Understanding Michigan Black Bear, 3rd Edition by Richard P. Smith

Two black bears, one with dark fur and one with light fur, stand on their hind legs facing each other in a grassy area. The book cover text reads "Understanding Michigan Black Bear," by Richard P. Smith.

Reviewer: Sharon Brunner Richard P. Smith’s Understanding Michigan Black Bear, 3rd Edition offers an extensive review covering the habits, attacks, and hunting of Michigan black bears. These well-researched bruins have exhibited avoidant and dangerous behaviors. They may run away if yelled at or may attack if they feel threatened. Some…

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Building Kathy Ann: My Lake Superior Boat Project By Robert “Buzz” Johnson

A small blue and white boat named Kathy Ann is docked on a lake under a partly cloudy sky. Trees line the shore in the background. Text on the image reads: "Building Kathy Ann, My Lake Superior Boat Project, Robert 'Buzz' Johnson.

Building Kathy Ann By Robert “Buzz” Johnson Review by Deborah K Frontiera ISBN: 979-8-8956-054-8 Modern History Press, 2025, PB Ret. $21.95 If you’ve never thought about how much is involved in building a boat from the keel up, you will more than appreciate the many technical skills involved by the time…

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Gentle Spirits by Thomas Ford Conlan

Book cover for "Gentle Spirits" by Thomas Ford Conlan. Features a rugged, reddish-brown mountain under a partly cloudy sky with a visible moon. The title and author's name are in bold black letters.

Review by Mack Hassler                                                     “…the novel is reflecting upon its own nature” Jean-Paul Sartre, Search for a Method, 1963 Gentle Spirits, this first book-length offering by Conlan, a retired shipmaster and poet, is not exactly an “Anti-Novel” in the tradition that Sartre describes above.  It does not use the…

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Houghton – The Birthplace of Professional Hockey by William Sproule

The cover of hogton the birthplace of professional hockey.

Could a Small Town in the U.P. be the Origin of the World’s Premier Winter Sport? Dr. William Sproule, a recently retired professor of civil and environmental engineering from Michigan Tech University, wrote the new book Houghton: The Birthplace of Professional Hockey with the hopes of cementing the Keewenaw’s crucial…

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