Looking for a few good books to give as gifts or to read this winter? Check out some of our favorite Midwest-related reads.
Tim and I have several favorite mystery series set in Michigan or Ohio.
Check out my question-and-answer session from earlier this week with my friend, and northern Michigan mystery writer, Elizabeth Kane Buzzelli. We've spent a lot of time traveling in northwestern Michigan and readily recognize many of the characters and settings in Elizabeth's entertaining series about struggling mystery writer Emily Kincaid. The fourth book in the Emily Kincaid series comes out next year, but you can catch up with Emily's adventures in the meantime with Dead Dancing Women, Dead Floating Lovers, and Dead Sleeping Shaman.
I originally picked up a couple of Les Roberts mysteries for Tim at a Cleveland bookstore on the way home from a weekend writers' retreat. Roberts, born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, and the first producer of "The Hollywood Squares" television game show, eventually moved to Cleveland, Ohio. His Milan Jacovich stories follow the exploits of the old-school private investigator set against a background of familiar Cleveland-area landmarks, starting with Pepper Pike and continuing through his latest Jacovich mystery, King of the Holly Hop. Plus readers also learn the fashion-right definition of the Full Cleveland along the way!
Nevada Barr was a ranger in several National Parks, much like Anna Pigeon, the National Park Ranger protagonist of Barr's mystery series. Barr's first ranger job was with the boat patrol on Michigan's remote Isle Royale National Park, and the park provides the setting for two of Barr's 16 Anna Pigeon books: A Superior Death and Winter Study. Tim read many of Barr's books, including the two set in Michigan, and I read one of her books set in Mississippi when heavy weather on Lake Superior kept us on, of all places, Isle Royale for an extra day. The Isle Royale books are definitely on my reading list!
I've written about a number of notable Midwest bridges here, but I really love bridges of all kinds. Historic Highway Bridges of Michigan by Charles K. Hyde looks at historically significant highway bridges in the state ranging from well known spans like the Mackinac Bridge to lesser known bridges that have cool histories or architectural details. I even took a few classes from Professor Hyde during my undergrad years at Wayne State University!
Did you know that a surprising number of women served as Great Lakes light keepers? I told the story of one of the longest-serving female light keepers on the Great Lakes when I wrote about Harriet Colfax, who tended the Michigan City lighthouse in northern Indiana from 1861 until 1904. Check out Women and the Lakes: Untold Great Lakes Maritime Tales by Frederick Stonehouse to learn more about Colfax and other female light keepers.
Split Rock Lighthouse, a strikingly beautiful beacon perched high on a 130-foot cliff along Lake Superior on Minnesota's North Shore, celebrated its centennial anniversary last July. I read So Terrible a Storm: A Tale of Fury on Lake Superior by Curt Brown earlier this year. Brown tells the tragic tale of a legendary 1905 storm and explores the sometimes controversial decision to build the Split Rock light in that storm's wake.
We've loved visiting Michigan's Point Betsie Lighthouse along the shore of northern Lake Michigan for years. I've written about it several times, most recently to update the progress of an ongoing renovation at the site. I really like Point Betsie: Lightkeeping and Lifesaving on Northeastern Lake Michigan by Jonathan P. Hawley for its historic photos and use of research from many primary sources.
Artist and author Gwen Frostic was beloved by generations of visitors to her unique studio and nature sanctuary in northwestern Michigan. Many expressed disbelief and sorrow as reports surfaced in late 2009 that owners who purchased her business and building lost it to foreclosure and closed the north woods landmark. Folks rejoiced as new owners revived the business and reopened it this past summer. The Life and Wisdom of Gwen Frostic by Sheryl James is fairly short, as it is an extension of an article James wrote for the Detroit Free Press a few years before Frostic's death in 2001, but it's still fascinating for those who grew up visiting the business and want to learn more about the woman who overcame many odds to create a multi-million dollar business and lasting artistic legacy.
The story of President James A. Garfield (one of eight presidents hailing from Ohio) always fascinated me as a kid. His term as United States president was shockingly short as an assassin killed him mere months after he took office in 1881. He was the last president born in a log cabin, a Civil War hero, an ordained minister, and a U.S. Senator before becoming president. There are many biographies about Garfield, in spite his short tenure as president. I particularly enjoyed reading Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield by Kenneth D. Ackerman.
© Dominique King 2010 All rights reserved
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