Michigan stories

Dennis O. Cawthorne’s “Mackinac Island: Inside, Up Close, and Personal” and Michael Federspiel’s “Little Traverse Bay” are both delightful looks at the history of Michigan’s cottage life.

For those attracted to the popular apocalypse genre, check out “Bird Box,” by Josh Malerman of Ferndale, and “Station Eleven,” by Emily St. John Mandel, which have taken dystopian thrillers to a new level. In Mandel’s debut, the Detroit-area rock ‘n’ roller struck a rich vein in this Stephen King-style thriller in which a young mother attempts to save her children from an enemy that drives its victims into a mad rage just by looking at it. Everyone has been raving over Mandel’s “Station Eleven,” a National Book Award finalist. She didn’t win, but the book follows a troupe of Shakespeare actors across Michigan as they seek out venues where survivors of a killing flu eke out an existence in what’s left of the world. Their challenge is not “Macbeth" but staying alive. Both books are reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy’s dark “The Road.”

This was also a good year for mysteries. Bruce Cameron, dog rescue activist and author, has written his first crime novel, “The Midnight Plan of the Repo Man.” It’s about a classic outsider who solves a killing in Northwest Michigan with the help of his dog, Jake, as well as that of a supernatural friend. And two Michigan authors gave their old characters something new to do. Okemos author Lev Raphael’s “Assault With a Deadly Lie” features his recurring character Nick Hoffman and his partner as they are randomly targeted by a militarized local police force. It may be his best mystery yet — the tension is gripping and totally believable. And Whitmore Lake’s Loren Estleman has delivered a yeoman mystery in “You Know Who Killed Me,” featuring the 24th appearance his Detroit detective Amos Walker.

There are three perfect books for the graphic novelist fan in the family. “The Warren Commission Report: A Graphic Investigation into the Kennedy Assassination,” by Michigan natives Dan Mishkin and Jerzy Drozd, follows the U.S. government’s case supporting the lone gunman theory. “Gaijin: American Prisoner of War” is about the incarceration of Japanese- Americans during WWII by Ann Arbor’s Matt Faulkner. And “March: Book One,” illustrated by Nate Powell, focuses on the early days of the Civil Rights movement as told in first person by U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga.

Short stories and novellas are making a comeback, and this year four Michigancentric writers have parlayed that newfound love into quirky short story collections: “Eight Mile High,” by Jim Ray Daniels; “The Fish and the Not Fish,” by Peter Markus; “Making Callaloo,” by Lolita Hernandez; and “Quality Snacks,” by Andy Mozina. And the talented Western Michigan author Monica McFawn has weighed in with her own collection, “Bright Shards of Someplace Else,” which was the Flannery O’Connor Award this year.

For those of you who may have missed Frank Bascombe, Richard Ford’s frequent protagonist, snag “Let Me Be Frank With You,” one of the surprises of the season by the MSU graduate and Pulitzer Prize winner who can be both funny and profound in the same sentence. With mortality closing in, Frank is stretched when friends from his past burst his bubble on noninvolvement.

History buffs may want to add “The Arsenal of Democracy,” by A.J. Baime, “Michigan Agricultural College: Campus Life 1900-1925,” by Stephen Terry and local author Liz Homer’s “Pioneers, Reformers & Millionaires” to their gift wish lists. “Arsenal” is about Edsel Ford’s fight, often against his father, Henry Ford, to turn the Detroit area into a center for war munitions. “Campus Life” uses postcards to tell the story of the early days of Michigan State University. And Homer has turned one of her life’s passions, Lansing’s Turner and Dodge families, into a book that looks at the politics and social movements of the era through the eyes of one of the city’s first families.

MSUcreative writing professor Robin Silbergleid has penned “Texas Girl: A Memoir,” which chronicles her decision to become a single mother in the early ‘00s.

Two coffee table books present an insider’s view of Detroit through art and photography, taking a street’s-eye view of the art forms populating a city on the rebound. Julie Pincus and Nichole Christian depict the beauty left in Motown in vibrant fullcolor photography in “Canvas Detroit,” while “Detroit Resurgent” looks at the city through photographic portraits of Detroiters.

Once again local talent has stepped to the forefront in the category of books for young readers. Bath children’s author Robbyn Smith Van Frankenhuyzen and her spouse, illustrator Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen, showcase the difficult decisions wildlife rescuers must make in “I Love You Just Enough.” Lansing resident and storyteller Jennifer Pahl Otto tells a delightful tale in “A House for Mr. Mouse,” lovingly illustrated by Shanghai artist Bai Hua. And two other local writers add worthy installments to ongoing series: Debbie Diesen’s “The Pout-Pout Fish Goes to School” and Ruth McNally Barshaw’s “The Show Must Go On,” the newest chronicle in “The Ellie McDoodle Diaries.”

And if you can’t decide among these, get a gift card from a local bookstore. That will keep your options open and guarantee your favorite reader gets the perfect book.