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…
Review by Sharon Brunner In the book A Mouse Tail on Mackinac Island written by Summer Porter a family of mice travels to Mackinac Island in search of a new home. Father Mouse is known for his love of cheese. Mother Mouse wore a white apron and sings lullabies. Max…
Review by Victor R. Volkman Allan Koski is that rare combination of an eloquent historian, talented engineer, and a storyteller with a penchant for seeing the big picture. Because I thoroughly enjoyed Koski’s Another Time, Another Place: World War II in the Pacific 1941-1944, which details the exploits of his…
Life beyond shadows, poems by t. kilgore splake (Shoe Music Press, 2021); In Other Days, Roger Craik (BlazeVox Books, 2022) Haiku and Winnie-the-Pooh Review by Mack Hassler My friend and colleague, Roger Craik, has a very nice poem on A.A. Milne in the new collection of his poems In Other…
Review by Victor R. Volkman I’ll admit it’s extremely rare for a book like Know Your Ships 2022 to cross my desk, but I am extremely impressed by the beauty and detail that it packs into such a compact, colorful, and comprehensive volume. It’s hardly bigger than an average trade…
To Build a Tunnel by Deborah K Frontiera (originally published 2004) as volume one of The Chronicles of Henry Roach-Dairier From Fandom to Full Cultural Foundation Review by Mack Hassler In modern times, we often label this sort of enthusiastic imitation of types “fandom” as in science fiction fandom or…
Review by Sharon Brunner The poems in this book, Roads Not Traveled: Collection of Poems, were inspired by Robert Frost. Travelers are strongly affected by the decisions they make, for better or worse. T. Kilgore Splake felt forced to take a path less wanted instead of a naval career. Teaching…
Review by Sharon Brunner The journey of a prominent Upper Peninsula poet, T. Kilgore Splake, was as significant as the destination, as Robert M. Zoschke details in his new biography The Road to Splake. Thomas Smith, Splake’s given name, grew up in Three Rivers, Michigan with two older sisters. His…
Review by Donna Winters Dance Your Dance, Sing Your Song, a True Story By Dorothy Paad with Heather Picotte, illustrated by Matthew Forgrave. It was the first day of orientation at Northern Michigan University and it was a total zoo. With those words, Dorothy Paad opens Dance Your Dance, Sing…
“Michigan Tech Hockey: 100 Years of Memories” just released by Bill Sproule with the help of Calvin Larson, Michigan Tech’s Assistant Athletic Director, is the definitive encyclopedia of Huskies Hockey history. The book is chock full of in-depth information on every season from 1920 to 2021 and was commissioned for…
Review by Victor R. Volkman At first glance, Joseph D. Haske’s North Dixie Highway is a rage-fueled trip through three generations of an Eastern U.P. family locked in a cycle of grinding poverty, trauma, and alcoholism. But beneath the surface there’s much more lurking as we follow this broken family…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera On the first read, A Halloween Scare in Michigan is a cute, rhymed with good rhythm children’s picture book aimed at the four-to-eight-year-old set. It has that sing-song type rhyme that kids love and rolls off the tongue with ease. Not all rhymed books achieve…
