Review by Mack Hassler I had said in an earlier review of one of the many collections by Splake as well as in Clutch collections by Zoschke, which contain a lot of Splake, that I thought he was winding down his enormous output of short poems. In fact, I used…
Review by Mack Hassler I like a book that has resonance. Both fiction and non-fiction, whether history or memoir or journalism, can contain good resonance. Further, in my opinion, the best echo or resonance is with faith or philosophic issues. Therefore, to select two titles from what was at the…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera The middle-grade novel Voodoo Shack is not just for kids. Adults who grew up in the 1960s will remember, fondly or otherwise, their growing-up years. Parents of today’s middle-grade readers may comment, “So that’s what it was like for my parents, and it’s pretty much…
Review by Jon C. Stott Roadkill Justice: Featuring Yooper Woodswoman Nettie Bramble is set somewhere in the north-central section of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (I think, maybe, in Baraga County), there’s a place called Budworm. Residing there are such people as Sammy Snert, Miss Linda Figgy (aka Miss Figgy), Tag Elder,…
‘Anatomy of a Murder’ Lives On Review by Rick Gould Robert Traver’s Anatomy of a Murder has enjoyed many lives. There was the actual Upper Michigan murder the summer of ’52. The case inspired the 1958 best-selling novel. The book became a classic 1959 film. There was a 2009 documentary….
Review by Donna Winters A Second Home is compelling, well-paced, and saturated with sound values. It offers preteen and early teen boys an excellent adventure chock full of interesting characters and excellent advice on dealing with bullies. The story opens in June 1957. The main character, 13-year-old Roger Tucker, runs…
Review by Deborah Frontiera In Odin’s Eye: A Marquette Time Travel Novel, Tichelaar’s main character, John/Neill Vandelaare, wakes up with no memory of who he is or how he came to be in a bed in the home of the Allen family. The year is 1900, the place, Marquette, Michigan….
Review by Mack Hassler Two texts in the general literature far from the UP come to mind as the reader listens to the strong first-person opening of Roadkill Justice: Featuring Yooper Woodswoman Nettie Bramble here, “Me and Ma live off the land. That and her government check. My name’s Nettle…
Review by Mack Hassler Trained as a medievalist but now working mostly with stories about Marquette in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, Tyler Tichelaar has learned how to weave in and out of time references perhaps from his work with Chaucer or the King Arthur stories. He has done a…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera It is a bit sad to reach the end of Sigrid Undset’s epic, Olav Audunssøn, with the fourth subtitled Winter. For readers not familiar with Undset’s work, do not be afraid to start with this one. The author includes enough backstory so a reader does…
Review by Mack Hassler We read just now of the latest honor for the writing of Sue Harrison: her induction into the UP Literary Hall of Fame. So this fine new novel The Midwife’s Touch by an established award-winner for our literature comes at an auspicious time. It is a…
Review by Nikki MItchell Voodoo Shack: A Michigan Mystery by Terri Martin is a delightful story of adventure, suspense, and just being a kid. Iris and her friends hang out in an abandoned shack that belonged to Mr. Hazard. The kids name it the Voodoo Shack. The story follows Iris…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera Boat’s Can’t Jump: The Story of the Soo Locks is a delightful nonfiction picture book explains with words and illustrations why the locks at Sault Ste. Marie were built and how they work. Young children learn from both pictures and words, and this author/illustrator pair…
Review by Deborah K. Frontiera This novel is set during the summer and fall of 1942 in the Sault Ste. Marie area. The fictional Portstown, with its lighthouse, is described as being on Lake Superior about half an hour from the Soo. (Perhaps based on Bay Mills?) In the first…
Review by Mack Hassler The self-publishing of one’s work can, now and then, lead to books that are very strange and that hardly fit into any pattern of literature. I Married a Troll: My Husband Married a Yooper is a nicely printed and well-bound, tidy book in appearance. At the…
Review by Mack Hassler “It’s who you are when time’s up that matters.” Obituary for Anne Perry, NY Times, 4/13/23 Non-fiction, investigative reporting, and autobiography are so important to me for lively and vital UP literature. Sharon Kennedy, who has lived and worked “above the bridge” but not quite into…
Review by Mack Hassler North Country: A Pedagogical Almanac contains 19 short non-fiction essays of Memoir about the first arrival as a new Yooper to what she calls “… to live on the northern edge of beyond.” p. 11. Carolyn Dekker writes about her experiences since 2015 as a young…
Reviewer: Sharon Brunner Phil Bellfy’s book Three Fires Unity: The Anishnaabeg of the Lake Huron Borderlands provided a revolutionary view of the Three Fires confederacy and a history of multiple Native American tribes, the British, the French and the rising American population. Bellfy has a residence in Sault Ste. Marie,…
