Between the Lines

We see the "Certified Organic" label everywhere these days. It's in little food co-ops and big supermarkets. But what does it mean? And how did it all begin? Maynard Kaufman and Julia Christianson supply some answers in the book they edited, The Organic Movement in Michigan. It's a collection of 19 essays by different Michigan authors that's published by Michigan Organic Food and Farm Alliance, or MOFFA. The essays tell the story of the organic movement from its first days and consider its future.

You can live a lifetime in the same place and never know its history. That wasn’t enough for Kelly Pucci. When she moved from Chicago to Saint Joseph County, Michigan. She wanted to know more about her new home. And the more she researched, the more unique and sometimes strange stories she found.

Vic Foerster has traveled north to the wilderness of Isle Royale for 35 years. He first wrote about his adventures in Naked in the Stream: Isle Royale Stories. In his latest book, Hidden in the Trees: An Isle Royale Sojourn (Arbutus Press, 2017), Foerster shares his unique understanding and love of trees — because he's an arborist as well as a writer.

As Bob Tarte puts it, he and his wife Linda live on the edge of a "shoe-sucking, mink-infested swamp" near the West Michigan village of Lowell. When they're not fending off summer mosquitoes or chipping ice out of plastic wading pools in winter, Bob writes books about his pets.” Tarte’s newest book, his fourth, is Feather Brained: My Bumbling Quest to Become a Birder and Find a Rare Bird On My Own.

How many cats must you have before you're considered a "crazy cat lady?" Or a hoarder? And why aren’t there "crazy cat gentlemen?" Or are there? These are questions Janet Vormittag answers in her new book, You Might Be a Crazy Cat Lady If…