New Releases

Sheryl James Featured on “Stateside”

by Phillip Witteveen May 20, 2013

Sheryl James was a guest on Michigan Radio’s Stateside to discuss her new book Michigan Legends: Folktales and Lore from the Great Lakes State. James, a former journalist, comprehensively researched Michigan’s folk traditions from archives and storytellers to gain a full understanding of the fact and fiction of the state’s mythology. “There’s a huge range of total fantasy, as well as pretty historical kinds of things,” said James. One famous story is of the Nain Rouge, “this little red, impish creature that has been known to appear right before Detroit’s greatest tragedies.” This character has persisted in the city’s cultural memory, [...]

SUNDAY: Marina Whitman discusses her memoir ‘The Martian’s Daughter’ on BookTV

by Shaun Manning May 10, 2013

This Sunday at 10:30pm EST, Marina von Neumann Whitman will appear on CSPAN’s BookTV to discuss her memoir The Martian’s Daughter, which chronicles her life growing up with the brilliant mathematician John von Neumann for a father through to her own accomplishments, such as becoming a noted academic in her own right and becoming the first woman to serve on the President’s Council of Economic Advisers and the highest-ranking female executive in the auto industry in the 1980s, among many others. Check your local listings for CSPAN2. After its air date, the program will be archived at the BookTV site. The [...]

If your body craves more ‘Gulp,’ an ‘Open Wound’ may satisfy

by Shaun Manning May 10, 2013

Mary Roach, dubbed “America’s funniest science writer” by the Washington Post, has fans hungry for more weird stories of the body’s inner working with her latest book Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal. Roach, who provided a blurb for Jason Karlawish’s Open Wound, also gives a shout to that book in Gulp itself, calling Open Wound ”a fine and sleuthily researched historical novel.” Roach notes that, while Dr. William Beaumont’s thoughts on his experiments upon Alexis St. Martin are well-documented thanks to the doctor’s journals, St. Martin’s initial response to the “unusual proposition” of having his bullet wound used as a window [...]

Win a copy of Jason Karlawish’s ‘Open Wound’ in paperback!

by Shaun Manning May 8, 2013

To celebrate the paperback release of Jason Karlawish’s historical novel Open Wound: The Tragic Obsession of Dr. William Beaumont, we’re giving away three copies to lucky readers on the social reading site Goodreads! Goodreads Book Giveaway Open Wound by Jason Karlawish Giveaway ends May 17, 2013. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win Dr. Karlawish’s novel gets to the heart of the strange relationship between Dr. William Beaumont and Northern Michigan fur trader Alexis St. Martin, who, after a shotgun misfires, bears a hole in his stomach which never quite heals over. Beaumont takes the opportunity [...]

Q&A with Sheryl James, author of ‘Michigan Legends’

by Emily May 1, 2013

Sheryl James is the author of the newly released Michigan Legends: Folktales and Lore from the Great Lakes State. Here, she discusses why Michigan is a particularly rich region for legends to spring up, how she conducted her research for the book, and more. The University of Michigan Press: How did you approach your research for this book, and did your research take you to any interesting places? Sheryl James: My research had to be original, or close to it – in other words, with few exceptions, I was accessing very old books and source material. Older Detroit books I found at [...]

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