Results by title

As a young boy, Dave Crehore moved with his parents from northern Ohio to the shipbuilding town of Manitowoc on the shores of Wisconsin’s Lake Michigan, where the Germanic inhabitants punctuate their conversations with “enso,” the local radio station interrupts Beethoven for commercials, and the outdoors are a wellspring of enlightenment.
    Crehore’s stories of his youth in 1950s Wisconsin are peppered with engaging characters and a quiet wit. A grouse-hunting expedition goes awry when an eccentric British businessman bags an escaped bantam rooster with a landing net. Crehore's great-grandfather gets in trouble one Christmas when he sneaks a whoopee-cushion under a guest’s seat. The elderly Frau Blau gets trapped in an outhouse by a shady auctioneer during a farm sale. Through all the adventures—and misadventures—in a small town and in the great outdoors of Wisconsin, family is always at the center. This gently humorous look back at a baby-boomer’s awakening to adulthood will be appreciated by members of any generation.

 

 

Honorable Mention, Kingery/Derleth Book Length Nonfiction, Council for Wisconsin Writers

Finalist, Humor, Midwest Book Awards

 

 

Whether Jonagolds or Ida Reds, the apple provides Midwesterners with both a versatile food and a powerful archetype of their culture and heritage. Lucy M. Long examines the ubiquitous fruit’s place in regional culture and its role in how people in the Midwest think of themselves and the wider world. Long guides readers to festivals and introduces them to orchard owners while tracing the history of how apples became a central part of Midwesterners’ landscape, leisure, tables, and way of life. Johnny Appleseed folklore, sustainability and the apple business, the meanings behind the Grand Rapids Applebutter Fest, a recipe for apple caramel cheesecake—Long reveals a quintessential American fruit in all its glory.

Lively and surprising, Sweet, Tart, and Golden blends food history with on-the-ground exploration to tell the multifaceted story of the apple.