Wisconsin Books

In reading a first book by any author, I feel some trepidation. I need not have feared that with this literary work. The stories and associated musings by the author provided myself with an all too brief glimpse into a world that many people should be more aware of. I highly recommend this book and I look forward to his next efforts.

This excellent field guide is invaluable for those of us who live in the northern part of the Midwest. It covers the many types of habitats we enjoy here, and the plants, animals and birds found in them. The book is full of vivid pen and ink drawings showing samples of the variety of wildlife which abound here. It is extensive enough to provide throrough information, yet small enough to tuck into a backpack on a camping trip. It's a wonderful value and a fascinating read. Go for it!

First published in 1944, Old World Wisconsin by Fred L. Holmes is an "armchair tour" of historical vistas throughout the Dairy State, and offering the reader an involving, informative look at key Wisconsin traditions, historically significant sites, and the progression of Wisconsin's cultural history itself. Old World Wisconsin is enthusiastically recommended and intrinsically engaging read for anyone with an interest in the background behind the many ethnic groups of settlers that have made Wisconsin their home.

If you have an sense of the rich tradition of Wisconsin athletics, this book is a must-have.

It is the happiest of chances for us that a boy who lived a very unique childhood grew up to be an illustrator. Howard Sivertson spent a good portion of his childhood living in a fishing colony on primeval Isle Royale, a remote wilderness paradise in northern Lake Superior. Though it is now a U. S. National Park, Isle Royale was for more than one hundred years home to commercial fishermen, a hardy breed who spent most of each year battling primitive living conditions and the unforgiving freshwater sea. Sivertson remembers much beauty and humor in life among the small tough Scandanavians. Prone to seasickness, Sivertson left the family fishing trade to make a living as an illustrator. Now in his later years, he has brought his childhood idyll to life in his lovingly rendered paintings and the simple stories which accompany them. Though this book may almost strike you as a childrens' story, the beauty and childlike simplicity of it cannot fail to move you.

The stories in this book sadden me as a decendant of both Oneida and European colonists.

I stumbled on "Our Father Abe: The Story of a Deaf Shoe Repairman" at the library looking for memoirs and passing the local history display.

It's a gripping read! the authors, Abe's two children, have done an excellent job of storytelling, with a frank and graceful touch.

This is a book poised at the intersection of personal history and cultural history. Abe (born 1900s to Russian Jews) lost his hearing before acquiring language, then went on to experience everything Jews in the 20th c. emigrating from Europe & landing in the midwest went through, but with the challenge of deafness in tow.

This book would be of interest to the Deaf community as much as it is to the Jewish community or to memoir writers like me.

A testament to the personal desire to publish, and the good that can radiate into the world from such a desire.

If you have ever done more than fly over Wisconsin on your way to a coast these are funny stories mostly. Especially if you only fly over, stop in for a read.

First off, if you're a scholar of literature, you won't be surprised to know that you can likely get everything in this volume for free elsewhere where it has been previously published. So you don't NEED this for your work, but it does provide one handy collection of much of Mackey's uncollected scholarship, including his excellent piece "Gassire's Lute" on Robert Duncan. If you're not a scholar and just like Mackey's poetry and novels, I'd recommend picking up this book just for ready access to "Gassire's Lute," which is otherwise only available in past issues of the journal Sagetrieb. This essay seems a great key into Mackey's notions of mixture, complicity, and evil. If you're a poet or, again, just like Mackey's work, the collection of interviews at the end of the book will be great reading. If you just wandered here, and you don't know Mackey, check out his novels, definitely. If you read poetry, his Songs of the Andoumboulou are wonderful, especially if you can get ahold of the onw-rare CD Strick on which he reads with jazz accompaniment.

Have you ever dreamed of moving in to the home of your dreams in a blissful, secluded location that spoke to your soul and tickled all your senses? Oh, but that's the last chapter. This book, sometimes comically, mostly profoundly chronicles the account of one man's dream to transform a largely unbuildable, but wonderfully located piece of land into his dream. I truly enjoyed it. But, strangely I almost passed it by, because what could I possibly have in common with an architect whose likely approach to such a dream must certainly come not from his heart but from his profession. I was wrong. Small town politics, mother nature's wrath, and more did not deter the author from his dream. And he accomplished it with uncompromised stewardship to the land he loved. I have to admit there were times I was rooting for the home-town folks. But I appreciated the honesty that came across with every word the author wrote. I was only left wishing there was a regional map on the inside cover that marked with a star the exact location of the dream home chronicled in the book. If you're planning to build (especially in Door County, Wisconsin) or even just dreaming, read the book, have a few laughs, sigh a few sighs, and realize that if it's your dream - it's worth it.