Michigan Books

The sweetest poem in the book is "The Absent Father." Hew Ainslie describes how he misses his wife and children after he came to America and they were still in Scotland, planning to join him later.

His poems are written in the Scottish dialect.

As a decendant of Hew Ainslie be it known that he is entombed at Cave Hill Cemetery, Louisville,Ky and that the poem Ingleside is engraved on his tombstone. I have found that the poetry of my Great-great Grandfather written in Scottish brouge to be very inspiring.

As a Chinese American, I have found this book very interesting to read and very helpful to use. Culture is the most difficult thing to be truly understood unless you are into it. Movies are one of the best ways to learn about a new culture because they bring people into that culture. This book "Seeing the Big Picture" by Summerfield and Lee provides the reader with movies that are representative to the study cultures. Rich background infomation is given and strategies to promote the understanding are introduced, to name just a few features of this book. I used this book at several teacher training/train-the-trainer workshops on munticultural education (provided by U of I Extension) and the participants were facinated! I highly recommend this book to educators for their efforts in teaching cultural understanding in the USA or simply in learning about different cultures themselves!

I love this book! Film is such a great way to teach adults and older youth about the cultural differences among us. Summerfield and Lee have given us the tools to easily teach others about specific cultural differences. Not only do they suggest popular films that we can use and how to use them, but they also give us the historical context of the specific cultural group and several exercises to help students go deeper in their understanding and appreciation of differences. Anybody who picks up this book will find themselves drawn into the wonderful insights that are inside.

I wouldn't think of diving in the Straits of Mackinac without taking this book along. It makes a great read by the fireplace too, but it's an even better reference guide to keep on the dive boat. Chuck & Geri Feltner are the recognized experts on the shipwrecks of the Straits area and this book is a must for any serious Great Lakes wreck diver.

Shipwrecks of the Straits of Mackinac set a new standard for authors wishing to create regional directories of shipwrecks. I own nearly 500 books on the topic of Great Lakes shipwrecks and diving, and this one is by far the best written and best researched. The authors personally discovered many of the shipwrecks in and around the Straits of Mackinac but were also accomplished researchers and writers. This background enabled them to create a groundbreaking book that has yet to be equaled by others of its kind. Shipwrecks of the Straits of Mackinac gives remarkably detailed accounts of the wrecks in the area drawn from primary archival sources. The authors have also included many fascinating side stories and bits of local history to tie the wreck incidents together and to show their place in the larger arena of Great Lakes commerce and history. Exceptional dive information is included along with many underwater photos and site maps. Both discovered and undiscovered wrecks are detailed and presented in a very accessible table format. Even the bibliography of the book is fascinating due the many obscure and interesting references the authors were able to dig up. If you own only one book on Great Lakes shipwrecks, this should be the one.

A Simpler Time is one of the best books I have read about a youngster's experiences growing up during the distant past. Author Youngquist does a great job of creating his world for the reader. His writing is clear and concise, and he helps me live his experiences along with him. I'm anxious to read what he has written about his life in the Foreign Service!

I read this book (advertised as excellent for young boys) as a young girl of probably 12 to 13, around 1948 or 1950. This series as well as the Civil War series by the same author were invitingly dusty volumes with old-fashioned type that spoke to me somehow of forgotten knowledge and great adventure. The protagonist, Henry Ware, was a character that could be described as a young Indiana Jones, Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone. The books described the great and vanished Indian tribes of the old Northwest Territory, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan. I have held these stories of brave young men, frontier settlers,and indigenous Indian tribes in my mind for nearly 50 years and hold them in great respect and esteem.

Simply Brilliant. The two detail-oriented authors paint an accurate picture of middle America in the 1980's. They describe the lengths Battle Creek goes to, to bring a large employer into the city. A great study that should be read by all business majors.

This book chronicles how a progressive, forward thinking community (Battle Creek, Michigan) went about attracting one of Japan's largest automotive suppliers, Nippondenso. It outlines the community's economic and political history and all the forces that went into landing this economic entitiy.

A must for soaring and gliding fans. Many outstanding photos of never before seen pics.

By far, my favorite book by Sandman.

This is one of Arcadia's images of Aviation series. It is an amazing collection of some 200 pictures dating from 1929 to 2006. The subject is sail planes at the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Area.

This area on the shore of Lake Michigan has almost ideal terrain for soaring. The wind blows in from the lake and hits a series of bluffs that forces the win to go upward. This creates a static situation where sail planes can soar for hours. This fact was recognized early and still exists today. Because of fear of privitization of all of the Lake Shore, the land was set aside and protected.

The photographs show the development of gliders from the warliest days of the gliding sport, through the modern hand gliders and ultra lights.

It's hard to put the works of Morrill into words, but since I've already used fifteen at this point (seventeen if you count contractions, more if you count these words, or the words after fifteen) you can see I am going to try. When I look at some of the people to come out of Iowa, Tom Arnold most notably, it makes me happy that there's at least one person, Don Morrill, who (whom?) I can point to and say "I'm from the same place as that guy..." Morrill is the Iowan author you should be reading.

Ah, the man hast done it again.*

Dionysos is the god of wine, inebriation, and creative ecstasy.
Donald Morrill is the god of fine, intoxicating creative texts. I learned of him through his poetry (At the Bottom of the Sky) and learned to love him through his prose. He is a writer of astounding talent. Like a character in "Sounding for Cool" says, "[Don] would make a great father. Most dads would send their kid to Florida, he'd send him to China." With this book, Morrill sends the reader on a spirtual journey, possibly to China, possibly to the heart of his/her soul. Immeadiately after reading this book I wanted to run out to a Transitional Living Program and do my part to help, do my part to encourage my brothers, and of course write a brilliant non-fiction piece about my experiences. Alas, I couldn't, so I just reread "Sounding for Cool". A wonderfully moving memoir from one of Florida's greatest writers.

* To fully appreciate my first sentence, "again" should rhyme with "wane".

I agree with another Amazon reviewer that the reading can be a tad 'dry' at times, quite uncustomary for the author.

However, it still has that "Thurner style" fast, pleasing pace that precludes excess verbiage and allows for the covering of a rather-broad topic in a single, readable volume. Furthermore, the author is a native to the area, which doesn't hurt his case.

For 'complete' coverage of the Copper Country, look no further than Mr. Thurner's three such books.

I purchased this book after a vacation to the beautiful Keweenaw Peninsula where I toured one of the copper mines mentioned in the book.

To enjoy this book it helps if one has a curiosity about the region's history it's industry and the melting pot of people that made up it's workforce.

Although a dry history at times, I believe this book to be one of if not the best on the topic. An important contribution to Michigan History. It is my hope that upon reading it people will recognize this book as the labor of love it truly is.

I loved this book. A very readable journey through the court case which arose out of Colorado's anti-gay initiative, supported by a clear and descriptive primer on the larger gay rights movement. The pacing was crisp, the writing clear and the story told in a compelling fashion. I highly recommend this book.

Suzanne Goldberg, the Lambda Legal Defense Fund attorney who worked on Romer v. Evans, and Lisa Keen, the Washington Blade journalist who won an award from the A.B.A. for her news coverage of the case, have collaborated on a truly fascinating "inside baseball" account of the litigation. Particulary useful: their detailed description of the expert testimony offered to the trial court on the issue of "suspect classification" for sexual orientation discrimination analysis. This is a must read for lawyers and legal scholars interested in Romer and gay rights generally.

Streets of the Near West Side is supposed to be a Chicago history book about one small neighborhood, but it's much more. It's about who the area's streets are named after, so it tells the stories of Presidents, Indians, Civil and Revolutionary War battles, and a lot of other quirky, odd, and fun information that you didn't learn about in high school history. At 117 pages, it can be read in one sitting. You can't put it down! You don't have to be a Chicagoan--just a lover of biography and history

I loved reading this book. It is an enjoyable, clearly-written introduction to a neighborhood that was "home" to thousands of Chicago's immigrants, including many of my ancestors. "Streets of the Near West Side" goes beyond those facts provided by such genealogical sources as Censuses. It can help family researchers develop a better understanding of their ancestor's "new neighborhood" in America. So, open the book, along with a map of Chicago, and learn how this neighborhood's history intertwines with the names of its streets.