "Assembly, Baking and Finishing Procedures."</div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWXKZl8AZjEyEXDI4HDh9WppRcJPHeqik01LPgUCZDASSngJs9HGzW1Pa16GCs_y5Kek9lrV5s4vmVEQCakZnZqUz0ZR2cwda6ZjiL0htu2MmCrkPWaWU-eeQiTVdLTdU00iF73wJtsjLf1q-7iXNtM64atDvnVjyXjecJhSD7wwuzMzNdd0ljQ5bsWdw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="451" data-original-width="300" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjWXKZl8AZjEyEXDI4HDh9WppRcJPHeqik01LPgUCZDASSngJs9HGzW1Pa16GCs_y5Kek9lrV5s4vmVEQCakZnZqUz0ZR2cwda6ZjiL0htu2MmCrkPWaWU-eeQiTVdLTdU00iF73wJtsjLf1q-7iXNtM64atDvnVjyXjecJhSD7wwuzMzNdd0ljQ5bsWdw" width="160" /></a></div></div><div><br /></div><div>Detroit Style Pizza: A Doughtown History by Karen Dybis. American Palate, 2023, 145p., $23.99.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div> </div><div><br /></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-2913560503245659282023-12-26T02:01:00.000-08:002023-12-26T02:01:12.270-08:00<p> <span style="font-size: medium;">Post #91 December 26, 2023</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Q</span>uote for the Day: "...there's a fine line between Michigan and misery-- winter." Sonny Eliot. <i>Michigan Living. </i>September 1988.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Review</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Deus X by Stephen Mack Jones</u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>A new novel featuring August Snow is always welcome because previous readers know from page one they will simply be swallowed up by Jones' narrative drive, great characters, intimate portrait of Detroit, and a plot that usually falls outside the norm for a private eye mystery. For the uninitiated August Snow is an ex Detroit cop who was wrongly fired and and won a multimillion dollar law suit from the city. He is dedicated to restoring his old Mexicantown neighborhood, one house at a time, with the money won from his suit and only gets involved in a case at a friend's request. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>It's sadly a given that in any of the world's major religions violence is always committed both historically and currently in the name of God. And that appears to be the case when an aging, retired priest who Snow served as an altar boy and has been a life-long friend since appears to be on a Catholic fanatic's hit list. Snow becomes the priest's bodyguard while he figures out why a papal detective pries into the priest's life and tells Snow a group of Catholic fanatics are determined to eliminate priests whose moral corruption has hurt the image of Catholicism. The sinister papal rep tells Snow his friend may be on their list. The Bishop of the Detroit Archdiocese is not interested in helping the retired priest because all his attention is focused on an expected promotion to the Vatican. So Snow has to count on his wonderfully eccentric friends to keep Father Grabowski safe and help him discover why his friend's life is endangered. Snow's efforts to save his friend brings his own faith into question and his relationship with a church that may have lost touch with its people.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>As per usual Snow has written a strikingly original and totally immersive novel. His effortlessly readable prose is as smooth as 30-year-old scotch and marked by memorable humor, razor sharp dialogue, great characters, an equally great portrait of Detroit, and slick attention-grabbing turn of phrases. This is so good on so many levels you simply don't want to miss it.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEicWLIES7L7YqKbf-SBEXJg8Fn_CGRF414rLxzWcfGf6vIcGxYvcPoLFmZb-JkTkHbwrJKmK-xTII3qorbJurOWnP0YWnPKsJkNWdB8RDuXapbCMy3J4sYWizDtD2VEHA0dkg30wq-Te9RnzCntfaS62pwP9KUIrZMXoYzDgRT30bCJ8bolykiWqQSpjWs" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="227" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEicWLIES7L7YqKbf-SBEXJg8Fn_CGRF414rLxzWcfGf6vIcGxYvcPoLFmZb-JkTkHbwrJKmK-xTII3qorbJurOWnP0YWnPKsJkNWdB8RDuXapbCMy3J4sYWizDtD2VEHA0dkg30wq-Te9RnzCntfaS62pwP9KUIrZMXoYzDgRT30bCJ8bolykiWqQSpjWs" width="182" /></a></b></div><b>Deus X by Stephen Mack Jones. Soho Crime, 2023, 352p., $27.95.</b><div><b><br /></b><div><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Off the Hook: Off-Beat Reporter's Tales from Michigan's U.P. by Nancy Besonen</u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>It takes a special person to write a weekly humor column year after year and decade after decade. There has to be times when life is not funny, you're just not in the mood to be humorous, or you simply can't think of a damn thing to satirize, or poke fun at. So hats off to Nancy Besonen because judging by this collection of her weekly columns in the L'Anse Sentinel she has a genuine talent for finding humor in everyday life. But then she does live in the U.P. where a well honed sense of humor is a necessity. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The author is a keen observer, has a fine sense of the absurd, a talent for satire, and is just plain funny. In the "Mrs. U. P. Pageant" she is dismayed that there is no talent or swimsuit components. Meaning she can't impress the judges by field dressing a deer on stage, and was sure her three-year-old swimsuit purchased at Fleet Farm, "would have wowed the judges." She believes if Alfred, Lord Tennyson lived in the U.P. his famous poem's first line would have read, "It's spring, when a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of getting stuck in mud." My favorite is a column about area school districts inviting parents to take a MEAP test. She explains MEAP stands for Michigan Educational Assessment Program and writes: "The MEAP tests covers variations of the three Rs, and is administered to unsuspecting children whose parents callously decided to settle in Michigan."</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Besonen's collection of weekly columns is a perceptive, wise, and an unfailingly funny reality check on the Yooper world. Her columns alone make it worth subscribing to the L'Anse Sentinel.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhaGtst9eoIzIXQBJOJh9kJznHH5swtDPbLfw75hcAFFTyZDKSJXtKlgKdkVKgcIh5nGjyYFF2mMGtV6gzADDOgyE-iySoyumbYca0vG2qJZR7Io7gfj-c7abGkmSE_MWVXwvEfG97Ylh6ut1LMrQQ8ZIZDauMgiMDR-_v-OdsAqcjdBOm2ze325Mi4l_A" style="clear: left; display: inline; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="200" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhaGtst9eoIzIXQBJOJh9kJznHH5swtDPbLfw75hcAFFTyZDKSJXtKlgKdkVKgcIh5nGjyYFF2mMGtV6gzADDOgyE-iySoyumbYca0vG2qJZR7Io7gfj-c7abGkmSE_MWVXwvEfG97Ylh6ut1LMrQQ8ZIZDauMgiMDR-_v-OdsAqcjdBOm2ze325Mi4l_A" width="160" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Off the Hook: Off-Beat Reporter's Tales from Michigan's U.P. by Nancy Besonen. Modern History Press, 2023, 165p., $21.95.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><u>Murder, So Sweet by Dave Vizard</u></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">Other than set in the Thumb area of Michigan I expected a mystery that followed the standards of the genre. The author delivers anything but in this thoughtful, questioning, and controversial novel that simply refuses to let you put it down after turning just a few pages. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">When a farmer near Bad Axe begins to till his fields the first furrow turned attracts hundreds of seagulls. They have come to feed on human tissue uncovered by the tilling. </span><span style="font-weight: 700;">A Huron County deputy sheriff calls Bay City Blade reporter Nick Steele with a tip on the discovery. Within minutes of the call a box is dropped off at the newspaper for Steele. The box contains two severed tips of men's anatomy. Blade drops his feature report on efforts to bring Madonna back to her hometown to investigate the breaking story in Bad Axe. Meanwhile at a locale Bay City Catholic church a woman has come to the Monday evening confession to tell a priest she has killed two men who repeatedly raped and beat her one night. She does not want to repent or forgive the two. She just wants the priest to understand and condone her actions. He won't and she becomes angry and raises her voice. An old lady waiting to confess overhears it all. She reports what she heard to the newspaper and the police but her story is initially dismisedd.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">As the case develops Steele, the police, the raped woman, and the old lady who heard the confession are drawn into an ever tightening circle. Steele's research reveals there are 5,000 cases of rape reported in Michigan annually with many more that go unreported. The main character who was raped and beaten didn't report it because it would destroy her career. As a real-estate agent she was showing a house and was raped in a young girl's bedroom. How would you like to tell that to the family of the house you were showing? </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;">The last half of the book is breathlessly gripping. New revelations, totally unexpected character reactions, and a tension filled conclusion will keep the reader compulsively turning the pages. And then when the reader thinks they have seen and heard it all the last short two paragraphs are absolutely stunning. Page for page one of the most original and entirely involving books I read this year. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg90sfvJVMZN8C1pQBbOq9BmOT23z4W9UA8blLhD4i_jUNO7D2zAZTS2inixdWvoTMbOO9MsdF-wQ9h5mLLa-e_09FgP4GOkF2C59KuI_4W1RLNFHt-Jr9ouGZ4H8_3yfUD--Pr0J-RMusHeyRP0QWLM3wnAaPP_qj9cwmmMwGZZzVz-1YVaBP7GDkJ2tE" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="396" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg90sfvJVMZN8C1pQBbOq9BmOT23z4W9UA8blLhD4i_jUNO7D2zAZTS2inixdWvoTMbOO9MsdF-wQ9h5mLLa-e_09FgP4GOkF2C59KuI_4W1RLNFHt-Jr9ouGZ4H8_3yfUD--Pr0J-RMusHeyRP0QWLM3wnAaPP_qj9cwmmMwGZZzVz-1YVaBP7GDkJ2tE" width="160" /></a></div><b>Murder So Sweet by Dave Vizard. Privately Printed, 2023, $14.95.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><b><u>Relative Sanity by Ellen Lord</u></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>I'm the last person who should be allowed to review poems. Many poems simply go over my head at the altitude of a jet liner. I don't even understand some of the glowing remarks by the authors on the back of this book. But if a Supreme Court Justice can fail to recuse him- or herself from a case who am I to recuse myself from poetry.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><b>Then I discovered the first three words of the first poem hiding behind the front cover describe both succinctly and accurately my desperation whenever I sit down to write this blog. They are, "Searching for words." Yup, she got me with the first three words in the book. "Relative Sanity" the next poem is, I think, a stream of conscious narrative about the poet's mother's temporarily successful escape from the Newberry State Hospital. It is an entire book reduced to one marvelous page. The Therapist's Dilemma maybe my favorite simply because it is so unexpectedly funny. As a reader and an envious writer I love to run across sentences and phrases that are perfect, or clever, or profound, or simply tickle me like, "I worry about mental decline, like that helps... ." That one is going to be stuck on wall above my desk. And here is one out of many perfect sentences found throughout a mere 44 pages. "He tells me the cancer is back, creeping through him like Kudzu."</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Lord's poems are all quite personal, and her work abounds with the wonder she experiences in the Upper Peninsula. She can write of a simple trout stream or in her last poem entitled "North Country Elegy" she tells of how much she loves U.P's. "raw winter nights' and in the face of all the evidence wonders how "she learned to be alone." Unquestionably this is the launching pad for a very promising talent.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjy9XNVeAuEGKKGRjA0n76NxhgMYij1BEcQ_6OnffBAU1rW8gSWJC-cyaDihcfn71gC3TiTpcKK25dTGMNPN6Oz9tFI1wk3tU-Pzlu7SexhhuxEmn_v4nCsm9AyDxgLccESvYUPf56Pcixyv3L2JIrJ29TftLftZzMQyMPx-0vfg9fILMOM5jv_RCPf76Y" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="396" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjy9XNVeAuEGKKGRjA0n76NxhgMYij1BEcQ_6OnffBAU1rW8gSWJC-cyaDihcfn71gC3TiTpcKK25dTGMNPN6Oz9tFI1wk3tU-Pzlu7SexhhuxEmn_v4nCsm9AyDxgLccESvYUPf56Pcixyv3L2JIrJ29TftLftZzMQyMPx-0vfg9fILMOM5jv_RCPf76Y" width="160" /></a></div></b><b>Relative Sanity by Ellen Ford. Modern History Press, 2023, 43p., $14.95.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><b><br /></b></span></div></div><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p></div></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-65542225023744723672023-11-27T05:50:00.000-08:002023-11-27T05:50:24.355-08:00<p> Post # 90 November 27, 2023</p><p>Quote for the Day: "To the south is the Detroit River and the beautiful green isle of Belle Isle where on any summer evening it is said you can find three thousand empty soft-drink bottles, and almost as many less attractive objects." Harold Livingstone. The Detroiters. 1958.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Reviews</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Detroit Unrequited by J. A Cancelmo</u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>This deeply insightful novel has two tightly intertwined stories. Tony came to Detroit in the late 1970s to attend college. It was a memorable four years of exploring Detroit, making great friends, and a tragedy that scared him for life. Roman, his best friend was murdered on Belle Isle as Tony watched. His feelings of remorse, anger, and guilt became baggage he's carried for decades. Tony left Detroit, earned a Harvard MBA, and over the years amassed a small fortune. He never considered returning to Detroit but a prospective business deal in the Big D opens the old wounds and he returns in 2013 with hopes of finding some closure and peace. How? He wants the police to reopen Roman's unsolved murder and he intends to poke around himself in hopes of finding a new lead.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The second story is the Detroit Tony experienced in the 1970s and what it had become by 2013, the year the city declared bankruptcy. This story is woven in, around, and through Tony's search for a resolution of Roman's murder. The city has undergone physical, political, and psychological change yet old problems including race, abandonment of the poor, and crime persists. Tony finds the city's residents suffering from "PTSD-etroit." It's a city left a wreck by corporate greed that fled Detroit then a half century later returned to gobble up dirt-cheap properties in downtown. Even his old friends brag about the new downtown core but say little about the deurbanization of a once great city now marked by abandoned and rotting neighborhoods. Chapters often switch back and forth from 2013 to the 70s and sharply contrast the differences nearly four decades have made. The author lived in Detroit in the 70s and has the music, the slang, and attitude down pat.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Tony finds enjoyment and some peace in meeting his old friends and tries to work out long held personal demons but police inquires unnerve him, and he can't bring himself to go to Belle Isle. When the truth concerning Roman's death is finally revealed and the killer identified it comes as a shock and a new layer of tragedy on top of the old. This fine novel is original, wise, features a well-drawn cast of characters with humor often bandaging the sadness in this memorable portrait of life in the Motor City and a character coming to grips with his past. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0XIY2-5zss5RhYWJPDN2uCc_5q8nLJeRYlTsF1xMOz16EwIEVromGv-9H9TSLuKw6B1_yhcBbF6F7x33_qPqg5nRc2ocSrMb9PCb_X6NxCFCbmxIX2jzkZpjxz4eiaKCH0Rsha7tny0SoxSVbBYCoK1d4v3fXlcPfyQsSov1QTTmdyr668A-PvtiRaYM" style="font-weight: 700; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="196" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh0XIY2-5zss5RhYWJPDN2uCc_5q8nLJeRYlTsF1xMOz16EwIEVromGv-9H9TSLuKw6B1_yhcBbF6F7x33_qPqg5nRc2ocSrMb9PCb_X6NxCFCbmxIX2jzkZpjxz4eiaKCH0Rsha7tny0SoxSVbBYCoK1d4v3fXlcPfyQsSov1QTTmdyr668A-PvtiRaYM" width="159" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Detroit Unrequited by J. A. Cancelmo. Heliotrope Books, 2023, 271p., $18.50.</b></p><p></p><div><br /></div><div><b><u>That's My Moon Over Court Street: Dispatches from a life in Flint by Jan Worth-Nelson</u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The essays in this book are simply a joy to read. And please don't let the subtitle lead you astray. Yes, many of the essays are pointedly about living in Flint, but at heart they are deeply personal observations on the joys, conundrums, and the everyday happenings of life. They will evoke a response whether you live in Flint, Muskegon, Reykjavik, or Singapore. Who doesn't smile and connect with the author's taking a bite of cake and experiencing: "pure indulgence, hugging the taste buds and sliding down the throat directly to all parts of you that are worried and afraid."</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>I was struck by the author's bravery in the way she often bares her soul and writes so openly about her life and how even the seemingly insignificant can profoundly move her. The essays leave readers contemplating their own lives and everyday things that are significant to them. Worth-Nelson writes of comfort food, attics, birds, backyards, taxes, a love for basements, families, faith, junk drawers, nature, unique people she's crossed paths with, and holey socks to name only a few. The author finds humor in unexpected places, and consistently surprises the reader by looking at the familiar or common place in a unique or different light. Many of her essays about Flint are surprisingly optimistic and at times she seems to even surprise herself. However, when the author writes about the Flint Water Crisis, GM's abandonment of the city, or the torching of abandoned houses smoke rises from the page.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The hundred or so essays, usually around 800 words each, were written from 2007 to 2022 and first appeared in the East Village Magazine. Those unfamiliar with the magazine should know it's become an institution in Flint. It covers local news locales need to know from school board meetings, Monty Pythonesque city council meetings and important issues concerning Flint. Jan Worth-Nelsen arrived in Flint in the 1981 as a social worker. She has taught creative writing at U of M-Flint, is a novelist, poet, and served as editor of the East Village Magazine from 2015 to 2022.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>If there is a theme to this wide ranging and memorable collection of essays it's in a quote from Goethe the author slipped into one of her essays. He wrote: "Nothing is worth more than this day." Do yourself a favor and read this book.</b></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSHQEGqCLq8hc0oAV6KOkwKzh41WauDjec1oi8n2yXp-sBaCW21rQ4WLScQGd_7uVoUUkP9x0lhT5nTVhfEplhSnqb660yeNTJs7s4UJ4Cpbul_TFZnnHytnlgUoAlGVUA6qJiySnoUIWwDGW9MxM64VwDgLQ3GieserUezOYRLQZBSjhaMjrXLTXngN4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgSHQEGqCLq8hc0oAV6KOkwKzh41WauDjec1oi8n2yXp-sBaCW21rQ4WLScQGd_7uVoUUkP9x0lhT5nTVhfEplhSnqb660yeNTJs7s4UJ4Cpbul_TFZnnHytnlgUoAlGVUA6qJiySnoUIWwDGW9MxM64VwDgLQ3GieserUezOYRLQZBSjhaMjrXLTXngN4" width="160" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b>That's My Moon Over Court Street: Dispatches from a life in Flint by Jan Worth-Nelson. Semicolon Press, 2023, 441p., $18.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Sly Fox Hollow by Brett Allen</u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>This is a novel with a multi-personality disorder, or as one character observes, "This keeps getting weirder and weirder." On the other hand the one constant is humor. The novel starts off as a warm, humorous description of life in small town Michigan. It then turns into a biting, hilarious satirical portrayal of American politics on the local level, which has recently and intentionally waded into an open cesspool. And finally the novel is taken over by Michigan's favorite bogeyman, The Dogman. The latter third of the novel is part Stephen King and part a Marx Brothers movie. This novel found your reviewer hopelessly and irresponsibly out of date when it came to cryptozoology. I read this book proudly believing that The Dogman was Michigan's own Sasquatchian monster. But when Googling Dogman a map recording world sightings of the creature literally blotted out the globe. Well, the D-man may be common place but Allen's very entertaining novel is anything but. </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The hero of this clever, satirical, and ultimate send up of horror stories is Bomber. He was the town's favorite son with a great future as a star high school quarterback until he blew his fame and future with one horrible misplaced pass. Known ever since as the Bomber he works as a cashier in the town's grocery store. His off hours are spent trying to prove the supposed sightings of a Dogman in Fox Hollow goes back more than a hundred years. But his life is about to change when the mayor of Fox Hollow mysteriously dies.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The mayor was Bomber's great Uncle and his sole living relative. The town charter states the closest living relative of a deceased mayor will serve as temporary mayor for two weeks when a new mayor shall be elected. The political fighting between the two announced candidates gets more vicious than a Dogman attack. Which begins to occur as frequently as the old bromide about an apple a day. Soon the town is awash in battling political followers, pseudo Dogman experts and enthusiasts, a super secret EPA agency, and strange goings on at the mansion owned by the town's single biggest business, apple orchards. In addition to a unique plot that had me grinning 'til my cheeks hurt the novel is populated by a laughable collection of wonderfully eccentric characters. The book is more fun than a barrel full of Dogmen.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgPwd9zOqNJvhZv3UX3otGWuuROzxQNb9axXI5E52hEF5gW3sLUwN3WF6BAdKVyPNbznUhF3sYZ7Se4P-4_Os4eMfv-mc8a2TrH2se67iHUlPWip_mQzJl6rSj-mM4u50XXo4rHqRnf6i5X_jrf4rOvtWPlARKdl68EfSj1FA_AnB3HdQYMTZOozO0YzkI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="267" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgPwd9zOqNJvhZv3UX3otGWuuROzxQNb9axXI5E52hEF5gW3sLUwN3WF6BAdKVyPNbznUhF3sYZ7Se4P-4_Os4eMfv-mc8a2TrH2se67iHUlPWip_mQzJl6rSj-mM4u50XXo4rHqRnf6i5X_jrf4rOvtWPlARKdl68EfSj1FA_AnB3HdQYMTZOozO0YzkI" width="160" /></a></div><br /></b><b>Sly Fox Hollow by Brett Allen. Hogwash Publishing, 2023, 364p., $17.95.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Marketing the Michigan Way: A Comprehensive Guide to Leveraging Local Points of Interest to Cultivate Lifelong Customers for Michigan Small Businesses 2nd ed. by Andy LaPointe</u></b></div><div style="text-align: left;">.</div></div></div></div><div><b>If you're the owner of a small business in Michigan this book was specifically written for you. It details a marketing strategy that connects your business to local points of interest. The author writes" the key to success in Michigan is becoming part of the experience in your local area." </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The book presents readers step-by-step instructions on how to achieve this marketing plan which includes identifying the most unique and interesting local attractions and how to incorporate them into your marketing. The author shows how this and other strategies were used to market Traverse Bay Farms which I admit is impressive. The author's three pronged strategy is to tie a business to the emotions of your area's treasures, utilize the local calendar of events, and make it the first choice of locals and tourists. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>I had doubts as to how this could work for certain types of businesses such as a jewelry store, credit union, and a pet groomer. But he won me over with what I thought was the least likely business to benefit from this book - pet groomers. He suggests organizing pet-related events from pet Halloween costume contests to presenting a dog obedience seminar. The author suggests teaming with pet-friendly businesses. Groomers can list or send pet owners to pet-friendly eateries and hotels and they in return send pet owners to the groomer. The author suggest hosting a pet adoption day or weekend supporting local animal shelters. And that is only a small sampling of the ideas for promoting a pet grooming business. The book includes 30 specific types of businesses and presents concrete and common sense suggestions on how they can be marketed the "Michigan Way."</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>This textbook/workbook is filled with a wealth of information on marketing and is worth a close look by anyone wanting to improve the visibility and marketing of their business to both locales and tourists. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvMM0EDov7wTNomCozWElDZBwWI9AVMtzrgfRDVHSEDdfhRsYZocgZbiZKga6D_H39o2ix7174Bgan0WkWnT4kSlI4EGqcMeeiesGDqB-t0_T2Zn3MyW9jKAKAGTEeCgXQgmrwBvMBdbDO9Yw4ak7nwJU06U0OjBSn1M4NmV7yy5OBGMFMSNGwD5Vfu4g" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhvMM0EDov7wTNomCozWElDZBwWI9AVMtzrgfRDVHSEDdfhRsYZocgZbiZKga6D_H39o2ix7174Bgan0WkWnT4kSlI4EGqcMeeiesGDqB-t0_T2Zn3MyW9jKAKAGTEeCgXQgmrwBvMBdbDO9Yw4ak7nwJU06U0OjBSn1M4NmV7yy5OBGMFMSNGwD5Vfu4g" width="240" /></a></div><br /></b><b>Marketing the Michigan Way: A Comprehensive Guide to Leveraging Local Points of Interest to Cultivate Lifelong Loyal Customers for Michigan Small Businesses 2nd ed. by Andy LaPointe. Privately Published, 2023, 99p., $14.95.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b> </b></div><div><b><u><br /></u></b></div><div><b><u><br /></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-15830477581267640022023-10-30T07:55:00.001-07:002023-11-01T12:27:36.375-07:00<p> <span style="font-size: medium;">Post #89 October 30, 2023</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Quote for the Day: "</span>If all the lumber in Michigan during the white pine lumbering era (1860-1900) would have provided; enough boards for a solid row of out-houses around the world, as some writers stated, then the amount of whiskey consumed by lumberjacks, tough guys, drummers, and plain drunks during the same period would have made another set of Great Lakes bubbling over with pure whiskey." Roy L. Dodge. Ticket to Hell" A Sage of Michigan's Bad Men. 1975.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Reviews</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>A Cold, Hard Prayer by John Smolens</u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Mercy and Rope are older teenagers on an orphan train sent west in 1924 from Boston. Both are willing to do nearly anything to escape a hopeless existence, but the odds are against them because Mercy is half Black and Rope has a crippled right hand. As the train crosses the Midwest it stops at every station where the orphans line up along the tracks and married couples stroll past the orphans like they're deciding which jar of pickles to select from the shelf. Mercy, is hoping she doesn't get picked until Michigan because she believes she has an aunt in St. Ignace and is determined to reach her. At Otter Creek, Michigan both Mercy and Rope are picked by the husband of a childless family because he's offered both for the price of one. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>They are not treated like adoptees at the farm but as free farm workers. That is until the wife is hospitalized and the husband starts drinking which leads to an assault on Mercy. Rope intercedes clubbing the man on the head with an ax. The pair flee and are quickly parted. Mercy heads for St. Ignace and not knowing quite why Rope takes off after her. When the murdered man is found Otter Creek's stoic Sheriff sets off in pursuit. Also in pursuit is the Klu Klux Klan that has a chapter in Otter Creek. The Klan is set on hosting a huge gathering of Klansmen at which they want to administer their form of justice to the mixed race girl who they believe murdered a white man. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>That is the set up for a captivating novel of quilt and innocence, good and evil, and a breathless chase across 1924 Michigan to St. Ignace and back to Otter Creek. Smolens creates wonderfully brought to life characters and a plot with more twists and turns than a braided rug. All of which he delivers in effortlessly readable and striking prose. Chalk up another outstanding novel by a Michigan author who, in my opinion, is nationally under appreciated. </b></p><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh-vax-BZY603bS6PJ0iTeH-CFgVBUpFQCLPBIY2fR8mps62PdEvBi7xUDujsSvDHd-mDR_46xongGRQycRcnjLhO4nafjVEJI2OO5zCEuMSurtx3VpMWeql7_7jORdLRRVFJJatV7wMTC7ZkihRKYExt38i2hNZDuWhK5bI3L2pLXp2JXcIi23lUJE2Hk" style="font-weight: 700; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="447" data-original-width="298" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh-vax-BZY603bS6PJ0iTeH-CFgVBUpFQCLPBIY2fR8mps62PdEvBi7xUDujsSvDHd-mDR_46xongGRQycRcnjLhO4nafjVEJI2OO5zCEuMSurtx3VpMWeql7_7jORdLRRVFJJatV7wMTC7ZkihRKYExt38i2hNZDuWhK5bI3L2pLXp2JXcIi23lUJE2Hk" width="160" /></a></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>A Cold, Hard Pray by John Smolens. Michigan State University Press. 2023, 268p., $29.95.</b></div><div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><b><u>The Road to Empire by John Wemlinger</u></b></b></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>I believe this was a novel the author was meant to write. Wemlinger retired as a army colonel after 27 years of service. </b><b>He served in Vietnam as a helicopter maintenance officer and pilot. Several of his previous novels have dealt with wounded veterans returning home and trying to adjust to civilian life. The heart of this deeply felt and ultimately moving novel is the cost to families and loved ones of those who serve in our armed forces. The book is reviewed in Michigan in Books because the 1st person narrator hails from Michigan as does his wife and most of his family. That said the theme of this novel is common to all families across American who's loved ones serve in our armed forces.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Jack Rigley graduated from Empire High School and attended Western Michigan University where he studied aviation science and joined the ROTC. After graduation he married his high school sweetheart and joined the army as a 2nd Lieutenant. His first posting is to a base in Alabama where he will become a helicopter pilot. As seen and told through Jack's narrative the mechanics of flying a helicopter is told in fascinating detail. His wife Annie lives off base and the army doesn't seem to intrude on the first years of their marriage. But that will change.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Jack becomes a "walk-on-water" officer, meaning he always stands out because of his exemplary achievements. That results in early promotions and special assignments that take him away from Annie and his growing family. As described by Jack his work is often so involved and demanding that thoughts of family are not always foremost in his mind. On the other hand his wife has to learn to live with loneliness, raising a family, and running a household. Jake's year long deployments are hard on Jack but much harder on his family. Annie in one instance intrudes on the narrative to describe how she tries to cope as the wife of a soldier. Their marriage is repeatedly strained because the army is always a third party in their marriage. Jack is one step away from his first star when a life changing crisis strikes his family. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>This novel is both a revealing portrait of an officer and helicopter pilot in the Airborne Cavalry and the constant demands and sacrifices it imposes on his spouse. It is common to tell those in uniform; "Thank you for your service." After reading this book the same should be said to their spouses.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiapp4KikeUsxJAI7WYigVLvm7oFJZZhe5j3cFxwDvnnpNerFwxUoy2T1MksLJgq4iz0Bbq1PC6fijRVSkNNwLXKiO2Dl3egO3jCeu2kIHHU0ODmgrZgE41cC9vNgJ9jMMLC4Fx42jSu4mMO0omUcqOTD5s4tJ6ZAZKqa9LgAX6GqqNifVuS0KtAvJyMdQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="270" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiapp4KikeUsxJAI7WYigVLvm7oFJZZhe5j3cFxwDvnnpNerFwxUoy2T1MksLJgq4iz0Bbq1PC6fijRVSkNNwLXKiO2Dl3egO3jCeu2kIHHU0ODmgrZgE41cC9vNgJ9jMMLC4Fx42jSu4mMO0omUcqOTD5s4tJ6ZAZKqa9LgAX6GqqNifVuS0KtAvJyMdQ" width="162" /></a></b></p><b>The Road to Empire by John Wemlinger. Mission Point Press, 2023, 262p., $17.95.</b><div><br /></div><div><b><u>Stumped: The Legacy of the Great Pine Harvest in Mid-Michigan by Thomas A. Schupbach</u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>This unique study of lumbering in northern Michigan focuses on Nester Township in Roscommon County. The book begins with the 1837 government survey of the area by one John Brink who commented as a surveyor he often went "three months at a time without having all my clothes dry." Those studying the local history of the area will find the author names nearly every person or company and the date on which they bought land in what became Nester Township. That is a little more than the general reader would probably like to know but the book will have those reader's attention when Thomas Nester, along with a rotating group of investors, enters the picture the 1870s. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The entire area surrounding the township was blanketed in White Pine and Nester brought mechanized methods to clear-cutting the land. Fifteen miles of narrow gauge railroad was laid and four camps were established that employed a total of 230 men, 4 wives, and two daughters. The RR ran 24 hours a day and provided access to 20,000 acres of virgin forest containing 600,000,000 board feet of lumber. The Gladwin newspaper called it the "greatest project in </b><b>northern Michigan." Consideration for the loggers safety appears to be an issue of no concern. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>When there was nothing but stumps left the Central Michigan Land Company thought there was profits to be made from stumps, planting thousands of fruit trees, and raising crops. Those efforts failed to turn any significant profits. The author charts the success of each company that was next in line to try and make a dime off the clear-cut land. The book also draws brief portraits of the interesting businessmen who looked at land and saw green gold.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>This is a scholarly and unique look at the state's lumbering era. It will be of special interest to students of the area's local history and anyone interest in Michigan's lumbering era will find it interesting reading.</b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi8jCfmK4cq_15JESSNsyy6Ng8zuODiMavtfwQv8WjuY0d0--kUhBPmIaVM6PD66rrEQuRJ8b9AYn1zc0c4ghpAfNIxxlo31CyPdywd5xWQdJwRXLIhCAp4TAWQbZIdFsj8r6qYb2HB_K1ig8S9QzrxWqPZ0fiWL01jWA_7_WAwcyz50_bghJV-SgfEll8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="333" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi8jCfmK4cq_15JESSNsyy6Ng8zuODiMavtfwQv8WjuY0d0--kUhBPmIaVM6PD66rrEQuRJ8b9AYn1zc0c4ghpAfNIxxlo31CyPdywd5xWQdJwRXLIhCAp4TAWQbZIdFsj8r6qYb2HB_K1ig8S9QzrxWqPZ0fiWL01jWA_7_WAwcyz50_bghJV-SgfEll8" width="160" /></a></div></b><b>Stumped: The Legacy of the Great Pine Harvest in Mid-Michigan by Thomas A. Schupbach. Mission Point Press, 2023, 218p., $15.95. </b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>Up North Dream:The Guide for Moving to Northern Michigan by Andrew LaPointe</u></b></div><div><b><u><br /></u></b></div><div><b>If your heart is in northern Michigan while the rest of you spends most of the year in southern Michigan this may be the book for you. It is a common sense guide and workbook filled with sound advice, creative ideas, and questions that should be answered if you want to take the big plunge and move to northern Michigan. And the author knows of what he writes. Just out of college he and his wife moved to northern Michigan in the winter of 1992 with $500 in the bank, ten times that in credit card debt, and neither had a job. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The author is a big believer in choosing a lifestyle instead of simply earning a living. It took me a couple of pages to understand the concept and that you don't have to move north to choose a lifestyle. Part of which may mean you have to live simpler to live better. There is a lot about finance, cash flow, how to find a job, or start your own Internet business. His suggestions include visiting the area in all seasons, subscribe to a local paper, talk to the school district, evaluate senior activities, learn the job market, contact the Newcomers Club, and many more.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The above is only a small percentage of the information and the necessary decisions that need to be made before moving north. The author even identifies reasons why it would be unwise to move. A lot of information is packed into 110 pages and anyone seriously considering moving to northern Michigan will find the book very helpful.</b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgl1Vx1vp-ijVqW2a9isNtI0YzUEDaXiz0K3LKZB8k-UiJ3GXthKsGcB90CN5F3OpIaV7K1FqgBiwNPo-JSMYFtehiv-m87-dvLh30b7AFxr5O4lk59_gnew3e8AiVKN5DQTCez8f6j76htOZrdkwTSlii1nQC_ew4rGsP6bYAnnXiLwjDiybjE-LyXdqE" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="296" data-original-width="208" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgl1Vx1vp-ijVqW2a9isNtI0YzUEDaXiz0K3LKZB8k-UiJ3GXthKsGcB90CN5F3OpIaV7K1FqgBiwNPo-JSMYFtehiv-m87-dvLh30b7AFxr5O4lk59_gnew3e8AiVKN5DQTCez8f6j76htOZrdkwTSlii1nQC_ew4rGsP6bYAnnXiLwjDiybjE-LyXdqE" width="169" /></a></div></b><b>Up North Dream: The Guide to Moving to Northern Michigan by Andrew LaPointe. Lapte Enterprises, Inc., 2023, 216p., $9.95.</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b> <br /></b><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p></div></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-38243550436806765712023-10-09T09:02:00.000-07:002023-10-09T09:02:46.894-07:00<p> <b>Post #88 October 9, 2023</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Quote for the Day: "...sober honesty compels the admission that authors -- upper case authors -- are as about as rare in Michigan as the 'skunk bear' ever was and that the flowering of literary Michigan is still in the future.</b></p><p><b> Michigan has put the world on automobile wheels, (but) Michigan novelists are still jogging along in one-hoss shays." </b>Arnold Miller. Saturday Review of Literature. March 4, 1939. </p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Reviews</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Dearborn: Stories by Ghassan Zeineddine.</u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>I knew Dearborn was the home to the largest Arab American community in the country and the home of Ford Motor Company. Sadly, I knew more about the latter than the former and it was one of the reasons I was drawn to this book of short stories. I wanted to vicariously immerse myself in our state's largest Arab American community and even if fictionally meet some Arab Americans. I'm not sure those were the author's goals for writing the 10 short stories contained in this book. I quickly learned something else while reading the book. The author is an accomplished and remarkably fine writer.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>All the characters in the stories are either Arab American immigrants or the children of immigrants. They are Moslems and retain much of their culture yet each and every character is unique unto themselves. The author is a master at creating believable characters who share similarities with characters found in the book's other stories yet each are markedly different. Yes they have their faith, whether practicing Moslems or not, and after 9/11 whether a citizen or an immigrant carrying a green card they are hounded by ICE. Those born in Lebanon think of America as a temporary home no matter how many decades they have lived here. While the children of immigrants think of America as home and have little or no desire returning to the Middle East. As with many or all immigrants food sets them culturally apart from others. Yet I found that even including the above clearly cultural differences, individually there are more similarities than differences between this reader and most of the memorable characters brought to life in this book. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The stories are as varied as the characters. They are sad, funny, hopeful, scheming and on occasion leave the reader wondering what the hell's going to happen because the author stops one sentence short of the denouncement. That kind of ending can be irritating then you realize that maybe the author doesn't know how the character will meet the crises or the problem either. It should be sure thing for making Michigan Notable Books and a </b><b>truly rewarding immersion in the Arab American culture for any reader.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b> </b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi_q00-ZkkgD8-R5a2PUqaZVAgOVKm85lH4CKO-HK4gpM8CGjlGiRrBxsm28ywrNczEXi3UWyNN-snfh7PRNR5tvsQ--AzzmSeyFWi9X3ABJXsEccYehAfM9MuuGB67IfwoVZczXxTkyM1jGLFgsDSZNlsRraFCoobBYm7tlVCJ5u9qqRnduJ_Up4_tqGg" style="font-weight: bold; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="189" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi_q00-ZkkgD8-R5a2PUqaZVAgOVKm85lH4CKO-HK4gpM8CGjlGiRrBxsm28ywrNczEXi3UWyNN-snfh7PRNR5tvsQ--AzzmSeyFWi9X3ABJXsEccYehAfM9MuuGB67IfwoVZczXxTkyM1jGLFgsDSZNlsRraFCoobBYm7tlVCJ5u9qqRnduJ_Up4_tqGg" width="159" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Dearborn: Stories by Ghassan Zeineddine. Tin Books, 2023, 229p., $17.95 pb.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Invaded on All Sides: the War of 1812 and Michigan's Greatest Battlefield Engagements at Frenchtown and the River Raisin by Ralph James Naveaux.</u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>I'm betting it would be a surprise to many in our state that there is a National Historic Battlefield Park in Michigan and equally surprised that it lies within the city of Monroe. And as the title states the Battle of the Raisin River which was waged over three bitterly cold January days in 1813 turned out to be the largest battlefield engagement in Michigan's history. If your interest is whetted by the title, the following review, or you're a fan of good military history you will not be disappointed in this book. It is a thoroughly researched and very readable almost day-by-day narrative of the campaign that ended in a stunning defeat for American forces followed by a massacre of the wounded by Britain's Indian allies.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>America's ground strategy in the War of 1812 was to launch attacks at Detroit, Niagara, and Montreal. The Detroit campaign is described in fascinating detail and in hindsight seems almost doomed to failure from the beginning. The militia and regular army forces started from several different locations and never joined forces to meet the enemy. A fall campaign continued into January with forces never receiving enough supplies, winter clothing, or knowledge of where other units were located. The troops who eventually faced the British and their Indian allies, "looked like impoverished vagabonds as they plodded along in dirty, threadbare clothes and blankets." Many of the troops had no shoes, were hungry, came down with Typhus, suffered frostbite, and soldiers joked that the cattle meant for rations were so weak they had to be held up to be shot.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The book makes it clear the Americans were poorly led, suffered from poor battlefield tactics, and lacked ammunition. After three freezing days of battle the British left wounded Americans crammed into cabins and failed to guard them from their Indian allies who tomahawked, scalped, beheaded, and burned alive as many as 60 helpless soldiers. The book is exhaustively researched, and is history told on a personal level because the author recounts the stories and experiences of many of the Americans who fought at the River Raisin. The only minor criticism I have is the official battlefield site maps included in the book are just too small to read. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>This well-written, engrossing narrative history of the campaign is a tribute to those who fought and died on the River Raisin, and I hope it will move readers to visit the National Battlefield site. A number of interesting appendices and a short history of the battlefield park follow the narrative.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0oj0wOehf-hBjsKtfry0XU1jptEClTkMH-1-ZZH1-XugfHTXpqzqibPhv8Avlraj6tvIuC5R00a2uUEt8GPEOF-tz9uNs7gWoYZEl2fcQrk-YrEArgHW2skKiCpY4qFkaWN6GxinfX4tY5UDRAj7pGBgIo4chdhf8U6NXUjpxRg6ACPspKqk4z81nDzE" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="678" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0oj0wOehf-hBjsKtfry0XU1jptEClTkMH-1-ZZH1-XugfHTXpqzqibPhv8Avlraj6tvIuC5R00a2uUEt8GPEOF-tz9uNs7gWoYZEl2fcQrk-YrEArgHW2skKiCpY4qFkaWN6GxinfX4tY5UDRAj7pGBgIo4chdhf8U6NXUjpxRg6ACPspKqk4z81nDzE" width="159" /></a></b></p><b>The </b><b>Invaded on All Sides: The War of 1812 and Michigan's greatest battlefield engagements at Frenchtown and the River Raisin, Updated, Annotated, &Revised by Ralph James Naveaux. Mission Point Press, 2002, 436p., $19.95.</b><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>North of Nelson Vol. II by Hilton Everett Moore.</u></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>On the basis of two books of short stories, totaling twelve stories, I have become a big fan of this gifted writer who finds his muse in an isolated cabin in the semi-wilderness of Baraga County. Moore's Yoknapatawpha is Nelson, "A small cluster of homes around the dilapidated village, mostly in ill-repair, sprouted abandoned cars and trucks like so many milkweed plants in a shallow ditch." The villagers and the few hardy or singularly peculiar who live north of Nelson along or near the undefinable line between semi and true wilderness are where Moore finds his characters.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The author writes with a distinctive voice honed by a U.P. that's so far off the beaten trail it's hardly a faint two track. I find that voice gripping, powerful, original, and compelling. The stories deal with the most basic human feelings from love, lust, guilt, forgiveness, to ones relationship to and acceptance of their place in the environment. Two of the stories clearly dramatize the struggle to accept your environment. Two brothers who own adjoining 640 acres of mostly wilderness land struggle to come to terms with living on the cusp of the wilderness. One brother has purchased two donkeys because, who knew, they can kick the crap out of wolves! Still the donkey owner occasionally loses a calf to a wolf and it eats at him incessantly. The other brother accepts that no matter how much it hurts, wolves have a right to be there as much as he does. Moore's portrayal of how each brother comes to terms with sharing their land with these predators is surely an accurate depiction of both sides of the wolf argument among Yoopers.</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The remaining three stories starting from page one prove unpredictable as to where they will go and how they will end. Each is a revelation to both the story's memorable characters as well as the reader. Therefor this spoiler alert. Do not read the the back cover of this book. It tells you more than you want to know about some stories and will ruin surprising facts or events that build each story to a memorable climax. </b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>No one writes about living on the ragged edge of society, sanity, survival, and social morays like Hilton Everett Moore. I don't care if it's two years, a year, or six months until I read another short story about the folks in Nelson. It's too long to wait.</b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjg6WEdSkywgnm_tYjsDFrcTXzJksGCo-mFvgQUHC3w02vhiMhXucd2T4RTUzEdEIsb-78qDk_7Lfn4X2h_yWTUGJbyrJC6Qaxxa4IRPmrGxldARyFuzirMzBoDI4Xkabv3rzMmuz-MTlTOd5YBbaNC4NVwgrAg-ODelB0G1IJIgbVSF6jD1PwZFqh04fI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="220" data-original-width="137" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjg6WEdSkywgnm_tYjsDFrcTXzJksGCo-mFvgQUHC3w02vhiMhXucd2T4RTUzEdEIsb-78qDk_7Lfn4X2h_yWTUGJbyrJC6Qaxxa4IRPmrGxldARyFuzirMzBoDI4Xkabv3rzMmuz-MTlTOd5YBbaNC4NVwgrAg-ODelB0G1IJIgbVSF6jD1PwZFqh04fI" width="149" /></a></div></b><b>North of Nelson Vol. II by Hilton Everett Moore. Silver Mountain Press, 2023, 186p., $21.95.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>Somewhere in Crime: A Mackinac Island Novel by Dave McVeigh and Jim Bolone</u></b></div><div><b><u><br /></u></b></div><div><b>The authors of the very funny and popular "The Dockporter," which made the Michigan Notable Book List, are back with a prequel that finds future dockporter Jack McQuinn working as Mackinac Island's 11-year-old summer newspaper delivery boy. The year is 1979 and the novel is unfailingly humorous as it captures all of Mackinac Island's ambiance and charm. It also conveys the extraordinary furor that gripped the island that summer when Hollywood invaded the island to shoot the movie Somewhere in Time starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Jack and his family are caught in the middle of the movie frenzy. Jack and his friends become movie extras and his mother who has always been an artist with a sewing machine applies for the movie's wardrobe assistant and gets the job. Like a pebble hitting a windshield the job creates a small crack in his parents' marriage and, as they will, the small crack soon spider webs throughout their relationship. Even Jack sees divorce may lay in the future.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>When Jack stumbles across the story of the unsolved murder of a young woman on the island 25 years ago and a $25,000 reward is still posted he turns detective. He'll take the reward and send his parent's on a journey to Egypt which he is sure will end any thoughts of divorce. That is if he can figure out how to become a detective. Unfortunately he goes to the wrong source to learn. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The authors have done a great job of creating fully rounded major and minor characters that fit in nicely with the fast moving, attention grabbing plot. And lastly, amid all the fun, laughs, mystery, and Mackinac Island atmosphere is a fine coming of age story. This novel is more satisfying Mackinac Island Fudge.</b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg84K__TcqdS6VHAT7eVgMWKJiOg3alMsrX2qtxXih5kiRQqoN4XLDpODcfDI5kdhK0ubQ_RPe_vGyPBkwJT8BnZq-f7uaahyRNOLtE3aEl9z4i14DrHQ5-u4g6cCyXjL7PgCH_FAfeXSXYFPGCW-zOZgtkXRwM_PeOOueAFTPoXo8XDWhIezzbBya-W0w" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="268" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg84K__TcqdS6VHAT7eVgMWKJiOg3alMsrX2qtxXih5kiRQqoN4XLDpODcfDI5kdhK0ubQ_RPe_vGyPBkwJT8BnZq-f7uaahyRNOLtE3aEl9z4i14DrHQ5-u4g6cCyXjL7PgCH_FAfeXSXYFPGCW-zOZgtkXRwM_PeOOueAFTPoXo8XDWhIezzbBya-W0w" width="151" /></a></div><br /></b><b>Somewhere in Crime: A Mackinac Island Novel by Dave McVeigh and Jim Bolone. Independently Published, 2023, 334p., $15.99.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u><br /></u></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b> </b></div><div><b><br /></b><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-29871637592669176202023-09-06T05:43:00.000-07:002023-09-06T05:43:37.188-07:00<p> <b>Post #87 September 6, 2023</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Quote for the Day: "The story of how the Upper Peninsula finally became a part of Michigan must have made the angels weep. And doubtless also giggle." John Voelker in the Forward to<i> They Left Their Mark </i>by John S. But. 1985.</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Reviews</u></span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><u><br /></u></span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Limpy's Adult Lexicon: Raw, Politically Incorrect, Improper & Unexpurgated, As Overheard & Noodled By Joseph Heywood</u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Fans of Heywood's Woods Cop Mysteries might be initially disappointment when they learn this is not another installment in the author's very popular series. For readers who are not familiar with the author his eleven books in the afore mentioned series follows the adventures and work of Grady Service an Upper Peninsula Conservation Officer. While writing the first book in the series Heywood reports that Limpy Allerdyce, a wayward spirit, habitual poacher and a Yooper to his ghostly marrow, took up residence in Heywood's literary subconscious. Second only to Grady, Limpy not only became the most popular character in the series but inserted himself in nearly every one of Heywood's Woods Cop mysteries. </b><b>And now, other than a fine introductory essay by Heywood entitled "Words from the Word Fiddler" and the last two brief chapters this is, as the title suggests, Limpy's book.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The first chapter is a very good essay on language and words. Heywood explains and demonstrates on how languages are constantly evolving through the invention and use of words, the comingling of languages, and the rise and fall of dialects. Heywood admits he has long been fascinated by Yooper lingo and has been collecting and recording Yooperisms since 1958 and has found that there are several distinct Yooper dialects. He heard and recorded lots of Yooper lingo by living in the U.P. and riding shotgun over the years with numerous Michigan Conservation Officers when researching his books. Heywood is so taken with the lingo he even admits to inventing a few new Yooper words. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Part II is a compiled list of "Limpy's Thirty Rules for Wannabe Violators." "Rule 17: If womyn gots gun in hand an' wants talk, youse best stop an' listen." The majority of the book, close to 200 pages, is devoted to "Limpyspeak/YouperSpeak (Spokenabulary)." It is the most extensive Youper dictionary I've ever run across and Heywood prefaces it with a guide to some of the peculiarities of the lingo such as "older Yooper speakers don't distinguish singular from plural." I find Youperspeak clever, inventive, imaginative, uniquely descriptive and very much a part of life and living in the U.P. Oh, and I forgot funny. Such as "go Twinkie" which translate as "go postal, wig out, run amok." I can't resist, two more: "gourmaggot = gourmet" and "hugamanganamus = humongous." </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Memorable quotes from poachers who were caught violating game laws and conservation officer jargon make up the last to sections. The entire book is a delight. Funny, playful, an example of inspired use of language, a window into Yooper culture, and an entertaining book to dip into over and over again on nights you are getting tired of waiting for the next Woods Cop mystery to be published. I'm left with one question. Does Limpy Allerdice get a share of the royalties?</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7e1hZE3bUEAWZDWvANMnTMmbA_wnxVlv8mmbSG27pH5w_OvOUHWCpn1VssrBT1rgmvSm2YI0S_D8XSZkpQiMhITG4z72ihJQ8Ckb2d-KVWhsdQ_i-aJ6ewwBjphneP78H_2aEKbd2-65LI_2fDgjnBvxPWZPn9V8yDBfYS8w81DxqE3zr3-r7wbOMWGM" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="80" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7e1hZE3bUEAWZDWvANMnTMmbA_wnxVlv8mmbSG27pH5w_OvOUHWCpn1VssrBT1rgmvSm2YI0S_D8XSZkpQiMhITG4z72ihJQ8Ckb2d-KVWhsdQ_i-aJ6ewwBjphneP78H_2aEKbd2-65LI_2fDgjnBvxPWZPn9V8yDBfYS8w81DxqE3zr3-r7wbOMWGM" width="160" /></a></b></div><b><br />Limpy's Adult Lexicon: Raw, Politically Incorrect, Improper & Unexpurgated, As Overheard & Noodled By Joseph Heywood. Lyons Press, 2023, 246p., $27.95.</b><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>The Great Seney Fire: A History of the Walsh Ditch Fire of 1976 by Gregory M. Lus</u></b><b><u>k</u></b></div><div><b><u><br /></u></b></div><div><b>The 1976 Seney Fire was the largest, longest, and most costly Michigan fire since 1908 and was in many respects unique. The author was the Assistant Fire Boss of the Seney Fire and after his retirement he brought out all his carefully saved notes, reports, clippings, maps, and data to write this history of the fire. The author is exceeding thorough and at times the book reads more like a report than a narrative history. Due to the author's style the book may sometimes lack narrative drama and this reader got a little bogged down in trying to understand Fire Behavior Indexes, Fuel Moisture Codes, Duff Moisture Code (DMC), Buildup Index (BUI), and others. And yet I found the book fascinating.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The author reviews the geology that made Seney unique and led to a host of factors that made the fire so hard to fight. Seney is an area of bogs, swamps, and marshes, marked by numerous sandy knolls or ridges covered by pines. The U.P. suffered a severe drought the summer of 1976 and the various wetlands pretty much dried up. A lightening strike set marsh grass burning and before long the ground was literary on fire. A fire crew from California could hardly believe it when a local fire fighter took a mass of organic dirt from 8-feet deep. He squeezed a few drops of water from it and then broke up the clod and blew on it. To the astonishment of the California firefighters it started to smoke and then produced a flame. It was an example of how the fire traveled underground, passed below control lines and then resurfaced and spread above ground.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The fire burned for two months, covered 72,000 acres or 112 square miles, and was fought by fire fighting crews from 20 states. The book is chocked full of maps, photographs, charts and filled with fascinating details. The final chapter describes the new methods and equipment for fighting fires from computer modeling to drones, and better communications. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Sadly, there is more than a little irony in the last sentence of the above paragraph. This summer millions of acres of Canada are burning and I can smell and even taste the smoke here in southern Michigan. The Canadian fires forced the evacuation of tens of thousands while the horrific Maui fire has claimed victims that will reach unimaginable numbers. Those tragic events and the disastrous fires in Europe gave this book a profound immediacy. </b></div><div><p style="text-align: left;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgJUg39uXcjmPmvj-rXYNcl0Qh1o7VNAhsFadM0k3k9d4MleWv8ZKeVFrtpBm6Vn2fBWHhlp_G-zPdweLvyRZPxsX7yyAUZ9uuQG2_zq7trXNFUZyaQSdLzVhy98eN8Fk2tLa-vrBsfI1yr4emJ7iyhr24BDbWfVZyj07AwD9HsAjqtarShD9rBh8-isb0" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgJUg39uXcjmPmvj-rXYNcl0Qh1o7VNAhsFadM0k3k9d4MleWv8ZKeVFrtpBm6Vn2fBWHhlp_G-zPdweLvyRZPxsX7yyAUZ9uuQG2_zq7trXNFUZyaQSdLzVhy98eN8Fk2tLa-vrBsfI1yr4emJ7iyhr24BDbWfVZyj07AwD9HsAjqtarShD9rBh8-isb0" width="160" /></a></b></div><b><br />The Great Seney Fire: A History of the Walsh Ditch Fire of 1976 by Gregory M. Lusk. Snowsnake Press, 2023, 230p., $23.99.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>The Blue Fame by Nathan Shore.</u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>In this fast paced thriller attorney Ben Hirsh has been disbarred, his wife has divorced him, he has a week left on the lease of his Lansing apartment, and no hopes of getting a job. All are self inflicted wounds. His assets total a few bucks, a Toyota pickup, his father's Smith and Wesson handgun, and a rundown uninhabited family house in Manistique.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Then out of the blue Kyle, an old friend and the Assistant Prosecutor in Escanaba, calls and offers Ben a job. Sort of. Kyle is obsessed with taking down two brothers who are habitual criminals and more dangerous than a cornered cobra. The youngest brother even pistol whipped a cop and because their sister married money and a political heavy weight the charges were dropped. Kyle wants Ben to return to his home in the U.P. and work off the books as his confidential informant and dig up irrefutable evidence of the brothers' crimes. Kyle will find him a job in the private sector which turns out to be walking natural gas lines looking for leaks.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>After Ben has a run-in with one of the brothers he realizes he is in way over his head. Ben wants out but Kyle lays it on thick about helping clean up his childhood community and working for the public good. Ben reluctantly agrees and quickly regrets it. This is a tightly written thriller that builds to a riveting climax. The compelling plot is played out against a great portrait of the Escanaba Manistique area and the beautiful Garden Peninsula and its off-shore islands. This is a very good book by a first time author who lives in southern Arizona and writes of the Upper Peninsula like he has lived there all his life. If I was just another seedy patron of Lily's Tavern (fictional I hope) I'd tell Shore; "Pour me another and make sure it's set in the U.P.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvPIcBs3XjAuGHoNFN12KACZViI9mU5HbifCx4fvVabH9sCHauaanF8-yhQpUr-lJd-7XvxReoqfP2wT6d4A4liYtRxjcMqi2ejBx0uVSqRJip5hD487ThqSjamNKYuAzuIV43LjYQPtaJV_VW4bqjYTmPz0TfcKD-qjIm0xwD_3yG3-CSUMJaj7jm6LA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1219" data-original-width="800" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvPIcBs3XjAuGHoNFN12KACZViI9mU5HbifCx4fvVabH9sCHauaanF8-yhQpUr-lJd-7XvxReoqfP2wT6d4A4liYtRxjcMqi2ejBx0uVSqRJip5hD487ThqSjamNKYuAzuIV43LjYQPtaJV_VW4bqjYTmPz0TfcKD-qjIm0xwD_3yG3-CSUMJaj7jm6LA" width="158" /></a></div><br /><b>The Blue Fame by Nathan Shore. Barque Point Press, 2022, 319p., $14.99 pb, $26.99.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>High on the Vine: Featuring Yooper Entrepreneurs, Tami & Evi Maki (Cousins, Thrice Removed) by Terri</u></b><b><u> Martin</u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Tami and Evi, as their last names might suggest, married brothers they met at a wedding. Whether the romantic glow cast by the nuptials blinded the cousins' to character flaws in the their husbands to be is an open question. The answers seems to depend on what some Yooper's (men) rate as sterling character attributes and others (namely women) find less than desirable in a mate. The cousins meet regularly for tea and one of the main topics of discussion is criticizing their husbands' many faults. Tami holds the opinion that God has a sense of humor and when he made man and saw how flawed Adam was he, "sought to salvage the human race through the creation of woman."</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>It</b><b> should be noted the tea always takes place in Tami's house in her parlor, which at any other time is called the living room, and instead of sipping tea they a tap a box of wine with an easy pour spout. The other topic of conversation is thinking up a good business idea that will make them wealthy. Rustic camping for women failed and nudity foiled the next idea. But at every tea the subject of (BEEP) the Business Enhancement Entrepreneurial Plan is discussed. The author achieves inspired lunacy when the ladies become partners with a group of monks. The Benevolent Brotherhood of Sylvan Monks created a God awful wine. Tami and Evi agree to promote and sell what is commonly called "Monk Juice" and tastes like "pond scum." There are high hopes for two new varieties soon to be on the market Pinot Grisly and White Infidel. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>This book is an accumulation of stories featuring Tami and Evi that previously appeared in the UP Magazine. Readers should rejoice that all the stories now appear in one book and follow the sisters-in-law from considering raising fish in a swimming pool to vacationing on a beach with a Pina Colada in hand and the Atlantic Ocean spread before them. The book is filled with grins, giggles, and out-loud laughter. And as a special bonus the book's last page contains Tami's Peanut Butter Pinot Creamy Delight Fudge that includes 6 - 9 ounces of Pinot Noir. As Evi might say, "Bone a the peat!"</b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDj1hSZf2POzLQQbOFbGQ-opQ3-awDdplIGnBUlDKKkmd1GpIi3XYc5PzDLhwhLFaRqRsCXSwPrJJyWAnMIFbePf45XpueSU5uuok5gbLD74fx1qdsgvmZXOKILz-bQgu1JHMa1LHNHM2C7ij82Ivofu7e7gjzYCKl1hVbYOTqL6NyWdKFIrS2KCyc9wk" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="300" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDj1hSZf2POzLQQbOFbGQ-opQ3-awDdplIGnBUlDKKkmd1GpIi3XYc5PzDLhwhLFaRqRsCXSwPrJJyWAnMIFbePf45XpueSU5uuok5gbLD74fx1qdsgvmZXOKILz-bQgu1JHMa1LHNHM2C7ij82Ivofu7e7gjzYCKl1hVbYOTqL6NyWdKFIrS2KCyc9wk" width="155" /></a></div><br /></b><b>High on the Vine: Featuring Yooper Entrepreneurs T</b><b>ami & Evi Maki (Cousins, Thrice Removed) by Terri Martin, Gnarly Woods Publication, 2022, 151p., $17.95.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-45081990465645928082023-08-15T05:36:00.000-07:002023-08-15T05:36:30.092-07:00<p> <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Post # 86 August 15, 2023</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><b>Quote for the Day: ".... (Elmore) Leonard's nine Detroit books form as good a portrait of life in this city during the past 20 years -- its unwritten codes and attitudes, its views of the world, its excesses and eccentricities -- as we'll have." </b>Neely Tucker, Detroit Free Press Magazine. March 29, 1992.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Reviews</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>The Arsenal of Deceit by Donald Levin</u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>It's March 1941 in Detroit. The war in Europe has put thousands back to work in Detroit factories and the UAW has stepped up efforts to unionize Ford, especially the Ford Rouge Assembly plant. Pro-Nazi supporters operate openly in Detroit and secretly try to trigger violent confrontations between Detroit's Black population and rightwing extremists and southern whites who have flooded into town looking for jobs. Father Coughlin is no longer on the radio spewing hatred against Jews and Blacks but his diatribes still pollute the air and continue to infect many Detroiters. This is the setting for the author's second in a series of powerful and provocative novels that paint an accurate and disturbing portrait of Detroit in the 1930s and '40s.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>We meet some of the same characters introduced in the series first book "Savage City." Elizabeth Waters has become a private investigator for a lawyer working for the UAW. Elizabeth hires Eva Szabo to go undercover in the Ford Rouge plant to document Ford's unlawful anti union violence against union supports and organizers. Eva is unaware of the danger she faces if Ford's security men discover her mission. Ford's security forces consist of ex cons, killers, and Mafia thugs. It has been called the, "...the most powerful private police force in the world." Police Sgt. Denny Rankin investigates a home robbery that leads to pro Nazi groups that Elizabeth Waters is trying to infiltrate.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Readers also met Black Police Detective Clarence Brown in "Savage City." Brown's character dominates "The Arsenal of Deceit." Brown and other Blacks were hired as cops for the sole purpose of controlling Detroit's Black population. They face almost universal disrespect from white policemen and most of the city's white population. Det. Brown is a man of strong principles and will go to dangerous extremes to seek justice regardless of a person's color. When Brown finds a one- or two-day-old dead Caucasian baby in the basement of a Black tenement he is determined to find justice for the nameless child. He refuses to drop the case even after it is reassigned to a white officer who tries to wipe the case off the books. Brown's unrelenting pursuit of justice for the baby uncovers a network of crooked cops and puts a bullseye on his back.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>This is another superlative historical novel by Donald Levin that leaves the reader making uncomfortable comparisons to the extreme political fringe groups of 1941 to those of today. The author has a great feel for time and place and the book brings 1941 pre-World War II Detroit vibrantly alive. Readers will simply become lost in the book as they race through the pages to discover the fate awaiting Levin's well-drawn characters. This should be an odds on favorite for making the Michigan Notable Books List. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghRaZtY7gIzTephYVAvqJ-J1tIyUwJ8HPReiX53uZjIHgC0fCBm8nj8EJ7qmL93TnH5jlc6R0h-aCOCVfPf0D4AqDz7AA8-WhFiLmbpEo7U_pTfhwdQt9np6L7KMDrl2FzD1IhMERR0Z6JHxN2_RH2DqtxOg9usLGN-nvTksVC2u9fVYXhT6_lh0FmjFE" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="267" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghRaZtY7gIzTephYVAvqJ-J1tIyUwJ8HPReiX53uZjIHgC0fCBm8nj8EJ7qmL93TnH5jlc6R0h-aCOCVfPf0D4AqDz7AA8-WhFiLmbpEo7U_pTfhwdQt9np6L7KMDrl2FzD1IhMERR0Z6JHxN2_RH2DqtxOg9usLGN-nvTksVC2u9fVYXhT6_lh0FmjFE" width="160" /></a></b></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The Arsenal of Deceit by Donald Levin. Poison Toe Press, 2023, 435p., $22.95.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>PBB: An Environmental Disaster Michigan Chemical Poisoning Reverberates 50 Years Later by T.H Corbett, MD, MPH</u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>This book, to put it bluntly, is both a horror story and the history of an unmitigated and ongoing failure by the State of Michigan to care for the health and well being of its citizens. In May of 1973 the Michigan Chemical Co. in St. Louis, Michigan mistakenly shipped a fire-retardant laced with highly toxic PBB as a food supplement for dairy cattle to the Michigan Farm Bureau mixing plant in Climax, Michigan. The extremely toxic feed was then shipped throughout the state. Within months dairy farmers saw their cows sicken, their milk tasted funny, the cows refused to eat, had still born calves, produced less milk, and died unexpectantly.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>When farmers complained no one would listen. Some farmers came to the conclusion something was wrong with the feed and again no one listened including the the Michigan Dept of Agriculture or the Health Dept. When independent doctors and scientists discovered fire-retardant in the feed, its harmful effects on humans was down played by officials. It took four years for state agencies to face what had become the worst "environmental contamination episodes in history." For four years most of Michigan drank PBB laced milk. Sick cows were sent to slaughter houses and the meat was sold to the public. Dead cows were sent to rendering plants where they were turned into dog food, chicken feed, and processed as cattle feed and sold back to farmers. If you are older than fifty you still have amounts of PBB in your body and no one is studying the long term effects. That study stopped in the 1990s.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>This important book is a detailed, step-by-step history of a totally disgraceful chapter in Michigan's history. The author clearly and simply covers the history of brine mining in Michigan, explains the development of toxic compounds and how they effect the human body, and recounts the unchecked contamination of our rivers and drinking water. The author also discusses how the spread of toxic chemicals has lead to a high degree of male infertility, mental retardation, and any number of neurological problems. The contamination of the Love Canal was once called the worst toxic site in the USA. The government bought the homes of Love Canal residents and moved them to safety. The author contends the toxicity in St. Louis, Michigan, the former home of Michigan Chemical, is much worse. Yet, there has been no comprehensive study of the effects on St. Louis residents whose homes sit on a morass of deadly chemicals. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The author labels this entire disgraceful story, "a tale of wanton disregard for the public health." It is a book of vital importance, and you will either read it and weep, or read it and get madder than Hell.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhVqMwcCScVmubFwc83_iiLpteduFW7a93rm_AhkPvbOLEM_8M6MwQgaWqFdwQyqcgeF5e2ntEu06JnKWM29A4xr2zHM0ZGX7AlObMKpe0HQUi3q4ISyssYZruJe8zSGpbXyDIzH9p259gyTiKNHsFtNpdVm0DIiATMrASnna-waUS0Tsfkk2Mv-gFCN1Q" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="270" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhVqMwcCScVmubFwc83_iiLpteduFW7a93rm_AhkPvbOLEM_8M6MwQgaWqFdwQyqcgeF5e2ntEu06JnKWM29A4xr2zHM0ZGX7AlObMKpe0HQUi3q4ISyssYZruJe8zSGpbXyDIzH9p259gyTiKNHsFtNpdVm0DIiATMrASnna-waUS0Tsfkk2Mv-gFCN1Q" width="162" /></a></b></div><b>PBB: An Environmental Disaster Michigan Chemical Poisoning Reverberates 50 Years Later by T.H. Corbett, MD, MPH. Mission Point Press, 2023, 228p., $19.95.</b><div><br /></div><div><b><u>Too Much Sea For Their Decks: Shipwrecks of Minnesota's North Shore and Isle Royale by Michael Schumacher</u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The author has built a well-earned reputation for writing superlative narratives on Great Lake shipping tragedies with books on the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald, The Daniel J. Morrell, and the Great Lakes Hurricane of 1913. That same professionalism and knack for telling a great story is evident on every compelling page. The book is divided into three sections. Part 1 covers shipwrecks on the Minnesota coast, Part 2 covers Isle Royale losses, and Part 3 recounts the three worst storms to hit the Great Lakes. The stories of noteworthy losses in Parts 1 and 2 are told in chronological order beginning with the loss of the schooner Stranger off Grand Marais in 1875. The arrangement of the shipwrecks in chronological order also gives the reader a fair historical outline of commercial shipping on the Great Lakes.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The story of the sinking of the Stranger kept picking at me throughout the book. The schooner set sail for Grand Marias, Minnesota without an anchor. Another schooner even offered the captain the use of one which he declined. The schooner arrived in Grand Marias ran aground while maneuvering in port and was blown out into Superior and sank with all hands. An anchor would have saved the schooner. Throughout the book boats go down because captains overlooked the obvious. A captain orders a turn to port without ever looking to port where he would have found another bulk carrier within a football field or two. The result a collision. Another captain allows his boat to be grossly overloaded and it goes down in a Lake Superior storm like a dropped anchor. Is this over confidence or simple human failure? And by the time I read about the Lake Superior Storm of 1905 I began to wonder if it was possible that some Great Lake captains may not have enough respect for Superior. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>In Part 2 the beautiful, near pristine Isle Royale and her offshore reefs turn into a deadly spider's web that snares and destroys boats blown off cross or lacking the proper charts with striking regularity over the years. And in chapter after chapter in becomes perfectly clear for both crew and passengers that when their boat hits a reef or is simply overwhelmed by Lake Superior the difference between life and death can be infinitesimally thin. The book is packed with historic photographs and incredible stories of the men and ships who ventured out on the world's largest freshwater lake and paid the ultimate price. </b><b>This is a fine addition to the history and lore of Lake Superior and if you've ever sailed to Isle Royale it makes the book even more special.</b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg8kyy9huxrYA6VsqUl57gHsHxvnHKtDrjsTzFFL9biOZC8rD4cSvuDEeppdFiw8CMGQFrPXYfvP4K0VXOFbfkJYDusaX5UdhuKOLrBZaj4-xjkD5Vg5LiXzjgXmc8y3mHFtvZgK7FbTcZbUFeA0rC2mtvfNd-RzBdXy0jL2b9fJIHTU6utAf1C_cqoIJU" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="79" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg8kyy9huxrYA6VsqUl57gHsHxvnHKtDrjsTzFFL9biOZC8rD4cSvuDEeppdFiw8CMGQFrPXYfvP4K0VXOFbfkJYDusaX5UdhuKOLrBZaj4-xjkD5Vg5LiXzjgXmc8y3mHFtvZgK7FbTcZbUFeA0rC2mtvfNd-RzBdXy0jL2b9fJIHTU6utAf1C_cqoIJU" width="158" /></a></div></b><b>Too Much Sea for Their Decks: Shipwrecks of Minnesota's North Shore and Isle Royale by Michael Schumacher. University of Minnesota Press, 2023, 237p., $24.95.</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>The SideRoad Columnist: Observations from an Upper Michigan Author by Sharon M. Kennedy</u></b></div><div><b><u>View from the SideRoad: A Collection of Upper Peninsula Stories by Sharon M. Kennedy</u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The author's U.P. experience dates back to childhood and she calls on her years of living in the eastern Upper Peninsula as inspiration for many of the columns she wrote for Gannett Media. The book doesn't make clear whether this is a selection from her columns or all that she penned. Kennedy's columns are brief, often no longer than a page, and run the gamut from keen-eyed observations, reflections, and occasional opinions, to frequent comments on her life in the U.P. from the present back her childhood. I would guess nearly 90 percent of the columns have something to do with life in the U.P.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>I think readers will especially like her childhood recollections that range from life in a small cabin heated mostly by wood and without electricity, to being bundled into cocoon by mother to go out in the winter, or visiting her childhood kitchen and taking inventory of its contents. The pieces make for a mosaic of U.P. life. As a married man I winced and unsuccessfully tried not to laugh at her comments on men and husbands. Such as, "Men are notorious for overkill on simple things." or, "When I hang a picture, I pound a nail in the wall and hope for the best. A hired hand would get out a stud finder, yardstick, level, and an assortment of nails, screws, hammers, and drills." Well, Ms. Kennedy this man has only one hammer, and one drill and is not proficient with either. The columns are always interesting, entertaining, and quickly read. It's like eating a bowel of my wife's popcorn. You can't stop until it's all gone.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The second book is a collection of short stories set in or about living in the U.P. The stories are funny, haunting, and sometimes painfully sad. The hallmark of each story is a unique narrative voice and a one-of-a-kind character around which the story is told. In the introduction the author tells how some of the stories had been handed down or based on stories by both her mother and father. The author's father was an Irishman and was an endless source of great stories. What makes this collection special is that the stories are grounded in the U.P. experience and at the same time speak to the general human condition. </b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjNVsReHvfHXhVwZtmaZFJOhpM2DuKMro3t1OLRTIR1yEhQFIb2tu8PzU9_iaW9cGM1VB1IIutx-gP-l0gHHaItiSeSO7-gIG3OSE5hLf7lG0gOWTSlg_xvoxQWoN6t9IlhVEO_gBFUAra432AAAeJig3k9WEoRPgk1bJPVNyLxGwffGv4D7xyFyp9SHxE" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="80" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjNVsReHvfHXhVwZtmaZFJOhpM2DuKMro3t1OLRTIR1yEhQFIb2tu8PzU9_iaW9cGM1VB1IIutx-gP-l0gHHaItiSeSO7-gIG3OSE5hLf7lG0gOWTSlg_xvoxQWoN6t9IlhVEO_gBFUAra432AAAeJig3k9WEoRPgk1bJPVNyLxGwffGv4D7xyFyp9SHxE" width="160" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjNLM1CXyDA82r51d_xuCEDEAeY4asCW--LiFaXv6UOD_n3v0Ng7HU0YIKQ3YT3Gcwa84Cenp7Ffq9HjPWS81qBjE5WksDHExwA8sQsO9f437DyKw-B4FFLLSsOT-Qd4we7ZHeiErEMENyPiSwA-RYszdBZUst3oVdp8sgfJ30RPtA517HUjl7KIImYzmM" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="60" data-original-width="40" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjNLM1CXyDA82r51d_xuCEDEAeY4asCW--LiFaXv6UOD_n3v0Ng7HU0YIKQ3YT3Gcwa84Cenp7Ffq9HjPWS81qBjE5WksDHExwA8sQsO9f437DyKw-B4FFLLSsOT-Qd4we7ZHeiErEMENyPiSwA-RYszdBZUst3oVdp8sgfJ30RPtA517HUjl7KIImYzmM" width="160" /></a></div></div></b></div><div><b>The SideRoad Columnist by Sharon M. Kennedy. Modern History Press, 2023, 154p., $18.95.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>View from the SideRoad: A Collection of Upper Peinsula Stories by Sharon M. Kennedy. Modern History Press, 2022, 135p., $16.95.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u><br /></u></b></div><div><b><u><br /></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><u><br /></u></b></div><div><b><u><br /></u></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><u><br /></u></b></div><div><b><u><br /></u></b><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b> </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p></div></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-84799545990561303422023-07-24T06:11:00.000-07:002023-07-24T06:11:07.187-07:00<p> <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Post #85 July 24, 2023</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span><b>Quote of the Day: "Detroit is the wettest and widest open town in the country and has the largest per capita consumption of liquor of all the cities in the United States -- New York included." </b>Plain Talk Magazine . 1930.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Reviews</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Savage City by Donald Levin</u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Detroit 1932, the Depression is gutting the city. Evections are soaring, jobs are gone, soup kitchens struggle to meet the demand, and the people are looking for someone to blame. The Communist party is attracting followers, the Black Legion a violent white supremacy hate group targeting Blacks, Jews, and Catholics is growing and, the Purple Gang's power may be waning but it is still deadly. Those are forces in play in this totally engrossing novel covering one week in Detroit in March of '32. It is in that week that several organizations staged a Ford Hunger March in which 3,000 marched to the Rouge Ford Plant demanding more jobs and aid for the unemployed. Dearborn Police and Ford Security employees opened fire on the marchers. They killed five and wounded 60. Countless marchers and organizers were arrested and held for days without ever being charged.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The novel follows four characters whose lives are transformed during the week of the march and its aftermath. Clarence Brown the only Black detective in the Detroit Police Department is obsessed with finding the killer of a young Black man the department tries to write off as a suicide. Roscoe Grissom has lost his job and joins the Black Legion. He is willing to murder anyone in the cause of white supremacy. Elizabeth Waters, a native Grosse Pointer, rejects her privileged past and works in soup kitchens, supports the rights of the poor, and joins the march. Ben Rubin hopes to take a step up from small-time crime and join the Purple Gang but things don't go as planned. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>A month ago I had never heard of this author and can't remember where I ran across his name. I'm glad I did because "Savage City" is one of the best books I've read in the past twelve months and ranks with the best historical novels set in Detroit I've read</b><b>. The plot is driven by a powerful and propulsive narrative, the characterizations run deep and true, including Detroit that comes alive as a fully formed character. The author has a great feel for the temper of the times and although it is fiction based on fact and the author may have had to trim facts or invented some events to advance the plot there is an undeniable authenticity to this novel. It is the first in a series of historical novels set in 20th Century Detroit. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>As a point of interest the four killed on the day of the march were buried together in a mass unmarked grave. Fifteen thousand walked in their funeral procession. The fifth victim was a Black teenager who was wounded and died weeks later. He was not allowed to be buried in the white cemetery. It was 50 years before the UAW was allowed to place headstones on their graves. Neither the police or the Ford Security personnel suffered any repercussions from the shootings. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjYej02fDYlQ-SHDpL9-gzqSW7kPkORemLypGOpoy_-TASX0IwvE7XSBFZJbNj7mWjZmWEKVc9VX-jMcM2leeMJ7fmIImnUdp3S0qeoC5ajq3HT4lHsRU6LZyjZ7JtoN7x4xYiBYTfUXQ9IAbel6SSKzW1qe0pz7fNpRMtKMdDgWaeQitrAVTSVcllduQ4" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="285" data-original-width="190" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjYej02fDYlQ-SHDpL9-gzqSW7kPkORemLypGOpoy_-TASX0IwvE7XSBFZJbNj7mWjZmWEKVc9VX-jMcM2leeMJ7fmIImnUdp3S0qeoC5ajq3HT4lHsRU6LZyjZ7JtoN7x4xYiBYTfUXQ9IAbel6SSKzW1qe0pz7fNpRMtKMdDgWaeQitrAVTSVcllduQ4" width="160" /></a></div></div><b>Savage City by Donald Levin. Poison Toe Press, 2021, 417p., $19.95.</b><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>The Luck of the Fall by Jim Ray Daniels</u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>This sixth collection of short stories from a master of the form invites the reader into the lives of the led astray and/or those trying to make the best of their situations. Incidentally they all happen to have more in common than just living along 8-Mile Road in Detroit. Nearly all of Daniels' characters are struggling to deal with life, it's mistakes, missed opportunities, regrets, and emotional burdens. What the stories also have in common is great writing, sly even laugh-out-loud humor, and unexpected observations on life in general or their own that pop into a narrator's mind. These unbidden intrusions are often the heart of the story and are gateways into a deeper understanding of the character and his life.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>If the characters face hardships they don't quit, they get back up and keep trying. The Spirit Award story begins: "</b><b>To say Jack was disappointed was to say it looked like it might rain while it was already</b><b> streaming off the brim of your new baseball cap." Jack didn't win the Spirit Award but it wouldn't be the last time it would rain on his parade. His father married three times and never had time for Jack. Dad was always late or simply failed to show up for his sons activities. But maybe a negative can be a positive; Jack will learn how to handle disappointment of which there will be many in any life. Like all Daniels' stories it is marked with humor, sharp dialogue, and true to life experiences.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>I particularly enjoyed the story The Mighty Wallendas. The nameless narrator and Peggy, his live in girlfriend, love circuses and consider the Wallendas the greatest circus act ever. They continue to go to circuses even though they aren't what they used to be, "but they still have that smell: "exotic animal sh**, cigars from Swampbreath, Louisiana, melting makeup from Buttercup, Missouri, and roadie scum from every federal prison in the good ol' US of A." Going to a circus always sparks vivid memories of the Wallendas. Then one day the narrator is struck by the notion that he and a lot of people often find themselves on a high wire without a net. The narrator's high wire act? His girlfriend is his brother's wife. He stole her when his brother was in Texas looking for work. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Jim Ray Daniels writes short stories that you can't read and just walk away from.</b><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEishWXb89Am6QuriZy8Tp5ZMnZcj9u4yOEdHy95UEKUM_OA79kS5jP94IkNCtOykzPp4uO-W9hq4GHVANdD9AJU8corYyXISmZUXmT6s22obp4EQ27fMk2yZAoy5MvHZMSHtuyalP4FrseKrIzzqX3r3p7FmsU9Dx1TFZqTcKmjkyZSvpfQ102jwm2rktU" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="81" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEishWXb89Am6QuriZy8Tp5ZMnZcj9u4yOEdHy95UEKUM_OA79kS5jP94IkNCtOykzPp4uO-W9hq4GHVANdD9AJU8corYyXISmZUXmT6s22obp4EQ27fMk2yZAoy5MvHZMSHtuyalP4FrseKrIzzqX3r3p7FmsU9Dx1TFZqTcKmjkyZSvpfQ102jwm2rktU" width="162" /></a></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The Luck of the Fall by Jim Ray Daniels. Michigan State University Press, 2023, 176p., $24.95.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Islands of Deception by Chris G. Thelen</u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>There's a lot to like in this thriller set in Michigan that features more mayhem and flying steel that a figure-eight demolition derby. The book was written by a first time novelist with a BA in Journalism and a Masters Degree from a Theological Seminary. There is not a lot in this thriller that would reflect positively on the latter degree.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>It would be almost impossible, or a more talented reviewer, to disclose more than a small slice of the plot without giving away too much. To be somewhat circumspect a man is given an package that he is assured will keep his family safe from danger. It doesn't. The package sparks the most ingenious prison escape I've ever run across in a thriller. Following the escape the plot features non stop action that moves from Detroit to the quite, peaceful, and beautiful Beaver and North Fox islands, which are no longer quiet and peace, and to the waters of Lake Michigan. The good guys include an agent from Homeland Security, a security specialist for the governor, and an ex-con. None of them can quite keep up to speed with their adversaries. As if the plot needed a touch more action add a drone, a possible terror attack, and what part does a shadowy billionaire play in all of this. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The book has loads of momentum and the author keeps you guessing up to the last page and then some. Readers should be warned if you get to the prison break the rest of the night may not be yours. This is a promising first effort by a writer with a lot of potential. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjkMZjYP5zLmY5WDMMj6w7MSzh64buzcDdwpwTfQ00JZDpf46ENEAR-qIYP87dGAnUIfrmFItAarpV1y8FRBcZ7lAwFQFUy93yMYD-IouIhXtvDnhj9ZLrDAyskPezkJ5BWNMNvFQwVIVeTl5_4nnBaNV6x-5uq3bybOvWn4rJox3bmbmLpUqSmp0d34oU" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="267" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjkMZjYP5zLmY5WDMMj6w7MSzh64buzcDdwpwTfQ00JZDpf46ENEAR-qIYP87dGAnUIfrmFItAarpV1y8FRBcZ7lAwFQFUy93yMYD-IouIhXtvDnhj9ZLrDAyskPezkJ5BWNMNvFQwVIVeTl5_4nnBaNV6x-5uq3bybOvWn4rJox3bmbmLpUqSmp0d34oU" width="160" /></a></b></div><b><br />Islands of Deception by Chris G. Thelen. Brookstone Publishing Group, 2023, 274p., $16.99.</b><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Second Hand by Michael Zadoorian</u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>When I stumbled across a list of the MLA Michigan Author Awards (you can find the list on the News & Views Page) the 2022 winner was an author I knew nothing about and had never run across his name before. Among his list of novels I got my hands on the above title. I fell in love with the book and Richard, the main character, within half-a-dozen pages. Time seemed to stand still when I entered Richard's world. I could have read this book in a couple of days but it took much longer because I kept rereading sentences, paragraphs, and even pages.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Richard owns a second hand shop on the ragged edge of Detroit. He has a wonderful oddball sense of humor, is a keen observer of life and society, suffers from a bit of low self-esteem, and simply loves being a Junker. As he says, "Junk has been my friend, my teacher, my mentor. It has taught me what is not required. It taught me to enjoy things, but not need them." He observes that most people are, "saving and sacrificing for stuff, then throwing that stuff out and saving and sacrificing for more stuff." </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Junk is his life and of late his life has been well ordered and without crisis. Then in the space of a week or so his mother dies and he meets a woman who could be the love of his life. Picking through boxes full of junk, stuff, and treasures in his mother's basement he discovers a mom and dad he never knew. Meanwhile a woman by the name of Theresa wanders into his shop a couple of times and Richard is smitten. A relationship blossoms but "The Junk Goddess," as Richard calls her, is burdened by a mind warping load of guilt associated with her job. Even after Richard is surprised by his exceptional sexual performance, after previously admitting, "I am not the Thelonius Monk of the clitoris," their relationship flounders. Because Richard can't stop questioning or pestering Theresa about her feelings of guilt and unhappiness. The rest of the story awaits you.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Zadoorian has written a singularly original comic novel told with a remarkable voice. It is funny, profound, great entertainment, and concludes with a memorable and moving closing paragraph. And I am so pleased to have purchased "Second Hand" second hand. It has been added to my shelf of classic Michigan books.</b><b> </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi87ToDc5reKpjNvtcNrkRC3Q0PoVFmT3e2YcV8hwZO7ydbVsQ82YhKUE7Knbfx1-JwXkS-HIAvcdF5DwXc8tQ7iev8ikaXCV8YXe0mC8ZdhuOTSeKHBwWUe1YcI5w_JjJ4yOCzxyk5wv5WGOunLDpOu1dj2BZoHmwJrWzY0_1LzRnlYDuGw1-qDC2bu1w" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="465" data-original-width="300" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi87ToDc5reKpjNvtcNrkRC3Q0PoVFmT3e2YcV8hwZO7ydbVsQ82YhKUE7Knbfx1-JwXkS-HIAvcdF5DwXc8tQ7iev8ikaXCV8YXe0mC8ZdhuOTSeKHBwWUe1YcI5w_JjJ4yOCzxyk5wv5WGOunLDpOu1dj2BZoHmwJrWzY0_1LzRnlYDuGw1-qDC2bu1w" width="155" /></a></b></div><b><br />Second Hand by Michael Zadoorian. W. W. Norton & Company, 2000, 270p., $23.95.</b><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-57757399952470937342023-07-10T05:47:00.000-07:002023-07-10T05:47:37.191-07:00<p> <span style="font-size: large;"><b>Post # 84 July 10, 2023</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Quote for the day: </span>"I expect nothing from Michigan, and heartily wish I had never heard of the state." James Fenimore Cooper </b>in a 1848 letter to his wife. The reference is probably to an investment in Kalamazoo<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span><span>real estate that failed to turn a profit.</span></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b><u>Reviews</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Growing Up in Sparta: And Other Adventures by Larry Buege</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>This autobiography struck an immediate chord with this reviewer because the author and I were born only three years apart and the account of his childhood reaffirmed my belief that we grew up during a golden age for children. Buege grew up in a small town north of Grand Rapids and a good deal of my childhood was spent in Flint. The author remembers in warm and accurate detail the everyday life of a kid and the culture in which he thrived. Our generation may have been the last of unstructured and simplified childhood. We were not chained for hours to digital games, endless TV shows, cell phones, and near endlessly organized year-round little league sports. We organized our own sports, thought up our own games, and marbles was our only serious addiction.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b> </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Buege writes, "My parents raised their children as if we lived in a safe and carefree world." I was given the same liberties. Our parents didn't have to tell us to turn off the TV and go play outside. We ate breakfast and were gone. The author tells us that sociologists have called the kids of the 1950s "free range children" and Buege comments "today free range parenting is almost outlawed." The first half of this book will have WWII baby boomers reconnecting with their childhood.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b> </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Unhappily there was a debt due for many of the boys who passed through the golden age of childhood and it was stamped paid in Vietnam. Until the writing of this book the author simply refused to tell anyone of his 11 months spent in Vietnam as a Corpsman. I salute his courage and honesty in sharing his indelible and painful experience with his readers. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>His post war years drew him to the U.P. as a teacher and after getting a degree as a physician assistant he spent fifteen very interesting years tending to the inmates at Marquette State Prison. He later worked in a Marquette hospital and somewhere along the way fell victim to the writer's bug. The review copy he sent me was signed and above his autograph he wrote, "We are all making history." This thoughtful, incisive, revealing, and very readable autobiography is proof positive of the handwritten note on the title page. I love history that delves down into the nitty gritty experiences of the common man during any historical era because it proves there are no common men or women only uncommon ones. Bravo Buege!</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgkivqxiuZnCQgWiWt5R7eRhr1KoYf0gloiVu1dbQX8WTxlGjuS45h-6p22eHZmsW_teFjpwEMIejX874kRbyVv7pL8a8L09kizRl5L5F0AcEg7umbQhgHcVKIFZiIomH_76hYn36a2D9ZgS0-wNHAboAqkfrNVJRtITCeDjtFrUMaPur4OX4c0WWipX7g" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="267" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgkivqxiuZnCQgWiWt5R7eRhr1KoYf0gloiVu1dbQX8WTxlGjuS45h-6p22eHZmsW_teFjpwEMIejX874kRbyVv7pL8a8L09kizRl5L5F0AcEg7umbQhgHcVKIFZiIomH_76hYn36a2D9ZgS0-wNHAboAqkfrNVJRtITCeDjtFrUMaPur4OX4c0WWipX7g" width="160" /></a></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-weight: 700;"><br /></span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Growing up in Sparta: And other Adventures by Larry Buege. Gastropod Publishing, 2022, 238p. $16.95 pb.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Indians and Other Misnomers of the Upper Great Lakes: The True Indigenous Origins of Geographic Place Names by Phil Bellfy.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>This is really quite a simple but important book that must have taken an enormous amount of work and research to produce. I also personally thought it profoundly ironic for multiple reasons. Basically, as the subtitle states the book simply lists names that were given to places in the Great Lakes area by the indigenous people that are still used today. There is a chapter for each Great Lake state and Ontario listing the indigenous names you will find on maps, highway signs, city limits, lakes and the meaning of each name in it's native tongue. Michigan has nearly a 100 Native American place names. They include Manistee which means Crooked River, Naubinway = Place of Echo, Munising = Island in the Lake, Muskegon = Swampy, Pinconning = Potato Place, and Menominee = Wild Rice People to name a few. It comes as a revelation when one discovers how many Native American words were used or appropriated by Europeans throughout the Great Lakes area in naming geographic features or places. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>I can't help but find it ironic that the very people throwing Native Americans off their land would keep the original place names that originated with the indigence people. Or, that Indian Agent Henry Rowe Schoolcraft who signed treaties with various tribes that resulted in the loss of their homeland then named ten new counties in Michigan with "Indian Sounding " names such as Allegan, Oscoda, and Tuscola. Lastly there were the indigenous children who were taken from their homes and sent to schools for the purpose of stripping them of their culture. They were forbidden to speak their native tongue while Europeans thought nothing odd in adopting indigenous words for places Native American children were not allowed to utter. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>In addition to the indigenous geographic names found in each of the states and Ontario there is a lengthy alphabetical listing of all the indigenous place names, treaty signers, and untranslatable words used as place names. This is followed by a listing of treaties in the Great Lakes area, the date signed, the location of the signing, and the tribe or tribes involved. Of special note the land involved in each treaty is keyed to the maps preceding the chapters on each state. This is an important and fascinating book that reminds the reader that the culture and language of Native Americans is still with us today. It enriches our language, and the words alone make clear how long this land has been revered and cherished.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh42avNkeuJ_0Kdw55kSVu6hmrnMN4ZJJQl4cgL2FSE_FCLriLfas8gcJXannCmO264_a92OLTsQ9WTSEDi6Uge7wElnEX_2T8J_-NIqkjwSrtt-CSy7OzgcCQqY-nfcBQAJEz8y8M1tCs3L3VEDqNTgGqayirkwxbC0Ps14rl6_WXMNbTOKFedvLd7hns" style="clear: left; display: inline; font-weight: bold; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="96" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh42avNkeuJ_0Kdw55kSVu6hmrnMN4ZJJQl4cgL2FSE_FCLriLfas8gcJXannCmO264_a92OLTsQ9WTSEDi6Uge7wElnEX_2T8J_-NIqkjwSrtt-CSy7OzgcCQqY-nfcBQAJEz8y8M1tCs3L3VEDqNTgGqayirkwxbC0Ps14rl6_WXMNbTOKFedvLd7hns" width="192" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Indians and Other Misnomers of the Upper Great Lakes: The True Indigenous Origins of Geographic Place Names by Phil Bellfy. Ziibi Press, 2023, 152p., $25.95 pb.<br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Shipwrecked and Rescued: Cars and Crew: The City of Bangor by Larry Jorgensen.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>This slim book is packed with Great Lakes maritime history and a detailed account in words and photographs of one of Lake Superior's most unusual shipwrecks. The City of Bangor was launched from a West Bay City, Michigan shipyard in 1896 and was built to be a Great Lakes grain hauler. By the 1920s automobile manufactures came to realize that shipping their new cars via Great Lake freighters to dealers on or near Great Lake ports was very cost effective.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The City of Banger was purchased by a transit company and converted to a car hauler by constructing a second lower deck and removing hatches and redesigning the main deck to carry automobiles. Elevators were installed to move the cars between decks. In August of 1925 the City of Bangor set a record for the largest single shipment of automobiles when it docked in Chicago with 500 new cars on board. Less than 18 months later the ship was caught in a late November Lake Superior storm and was tossed on a Keweenaw Peninsula reef like a thrown away toy.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The 29 member crew made it safely ashore then spent 36 hours without shelter on the blizzard swept beach. They nearly froze to death and many suffered severe frostbite before they were discovered by chance when the Eagle River Life Saving Station crew came to the aid of another nearby shipwrecked crew and spotted the City of Bangor crew. The brisk narrative is complimented by numerous photos that tells the extraordinary story of how the crew finally reached Laurium and a badly needed hospital. Then the author tells the equally remarkable story of unloading the cargo from a ship 200 feet off shore and then driving the cars the length of the Keweenaw Peninsula and loading them on trains. All of which was done in a bitterly cold January on a finger of land jutting into Lake Superior on which it's few roads were buried under 30 feet deep snow drifts. It makes for quite a story. The book was was named to the 2023 U.P. Notable Book List.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgT6XpWrKFt5a0E9w9XTr7eYDPlqk7YCTPm9p42-VcoPswoUQMmeQ6D3mAsZc6J-xIZIrf63aYMi8pjZZjS4eklkR3B0HNMUp0KZRLOfj47Pv2TpHyFMpkXCSlODcy2fQ71YllTKhEDcmKLAZ3Tl70QCc5xiYJ0DAgpEwasZ3uEGlq0I3AKObex1z9Qj6g" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="80" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgT6XpWrKFt5a0E9w9XTr7eYDPlqk7YCTPm9p42-VcoPswoUQMmeQ6D3mAsZc6J-xIZIrf63aYMi8pjZZjS4eklkR3B0HNMUp0KZRLOfj47Pv2TpHyFMpkXCSlODcy2fQ71YllTKhEDcmKLAZ3Tl70QCc5xiYJ0DAgpEwasZ3uEGlq0I3AKObex1z9Qj6g" width="160" /></a></div><br /><b>Shipwrecked and Rescued: Cars and Crew: The City of Bangor by Larry Jorgensen. Fresh Ink Group, 2022, 85p., $20pb.</b><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>U.P. Reader: Bringing Upper Michigan Literature to the World Vol. 7. edited by Deborah K. Frontiera and Mikel B. Classen.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b> I don't envy the hard choices the editors had to make in selecting the poetry, fiction and non fiction included in this annual publication showcasing the best from what I consider the largest (geographically speaking) writers' colony in the country.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Among the cornucopia of fine fiction, non fiction and poetry readers will find a profile of a Calumet hockey player who in 1916 was one of the first American born players to play for the Stanley Cup. He enjoyed a long career in both amateur and profession hockey and later in life became a pairs figure skater. The article also recounts some of the early history of professional hockey in the U. P. Then there is The Karate Club a short story in which seven fresh foods in a refrigerator, led by the Sensei Pickle, practice Karate in order to vanquish spoiled food. One of the virtues I like best in this annual collection is the wide diversity of styles and subjects in both fiction and nonfiction. It is a literary three ring circus. And that includes it's host of poems from haiku celebrating Fiddlehead ferns, to a poem about a dead tree, or Michigamme Grades a poem that embraces the wonder of a place. They all share the magic of poetry represented by this stanza from Michigamme Grades.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>"A place where time and essence meet in a dance with the Milky Way and the flapping of a preening loon."</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>I can't help but comment on my favorite piece. It is an essay by Leigh Mills who cleans year-round and vacation homes in the Les Cheneaux Islands area. She enjoys her work and never tires of it because she takes short breaks or, as she calls them, "little vacations" in a favorite spot in each house where she enjoys, "the peace, quiet, and wonderful views... ." In conclusion she writes, "I focus on experiencing life...every moment is special, not fancy or filled with things...just joy in the smallest way. To be glad we're alive, attuned to the greatness of life and the glory of the Universe is the attitude I carry with me and share with the world."</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Does anything else need be said?</b></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgGwmZRW5DGmRGC37jLYm8kGEEOESJzN7ryXP54iBjMCEg0cwE9JDlN5KpNUYRosgr6uPYuoNAnyYpoqQQVZljzirivefc8Ydu-0VDLpi0R_nY7kqPvuKeC-QKLDaFhbq3WBL9dI7VUfvB-ow6BbB-Yf4_QV7JriedmSQagHEnRF0FAEU-aX3bWlGQcRCE" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1151" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgGwmZRW5DGmRGC37jLYm8kGEEOESJzN7ryXP54iBjMCEg0cwE9JDlN5KpNUYRosgr6uPYuoNAnyYpoqQQVZljzirivefc8Ydu-0VDLpi0R_nY7kqPvuKeC-QKLDaFhbq3WBL9dI7VUfvB-ow6BbB-Yf4_QV7JriedmSQagHEnRF0FAEU-aX3bWlGQcRCE" width="184" /></a></b></div><b><br />U.P. Reader 7th vol. edited by Deborah K. Frontiera and Mikel B. Classen. Modern History Press, 2023, 170p., $19.95pb.</b><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Odin's Eye: A Marquette Time Travel Novel by Tyler R. Tichelaar.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The author has made a career of writing both fiction and non fiction about his hometown. His body of work includes a very popular and highly lauded 1,200 pages plus historical fiction trilogy that brings the history of Marquette brilliantly alive from it's founding to it's sesquicentennial in 1999. Yet the author wished there was a time machine so he could travel back in time and walk the streets of historic Marquette. "Odin's Eye" is the result of the author scratching that itch and creating his own time machine. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The book opens with a young man waking up in a Marquette hospital who doesn't know who he is and couldn't even make a wild guess as to the date or even the historical era in which he awoke. When told he was found unconscious and suffering from a concussion at the exclusive Huron Mountain Club west of Marquette he feels some familiarity with the city. He is bewildered when he is assured the year is 1900 and is further confused when he has fleeting images of cars and other modern machines and devices that briefly flicker in his mind. Several characters take this young man, they decide to call him John, on walks around Marquette hoping either he will be recognized by someone or vice-versa. He's introduced to some of the most famous and influential citizens of the town. There is much of Marquette he is somewhat familiar with but no real progress is made. John decides his best chance is to return to the Huron Mountain Club in hopes it can help him figure out who he is and what has happened to him.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>When he is led to the spot where he was found unconscious a Huron Mountain Club guide finds an object he has never seen before but it is a stunningly encouraging discovery for John. Yet within minutes of that discovery his world is once again turned totally upside down. It may well change his life forever or mean the end of his existence. It would be criminal to give away any more of the plot other than to say the author has produced a time machine that readers will also enjoy. And to compliment Tichelaar's fine descriptive prose he has supplied readers with contemporary photographs from 1900 Marquette. The book is immersive and compelling.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiIjzIB82Wv7ZUiaAsE7swJUlCexNP7qdQn0LeAWOneJs24gYn-m3doOCty8x2gHgOHLSZ5pxH0Iy0qS5ikTvmGSWuF8qJO36mQjtYtK3dYuFH1Hr_qnmAK1Nct1hCHcWVZe-WLhIjrztYoyoblXugTM9qWcEZYhIEuIVBTRdXrUZUl5bhLu7wSLkqn8lw" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="327" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiIjzIB82Wv7ZUiaAsE7swJUlCexNP7qdQn0LeAWOneJs24gYn-m3doOCty8x2gHgOHLSZ5pxH0Iy0qS5ikTvmGSWuF8qJO36mQjtYtK3dYuFH1Hr_qnmAK1Nct1hCHcWVZe-WLhIjrztYoyoblXugTM9qWcEZYhIEuIVBTRdXrUZUl5bhLu7wSLkqn8lw" width="157" /></a></div><br />Odin's Eye: A Marquette Time Travel Novel by Tyler R. Tichelaar. Marquette Fiction, 2023, 417p., $28.95.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-33563557782446876022023-06-12T05:55:00.001-07:002023-06-12T08:12:04.734-07:00<h2 style="text-align: left;"> Post 83 June12, 2023</h2><p style="text-align: left;"><b> Quote for the Day: </b>"Nothing can exceed the beauty of this island. ....If the poetic muses are ever to have a new Parnassus in America, they should inevitably fix on Michilimackinac. Hygeia, too should place her temple here; for it has one of the purest, driest, clearest, and most healthful atmospheres." <i>Credited to Henry Schoolcraft but the book below states he took credit for poems and works written by his wife. </i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i><br /></i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Turn to News and Views for a complete list of the Michigan Author Awards given by the Michigan Library Association in recognition for an outstanding published body of literary work by an author from Michigan or has substantial ties to the state. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><b>Reviews</b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Great Women of Mackinac 1800-1950 by Melissa Croghan. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">I consider myself fairly well read on Michigan and Mackinac Island history simply because it has been of life long interest and I'm embarrassed to have never heard of the thirteen women profiled here. The author makes it clear these women made a significant impact on the history and development of the island, even though they could hold no office, nor vote, or present their opinions in official political groups or meetings.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The author has divided these women into three divisions. The first group consists of Native America women who became leaders and examples to the rest of their community. They all started by assisting their husbands in the fur trade and when their husbands died, disappeared, or in case of war, left Mackinac Island they simply took the reins of business and prospered. In addition to managing all aspects of the fur trade some women also made maple syrup on Bois Blanc Island for additional income. Elizabeth Mitchell's husband. a British loyalist, fled the island when the U.S. and Britain went to war. Elizabeth continued to run their fur trade, while she also started a commercial garden, in addition to raising and selling hay. She was greatly respected and was famous for refusing to be domesticated. Her son said, "she knew not the use of a needle."</p><p style="text-align: left;">The second group of women were contemporary writers of the 1800s who recorded much of the early history of the island. For me, the most fascinating woman in this group is Jane Johnston Schoolcraft (1800-1842). She was a Native American who wed Indian Agent Henry Schoolcraft. Jane had been sent to Europe for an education and spoke English, French and her native tongue. She was the 1st Native American to write poems, record tales, and songs of her people in her native language as well as English. Her husband didn't or wouldn't speak of her writing, yet claimed to be the author of some of her work which he had hidden away. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The third group are the social reformers and community builders that made Mackinac a thriving community at the beginning of the tourist industry. This book pays homage to the historical women who were prominent in the history of Mackinac Island but long absent in the island's narrative. The book is a testament to thorough research and is both scholarly and very readable. And yet again it is a sad reminder that too much of history is just that "His Story." "Her Story" can also be very interesting and balance the scales of the historical record.</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgddnpPHe74t7q8xmBDc8NUx31EdM_l82kN9hHzdWLGbdVYhXRHKF2_OPLu9Rp1X6m-l8pDRDkfcXuC9s9eCMsRmZCjq9v0QMxYbRMqCtPLvtkRVlN0wi4wlt9SmKV6ng5w_10I8zqbM6ELGq3mb16vUd21kq6aYGUnQgdrnzKeD3u5Smm9CqiKbFae" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="334" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgddnpPHe74t7q8xmBDc8NUx31EdM_l82kN9hHzdWLGbdVYhXRHKF2_OPLu9Rp1X6m-l8pDRDkfcXuC9s9eCMsRmZCjq9v0QMxYbRMqCtPLvtkRVlN0wi4wlt9SmKV6ng5w_10I8zqbM6ELGq3mb16vUd21kq6aYGUnQgdrnzKeD3u5Smm9CqiKbFae" width="160" /></a></div><br />Great Women of Mackinac 1800-1950 by Melissa Croghan. Michigan State University Press, 2023, 244p., $37.95 pb.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Yooper Ale Trails: Craft Breweries and Brewpubs of Michigan's Upper Peninsula by Jon C. Stott.</b></div><div><br /></div><div>What a sacrifice! The author took it upon himself to visit ever craft brewery and brewpub in the U.P. He did it for those of us who enjoy craft beers and live in or may visit the land above the Bridge and, with his book in hand, always be able to find the closest craft brewery or brewpub. </div><div><br /></div><div>Seriously, craft breweries have become very popular and Michigan is tied for 6th among all states for the number of craft breweries at 407. The author has done a meticulous job of supplying the craft beer lover with everything they would want to know about U.P. craft breweries and brewpubs. As of the writing of this book there are 29 such breweries north of the Straits. The author presents each brewery with a 2 or 3 page essay that includes a short history, a conversation with the owner, presents a feel the bar, and a describes the brewery's signature beers. Each entry includes a photograph, address, phone number and both the website and Facebook addresses.</div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="text-align: justify;">What makes the book totally unique are the appendices. There is a list of breweries and brewpubs by location. Following that is a listing of each brewery with it's production by number of barrels, it's flagship beers are named, followed by a core list of all beers produced, whether available in cans or growlers only, and finally it's distribution area. Next is a several page essay on how beer is brewed. There is yet another appendix on a guide to beer styles and which U.P. breweries offer which styles of beer. There is also a glossary of brewing terms, and finally an annotated list of books about beer. It made me thirsty reading the book.</span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left; text-decoration-line: underline;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhYMB6ThDO9KwRmpFQ5GKWGW-KU-xN8DQmD91hjErmB3leMGBOx-JZ4x5Oa_eC_OlqvjS59N1kPRYkG20MoEiWasjInk8oalBpXwwak8j5m78bYx9-PaKuPyTFKOT7PjdtB8FfPbgFXWCJBc68LbNuOp1DF_fPD-sxDwSSqDRSMfcJx1EZHqIuRCEoH" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="80" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhYMB6ThDO9KwRmpFQ5GKWGW-KU-xN8DQmD91hjErmB3leMGBOx-JZ4x5Oa_eC_OlqvjS59N1kPRYkG20MoEiWasjInk8oalBpXwwak8j5m78bYx9-PaKuPyTFKOT7PjdtB8FfPbgFXWCJBc68LbNuOp1DF_fPD-sxDwSSqDRSMfcJx1EZHqIuRCEoH" width="160" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Yooper Ale Trails: Craft Breweries and Brewpubs of Michigan's Upper Peninsula by Jon C. Stott. Modern History Press, 2023, 218p. $24.95 pb.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Village Talk: A Country Merchant's Memoir and Folk History by Ray Nies, edited by Michael J. Douma and Robert P. Swierenga.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The story behind this book is as extraordinary as the stories found between the covers of this personal recollection and observation of life in southwestern Michigan from the late 1800s to the early 1940s. Ray Nies (1877-1950) owned and operated a hardware store in Holland, Michigan from before World War I until he retired. He wrote this book in 1940. The unpublished manuscript was discovered a few years ago in the Holland Museum archives. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Nies has a great knack for describing the life, social customs, family life, and economics of the times. He does all this while weaving memorable stories and characters within the narrative. The author was born in Saugatuck and recalls in great detail the winter evenings when Civil War veterans gathered around the stove in his father's hardware store and told war stories or spun outrageous lies. Like the Civil War nurse who recalled saving a man's life by replacing his shot up stomach with that of a sheep's. He claimed the man fully recovered but couldn't pass a hay field without stopping to graze. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">When the family moved to the religiously strict village of Holland he recalls that the words, "darn," "by George," "Gee Whiz," and "gosh." were not to be used by boys. Thirty years later in the author's Holland hardware husbands complained that electric washing machines made life too easy for their wives and why two tubes and a washboard weren't good enough. And there was the man who thought the government ought to give everyone $25 a week. When Nies asked where the money would come from the man replied, "...well just tax everyone $25 a week, that's where." A friend told Nies of the man whose house was electrified and that night he tried to turn off the light by blowing on the bulb harder and harder without success.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"> The author was drawn to unique and interesting characters and had the wonderful ability to bring them fully alive. There's the well-liked, self-taught horse vet who maintained a fine tuned, happy balance between drunk and sober everyday for for sixty years. My personal favorite was the stranger who came to town and guarantied to teach anyone to swim or their money back. He did this without ever entering the water himself. For $10 he even guarantied a women he could teach her dog to swim. Miraculously he did! Eventually the man received his wet comeuppance. In old age Nies philosophizes a bit and leaves readers with with a number of thought provoking comments on life. Among them are: "a fool can instruct wise men, but no fool can instruct a fool," and, "we all want to live a long time, but we all hate like hell to grow old." </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">After more years than I care to count reviewing books or reading them for pleasure there are very few books I have enjoyed as much or more than this recently unearthed gem. On finishing this book I wished I could have known the author, then realized the wish had come true.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiNov4eIi9d4D5SUxi9bVSfPFkQEu_FMF2fihJfe0lJbmvwJTfvl09smpFCHZMNPaVXMFNt1rN2cjlgx6-y3dfSFf2HFxyrECNwmzDWTzr93urys_Uo3MqJ6LzLOLHPQQkIcDhcdriVpanJcaY1PAf0O5XgTIDOcVXkuMs9Ec7_twfzWqaKKJi-i1pf" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="130" data-original-width="86" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiNov4eIi9d4D5SUxi9bVSfPFkQEu_FMF2fihJfe0lJbmvwJTfvl09smpFCHZMNPaVXMFNt1rN2cjlgx6-y3dfSFf2HFxyrECNwmzDWTzr93urys_Uo3MqJ6LzLOLHPQQkIcDhcdriVpanJcaY1PAf0O5XgTIDOcVXkuMs9Ec7_twfzWqaKKJi-i1pf" width="159" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>Village Talk: A Country Merchant's Memoir and Folk History by Ray Nies, edited by Michael J. Douma and Robert P. Swierenga, Privately Published, 2023, 262p., $31.95.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Poppy and Mary Ellen Deliver the Goods: Book One of the Frankenmuth Murder Mysteries by Roz Weedman and Susan Todd.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Well here is another "Cozy" Mystery of which I'm not a regular reader or even very familiar with the genre's benchmarks. So I thought it time to do a did a little research. Here is what I found and how this cozy mystery compares to the genre's criteria.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">1 Sex and violence usually occurs off stage. Yes in deed.</div><div style="text-align: left;">2 The detective(s) is an amateur sleuth. Polly and Mary Ellen qualify.</div><div style="text-align: left;">3 The sleuth(s) is usually a middle-aged woman. Check and check.</div><div style="text-align: left;">4 The setting is a small intimate community. OK I guess, but Zenders et al is hardly intimate.</div><div style="text-align: left;">5 There are no serial killers or psychopaths. Nary a one.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The chicken dinner capital of Michigan is the setting for this quirky mystery featuring Poppy and Mary Ellen, two middle-aged women who run a somewhat casual detective business. More often than not their cases involve chasing down runaway dogs and on occasion, checking up on possible straying husbands. That is until every kook and crazy from a dysfunctional Ohio family, the Stanleys, are ordered to Frankenmuth by Mrs. Stanley, the family's very rich, aging aunt. She has brought the family together to stuff them with fudge and chicken before announcing her new estate plan which they will find much harder to swallow.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">While the gaggle of in-laws, nieces, and nephews wonder what's up a Stanley family member arranges for his aunt to take a carriage tour of the town. The driver is told to have her back at the hotel by 5 p.m. when she has arranged to meet with her clan and drop the bombshell. The carriage arrives on time but Mrs. Stanley fails to disembark. Well its hard to get out of a carriage when your throat has been cut. And who is witness to this shocking scene but Poppy and Mary Ellen who just happened to be there helping deliver the goods for their caterer friend.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And off go Polly and Mary Ellen careening like pinballs racking up points as they bounce from one clue to another, rebound from unexpected plot twists, help discover another dead body, and manage to play a mah-jongg game or two before the police collar the murderer. With the ladies' help of course. If you like cozy mysteries you'll gulp this one down and be waiting for the next one from this pair of Frankenmuth residents. Read it now or pick it up as a calorie lite souvenir after a dinner in Michigan's Willkommen land.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhw5GkYqBvOfYxdG3wyYQabjwHPeBivmCwpL_Myuu2M74j9gmMnSd73EEje-Sy_jiaazgDtJ6GOXdLPJpo3Jak0wx_ej-3dga5AoaKBrYYTXQJHFHQ2Ajeg0DXUWY0KXgtp0fefi-vypYkgLzTNSaWc4KW1QDtCFMvzZPSoordVVHxst08LdGfmzJ4H" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="259" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhw5GkYqBvOfYxdG3wyYQabjwHPeBivmCwpL_Myuu2M74j9gmMnSd73EEje-Sy_jiaazgDtJ6GOXdLPJpo3Jak0wx_ej-3dga5AoaKBrYYTXQJHFHQ2Ajeg0DXUWY0KXgtp0fefi-vypYkgLzTNSaWc4KW1QDtCFMvzZPSoordVVHxst08LdGfmzJ4H" width="155" /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Poppy and Mary Ellen Deliver the Goods: Book One of the Frankenmuth Murder Mysteries by Roz Weedman and Susan Todd. Mission Point Press, 2023, 239p., $14.95.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Boats Can't Jump: The Story of The Soo Locks by Laura Barens, Illustrated by Don Lee.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This delightful picture book told in rhyme and complimented by Don Lee's colorful and entertaining illustrations is a great introduction to the Soo Locks. The book simply and clearly explains how ships pass through the Soo Locks that even young children can understand. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If you're planning on taking a young child to the locks I would think the book a must. They will be awed by the closeness of the huge ships and how almost by magic they rise and fall before their very eyes. This book will help them grasp what is actually happening. I'm betting even adults will enjoy the clever rhyming and the lively and often humorous illustrations.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There is a glossary if the reader is caught off guard by a youngster asking what is a Lockmaster, a Linchpin or another technical term. The glossary is followed by a number of basic facts about the Soo Locks and a Timeline that may interest adults and older children.</div><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEid9qCePmyT0PV6aXtnnXkS75oalXCxoHeOWcAG6oGQ-3JE8JT46XvYQZM68oqx-0w5zylVPc6KsD8hQtuhfDSb4yo6GdCleflLDa2XqgB5z_kHNgnv99aJvEkEz3WMw00TE0k0AYZ4lj3Gr5kge1CBXt9Nl2RgEyNZ1ifYwOK25-wYgjWjYkR_Y4vl" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="500" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEid9qCePmyT0PV6aXtnnXkS75oalXCxoHeOWcAG6oGQ-3JE8JT46XvYQZM68oqx-0w5zylVPc6KsD8hQtuhfDSb4yo6GdCleflLDa2XqgB5z_kHNgnv99aJvEkEz3WMw00TE0k0AYZ4lj3Gr5kge1CBXt9Nl2RgEyNZ1ifYwOK25-wYgjWjYkR_Y4vl" width="240" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;">Boats Can't Jump: The Story of the Soo Locks by Laura Barens, illustrated by Don Lee, Schuler Books, 2022, 34p., $12.99. Available from laurabarensbooks.com</p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"> </h3></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-31124305395178962952023-05-22T11:41:00.010-07:002023-05-22T12:07:59.460-07:00<p> <span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Post 82 May 22, 2023</b></span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Quote for the Day: </span>"</b>In many ways the Michigan Upper Peninsula ... is a world unto itself... ." Clarence A. Andrews. Michigan in Literature, 1992.</p><p><br /></p><p>Turn to News and Views for the 2023 U.P. Notable Books selected by the U. P. Publishers and Authors Association.</p><p><br /></p><p><i><b>It will soon become obvious that a cruel, mischievous computer elf has toyed with the layout of this post. I have no idea how or why. I guess I just have to let him have his fun. </b></i></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Reviews</u></b></span> </p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>North of Nelson Vol. 1 by Hilton Everett Moore.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The six remarkable short stories in this powerful and haunting book are set in Nelson, "a community on the rugged side of nowhere," in the U.P. The stories catalog the lives of the off-spring or parishioners of the village's three generations of ministers and range from the 1800s to the 1960s.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>In The Irascible Pedagogue the teacher of Nelson's one-room school is near bursting with his own self- importance and demands to be called Professor. He loathes the unwashed, dirt-poor farmers who send their benighted offspring to his school. Yet Nelson was his last resort after being ejected from Yale for moral transgressions he considers a mere blemish. In Nelson he is brought down and driven mad by declining the advances of a young woman he yearns for but feels is too far below his station in life.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>One of the most moving stories is a woman who reflects on the thirty years spent with her common law husband while she shovels dirt on his grave. She also recalls her upbringing as a Native American in a Catholic orphanage, how she ran away to live with the man she's burying, and remembers their suffering during the Great Depression. She supposes, "cause we were dirt poor we stayed together out of necessity, each clinging together like scab apples, blemishes in all, on the same withered tree, I guess some would call it love but I didn't."</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Another story is told by a boy stricken with polio and his only friend a kid named after Ernie Harwell. In A Dog Named Bunny a prison inmate tells of a beloved dog that is unlike any dog story you've ever read. The narrator explains how the family pet forever changed the trajectory of his life.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>If you love good writing, memorable characters, powerful and original narrative voices, and find more than a few sentences so damn good you commit the sin of dog-earing pages and underlining passages you must read this book.</b> </p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYTcJ2L2F48SfNMdsw-MIil8DU06r05Mh5SYbbMm8H08TRpYIl494Q8fY7AXyGfZMr5NSCxFkgAYPiRMjCT1bYc0j_UxiHzrtAMdpQq3qUlq-zShRI_Kc1ynFrVKLa98UlHoUyXif3oab4XX54_jMPzs4zHHGfBTyJy2edz5F_qIQ5elGc9NPtZCMr" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="600" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiYTcJ2L2F48SfNMdsw-MIil8DU06r05Mh5SYbbMm8H08TRpYIl494Q8fY7AXyGfZMr5NSCxFkgAYPiRMjCT1bYc0j_UxiHzrtAMdpQq3qUlq-zShRI_Kc1ynFrVKLa98UlHoUyXif3oab4XX54_jMPzs4zHHGfBTyJy2edz5F_qIQ5elGc9NPtZCMr" width="150" /></a></div></b></blockquote><b>North of Nelson Vol. 1 by Hilton Everett Moore, Silver Mountain Press, 2022, 142p. $14.95.</b><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The Moose Willow Mystery: A Yooper Romance by Terri Martin.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>A plug for the book on the back cover calling it a "cozy mystery" almost turned me off before I opened it. The book made me laugh and chuckle much too often to make this reader feel snug and comfortable. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Janese Trout, the narrator, lives in a small U.P town not far from Marquette and I was constantly amused watching her life slowly spin out of control while she tries to deal with the author's bizarre plot and wacky characters. The author has saddled her with a live-in boy friend who doesn't talk much about his past and Janese is not sure where their relationship is headed. Among her jobs at the local community college is heading up the committee for the fourth annual Igloo making contest and creating rules that will prohibit phallic looking entrees. Add the not so Christian infighting in the church choir, and a constantly intruding mother on the prowl for a third husband and Janese has too many plates in the air. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>But this is only the start of her problems. T</b><b>here is the murder of Clarence "Weasel" Watkins in Bucky's meat locker. Could the cold-hearted motive for "Weasel's" demise stem from his cheating and winning last years Igloo contest. If that isn't enough, Janese begins receiving strange but somewhat threatening phone calls, may have encountered U.P.s Bigfoot, thinks she might be pregnant, and her boyfriend disappears in a snowstorm. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>What makes this novel work is Janeses sense of the ridiculous, and her wonderful sense of humor. I also found the start and stop of the narrative amusing as she's constantly getting side-tracked by unexpected problems, ideas, and ruminations over anything that might pop into head. More than once while reading I wanted to shout, "Focus Janese, focus!" This is a woman wondering if she's with child, buys an at home pregnancy test that takes minutes to use but can't complete the test because she is so easily distracted. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>You have of course noted that I've given full credit for the book's success to Janese, a fictional character and not the author. That is the mark of a good writer.</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi086vXm1OPcCfMVmfQoqBVY4ItCLp2FUZADn-GanvpORAWvizeNO4dyKMoEVUSExZbXeZKEts1B8MV4WAh2-rlN-vNF3gT0ikuvDRwWnUhFg_vaaU745OaftTcZPG2nnNqNEdtya2cFAIzARpDQCw3cKskG5-j4s8ZH3PKhmuDZF05Gl8VGVzyFYfP" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="80" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi086vXm1OPcCfMVmfQoqBVY4ItCLp2FUZADn-GanvpORAWvizeNO4dyKMoEVUSExZbXeZKEts1B8MV4WAh2-rlN-vNF3gT0ikuvDRwWnUhFg_vaaU745OaftTcZPG2nnNqNEdtya2cFAIzARpDQCw3cKskG5-j4s8ZH3PKhmuDZF05Gl8VGVzyFYfP" width="160" /></a></div><br /> Moose Willow Mystery: Yooper Romance by Terri Martin, Modern History Press, 2022, 273p, $24.95pb, $37.95hc, 7.95eBook. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Waltz in Marathon by Charles Dickinson.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>This may not make many readers lists of Classic Michigan Literature but it easily found a place on mine. This is a totally engaging and remarkable novel that revolves around a wonderfully eccentric character and his unique family. The fictional town of Marathon lies somewhere between Flint and Pontiac and the richest man in Marathon is Harry Waltz. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Waltz is a widower, sixty-one, and a father of four. One of his sons was killed in Vietnam and the other son he helped put in prison. He also has twin girls and comes from a family littered with twins. He has a twin brother who he hasn't spoken to in 40 years. Waltz is truly a nice guy, a gentleman who likes people but is not liked in return. He is an anomaly -- a kind-hearted loan shark. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Waltz loans money on the belief his debtors will honor their word and repay the loan. If a payment is late there is no knee caping or even the threat of violence. He simply talks with the debtor and may give him a weeks grace and reminds him he gave his word to repay the loan. If his business runs smoothly with only minor hiccups his personal life is overflowing with confusion. One of his twin girls is married and pregnant and her twin is in love with her husband. His imprisoned son continually reaches out and wants to reestablish a relationship with his father who fines it very difficult to do. Then there is the extraordinary request from his twin brother that Waltz finds unacceptable yet undeniable.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The most confusing and confounding change in Waltz's life is that he may be falling in love with a woman who is as remarkable as Waltz. The hesitant and unexpected romance begins when he notices a very good looking woman he met only once is either teasing or stalking him. Waltz learns she lives on Saginaw Bay and begins walking the beach in front of her house but is too shy to approach any closer. The budding romance is a slow waltz as each are drawn to the other. They circle one another while wondering if they will fit together as partners. For Harry Waltz, Mary Hale is a life changer. How Waltz and Mary meet the coming crises in their lives will determine if it's love or love lost.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Simply put this a wonderfully unique, totally absorbing novel set in Michigan in the late 60s or early 70s. It was published in 1983 to an avalanche of rave reviews that must have had reviewers racing to their thesauruses to find words worthy of this novel that is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago.</b></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div style="text-align: right;"><br /></div></blockquote><div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmqZde0IQSgyRWc6hJJzvnVHhkknQ01DhDDVKj-YRsxS-9-5XKi6Sey4xss5z5wJHOwABoasKZEP5RZxFTvrLeWouvBdtV54F3MM909dGnAGJJpD3OCzPFmSTqM2D2We0ArUSKruawkAOXSol6IQs9eEPLvDBiaJNClv22pbaldf2WFKjSwoOHK42S" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="80" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjmqZde0IQSgyRWc6hJJzvnVHhkknQ01DhDDVKj-YRsxS-9-5XKi6Sey4xss5z5wJHOwABoasKZEP5RZxFTvrLeWouvBdtV54F3MM909dGnAGJJpD3OCzPFmSTqM2D2We0ArUSKruawkAOXSol6IQs9eEPLvDBiaJNClv22pbaldf2WFKjSwoOHK42S" width="160" /></a></div></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Waltz in Marathon by Charles Dickinson, Knopf, 1983, 265p (pb ed.), $23hc. (Cover photo is from 1st. edition.)</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b> </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Faces, Places & Days Gone By: A Pictorial History of Michigan's Upper Peninsula by Mikel B. Classen.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>I found this photographic history of Michigan north of the bridge surprisingly informative and enjoyable. It piqued my interest when I did a first quick look and had to stop and return to one striking photograph after another. Then in the author's introduction I learned all the photographs came from "The Mikel B. Classen Historical Pictures Collection" which he acquired over many years and has grown to over a 1,000 photographs. The author chose 100 to tell this wide ranging history of the U.P.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The photographs are divided into chapters including City and Settlement Life, Homesteading, Lighthouses, Logging, Mining, Native Americans, Recreation, Ships and Shipping, and Miscellaneous. The photos include postcards, restored images, stereo optic cards, cabinet cards and lithographic engravings. Photographers are credited when known and most importantly the author describes and comments on each photograph. He identifies where it was taken and the approximate year. It is evident that the author has thoroughly studied each picture because I can carefully look at a photo of interest and in the following paragraph Classen will call my attention to an important detail I overlooked.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>I was struck by so many photographs but some will have me going back to them time and again. Like the photo of a so called "car" filled with copper miners about to be lowered into a shaft. The "car" is no more than low boxy thing on wheels, equipped with what I assume are bleachers, all of which is tilted at a very steep angle and attached to a cable. The miners are jammed shoulder to shoulder and in moments they will be sent 5,000 feet underground. I shudder at the thought. Two photos a few pages a part caught my attention. One is a portrait of a Native American mail carrier who delivered the mail between the Sault and Alpena by sled dogs. A few pages on is a photo of a working sled dog team carrying the mail. How do you get from the Sault to Alpena by dog sled, yes in the winter? On an icebreaker? And then there is the photo of a Native America mother holding her baby. I can't help but wonder if in a few years the child will be taken from her and sent to a church or government school which will ruthlessly try to entirely strip the child of it's Native America culture. Regretfully it was a fairly common practice. Obviously, my response to the photographs was both intellectual and emotional.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>This book is a rich historical look at the the Upper Peninsula that literally shows it from the ragged edge of the frontier to the 1920s. </b></div></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-weight: bold; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiWzpRaZ7BnUUuHGGICnxIZZIPTXcwaY891qYR8gAj8e8Y30g_ZqeedwoIQO0djVogJ95XZ-pbrGphGy3rUz5_-Yomd4rFaFDZYagg19ej4RLW60EE_XTvPchkxEAsj4WfJeZgOTkgEL3UVSCnYFR_elOlika_CayR6a1jgNWLJ4VWLpKAIJqdPYhJJ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="230" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiWzpRaZ7BnUUuHGGICnxIZZIPTXcwaY891qYR8gAj8e8Y30g_ZqeedwoIQO0djVogJ95XZ-pbrGphGy3rUz5_-Yomd4rFaFDZYagg19ej4RLW60EE_XTvPchkxEAsj4WfJeZgOTkgEL3UVSCnYFR_elOlika_CayR6a1jgNWLJ4VWLpKAIJqdPYhJJ" width="184" /></a></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><div><div style="text-align: left;"></div></div></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote></blockquote><div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Faces, Places & Days Gone By: A Pictorial History of Michigan's Upper Peninsula by Mike; B. Classen. Modern History Press, 2023,117p., $19.95.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><p></p></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-47580165078338910202023-04-17T05:48:00.000-07:002023-04-17T05:48:30.174-07:00<p><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Post 81 April 17, 2023</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Dear Readers,</b></span></p><p><span>The July 2022 announcement that Michigan in Books had ceased publication was premature. Instead, let's call it a hiatus. Frankly, self-imposed deadlines and the constant back log of review books proved stressful. Authors deserved better than having to wait up to three months for a review. But the blog kept reminding me of books I enjoyed, the authors I got to know, and the gratification of publicizing writers working in near obscurity. The number of Michiganders writing about their state continues to surprise me. And I've come to believe if one could accurately count the number of authors per capita in the U.P. it could be called a writer's colony. Lastly, the blog's monthly readership didn't decline after July 2022 - it increased. Here's hoping this doesn't reverse the trend.</span></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p>So, Michigan in Books is back with new guidelines. Postings will be erratic and fewer books may be reviewed. Most, if not all postings, will contain a review of a book generally considered a Michigan classic. I have long wanted to look back at Michigan's literary heritage but couldn't find the time. Admittedly a poor excuse is too often close at hand. Readers are more than welcome to comment and openly disagree with my choices. I no longer have a proofreader, so I apologize in advance for typos, grammatical, and just stupid errors that will find their way into this blog. </p><p><br /></p><p><b>Quote of the Day:</b> "Invent a simple device like an automobile, to get you from here to there more quickly than you could go without it: before long you are in bondage to it, so that you build your cities and shape your countryside and reorder your life in the light of what will be good for the machine instead of what will be good for you. Detroit has shown us how that works." <b>Bruce Catton. </b><i style="font-weight: bold;">Waiting for the Morning Train. </i>1972.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><u><br /></u></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Reviews</u></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><b>Tin Camp Road by Ellen Airgood</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><b><br /></b></span></p><p><span>I knew I would like this book within the first two sentences. They are: "Laurel Hill knew that part of her would die if she ever had to leave Lake Superior. Its lapping was a heartbeat, one connected to her own." Laurel is a single mother with a precocious ten-year-old daughter Skye. They live in a tiny U.P. community on the shores of Lake Superior. Their home is a small, run-down cabin and Laurel manages to scrape together enough money to pay the rent and put food on the table by cleaning motel rooms. </span></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p><span>Airgood has captured perfectly a U.P. that once was and, in many ways, still is. For a number of Yuppers life is a mix of poverty, fellowship, a strong physical and emotional bond with the environment, and a rugged tenacity to do whatever it takes to just get by. Laurel has no safety net under her precarious tight rope of getting by when she learns the cabin is no longer for rent and she must look for a new home and job. She also worries authorities will discover she's leaving a ten-year-old alone in an abandoned trailer when she's working. For Laurel, just getting by is within a heartbeat of broke and broken. </span></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p><span>Adding to Laurel's stress is her constant worry that she is depriving Skye of opportunities for a better life found below the bridge. Laurel is willing to take Skye south regardless of the fact that when she spent time in the lower peninsula she felt like "a fish on a sidewalk." Skye is a fascinating child who's old for her years, deeply loves the U.P., and can read her mother like a book. As their lives tetter on the edge and their future darkens Skye grows stronger.</span></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p><span>Airgood has written a deeply felt book on a special mother-daughter relationship. She also writes of the undeniable and profound way in which the Upper Peninsula seems to alter the DNA of its people, and the strong sense of community that steps up when just getting by is in jeopardy. Moving and memorable.</span></p><p><span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj03Uso80Cnw4cfmPxR_u0mJrxaki7Ik-WBk_ML6yK6K1dtW_GSVSF1mPgOkXRv7UBvhQPy0Z1mb2T5DGOyx68cGh4md9lkgUtnNscAT4HR4bK3T32UQDcMxlAgh7hNwCvFhNqFU3U_1sTceu5IuQNnqZL3SaKyN9T-KTChLw8bh5WnZyJYlQMp5EUS" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="77" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj03Uso80Cnw4cfmPxR_u0mJrxaki7Ik-WBk_ML6yK6K1dtW_GSVSF1mPgOkXRv7UBvhQPy0Z1mb2T5DGOyx68cGh4md9lkgUtnNscAT4HR4bK3T32UQDcMxlAgh7hNwCvFhNqFU3U_1sTceu5IuQNnqZL3SaKyN9T-KTChLw8bh5WnZyJYlQMp5EUS" width="154" /></a></span></div><span>Tin Camp Road, by Ellen Airgood, Riverhead Books, 2021, 288p., Hardback $27, Kindle $4.99. </span><p></p><p><span><br /><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>Waiting for the Morning Train: An American Boyhood by Bruce Catton</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><span>I first read this book some 40 years ago and remember it fondly as a great account of a boy growing up, at the turn of the 20th Century, in the lumbered-out lands east of Frankfort. What made this book even more interesting is it was a major departure from a rather private man who wrote extensively and brilliantly on the Civil War. He was responsible for making me a Civil War buff.</span></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p><span>On rereading it after four decades it was a surprise to discover the book was much more than an autobiography. Undoubtably readers will be spellbound by the wonderfully recalled, near idyllic life of the author's first sixteen years in Benzonia. The town was founded in the 1850s as a religious community by men of "deep faith." Included in the town's charter was a commitment to "temperance, anti-slavery, and included the founding of a college." Catton remembers that growing up in the village was, "just a bit like growing up with the Twelve Apostles... ." Some of its inhabitants considered uttering the word "Golly" a form of profanity. Catton as with his award-winning Civil War narratives has the gift of transporting the reader to a place and a time as if he invented a time machine. </span></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p><span>Catton shows his historical chops in several chapters. The first chapter is a concise almost poetic history of the discovery and exploration of Michigan and the Great Lakes by Europeans. There is also a brief yet thorough and lively chapter on the lumber boom in Michigan, its decline, and the clear cutting which left the state a vast land of stumps.</span></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p><span>What I forgot was Catton's bleak outlook on modern society as illustrated by the above Quote of the Day. His childhood community was based on the improvement of person's inner self and Catton believes it was out of step with society's growing love affair with technology. Catton reasons that when a technology is invented it can't be stopped. The lumber industry used technology to make logging more efficient. The result was a state covered in stumps and society called it progress. Catton argues that mankind has become a slave of the machine and it "operates at full speed." Technology split the atom and a couple of decades later produced the ability to wipe out humanity. Catton died before climate change became an issue and a threat to our livable world. But he would not be surprised that while nations meet and agree to reduce carbon emissions the past year set a new world for the amount of carbon released into the environment.</span></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span>Near the closing Catton writes, "The present may be disturbing and the future may be in the highest degree ominous, but nobody gains anything by seeing in the irrecoverable past a charm and comfort which it did not have." You must read the last short chapter to fully grasp the title's brilliant and moving symbolism. </span></p><p><span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzZsYbWP1w3gMp9uy0uMjlrevAwBzShlGPQG9K0hO20Z67W8UE60285LdsIcAsWaHsYWE8HAtN3v7YlhLl9DsKujKRsy6ToUB4vC2Mzbqzf1y4IzgECVBwEOTr5rEZgMnHRxNkUAOw1g_oSPiOaH7_Lh4S0LqeiwBCFVjuZrJAPgeP8NwTlE3VSq4o" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="80" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgzZsYbWP1w3gMp9uy0uMjlrevAwBzShlGPQG9K0hO20Z67W8UE60285LdsIcAsWaHsYWE8HAtN3v7YlhLl9DsKujKRsy6ToUB4vC2Mzbqzf1y4IzgECVBwEOTr5rEZgMnHRxNkUAOw1g_oSPiOaH7_Lh4S0LqeiwBCFVjuZrJAPgeP8NwTlE3VSq4o" width="160" /></a></div> Waiting for the Morning Train: An American Childhood by Bruce Catton, Wayne State University Press, 1987, 260p., $26.99.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><b>Under the Ashes: Murder and Morels by Charles Cutter</b></div></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><b><br /></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The author's previous books in the Burr Lafayette mystery series feature courtroom dramas so arresting they handcuff one to page. And when court recesses the reader is immersed in the beauty and ambiance of northern Michigan. This fifth in the series meets the same high standards.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span>Nick Fagan is Michigan's hottest disc jockey from Gaylord north to the Straits and part owner of the area's newest and most popular FM station. WKHQ is simply killing the competition and Nick loves to rub in his success to other station owners and DJs. Ah, but fame is fleeting. On a night out with his wife Molly at their favorite restaurant, the chef prepares "veal morel" dish for Nick with mushrooms he picked earlier in the day. After the main course Nick does a face plant in his Baked Alaska and within days dies of a heart attack.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span>Molly hires Burr Lafayette to represent her in court when the insurance company refuses to deliver on her husband's million-dollar life insurance policy. Lafayette had eagerly taken the case because his small law firm was deeply in debt, and this looked like an easy paycheck. But the insurance company refuses to cooperate, new evidence turns up, the insurance company pulls a legal rabbit out of a hat, and Molly is charged with murder. As the trial begins the prosecuting attorney is sure he is presenting a slam dunk case while Lafayette believes Molly is lying to him. Even worse he has no idea how to mount a defense. </span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span>The courtroom scenes are brilliant, funny, sharp as a razor, and compelling as Lafayette desperately attempts to discredit witnesses for the prosecution. He also drives the poor judge to distraction as he stalls in search of a defense. The morel of this story is that in the hands of author Charles Cutter death by poison mushrooms is grand entertainment.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXDeC7nAHEOUFCVYnVSne-uZVZtn48ke13GqTVHnRN5heaGhpEiK16e5gPYKRBSKa2GF1B95TV05QAGbiD9-aVS44RFuRI7tGC-dw6Ml7LTIaWD06YMZTX3CmhpEcLb5B_Lit9D0J4PIN_XgArRcPWdeYgUfzTC5K2P-Me_paW995VTOO9eONLgCKq" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="267" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiXDeC7nAHEOUFCVYnVSne-uZVZtn48ke13GqTVHnRN5heaGhpEiK16e5gPYKRBSKa2GF1B95TV05QAGbiD9-aVS44RFuRI7tGC-dw6Ml7LTIaWD06YMZTX3CmhpEcLb5B_Lit9D0J4PIN_XgArRcPWdeYgUfzTC5K2P-Me_paW995VTOO9eONLgCKq" width="160" /></a></div>Under the Ashes: Murder and Morels by Charles Cutter, Mission Point Press, 2023, 260p., $16.95.</span></div><p></p>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-32321953622738306292022-07-01T08:16:00.001-07:002022-08-21T16:34:51.846-07:00July, 2022 #80<p> Quote for the Day. "It is impossible to look upon the present situation of Michigan and not be impressed. It is destined soon to emerge as a great rich state... The future of Michigan appears to be certain, defined, filled with promise and expansion." Elkanah Watson, father of the Erie Canal, on a visit to Detroit. 1816.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Dear Reader</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span><b>It has been a privilege and a pleasure to publish this blog over the past three years. This marks the last issue and I want to thank all the readers who discovered and followed Michigan in Books. I hope you continue to discover and explore our wonderful state through books.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Reviews</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Superior Justice: Murder on Lake Superior</u> by Mike Montie.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Cliff Molders, a retired detective from the Madison Police Force, is sailing western Lake Superior while waiting to report to Isle Royale where he will work for the summer as a Law Enforcement Ranger. When a body is discovered floating in Lake Superior within the Red Cliff Reservation boundaries the tribal police chief asks Molders to help in the investigation. The woman can't be identified, and it appears she was murdered. With the case unsolved he sails to Isle Royale, meets his outspoken 21-year-old partner who doesn't look forward to working with what she calls an "Old Geezer. The partnership gets off to a rocky start as they begin their daily patrols. One of the pleasures of the novel is the hesitant relationship between Molders and Ranger Katelynn that grows into a great working team. Each character is fully developed and I'm betting most readers would like to see another mystery featuring two. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Within days of settling into his job as a Law Enforcement Ranger the body of a young woman is found floating in the waters of the National Park. The young woman can't be identified and was murdered. Molders immediately connects the two murders and suspects a serial killer may be on the loose. The result is a classic police procedural set in the most remote national park in the lower 48. The novel is a good mix of the everyday duties of an Isle Royale park ranger and the hunt for the killer or killers of what becomes three murdered women.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Mystery lovers will find they're handcuffed to the book within a couple of chapters. The two main characters and their growing professional friendship and mutual respect makes for compelling reading as does the hunt for a serial killer set against the beauty of Isle Royale and the often-treacherous waters of Lake Superior. This is the second book in the series of mysteries featuring the retired Madison Police Dept detective.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiqf7C-JuECn-Uhk-ybzbnBbydYpdZJ0K4y8kzUbCJTf7XWx2AeNGhbiZRN2UtCWgPvAQnw2WVF39kvMO-crRV6SBpNNldp02s4YbF5mu1TmWkhe2Sz8r-KcGw7vDR41Kn8iyWDHn2xggLjskauqk9sYmh_UYGWjCiR4xWP24qXuOxJBSCpsVoWwgHi" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="800" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiqf7C-JuECn-Uhk-ybzbnBbydYpdZJ0K4y8kzUbCJTf7XWx2AeNGhbiZRN2UtCWgPvAQnw2WVF39kvMO-crRV6SBpNNldp02s4YbF5mu1TmWkhe2Sz8r-KcGw7vDR41Kn8iyWDHn2xggLjskauqk9sYmh_UYGWjCiR4xWP24qXuOxJBSCpsVoWwgHi=w484-h121" width="484" /></a></div><br /><b>Superior Justice: Murder on Lake Superior by Mike Montie. Privately Pub. ISBN 9798758487419, 2021, $14.</b><p></p><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>Guardians of the Manitou Passage: A Chronicle of Service to Lake Michigan Mariners 1840 - 1915</u> by Jonathan P. Hawley</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>I'm sure most Great Lakes pleasure boat sailors and all freshwater commercial sailors are familiar with the Manitou Passage. The North and South Manitou Islands lie in Lake Michigan just off the coast of the Leelanau Peninsula. Both north- and southbound commercial vessels that draw less than 27-feet of water and many pleasure-boat sailors steer a course that takes them between the islands and the Leelanau Peninsula. Known as the Manitou Passage it makes for a quick course between the Straits and ports at the southern end of Lake Michigan. It saves commercial freighters and freshwater bulk carriers fuel and time. The islands also offer shelter from significant storms that roar across the big lake. The route also offered boats shelter from a line of </b><b>islands that run in almost a straight north-south line to the Straits of Mackinac and include Beaver Island.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>This fine book is a history of of the lighthouse service, life-saving stations, and the U. S. Coast Guard efforts to make the transit of the Manitou Passage safer. The route between the islands and the Leelanau Peninsula is plagued by numerous shoals, reefs, and the southern entrance or exit of the passage is all of a mile wide. In a moonless night in a strong storm, it's the equivalent of threading a needle. Plans and specifications for the first lighthouse in the passage were issued in 1839. The first life-saving stations weren't built until the 1870s. This thorough and engaging history includes chapters on the daily life and training of lighthouse keepers and the crewmen of the life-saving stations. The book details the numerous lifesaving missions in the first 75 years of service and includes riveting accounts of some of the more perilous wrecks and rescues. Complimenting the narrative is a host of historical photographs.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The book is an important addition to the maritime history of the Great Lakes.</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtIG4aqh4Ke8nlBojkQDm2timlBByEvMQkvYl0AuzjyS3crkUuJHQVyiXOKtJRZfvyrm-Rcu1TYqqFD0o7rIwafUrFT0jyp16fRmsFv6gYF0x8Ztwk5zcRChk02U2z15h2lYWWdicFflee6lGVSmwPIMjdG2KEdZ2BDZ5c38-bRFFCVUwRLsRABpx8" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="612" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjtIG4aqh4Ke8nlBojkQDm2timlBByEvMQkvYl0AuzjyS3crkUuJHQVyiXOKtJRZfvyrm-Rcu1TYqqFD0o7rIwafUrFT0jyp16fRmsFv6gYF0x8Ztwk5zcRChk02U2z15h2lYWWdicFflee6lGVSmwPIMjdG2KEdZ2BDZ5c38-bRFFCVUwRLsRABpx8" width="240" /></a></div><br /><br /></b></div><div><b>Guardians of the Manitou Passage: A Chronicle of Service to Lake Michigan Mariners 1840 - 1915 by Jonathan P. Hawley, Mission Point Press, 2021, ISBN 978-1-954786-49-3, $19.95.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>Once Upon a Twin: Poems</u> by Raymond Luczak. Gallaudet University Press, 2021, ISBN 978-1-944838-7-76-8, $</b></div><div><b><u>Chlorophyll: Poems About Michigan's Upper Peninsula</u> by Raymond Luczak. Modern History Press, 2022, ISBN 978-1-61599-642-1, $</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Well, it was bound to happen, two books of poetry by the same author from two different publishers, reviewed by a guy who lost touch with poetry and/or failed to completely grasp its understanding once he got past "Dick and Jane" stories. "Once Upon a Twin" was chosen as a U.P. Notable Book for 2021. It is a book of autobiographical poems on being deaf, gay, and living in the U.P. Many I found touching, and emotionally powerful while others I found hard to penetrate because of the total lack of punctuation. I unabashedly admit my favorite poem is entitled "the easiest words to lipread in a schoolyard (even) if you're not deaf " Not a typo. No capital letters, commas, or periods. The poem is 25 lines and a bare few more than 25 words. Among the few I dare to quote are, "hey you" and "funny."</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The second book's subtitle is a fair description of the contents. These poems I found far more accessible, and I found the author's unique approach to the poems' subjects entertaining and often surprising. In the poem "LILACS" the author describes inhaling the flower's scent:</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>"laden with that mix of pollen and nectar,</b></div><div><b> into the crook of my nose, my veins</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>throbbing at the slightest twitch.</b></div><div><b>These lilacs in bloom were pure crack."</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Other poems are narrated by the subject of the poem whether it is a white pine, or a dragonfly. The poet even found a voice for basalt who had this to say about its station in life:</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>"We are the couch potatoes of rocks.</b></div><div><b>We just sit there and pray someone notices.</b></div><div><b>The waves always ignore us."</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>"Chlorophyll" is a unique and entertaining portrait of the often overlooked in the U.P. Poetry lovers will find lots to enjoy and contemplate in these two fine books.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Once Upon a Twin by Raymond Luczak. Gallaudet University Press, 2021, ISBN 978-1-944838-76-8, $15.95</b></div><div><b>Chl</b><b>orophyll: poems about michigan's upper peninsula by Raymond Luczak. Modern History Press, 2022, ISBN 978-1-61599-642-1, $14.95.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj4FO4yxP2-wmlsFeHd1fxdJttFFw9u0WG_wwhP3qeNVjacKWtwe_4heSEVWO38bHzQIer8RqO39ORSZKMIl8K6m8Akx2KY0QeiPs6_eUFtM-l9t1CRe39F3O2BTP4s8_b_5vIvJ3fDnaw6RDPf8Lq_n9GtHv7XcOUYwDIo3rBP9do1WRzQ4YBOfBg_" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="324" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj4FO4yxP2-wmlsFeHd1fxdJttFFw9u0WG_wwhP3qeNVjacKWtwe_4heSEVWO38bHzQIer8RqO39ORSZKMIl8K6m8Akx2KY0QeiPs6_eUFtM-l9t1CRe39F3O2BTP4s8_b_5vIvJ3fDnaw6RDPf8Lq_n9GtHv7XcOUYwDIo3rBP9do1WRzQ4YBOfBg_" width="156" /></a></div><br /><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><u>Monkey in the Middle: An Amos Walker Mystery</u> by Loren D. Estleman.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>This Amos Walker mystery marks the 87th book written by Mr. Estleman and I feel pretty confident that it makes him Michigan's most prolific writer. But quantity does not necessarily mean quality, except in Estleman's case. He has won 5 Shamus Awards given by the Private Eye Writers of America for outstanding achievement in private eye fiction. He has also won 5 Spur Awards for outstanding western fiction and won three Western Heritage Awards for making significant contributions to Western heritage. And I'm not done yet! Estleman also won an Edgar Award for best mystery novel from the Mystery Writers of America who also named him a Grand Master for a lifetime achievement of consistent quality in mystery writing. So obviously Mr. Estleman is a state treasure and it seems totally unnecessary to review the thirtieth book in the Amos Walker series. But here goes.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Like so many Amos Walker mysteries the narrative begins in Walker's worn, outdated, and just plain shabby office when a self-proclaimed investigative journalist wants to hire the detective to guard him. Walker takes the case even though the client can't or won't tell the detective why or who he needs protection from. Within days Walker finds himself involved with several federal agencies, a fugitive whistleblower, a publicity driven attorney, and a hired killer. The plot keeps readers guessing or even bewildered until the the final and surprising twist. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>But I'm willing to wager most readers, like myself, are drawn to Estleman because of his incredible writing skills. His prose is sharp as a scalpel and the dialog jumps off the page and slaps you in the face. Best of all are Estleman's bite-sized, pithy, and wry observations on Detroit and Detroit society. Here's a couple of my favorites over the last forty years. "Westland is a workingman's community, functional if it's nothing else, and nothing else is exactly what it is." The above is from "Lady Yesterday" published in 1987. And then there is this observation on the Renaissance Center from "Angel Eyes" published in 1981: "...it's a pretty piece of work and about as necessary as a Tiffany lamp in a home for the blind." </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Pick up this book, or one written by Estleman forty years ago and fall under the spell of a master at the top of his form. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgQZfssEaAalGOcLqvRTXi3Yj34jpUP0PXeaBYbIGd_6GRx2ieHy5iggwwNvXeWnbtVubrFgr6iTzRTJf8a_f6skTWcUOTIbSBR1nRg-JyVkknVzLS6HcEGJ3i_DPnzWMGuUyQyelyIMwDu1easTD6QsqCnbh3GofuwRyJrSNweOzmZ7ntuQWn68wXR" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1388" data-original-width="900" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgQZfssEaAalGOcLqvRTXi3Yj34jpUP0PXeaBYbIGd_6GRx2ieHy5iggwwNvXeWnbtVubrFgr6iTzRTJf8a_f6skTWcUOTIbSBR1nRg-JyVkknVzLS6HcEGJ3i_DPnzWMGuUyQyelyIMwDu1easTD6QsqCnbh3GofuwRyJrSNweOzmZ7ntuQWn68wXR" width="156" /></a></div><br />The Monkey in the Middle: An Amos Walker Novel by Loren D. Estleman. Forge, 2022, ISBN 978-1-250-82717-3, $15.99.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-86318098185376817242022-05-31T22:11:00.000-07:002022-05-31T22:11:49.991-07:00June 1, 2022 Post #79<p><b>Quote for the Day: "Up my way [the Upper Peninsula] old township politicians never die; they merely look that way. Instead they become justices of the peace. It is a special Valhalla that townships reserve for their political cripples and has the invariable rules of admission: The justice of the peace must be over seventy; he must be deaf; he must be entirely ignorant of any law but never admit it, and, during the course of each trial, he must chew -- and violently expel the juice of at least one (1) full package of Peerless tobacco." John Voelker. Trout Madness. 1960.</b></p><p><i><b>Due to continued loss of readership and some minor health problems the July issue of Michigan in Books will mark the end of this blog. The last issue may not make the July 1st deadline, but it will be posted sometime within the month. I sincerely appreciate the many regular readers of Michigan in Books and am indebted to all the independent authors who took a flyer and sent me a review copy. And a big thank you to all the publishers who sent review copies. My takeaway from three years of producing this blog is a whole new appreciation for the number and quality of Michigan authors who toil in near obscurity and deserve both wider recognition and a contract with a major commercial publisher. A final thanks to my proofreader who saved me from many embarrassing typos, miss spellings, and poorly composed sentences. This issue was proofed by yours truly who invariably reads the final draft as he thought he wrote it, instead of what actually ended up on the page. </b></i></p><p><b style="font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><u>Reviews</u></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>True Tales: the Forgotten History of Michigan's Upper Peninsula</u> by Mikel B. Classen.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Even Michigan natives who know just a little about the Upper Peninsula are aware of how unique it is geographically and historically. It is a beautiful, wild, rugged, sparsely populated peninsula full of unforgettable scenic wonders that is equaled by its unique and often strange history. This work by Mikel B. Classen is a great introduction to the often remarkable and memorable history connected to the U.P. that in all honesty weren't forgotten by the general public. They are historical stories they never even knew about.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Among my favorites is the account of the last stagecoach robbery east of the Mississippi which took place in the U.P. The robber called himself Black Bart and killed one passenger and wounded another. Then there's the Great Lake pirate who operated all over Lake Michigan from his base in Escanaba. I thought I knew all the relevant facts about the Ontonagon Boulder. I didn't. It was a mass of pure copper the Native Americans worshipped, but the Hell with their beliefs. The boulder was transported to Washington where it was misplaced and lost for years. The boulder was the spark that lit the Copper Boom in the U.P. The author also writes of the prominent settlers to the U.P., throws in the odd shipwreck, and relates the story of a couple of castaways on Isle Royale. The two </b><b>survived a winter on the island by eating bark, roots, and berries. The husband went crazy from hunger and his wife feared she was next on his menu.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Those who consider history boring need to read this book before doubling down on their misplaced judgement. </b><b>The book is jam-packed full of interesting and arresting true stories tied to U.P. history. All I can say is, another volume please.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpE_YXdLKDgd2cDvT-FCln-u46uOxm_ZOvgq9HmVhkuxU777hB4lZOFmMxiK_-UN3_AqxzEPqh8zm0mH1w8fhXplw2IjGyU_UsT509LJsNEHLUBJQuHflvU32y59VQ1UGL60HMTzY0O9TkvczeVkAHL1yXepwVJbk_jhUa-rhOPAQVkD9emBUJA06i" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="220" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjpE_YXdLKDgd2cDvT-FCln-u46uOxm_ZOvgq9HmVhkuxU777hB4lZOFmMxiK_-UN3_AqxzEPqh8zm0mH1w8fhXplw2IjGyU_UsT509LJsNEHLUBJQuHflvU32y59VQ1UGL60HMTzY0O9TkvczeVkAHL1yXepwVJbk_jhUa-rhOPAQVkD9emBUJA06i" width="151" /></a></b></div><b><br />True Tales: The Forgotten History of Michigan's Upper Peninsula by Mikel B. Classen. Modern History Press, ISBN 978-61599-636-0, 2022, $18.95.</b><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>I Killed Sam: A Novel Based on the 1957 Groundbreaking Trial of a Battered Woman</u> by Robert A. Steadman.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>It is hard to believe that in the 1950s a Michigan law declared the only illegal brutalization of a wife by her husband was murder. By law a wife could be compelled by force to perform her wifely duties in the bedroom. In 1957 a wife in Flint, Michigan who had been battered, tortured, and repeatedly raped by her psychotic husband killed him after he threatened to kill her and throw their 3-year-old into a lit furnace. They had watched horrified when the man, a few days earlier, threw a live kitten into the furnace. On the morning of their promised death the wife walked into the bedroom to beg for their lives. Before she woke her husband she reached under the bed where he kept his shotgun and picked it up in fear he would beat her with it or simply shoot her. While holding the gun it went off and killed the man. The Genesee County prosecuting attorney charged her with murder in what he considered would be a slam dunk guilty verdict.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The author is the lawyer who defended the woman. It is obvious he changed the names of some of the characters and the name of the small town near Flint where he lived. He also adds an element of romance between the lawyer and client that never existed. In an afterword the author states the, "book is based on the actual trial.... ." Steadman's narrative style remined me of the way Robert Traver wrote "Anatomy of a Murder." Without impeding the fast-paced, engrossing narrative both authors managed to explain important aspects of Michigan law and courtroom tactics used in defense of the accused. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Steadman has written an utterly compelling courtroom drama. I was totally shocked by the general acceptance of a Michigan law that allowed a husband to literally rape his wife and beat her into submission. I was further horrified to learn in the afterword the infamous law wasn't taken off the books until 1989 and in a letter accompanying the review copy Mr. Steadman states close to 200 battered women are still in Michigan prisons serving long terms "for defending themselves and their families!" I can't recommend this book highly enough. It is an absolutely riveting reading experience that grabs you from page one and transports you to a Flint courtroom in 1957. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2pu_byIkr7nB_99IsFuaiqMtPelfFrgDv4DRmrcHSneKuUdsf_pBpGJptBYTKb2bIvXVQ9sdxdhSFLvoYUotGhtzUnW9Ku10JjwoL4u8uGvL8k47PILhdGBAjBDAPRmZUDlvECvevcRTnBh4SWAxQ7ph9k2Gk8g4UyN9HkbDjVJK6WOEnBcjM8clZ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="437" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2pu_byIkr7nB_99IsFuaiqMtPelfFrgDv4DRmrcHSneKuUdsf_pBpGJptBYTKb2bIvXVQ9sdxdhSFLvoYUotGhtzUnW9Ku10JjwoL4u8uGvL8k47PILhdGBAjBDAPRmZUDlvECvevcRTnBh4SWAxQ7ph9k2Gk8g4UyN9HkbDjVJK6WOEnBcjM8clZ" width="150" /></a></b></div><b>I Killed Sam: A Novel Based on the 1957 Groundbreaking Trial of a Battered Woman by Robert A. Steadman. Mission Point Press, ISBN 9781954786523, 2022, $16.95</b><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>Honor the Earth: Indigenous Response to Environmental Degradation in the Great Lakes</u> edited by Phil Bellfy.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>This book of updated essays grew out of an environmental conference at MSU on Earth Day, 2007. The essays, as the subtitle suggests, are responses by Native Americans to the miserable record of pollution, over consumption of natural resources, and the all too evident triumph of greed over maintaining a livable environment in the Great Lakes and the world. Readers should not be put off by what appears, at first glance, to be a book intended for a scholarly audience. Yes the format, extended bibliographies, and chapter headings such as, "Grassroots Indigenous Epistemologies: Native, Non-Governmental Organizations, and the Environment," are a little off-putting. Don't be.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>At the heart of most of the essays is the difference between Indigenous Peoples' attitude to the earth and environment which is best summarized by living in balance with nature as opposed to modern society's exploitation of the environment. The essays address a wide range of environmental concerns and the writing is often sharp, critical and outraged. One essay I found especially interesting and biting was on over population and how Japan is so over populated many of her people are "literally tumbling into the sea." Yet they are worried that their declining birthrate means in the future they will have fewer workers to "produce,' and thus 'consume' whatever it is that's produced." The author then goes on to say, "Think about it. I suggest that this attitude signifies nothing so much as stark, staring madness. It is insane: suicidally, homicidally, ecocidally, homocidally insane." </b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>The book is a deep dive into indigenous culture, beliefs, and their close relationship to nature and the environment. It is provocative, disturbing, and to the point. And the point is that humanity is "killing the natural world, and thus itself. It's no more complicated than that."</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghyiDsgl689FF95vUnUlVXfXwZtF9Hj8UhIjL89tq_Ggt2T15u_xG1pOwqtaG_ywIy14gNsyKOpdtbtPN-n4Dsd0QRqqDI7I0LJKymNGlSM0SkaoZQBcpc0o59AF9ZPVsActod5FePCHrb155cxAi-0FaGvOAePWCV6s0gTCTAsspwSznIB5QU_4fV" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="162" data-original-width="101" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghyiDsgl689FF95vUnUlVXfXwZtF9Hj8UhIjL89tq_Ggt2T15u_xG1pOwqtaG_ywIy14gNsyKOpdtbtPN-n4Dsd0QRqqDI7I0LJKymNGlSM0SkaoZQBcpc0o59AF9ZPVsActod5FePCHrb155cxAi-0FaGvOAePWCV6s0gTCTAsspwSznIB5QU_4fV" width="150" /></a></div><br />Honor the Earth: Indigenous Response to Environmental Degradation in the Great Lakes edited by Phil Bellfy. Ziibi Press, ISBN 978-1-61599-625-4, $24.95.</b><p></p></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>U.P. Reader: Bringing Upper Michigan Literature to the World Volume 6</u> Edited by Deborah K. Frontiera and Mikel B. Classen.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>It's always a good day when this annual compendium of poems, short stories, memoirs, history, sparkling essays, and humorous pieces turns up in my mailbox. The U.P.'s rugged landscape, semi-isolation, long winters, stunning beauty, and the always beckoning adventures makes it a breeding ground for authors. Based on a complete lack of hard facts and the absence of any research I believe there are more authors per capita in the U.P. than any other geographical region in the nation. The peninsula simply calls forth the urge of those living above the bridge to write, record, memorialize, and describe the unique culture and characters spawned by that extraordinary peninsula.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Among my favorite pieces in this anthology is a story of a pair of Yoopers hired by the FBI to put a halt to the smuggling of pasties into the U.P. and another about a group of locals and travelers holed up in the out-of-the-way Dead Wolf Bar during a Christmas Eve snowstorm. Dog lovers will not want to miss Richard Hill's tribute to his cocker spaniel Maxwell who was his constant companion for 16 years. And I was especially impressed with a poem titled "Novel" by Tamara Lauder the subject of which was our last two years of masks and virtual house arrest. One stanza reads:</b></div><div><b>"Novel not the kind your read,</b></div><div><b> but a virus that you breathe</b></div><div><b>corona, without the lime</b></div><div><b> invisible, divisible, unjust for all.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>This is a great survey and sampling of the literature generated north of the Straits. By turns, thoughtful, entertaining, or just plain funny there is something here for everyone. And over the last six editions it has earned a reputation as an anthology with high literary standards that offers readers a unique step inside the customs and character of the Upper Peninsula. </b></div><div><br /></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgcu2SgKc0BF0MWpY8hzx4YgnPQtrNIAWQMjKbdygBvXHeBPlJfBfzysZlEOTTQulEJekldEdXwlEQK7qe01FQXozENu6LyCorrNVV1oi3lPGFgTVu6sZ5W4Dzt5NbdZT4UmWx37cp5OkUvKeUyQvXgd9DWFJR6fleO0ISpNuNk5Rf05t5X4hfscA0X" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1500" data-original-width="1151" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgcu2SgKc0BF0MWpY8hzx4YgnPQtrNIAWQMjKbdygBvXHeBPlJfBfzysZlEOTTQulEJekldEdXwlEQK7qe01FQXozENu6LyCorrNVV1oi3lPGFgTVu6sZ5W4Dzt5NbdZT4UmWx37cp5OkUvKeUyQvXgd9DWFJR6fleO0ISpNuNk5Rf05t5X4hfscA0X" width="184" /></a></div><br /><br /></div><div><b>U. P. Reader: Bringing Upper Michigan Literature to the World edited by Deborah K. Fontiera and Mikel B. Classen. UPPA, 2022, ISBN 978-1-61599-660-5, $19.95.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>Maize & Glory: The Epic Story of Michigan's 2021 return to the Top of the Big Ten </u>edited by Gene Myers.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>This is a book for U of M football fans who want a remembrance, tribute, or souvenir of the Wolverines 2021 season in which they won the Big Ten Championship and made the CFP final four. The beautiful and lavishly designed book is the product of the Detroit Free Press and is packed with great photographs taken by Free Press photographers and print coverage of the season by eleven Free Press writers.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>A detailed chapter is devoted to each game of the season. The significance of the game, offense and defense strategy is often noted, and standout players highlighted before the game is described quarter by quarter. Various Free Press Sports Writers and USA Today reporters add their observations and impressions of the game, all of which in complimented by attention grabbing photographs. Essays on the team and season are spread throughout the book as are brief compelling portraits of the major impact players and the coaching staff.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>If you're a Wolverine fan who wants a detailed and informative review of U of M football's 43rd Big Ten Championship season and/or a keepsake of the season this is a must buy.</b></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgsYFgp3dGI3PbUlXPvJTNtc-2p58leGAy4cArPDNUmcuE0LX23desXhnClfqFCLeDsbN2g08Ll4eDCIVAooXH454iVerQE4E48tsCzOoi7O2z1DV93A3VQBvWhfwFiSOIlQM910sax_UuPqLgzAsLJlRYgxkp5KL4FPNxuKLu74w2kH5bqTtij0D0b" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="550" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgsYFgp3dGI3PbUlXPvJTNtc-2p58leGAy4cArPDNUmcuE0LX23desXhnClfqFCLeDsbN2g08Ll4eDCIVAooXH454iVerQE4E48tsCzOoi7O2z1DV93A3VQBvWhfwFiSOIlQM910sax_UuPqLgzAsLJlRYgxkp5KL4FPNxuKLu74w2kH5bqTtij0D0b" width="311" /></a></div><br />Maize & Glory: The Epic Story of Michigan's 2021 Return to the Top of the Big Ten by Detroit Free Press. Pediment Publishing, 2022, ISBN 978-1-64846-008-4, $45.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;"><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="text-align: left;"><br /></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-12067607212510664322022-05-01T07:46:00.001-07:002022-05-01T07:51:30.758-07:00May 1, 2022 Post # 78<p> Quote for the Day: "...beautiful, empty, glittering, cold and brooding, gull-swept and impersonal; [Lake Superior] always there, always the same -- there for the grateful and ungrateful, there for the bastards and angels." Anatomy of a Murder, John Voelker.</p><p><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: medium;">Dear Readers;</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">It is with no small degree of regret that I tell you that
Michigan in Books will cease operations this coming June or July. A year ago,
the blog attracted over 800 readers a month but over the last few months readership
has steadily fallen. Last month page views were in the 300s. In good conscience
I cannot ask publishers or self-published authors to send me review copies for
a publication or blog that only reaches some 300 readers. Additionally, it has
grown increasingly difficult to identify new books about our state, and harder yet
to acquire a review copy. More time is often spent tracking down new Michigan
books and self-published authors than it takes to read and write a review of a
book. At present only 5 review copies are on hand. I will try to review them
all in June. If not, the blog will conclude in July. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">I am not sure why readership has declined so rapidly. It
could be age has caught up with my writing skills or having to stay at home
because of the pandemic more people browsed the Internet. In the end why doesn’t
really matter. What I do know after nearly three years of writing this blog is
that Michigan has a wealth of very good writers who do not get the recognition
they deserve.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">To all the faithful readers of this blog goes out a heart
felt thank you for your long-standing support. And a special thank you to all
the authors I have gotten to know, appreciate, and tried to promote.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">I wish you all good reading,<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal">Tom Powers<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p><span style="font-size: large;">
</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p><b style="font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><u>Reviews</u></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Huron Breeze</u> by Landon Beach</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Rachael Roberts has written three hugely successful thrillers under the pen name Riley Cannon. No one in her very upscale northern Lake Huron community or in America knows Rachael is really Riley except her literary agent Topaz Kennedy. Rachael's third NYTs bestseller appeared 10 years ago and Topaz daily harangues her client for the fourth in the series which Rachel hasn't even started. The bestselling author has a writer's block the size of Hoover Dam. Then fortune smiles on Rachel when a man crawls out of Lake Huron near the home of a neighbor with a knife in his back and dies on the beach. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>A murder investigation is way out of the village cop's league and by default the murder case lands in the lap of the town's successful and eccentric P. I. Obadiah Ben-David. In a moment of desperate brilliance Rachael pays Obadiah a hefty fee to allow her to become his assistant. The murder will be the inspiration for her fourth book and Ben-David's unusual investigation will serve as the plot's outline. Beach has taken a murder mystery, a wickedly satiric look at the publishing industry, the writing of bestsellers, along with a sideways glance at the wealthy in up north Michigan all of which he tosses into a blender and presses puree. The result is a novel smoothie.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Rachael with pen and notebook in hand copies down anything she thinks could be used in her new novel as Ben-David questions possible suspects. Even characters from her three earlier books make appearances to see if they would fit in the new novel. All the while Rachael is continually at crossed swords with her obnoxious and demanding literary agent. As defined in the book, "a literary agent was one of the traditional publishing industry's cornerstone Threshold Guardians--a gatekeeper, who kept unpublished, barbarian writers away from the cherished castle of book-deal majesty." I have a feeling Landon Beach enjoyed writing this book as much as I enjoyed reading it.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgRTarUxZ7RPhsO5VgHUkJSICXVPXEsDSoPX8YXmdWPvH17R7VePglzFoOjfdZGd5wGpKBAQEdKkY_uBPxUiEOoHIqPVljP-QMAH19gNgqdEWkhU72k4y8MK0kShUbyJX1fwuYGmrtaYlqQShToSDtZ9MkVYzw4PRVS3fq8X2YvkKCUSrXIjwBsCWsN" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgRTarUxZ7RPhsO5VgHUkJSICXVPXEsDSoPX8YXmdWPvH17R7VePglzFoOjfdZGd5wGpKBAQEdKkY_uBPxUiEOoHIqPVljP-QMAH19gNgqdEWkhU72k4y8MK0kShUbyJX1fwuYGmrtaYlqQShToSDtZ9MkVYzw4PRVS3fq8X2YvkKCUSrXIjwBsCWsN" width="240" /></a></div><br /><b>Huron Breeze by Landon Beach. Landon Beach Books, ISBN 9781732257870, 2021, $16.99</b><p></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b><br /></b></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b><u>Above the Birch Line</u> by Pia Taavila-Borsheim</b></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b>This small, impressive book of poetry is a life revealed in seventy-five pages by a native of Presque Isle, Michigan who retired as a professor of creative writing and literature at Gallaudet University. The poems describe and capture the author's childhood, marriage, travel, motherhood, aging, and contemplation of death. A great many are set against a beautiful, meticulously drawn word-picture postcard of Michigan.</b></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b>The author's poems are written with a remarkable smoothness, flow with the ease of the Au Sable, and possess a profound feeling for time, place, and people. The reader's eyes seems to glide down the page as the lines strike one emotional cord after another. The poem, "November, 1963" is twenty-one short lines on the assassination of JFK that doesn't take up a full page yet hits the reader with the force of an unabridged dictionary dropped from the top floor of the Dallas Book Depository. The twelve-word poem "Marriage" is a wise and near perfect observation on matrimony. </b></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b>"A floorboard creaks, cries, despite our best intentions to avoid the plank."</b></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b>I'd lay money on the husband stepping on the to be avoided board much more often than the wife.</b></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b>I shy away from reviewing poetry because I just don't feel qualified. And with that said, here is an unqualified, whole-hearted recommendation for this heartfelt book of poetry. I will return again and again to savor these memorable and moving poems. Many of which reflect on life in Michigan. </b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiqm9apYrw4S8dPLblsHz2U7x6SiOrCM0_KXLp_SS159QvyRVedRlY9719uFomejSRdLeTYRur_lNq7ggr4Ga_BjJXYXqWRIiPUMD7MY6a-9mVCO9Oqcee0Jfxm7ROeCLlQl-Ol9F4xIhcuNJBgmyand30suh8oEbz7fEI4E7aTvz777uTJNTQXSAbA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="259" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiqm9apYrw4S8dPLblsHz2U7x6SiOrCM0_KXLp_SS159QvyRVedRlY9719uFomejSRdLeTYRur_lNq7ggr4Ga_BjJXYXqWRIiPUMD7MY6a-9mVCO9Oqcee0Jfxm7ROeCLlQl-Ol9F4xIhcuNJBgmyand30suh8oEbz7fEI4E7aTvz777uTJNTQXSAbA=w155-h224" width="155" /></a></b></div><p></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b> Above the Birch Line: Poems by Pia Taavilla-Borshein. Gallaudet University Press, ISBN 978-1-944838-89-8, 2021, $19.95. </b></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b><br /></b></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b><u>Bath Massacre: America's First School Bombing, New Ed.</u> by Arnie Bernstein.</b></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b>Before May 18, 1927, Bath, Michigan was a small, peaceful Michigan town where everybody knew everybody, doors were not locked at night, and newcomers were welcomed. In 1919 one of those newcomers was Andrew P. Kehoe who married a local woman and bought a small farm near Bath. He was polite and friendly but a man of strange mannerisms and behavior. The farm was extraordinarily neat, he and his wife were socially active in the community, and Mr. Kehoe was widely acknowledged as an expert on dynamiting stumps. He ran and was elected treasurer of the board of education even though or because he hated the new taxes levied to pay for a two-story consolidated school. After the election he spent weeks packing the school's basement with explosives in ordered to blow the new building and its 230+ students to smithereens. On May 18, 1927 Kehoe killed his wife and livestock, blew up his farm, packed his truck with dynamite and headed to town. It was sheer luck that only the explosives under the school's north wing went off killing. The explosion killed 38 children and six adults. </b></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b>This riveting and haunting book presents a detailed description of Bath, draws a harrowing portrait of a psychopathic killer living amidst an unsuspecting community, and a minute-by-minute account of the cataclysmic explosion and the horrific results. The author stitches together dozens of eye-witness accounts from inside the school and around Bath. The author taps both historical sources as well as his interviews with six survivors. One can't read this book without being deeply moved by the pain and horror suffered by the children and their parents, or the almost superhuman effort by the community to rescue entombed children.</b></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b>The author has done a remarkable job of letting the people of Bath tell of their tragedy. It gives the book an immediacy and a direct emotional connection with Sandy Hook, Columbine, Virginia Tech and all the recent and horrible school shootings. The book also touchingly relates the lengths the town went to memorialize those lost in the senseless mass murder. Originally published in 2009 this new addition contains interviews with two survivors not included in the first edition. The only question left dangling in the book as well as the current plague of recent school shooting is WHY, WHY, WHY? </b></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvvmWn3X1FnCicAP_Jw-KoYUH9yq5K7z_g4Xr0_DmGcQm9b7b48-LxwmjFaJC77AdMyayEUX3nV_VAJI1Gf8OGHP6klVNQ_737hQ98Cchk7BK5Mni4L0igMsVIjOrvjx7FpT9k0rQLaS48U9lBLtg7_1pSFrLxMEPnfPkEeOIIaitD66v146mxOPKq" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="503" data-original-width="335" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgvvmWn3X1FnCicAP_Jw-KoYUH9yq5K7z_g4Xr0_DmGcQm9b7b48-LxwmjFaJC77AdMyayEUX3nV_VAJI1Gf8OGHP6klVNQ_737hQ98Cchk7BK5Mni4L0igMsVIjOrvjx7FpT9k0rQLaS48U9lBLtg7_1pSFrLxMEPnfPkEeOIIaitD66v146mxOPKq" width="160" /></a></b></div><b><br />Bath Massacre: America's First School Bombing, New Ed. by Arnie Bernstein. University of Michigan Press, 2022, ISBN978-0-472-03903-6, $22.99 pb. </b><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>Vlad The Impaler: And More Epic Tales From Detroit's "97 Stanley Cup Conquest</u> by Keith Gave.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The author, a retired Detroit Free Press sports reporter wrote the bestselling book The Russian Five that recounted the defection of three Russian hockey players to the Detroit Redwings. And, at coach Scotty Bowman's insistence the Wings later acquired two more Russians by trade. The Russian Five, as they came to be known played a major role in Detroit's winning the 1997 Stanley Cup and revolutionized how the game was played in the National Hockey League. Gave then went on to write and produce a laudable documentary film based on the book. Gave found he still had reams of material on the 1997 season, winning the Stanley Cup, and Russian Five's experiences playing in the NHL. The result is this book which contains a host of great stories he couldn't squeeze into the book or the film. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Readers shouldn't think of this book as Gave picking up the scraps he couldn't work into the film or the first book. What makes this book special is that Gave has let the players, coaches, and Red Wing administrators tell the story of the season and winning the cup from their point of view. I especially liked the unique view of the team and the Russian players as seen by the Chief Flight Attendant on Redbird One. She was aboard the plane when Sergei Federov defected and again when Konstantinov defected. My favorite story is told by NHL referee Paul Devorski who handed out penalties after Darren McCarty pummeled Denver's Claude Lemeieux. McCarty singled out Lemeieux for retribution after driving Kris Draper into the boards the previous season breaking his jaw and multiple facial bones. Devorski watched tapes of Lemeiux's savage blindside hit on Draper the night before the game. When order was restored the linesmen asked if McCarty was getting a game miss conduct. Devorski called McCarty for double roughing believing Claude deserved the beating. Following the fight the Wings came from behind to tie the game. Then karma struck when McCarty scored the winning goal in overtime. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The title of the book would imply that it was all about Vladimir Konstantinov. His story is familiar to all Wings fans. If you haven't heard it, the Wings held a party a week after winning the Cup and on the way home Konstantinov's unlicensed limo driver crashed into a tree. Vlad suffered horrific brain and spinal injuries. He remained in a coma for two months and when he awoke doctors said his brain damage left him with the cognitive skills of a small child and he would need around the clock care from nurses and caregivers. The care has been ongoing for 25-years until a recent Michigan law put a cap on the amount of money car crash victims can receive. Or as Keith Gave sees it, Konstantinov "...faces another catastrophe, his survival hanging in the balance, thanks to unconscionable legislation passed by lawmakers on both sides of aisle bought and paid for by the breathtakingly greedy Michigan insurance industry." Doctors are afraid Konstantinov may not survive normal nursing home care. And, one should keep in mind this is not only happening to Konstantinov but thousands of Michigan victims of catastrophic injuries due to car accidents. A portion of the sale of this book is earmarked for the Vladimir Konstantinov Special Needs Trust.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>This is a must read for hockey fans, especially Red Wings fans. Keith Gave has scored a literary hat trick with this fine book.</b></div><div><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFKwxrNgoAhhiOgeBwpoz0MPhdV_-qkvirAy3CuymLWEjP8yd1--i0ERWcjXO_g5-hHmHpkJfmTUGB27Zi9qSe2twZmImmT_AUDXNY72fmGT2wS1_bTe5lmt24mdVibwj_QnJ5wOWyfMMIFwjgaZTWPV9KMRy-NIOsqCTobtA5I6yARl662zefvgGs" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="162" data-original-width="107" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhFKwxrNgoAhhiOgeBwpoz0MPhdV_-qkvirAy3CuymLWEjP8yd1--i0ERWcjXO_g5-hHmHpkJfmTUGB27Zi9qSe2twZmImmT_AUDXNY72fmGT2wS1_bTe5lmt24mdVibwj_QnJ5wOWyfMMIFwjgaZTWPV9KMRy-NIOsqCTobtA5I6yARl662zefvgGs" width="159" /></a></b></div><b><br />Vlad the Impaler: And More Epic Tales from Detroit's '97 Stanley Cup Conquest by Keith Gave. Teufelsberg Productions, ISBN 978-1-952421-25-9, 2021, $16.99.</b><p></p><p _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=d944675a55be0b76eaf8f89e7bc5fb8f&camp=1789&creative=9325&index=books&keywords=Huron Breeze" style="text-align: <a target=;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b> </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><b>
</b></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-76337036956447993212022-04-01T06:06:00.005-07:002022-04-02T12:11:29.236-07:00April 1, 2022 Post #77<p> Quote for the Day: "I have seen the storm of the Channel, those of the Ocean, the squalls off the banks of Newfoundland, those on the coasts of America, and the hurricanes of the Gulf of Mexico. No where have I witnessed the fury of the elements comparable to that found on this fresh water sea." Francis Count De Castelau. 1842.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Reviews</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>2022 Michigan Notable Books</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;">Click on News and Views to see the twenty books published in the last year that were named as Michigan Notable Books. </p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>Don't Click on Book Covers</b></p><p><span>Over a month ago Amazon informed me that at the end of February I and other bloggers could no longer copy and paste products, including book covers, as we had done in the past. Amazon then announced how one might copy and paste using a new set of indecipherable directions. After tearing at what little hair I have left over the course of two weeks I decided to no longer use Amazon for my covers and found I could copy and paste from Google. I don't think it will affect readers of the blog because I get a monthly report on the number of clicks on book covers. They usually amount to less than a half dozen. What I didn't expect was that on all 76 earlier blog postings Amazon blocked clicking on the book covers. </span></p><p><span><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Sisters of the Sweetwater Fury</u> by Kinley Bryan.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>One of the great joys of producing this blog is picking up a self-published book by an unknown author, reading a few pages, and discovering you have fallen under the spell of a great story told by a talented storyteller. And yes, "Sisters of the Sweetwater Fury" by Kinley Bryan is one of those books and she is one of those authors. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The novel follows the lives of three sisters over the course of three days, November 7-9, 1913. In those three days the most destructive storm in the history of the Great Lakes swept 250 sailors to their deaths, sank 19 ships, and wrecked another 19. One of the three sisters is a cook on a 500-foot ore carrier. The oldest sister, a widow of a husband who died while working at a Life Saving Station, lives in Port Austin, Michigan. She will soon find herself manning the Port Austin Life Saving Station's badly damaged surf boat as it tries to rescue the crew of a grounded freighter a mile offshore. It's a question of which breaks up first, the ship or the surf boat. The youngest sister has just married the captain of Great Lakes freighter and on a whim decides to board his boat for the last trip of the season. The storm puts the lives of the three sisters in dire peril.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The sisters are convincing and well-drawn characters. The magic of a powerful historical novel is the way words on a page can make readers feel they are experiencing an event along with the characters. In the author's hands the storm becomes an awesome, deadly, maelstrom almost beyond imagination in its violence. Reading this book is the closest one will ever come to experiencing what it feels like as a ship longer than a football field breaks apart under you. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The research is impeccable, and the novel is full of fascinating details on Great Lakes shipping and the life of freshwater sailors. The masterful narrative is compelling, suspenseful, and very powerful. This novel goes on a small shelf containing my all-time favorite books.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1737915200&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></p><b>Sisters of the Freshwater Fury by Kinley Bryan. Blue Mug Press, ISBN 978-1-7379152-0-1, 2021, $14.96.</b><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>The Big Island: A Story of Isle Royale</u> by Julian May, Illustrations by John Schoenherr</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>First published in 1968, this wonderful picture book works so well because the striking artwork and the narrative's simple, well-chosen words perfectly complement each other. The result is a classic children's introduction to Isle Royale National Park. This welcome reprint by the University of Minnesota Press includes a short report at the back of the book by noted wolf expert L. David Mech who describes</b><b> the changes on the island over the last fifty years.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The slim volume recounts the history of Isle Royale. It briefly tells of the island's creation in Lake Superior and how both plants and animals came to inhabit it. Much of the book explains how the island's moose population and wolves depend on each other for survival. The simply told story shows how the moose are dependent on wolves to keep the herd healthy and from growing in numbers until it outstrips their food supply. On the other hand, without moose wolves could not survive on the island. The book is a simple and understandable lesson on ecological balance. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>This may be a children's book, but adults will find great pleasure in the finely drawn illustrations and in reading the book to the young. I visited Isle Royale over 20 years ago and I treasure the book because it is a vivid reminder of four extraordinary days spent on the island. I expect the book will have the same effect on others lucky enough to have visited America's least visited national park.</b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhjVadv5j5q_FcM6lxIAE0PUXiR44kb7j53DwfiyTUQMzl93edif5aQMTmpibuGUHwXfkxyTFc8wL48yPfAnUmj7kyq_YvZqvGOo7jQ24No8Ie3DiSwd6lHwVQGb8bUqZkCWj3mStM2Igqiyseaii0gEGZWF4TjFcvXqWuGEolixmGbPO_oADyvQD0I" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1510" height="241" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhjVadv5j5q_FcM6lxIAE0PUXiR44kb7j53DwfiyTUQMzl93edif5aQMTmpibuGUHwXfkxyTFc8wL48yPfAnUmj7kyq_YvZqvGOo7jQ24No8Ie3DiSwd6lHwVQGb8bUqZkCWj3mStM2Igqiyseaii0gEGZWF4TjFcvXqWuGEolixmGbPO_oADyvQD0I=w303-h241" width="303" /></a></div><div><b><br /></b></div>The Big Island: A Story of Isle Royale by Julian May and Illustrated by John Schoenherr. University of Minnesota Press, ISBN 978-1-5179-1069-3, 2021, $17.95.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>Grievers</u> by Adrienne Maree Brown</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Dune, the main character of this impressive debut novel, is sitting at a table watching her mother work in the kitchen. Dune is stunned as her mother stops talking in mid-sentence, freezes in position as if playing a kid's game of statue, and dies. Dune's mother proves to be patient zero of a plague, pandemic, or undetermined killer that only strikes African Americans living in Detroit. Within days of her mother's death hundreds have died from the mysterious killer. The wealthy have fled and left the poor to suffer. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">As her world crumbles around her and grieving over the death of her mother Dune wanders the city talking to survivors, those leaving the city, and documents the dead she finds left in their homes or lying in the streets. Municipal services disappear, including hospitals, grocery stores, police, businesses of all kinds are gone. She learns from a doctor who stayed that Black Detroit is not dying from a virus but has no clue as to what is killing them. Dune continues exploring the dying city searching for food while taking notes and recording the unthinkable tragedy in hopes of discovering what is happening to her city and people. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Do not mistake this book as a story of the Covid 9 pandemic from a Black point of view. The novel is a powerful portrayal of grieving, the struggle to find joy in life, and the love for a city. The book is set in the near future in a country still rent by racism, voter suppression, corruption, and failing schools. Detroit serves as symbol for all that's eating away at America's promise but as the author notes, "Detroiters are persistent when it comes to surviving the impossible." This book will stay with you long after the last page is turned. And by the way, there is no "The End" on the last page. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrPL4hZU60k09IothfMarVPnjo7xD2a3GyN1cnq4-TlSr0KP0q-FuZLwB10vcCHtso3-il3EK8Q4SKkUXyNIu1BZYimNLVLQB7ya6wMBcI_DtksbrLqZ_LGBePWSpa34vel42-pGpSxZvXFGj9ZR3MrtZ-BFUI_6_J94sCdWRsm6Zblkm7WOc53W7u" style="clear: left; display: inline; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="" data-original-height="648" data-original-width="540" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhrPL4hZU60k09IothfMarVPnjo7xD2a3GyN1cnq4-TlSr0KP0q-FuZLwB10vcCHtso3-il3EK8Q4SKkUXyNIu1BZYimNLVLQB7ya6wMBcI_DtksbrLqZ_LGBePWSpa34vel42-pGpSxZvXFGj9ZR3MrtZ-BFUI_6_J94sCdWRsm6Zblkm7WOc53W7u=w200-h240" width="200" /></a></div>Grievers by Adrienne Maree Brown. AK Press, 2021, ISBN 978-1-84935-452-3, $15.<br /><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b> </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b> </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-18388035816999291542022-03-01T06:31:00.002-08:002022-03-07T16:00:57.639-08:00March 1, 2022, Post #76<p> Quote for the Day: "In this uncertain climate the hopes of the eager watcher for spring are doomed to many and many a disappointment." Bela Hubbard. Memorials of a Half-Century in Michigan and the Lakes Region. 1887.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span face="serif, sans-serif" style="font-size: large;">Breaking News: Don't Click on Book Covers</span></p><p><span face="serif, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span face="serif, sans-serif">Over a month ago Amazon informed me that at the end of February I and other bloggers could no longer copy and paste products, including book covers, as we had done in the past. Amazon then announced how one might copy and paste using a new set of indecipherable directions. After tearing at what little hair I have over the course of two weeks I decided to no longer use Amazon for my covers and found I could copy and paste from Google. I had completed the March issue well before the end of February and planned telling readers about the change in the April issue. I honestly didn't think it would affect readers of the blog because I get a monthly report on the number of clicks on the book covers. They usually amount to less than a half dozen. What I didn't expect was that on all 75 earlier blogs Amazon blocked clicking on their copy and pasted book covers. And I found it absolutely baffling that clicking on the book cover now takes one to Pinterest. But if you are on Pinterest it gives you a chance to pin the books on your sites. I encourage readers to take their business to local bookstores and I will include ISBN numbers, so it is easier to locate books. God bless software writers, and may they live by the motto, "If it's not broke don't fix it."</span></span></p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Reviews</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u><br /></u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>A Dangerous Season</u> by Russell Fee</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>In an inspired use of literary license, the author made Michigan's Beaver Island the state's smallest and most remote county and installed a physically and psychologically damaged ex Chicago cop as the sheriff. This is the third in the Sheriff Matt Callahan mystery series and it more than lives up to the first two very promising opening volumes in what I hope will be a long- running series. The second in the series, "A Dangerous Identity" won the Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year Award, and in my humble opinion this newest offering in the series is the best yet.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The book is set during the winter season when the ferry from Charlevoix stops running and the only way off and on the island is by plane. So how did a young teenage girl get on the island during the depths of winter. She appears to be able to survive in the island's least populated areas and is rarely seen except when she steals food from the island's residents. Sheriff Callahan and his small staff find the girl and discover she won't or can't speak and doesn't match any statewide postings of missing girls. When it becomes apparent she may be a Native American, Callahan works with tribal police in the UP to try and find out why she ran and how she got on the island. It turns out the girl believes a mythical Ojibwa beast is out to kill her, when in fact she is the target of a human killer. A secondary mystery concerns who and how did someone cause the wide-spread infection of all the fish in one of the island's lakes.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The author fully captures Beaver Island during the winter and the hardy souls who weather the cold, snow, and the isolation. Major and minor characters ring true and Callahan and his staff grow and develop with each new book in the series. Of particular interest in this mystery are politics, business, and law enforcement on Native American land in the Upper Peninsula. This book goes down like a hot cup of cocoa while setting before a fire while a January blizzard howls outside. Completely satisfying and left wanting more.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1949661563&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>A Dangerous Season by Russell Fee. Outer Island Press, 2021, $14.99</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Justice for Max</u> by Scott Daniel</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Ray Hunter is a local reporter of a small weekly newspaper in Southfield, Michigan. Ray just happens to witness a deadly hit-and-run accident in which the city's star high school quarterback is killed. The driver of the hit-and-run car is the mayor of Southfield and has high political aspirations. She also has a lover, the city's Chief of Police. As she speeds away from the victim lying on the pavement, she calls her lover and asks him to cover her back and find someone else to frame for the crime. All this happens in the first twenty-five pages and is the set-up for an engrossing novel of suspense.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Ray Hunter is driven to cover the crime and when he has doubts as to how the police are conducting the investigation, he starts his own inquiry into the hit-and-run. He soon learns there are many questionable aspects of how the police are handling the case. Ray also discovers his life may be in danger by conducting his own investigation. When the police announce they have arrested a suspect Hunter quickly realizes it is a set-up. The real question is can Hunter survive until he unravels the lies and reports the truth.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The book is written by an experienced Detroit reporter and Ray's journalistic work comes across as very authentic and Southfield, Michigan is well drawn as a wealthy cheek-by-jowl suburb of Detroit. The author also accurately portrays the struggle of small papers to survive in the Internet Age. This is a fine first novel in which the suspense builds relentlessly and will leave readers hoping for more from this promising author.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1737592509/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1737592509&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=a5e3654c11bbb90c7b0932c0adc2ff08" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1737592509&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Justice for Max by Scott Daniel. Sentinel Media of Michigan, LLC, 2021, $11.99.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><u><b>Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes: Tragedies and Legacies from the Inland Seas</b></u><b> by Anna Lardinois</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Before cracking the cover of this book, I went to Amazon and typed in great lakes shipwrecks. I stopped counting at 30 titles. And in the past few months this and another new book on the subject have been published. Obviously, there is an enduring fascination with the subject. The book quotes the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum on Whitefish Point that estimates 6,000 ships have gone down in the Great Lakes and claimed 30,000 lives. This informative and readable book will impress readers by the variety of ways in which these ships met their fate.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Many of the shipwrecks can be blamed on overconfident captains, poorly built unseaworthy ships, inadequate weather services, and the speed and violence in which storms could descend </b><b>on the lakes. The author has picked the stories she tells because they are either unique or the sinking has much in common with other shipwrecks. Passenger ships often sailed dangerously overcrowded and often lacked enough life jackets and lifeboats for their passengers. In 1882 the SS Asia, built to hold 40 passengers, carried nearly a hundred on its last voyage. Capt. Savage sailed in spite of being denied a license to sail because of the weather. His ship was a flat-bottomed river boat that broke up in a Lake Huron storm. The Capt. made it into the first and only surviving lifeboat and was only one of two survivors. </b><b>A ship that carried convicts to Australia and served as a prison ship in the 1850s was turned into a museum, brought to the Great Lakes, and sank in Lake Erie in 1946. </b><b>Then there is the strange story of the Atlantic that went down in Lake Erie in 1852 taking the lives of hundreds of emigrants. Both Canada and the US claimed the wreck. The issue was not settled in court until 1996. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Strangest of all is the Lake Superior ghost ship. The SS Bannockburn sank in 1902 with all hands. For years sailors swore to have seen the ghost ship and its unique silhouette. In the 1940s the freighter Hitchinson was struggling to survive a terrible storm and was hugging the Pictured Rocks shoreline. With navigational aids gone due to ice the crew was afraid they would run aground when out of the mist appeared the Bannockburn. She was spotted 100 yards away and heading straight for the Hitchinson. The ship turned to avoid a collision and the Bannockburn disappeared. When navigational aids were restored, the crew learned if they had not turned to avoid running into the ghost ship they would have run aground. Pick any chapter in this book and you'll be hooked.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=149305855X&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Shipwrecks of the Great Lakes: Tragedies and Legacies from the Inland Seas by Anna Lardinois. Globe Pequot, 2021, $19.95.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Great Lakes for Sale: Updated Edition</u> by Dave Dempsey.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>If you live in Michigan or the Great Lakes watershed you need to read this book. It is a disturbing and alarming look at efforts over the past four decades, to commercialize the water of the Great Lakes and its water table. Since 2001 Nestle has drawn two billion gallons of Michigan's public water and sold it. The CEO of Nestle put it succinctly when he said that water is not so much a human right but simply a "grocery product." But that's only a drop in the bucket compared to future and current attempts to divert Great Lake's water around the world. Canada proposed selling 50 tankers of Lake Superior water a year to Asia. In this country someone had the crazy idea of refilling the badly depleted Oglala Aquifer, tapped throughout the Great Plains to irrigate crops, by pumping it full of Great Lakes water. Another company wanted to send Great Lakes water to coal mining areas where the water would be mixed with coal to create a slurry so it could be moved via pipelines. The desert Southwest also has eyes on our freshwater seas.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The author traces the threat of diverting much of the Great Lakes to an early 1980s Supreme Court decision that limited a state's ability to block transfer of water out of state. The NAFTA agreement also prohibited signers of the treaty from banning water transfers between treaty signees. The governors of Great Lake States and Ontario's prime minister met in 1983 to devise plans and policies that would limit out-of-state water transfers due to conservation measures. The governors' and prime minister of Ontario's plan to stop water diversion was codified in what became known as the Great Lakes Compact. The author then details how governors would step in to halt another state from diverting water based on the Compact but then got away with doing the very same thing in his or her state. The author claims that the Great Lakes Compact "resulted in more new or increased diversions out of the basin in its first dozen years than the number of diversions authorized in the previous 118 years."</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>This isn't fun reading, but it may well be the most important book you'll read this year or next. It lays out the current and future threats that can dangerously lower the water level of the lakes. Nestle's wells are already threatening to dry up natural flowing springs, picturesque trout streams, and make rural homeowners redrill their wells in search of a disappearing water table. This book is an alarm bell in the night.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1954786581&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Great Lakes for Sale: Updated Edition by Dave Dempsey. Mission Point Press, 978-1-954786-58-5, 2021, $14.95.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b> </b></p>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-62306672923166616192022-02-01T06:33:00.004-08:002022-02-01T06:38:55.350-08:00February 1, 2022, Post # 75<p> Quote of the Day: "There have been few birds in the history of Michigan, indeed in the history of mankind, that have captured the imagination as did the passenger pigeon. Old timers who have seen a flight of pigeons were hard pressed to find words to describe the scene. Such enormous numbers of birds passing overhead would blot out the noonday sun, and for hours it would be as dark as midnight." Eugene T. Peterson in Michigan Perspectives: People, Events, and Issues. 1974.</p><p><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: center;"><u><span style="font-size: large;">Reviews</span></u></h3><div><u><span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></u></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u>The Secret of Snow</u> by Viola Shipman</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>In a half-dozen novels the author has proven to be a born storyteller and his latest burnishes that well-earned reputation. And yes, I said he. Viola Simpson is the name de plume of Wade Rouse who chose the pseudonym to honor is grandmother. This latest offering takes readers into what was the well-ordered life of TV meteorologist Sonny Dunes. Sonny is 50, comfortable living alone, loves her job, and living in Palm Springs. She grew up in Traverse City but left because she hated winter. But the well-ordered life comes to a crashing halt when she discovers she's being replaced by a digital weather girl and self-destructs on live TV. She tears up the evening news set in a drunken rage. It goes viral and leaves her unemployable. Surprisingly, Sonny's agent calls to tell her she has an offer. The lowest rated local TV station in Traverse City wants to hire her.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Reluctantly Sonny agrees and it is revealed winter wasn't the only reason she left her hometown. She lives with a terrible feeling of guilt about the past, the pain of losing a loved one can't be repressed, and the cold weather is beyond bracing. To make matters worse, within days she learns someone at her new station is bent on sabotaging what is left of her frail reputation. The author is not a meteorologist but writes convincingly about how they do their job, connect with the viewing public, and what makes a television news crew a team or tears it apart. Given an assignment to report on ice fishing she finds, "Ice fishing is like watching paint dry. In Antarctica. Naked."</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Anyone who has read a previous novel by this author knows it's a foregone conclusion the book will have a happy ending. But that doesn't mean readers won't find it moving and believable with</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>a cast of compelling characters, and a vivid description of Traverse City in all its winter glory. The book is immensely readable, and always entertaining.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1525806440/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1525806440&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=9505f34ede95031648ed27e2335fd6a4" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1525806440&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The Secret of Snow by Viola Simpson. Graydon House, 2021, $16.99 pb.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u>J. Walitalo Woodburnings: Highlights of the First Five Years</u> by Joanna Walitalo</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>I am in awe of Joanna Walitalo and her first book. She is a pyrographer. In simple terms she is an artist who creates extraordinary portraits of people, wildlife and landscapes that are burned into wood using a pen-like instrument with interchangeable heating tips that when touched to wood leave different shaped burn marks. The simplest analogy is the different tips are like a painter's many specialized brushes needed to create a painting. I, like Joanna and countless other kids, had an early fascination with woodburning but after a few painfully burned fingers and poor results gave it up as did the author. As a child and later as an adult she took art classes in a variety of venues including Midland Center for the Arts as she earned a BS in Biology and Environmental Studies at CMU and a Master of Forestry at Michigan Tech in the UP. </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>She combined her passion for art with her scholastic work to bring wildlife, and our state's breathtaking natural settings to life through pen and ink, watercolors and oils before picking up a woodburner again. The results of applying hot, burning pens into contact with slabs of wood are stunning and what the reader holds in his or her hands are just the highlights of her first five years as a pyrographer. The various chapters are divided into landscapes, wildlife, portraits of people and pets, the kitchen, and fauna and several other topics. There is an introduction to each chapter and the author usually comments about her approach in capturing the images found in that chapter. Every piece of work includes a short paragraph that includes title, the type of wood used, and short notes on the subject be it a tame otter, a wolf in the wild, or their family's cabin.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The book's cover depicting a beaver in a pond only hints at the magic this book holds. It took a minute for me to wrap my head around the fact that what I was looking at was a beaver brought to life by wood burning. Images jump off the pages that are simply incredible. She incorporates the grain of the wood into the images and works in great detail such as the drool and droplets of water failing from a moose's mouth. I am fascinated by how she burns water. She makes it shimmer, reflects images, depicts it as still, or creates currents within the lake or stream. There has been some discussion on whether woodburning is a craft or art. This book decisively puts that issue to rest.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1615996184/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1615996184&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=67f2418bc698393d49927d178855b4a5" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1615996184&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>J. Walitalo Woodburnings: Highlights of the First Five Years by Joanna Walitalo. Modern History Press, 2021, $74.95.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Thompsonville in Time: A Northwest Michigan Story 1890 - 2021</u> by Charles T. Kraus</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>This is a meticulously researched, authoritative history of a small town in Benzie County founded in 1889 at the point where two railroads intersected. In the 1890s its residents, swollen with pride and optimism, boasted it was the "biggest little town in Michigan." In 2005 a Traverse City columnist wrote, "Alas, they were wrong. Thompsonville had no real future at all." The village like many small towns in northern Michigan relied on a wealth of local natural resources, a bountiful supply of hardwood trees in this case, for its early success and growth. But when the Piqua Handle Factory and a wooden dish factory cut down all the hardwoods the two companies either went out of business or moved. For the village of 1,000 it was the beginning of a long, slow inexorable decline. Bad luck also played a part when the dam supplying electrical power to the village collapsed several times. Then there's the fire that burned downtown to a crisp.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The author has mined a rich vein of local history including memoirs, letters, contemporary newspaper articles, diaries, unpublished manuscripts, the state archives, railroad histories, historical associations, and numerous libraries. The book also uses more than a hundred historical photographs to tell Thompsonville's story. Entertainment, religion, social life, sports, community activities are all covered in this comprehensive history. There is hope for revitalization of the village and the community from the same features that first attracted people to settle here - its natural resources. The Betsey River has been designated a natural river and attracts fishermen, kayakers, canoeists and a day use park invite hikers, birdwatchers, and snowshoeing in winter. The Crystsl Mountain Resort brings skiers to the area in the winter, and a railroad bed has been turned into hiking a biking trail. The village is still on maps and optimism seems to be the watch word for Thompsonville. </b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The book is a great example of how local histories should be written and produced.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div a="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/195478645X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=195478645X&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=4ca3fffbb4f3aa51aa81a2b298671fd7" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=195478645X&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Thompsonville in Time: A Northwest Michigan Story 1890 - 2021 by Charles T. Kraus. A Benzie Area Historical Society Publication, Mission Point Press, 2021, $49.95.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><p><b><u>Cutthroat Dogs: An Amos Walker Novel</u> by Loren D. Estleman</b></p><p><b>The first in the series of mysteries featuring Detroit private eye Amos Walker was published in 1980. The book was hailed as a classic hardboiled detective story and Estleman was favorably compared to Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler, two iconic American writers who created and set the standard for hardboiled writing. Four decades later finds Estleman the holder of four Shamus Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the publication of his 29th Amos Walker novel. </b></p><p><b>In the latest Walker novel, the detective is hired by the sister of a man who has spent two decades in prison for murdering his girlfriend. The client is sure her brother is innocent, but in a visit to the prison the client's brother will have nothing to do with Walker. The father of the dead girl hosts a national TV show titled "Cutthroat Dogs" in which he reports on murders in which the killer is known but has illuded police. The program was inspired by his daughter's death and the father doesn't welcome Walker prying into the case. The dogged detective is undeterred and keeps pulling on loose threads until the case begins to unravel. As always, Estleman's narrative is compelling, brisk, full of interesting characters, and keeps readers guessing until the final, unexpected twist in the plot. </b></p><p><b>Among the many joys of an Estleman novel is dialogue sharp enough to cut a tough steak and memorable and often humorous metaphors and similes. Two of my favorites from this book are: "The man was as changeless as the Pictured Rocks;" and "You wear subtle like a rat in a raincoat." The entire series gives a remarkably trenchant, humorous, and a keen-eyed, 40-year portrait of the ever-changing social, political and architectural face of the Motor City. If you like classic private eye mysteries Loren D. Estleman's Amos Walker series is not to be missed. </b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08QGKHH83/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B08QGKHH83&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=cced682aee845963d67d5cbcc048fdd1" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=B08QGKHH83&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a><b> </b></p><p><b>Cutthroat Dogs: An Amos Walker Novel by Loren D. Estleman. Forge, 2022, $25.99.</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><i>Any of the books reviewed in this blog may be purchased by clicking your mouse on the book's cover which will take you to Amazon where you can usually purchase the book at a discount.</i></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-89647200918086579522022-01-01T06:44:00.001-08:002022-01-05T19:01:39.024-08:00<p> </p><p>January 1, 2022 Post # 74</p><p>Quote for the Day: "...in the U.P. ...families often spend weekends exploring the seemingly endless networks of old two-tracks. The usual practice is to load up the family car with gas, food, and beverages, pile in with the kids, take off for the woods, and get promptly lost. They drive around all day at five or ten miles per hour, drive on until the two-track intersects a county road and then try to guess where the hell they are. If there's enough daylight left, they turn back and into woods and get lost again." Jerry Dennis "A Place on the Water. 1993.</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>New Books Always Make for a Good New Year</b></span></p></blockquote><p></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Reviews</u></b></span> </p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Up North in Michigan: Portrait of a Place in Four Seasons </u>by Jerry Dennis</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>When it comes to exploring, interpreting, describing, and appreciating the beauty and bounty of natural Michigan Jerry Dennis stands out as one of the state's most important and finest writers. </b><b>All the essays are relatively short and recount the author's lifetime of experiencing and taking great joy in northern Michigan's natural wonders. For Jerry, the opportunities to commune with nature come while hiking, canoeing, fishing, birdwatching, hunting for morels, taking a scenic drive, or simply soaking in the natural world whether it's within arm's reach or hundreds of light years away. I especially liked the essays in which the author searches out or simply stumbles across an aspect of the natural world most of us would overlook. Such as the chapter on his exploration of the understory of a mature forest. The essay ends with; "A day in the woods can be a bargain you make with the world. Take a little of the woods home, leave a little of yourself behind."</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>In fact, one could wear out a highlighter on the memorable sentences and phrases found in this book. There is the amusing; "Fly fishing for pike is like playing hot-potato with fragmentation grenades." Then there is the profound; "The night sky is an excellent corrective to our self-importance. Everything superficial falls away. Vanity disappears. Politics, culture, and fashion fade to insignificance. It's just us, alone beneath the infinite, as we've been since the beginning."</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>I read this collection of essays as a love letter to the great and small natural wonders of northern Michigan. This splendid book is graced with beautiful illustrations by Glenn Wolff. Pick up this book and you may well be holding a classic. It's a shoo-in to make Michigan's Notable Books List.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0472132970/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0472132970&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=d252b4978962bdea08c90a3c48b8ff16" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0472132970&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Up North in Michigan: A Portrait of Place in Four Seasons by Jerry Dennis. University of Michigan Press. 2021. $24.95.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Delta County</u> by J.L. Hyde</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>This book is so readable I never stopped to take notes, so I'm winging it on this review. Heather Matthews returns to Escanaba for her emotionally charged 10th high school reunion. On her graduation day her parents were killed in an automobile accident. A drunk driver drove them off the road and into a tree. If anything could make the situation worse was the fact that it was the mother of her best friend who caused the accident. She has not spoken to her friend since the accident.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Heather returns to Escanaba with her husband who graduated with her and is in his last year of residency as a doctor in Chicago. On the downside of the marriage is Heather's mother-in-law. She's Escanaba's Queen of Snobs with a heart as black as coal who never misses an opportunity to belittle Heather, including treating one of her husband's past girlfriends as a friend and confidant. The mother-in-law conflict makes a good second storyline. What keeps readers hurriedly turning pages is the growing doubt as to who was at fault for her parents' deaths. She meets and reestablishes a bond with her best friend who tells Heather of overlooked facts concerning the accident and rumors that the local coroner was forced to make a false report. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The author grew up in Escanaba and writes intimately of her hometown in great detail and leaves the reader with a real sense of the feel and flavor for the blue-collar town on the north shore of Lake Michigan. Heather wants to remain in Escanaba and discover what really happened the night her parents died and the mysterious disappearance of a person she was close to. The author unspools the narrative with great care and readers may think they have figured out who did what to whom. Then the author drops one of her shocking and totally unexpected plot twists leaving readers stunned and wondering what-the-hell just happened! Mystery fans will enjoy this brief and engrossing trip to Escanaba and will be left wondering how karma will treat Heather.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><a _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/057898041X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=057898041X&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=ec66ecb73046b2d8ab8152b5d9a58ab8"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=057898041X&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Delta County by J.L. Hyde. Independently Published. 2021, $15.99.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>The SideRoad Kids: Tales from Chippewa County</u> by Sharon M. Kennedy</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>This fine collection of short stories focuses on a group of 6th grade friends in the 1950s living near Brimley, in the U.P. I was a kid in Flint in the 1950s, and if I had read stories like these when a 5th- or 6th-grader I would have been taken aback by the differences in these U.P. kids' lives and mine. </b><b>Most of the stories are evocative slice-of-life pieces, some are humorous, and quite a few serious and thought provoking. The stories are honest, believable, sometimes painful, and all capture time, place, and culture with near perfection. A clutch of well-defined, likeable and interesting 6th-grade characters reappear throughout the stories and bind the book together as a whole.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>In one of the stories that moved me the most a 6th grade boy faces life with crossed eyes, an alcoholic mother, and a father who deserted his family. Yet the kid is optimistic and considers himself good looking. In another story I may never forget a girl who wrote a story for English class in which she imagines God as Jackie Gleason who with his fist closed and fury in his face threatens to send Alice to the moon. When Daisey asks if she can read it in class the teacher, without looking at it, throws the story in the waste basket. It was a stunning realization that one of the most popular comedy shows on TV in the Fifties repeatedly made a joke out of the threat of physical spousal abuse. I can't stop wondering how women who were being physically abused thought of those scenes and the audience laughter that followed.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>If I don't know how upper elementary children will react to the book, I do know adults will find it find it enjoyable and a fascinating depiction of children facing life in the Fifties.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1615996036&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The SideRoad Kids: Tales from Chippewa County by Sharon M. Kennedy. Modern History Press, 2021, $18.95.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Up Colony: The Story of Resource Exploitation in Upper Michigan - Focus on Sault Sainte Marie Industries</u> by <u>Phil Bellfy</u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>In the 1980s the author headed north and attended Lake Superior State University at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. As a student he was struck by the differences between the sister cities on either side of the St. Mary's River. The American Soo was clearly in decline while the Canadian Soo prospered. The question why turned into a master's thesis that grew to include an examination of the economic woes of Michigan's U.P. This short book includes the original thesis and a 20-year update of the manuscript. For a book of only 70 pages, it is filled with eye-opening facts that clearly show that the U.P. was treated as if it was no better than a colony in which the colonizing country systematically exploited its enormous wealth then </b><b>left it one of the most poverty-stricken areas in the country. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>By 1940 the U.P. yielded $1.5 billion in copper and paid out $350 million in dividends. Another $1 billion was produced by deforesting the peninsula, and $4 billion in iron was dug from the U.P. But as the author shows, none of that vast wealth stayed in the peninsula. All of the profit went East or South to enrich owners and shareholders of the mines and lumber companies. The result was that in 1960 there was 16% unemployment in Appalachia and 30% in the U.P. In 1920 the U.P. had the worst roads and the state's highest illiteracy rate. Magnifying the lack of public services, including poor schools, were state laws that exempt certified commercial forests, and iron ore deposits from taxation which meant that local governments didn't get enough tax dollars to provide basic services. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>The state built the first locks at the American Soo and charged boats for its use. Then the U. S. built bigger locks and allowed boats free passage. The locks didn't serve the Soo, just moved raw materials through the area and left no profit. The first railroad was built not to serve the city but to move materials to and from Canada. Throughout the last century manufacturing jobs vanished in the American Soo and the population dipped to 14,000 by 1970. Sixty percent of the population's income came from Social Security. Yet the Canadian Soo had grown and prospered because the area's natural resources were the sources of local manufacturing jobs including steel plants, paper mills and a variety of secondary businesses that took advantage of regional resources. And all the while the UP's $4 billion in iron ore and the profits from it went out of state. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Being a master's thesis, the book does contain some scholarly jargon and terms, but they do not distract from the importance of this report on the economic history of the U.P. and how our beloved Upper Peninsula became a victim of the dark side of Capitalism.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1615996060&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>UP Colony: The Story of Resource Exploitation in Upper Michigan - Focus of Sault Sainte Marie Industries by Phil Bellfy. Ziibi Press, 2021, $12.95.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><i><b>Any of the books reviewed in this blog may be purchased by clicking your mouse on the book's cover which will take you to Amazon where you can usually purchase the book at a discount. By using this blog as a portal to Amazon and purchasing any product helps support Michigan in Books.</b></i></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p> </p>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-59069854779427439402021-12-01T06:46:00.000-08:002021-12-01T06:46:24.716-08:00December 1, 2021 Post #73<p> <b></b></p><p><b>Quote for the Day: "Professional seamen treated (the upper Great Lakes) with the respect a lion tamer pays an excitable cat." William Ratigan. Straits of Mackinac. 1957.</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Check out the News and Views page for my favorites of the past year. Hopefully they will be both surprising and entertaining.</span></b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Reviews</span></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><u>Isabel Puddles Investigates</u> by M. V. Byrne</span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Finding a review copy of the second in what I hope is a long running mystery series featuring Isabel Puddles in the mailbox made my day. The first book garnered universally rave reviews and the same is expected of this second offering from a very talented author. </span></b><b style="font-size: large;">In the first of the series the widowed and well-like resident of the small Lake Michigan resort town of Gull Harbor became the village's most celebrated inhabitant when she uncovered a murder and risked her life solving it. Isabel found the experience was so invigorating and satisfying she has become a licensed private investigator. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The first person to hire the new P.I. is Gulf Harbor's wealthiest recluse, Abigail Bachmeier. She may well be the last remaining heir to a Milwaukee beer dynasty when her great-nephew boarded the historic ferry the S.S. Badger in Manitowoc, Wisconsin and was not aboard when it docked in Michigan. He had either fallen, jumped. or been tossed overboard in the middle of Lake Michigan. Abigail hires P. I. Puddles to locate a possible remaining heir to the Bachmeier fortune. The case leads to an unexpected friendship with Abigail, finds Puddles exploring the deep and twisted family history of the beer dynasty, and the possibility of an earlier disappearance that may have been murder. Puddles </b></span><b style="font-size: large;">becomes so emotionally involved in the case she considers quitting the P. I. business.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">An entirely amusing and charming 300 plus pages of grand entertainment </b><b style="font-size: large;">featuring a private detective who brilliantly breaks the </b><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>mold</b></span><b style="font-size: large;"> of classic private eyes created by Chandler and Hammett. Isabel and her deep attraction to her village and friends shares center stage with her first case as a licensed private detective.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1496728335&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">Isabel Puddles Investigates by M.V. Byrne. Kensington Publishing Corp., 2021, $15.95.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><u>Mark of the White Rabbit</u> by Lincoln Cooper</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The following rave review comes with a warning. If you pick up this immersive thriller you're not going to be able to put it down. Within the first few pages the narrative will shred your daily routine which won't return to normal until the book is finished and sets you free. </b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>I don't want to give much of the plot away and spoil the adrenalin rush and the totally unexpected twists and turns in this deviously plotted thriller featuring white rabbits, no less. I will reveal the plot revolves around the murder of a court stenographer and the sketchy, even strange evidence that points to one of the state's top trial lawyers, known for his wandering eye, as the killer. The murder and case being built against the lawyer is sensationalized because the accused was planning on running for governor. The investigation is headed by the sheriff of a west Michigan county who was a cracker jack criminal investigator in the army. The plot is full of shocking revelations, a fascinating backstory, and is propelled by </b></span><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>a relentless narrative. I'd bet money most readers will read the last hundred pages in one huge gulp.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The author's name is a pseudonym and the writer describes </b></span><b style="font-size: large;">himself as a "recovering trial lawyer" and a law professor. But the real culprit responsible for holding you hostage for 350 pages is the writer's wife who encouraged her husband to give in to his years of temptation and write a book. A final warning. This is the first in a series of thrillers revolving around white rabbits, or more bluntly the first step in your addiction to a writer known as Lincoln Cooper.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b _blank="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09BW238FR/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B09BW238FR&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=fd4df11de0803069f22d4a5c1c16507f" style="font-size: <a target=;"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=B09BW238FR&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">Mark of the White Rabbit by Lincoln Cooper. Mission Point Press, 2021, $16.95</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><u>The Accidental Reef and Other Ecological Odysseys in the Great Lakes</u> by Lynne Heasley</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Almost to a person Michiganders appreciate the Great Lakes and fully realize this grand inland sea makes our state special. We marvel at its beauty, uniqueness, and recognize both its commercial and recreational importance. This amazing book folds history, science, art, commerce, literature, research and human impact on the lakes into a new portrait of the freshwater seas and life below the surface that most of us seldom see or fully appreciate.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The book's brilliant inter-connected essays begin with the importance of a little-known reef in the St. Clair River that was created by coal burning boats who dumped their clinkers overboard near Algonac. The accidental manmade reef proved to be an excellent spawning grounds for Great Lake sturgeons. Much of the book focuses on the waterway connecting Lake Erie and Lake Huron in fascinating detail while other essays present new perspectives on a variety of Great Lake issues. To name only a few they range from a new look at fish consumption advisories, the dangers of Enbright oil pipelines, encouraging news about invasive species, the near extinction of Great Lake sturgeon, to a hairbrained scheme devised to refill the depleted Ogallala Aquifer in the Great Plains by diverting Lake Superior water.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>All of this is delivered in almost magical prose filled with humor, spellbinding descriptions, great observations, and stunning facts. Like 2.5 million walleye spawn in Lake Erie then swim north to Lake Huron for the summer. Or, a female sturgeon carries a half million eggs and deposits them every four years, the word walleye is eight centuries old, and Dow Canada has released 33 hundred tons of mercury into the St. Clair River. And finally, the Great Lakes are so little known in the rest of America author Dennis discovered an online hoax about whale watching in Lake Michigan that was reported as fact in a children's science magazine. Adding to the charm of the book are Glenn Wolff's exquisite illustrations. At heart, Heasley's book will reinforce a reader's sense of wonder to be found in the Great Lakes.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1611864070/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1611864070&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=3357a215c76ad34c984cac332e05e160" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1611864070&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">The Accidental Reef and Other Ecological Odysseys in the Great Lakes by Lynne Heasley. Michigan State University Press, 2021, $27.95.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><u>The Copper Divide</u> by Beth Kirschner</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">As the title suggests the subject of this novel is the long, violent, and bitter miners' strike against all Copper mines in the Keweenaw peninsula that lasted from July 1913 to April 1914. The miners demanded better pay and safer working conditions and the strike literally turned friends and neighbors into enemies in Calumet and other Keweenaw communities. Striking miners' parades were attacked by deputized goons, and companies brought in scab labor who met with violence from strikers and whose inexperience caused accidents in the mines. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">The main thread of this novel follows two women who are very close friends and whether or not the strike will destroy their friendship. One is the daughter of a store owner whose business is failing as the strike stretches into months. The other woman is the wife of a striking miner and the mother of two small children. She faces the daily uncertainty of feeding her family, dealing with an abusive husband, and what the future holds for her and her family. A third view of the strike is seen through the eyes of a scab brought north to cross the picket lines. He experiences the back-breaking labor and dangers of working nearly a mile underground and finds the Keweenaw holds no future for him. The novel ends with the 1913 Italian Hall Disaster in which a second-floor hall was packed with the children of strikers attending a Christmas party. When someone shouted fire 73 men, women and children were trampled to death or suffocated as the crowd stampeded down one staircase.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">The novel rings with authenticity in every detail from the living conditions of striking miners' families, the danger and hardship of working 10 hours in a mine, and the cruelty and power of the mine owners. The characters are well drawn and believable. </b><b style="font-size: large;">Beth Kirschner proves to be a very accomplished writer in her first novel.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b a="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1952816408/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1952816408&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=e24389c1ad3b5c702b2914f941c8615c" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1952816408&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">The Copper Divide by Beth Kirschner. TouchPoint Press, 2021, $16.99.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;">Any of the books reviewed in this blog may be purchased by clicking your mouse on the book's cover which will take you to Amazon where you can usually purchase the book at a discount. By using this blog as a portal to Amazon and purchasing any product helps support Michigan in Books.</p>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-27894393141430867492021-11-01T06:22:00.001-07:002021-11-01T12:43:29.711-07:00November 1, 2021 Post # 72<p> Quote for the day: " 'If you seek a beautiful peninsula, here's a couple of them; take your pick.' This might be rendered into resounding Latin if thought best." E. Larkin Brown suggesting an amendment to the state motto in 1877.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><u><span style="font-size: large;">Reviews</span></u></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><u><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><u>Deadline for Lenny Stern: A Michael Russo Mystery</u> by Peter Marabell</span></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>I'm always eager to get my hands on a new Michael Russo mystery for several reasons. I've always thought it improbable that a private eye mystery series set in Petoskey, one of the state's major summer tourist attractions and most livable small towns, would work. But it does. Having spent several summers in the Petoskey area, I enjoy the author's intimate and detailed portrait of the Harbor Springs/Petoskey area. With each new addition to the series, I look forward to seeing which real but often obscure restaurants become destinations within the story and inevitably recall either eating there or wishing I had. A gold star goes to readers who've been to Moose Jaw Junction in beautiful Lark's Lake or the Brutus Deli. And lastly, Marabell's mysteries are always entertaining, and readers become invested in the lives of Russo, his secretary Sandy, and his girlfriend A.J.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>In the latest Russo mystery, a Petoskey reporter has spent years researching and writing a book about a sordid Chicago Mafia affair that included murder, bribery, and payoffs to elected officials. The book names names and because it is so damning and the author has the evidence to back up his reportage he has received several death threats. The author will kick off the book's publication with signings in Petoskey, Harbor Springs, and Mackinac Island. The publisher takes the threats seriously and hires Russo and a retired Army Ranger to guard the author and determine who's behind the death threats.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The threats quickly become real and at first Russo believes the Mafia has hired a hitman to take out the author. When Russo begins to doubt the Mafia is involved the Petoskey PI finds himself in a race to discover who wants the reporter dead before the murderer strikes. As usual, readers can count on a thoroughly satisfying mystery set within an accurate and intimately drawn portrait of the Petoskey area.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0990310477/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0990310477&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=a66d5eb4f191dff01da3037351932701" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0990310477&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">Deadline for Lenny Stern: A Michael Russo Mystery by Peter Marabell. Kendall Sheepman Company, 2021, $15.95.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><u>World War II Front Line Nurse</u> by Mildred A. MacGregor</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>I requested a review copy of this book by somehow mistaking it as a new book when in fact it was published in 2006. The publisher pointed this out and still sent me a review copy. When the publisher is kind enough to send a review copy of a 15-year-old book I feel obligated to read and review it. I wish all my mistakes were as fortuitous. This is a remarkable diary of a University of Michigan Hospital nurse who in 1942 volunteered to become a surgical nurse in WWII.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>MacGregor was assigned to the 3rd Auxiliary Surgical Group. The surgical group was formed as an experimental unit that would be placed closer to the front than any hospital in any previous war. Their placement so close to the frontlines was an effort to save the lives of the severely wounded who would probably die before they could be shuttled to a surgical unit in the rear. The author faithfully kept a detailed diary of her wartime experiences from a terrifying crossing of the stormy Atlantic, visiting London during the Blitz, stationed in North Africa, Sicily, and her tireless work following close behind American fighting forces from Normandy to Germany.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The book is primarily based on her diary, but she also corresponded with doctors and nurses in her outfit to get the full story the unit's history. When time permitted, she and other nurses went sightseeing from ancient Roman ruins in Africa to Paris after its liberation, and even to Hitler's Eagles Nest in the Bavarian Alps. She also recounts the 18 and even 36-hour shifts tending the wounded at Normandy and the 1004 surgeries performed by her unit in Belgium in a period of 86 hours. When she wasn't assisting in surgery, she was a triage nurse who had to decide who might be saved and those so badly wounded they didn't stand a chance of surviving. The latter were set aside and made as comfortable as possible until they passed away. When Germany surrendered and she is sent home she tells how she smuggled her pet French Poodle aboard a homeward bound ship.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The book is a testament to the men and women who served in WWII and worked tirelessly to care for and save the wounded. It is an important addition to the history of World War II. It is also very readable, instantly engaging, and a memorable first-person narrative of a woman's wartime experience.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047203331X/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=047203331X&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=bcbba8714896f313d146708f00f13937" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=047203331X&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">World War II Front Line Nurse by Mildred A. MacGregor. University of Michigan Press, 2008, $26.95</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><u>Superior Tapestry: Weaving the Threads of Upper Michigan History</u> by Deborah K. Frontiera.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The author has taken a unique approach to the history of the Upper Peninsula by telling its story from the point-of-view of historical artifacts, buildings, and more. The book also covers the UP's natural history, geology, outdoor attractions, and environmental riches by letting the trees, rivers, rocks, and minerals speak for themselves. Like a quilter, the author has patched together these diverse and often unusual stories into a fun, attractive, and fascinating portrait and history of Michigan's northern peninsula.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The Fox River tells of its natural setting and the wildlife it supports, the devastation resulting from logging of the white pine along its shores, and the river's slow and gradual healing. A player piano observes the growth and decline of the logging village of Seney which at the time was known as one of the wildest towns in the entire country. There is the WWII B-24 bomber that wandered of course in a storm and crashed in the Sahara with the loss of all its crew. The wreckage was discovered years later and within that story is the story of how a propeller from "The Lady Be Good" ended up in Lake Linden in the Keweenaw Peninsula. And not to be missed is the loss of the Edmund Fitzgerald as told by the boat's bell that now rests in the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum on Whitefish Point. </b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>This is an inventive and enjoyable retelling of U.P. history and culture. Each story concludes with information on where to see the artifact or natural attraction and a website where you can learn more on the subject.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1615995889/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1615995889&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=c2cfa40760ce822e1b78c5550865e296" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1615995889&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">Superior Tapestry: Weaving the Threads of Upper Michigan History by Deborah K. Frontiera. Modern History Press, 2021, $24.95</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><u>Sand, Stars, Wind, & Water: Field Notes from Up North</u> by Tim Mulherin</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>This fine book of very personal essays recounts, in intimate detail, the author's nearly40-year-long love affair with the Leelanau/ Traverse City area. The author and family took annual vacations there from their home in Indianapolis and ten years ago the author and his wife bought a cottage in Cedar, Michigan. They open the cabin in the spring and spend as many weeks as possible in what will be their retirement home and reluctantly close it in the fall.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The essays recall fishing trips on the Jordan and Boardman rivers and biking and hiking the many trails in the Leelanau Peninsula. He describes his favorite spots he returns to year after year one of which is Pyramid Point overlooking Good Harbor Bay and the Manitou Islands in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. I can vouch for both his artistry in describing this monumentally beautiful place and how a visit to the perched dune is forever imprinted on one's memory. The essays cover all aspects of being surrounded by and enjoying the natural beauty and bounty of the area. And the author is no slouch when it comes to a keen observation or turn of phrase. He calls hiking "an ambulatory meditation," observes that as one grows older "time seems to accelerate," and in this age of Covid 19 he is likely dismissed as "acceptable collateral damage" by those who neither get vaccinated nor wear a mask.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The book may also be self-defeating for an author who doesn't like crowded trails, bumper-to-bumper highways, and occasional encounter with careless, rude, self-centered 'Fudgies' who pack the area like sardines in a can at the peak of the tourist season. This loving, well-written tribute to the many charms of his summer home will only attract more visitors.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1954786174&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">Sand, Stars, Wind, & Water: Field Notes from Up North by Tim Mulherin. Mission Point Press, 2021, $16.95</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><i>Any of the books reviewed in this blog may be purchased by clicking your mouse on the book's cover which will take you to Amazon where you can usually purchase the book at a discount. By using this blog as a portal to Amazon and purchasing any product helps support Michigan in Books.</i></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> </b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> </b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><p style="text-align: center;"><b><u><br /></u></b></p><p style="text-align: left;">mysteries </p>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-15475627253422795762021-10-01T06:20:00.000-07:002021-10-01T06:20:23.213-07:00October 1, 2021 Post # 71<p> Quote for the Day: "Saginaw River." The Smithsonian Guide to Historic America: The Great Lakes. 1989. On a map of northern Michigan, the Au Sable is mislabeled as the Saginaw River.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><u>Reviews</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b><u>Trout Water: A Year on the Au Sable</u> by Josh Greenberg.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Years ago, the young Josh Greenburg began tying flies at the famous Gates Au Sable Lodge. Today he owns the lodge, writes extensively about fly fishing, and produces a popular online fishing report that receives 40,000 page-views a month. Admittedly, a wee bit more than this blog receives.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>This collection of essays recounts a year of fishing the Au Sable and other nearby Michigan streams. It is a passionate and beautifully written tribute to a river the author calls the "perpetual beguiler." For this retired fly-fisherman, who blew a knee in the Maple River, the author perfectly captures the endlessly intoxicating rituals, attractions, beauty, and near spiritual experience found in the middle of a river in chest-high waders, and adorned with arcane accoutrements while being outsmarted by a fish.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Greenberg's essays aren't instructional or even faintly how-to but one can't read this book without learning a good fly fisherman needs good instincts, an encyclopedic knowledge of trout flies, insect hatches, trout habits, and how to read a river and out think a trout. Reading the book made me realize I would never have been even a proficient fly fisherman. But the thought neither distracted from the enjoyment of Greenberg's fine essays nor left me regretting I hadn't been a better fly fisherman. Most importantly he captures the joy of being out on a river with a fly rod in hand and easily conveys the adrenalin rush even life-long fly fishermen feel when a trout hits their fly. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b>Fly-fishermen will love this book and those who have never waded a stream in search of trout may well be drawn to giving it a try. Fair warning -- it can prove to be addictive.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1612199011&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></p><b>Trout Water: A Year on the Au Sable by Josh Greenburg. Melville Books, 2021, $24.</b><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>Le Griffon and the Huron Islands 1679</u> by Steve and Kathie Libert.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The first European ship to sail the Great Lakes, the Griffon, was built above Niagara Falls by LaSalle and set off on it's maiden voyage in 1679. It reached the islands strung between Wisconsin's Door Peninsula and Michigan's </b><b>Garden Peninsula where it loaded a cargo of furs and buffalo skins. La Salle ordered the Griffon to return to Lake Erie while he and his expeditionary party left the ship in search of the Mississippi River. The Griffon departed what is now known as Washington Island on September 18, 1679, and was never seen again. The fate of the Griffon has long been one of the great unsolved mysteries of the Great Lakes. Until now.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Steve became interested, if not obsessed with the mystery of the Griffon in school and found in Kathie a wife who shared his passion for solving the 340-year-old mystery. This book is not a straight forward narrative history of the Liberts' years of searching for La Salle's lost ship but is a thorough coverage of their detailed research. They mined contemporary accounts of the Griffon's maiden voyage and quote significant eyewitness accounts of the ship's movements in the islands south of Garden Peninsula. Reports by French archeologists, and French experts on the history of shipbuilding are included in the book. The authors' recount their years of research and how they finally narrowed the area of the ship's final resting spot. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>All the above resulted in the discovery, in 2013, of a very old bow strip stuck in the lake bottom. Michigan experts claimed it was nothing but a large stake for holding fishing nets while the </b><b>French experts said it was the bow strip of a ship from the late 1600s. The bow strip was located in shallow water which meant if it did come from the Griffon the wreckage could have been widely spread over three centuries of shifting winter ice. Then, in 2018 Steve discovered a large section of a broken hull from a very old ship. Archeologists and experts in French shipbuilding history dove the wreck and concluded the techniques used in building the hull and its design were all consistent with a French ship built in the same period as the Griffon. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Readers are left to their own conclusions after reading this fascinating and important contribution to Michigan and Great Lakes history. The Liberts' believe they have solved the mystery of the Griffon and so will most readers. Complimenting the reports and narrative are a multitude of maps, photographs, and drawings.</b></div><div><b><br a="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1954786204/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1954786204&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=720fec18e6a6903fcdcf54eade460b31" target="_blank" /><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1954786204&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Le Griffon and the Huron Islands 1679 by Steve and Kathie Libert. Mission Point Press, 2021, $24.99.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>Lost Flint</u> by Gary Flinn.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Being a born and bred Flintite who grew up in Civic Park and worked three decades in Flint, this book sparked many conflicting feelings and memories, but more of that later. The book begins with a thumbnail sketch of Flint's history, development, and descriptions of its earliest significant buildings. The main body of the book is divided into three major divisions: Flint's Growth, Flint's Decline, and Hope For the Future.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The first two parts list buildings, neighborhoods, churches, industries, media, schools, shops, commercial strips that no longer exist, stand empty, have been replaced, or vanished. The author gives a short but informationally rich description of the buildings, parks, industries, etc. and the cause for their demise and/or reincarnation. I was surprised that earlier Farmers' Markets were not mentioned, and neither was the Women's Hospital. I only know of the latter because I was born there. Uncle Bob's Diner is included in the long list of closed eateries but personally I thought it deserved at least a few short words in the narrative. The book bought back fond memories of Hubbard's Hardware, Smith Bs., Angelo's (where community leaders and hourly workers ate side-by-side with the poor and homeless), and the Flint Amusement Park. Bad memories include the terribly ill-conceived Auto World, and the shoddily built Genesee Towers that began crumbling to the street after 40 years. The building was bought by an opportunist for half a million and sold to Flint for demolition for 8 million. Then there was the reminder why I never saw a Black family or child in Civic Park in the 50s. A deed restriction barred anyone from the neighborhood who was "not wholly of the white or Caucasian race." Disgraceful, and what odd wording: Did it leave some residents thinking you could be either white or Caucasian? The third part, "Hope For the Future" is brief but encouraging.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>As a Flintite I object to calling the city's closed and demolished GM buildings "lost." This was an abandonment of the city were GM was born. and thousands "lost" middle-class jobs. The author lists 8 GM plants that were closed. Buick City alone employed over 29,000 workers. And to add insult to injury GM tore down many of the plants so they couldn't be taxed and as a parting gift left the people of Flint acres of toxic-laced land. An appendix lists FIFTY lost schools thirty of which closed since the year 2000. My guess is that the 8 closed factories had a lot to do with the 30 closed schools.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Obviously, I was emotionally impacted by this book, and I suspect many other Flint natives will have the same reaction. The book is also a unique look at the Rust Belt and Flint mirrors the fate of many other one-industry communities. The book is complimented by numerous historical photographs and an appendix of lost schools, bars, and restaurants.</b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1467144924/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1467144924&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=8518657b40946b0ae9d5ceab320be041" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1467144924&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Lost Flint by Gary Flinn. History Press, 2021, $21.99.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel</u> by Mike Fornes</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Every season 150,000 heads hit beds in this extraordinary hotel famous for its magnificent setting overlooking the Straits of Mackinac. The unique and unforgettable setting on a magical island is equaled by the hotel's extraordinary level of hospitality, ambience, dining experience, and amenities in a building named a national historic landmark. If you haven't had the pleasure of spending a night in the Grand Hotel this slim book with loads of photographs and expert commentary is a fine introduction. Even those who have stayed at the hotel will find a new appreciation for the Grand from the author who has covered the hotel for years as a print and media reporter and an the operator of a Straits guide service.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Chapters include landscape, decor, food service, special rooms and suites, landscape, special amenities, off-season work, the two movies filmed at the hotel, and a recounting of the famous who have stayed at the Grand. Each chapter is preceded by a short introduction followed by scores of photos illustrating the high points of the chapter. Of special interest to this reader is the photos of the First Ladies Suites which far outnumber Presidential Suites. I was fascinated by the annual amount of ongoing work of repairing, renovating, and remodeling the building each winter. Given the chance, the one activity I would like to experience is to be given free access to the kitchen and watch a staff of about a hundred prepare as many as 4,000 meals a day. Oh, and some of the kitchen's recipes rewritten for a dinner for two.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>This is a grand introduction to a one-of-a-kind hotel that will be enjoyed by those who never spent a night in one of its rooms as well as those who have.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1467106755/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1467106755&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=7bb96c86acd5f47045264e602de40d87" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1467106755&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Mackinac Island's Grand Hotel by Mike Fornes. Arcadia Publishing, 2021, $23.99. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><u>On the Trails of Northern Michigan: A Guide For All Seasons</u> by Michael Terrell.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>A regular columnist for the Traverse City Record-Eagle, the author has gathered a collection of his columns on the best hiking, biking, and waterway trails in Northern Michigan. The book is organized by seasons and includes 70 trails from the familiar to the new and unexpected. Whether it is the only waterfall in the lower peninsula or a preserve containing a nature megaphone in which one sits and listens to the sounds of nature that seem magically amplified by a beautiful, hand-made wooden megaphone. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Each location includes a photograph and a page or two of description followed by a page of Terrell's Trail Notes. The notes provide driving directions, a guide to the length and difficulty of the trails, hours and rules (if any), and highlights not to be missed. Symbols at the top of the page indicate activities allowed from hiking, biking, fishing, cross-country skiing or snowshoeing, canoeing, and camping, to wildflowers and birdwatching. The last two are guesses because there is no reference guide to the symbols. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>I suspect that even the area's local outdoor lovers will find very appealing places they have not yet visited or know about. Occasional northern Michigan tourists who want to spend a day experiencing and sampling the area's natural attractions will have a difficult time deciding which to choose from. I would suggest that people unfamiliar with the area take along a book of county maps because directions are often very brief. </b></div><div><br /></div><div><b> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1954786212/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1954786212&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=926f907fe19ffaf7f1580c634804391e" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1954786212&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>On the Trails of Northern Michigan: A Guide For All Seasons by Michael Terrell. Mission Point Press, 2021, $24.95.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><i>Any of the books reviewed in this blog may be purchased by clicking your mouse on the book's cover which will take you to Amazon where you can usually purchase the book at a discount. By using this blog as a portal to Amazon and purchasing any product helps support Michigan in Books.</i></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div> </div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-36965461467920769302021-09-01T06:23:00.000-07:002021-09-01T06:23:00.279-07:00September 1, 2021 Post # 70<p> Quote for the Day: "When they were stumped in ancient Greece, they went to the oracle of Delphi. At Lourdes they take the waters, and I suppose in Akron they go down and watch tires being made. In Detroit, where we put the world on wheels or did anyway until the Japanese and Yugoslavs and the Brits rolled in, when our brains slip into neutral we lay rubber on the road and hit the gas." Loren Estleman. Sweet Women Lie. 1990.</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Reviews</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><u>Warn Me When It's Time</u> by Cheryl A. Head.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>After reading two of Head's mysteries I have come to believe she is Detroit's most underappreciated mystery writer. A Detroit native now living in Washington D.C. the author knows her native city intimately. The Charlie Mack mysteries are gritty and tightly plotted procedural detective novels. They are realistic, timely, and boasts a private eye who stands apart from the usual stereotypes.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The novel is set during the Obama administration and deals with the rise of White supremacy groups and hate crimes due to the election of a Black man as president. In Detroit, White supremacists have repeatedly gotten away with vandalizing mosques, and Black churches. When an attack on a Moslem Mosque results in the death of a highly respected imam and police fail to make progress in their investigation the imam's family hire the Mack Agency to find the killer. The Mack group, led by a black lesbian, cooperate with the police and ID the killer. They also uncover evidence that suggests several supremacist groups are planning a massive attack against a major Detroit religious landmark. Impressed with the agency's work the FBI enlists Charlie Mack and her crew to help stop the attack.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The result is a mystery that relentlessly builds in suspense to the last gripping pages. Charlie Mack and her crew are fully rounded, very likable, and interesting characters who work as a team, while Detroit is deftly portrayed in all its grand, bi-polar disorder. Critical to this book's success is the realistic plot that will have readers recalling the inexorable growth, over the past dozen years, of hate groups and their increasing threat to our democracy. You don't just read this book, you gulp it down.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B095MF6QSZ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B095MF6QSZ&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=7c315f2528b72d8b4beea32af89fc4d9" style="font-size: large;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=B095MF6QSZ&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">Warn Me When It's Time: A Charlie Mack Motown Mystery by Cheryl A. Head. Bywater Books, 2021, $16.95. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><u>The Cut</u> by John Wemlinger.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">If I'm counting correctly this is the author's fifth novel and his first historical novel. Wemlinger lives in Onekama on the north shore of Portage Lake. In 1870 Portage Lake's lone outlet to Lake Michigan was a small creek on which a lumber king had built a water-powered sawmill. The owner dammed the creek to raise the water level insuring the mill could operate. But the dam also raised the water level on Portage Lake and farmers bordering the lake watched their acreage disappear as the water rose. The farmers tried every legal means to have the dam removed. When the lumber baron remained unmoved the farmers picked up shovels and dug an outlet between the two lakes permanently lowering the water level. The outlet still exists and has made Portage Lake a harbor of refuge. Wemlinger was approached by locals to write a historical novel based on the David and Goliath struggle leading to the channel's creation. </b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The result is both a dramatic account of the how and why the cut was created and a masterful novel of the life, times, and changes wrought by the Civil War. As in all of Wemlinger's books the narrative is character driven. Alvin who lost an arm in the Civil War runs a farm on Portage Lake with his father and a Black Civil War vet who Alvin treats as a brother. They are among the leaders of the effort to remove the dam. On a trip into town Alvin meets, or collides with Lydia on a sidewalk. There is an immediate attraction and a budding romance turns into an unbreakable bond. Lydia's father refuses to approve of his daughter seeing a farmer or even considering Lydia's desire to attend college. The reader can't help but become involved with these well-drawn characters and care what happens to them.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The story of the cut is well done. But what kept me glued to the book was the accurate and fascinating story of the life of a Michigan farm family in 1870. Equally interesting was the description of women and their power within the household and near powerlessness in the business and commercial world even as women were on the threshold of changing their status. As in all his books, Wemlinger sensitively portrays war veterans as honorable men who have returned from war to face new challenges in both private and public life. Every book I've read by this author I thought deserved consideration for inclusion on Michigan's Notable Books List and none made it. If this book fails to warrant inclusion on the list it's more than just a regrettable omission. </b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1954786239&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;">The Cut by John Wemlinger. Mission Point Press, 2021, $17.95.</b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><br /></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><u>Sea Stacks: The Collected Stories of J. L. Hagen</u> by J. L. Hagen.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The author grew up in St. Ignace and nearly all of the stories found between the covers of Hagen's first book take place in and around the Straits of Mackinac area, with the fictional town of Loyale standing in for the author's real hometown. Place matters in these stories and one way or another influences and reflects the way of life in the area and bends characters' development the same way an unrelenting wind can shape the direction in which trees grow.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Where else would a young man woe a beautiful, downstate young woman with a dinner of planked whitefish and a climb to the top of a sea stack. For the uninitiated, the latter are natural limestone pillars that are common in the area and one of the tallest has long been a tourist attract a few miles north of the Straits on I-75. Admittedly the longer short stories are my favorites because they permit more character development and allow most characters to dig a deeper pit from which to extract themselves.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Hagen's short stories are a lot like life, they go off in unexpected directions. The young man counting on whitefish encircled by mashed potatoes broiled on a board and the climbing of a sea stack to win the heart of beautiful woman runs into some unexpected romance killers. My favorite story follows a husband who's a bit of a dim bulb, dislikes dogs, and doesn't quite understand it is his wife who wears the pants in the family. His Achilles heel is that he believes he is a great deal maker whether it's for a Beagle puppy or a new refrigerator. Instead he is the kind of fellow P. T. Barnun said was born every minute. It's always nice to welcome a new and talented Michigan author to the public. </b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=B08QW1698D&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Sea Stacks: The Collected of Stories of J. L. Hagen by J. L. Hagen. Keypounder Books, 2020, $8.95.</span></b><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><u>Incentives: The Holy Water of Free Enterprise</u> by George Franklin.</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>I grinned on page one and laughed out loud on page three, twice. The laughs continue throughout this wildly hilarious satire aimed at every group, person, and company gorging themselves at the government trough on projects that simply line their own pockets. The schemes Franklin's characters think up to bilk money from the government are outrageous, hilarious, and at times so uncomfortably close to reality you wince while you're laughing. For me, that is the mark of satire of the highest order. </b></span></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">There's the character who after reading the Cliff Notes of a former president's book on the art of deal making learned "factual hyperbole' ---- used to be called lying, now [it's] just part of good negotiations." The CEO of an energy company preaches, "Those who see pollution as a problem don't understand the creation of wealth." Then there's the Smith & Wesson ad campaign, "Shoot First, Then Ask." The author, a former Vice President of Worldwide Government Relations for the Kellogg Company, worked at securing economic incentives both abroad and in the U.S. He has evidently seen more than his share of hypocrisy. </span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Two of my favorite satirical schemes for obtaining government incentives include a church that wants government money in order to pump water from Lake Michigan, bless it, and then spray it from crop dusters for the purpose of stopping "godless foreign terrorists." The other is the creation of "Let Them Eat Cake," a personal shopping service that helps wives of Texas oil barons search out enormously expensive clothes and jewelry the less fortunate (read Middle Class) can't and never will be able to afford. </span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">This is an outrageous, biting, and seriously funny novel in which laughter harpoons the great white whale of hypocrisy that is too often inherent in American politics, business, education, and society.</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br a="" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1733444424/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1733444424&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=35ee336477f4e03efed9d719837d77e0" target="_blank" /><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1733444424&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></span></b></div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">/></span></b><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Incentives: The Holy Water of Free Enterprise by George Franklin. FPA Books, 2020, $14.95.</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><i>Any of the books reviewed in this blog may be purchased by clicking your mouse on the book's cover which will take you to Amazon where you can usually purchase the book at a discount. By using this blog as a portal to Amazon and purchasing any product helps support Michigan in Books.</i></b></div><div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1698576771495965482.post-89824882425233524372021-08-01T06:52:00.000-07:002021-08-01T06:52:07.096-07:00August 1, 2021 Post # 69<div class="separator"><p style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img _blank="" border="0" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=as_li_qf_sp_sr_il?ie=UTF8&tag=michiganbooks-20&keywords=the dockporter&index=aps&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=ur2&linkId=269c9b8303338d3413190e2080dfde0f" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?<a target=" /></p></div><p>Quote for the Day: "As a place of resort during the summer months, there can be none more desirable -- none possessing more attractive features and health-restoring influences, than this Island of Mackinaw." New York Weekly Tribune. July 9, 1853.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><u>Reviews</u></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><u>The Dockporter: A Mackinac Novel:</u> by Dave McVeigh and Jim Bolone.</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>One of the iconic images of Mackinac Island is of the young men who wait the arrival of tourist laden ferries and stack an unbelievable number of tourists' suitcases on their single-speed bikes. They then pedal their precarious loads through streets clogged with fudgies (tourists) and horse-drawn wagons to hotels and inns. Or as the authors write, "In India, they call them coolies. On Everest, Sherpas. On Mackinac Island they're called dockporters." The authors of this entertaining and engaging novel were both dockporters in the late 1980s and this unique novel describes life on the island as lived and seen throu</b></span><b style="font-size: large;">gh the eyes of these young men who turned hauling luggage into a circus act.</b></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>As a kid, Jack McQuinn spent every summer on Mackinac Island, at his grandfather's cottage. His greatest goal was to become a dockporter which he achieved in the 1980s. He revels in the job and loves the comradery and sense of humor of his fellow dockporters. He also loves the island and the Straits of Mackinac with all its charm, beauty, and singular way of life. The authors describe the place uniquely but accurately as "an area electrified with strange magic." Best of all, the book captures the "strange magic" and brings Mackinac Island, as seen by those who work there, wonderfully alive. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Yet there is a black cloud on the horizon that threatens the island's future. It is up to Jack and his fellow porters to save the one of a kind island. In the process, Jack falls in love, losses his job, attempts to beat the dockporter record of stacking more than 21 pieces of luggage on his bike, and getting them to a hotel. He also stumbles across a passion that he just might make into a career.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The book is a delight to read. It is filled with humor, strangely wonderful characters including a man with a shovel who cleans up horse leavings on the streets. It turns out he knows a lot more about Mackinac Island than just horse apples. Almost every page delivers a grin and many produce laugh-out-loud guffaws. The best news is this is the first in the series on the island. On behalf of this reader, more please, much, much more.</b></span></p><div><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=B091F75KFG&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></div><div><br /></div><div><b style="font-size: large;">The Dockporter: A Mackinac Island Novel by Dave McVeigh and Jim Bolone. Privately Published, 2021, $12.95.</b></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><u>Prohibition's Proving Ground: Cops, Cars, & Rumrunners in the Toledo-Detroit-Windsor Corridor</u> by Joseph Boggs. </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Michigan went dry on May 1, 1918, more than a full year before Prohibition became the law in the rest of the nation. Our state therefore became a testing ground for the enforcement of making, selling, and smuggling booze. The nearly complete failure by Michigan to stop all the above, as seen through this study of enforcement in the Windsor, Detroit, and Toledo triangle, did not bode well for the Volstead Act. Worst still (pun intended) it seems little was learned from Michigan's failure. This scholarly but very readable and always interesting study sheds new light on the prohibition era in southeast Michigan. </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>In the first few days after Michigan went dry Detroiters swarmed Toledo and nearby Ohio towns and drank until oblivion. Incidents of drunk driving exploded in Monroe and being a pedestrian was life threatening. Within a few weeks amateur rumrunners were creating traffic jams in Monroe and on Dixie Highway which ran between Detroit and Monroe. When the state supreme court briefly ruled that police could neither search nor seize alcohol from cars it ignited a "Booze Rush." In Monroe 390 cars an hour, sagging under their loads of alcohol, were counted passing through town.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The author credits a major contribution to the failure of Prohibition in southeast Michigan and across the country to Americas' new love affair with the automobile and the growing demand for better roads. Dixie Highway between Toledo and Detroit would often turn into a muddy morass but when it was paved it became a high-speed hooch pipeline to Detroit. While the rumrunners were driving souped-up cars the police called "Whiskey Sixes" some cops were trying to halt smugglers from horseback. A fascinating chapter chronicles Henry Ford taking the enforcement of Prohibition into his own hands. He made employees pass a sniff check on entering his factories and hired private detectives to identify stills and blind pigs near his plants.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>The book is marked by solid research and very good writing, except for the over-used term automobilized including "fully automobilized holdup men, automobility enabled thugs," and even "automobilized trucks." This automobilized blogger raises a glass to this fine book.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1733266453&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" style="font-size: large;" /></div><div><br /></div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Prohibition's Proving Grounds: Cops, Cars, & Rumrunners in the Toledo-Detroit-Windsor Corridor by Joseph Boggs. University of Toledo Press, 2020, $24.95.</span></b><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><u>Manistee County: Postcard History Series</u> by Emma Wolf and the Musculus Family.</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">I haven't browsed a bookstore in Michigan without finding a title or two of the Postcard History Series on the store's local history shelves. The series all follow the same format with the pages filled with interesting and often arresting historical photos of a city or county. Accompanying each postcard photo is an explanation of the postcard's subject including the date or era of the card, and the importance and history of the subject to the community. Some of the descriptive explanations are only a few sentences others are lengthy paragraphs.</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">This volume of the series is no different. It includes more than 150 postcards with photos dating from 1842 to the early 20th Century of people, streets, buildings, geographical features, towns, industries, and churches of the county. All of which are followed by succinct and interesting explanations that place the subject of the postcard within the history of the county. The book is a painless and always interesting introduction to the history of Manistee County. I've often wondered about the economic viability of the series with each book in the series aimed at such a narrow market. But what do I know, new additions to the series continue to roll off the press.</span></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1467106607/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1467106607&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=0a9db11dcdae3d44b5e684b02d72c679" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=1467106607&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Manistee County: Postcard History Series by Emma Wolf and the Musculus Family. Arcadia Publishing, 2021, $21.95.</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><u>Tales From the Jan Van: Lessons on Life & Camping</u> by Jan Stafford Kellis.</span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The author's well-ordered and happy life collapsed like a house of cards when she was 45-years old. Out of the blue her beloved second husband asked for a divorce, her mother died suddenly, and her youngest daughter left home to join her sister in Alaska. </span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Stunned, bewildered and hurting the author was struck by a sign in a her friend's house that read: "Enjoy yourself! It's later than you think." One of her dreams was to travel around the country with her husband after retirement. She made up her mind she wasn't going to let tragedy and loss dictate the course of her life and inspired by the sign she bought a used, self-contained camping van. Combining long, three-day weekends by working four 10-hour a days a week and her vacation time she set out to explore the Midwest from her U.P. home and travel across America as a solo female RVer. </span></b></div><div><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>A by product of her RV adventures is this winning trifecta of a book. It is a detailed travelogue of her adventures, a memoir, and a sensible how-to guide to camping and motorhoming. Most importantly it is a story of self-empowerment as she overcomes her worries about traveling alone, grows more assertive, and learns the habits, foibles, and personality of her finicky small motorhome that has a mixed pedigree involving Mercedes, Freightliner, and Dodge. Technicians from all three companies couldn't figure out some her van's mechanical oddities. The narrative even touches on the history of camping in Michigan when the author reveals that Henry Ford and Thomas Edison used to go camping together, in a Ford of course.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>As an ex-motorhome owner, I can attest to the author's fine job of sharing the joys and occasional miseries of camping, and how at times a motorhome can seem more complicated and intricately complex than the vehicle Neil Armstrong rode to the moon. But you don't have to be a camper or an RVer to enjoy this open, honest, and compelling travelogue and memoir.</b></span></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0999103121/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0999103121&linkCode=as2&tag=michiganbooks-20&linkId=a73d7afbb8c9eab7947a7dda5f944669" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&MarketPlace=US&ASIN=0999103121&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL250_&tag=michiganbooks-20" /></a></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><b style="font-size: large;">Tales from the Jan Van: Lessons on Life and Camping by Jan Stafford Kellis. Myrno Moss Perspectives, 2021, $14.95.</b></div></div><p style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: large;"><i>Any of the books reviewed in this blog may be purchased by clicking your mouse on the book's cover which will take you to Amazon where you can usually purchase the book at a discount. By using this blog as a portal to Amazon and purchasing any product helps support Michigan in Books.</i></b></p><div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b><br /></b><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b> <br /></b></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p></div></div></div>Michigan in Bookshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11026201493128828093noreply@blogger.com0