Michigan Books

I really enjoyed reading this book. This book is mainly about Galileo's theory of universe and the trial of Galileo which was caused by his conflict with the Catholic Church. This book also talks about Galileo's life briefly. I learned about theories that influenced Galileo's ideas and his opinion toward Copernicus's theory which stated that the all of the planets, including the earth, revolved around the sun.

This is a brief, well balanced account of the conflict between Galileo and the Church. It opens with an insightful look at the world view and astronomy of the late 1500's, including a detailed look at the role of Scripture in these views. This is followed with a thorough description of Galileo's life and how his conflict with the church unfolded. The final chapter is a fascinating overview of the relationships between faith, science and philosophy since Galileo's time. It's not overly difficult reading, though it deals with science, theology and philosophy. The book is a fair account, looking at the strengths and weaknesses of Galileo and some Church officials in how they approached the issues. It also critiques some long held cultural assumptions about the causes, events and meaning of this case (ex: Galileo was never tortured; some lower Church officials who disliked Galileo gave the Pope misleading reports, etc). Definitely worth reading!!

Langford is even-handed and doesn't withhold criticism of academia and the Church for its handling of Galileo and his books.

What I was taught by public school and the popular press:
The Catholic Church persecuted Galileo because he proved and taught the Earth revolved around the Sun, was threatened with torture and death. Copernicus delayed publishing his theory for fear of persecution from the Church, finally publishing it on his deathbed.

What Langford convincingly shows from research into primary documents:
The Catholic Church was more receptive to the heliocentric theory than the universities. Pope Clement requested a hearing of Copernicus' theory in the Vatican gardens, and was "quite favorably impressed" with the theory. Copernicus was afraid of persecution from his peers, the universities, not the Catholic Church. His fears were well founded, as Galileo discovered years later. Galileo received the full weight of academic condemnation and ridicule. When professors realized peer pressure wouldn't silence Galileo, they turned to the Church for help. Fortunately, a good portion of the Church was behind Galileo. The head of one Jesuit college wrote to Galileo to say that his astronomers and mathematicians had confirmed his theory, but wanted more proof. Galileo's efforts were further encouraged by Pope Urban. His first trial resulted in being admonished not to teach it as fact, but was welcome to teach it as theory. Unfortunately, by the time of his second trial he had managed to alienate his support, mainly by insisting his theory be taught as fact despite a lack of evidence. Two of his proofs were the tides--he believed they were cause by the Earth sloshing the oceans. Galileo insisted on circular orbits, and refused to consider Kepler's calculations on elliptical orbits, which would have corrected errors he and others found in his model. He was tried a second time for teaching the theory as fact, not for teaching the theory. He was never tortured or shown a dungeon. His house arrest consisted of a five-room apartment with a servant at his disposal, and was free to roam Rome while awaiting trial. After the trial, he was released. True he was threatened with imprisonment, but at his age, Langford asserts, both he and the court officials knew it would not be carried out; the sentence would have been mitigated.

In short, Galileo and Copernicus were treated by the academia in much the same way they treat new ideas today. For an explanation of why the geo-centric theory isn't Christian in principle or origin, read Sampson's Six Modern Myths.

Being an experienced sea kayaker I often review books to evaluate the competence of the authors. This book is written by kayakers who really love the sport and want to share it but who have chosen not to guide new kayakers' every stroke. So many guide books do the entire trip for you leaving you with little to learn about your personal skill and no adventure whatsoever. They give you the basics and then leave it to you to discover yourself and adventure. Great guidebook!

We referred to this book time and time again and found accurate, precise information regarding Lake Michigan and Superior paddle trips. Guided us to many accesible sites that represents the true nature of both lakes, from sandy beaches to rocky shores. An accurate guidance of what skill level should attempt each trip. Great book to use as a guide to map a vacation. Also good information regarding restuarants and camping spots.

Good directions to put-ins and landmarks visible on the water

We need more memoirs like this. It takes you back through rock and soul glory years, from the perspective of one of the hundreds of musicians who weren't really "superstars" but were stars simply trying to make a living and make great music. Coffey's rise as a rock and Motown guitarist, his forced move along with all the Motown gang to LA by Barry Gordy, and his subsequent fall from the upper echelon of the American music scene to working on a Chevrolet assembly line reads like a great rags to riches to rags novel. A nice plus is the complete discography and a section where he tells us what guitar he used on different songs.

Under Berry Gordy Motown became a place where studio musicians usually stood in the shadows of solo stars promoted in his studios, for Gordy held stringent contracts which prevented his musicians from playing for other record companies and often denied them credit on his records. In Guitars, Bars, And Motown Superstars, guitarist Dennis Coffey tells how he escaped Gordy's tight hold on music to become a success as both a Motown musician and solo artist - and his backstage look at the Motown experience provides quite a different perspective than most. This is no fly-by-night artist: Coffey was one of Detroit's most important session guitarists in the 1960s and 80s and played for many superstars: his insights are a 'must' for any enthusiast of the Motown scene.

This is one book you just can't put down. It grabs you and takes you on a funk-filled roller coaster ride through LA, NY, Detroit, and all points in between!

Dennis Coffey comes to life and brings you along for the ride of a lifetime. Exploring Detroit in the 60's and 70's, he talks about the rise of Motown Records, his gigs, shows, and tells the stories that only an insider like him can tell. With wit and charm, he often makes you laugh out loud, and you catch yourself imagining just what it was like to be making history. This is the kind of biography and story telling that we need more of. The session players like Dennis have all sorts of great stories because the people they are, and the people they worked with, are so far above extraordinary that it makes for great reading.

Pick this book up, but be warned, you won't put it down anytime soon.

HAUNTED HEART: A BIOGRAPHY OF SUSANNAH MCCORKLE isn't likely to reach the general interest, non-musical reader, for her name is likely to prove familiar only to those with an in-depth interest in female jazz vocalists. This audience, however, will find HAUNTED HEART a brilliant expose of a troubled American songbird, surveying her many achievements as she devleoped her own style and performed in venues around the world while struggling with bipolar disorder. From her emotional ups and downs to her influences on singers of the 70s through the 90s, HAUNTED HEART is a key piece of musical history not to be missed.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

This is an exhaustive biography of the jazz/cabaret singer Susannah McCorkle. The book features a blow-by-blow account of McCorkle's musical career and psychological processes. Why "psychological processes?" Susannah struggled with bipolar disorder for at least all of her adult life, if not longer. She took her life at the age of 55. It is therefore very relevant to showcase her mental state as a major focus of the book. I found it exhausting to read about all of her ups and downs. Think of how Susannah must have felt to live through them!

The other focus of the book of course, is a detailed account of her musical career. McCorkle started out as an aspiring author and one day in early adulthood heard a Billie Holiday recording and decided she wanted to sing jazz. Even though she still wrote short stories with some success, Susannah then started on the road to become a prominent, although always struggling, singer. I felt I was with Susannah as I read about her career and life. The author, Linda Dahl, brings this woman into sharp focus.

To me, one moral of this biography is, "take your meds, folks." Ms McCorkle was not taking her prescribed medicines when she died. I can't help but wonder if the outcome could have turned out differently.

Haunted Heart by Linda Dahl is a biography of American cabaret singer Susannah McCorkle, who took her own life in May of 2001. The author seems to have had extensive cooperation of family members and friends in researching the book. McCorkle suffered from depression and bipolar disorder all of her adult life, and part of her childhood as well. Much of the book is given over to her illness.

Like many women, McCorkle was dissatisfied with her physical appearance, this combined with her mental illness no doubt contributed to her unhappiness. She was a large woman, though well-proportioned and not at all unattractive, but far from her own ideal of feminine beauty.

The author says McCorkle was in love with the idea of being in love (as in the song), she also seems to have been in love with the idea of being a cabaret singer. None of her many romances was entirely satisfactory, despite the fact that she was twice married to men who seem to have been loving and caring. Though a respected professional singer for over twenty years - winning several record of the year awards, her career was not actually very successful. She had a loyal, but small, following among New York's cabaret set, but was not otherwise highly sought after.

The shortcomings of both her personal and professional lives seem to have been related to an inability to compromise. Though, for example, her husband lived in Schenectady, NY, she insisted on living in New York City - even when not performing there. Likewise, she often complained about people talking during her shows and the noise of waiters serving food and drinks. She failed to accept the idea that a cabaret singer is supposed to "put butts on chairs", as someone puts it in the book, not give a master class on the subtlety of Cole Porter lyrics!

Susannah McCorkle comes across as having been a "user", viewing others merely as ways to achieve her goals - particularly musicians, critics, club owners, and others connected with the music business. Repeatedly, she is shown cultivating those whom she feels can advance her career, while ignoring, even dismissing, others. Many people helped her get started, paying for demo tapes, for example, or by encouraging owners of small restaurants and clubs to let her sing, if only for tips. Yet, there was no mention of her having helped others get started later on.

One story near the end of the book struck me as typical of her manipulative behavior. The manager of her favorite venue, the Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel in New York remarked, that in Autumn of 2000, she had acted affectionate to him, even giving him a hug, which she had never done before. Later on in the book it comes up that she had taken pains to be affectionate with him, suggesting it was a conscious effort to do so, not a spontaneous act of friendship. Only months before she died, she was still "playing" people she thought were useful.

Significantly, she had few friends among professional musicians, though several friends were amateur musicians. For the most part, her close associates were writers and others connected with the arts and show business. Many of her acquaintances were themselves involved in psychotherapy, both as patients and practitioners.

McCorkle began her career as a writer, only later becoming a singer. She continued to write throughout her singing career, and worked (unsuccessfully) to become a novelist. Her singing style and careful phrasing reflected her interest in words and story telling. She often sought out original lyrics to old songs, and even taught herself Portuguese in order to translate Brazilian songs, so popular in clubs during the 70s and 80s.

The book itself is a little scholarly, perhaps, and not always easy to follow - for example, when the author quotes someone who is quoting someone else. I would have appreciated more frequent date references since the author attempts to intertwine McCorkle's career and personal life with the progress of her illness. The book is a well-documented and carefully researched biography of a person with a troubled personal and professional life. Recommended.

The early days of Ernest Hemingway come alive in this book that first was published in 1966. Selected as one of the top Michigan books in 2000, this new edition is a must for lovers of both Michigan and Hemingway.

This biography captures the "real Ernest Hemingway" when he lived in northern Michigan. Since I visited Petoskey, Michigan, I know the places that the author writes about. I reread Hemingway's short stories about Nick Adams and found out how close to the truth he was. When you take this book, Hemingway in Michigan, and go to the sites described in it, you feel as as if you have lived the fiction of the early Ernest Hemingway.

Hemingway in Michigan gave me the background about Nick Adam's and the early years that made me reread Hemingway from a different point of view.
If anyone is interested in Hemingway, the emerging writer, this is the book to read. Not only is it a well documented biography, but it places Hemingway in the region of northern Michigan he loved and wrote about.

Set in rural Kentucky around WWII, this book is so good, it should replace Huckelberry Finn as "the great american novel". It is a shame that it isn't better known, but unfortunately Arnow-Simpson is thought of as a regional writer. This is a very deep book, but it also has some very funny parts. Her description of pre-consumerism country life is very detailed and insightful. She saw how the world was changing, and captured a piece of it that is now long gone. I'm not even an hunting type, and I wanted to go out and get a couple of hounds after reading this. Better even than The Dollmaker, and not half as sad. Highly Recommended!

This book captures the spirit, character, and complexities of the mountain people of eastern Kentucky better than any other I have read. The individuals are simple, strong-willed, and proud like many of the people I grew up with. The descriptions of the landscape are detailed, accurate, and compelling as I remember them. For anyone interested in a better understanding of the depth of human character explained in a very readable way, this is a terrific book

If you've never read Harriette Arnow, or only know her through The Dollmaker, you'll be shocked at how stunning this novel is. Beautiful written, with some of the most complex and moving characters in literature.

This book is marvelous! We have used it in our family for vacations and weekend trips and it has pointed us to many interesting places that we never would have heard of otherwise. The book describes places clearly, with no hype--the way a friend would tell you about a place they had visited. Things that sound interesting turn out to be so, and the Hunts don't lead you to expect more than what you actually find. The Hunts describe natural features, parks, towns, museums, shopping, interesting businesses--I'm sure that almost anyone could find something of interest in this book.

Anyone who has discovered the wonders of under-rated Michigan will want to keep this frank and comprehensive guide handy on vacation. The big attractions as well as the often-missed backroad oddities are highlighted. Rather than keeping a narrow focus, this book manages to zero in on something for everyone--but without sounding like the brochures every chamber of commerce hands out to the gullible. I know because I live in one of Michigan's premiere tourist towns (at least, according to our CVB hand-outs...) and what the Hunts' book says is right on the money. And speaking of that, unlike some guides, this book talks alot about free attractions and gives prices for admissions, etc.. There's plenty of family-oriented info, too. I really can't say enough good things about how valuable a resource this book is for people who like to explore when they travel. Go buy it

I keep buying this book and giving them to our friends and family from Michigan and across the country. We don't go anywhere without our Hunt's. The descriptions are honest and comprehensive and we've never been disappointed. This is a must buy for anyone who visits or lives in Michigan.

IF YOU WANT TO LEARN ABOUT POETRY, THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU. NOT ONLY IS IT INFORMATIVE, THE AUTHOR, DONALD HALL, WRITES BEAUTIFULLY AND DOES SO IN A WELL ORGANIZED MANNER.

YES, THIS BOOK IS EXPENSIVE, BUT MOST REALLY HIGH QUALITY THINGS ARE. YOU COULD PURCHASE TEN CHEAPER BOOKS FOR THE PURPOSE OF LEARNING POETRY, AND HAVE FAR LESS THAN WHAT IS IN THIS ONE BOOK.

I'D RECOMMEND YOU START READING ON THE FRONT COVER AND READ EVERY PAGE UNTIL YOU GET TO THE BACK COVER. THEN READ THE BOOK A SECOND TIME, AND THEREAFTER, FOR STUDY PURPOSES, OR ENJOYMENT; IT ALSO CONTAINS A WOUNDERFUL COLLECTION OF POEMS.

NOTE: THIS BOOK IS GETTING HARD TO COME BY---DON'T WAIT TOO LONG.

This book addresses the various aspects of poetry, as well as what makes a good poem. It presents attempts at defining poetry.

The reader is provided with poems by a broad selections of poets, with the date of the poem and a succinct anecdote about the poet.

Best of all, there are questions that guide the reader to reasonably interpret the poems. This is helpful to the novice or to the expert.

I would certainly recommend this concise, yet highly valuable and detailed book about reading poetry. It will lead you to truly understand the poems presented and to develop the skills to read any poem.

Poetry affords us with crisp and detailed accounts of our historical and immediate world. The imagery and other poetic techniques enhance our understanding of ourselves and others.

So, go for it. Read this book! View the world with a sharper lens. Express yourself so another can relive your experiences through your words.

This book addresses the various aspects of poetry, as well as what makes a good poem. It presents attempts at defining poetry.

The reader is provided with poems by a broad selection of poets, with the date of the poem and a succinct anecdote about the poet.

Best of all, there are questions that guide the reader to reasonably interpret the poems. This is helpful to the novice or the expert.

I would certainly recommended this concise, yet highly valuable and detailed book about reading poetry. It will lead you to truly understand the poems presented and to develop the skills to read any poem.

Poetry serves to afford us with crisp and detailed accounts of our historical and immediate world. The imagery and other poetic techniques enhance our understanding of ourselves and others.

So, go for it. Read this book! View the world with a sharper lens. Express yourself so another can relive your experiences through your words.

Into The Fire: A Post - 9/11 American In Tel Aviv is the memoir of Charles T. Salmon, an American who immersed himself in Israeli culture. He arrived on a Fullbright fellowship, speaking no Hebrew, and largely unfamiliar with Judaism and Israeli customs. As time passed, Salmon closely observed Israeli-Palestinian negotiations; Palestinian terrorist events and Israeli responses; the differences between university studies in Tel Aviv and America, and a great deal more replete with insight, wit, and candid openness. Into The Fire offers contemporary readers a revealing, informative, and highly recommended presentation.

This book was well-written, funny and easy-to-read. I read the entire book in two sittings because it was so interesting -- I was just engrossed in it. This book is good for someone interested in politics, foreign countries, and academia. Salmon's interest in wanting to make a difference and learn about many different cultures makes me want to take a class from him. I also liked how he used humor and candor in admitting his own shortcomings and what he missed about America. I would highly recommend this book to anyone over the age of 15. Wonderful! Keep writing and I will keep reading, Charles T. Salmon!

Reading the book, you feel like you are alongside Salmon as he experiences the sites and people of Israel. Salmon's writing blends descriptions of his experiences with insightful perspectives on how life in Israel differs from the US in a way that entrances the reader. As an American living in our post-9/11 society, I found Salmon's descriptions of those who live world that constantly deals with terrorism, and how they deal with their environment, fascinating. It has made me think of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a new enlightened perspective. This book is a must read!

I have found this book one of the most useful ethnographies for teaching undergraduate anthropology courses focusing on schooling in cultural context. My students find the book very accessible, and often say how surprised they are at how little they understood of their own education before they encountered Eckert's work. The book successfully addresses cultural aspects by framing them in a coherent social structural analysis. Concrete examples and straighforward evidence support the theory, which is presented so well that is remains within the grasp of most undergraduate students. Perfect for complementing ethnographies of schooling outside North America. I consider this book essential reading for anyone planning to teach in the public school systems.

This book is about high school kids and the way they view themselves, others, and the worlds of school and work. It starts with stereotypes in order to go beyond them. It explores why some young men and women are in student government and others are out in the courtyard smoking -- and yet it does so with great respect for both groups, showing how each group functions as a miniature society with its own rules that make sense within their context, however well or poorly they fit in with the grownup world. It reminded me of many things from my own high school career as well! The basic premise is that a typical high school student body consists of Jocks (annoyingly enthusiastic youths with a lot of school spirit), Burnouts (working-class kids who aren't on the college track and don't see much value to school), In-Betweens, and Nerds/outcasts. By comparing the values of the Jocks and Burnouts and how they relate to economics, the job market, and social psychology, Eckert tells a fascinating story of the self-expression of emerging adults. This book should be a big help to teachers, counselors, and other people working with high school students, as well as to parents who might be confused by the seemingly senseless world of a high school.

This book is about high school kids and the way they view themselves, others, and the worlds of school and work. It starts with stereotypes in order to go beyond them. It explores why some young men and women are in student government and others are out in the courtyard smoking -- and yet it does so with great respect for both groups, showing how each group functions as a miniature society with its own rules that make sense within their context, however well or poorly they fit in with the grownup world. It reminded me of many things from my own high school career as well! The basic premise is that a typical high school student body consists of Jocks (annoyingly enthusiastic youths with a lot of school spirit), Burnouts (working-class kids who aren't on the college track and don't see much value to school), In-Betweens, and Nerds/outcasts. By comparing the values of the Jocks and Burnouts and how they relate to economics, the job market, and social psychology, Eckert tells a fascinating story of the self-expression of emerging adults. This book should be a big help to teachers, counselors, and other people working with high school students, as well as to parents who might be confused by the seemingly senseless world of a high school.