Library of Michigan announces 2024 Michigan Notable Books

Each January, the Library of Michigan issues its annual Michigan Notable Books list, picking the best books with Michigan themes or written by Michigan authors that were published in the previous year.

This year’s list of 20 books runs the gamut from “An Ordinary Man,” by Richard Norton Smith, an 832-page biography of President Gerald R. Ford, to “The All American,” by Susie Finkbeiner, about a young girl chasing her dream to become a professional women’s baseball player amid the “Red Scare” of the 1950s.

The 2024 list is eclectic, as is the norm, offering uplifting stories like Lansing author Erin Bartels’ “Everything is Just Beginning,” which takes a tender look at two young musicians who dream of becoming rock ‘n’ roll stars and more than best friends.

The list also includes “Girls and Their Monsters,” the grim behind-the-curtain story of Lansing’s Morlok quadruplets. Author Audrey Farley plumbed the depths of history to write about the life of abuse and control inflicted on the young girls.

Although not a Michigander, Ann Patchett wrote a fictional account of a family learning about their mother’s summer fling with a movie star whose career was on the way up. The novel, “Tom Lake,” is set in Michigan’s cherry country during the COVID lockdown.

A startlingly beautiful and haunting coffee-table-style book, “Making Art in Prison: Survival and Resistance,” by Janie Paul, showcases prison artists and their work, upending the stereotypes of those living in prison and helping bring humanity to those who are incarcerated.

Detroit restaurateur Curtis Chin’s new memoir, “Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant,” takes readers behind the scenes of the restaurant business and his life as a gay Chinese chef. Chin recounts his experience growing up as an ABC, or American-born Chinese, in 1980s Detroit and working at his family’s restaurant, where a mayor, a drag queen and a suburban couple could all be sitting side by side eating sweet and sour pork.

Two books by Indigenous authors were selected for the list, including “The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History,” by National Book Award winner Ned Blackhawk, and “Warrior Girl Unearthed,” by Angeline Boulley, a fictional account of grave robbing and the repatriation of Indigenous funerary artifacts.

Another book that immediately caught the attention of the selection committee, which consists of librarians from across the state (full disclosure: the author of this article has served on the committee for more than 10 years), is Frank Uhle’s “Cinema Ann Arbor: How Campus Rebels Forged a Singular Film Culture,” which was also a finalist for a major national design award. Uhle’s book details the history of the student film movement at the University of Michigan and how it spilled over into the rest of Ann Arbor, spawning the Ann Arbor Film Festival.

State Librarian Randy Riley often says that the Michigan Notable Books list is meant to make readers look at the vast array of books that don’t make the list and discuss books with each other.

“Michigan is truly a mosaic of inspiration for writers. Each Michigan Notable Books selection offers a unique touchpoint into the rich stories and beautiful landscape of our great landscape,” he said.

Each spring, the winning authors are honored at a gala at the Library of Michigan, which is set for April 20. The event is open to the public, and more information is available at michigan.gov/
libraryofmichigan/public/mnb.

This year’s keynote speaker is Stephen Mack Jones, a thriller writer who lives in the Detroit area but grew up in Lansing, attending Sexton High School and getting his advertising degree from Michigan State University.  Jones has won two Michigan Notable Book awards for his novels “August Snow” and “Dead of Winter,” and his new book, “Deus X,” is available at bookstores and libraries across the state.

Other books on this year’s Michigan Notable Books list include “A Cold, Hard Prayer,” by previous award winner John Smolens; “Dearborn: Stories,” by Ghassan Zeineddine; “Enough to Lose,” by RS Deeren; “Great Women of Mackinac, 1800-1950,” by Melissa Croghan; “In the Upper Country,” by Kai Thomas; “Michigan Rocks! A Guide to Geologic Sites in the Great Lakes State,” by Paul Brandes; “My Murder,” by Katie Williams; “Pulp: A Practical Guide to Cooking with Fruit,” by Abra Berens; “Strikers: A Graphic Novel,” by Kiel Phegley; and “The White Stripes: Complete Lyrics, 1997-2007,” by Jack White.