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Staff Picks: Non-Fiction

"Michigan Pioneers: 175 Years of History" in Family Chronicle, May/June 2012
 By Diane Dittgen
Reviewed by abarritt on Saturday, April 21, 2012

Family Chronicle, a genealogist magazine, features an article about the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, a forty-volume set of pioneer reminiscences, recollections and histories, in the May/June 2012 issue. The Collections were first published in 1877, the last in 1929.

"Cherry Picking" in Eating Well, June 2012
 By Carolyn Malcoun
Reviewed by abarritt on Saturday, April 21, 2012

The outlook for local cherries may be grim this season, but that doesn't stop the world from talking about them! The June 2012 issue of Eating Well magazine includes an article all about Leelanau County cherries, specifically from the Bardenhagen Farms. The article also cover the many health benefits of this superfruit.

Arc of Justice: A Saga of Race, Civil Rights, and Murder in the Jazz Age
 By Kevin Boyle
Reviewed by bbush on Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Although this book is a purely non-fictional account of events in an all white working class neighborhood of Detroit in 1925, it reads like a thrilling suspense novel. The focus of this saga is Dr. Ossian Sweet, an African-American physician raised in poverty in the rural south. After working his way through college and then Howard Medical School, Dr.

Steve Mcqueen
 By Marc Eliot
Reviewed by cspear on Thursday, February 23, 2012

Steve McQueen: actor, automobile racer, ladies man, tough guy. So you read the book and once again you are reminded of the tortured artist.

Bullet, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Great Escape, The Sand Pebbles...he starred in many good to great movies.

What he did have was charisma and he burned across the screen like a meteor.

Tolstoy and the Purple Chair
 By Nina Sankovitch
Reviewed by bbush on Sunday, February 5, 2012

Do you have the desire or discipline to read an entire book every day for one full year? Well, Nina Sankovitch did and this is her story of one year of magical reading.  She reads a book every day and then writes about it on her blog.

Eleni
 By Nicholas Gage
Reviewed by bbush on Saturday, January 21, 2012

Eleni translates as Helen in English. Eleni was among many things, a daughter, wife, sister, cousin, and friend, but most importantly to herself, a mother. Born a peasant in the village of Lia, in the mountainous north-western region of Greece, Eleni grew up knowing the meaning of hard work and sacrifice for family.

The Year of Magical Thinking
 By Joan Didion
Reviewed by mfraquelli on Tuesday, January 10, 2012

While I thought it was intensely honest and I could feel the authors struggle and hurt over the loss of her husband during a very stressful time of almost losing her daughter to severe illness, I also felt like it was something you have to experience to truly understand.

Boy who came back from heaven
 By Kevin Malakrey
Reviewed by kcarrier on Wednesday, January 4, 2012

 "A remarkable account of miracles, angels, and life beyond this world" the subtitle of The boy who came back from heaven nicely sums up this account of Alex Malarkey's life after an auto accident left him in a coma, paralyzed, and his family facing his certain death.

My Family Table: A Passionate Plea for Home Cooking
 By John Besh
Reviewed by jkelly on Wednesday, December 21, 2011

I always believed I was raised in the Midwest until I moved to Northern Michigan and realized my roots are very Southern.  My mother fed us fried chicken, grits and collard greens on Sundays after church.  Weekend fish fry gatherings filled our summer calendar.

Love Wins : A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived
By Rob Bell
Reviewed by kcarrier on Tuesday, October 18, 2011

 

The subtitle is what caught my attention. The fate of *"every person"*? Nope, not here. What is here is a scripture based defense for getting into heaven, regardless of your religious persuasion. Written in a soft, storytelling manner Bell makes a good case but he ignores the eternal resting place of the Hitlers of history.