Review by Mack Hassler “Young Mason would spend much of his time in far off New York City…where there was work to be done in the new Nation.” Life and Times of Steven Thomas Mason Boy Governor of Michigan, Lawton T. Hemans (1920). I have been reading for review some books…
Review by Mack Hassler “ We know what we are but know not what we may be” William Shakespeare, daily quote in the news sheet of my retirement home on the birthday of Shakespeare, 23 April 2025. We know that Lawton Hemans did not live to see his masterpiece in…
by Ernest Dempsey For the well-known novelist Sue Harrison of Pickford, Michigan, this summer translates into book bliss. Between the final week of May and mid-September, Harrison is scheduled to tour eight libraries and a learning center in various towns in the Upper Peninsula region to participate in workshops, book…
Review by Sharon Brunner M.F. Erler has woven an intimate tale filled with despair, hope, and resiliency in her book An Irish Odyssey: from Despair to Hope. Maggie, Thomas, John and Mary were some of the main characters who struggled to succumb to the hardships placed upon them by the…
Review by Sharon Brunner Adam Dompierre’s Paint An Inch Thick revealed a madcap mystery in which the main character, Eddie London, encountered murder, greed, dark secrets and mind-boggling acts of deception. The story takes place in California during the 1980s. Other characters, who made multiple appearances throughout the book were…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera What can you do with a wordless picture book? Oh, let me count the ways! First, a parent or other adult can let a child, or children make up the story, and there can be many stories going on in the progression of the illustrations….
Review by Sharon Brunner Jon C. Stott embraces the advent of the seasons, the mysterious and magical allure of nature and many treasured memories in his book “Wild Blueberry Summer: More Upper Michigan Moments and Memories.” Some of the main characters in his book were woodland creatures, waterfowl, old friends…
Review by Mack Hassler References Paul Fussell, Meter and Poetic Form (1965) Paul Fussell, The Great War and Modern Memory (1975) Kelly Peach prides himself on being an “author” in a rather charming way in Please, Do Not Tap on the Glass about the form of his poems. I have…
Review by Mack Hassler “Sheriff George looked at Ashley and Franklin, ‘To begin with, Evangeline’s real father called me almost two months ago to ask me to find Evangeline.’” p. 59 Both the great New England poet Longfellow and the TV series Longmire, a crime drama based on the Walt…
Review by Mack Hassler “A doctor gave his patient six months to live, but he couldn’t pay his bill, so he gave him another six months.” — Henny Youngman, comic (1906-1998) Recent Yooper writers of humor that I have reviewed may or may not know Henny Youngman’s one-liners, but I…
Reviewed by Sharon Brunner Nia To Go There’s matwân cî …wondering about now and then and everything everywhere poetry book portrays an innate intimacy between animals, birds, humans and inanimate objects between worlds. Stories, language, dances and visions exist and were experienced everywhere with everything. In other words, the time…
Review by Mack Hassler “Mark Twain’s Huck Finn underlies all American Literature” Character of Hemingway in Midnight in Paris (2011) by Woody Allen When he writes, produces, and directs film, Woody Allen can be brilliant. In the epigraph above, he captures an idea about Hemingway often found in scholarly work. …
Review by Mack Hassler “…the novel is a reflection upon its own nature” Jean-Paul Sartre, Search for a Method, 1963 Usually in good fiction there is an autobiographical impulse that may be seen in the mode of storytelling. In his later novels and stories, the great Romantic master of the…
Rescuing Crash, The Good Dog: A Novel By Sue Harrison Review by Deborah K. Frontiera ISBN 979-8-89656-015-9, Modern History Press, 2025, Ret. $18.95 paperback In Rescuing Crash, The Good Dog, eleven-year-old Britta had life smack her in the face. Her mother has left the family to chase her own dreams. Dad is…
Review by Mack Hassler “Therefore the land mourns… Together with the wild animals” Hosea 4:3 This first novel by Hinman has captured my interest so completely that I do not want to stop reading. Her editor at Superior Book Productions is Tyler Tichelaar, well-known for his own many books. In…
Review by Jon C. Stott “Travelling over the Mackinac Bridge always gives me a feeling of stepping back in time, where the pace of life slows a bit and folks wave as they pass on the road, whether they know you or not.” This is how Bob Otwell, who, with…
Review by Michael Carrier Peter Geye, in his novel A Lesser Light, has served up to his readers a well-constructed and entertaining chunk of his heart—and it’s a sizable chunk at that. Here Geye not only demonstrates his amazing ability to put words and sentences together in a deeply compelling fashion…
Reviewer: Sharon Brunner Steve Lehto’s “Death’s Door: The Truth Behind the Italian Hall Disaster and the Strike of 1913 (Second Edition)” offers a detailed account of the 1913 Christmas Eve mayhem and the corruption behind the strike in the Keweenaw Peninsula in Michigan. The peninsula is located in the northwestern…
