Sue Harrison’s Rescuing Crash, the Good Dog is a novel for middle-grade readers. The book engages young readers with a heartwarming story of dog adoption from a local shelter. Crash, the eponymous Australian shepherd, is brought home to 11-year-old Britta by her single Dad as a birthday gift. As Crash becomes a…
Reviewed by Tom Powers, Michigan in Books This slim volume contains a wealth of information on a subject that seems as reluctant to reveal its history as the historical pirates of the Great Lakes who guarded their anonymity. Classen’s research and history of piracy on the Great Lakes begins with…
Exploring the History and Innovations of Snowmobiles with Larry Jorgensen In this episode of the Motorcycle Men Podcast, we dive deep into the fascinating world of snowmobiles with author Larry Jorgensen. As winter blankets much of the country, Larry shares insights from his new book, ‘Make It Go in the…
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/72bdffmqtathc7m5/audio1529115332.m4a In this episode of ‘For the Love of Books,’ host Emma Polova speaks with poet Kathy Johnson about her journey as a writer and her new anthology, ‘Roots in Water.‘ Join them as they delve into the essence of poetry, the challenges of selection, and the profound…
An Invaluable Exploration of a Dark Moment in Native American History Sharon Marie Brunner’s Michigan Indian Boarding School Survivors Speak Out offers an intimate look into what it was like to be a child placed in an Indian boarding school in the twentieth century. Michigan had three Indian boarding schools…
Review by Tom Powers, Michigan in Books In the very first sentence of Memories of a Mackinac Island Native, the author writes he “will not attempt to cover a detailed Mackinac Island history.” By the end of the book, I wish he had covered more history and fewer personal memories…
Sparks of the Revolution Todd Harrison Otis Modern History Press 978-1-61599-787-9 $35.00 Hardcover/$21.95 Paperback/$6.95 eBook www.ModernHistoryPress.com Sparks of the Revolution: James Otis and the Birth of American Democracy is a novel that is steeped in the birth of the American democracy. It narrows its focus to a small band of…
By Ernest Dempsey Modern History Press has published works of both fiction and poetry from and about the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan. Its latest book is an anthology of poetry by Yoopers (UPers) titled Yooper Poetry: On Experiencing Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Edited by Raymond Luczak, a proud Yooper who…
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 uniquely oddball Yooper characters strong enough to feature in and become the narrator of a book of…
Off the Hook: Off-Beat Reporter’s Tales from Michigan’s U.P. by Nancy Besonen 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…
Relative Sanity by Ellen Lord I’m the last person who should be allowed to review poems. Many poems simply go over my head at the altitude of a jetliner. I don’t even understand some of the glowing remarks by the authors on the back of this book. But if…
Synopsis: With the publication of “Yooper Ale Trails: Craft Breweries and Brewpubs of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula” by Jon C. Stott and Mikel B. Classen, beer and ale enthusiasts can visit the 29 unique craft breweries and brewpubs of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Choose from among eight different Ale Trails for your…
Each year it is my pleasure to nominate just six short pieces for the Pushcart Prize. Always a tough selection, but here’s my nominations for 2024. Winners would be announced in April 2024 if it comes to that. And the nominees are… Hilton Moore for “The Cell Tower” (North of…
Small Press Bookwatch: September 2023 James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief Midwest Book Review 278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI 53575 The Native American Studies Shelf Synopsis: No less than 27 out of the 50 states’ names in the USA are based in Native American languages. Additionally, six out of 13 of Canada’s…
https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s544/audio/2023/08/int-ellenlordwalloon-final.mp3 Click on the player above to listen to Ellen Lord’s interview Michigan native Ellen Lord has released her first chapbook, Relative Sanity, which features her elegiac and nature-centered poetry. Currently residing in Charlevoix County, Ellen has an Upper Peninsula connection with an ancestral home in Trout Creek. Her writing…
Synopsis: Penned by author and local newspaper columnist Sharon M. Kennedy in recent years, “The SideRoad Columnist: Observations from an Upper Michigan Author” presents a very special collection of her newspaper columns. To delight the reader, each installment tells a complete story in miniature. “The SideRoad Columnist” showcases Kennedy’s own…
Review by Tom Powers, Michigan in Books 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. Among the cornucopia…
Indians and Other Misnomers of the Upper Great Lakes 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…
From The Mystery/Suspense Shelf Voodoo Shack: A Michigan Mystery Terri Martin Modern History Press 9781615997213, $29.95, HC, 150pp Synopsis: When 11-year-old Iris Weston discovers a ramshackle hunting cabin deep in Hazard Swamp, she and her friends decide it’s perfect for a secret clubhouse. The gang dubs it the Voodoo Shack…
Faces, Places, and Days Gone By — Volume 1 Mikel B. Classen Modern History Press https://www.modernhistorypress.com 9781615997251, $34.95, HC, 138pp Synopsis: With the publication of Faces, Places, and Days Gone By – Volume 1: A Pictorial History of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Mikel Classen’s pictorial history is the next best thing…
