Michigan Notable Books 2026Like this list

14 items

• Bear County, Michigan

  Stories

  Counts, John,

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  This debut story collection from Michigan author and journalist John Counts portrays desperate characters in desperate circumstances unique to the rural Midwest.

• Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

  a Veteran's Memoir

  Queen, Khadijah,

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  A poet's memoir about family, survival, and one servicewoman's search for autonomy. Yanked out of college and torn from her sunny hometown of Los Angeles in the early 1990s, Khadijah Queen finds herself sharing a basement apartment with her mother…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Containment

  Detroit, the Supreme Court, and the Battle for Racial Justice in the North

  Adams, Michelle, 1963-

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  A school integration plan in 1970 proposed by liberal members of the Detroit Board of Education kicks off a contentious legal battle that results in the Supreme Court effectively ending school desegregation in the North.

• Cooler Than Cool

  the Life and Work of Elmore Leonard

  Kushins, C. M.,

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  A biography of crime novelist Elmore Leonard (1925--2013). Tracing Leonard's development as a writer, the author recounts how newspaper accounts of Bonnie and Clyde enamored a young Leonard with the seedy criminals who would populate his fiction.

• Dead Moose on Isle Royale

  Off Trail With the Citizen Scientist on the Wolf-Moose Project

  Holden, Jeffrey M.

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  The Wolf-Moose Project is the world's longest running predator-prey study and is located on Isle Royale, Michigan. A portion of the scientific work is to collect as many dead moose as possible and, from the collected bones, reconstruct the moose…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Devouring Time

  Jim Harrison, a Writer's Life

  Goddard, Todd,

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  A robust biography of novelist, poet, and screenwriter Jim Harrison (1937--2016). The author paints a vivid portrait of Harrison's tumultuous life, from his childhood in rural Michigan, where an accident left him permanently blind in one eye and he…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Forever in the Path

  the Black Experience at Michigan State University

  Dagbovie, Pero Gaglo,

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  African Americans from various backgrounds were transformed by Michigan State University while also profoundly contributing in vital ways to the institution's growth and evolving identity. Forever in the Path: The Black Experience at Michigan State…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Gales of November

  the Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald

  Bacon, John U., 1964-

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  No ship represented the apex of the American Century better than the 729-foot-long Edmund Fitzgerald; the biggest, best, and most profitable ship on the Lakes. But on November 10, 1975, as the 'storm of the century' threw 100 mile-per-hour winds and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• The Hours Are Long, but the Pay Is Low

  a Curious Life in Independent Music

  Miller, Rob (Co-founder of Bloodshot Records),

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  In this memoir, Rob Miller, co-founder of Chicago's storied Bloodshot Records, tells the story of the unlikely evolution of Bloodshot from a list scribbled on a cocktail napkin into an internationally renowned home for roots music, soul, Americana,…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• How to Talk to Your Succulent

  Persico, Zoe, 1993-

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  Eleven-year-old Adara and her dad are moving from California to Michigan after Mom's passing and he's bringing Mom's houseplants, including a succulent named Perle, whom Adara tries to care for, in a book about loneliness, mental health, empathy and…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Miss Betti What Is This?

  How Detroit's School Lunch Lady Got Good Food on the Menu

  Nargi, Lela

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  Miss Betti knew kids in Detroit's schools were not getting wholesome, nourishing lunches. As the district lunch lady, Miss Betti had the power to make a change. She started small and soon she was filling lunch trays with a rainbow of tasty choices.…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• No Human Involved

  the Serial Murder of Black Women and Girls and the Deadly Cost of Police Indifference

  Neely, Cheryl L.,

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  A rigorous, unsettling examination of how serial killers targeting Black women have murdered with impunity because of police bias against the victims.

• This Magnetic North

  Candid Conversations on a Changing Northern Michigan

  Mulherin, Tim,

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  This book explores a phenomenon occurring around Michigan's Great Lakes and other high-demand scenic locations across the country: natural landscapes are undergoing profound human and climatological change as people pick up their lives and move to…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Waterline

  a Novel

  Mrjoian, Aram,

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  Outside Detroit on the island of Gross Ile, the Kurkjians receive news that Mari, the eldest of their youngest generation, has swum into the depths of Lake Michigan with no intent of returning to shore. This close-knit Armenian American family must…Read moreRead more of this annotation