Treat the bibliophiles on your list with a new work from our book gift guide by a Michigan author. There are many to choose from!
For the Memoir Addict
Destroy This House
By Amanda Uhle. Recounts the Ann Arbor journalist and nonfiction writer’s bizarre, whirlwind childhood with her striving fashion designer (and hoarder) mother and her wheeler-dealer father, who vacillated between poverty and wealth, virtue and mendacity, reality and dreams.
Phoenix Girl
By Michelle Yang. Chronicles the author’s move with her family from an ethnic Chinese enclave in South Korea to the United States, and the mental health struggles she faced before being diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a young adult.
For the History Buff
The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald
By John U. Bacon, Huron High School and University of Michigan graduate. Hailed as the definitive account of this storied disaster, drawing on interviews with families, friends, and former crewmates of those lost with the ship 50 years ago.
Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, the Lincoln Assassination, and the Rebirth of America
By Scott Ellsworth, U-M professor. Offers new insights on this critical period, including a Confederate plot to burn down New York City and John Wilkes Booth’s affiliation with agents of the Confederate Secret Service.
For the Literary Fiction Reader
In the Light of the Sun
By Angela Shupe, Michigan resident. The tale of two sisters in wartime: Caramina in the Philippines dreams of becoming an opera singer but must flee to the jungle with her family, and Rosa in Florence navigates her scheduled opera debut as Mussolini tightens his grip on Italy.
Bear County, Michigan
By John Counts, Whitmore Lake-based former crime reporter. A short-story collection about down-on-their-luck souls living in a fictional county Up North, inspired by incidents he heard about while sitting in courtrooms. Hour Detroit spoke with Counts for our Oct. 2025 issue about how this book came to be.
For the Feel-Good Fiction Fan
Cammy Sitting Shiva
By Cary Gitter, Ann Arbor-based. About an adrift almost-30-year-old who must return to her small New Jersey hometown to mourn her father, face her difficult mother, and reconcile her past with her present.
The Page Turner
By Wade Rouse (writing under Viola Shipman), Saugatuck/Douglas-based. Follows a young romance writer who makes a discovery that could throw her literary elitist family into chaos.
Twice
By Mitch Albom. Tells the story of Alfie Logan, who has the magical power to undo any moment and live it again, with the caveat that he must face the consequences of his second try, including in his love life. Even before its release, the film rights to Twice were acquired by Netflix. This will be the fifth Albom book to be adapted into a film.
For the Literary YA Bookworm
I Killed the King
By Rebecca Mix (Royal Oak) and Andrea Hannah (Novi). A locked-room whodunit/fantasy mashup: after a decade of war, two kingdoms make peace, but during a celebratory masquerade, the castle goes dark and a king is killed.
Sisters in the Wind
By Angeline Boulley, southwest Michigan author. Offers a new mystery in which a foster teen named Lucy aims to claim her newly discovered Ojibwe heritage on her own terms.
For the Home Cook
Looking Back, Cooking Forward
By Mary Brady, longtime co-owner of Novi’s Diamond Jim Brady’s Bistro Bar. Features a collection of personal stories plus more than 60 favorite recipes, many of which appeared on her restaurant menus over the years.
This story originally appeared in the December 2025 issue of Hour Detroit magazine. To read more, pick up a copy of Hour Detroit at a local retail outlet. Click here to get our digital edition.
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