If you're like me, one of the best gifts you can get is a great book. Here are a few more Midwest-related reads to gift or get.
- Celebrate the centennial of a Cleveland, Ohio, landmark by reading Cleveland's West Side Market: 100 Years and Still Cooking by Marilou Suszko and Laura Taxel.* The scrapbook-style volume is a great way to get a little taste of the market experience with a menu of market memories from vendors and visitors, vintage photos, great "food porn" images and more. I especially enjoyed the chapter about the dozen-plus-year journey from the decision to replace the aging and then-inadequate Pearl Street Market with the magnificent cathedral-like edifice that became the icon that is the city's West Side Market. I'm a bit of an architectural geek, so I found the chapter about the construction details (along with the accompanying political dramas) fascinating and appreciated the translation of the then-popular Progressive ideals to create a monument that celebrated the city's past, its future potential and effort to create building that would "affirm the belief that beauty could elevate the human spirit and enrich public life" (page 25).
- I love Great Lakes lighthouses, and I loved learning more about the history of some of Lake Erie's most iconic light towers in Ohio Lighthouses by Wil and Pat O'Connell. This book contains profiles and historic photos of lighthouses I've visited like the lights at Marblehead, Toledo Harbor, Turtle Island and Ashtabula.
- Browsing the shelves at my local library, I found a fun scrapbook-style book using vintage postcards, brochures, tourist publications and other paper ephemera to tell the tale of the early development of the West Michigan Pike from a patchwork of disconnected local trails and roads to one of Michigan's most beloved and heavily traveled tourist roads. Vintage Views Along the West Michigan Pike: From Sand Trails to U.S. 31 by M. Christine Byron and Thomas R. Wilson details the history of the old pike, which primarily follows the route of modern-day U.S. 31 and includes a loop that today is one of my favorite scenic drives, M-22 around the Leelanau Peninsula.
- The Paris Wife by Paula McLain is another book I found at my local library. The Cleveland-based writer's novel tells the story of Ernest Hemingway's first wife Hadley, and of Ernest himself as a young writer. Although Hemmingway had three other wives after he divorced Hadley, it was she who really nurtured and helped Hemmingway develop his talent.
- After reading the novelization of Hadley and Ernest Hemmingway's marriage in The Paris Wife, I went back to my own bookshelves to read Hadley by Gloria Dilberto. I found that McLain's book followed the biography pretty closely and learned what happened to Hadley after she parted with Ernest. Both books were also interesting because large portions of the stories took place in Midwest locations like St. Louis (Hadley's hometown), northern Michigan (where Ernest summered with this family and married Hadley) and Chicago (where the young couple met and started their married life together).
- I was heavily involved in politics in a former life, and I found Elly Peterson: "Mother of the Moderates" by Sara Fitzgerald particularly fascinating as I knew many of the people in this biography of the first woman to serve as chair of the Michigan Republican Party. Peterson eventually broke with the party and became an independent activist for the Equal Rights Amendment, among other causes. This book was somewhat of a revelation to me as I was politically active 10 years after Peterson was, but reading it reminded me why I left partisan politics long ago.
- My enjoyment of A Ticket to Ride by Paula McLain was somewhat marred by the fact that a scene early in the book includes several characters singing along to "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" on the radio....in 1973. That flub aside, the book was a heart-rending story of what happens when a few bad choices cause things go badly during what was to be a sun-kissed summer for two young teenagers.
- News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist by Laurie Hertzel details the author's 18-year career as a journalist at the Duluth News Tribune, Vikings in the Attic: In Search of Nordic America by Eric Dregni is about Scandinavian traditions and culture in America, and Turn Here Sweet Corn: Organic Farming Works by Atina Diffley takes you inside of the world or organic farming by the owner of one of the first certified organic produce farms in the Midwest.
Do you have any favorite Midwest reads I've missed here?
*Received a digital review copy from Net Galley
© Dominique King 2012 All rights reserved
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