Sparkle Island is a wonderfully crafted, winsome revery of summer. The stories evoke summers from my childhood and gave a West Coast gal a taste of mid-west wonders. This read aloud book had me alternately howling (Bats, And a boat is....) and touched by the sweetness of shared family treasures. Our first read of this wonderful book of essays was on a boat. We joined Ellen Rosewall's family as we drifted through our own Sparkle Islands. Read this book aloud to everyone!

Sparkle Island is a fantastic book which reminds us that in todays world of constantly shifting workplaces,homes, relationships or whatever, that the most important things cannot be bought for any price. Family life is the one true thing that needs to be cherished and I feel honored to be an observer into this author's family.

Not only are readers allowed a glimpse into an obviously warm and loving family, we are allowed to experience cottage life, with all of its charms. The sense of closeness they share and experience at the cottage almost convinces the reader Ja-Ma-Ca has magical qualities, which indeed it may have!

I have traveled around somewhat and still have many places I yearn to visit but now Walloon Lake is on my list. I long to collect a Petoskey stone, to eat planked whitefish, to go for a boat ride on the lake, and most of all to play petanque! Read this book and share it with others. You won't be disappointed, especially if you have a cottage or have summered at one.

For a died in the wool Buckeye, it was hard to imagine that a book about a place in that State up North that we all love to hate could be so warm and wonderful. Ellen Rosewall's special spirit and keen insights, however, clearly illuminate the joys of love, life and Wallon Lake. Being invited to share her obviously close, loving and spiritual family in such an intimate way, made Sparkle Island a truely heart warming experience!

I've just returned from a vacation to the U.P. and I can't imagine having taken the trip without this wonderful guide. Almost every town and village in the U.P. is covered with detailed, honest, useful information. This is literally the only guide you'll need.

Frommer's, Lonely Planet, Fodor's and Baedeker's take note:
This is one excellent travel guide! More than hotels, motels, watering holes and restaurants, "Hunts' Guide to Michigan's Upper Peninsula" goes where other guides don't: into the hidden crevices of a community to ferret out little-known facts.The Hunts help you find local color as well as food and lodging. This book is for the traveler who is tired of the usual- or for anyone who goes to the U.P. for day trips and getaway weekends.. This is not a standard guidebook. It's quirky and interesting - and reads like a good magazine feature story. How about we send the Hunts to San Francisco or New Orleans or Savannah - to get the real scoop on those wonderful destinations?

This book is a "must-have" for anyone who wants to get the most out of any trip to the Upper Peninsula. After dozens of visits to the U.P., I had thought I'd pretty much covered it all... until I picked up this book. The Hunt's have apparently combed through every nook and cranny of the U.P. and present everything a visitor would need to know! Much reccommended!

The somewhat haunting photographs of the interior of the asylum makes one try to imagine how life was for those souls who lived there. The beautiful architecture of those majestic buildings and well-manicured grounds is a testament to an era of compassion. There is one photograph in particular that caught my attention, on page 185 that has what appears to be a ghostly image of a man standing in the doorway of room 50. A book you can look at over and over again and see new things in the detailed photographs.

This book should be required reading in Psych 101 classes. Photography classes as well.

The author gently uses her camera and prolific writing style to tell a story that both inspires and shocks you at the same time. There are incredible amounts of patient and staff histories both touching and surprising. The book inspires one to ponder the life of each person profiled.

One can only hope that Johnson continues along the same lines and creates another masterpiece like Angels in the Architecture.

"Angels in the Architecture" is a first-rate homage to a former asylum, the Traverse City State Hospital of Michigan. Heidi Johnson has masterfully combined her hauntingly beautiful photographs with both archival material and first-hand reports from the trenches. The result is a powerfully compelling journey into the soul of a once vibrant institution that provided care to thousands of its wards.

When I first saw Dr. Osborn on 20/20, I thought, "Damn! She wrote my book". By the time I got 20 pages into it, my thoughts changed to,"Thank God! She wrote my book". Claudia Osborn has been inside my head. She has expressed what I've been thinking since my brain injury better than I ever could. I have suggested this book to all of my friends, and have given copies to several of the people who have worked with me during my rehab. This book has helped foster better understanding among my friends and therapists. It has made it much easier for my friends to accept and deal with the new person I have become since TBI. It has also made it easier for me to accept myself and live the new life I've been given. We have effectively used parts of Over My Head as a basis for discussion in our TBI support group.

Claudia Osborn is an inspiration to anyone who has a traumatic brain injury or anyone who loves someone who has experienced a TBI. This book clearly explains what the life of a TBI patient is like. It helped me so much to better understand the way my husband feels on a daily basis. Things that he has been unable to communicate to anyone before we have been able to discuss since I have read this wonderful book. We also have experienced seeing Dr. Osborn in person and she is just a wonderful person to share her life so that others may learn from what happened to her. Please buy this book if you love someone who has a TBI.

Dr. Claudia Osborn does an incredible job of relating the life altering experience of a Traumatic Brain Injury, (TBI). This is a very informative, easy to read & understand book covering the misunderstood and confusing changes and challenges an individual and their loved ones experience after a brain injury.
She does so from her perspective as a professional that experiences and learns to manage permanent losses and changes which a person with TBI must learn to understand, accept, and manage.

This book is a must read for brain injured persons, their family members, friends, and care providers, as well as all professionals, (Physicians, Psychologists, Counselors, Lawyers, Emergency Medical professionals, families & patients, etc.). Anyone that even potentially has any contact with a person with a brain injury will benefit from this hard to put down, easy to read & understand book. It is humorous in places but educational, enlightening & informative throughout.
A TBI is too often unrecognized and misunderstood. As a medical clinician with extensive Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine experience, and myself being brain injured several years ago, I know that many brain injured persons go without adequate diagnosis or treatment. The physical and psychosocial changes that a brain injured person and their families & friends face are frequently undiagnosed, misunderstood, and improperly treated. The statistics on brain injuries are alarming. I strongly encourage laypersons and professionals alike to read this book.
Thank you Dr. Osborn.

Sarah's Page is a great book! I read it in two days! It had me laughing hysterically, and crying like I would NEVER stop. I loved this book most because I thought that I was the only one who ever left the place I called home, and moved across country. This book proved that wasn't true, and Sarah knew exactly what I was going through. This book gave me pointers about how to look at and deal with moving away. I was inspired to start taking horse riding lessons and want to start thinking about getting a horse and caring for it like Sarah did. Basicly all there is to say about this book is that it's the BEST, and I wish there was a sequal!!! :0)

Originally I bought this book for my niece who is a Michigander. The weekend it arrived from Amazon, she was off with her parents to a wedding for the weekend. It didn't take her long to read the entire story. This weekend she lent it to me. One day. That's all it took. I couldn't put Sarah's Page down. Not only is it a clever idea, but the story is compelling. Sarah is your best friend or the one you wish you had. (BTW I am 53 years old ;) )

Sarah's page grabs hold of what it is about to come to terms with who we are as kids in the nineties world. It is so real, and believable. Sarah is the kind of friend you want to have to e-mail and share with, and what's great about this book, is you CAN, on the webpage that goes with it! Awesome.

The Fab Five covers the lives and early years of the University of Michigan's five starting basketball players. Mitch Albom's writing is engaging and kept my attention throughout the novel. Using quotes from coaches and players, he was able to impart a sense of what the atmosphere was like on the famed team. Albom gave an in-depth background of the lives of the five players, and was able to give the reader a sense of the atmosphere among this famous group of college freshmen.
The novel covers U of M's trip to the NCAA tournament and the difficult adjustment to college life for the young players. Albom gives a profile of the players, including their early lives in a humorous but detailed style as well as an account of how the players felt on the court with one another.
When the Fab five were announce with hype, the press put pressure on them to win a championship. Albom shows how the extremely hyped-up atmosphere led to the downfall of the team, and the loss of the NCAA championship.
Albom's account of the lives of these young stars is detailed and allows one to come away with a real sense of the lives of these players, essentially teenagers thrust into the spotlight. They had not learned the responsibility on the court that they needed to win, even though their talent was never in doubt. Albom tells the story of why the famed "Fab Five" failed to live up to the hype.

Some say that the Fab Five were failures. The say that with the level of talent they had and not being able to win a championship they underacheived. I consider making it to the Final Four two consecutive years is accomplishing quite a bit. How in the world could coach Steve Fisher handle the pressure of having the nation's basketball spotlight on him and the Fab Five? Mitch Albom does and abloslutely phenomenal job following the Michigan basketball team through the ups and downs of the years with the Fab Five. Mitch goes through what is was like for all five of the freshman before they decided to come to Michigan. If you are remotely interested in basketball, read this book! It is excellent and keeps you interested the entire way through! If you are not a basketball fan, read the book anyways; you will become one. READ IT!

This is clearly the best sports book I ahave ever read in my life and would recommend this book to any of the college and NBA basketball fans out there. You will see how Chris, Juwan, and Jalen came about, where they are superstars in the NBA, while Jimmy and Ray had to try a little harder to become the stars, which they still haven't yet (but they will be in the NBA soon!!!). EVERYBODY, get this book its fun and fast reading, very informative, Mitch Albom did a great job in giving the reader an inside story of what was going on during the 92-94 Fab Five hype!

Hello, I am 21 years old and attend University Of Wisconsin, Madison and have found this book to be delightful in every aspect. The Author of this book, who I would love to meet, uses creativity in his writings rather well. I can relate to this book because I have been to Horton Bay, Michigan. For all of you who have not visited Michigan and who have not read this book, please do, you will find it outstanding.

Teddy's at his best with the high jinx of the Horton Bay crowd. A must read for those who like lite,ironic humor. An ernest Hemingway in his own mind. tom erber

a heartwarming and "fun loving" book; however, the two additional great bonus stories ("The Last Frontier," and "Once a Man, Twice a Child," had me crying all the way to the end. They were good tears though, the kind that cleanse the soul and make you feel all better when the reading is done and the book is closed.

Author Ted Walker seems to have picked up where Ernest Hemingway tales of the area left off. This is "must read" for those who enjoy Northern Michigan's colorful and charming personalities.

For any of you traveling this summer to Horton Bay (yes, it is a real place) stop in the Horton Bay General Store and hear about Ernest and Ted first hand from the locals who have been known, to "chew the fat" with strangers. If you plan to visit in the fall, catch the annual Ernest Hemingway Festival. Information on this can be found by writing the Chamber of Commerce Petoskey, Michigan 49770.

P.S. In the current issue of National Geographic Traveler, I understand their is an excellent interview with Ted Walker regarding Horton Bay and his unforgettable book, "We Eat Our RoadKill."

Taking the apparent simplicity of a small town murder as its hook, Collins subverts the murder mystery genre in this highly unusual, psychological novel. Signposted with cultural references, we are transported back first to the late seventies, then further back to the fifties, wherein lies the secret to unraveling the plot. The sheer level of detail, both physical and psychological, the mood of the novel is done brilliantly. The Resurrectionists is a form of time travel.
Peppered with a host of surreal characters, from Frank's wife Honey to their two children, Robert Lee and Ernie, we share the foibles and fears of a family. We witness the interplay of nurture vs. nature as the two kids are exposed to the manic wandering and searching of its two main characters. We see life weigh down on the children with such moments of bone chilling realism that it reminded me of seeing people at stores who attack their children, or abuse them. The instinct is to protect them. However, the relationship with the children is far more complex, abuse, love and ultimately acceptance comes through. There are no easy answers in this novel. It's complex, often disorienting, given we are dealing with a narrator who is unreliable, a victim of shock treatment. What makes this novel stand apart are the moments of poignancy, bone chilling realism, and at times horror of real life. It holds no punches. It depicts a side of life and people we are at times wont to turn our backs on.... Highly recommended.

Truth seems to be at the center of Collins' writing. Truth was in his award-winning novel, The Keepers of Truth, a brilliant twisted tale of murder and mystery in small-town America. When I provisionally read the blurb, I thought, is this previously charted terrain. It's a reason I kept from buying the book until I found it second hand. (Apologies to the author.)
I could not have been further wrong, though The Resurrectionists concerns a murder, and its attenuated mystery, Collins has gone deeper, and created an intriguing and daring novel that charts the sub-conscious mind of a trouble man who witnessed, and was accused of setting the fire which killed his parents when he was five. The psychological trauma, and the narrator's subsequent care under psychiatrists who hypnotized him and his later episodes with shock treatment, create a fragmented and shifting reality, and as others have noted, Collins has deftly utilized the unreliable narrator technique like no other writer I've read. Collins' particular genius is wedding a story, idea and plot element to a literary technique, and here, Collins actually makes his reader experience the profound sense of loss and disorientation his narrator feels throughout the novel, as he moves close to solving the mystery at the heart of the novel - who is the mysterious murder suspect who now lies in a coma at the county hospital after having hung himself after killing the narrator's uncle at the beginning of the novel.
That Collins balances a mystery with a socio-political and psychological deep novel is noteworthy. He has an ability to make apparently simple stuff complicated, for isn't all life complicated at its core. What is misconceiving is how we don't see the ambiguities in life. Collins makes them shimmer. He goes digging in the dirt of the subconscious.
This was in my top two novels of 2002, second only by a hair's breath to, Middlesex.

Set against the troubled psychos of our Cold War era, The Resurrectionists works as allegory, a tale of a dysfunctional family who embark on a journey across America in search of answers to an old family secret.

Beginning as a road novel, the book moved across America, a journey back in time, from the heat of New Jersey to the refrigerator cold of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. This is one of the most ambitious novels you will read this year, or any year.
What is at the heart of this "Cold War Story" is the uncovering of Truth, a recurrent theme in Collins' work. The conceit in the book is that our history was kept from us during the paranoia of the Cold War politics, both by our political leaders, Nixon and Co. Everybody in the book is reacting in someway to Nixon's betrayal in the book. Frank, the main character has a adopted son Robert Lee who has a Nixon pez despenser, his father who's on death row killed the people he did in the wake of watching the Watergate hearings. Also, at work is the fact that uncovering history, or finding the Truth is almost impossible. Things become jumbled, we have to rely on people to tell us what happened, therefore, history is open to interpretation. All this may sound too intellectual, but garbed in the story and characters Collins presents, the allegory works brilliantly.
Throughout the book, the use of reruns is masterfully manipulated, so that themes, and moments have a deja vu feel. The main character, having been a victim of Shock Treatment and hypnosis for an event he witnessed as a child, is unreliable, and his sense of history is skewed. For much of the book, we wonder if we are getting the real "Truth."

With so many divergent themes that do come together, it's hard encapsulating this book. There's the Sleeper, the comatose figure who murdered a man who lies dormant. What secrets does he hold? There's the main character working through his own memories of the past, there's the wife with the ex-husband, a guy on death row who wants to be executed, who is giving his organs up to his hosts. His wife fears he will come after her in the body of one of these hosts.
Mixing the surreal, the gothic, the crime genre, the literary novel, Collins gives us a virtuoso performance, an outside looking in at us. This is by all accounts a near literary masterpiece of emotional and psychological fallout, a starkly told and often brutal and political novel, but for all its apparent bleakness, it is a novel of hope. It shows in quite an extraordinary way toward the end, how we Americans survive. How Collins pulls off this twist, how he gets himself out of the mire of despair is again testimony to his insight into the American Condition.

Leonard is an experienced writer who knows precisely how to sketch the human frailties of his characters. Jack Ryan is the process-server so good at finding people that he's approached by some shady businessmen to locate a woman with a ruinous drinking problem. What's at stake is the money and maybe a chance for something that can pass for love, but the gallery of crooks includes a violent ex-con and an amoral wheeler-dealer. The text reads truer than life; this is surely an Elmore Leonard classic

In the unknown man Leonard has Jack Ryan a process server who is one of the best in the business looking for a man known only as "Unknown Man #89". Not truly unknown a few know him to well. A blonde hates him with a passion and a very bad guy wants him in hell. This all makes it hard for Jack Ryan as he has to get between those two people in order to capture #89. A very good read.

I stumbled upon 'Unknown Man #89' while looking for something else. I've read over two dozen Leonard novels, so at first, I thought it had to be new. Checking the back of the title page, I noticed it was copyrighted in 1977. So, I wondered why I had never heard of it?

And I'm still wondering. 'Unknown Man #89' (UM89) is fantastic. The protagonist is Jack Ryan, who was featured in 'The Big Bounce', an earlier Leonard novel. UM89 is a superior novel though. The stakes are higher and the characters more real than in 'The Big Bounce'.

Opening in Detroit, Ryan is a process server. He thinks he has finally stumbled on his calling. He is also a recovering alcoholic who attends AA meetings. An acquaintance, Jay Walt, sets him up with Frank Perez, who is trying to locate a Mr. Robert Leary with a business proposal. Before he knows it, Ryan is siding with Leary's widow in an attempt to get her dead husband's property while dodging shotgun blasts from Perez's associate Raymond Guidre.

The novel has a strong beginning that lets the reader learn who Ryan is up front: how he acts, what he believes, and what he does. The search for Leary brings in the rest of the characters and draws the reader into the plot quite well. The middle of the novel bogs down with events that lead to a key AA meeting, but then the action picks up and sprints towards the conclusion.

Overall, the novel is well paced. The characters are some of Leonard's most believable and interesting to the point you can picture what actors you would cast for the movie version, if there ever was one. I'd recommend this to any crime fiction fan, and as a must read for any Leonard fan. I still don't know why this novel was so obscure.

Never Street is an excellent addition to the Amos Walker series. After a client turns missing, Amos must investigate, leading him into the seamy underworld of blackmail and betrayal and one man's obsession with noir film.

While I liked Never Street, I am not a big fan of 'old movies,' which I felt was an underlying theme in this installment. Film Noir is a genre, I think that is much better 'viewed' than read about. Overall, another light, entertaining read with plenty of puns and snappy comebacks, sure to delight fans of the rest of the series.

After a seven year absence, tough guy Detroit private detective Amos Walker returned in 1997 with "Never Street." I'm a huge fan of P.I. fiction, and Walker is one of the best around. He doesn't work the streets of Detroit so much as he INHABITS them. "Never Street" is longer and more complex than any Walker story up until that time as Amos tries to find a missing video producer and noir film buff who appears to be acting out his fantasy of sisappearing into one of his movies. For any fan of classic film noir, this is a MUST read. As a mystery, it reads reasonably well, although is not nearly as good as the best of the Walker series (novels such as "Sugartown" and "The Glass Highway"). Walker novels suffer a bit from too little reliance on supporting characters. Reappearing cops John Alderdyce and Mary Ann Thaler make a brief turn here, but only in the background of the story. Walker does have a rare romance this time out, and that helps give the story a bit of a lift.

Overall, fans of Amos Walker should enjoy this entry in the series. His is a welcome return.

If, for some reason, you must read books that are well written, with tough talking, wise-cracking, good intentioned, interesting, likeable private eyes who live in the atmospheric pages of a master crime writer, then you must read this book. Great fun for lovers of the hard-boiled genre. Read all of Estelman's Amos Walker series and you'll be have something to measure all the rest by.