Michigan Books

This is a valuable book (resource) for budding entrepreneurs. It seems to try to cover all the bases for starting a small business, but it can't do them all well in the space available between its covers. The book is only 288 pages long. If you are in the planning stages of starting a small business, then I highly recommend you get a copy of this book. Read it, study it, and outline it. There are helpful checklists to help you grasp the subjects. You will come up with a plethora of keywords and terms that you will want to google to find Web pages giving more detailed (and maybe more current) information.

I am a SCORE counselor (Senior Corps of Retired Executives) who typically does face-to-face counseling sessions three nights a month. It would really be neat if my clients would read this book BEFORE they came to their session with me because they would pretty much be "educated customers" ready to ask educated questions. Our sessions would be so much more beneficial.

My favorite chapters were:

1. Initial business concerns
2. Your business' structure
3. Business start-up details
5. Sources of business assistance (SCORE is mentioned here)
7. Your smart business plan (and a good sample plan is included)
8. Obtaining the financing you need

The book is weak when it comes to how the Internet can be used in corresponding, hiring, and marketing. But this is just one example of how googling keywords and concepts found in the book will make the book more complete. Don't treat the book as authoritative on the law. It isn't. Nor was it ever intended to be. It is light on tax information as it relates to small business.

I was particularly impressed with the material presented in Chapter 2: Choice of Legal Entity. That subject is sorely ignored in most small business books, and it is critically important. It is a subject I regularly must spend a great deal of time discussing at my SCORE sessions. This book does a pretty good job on the topic.

Chapters 4 and 9 through 12 are easy to find fault with. The topic of each could fill a book. But having these topics covered definitely will help a budding entrepreneur know some of the issues they raise.

I would have liked the book more if Chapter 6 (marketing) had been less superficial. When I read it I got the impression that the author was more a public relations expert than a marketing expert. I generally categorize public relations as a subset of marketing. Marketing includes advertising, public relations, and a whole host of other promotion techniques. I did not get this message when I read the book. I also would have liked the book better if the Internet, email, and Web sites had been discussed more. But there are many books on those subjects. Therefore, I can't complain too much about the limited discussion of computers.

When you read this book it may feel a little like it was produced on an assembly line. Maybe it was? There are 51 versions of this book sold; one for each state and the District of Columbia. Content is king, and this book has it. 5 stars!

This is the second book in a series by Kathleen Hills featuring John McIntire as the "detective." Retired from military intelligence, John has returned to the northern Michigan (shores of Lake Superior) area in which he was raised, bringing with him his English wife Leonie. John is shanghaied into accepting the position of Constable in this poor rural area.

This mystery involves a wealthy young man from the East Coast who is murdered. The boy is vacationing in an exclusive enclave and his mother is bent on discovering which of the locals has done this. John is strongarmed into helping with the investigation because the county sheriff is short a deputy and the death occurred in his territory.

The writing in this book is outstanding, and unlike an earlier book, the plotting is tight and the story moves right along. An interesting array of characters, both locals and "outsiders," create an interesting list of suspects. Hills keeps you stumped to the very end (and I read a LOT of mysteries) and yet it all makes sense. The 1950s setting and the sparsely populated North Woods/shores of Superior setting add to the charm.

I look forward to reading the next book in the series, which is already in print.

Located in the area known as the Thumb of Michigan, Huron County was part of New France until the Treaty of Paris in 1763, ceded to the British Crown and eventually granted to the Colony of Virginia. In 1784, it became part of the Northwest Territories, but remained under British control until 1813. By 1819, the Thumb was opened to settlement along the shores of Lake Huron and the Saginaw Bay. Populated by forests of hardwoods and evergreens, lumber camps and mills began clearing the forests. By the dry, hot summer of 1881, acre after acre of deadwood littered the landscape and forest fires raged everywhere, small, controlled fires turning into a blazing inferno, as much as 1,500 square miles, from Saginaw to Lake Huron decimated in a few days, hundreds of people dead in its wake. The Red Cross stepped in, offering relief to its first disaster.

Without photographs, it would be impossible to imagine the evolution of this magnificent terrain. In this slim volume, the Huron County Historical Society offers a pictorial history of the regions communities: Bad Axe, Bay Port and Ora Labora, Pigeon, Port Austin, Caseville, Elkton, Harbor Beach and Port Hope, Sebewaing, Ubly and White Rock.
The rapid redevelopment was aided by the railroads in 1882, encouraging new settlers from Canada, New York and the southern states, building rural schools, post offices, general stores and other amenities for a booming economy, Huron County a leading agricultural center in the state after the fire. Today Huron County is supported by agriculture, commercial fishing and manufacturing, Bad Axe and Harbor Beach the two largest cities of nine villages and numerous communities with no organized local government, ninety miles of shoreline enjoyed by summer visitors, museums dotting the landscape that embodies the American spirit of rebuilding in the face of natural disaster.

Over two hundred vintage photographs celebrate the indomitable spirit of people who braved hardship to create homes and opportunity in an era of booming industrialization. This untamed land is bountiful, demanding respect from those who seek to dwell there, page after page of turn-of-the-century determination, merchants posing before their wood-framed mercantiles, motor cars on Huron Ave., long-skirted matrons herding their children through mulling crowds, well-to-do tourists at a Bay Port train station, the other-worldly elegance of the Bay Port Hotel. These photographs are remarkable, a vivid reminder of the early 1900s, from the unpaved streets of horse and buggy days to the modern motor cars and railroads that delivered saleable goods to businesses. There are striking beaches, timbered forests, wooden steamers at the docks now replaced by other attractions, loading docks left to the ravages of time, men in overalls on the waterfronts. This visual history is a reminder of the not so distant past when America was defined by the hard work of those in intimate communication with the land that yielded such bounty, a rich and valuable heritage. Luan Gaines/ 2006.

If you're looking for a good book, that's fun to read and has a little something for everyone, this book has it. A young man moves to the country from the city, and has an eye-opening new view of the world. At first, Junior is very unhappy with his new situation is and determined to get back to the city any way he can. But he meets some country folk that helps him look for the "lost gold", and realizes that this little town ain't so bad. The writing is very descriptive, and during the town picnic scene, I could almost smell the chicken cooking. There is no blue material or cussing, so that youngsters through adults can read this book. I had a hard time putting it down. I wanted to find out where the gold was!

Being a yooper growing up in the central upper penninsula of Michigan and working in the woods with my father as a young man I found this book very interesting. Anderson puts you in the forest in the days when virgin white pine covered the land on the west side of the U.P. She intimately describes the feeling of living in harmony with nature among the animals and lumberjacks while describing the hard labor of felling and skidding out timber with crosscut saws, big wheels, oxen and horses. I picked this book up in hard cover first edition copyright 1951 at an antique store in Republic, Michigan where we have a cabin and spend our summers. I found myself researching the town of Tula to find a photo of a lone log cabin standing. It was one of the best books I have ever read which places you in a time long gone. Her own insights were wonderfully written and her illustrations added to the her ability of placing you at the camps in Tula.

Written by Dr. Susan Elaine Gray (research associate to the Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Peoples in an Urban and Regional Context, University of Winnipeg), "I Will Fear No Evil": Ojibwa-Missionary Encounters Along the Berens River, 1875-1940 offers a new perspective of the history of Christian missions in Canada - one told from the point of view of the Berens River Ojibwa people of Canada, rather than that of the Methodist and Catholic missionaries dedicated to converting them. Exhaustively researched with keen attention to detail, "I Will Fear No Evil" depicts how the Ojibwa were active participants in missionary encounters, incorporating Christian beliefs and practices into their established belief system, a mixture that remains sincerely woven in the lives of Berens River residents today. A truly fascinating exploration of a the meeting and shaping of cultures.

Even if you are not from Michigan but are interested in learning about this state, I would heartily recommend this book. Gorgeous paintings on every page and a catchy rhyming verse are just the start here. Also on every page is a painting of a kid from Michigan and a short bio/tidbit of information about Michigan. I bought this for my granddaughter and she loves it. Familiar places and new adventures await. I can not emphasize enough how much the artwork affects the book. It's a feast for the eyes. All Michigan kids should read this book or have it read to them.

Visually enticing young readers book full of illustrations to captivate those interested in a really true adventure story. The illustrations are a work of art all by themselves. Valerie van Heest captures the drama and heroism of a young boy who becomes a man by taking on much more than he ever thought he could handle. But even more than the historical aspect of this book, the reader also gets to learn about modern day shipwreck hunting going on today and underwater photographs of the actual ship spoke of in the book are shown. This is a fantastic way to motivate young readers in maritime history and shipwreck hunting but also those interested in local West Michigan history! A must have for anyone with young children!

What a delight to wander, in these many essays, through some fascinating zones within this great academic's mind. Freedman was President of both Dartmouth Universty and the University of Iowa; and was both University Ombudsman and Law Dean at the Universtiy of Pennsylvania. He truly knows whereof he speaks. Here, instead of advocacy, he shares perspectives and joys of his life as a scholar and prominent liberal thinker -- reflecting wonderfully on both the scholarly life and on liberalism (so often unthinkingly maligned in these times the absolutism by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter). As a book collector myself (though hardly on Freedman's scale!), I am particularly fascinated by his essay on the pleasures of collecting books!

This was an excellent study of a complex topic. Professor Shimko should be congratulated for his thoughtful analysis of this issue. Highly recommended.