Reviewed by Tyler R. Tichelaar New Novel Recreates Hiawatha Myth for Modern Day James Charles Harwood’s new novel Julia Island is a rollickingly funny novel with some serious undertones that takes the myth of Hiawatha, along with Native American stereotypes, quantum physics, and recent American history, and mixes them all…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera Seasons of the Birch, a work of historical fiction begins in 1944 and ends in the present, although the emphasis is on the years 1944-1959. The main character, Ruth Amundson, is a petite, easily blown away, shorter than average young woman who has been working…
Reviewed by Tyler Tichelaar New Novel Captures Terrifying Carnival Ride of Native American Female Experience Chris Stark’s new novel Carnival Lights offers up a wild ride like no other in the history of Native American literature. Set in 1969, it plays fast and loose with time, continually juxtaposing the present…
Review by Victor R. Volkman Although I count myself a lifetime resident of Michigan, I confess that, for the better part of six decades, I had never heard the appellation “Sea Stacks” until this year, when I picked up the eponymous anthology of short stories by John (“J.L.”) Hagen. This…
U.P. Reader — Volume #5: Bringing Upper Michigan Literature to the World Mikel Classen and Deborah K Frontiera Modern History Press www.ModernHistoryPress.com 9781615995714, $17.95 paperback, $28.95 hardcover, 308 pages B09253976L, $5.95 Kindle The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is also known as Upper Michigan or the UP, with people native to…
Review by Deborah Frontiera As a long-time fan of folklore and cultural stories, and with a fair amount of Norwegian blood (ancestors from Norway and Viking genes via my Cornish family history as well), I was delighted to have a copy of this new translation of Norwegian folktales. Having read…
Novel Full of Quirky Characters You Come to Care About Review by Tyler R. Tichelaar Leif Enger’s Virgil Wander is an intriguing novel that manages to rope the reader in without a lot of sensational hooks, but instead, real-life characters in real-life situations. Set in a small town in northern…
A Wild Tale of a Religious Do-Gooder Who Never Gets it Quite Right Terri Martin’s Devilish Encounters: Church Lady Chronicles is the first anthology of stories about the adventures of Bea Righteous, one of the busybody “church ladies” of the Budworm United Methodist Church (a.k.a. BUMC). Of course, seeing the…
