Michigan Books

This is a wonderful book that examines a father and son relationship in a Midwestern farming community. The struggles between generations and the authors own internal conflicts brought me to tears. The author captures the German-Lutheran morality and displays it affectionately. I loved this book because it showed the difficulty in following ones own dream, perhaps at the cost of someone elses dream. How to be true to oneself and find respect for making lifes difficult decisions.

My father gave me this book to read several years ago and it sat in my desk unread. Two years ago, my father passed away, and I just now read the book. How I wish I had read it when he was alive. My thanks to Howard Kohn for writing such a wonderful book, one I wish I had written.

First, note that this book is available from the public domain as a pdf and in other formats.

Second, note this is not a book about modern machining or wood working techniques.

Third, if you are willing to take the trouble to learn these techniques, virtually all of the power and flexibility of a modern machine lathe is available for little more than the cost of your time and materials. This book was written at a time when mechanics/machinists/smiths etc. were expected to make their own tools.

Interestingly, virtually all of the tools of modern machinists had been invented by the time this book was published and most subsequent developments have been predicated on the availability of modern materials, readily available electricity, and the increasing economy of ready made tools.

I was personally amazed and delighted to learn how much could be accomplished with very basic machines if I was willing to supplement my tools with effort and ingenuity.

If you are looking for anything from a new challenge to an introduction to lathe and machine work this book has been a great beginning for at least 100 years. If you are looking for the power of a modern machine lathe without the $1000 - $10,000 price tag, this book could be some very good news.

Have fun, work hard and God bless.

One of my hobbies is studying exemplary textbooks. I want to learn from great teachers.

Waldo Sweet's books on learning Latin are incredible examples of great language teaching in which the student learns from personal experience. This book is one of his best.

The book is based on 166 sentences that illustrate every concept taught in the book.

This is a brilliant way to teach. It really give me a sense of going step by step in a language that some people believe is challenging.

Latin used to be included in the curriculum of any serious student ( notice Latin words and Latin-based words I must use just to write this review in English!). This is no longer the case.

However, anyone who really wants to understand language and appreciate life in a more rarified sense will want to learn some Latin.

This book presents a structural approach to the language which, as far as I know, is unique in the teaching of Latin.

My only frustration is that the tapes mentioned are no longer available (based on my web searches). However, you can easily find mp3 samples of Latin pronunciation on the net gratis.

When I first bought this book many years ago I bought it just because it's such a great textbook.

When I decided to study Latin I returned to Dr. Sweet's book.

I recommend it without reservation.

Latvians in Michigan is a wonderful book full of factual and personal glimpses of the Latvian families who came to America in the late 1940s when the Communists took over their homeland. The history is facinating and the personal journeys many of our Latvian neighbors and friends made were captivating reading. I have a new understanding and reverence for their customs, intelligence, the many gifts they bring to our communities and their commitment to preserving their country's traditions. There are many recipes for Latvian food and I loved the personal accounts told by those who attended and sent their children to the Latvian camp at Long Lake, Three Rivers, Michigan. I highly recommend this book for its readability, history and humanity. Bravo, Dr. Meija! Janet Howell-Obert

This is compelling and amazingly insightful--a must have for anyone serious about excellence in ESL/EFL teaching and learning. An incredibly fresh approach!

L e e l a n a u ... is a reflection of my 16+ years of living and wandering the peninsula. It is my proudest collection of images put together in a book. I am especially fortunate to have collaborated with writer Jerry Dennis who, in my mind, is one of the finest outdoor writers. Jerry grew up in the Leelanau region and offers a dozen essays that reflect this intimately.

The book is two in one ... the photographs stand alone and do not intentionally illustrate the essays and the essays are not written to explain the photographs. Folks pick up the book because of the imagery and later lose themselves in the essays.

Long, long ago, the ancient people of the forest gathered around the warm fires and told the tale of a time long past, when the land known as "Michigane" was covered with ice and snow. For thousands of years the cruel North Wind ruled the land North of Up North, chasing away the gentle, benevolent winds from the East, West and South. Winter stayed the whole year round, so nothing could live in Michigane. Not until an old warrior and a young boy traveled throught the frigid cold with nothing but warm hearts and an old pair of mittens was there hope that the frozen land would eventually come to life.

Storyteller Trinka Hakes Noble pays homage to her home state in this creative and inventive legend of the orgin of the state of Michigan

This wonderful old book was first published in 1884. It contains thirty-one legends, that is, "stories," from old Detroit, dating from 1669 to 1815. After the stories, the book then has a group of histories of various old (French) families from the Detroit area, including the Chaberts, the Navarres, and the Reaumes.

Overall, I found this to be a great book. It is an excellent resource for the historian and (perhaps even more so!) the genealogist. This book is a veritable goldmine of information, and I give it my highest recommendations.

Wawro's book studies a critical, and often overlooked, part of the legislative process: why do members draft and push bills through the legislature? While this might sound like a question with an obvious answer, Wawro points out that legislative entrepreneurship is costly and risky behavior. So why do legislators bear the costs and risks to draft and press bills?

Wawro uses a combination of theoretical and empirical studies to test for four important possible factors which might lead legislators to become policy entrepreneurs: to gain support from their constitutents, to help campaign fundraising, to facilitate their position in the legislature, and partisan explanations. While I won't ruin the punchline for interested readers, I will promise that you'll be surprised at the answers which Wawro produces.

If you want to understand contemporary American politics, you'll want to read Wawro's excellent book.

This book is a collection of scholarly studies of legislatures around the world. The goal of the book is that legislatures can learn from each other. There are global lessons to be found in the legislative process.
Among the universal traits is that the number of issues facing all legislatures is greater than there is time to look at each. One of the important decision each legislature faces is how to create a process that best handles this. Understanding this process tell us much about what type of legislature that exists. Who gets noticed and who gets ignored tells much about that government's societal power structure.
Nearly every legislature has to develop rules and procedures and to decide how to handle constituents. Further universal concerns include how legislators are selected, how they may retain office, and whether or not legislators should be career professionals. We also learn American legislators tend to have greater resources than legislatures elsewhere. Further, turnover amongst American legislators generally is less than turnover elsewhere.
Readers should develop an appreciation for the difficulties legislators face in different countries. One researcher claims it generally is in America where political institutions are created and improved and then the rest of the world tends to learn from American experiences. We need to go a good job, not only for our citizens, yet as an example for the rest of the world.