Review by Deboah K Frontiera Ad Lucem is a young adult novel, part fantasy and part coming-of-age story set in the present time, presents fourteen-year-old Adam Sozie as a confused loner. The story is set in a fictional version of the Copper Country in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. His parents have…
Review by Deborah K Frontiera Not so long ago, there didn’t seem to be much Upper Peninsula, Michigan, literature or poetry published. Now there is an abundance. Some skeptics might say there is enough, or think What, another UP Poetry book? Another “outsider” arriving to experience life in the woods….
Reviewer: Sharon Brunner Erin Brynes Bailey’s “The Stormy Kromer Kitten” was a delightful tale about a calico cat, a train engineer and a creative woman. The story took place at Kaakauna, Wisconsin, during the snowy winter of 1903. A historical fiction children’s book in which Ida and George Kromer were…
Reviewed by Jeffrey M. Holden Dead Moose on Isle Royale is certainly a book that delivers on the promise of its title. When U.P. historian and conservationist Mikel B. Classen first recommended Holden’s book to me, I must admit I shelved it without even picking it up—which is hardly fair!…
Review by Mack Hassler “Special Agent Gracie Hart … is eager to be the next Miss United States … Sandra Bullock stars as an [undercover] operative posing as a contestant In order to ferret out a terrorist targeting the event” — Product information for the film, “Miss Congeniality” (DVD 2000)…
Reviewer: Sharon Brunner Jameson R. Sweet’s Mixed-Blood Histories: Race, Law, And Dakota Indians in the Nineteenth-Century Midwest delineated the legal and economic ramifications of the intermarriages between Euro-Americans and American Indians. The book took place in the Midwest which included the following states: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa,…
Review by Mack Hassler “‘You are Israel’s teacher, said Jesus, ‘and do you not understand … ?’ — John 2:25 “But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God”‘ — John 3:…
Reviewer: Sharon Brunner Thomas L. Pelissero’s Bring One Home: A Memoir of Boyhood, Basketball, and Hometown Spirit brought to life a basketball team’s multiple losses: the town’s loss of jobs, the school’s financial strife, amongst a never-ending hometown spirit. The story took place during the 1960s in the small town of…
Review by Deborah K Frontiera The Stormy Kromer Kitten by Erin Byrnes Bailey is a historical fiction picture book tells how the Stormy Kromer caps might have come to be. Set in 1903, George and Ida Kromer came up with an idea for a warm hat that would not blow…
Review by Mack Hassler Tantae molis erat Romanem condere gentum “How hard it was to found the race of Rome” Near the end of Book I, Vergil The Aeneid, written close to Christ’s birth I love the interplay in this epigraph between the language play in ancient thought given to…
Review by Mack Hassler “That is why it was called Babel— because the Lord confused the language of the whole world” Genesis 11:9 I think I will always, in a way, be thankful that God’s new creation of mankind in the Garden was a failed experiment. Adam and Eve and…
Review by Deborah K Frontiera A Is for Agates is a great alphabet book that, literally, has it all—for the child being read to and the adult reading it to a child, or children. Words roll easily out when reading it aloud—rhymes and rhythm flow without any tongue tripping. So…
Review by Mack Hassler “…In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Fourth Gospel, by Saint John, 1:1 I have…
Review by Sharon Brunner Phyllis Carlson’s “Dairies That Delivered Milk to the Residents of Dickinson County, Michigan” introduced a number of dairies that were in operation in the aforementioned county from the late 1800s to the 1970s during a time when lumbering and mining served as prevalent sources of income….
Reviewer: Sharon Brunner Phil Bellfy’s “Merciless Savages (NOT): A how to guide to help you write and talk respectfully about American Indians” provides a culturally appropriate approach for addressing the Indigenous population. He applied humor and honest critical references in this book. The Declaration of Independence referred to the Indigenous…
Review by Mack Hassler A beautifully-designed chapbook by Amy Hansen, Superior Stories is the product of workshopping for creative writers and chosen by chief judge Brian Gruley as the latest of this long series of chapbook winners. I have not reviewed any of the series previously, but the work of…
Reviewer: Sharon Brunner Eleen Lord’s book Vigil: Poems captures the nuances of everyday life and its vast array of emotions. Lord portrays an early December morning and how cold suspends time. She pictured an old cabin which was currently empty and memories such as counting the time between lightening strikes…
Reviewer: Sharon Brunner Dylan Bolander’s Until We Meow Again spun a web of supernatural heroism. The story took place in Texas, New Jersey, Marquette, Michigan, an Upper Peninsula of Michigan city (U.P.), rainbow bridges, and various realms outside of the Earth’s plane. In the story there was more than one…
