2025 Smitten with the Mitten

"Widow Mimi lives on idyllic Mackinac Island, where cars are not allowed and a Gibson martini with three onions at the witching hour is compulsory. Her estranged granddaughter, Addie, is getting over the heartbreak of not only being dumped by her fiancé, Brian, but also being cut out of the deal for the brilliantly successful video game Murderscape they invented together (with Addie doing most of the heavy lifting). When Mimi gets an invitation...

"In 1974, the Supreme Court issued a momentous decision: In the case of Milliken v. Bradley, the justices brought a halt to school desegregation across the North, and to the civil rights movement’s struggle for a truly equal education for all. How did this come about, and why? In The Containment, the esteemed legal scholar Michelle Adams tells the epic story of the struggle to integrate Detroit schools—and what happened when it collided with Nixon-appointed...

"When Grace Lee Boggs was eight years old, her teacher gave her a copy of The Secret Garden. As a Chinese American, Grace had experienced prejudice, and she wanted to grow a garden of her own that would help people heal from injustice. Grace dedicated her life to fighting for civil, environmental, labor, and women's rights. In 1992, she and her husband founded Detroit Summer, a multicultural and intergenerational youth program that inspired kids to...

"Mandy Cramer has lived her entire life in a small lakeside town that is divided in two distinct groups: the working class, who live downtown, and the wealthy members of the ultra-exclusive Hawthorne Bluff Club. Details of the clubs one-hundred year history are scant, as the members are notoriously tight-lipped and the gates remain closed to outsiders. When Mandy accepts a position as a nanny for the club president's children, she discovers more...

"For most of her eighty years, Mary Jackson has endured the steady invasion of tourists, influencers and real estate developers who have discovered the lakeside charm of Good Hart, Michigan, waiting patiently for the arrival of a stranger she’s believed since childhood would one day carry on her legacy—the Very Cherry General Store. Like generations of Jackson women before her, Cherry Mary, as she’s known locally, runs the community hub—part...

"During her childhood in Lebanese communities in Sierra Leone and Michigan, Yumna Jawad grew up eating home-cooked meals and learned time-saving shortcuts from her mother to prepare traditional Mediterranean recipes. Jawad initially joined Instagram to find inspiration and learn new cooking techniques, but she started creating her own content on her blog Feel Good Foodie to help make healthy cooking easy. She quickly became well-known for her unfussy,...

"The Sawbrooks have lived on prime real estate on the lakes of Michigan since before there was prime real estate. A family of smugglers and bootleggers, every man, woman, and child in each generation has been taught to navigate the nooks and crannies of the rivers and highways that flow in and out of Canada. The hidden routes are the family’s legacy. But today, the Sawbrooks are deeply fractured, and the money that’s sustained the family is running...

"When Gretchen Whitmer was growing up, her beloved grandmother Nino taught her that you can always find something good in other people...From navigating a kidnapping and assassination plot in which she herself was a target to facing monumental challenges during a global pandemic, Big Gretch (as she’s now known) shares the key pieces of wisdom that have shaped her trailblazing career and personal experiences in this often hilarious, always uplifting...

Describes the history, great players, and great coaches of Michigan State University basketball.

"Michigan Railway Company: The Northern and Southern Divisions, the first comprehensive history of the Michigan United Railway Company, traces the rise and fall of Michigan’s most significant electric railway. This volume covers the company’s founding in local rail-based public transportation systems in Lansing, Jackson, Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, and Owosso-Corunna and ends with its eventual demise, abandoned prior to the stock market crash of...