books

Dorene O’Brien brings exquisite art and unsentimental heart to the characters in her new short story collection, What It Might Feel Like to Hope, published by Baobab Press.

In need of some last-minute gift ideas for the book lover in your life?

Never let it be said that your friends at Stateside didn’t try to help you out!

Who better to guide us to some great Michigan books than a couple of Michigan librarians? Tim Gleisner is manager of special collections at the Library of Michigan and Jessica Trotter is with the Capital Area District Library.

Joni Mitchell is one of the most influential singer-songwriters in music history. But earning that title was no simple feat.

Susan Whitall, former writer and editor for the magazine Creem, has edited a new book about Mitchell's life and career called Joni on Joni: Interviews and Encounters with Joni Mitchell. The book is an anthology of interviews with Mitchell that took place between 1966 and 2014.

Bill Harris has been a central figure in the cultural life of Detroit for a long time. The Kresge Foundation gave him their prestigious Eminent Artist Award several years ago, and his plays have been produced around the country. He has also published poetry and innovative interpretations of African-American history that defy any easy categories.

I know I am one of many readers across Michigan who is very happy to see mystery writer Steve Hamilton bring back our favorite detective, Alex McKnight.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Alex McKnight mystery series, and author Steve Hamilton is still turning out new books.

His most recent, the 11th in the series, is Dead Man Running. 

Hamilton joined Stateside’s Cynthia Canty to discuss this new novel and his surprising journey to becoming an award-winning writer.

A new children’s book from two Metro Detroit women uses the iconic image of “Rosie the Riveter” to teach kids about the roles that women and the city of Detroit played in winning World War II.

As state officials continue to investigate the actions that caused the Flint water crisis, it is clear there were missteps made across all levels of government. 

To this date, 15 current and former government officials have been charged in connections to this disaster.

The Poisoned City: Flint’s Water and the American Urban Tragedy, by Detroit journalist Anna Clark, describes in great detail what happened, and who was responsible.

Megan Abbott has been writing crime fiction for more than a decade. With two major TV adaptations in the works, many in the industry are calling Abbott Hollywood’s next big novelist. Abbott grew up in the Detroit area before graduating from the University of Michigan and heading to New York University for her Ph.D in English and American Literature.

One of the very best ways to enjoy summer in Michigan is to park yourself under a tree or on a beach and get lost in a good book.

Poet Keith Taylor joined Stateside to talk about some of his suggestions for your summer reading list.

Recently retired as a creative writing teacher at the University of Michigan, Taylor just published another book called Ecstatic Destinations about his Ann Arbor neighborhood.

You don't need worldly goods or a big bank account to leave a priceless gift to your grandkids.

Joanna Savas of Ann Arbor wasn't able to leave large inheritances for her seven grandchildren, so she came up with something else: a book. 

On the first day that Michael Gustafson and his wife Hilary opened Literati Bookstore in the heart of downtown Ann Arbor, something possessed him to place a typewriter on a table for anyone to use.

That was in the spring of 2013. Since then, Gustafson’s “public typewriter experiment” has yielded a treasure trove of notes: some droll, some heartbreaking, some witty, some poignant.

No matter your age or your generation, the music you listened to in high school claims a special place in your heart.

Many kids use music to help overcome the trials and tribulations of adolescence. 

Michael Zadoorian’s new novel Beautiful Music centers around one of those kids. He talked to Stateside about how the music of 1970s Detroit inspired the book. 

Michigan has used methods of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for decades. The national debate over the use of fracking began only ten to fifteen years ago when companies began drilling down and across. 

Now companies can drill deposits one to three miles wide.

Author and University of Michigan Professor Daniel Raimi discusses the nuances and misconceptions of fracking in his new book “The Fracking Debate: The Risks, Benefits, and Uncertainties of the Shale Revolution.”

There are many histories of Detroit. The latest is a comprehensive look at the contributions, accomplishments and long-suffering of the African Americans who have called Detroit home.

The book is Black Detroit: A People’s History of Self-Determination by Herb Boyd, son of Detroit and an instructor at The City College of New York currently teaching African American history. Boyd now lives in Harlem.

It began with unbearable pain — an alarming development for a woman seven months pregnant.

And before too long, Dr. Rana Awdish was losing her grip on life.

While Awdish did not die, she did endure a long, tough recovery from the medical crisis that cost her the life of her unborn child.

And, as a physician who cared for patients in the intensive care unit, she learned profound lessons about how doctors and nurses practice medicine.

Some 11 million people were killed during the Holocaust, and those who survived have lived so long, they're now watching the world forget. 

A recent poll shows 66 percent of American millennials don't know what Auschwitz is. Another 22 percent had not heard of the Holocaust or weren't sure if they had. 

There’s a new collection of stories from Michigan and other Midwest states called Voices from the Rust Belt. Twenty-four writers deal with diverse topics ranging from witnessing segregation, exploring childhood events that leave their mark on adulthood, and some quirks of history where we live.

Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota were rich hunting grounds for a young man in the early part of the 20th century. He wasn’t hunting game. He was in search of lumberjack songs.

The 2018 Tigers will have to wait for another day. Detroit was scheduled to begin the season against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Comerica Park today, but Opening Day has been postponed to Friday because of  the weather. 

This year marks the 50th anniversary of one greatest seasons in Tigers history. It would end with a World Series showdown against the reigning champs, the St. Louis Cardinals.

When Michigan’s economy tanked a decade ago, it stepped up a steady stream of young people leaving Michigan to seek work in Chicago.

Michael Ferro was one of those young Michiganders. His experience working for the federal government in the Windy City was the inspiration for his debut novel Title 13.

Hazel Forrest died last week at the age of 106.

According to The Chronicle Herald out of Nova Scotia, she was one of the last known survivors of the Halifax Explosion, which occurred when two ships, one loaded TNT and other explosives, collided in Halifax Harbour in 1917. It was the biggest man-made blast prior to the atomic bomb. 

Some 2,000 people were killed and many thousands more were injured. Yet, this cataclysmic event is largely forgotten, at least on the U.S. side of our border with Canada.

The film Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle stars Dwayne Johnson, Karen Gillan, Jack Black and many more names. It was inspired by the work of Chris Van Allsburg, the renowned writer and illustrator of children's books. He's won two Caldecott Medals for his illustrations for The Polar Express and Jumanji, which was published in 1981.

Van Allsburg grew up in Grand Rapids, and he joined Stateside to talk about the original Jumanji and this new take on the story.

Librarian Annie Spence knows what it’s like to love a book so much she has to write it a love letter. She also knows what it’s like for a break-up letter to be in order.

Her letters to books fill the pages of her own new book Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks.

Literature and popular culture haven't been particularly kind to single women. 

Just think of those common terms "spinster" or "old maid."

Writer Maureen Paraventi is taking that mean-spirited term and turning it inside out to come up with a modern look at women who choose not to marry.

Her new book is "The New Old Maid: Satisfied Single Women."

Paraventi, a Detroit-based journalist, novelist, and playwright, joined Stateside to share the story.

Lawyers are not known for their clarity, and Joseph Kimble knows this well.

Kimble was a professor of legal writing at Western Michigan University’s Cooley Law School for 35 years. He has since switched gears and written a children’s book about a windbag whose highfalutin' talk causes trouble and confusion for kids. He joined Stateside to discuss the inspiration behind Mr. Mouthful Learns His Lesson. 

Cal Freeman’s newest collection of poems, Fight Songs, has nothing to do with ‘The Victors’ or ‘Victory for MSU.’ Instead, his poems are about unsung, little-noticed lives, about underdogs, about animals, plants, and nature.

The last American troops left Vietnam on March 29, 1973.

America's direct intervention in the Vietnam War was at an end, after many bloody years, and 58,220 American lives lost.

Afterward, the nation, and those Vietnam veterans, had a tough time processing and talking about this war that did not end with victory.

There are accepted historical “facts” which do not hold up to closer scrutiny. One of those is that slavery was something that happened in the South, not the North. That is simply wrong.

A new book examines examples of Northern slavery, focusing on the early days of Detroit.