Many of us, when asked to remember our middle school experience, shudder. It’s almost always a challenging era, full of braces, puberty, social dramas, and the diametric pulls of childhood and young adulthood.

But Greenhills School teacher and theater director Caroline Huntoon, who grew up in Ann Arbor, spends a good deal of her time imagining and remembering being that age again, as evidenced by the release of her third (and newest) middle grade novel, Going Overboard.

“It’s this moment when young people are figuring out their independence, while also negotiating, like, ‘I want to be independent, I want to be in charge of my own self, but I don’t always make the best choices,’” Huntoon said.

In addition, when Huntoon was a young reader themself, they were drawn most to middle grade books.

“I loved reading Matilda [by Roald Dahl] and Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine,” said Huntoon. “I feel like those books just opened up a world to me—not ‘the’ world, but ‘a’ world. My mom got sick when I was in fifth grade, so books were a very important … reprieve from that time.”

“Why can no one in this family ever just say what’s on their mind?” asks Joseph Kurkjian, twin brother, son, cousin, and nephew in the new book, Waterline. Though his question may be an overstatement, it illustrates the tension in which his family finds itself.

Waterline is the debut novel of Aram Mrjoian, a University of Michigan lecturer and managing editor of the Michigan Quarterly Review. He will be in conversation with Julie Buntin at Literati Bookstore on Tuesday, June 3, at 6:30 pm.

The book's chapters cycle through the point of view of each member in the Kurkjian family as they cope with their cousin, daughter, and niece Mari’s fatal decision to swim far out into Lake Michigan and not come back. The rotating focus on each character’s perspective provides unique angles on how they respond to what has happened with Mari, as well as what is going on in their own lives.

Part of their stories is the anguish from historical injustices as Gregor, the Kurkjians’ great-grandfather, and Mara, their great-grandmother, resisted and survived the Armenian Genocide. This history troubles their descendants who now live on Grosse Ile. Karo, who is Mari’s father and Gregor’s grandson, talks to Joseph, his nephew, about the past as he sips brandy:

As a legal scholar and Detroit native, Michelle Adams had plenty of reasons to take more than a passing interest in the Milliken v. Bradley Supreme Court case. The 1974 ruling determined that, although Detroit's public schools had been illegally segregated, a plan to fix that by combining the predominantly Black district with surrounding white suburbs would not move forward, essentially halting Northern desegregation efforts across the country.

In her debut book, The Containment, the University of Michigan law professor digs deep into the history and legal precedents that led up to, and resulted from, this landmark case in a rigorously researched, moving, and accessible account of how civil rights leaders fought to expose Northern Jim Crow and promote multiracial K-12 education as a meaningful way to undo its harms and strengthen U.S. democracy for all.

Published earlier this year after 10 years of work—and three rewrites—the book has been praised by The New York Times, New Yorker, and Washington Post. But even more important to Adams, it has helped spark real conversations with readers—from those who lived through it to those who had never heard of the case before—and shine a light on those continuing to work toward school integration, such as the National Coalition on School Diversity, which recently invited her to speak.

We talked with Adams about the "extraordinary, life-changing experience" of writing her first book, connections between the past and present, and what gives her hope for today.

When the Russo-Ukrainian War intensified with the invasion and occupation of Ukraine starting in 2022, the conflict not only permeated the news but also people’s lives. The stories of the Ukrainians affected by the war are what historian Danielle Leavitt tells in her new book, By the Second Spring: Seven Lives and One Year of the War in Ukraine.

By the Second Spring begins with a preface in which Leavitt describes how she found the stories and corresponded with the storytellers. She shares that through an online platform provided by her parents’ project, the Leavitt Institute for International Development, Ukrainians wrote online diary entries. Leavitt got in contact with some of the diarists, who then began communicating about their lives directly with her.

As Leavitt writes about her subjects and the book, “They would recount, in intimate detail, their first reactions to the invasion, why opposition to Russia was so fierce, and why and how such a sudden and shocking spirit of mass volunteerism arose. I concern myself less with the movement of military forces and more with exploring the daily realities of war in a relatively developed country.”

Leavitt’s time growing up partly in Ukraine and studying Ukrainian history informs her book, too. To give context as the events of the year unfold around her subjects, Leavitt intersperses the history that led to this moment in time.

After the preface is the “Dramatis Personae” listing the seven names and descriptions of the subjects who are featured by Leavitt: Anna. Maria. Polina. Tania. Vitaly. Volodymyr. Yulia.  

Each Ukrainian in By the Second Spring makes their choices of how to respond to the war. Some maintain a semblance of life before the invasion:

What does it truly mean to "become the best version of yourself?" To find meaning, to overcome obstacles?

In Ann Arbor author Omar Hussain's debut novel, A Thousand Natural Shocks, a charismatic figure offers a unique solution: Don't try to overcome trauma, but excise every trace from the conscious mind. To "detonate the past" you must "liberate the future," but only the most devout followers will access this obliterating salvation.

Dash, a reporter intent on forgetting no matter the cost, is determined to rise through the ranks of the faithful. But who will he be when he comes out the other side of his altered history, and how will Dash cope with the revelation of the cult's true purpose?

Under Hussain's pen, Dash's narration is frenetic, rich with ripe anxiety, and fractured by our hero's sleep deprivation, self-medication, and general mind-destroying tactics in his pursuit of erasure. From the very first pages, it's clear how the cult's mantra would resonate with a man in his state: "God is love. God is life. God is a bomb."

I spoke with Hussain about A Thousand Natural Shocks, which he is reading and signing at Literati on May 13, and his work with Defy, the communications company he co-founded.

Every so often, I find myself daydreaming: As the members of the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) watch their stock portfolios plummet because of Trump’s tariffs, or as they observe the president ignore decisions by other justices, including those he appointed, they have second thoughts about giving Trump unprecedented power—and they find a way to save us.   

I was disabused of this fantasy when I read Leah Litman’s marvelous new book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes. The University of Michigan law professor, who clerked at the high court, will discuss her book with Barbara McQuade on May 14 at Literati Bookstore.

I loved the book—well, as much as I can love something that convinces me that radical right justices are ruling from their feelings instead of the law. Litman’s style is accessible, and her book is full of pop culture references: American Psycho, Arrested Development, Game of Thrones, Taylor Swift. The story she tells is bleak, but there’s comic relief, mostly in the form of snarky comments of the sort some of us are driven to these days.

This story was first published on February 27, 2024. We're highlighting it because Zilka Joseph and Isaac Pickell will read from their work for "Jewish American Poets of Color" at AADL's Downtown branch on Wednesday, May 7, 2025, at 6:30 pm.

“From tumbled sands and shattered bark / blurred shadows dragged us,” writes Zilka Joseph in her new poetry collection, Sweet Malida: Memories of a Bene Israel Woman. 

These poems are immersed in the history, customs, and food of the Bene Israel people. The Ann Arbor poet shares about their shipwreck on the shores of India, worship of the prophet Elijah, and subsequent dispersing across the world. While Joseph imparts facts about the culture and community, she also makes the poems personal with her memories. 

This cultural and familial history informs Joseph’s poems, such as “Leaf Boat,” which is a longer poem that receives its own section of the book. Joseph describes “my body a leaf boat / lamp floated on water” in the context of the heritage of her ancestors, grandmother, parents, and herself who moved from place to place. Even her birth was during unsettled weather: “I was born Thursday in monsoon rain / night time East coast time / in Bombay a baby opens her eyes.” Water, especially oceans, flows through the lines, and “in my dream / the whales are singing.” 

Joseph focuses less on what is lost, though she does pay tribute to her parents, and focuses more on the richness that the traditions and foods of the Bene Israel pass along. One such food is “draksha-cha sharbath. Sherbet of raisins” for Shabbath, which Joseph writes about replicating on her own after moving to the United States. Earlier, she had prepared it with her grandmother and mother. As she writes in one of the short essays or prose poems that are interspersed throughout the book, making this recipe is like time traveling for Joseph:  

Gamergate debuted in 2014 when a video-game designer's former boyfriend falsely accused her of having relations with a journalist to score a good review.

But Gamergate exploded when trolls at 4chan used the story as a jumping-off point to start attacking women and minorities over various things—from gaming to politics—with the results spilling out on Twitter, other social-media sites, and message boards, then eventually into mainstream news.

Internet harassment wasn't new when Gamergate hit, but the speed and size of the attacks were at a new scale, offering a playbook for the kind of bad actors who often dominate the web now. Disinformation campaigns are the norm, lies are truth, and weaponized anti-social media is the default mode for many who engage with these websites and platforms.

David Wolinsky has covered Gamergate for 11 years as a freelance journalist and author of The Hivemind Swarmed: Conversations on Gamergate, the Aftermath, and the Quest for a Safer Internet, whose paperback edition comes out in August. Wolinsky is also a dedicated archivist whose Don't Die project features more than 600 interviews with people from the gaming industry, the media, commentators, and more about the state of the internet in the wake of Gamergate.

For a deeper understanding of Gamergate, Wolinsky and Caitlin Dewey's Links I Would GChat You If We Were Friends Substack compiled "The Links x Hivemind Swarmed Reading Guide to Gamergate." This collection of articles will get you up to speed on the pervasive influence of Gamergate ahead of Wolinsky's visit to the Ann Arbor District Library's Downtown branch on Friday, April 25, from 6-7 pm for a panel discussion: "Swarmed: Gaming and the Social Internet’s Impact on Culture and Identity":

Best friends don't always have exactly the same interests, but it can be especially fun when what excites one pal complements the thing the other enjoys most.

For Batcat and Al the Ghost, one literally feeds the other: Al loves to cook and Batcat loves to eat. What happens, though, when their favorite hobbies take on a competitive edge?

Batcat: Cooking Contest!, the third volume of Meggie Ramm's early middle-grade graphic novel series, finds the colorful residents of Spooky Island testing their respective skills as part of a local festival.

The book is fun and cute, and it explores Big Emotions.

Ramm will launch Batcat: Cooking Contest! with a signing session at Vault of Midnight in Ann Arbor on Saturday, April 26, 4-6 pm. (They will also be at Sidetrack Books in Royal Oak on April 19 and at Constellation Cat Cafe in Lansing on May 2.)

I spoke with Ramm about the latest book, the origins of Batcat, and what they hope kids and parents will take away from volume three.

Divorce is not just one thing; it's not just the moment of making the decision or signing a piece of paper. The events before, during, and after hold rage, heartbreak, pain, fear, freedom, and many more emotions and qualities, as poet Carmen Bugan documents in her new collection, Tristia.

Yet, even from the start of the book, the poet makes clear that this pain does not define her but rather serves as an experience to surmount:

Those who caused us pain
Will be left holding the chains
They have fashioned for us.

We are rising on the back of the wind.

The rise demonstrates that more than one thing can be true at once—pain exists alongside cultivating resilience, finding joy in children and nature, traveling, and reimagining how life looks. “It’s Possible,” says the poem by that name, that “Like an egg, the soul / Is ready to break again. / Like a river, the soul is ready / To rush over the banks.”

The path through the dark woods of divorce and a father’s death does not cut straight or clear. As the poet shares, “Today I met an old man who was lost,” the similarities between these two people emerge on “Archer Street”: