Moose Willow Mystery begins with a suspicious death in a game-processing meat locker at the village of Moose Willow. I questioned the place the mystery woman, who showed up one time at a choir practice, held in the book. Her role was explained but the explanation was hard to buy…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera This short volume, Shipwreked and Rescued, is loaded with historic photographs, maps and charts, Larry Jorgenson presents the story of one of the more famous shipwrecks on Lake Superior, the City of Bangor and its cargo of Chrysler cars. The author begins with a brief…
Reviewer: Sharon Brunner Ann Dallman crafted a novel titled “Cady and the Birchbark Box” which depicted the sophistication of the Native American culture and life of a determined teenager. Cady’s character struggled with a move to another community, a crush on a young man and a mystery behind a birchbark…
Across the history of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in the industrial age, there have only been a handful of major employers in the private sector with more than 500 employees. We are of course drawn to the big mining concerns such as Calumet & Hecla’s copper and Cleveland Cliffs Empire Mine…
Modern History Press is proud to announce that its title Cady and the Birchbark Box by Ann Dallman has won the 2022 State History Award in the Children & Youth category. Cady and the Birchbark Box is a novel for children, mainly in the age range 11 to 14 years,…
“A Dangerous Season” by Russell Fee is the third and final installment of the Sherriff Matt Callahan Mysteries. As with the previous stories, the action takes place mostly on the fictional Nicolet Island. My sense of Michigan geography is maybe not as well-developed as it could be, but my instincts…
Review by Sharon Brunner John Owens shared an enchanting story One Winter Up North about a family’s winter adventure in northern Minnesota at the Boundary Waters area. The story is told by captivating illustrations. The family first travels to the location where they set up camp. A father, mother, and…
Review by Deborah K. Fronteira A poet as well-known as Raymond Luczak has been published in numerous books, anthologies, and literary journals. It would be hard to own all the various publications listed in the acknowledgment section of this volume, so Modern History Press made it easy working with Raymond…
Review by Sharon Brunner Dredge Artistic Decay, written by T. Kilgore Splake, offered the reader renditions of past losses. After the “Copper Boom” in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (U.P.), businesses crumbled and along came the appearance of industrial relics. During the boom miners dredged millions of pounds of copper…
Review by Brad Gischia “Of the 500-some men and women who set foot in Florida in 1527, only four survived after wandering for eight years across the American Southwest.” The only realistic comparison that we can make today to the men and women who traveled across oceans to “discover” the…
Review by Tyler Tichelaar What would you do if your husband and best friend wanted to get married? That question might seem absurd, but it isn’t for Adrian Riley. You see, Adrian died in a car accident, and now her spirit is watching over her husband Jake and her best…
Review by Mack Hassler The Constipated Elephant: A Mystery at Pennington House by A. Jay may be one of the most confused storytelling piece of prose that I have read. The emphasis on character and on the apparatus of the novel as “fantasy” rather than just history, however, makes it…
Review by Sharon Brunner Mikel B. Classen’s book True Tales: The Forgotten History of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula provides historical information most of us do not know about or have forgotten. The Upper Peninsula (U.P.), a rugged, uncharted wilderness, haunted and delighted many through lawlessness, natural and man-made phenomenon. The man-made…
Review by Hannah Brinza Julian May’s children’s book The Big Island: A Story of Isle Royale was originally published in 1968 but the timeless tale continues to educate and inspire young minds today. Isle Royale is considered one of the most remote National Parks and is located off the coast…
Sons and Fathers in a New Place Review by Mack Hassler “ … in words begin responsibilities.” Louis Ginsberg to his son Allen Ginsberg in Dharma Lion (St Martin’s Press, 1992), 309. It is exciting to discover the Beat Generation in UP literature far from the Bay Area of the…
The Academy We Need Review by Mack Hassler In reading this solid new chapbook of poems by a fine poet, whom I had not heard of before, it is clear that being from Copper Country (Laurium) need not confine one to local color work. Johnson makes use of ideas, images…
Review by Sharon Brunner Jon C. Stott provided a colorful and realistic view of spending time at a cabin during the course of his life in his book “Summers at the Lake: Upper Michigan Moments and Memories.” The Upper Peninsula of Michigan (U.P.) renders many opportunities to explore the historical…
Trout Fishing in our Own Lake Review by Mack Hassler Like many serious writers, this poet tinkers with his name for literary purposes. He invents an identity that links his work to the clever science fiction writer Kurt Vonnegut (Kilgore Trout) as well as to the Kerouac-type Beat writer Richard…
