One of the great joys of winter is snuggling up with a hot beverage and a great book. (Bonus points if there's also a cat on your lap, maybe a dog sprawling over your legs.) Are you looking for some recommendations to keep you and your furry companions entertained during the cold winter weeks? Or maybe you're searching for a perfect last minute holiday gift for your favorite reader. Either way, we have you covered.
To wrap up 2023, Stateside spoke with poet and writer Keith Taylor about his favorite books with Michigan ties of the past year.
“Tandem” by Andy Mozina
“Tandem” is a not-so-mysterious murder mystery. The book begins with a hit-and-run. A professor, down on his luck and drunk, hits a young couple on a tandem bicycle on his way from Kalamazoo to Saugatuck Dunes State Park.He has to decide what to do–and he decides to run.
“I mean, the guy who commits the crime is such a complete narcissist, and he's trying to convince himself through the whole book that, ‘Okay, yes, I did this. And it's horrible, horrible. But I'm not going to tell anybody because I can make everybody feel good,” Taylor said. “And so it has this kind of almost humorous undertone, certainly a dark humor… which is a lot of fun.”
“That's My Moon over Court Street: Dispatches from a life in Flint” by Jan Worth-Nelson
The East Village Magazine is a Flint-based monthly journal founded in 1976. Jan Worth-Nelson was a column writer for the magazine for decades, and wrote about all sorts of things. Her columns might touch on books she had read, her neighbors, her divorce. When the Flint water crisis happened, she wrote about that, too.
“That's My Moon over Court Street: Dispatches from a life in Flint” is a collection of Worth-Nelson’s articles from 2007-2022. Taylor points out that the collection has a DIY appeal, but that it isn’t hokey. He said writing about Flint in a loving way can speak volumes, especially for a city that many only known for its tragedy.
“To love Flint when people like Rachel Maddow are saying, ‘Is Flint, Michigan, even habitable?’ And you've got this very bright woman loving it … and willing to write about it.” Taylor said.
“My Modest Blindness” by Russell Brakefield
West Michigan-raised poet Russell Brakefield found out that he was losing his eyesight in his late twenties. “My Modest Blindness”– a title that tilts a nod toward Jorge Luis Borges, an Argentinian poet who wrote about his own blindness – is his response to the diagnosis.
The collection catalogs details of his current visual world, preserving these images in intricate detail. The poems pay homage to Borges, Homer, and Milton, all writers, who were also blind.
Taylor said the book is “beautiful” and “deeply moving.”
“Dearborn,” Ghassan Zeineddine
Our bonus pick of the year is brought to you by Stateside host April Baer. “Dearborn” is a funny, tender collection of short stories based in the book’s namesake Metro Detroit city. The collection spans several decades and explores themes of identity, queerness, belonging, and migration.
“It was some of the funniest writing, but also some of the most piercing writing that I've run across,” Baer said. “My favorite is a story called ‘Speedo Man’ that has to do with the reaction that a newcomer gets at a community pool.”
[Get Stateside on your phone: subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or Spotify today.]
