Michigan Books

You don't have to be a fan of jazz, Japan, or anything else to enjoy this book! The author's own insights and enthusiasm, captured in deft prose, will have you eating sushi and browsing the jazz section of your local music store in no time. Read it for the fascinating view it gives into both the jazz and Japanese cultures, or simply read it because it is extraordinarily well written.

Unfortunately this book does not have page numbers and not indexed,
however I knew what I was looking for and found eventually.

From book's back cover:

"Because of the age difference it was an unlikely match, but Josephine brought real love into the life of Bill McCallum, who thus far had found little purpose in life. Her rape and murder inside the world's largest walled prison shocked the State of Michigan and devastated the lives of Bill and their son Michael.

This true story details the danger and violence that corrections officers of that era experienced. It also exposes a prison system that, as one federal investigator put it, '... has been rotten for years.'"

Although written in 1862, Congressman Ely wrote an excellent account of the early treatment of Union officers in Libby prison, Richmond. Especially interesting, are the anecdotes about Colonel Michael Corcoran, 69th NYNG and Captain Timothy O'Meara, 42nd NY, captured at Balls' Bluff.

Desnoyers' A Journey to the East is a fascinating time capsule of a book. Li Gui's account of his trip to the 1876 Phillie Exposition captures an outsiders view of a time and place that we are all now outsiders to. His attempts to make American and European ideas and experiences understandable to his stay-at-home Chinese readers gives us a refreshing look at our own technology and culture as it was becoming what is now the "modern world." I found his surprise at the widespread use of female workers mirroring my own surprise. And I was stunned by the amazing access he had on his trip to politicians and captains of industry. He was completely unphazed by meeting presidents and New York's Mayor, but I suppose if one has an Emperor, even NY's mayor is small potatoes. His concern and care for his countrymen in American is apparant and gives an interesting look at how foreign workers were assimilating into our melting pot. Even Li Gui's little jokes and homilies were endearing. All in all, a very intersting and surprisable readable look into another time.
Desnoyers' introduction is in many ways the meat and potaotes of the volume, especially if Chinese history isn't your field. He very ably distills out and encapsulates enough of the times and conditions of Li Gui's life to give you the picture of the man and the place in history he represents. This is invaluable in understanding how Li Gui was experiencing the wonders he saw and what he was trying to accomplish by writing his account as a travelogue for the large, xenophobic audiance back home. For all his discriptions of the wonders abroad he wanted his Chinese readers to see that people everywhere were not that different from the people back home.

it is rare to find so rich and intriguing a sample of american and english literature; i highly recommend it to all english speakers and learners of english as a second language.

This book is legally and academically important but also is a compelling read for anyone interested in the death penalty and what happens in jury rooms when capital punishment is being decided.

It is meticulously researched and the author has amazing access to jurors who actually sentenced people to die. Using the jurors' own stories makes this a very interesting book because you really hear their thoughts in their own words. It is a must read for anyone interested in how the system actually works.

It will be very difficult after reading this book to make the argument that race plays no role in the administration of the death penalty.

This is a wonderful book filled with delicious recipes. They use common ingredients & most are fairly easy to make. Recipes include French toast, pancakes, cereals, fruits, beverages, desserts, muffins, & baked goods.

Egg, meat & cheese dishes including soufflés, quiches, & casseroles are here as well. Each recipe has a description of the B&B it is from along with contact information An index also lists the inns by city.

Some of my favorite recipes include the peach coffee cake, morning pizza, & broccoli bake. I also enjoyed the carrot cookies. My overnight guest loved the surprise French toast made with cream cheese & pecans.

I really love the section in the back filled with household hints. I found these very useful as they really do help save time & money. They have also helped make guests at my at home feel more welcome.

No doubt, Jack Saunders was driven to it. The justice system failed again. The child molester who beheaded his eight-year-old daughter walked free. In this sad aftermath, Jack began his secret war on crime. He joined the Detroit Police Department and rose through the ranks to become a detective. However, Jack's after-hours activities included a different method for reducing crime statistics.

Serial killers, molesters, thugs and animal haters soon discovered the awful truth. Suddenly, legal loopholes vanished and fancy paperwork maneuvers were useless. No appeals or plea bargains were allowed.

Instead, justice was swift, sudden and certain. This one-man crusade served as judge, jury and executioner. Sentences were carefully crafted for each criminal; it resembled poetic justice.

Detroit's crime statistics plunged. When hundreds of its criminal class simply disappeared, no one asked why. The unspoken message was clear: Choose a new career; crime doesn't pay like it once did.

There was another unexpected bonus. The psychological role of victim and predator became reversed. Now criminals worried about retribution, fearful for their own safety.

Japanese literature has been regarded for far too long in a patronising light as 'exotic' and 'obscure'. Mention Japanese literature and the average Westerner is likely to think of Kazuo Ishiguro - a citizen of Britain who writes in English - or, if they are particularly well read, Mishima Yukio. However, anyone who actually takes the trouble to read Japanese literature will discover one of the finest and most distinguished literary traditions in the world. And within that tradition Nagai Kafu holds a small, but unique and fascinating place. Kafu wrote most of his work in the early half of the century, soon after the westernisation of Japan had properly set in, and his work is therefore full of peculiarly Japanese problems to do with the preservation or disappearance of Japanese tradition. However, Kafu's universality is his very particularity. By focusing lovingly on the details of a corner of the world's history that is disappearing before his eyes, he evokes within us all the great sadness of changes and creates a timeless sense of longing and nostalgia. Nor is that all. While his work may at first appear only relevant to a limited timeand place, it should soon be clear that his work has increasing relevance today, since it questions the vain ambitions of materialism and the ethics of the 'progress' that are uglifying the world and laying waste to older, more spiritual and picturesque traditions. This volume contains a fascinating biography of the man and Seidensticker's translations of several of Kafu's stories. The stories are undoubtedly the highlight of the volume, and I would urge the reader to look to these before reading Seidensticker's arrogant and narrow-minded comments in the biography. The bad points of this book spring from this arrogance, for Seidensticker refuses to judge Japanese literature within the Japanese tradition and looks always for literary qualities now considered outdated even in the West. An example of this arrogance is the fact that of some of the stories, he does not deign to translate the whole text, judging, "This does not spoil the dramatic unity of this piece, for it had none to begin with." Surely that is for the reader to decide. It is very sad that Seidensticker's attitude, one now decried by academics within the field of Japanology, mars this otherwise lyrical and elegant volume. Particularly reccomended ofthe stories are the elegiac Coming Down with a Cold and Quiet Rain, both of which are beautifully rendered sketches of the shadowy world of the geisha, which Kafu loved and drew on for inspiration.