Vintage postcards, messages from yesterday, and photographs capture the splendor of one of Michigan's most beautiful counties.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1880.

15 Years of the best photography from the creators of LelandReport.com, a photo-a-day diary from Leelanau County, Michigan

"In Isadore's Secret, Mardi Link shines a journalist's lamp on this dark, quiet corner of Michigan's history, assuring that the tragic story of Sister Janina is not forgotten. Link's telling is fascinating and thorough, making a story you will not soon forget." ---Steve Lehto, author of Death's Door A gripping account of the mysterious 1907 disappearance of a young nun in a northern Michigan town and the national controversy that followed when she turned up dead and buried in the basement of her own church. Swinging planks of lantern light shine through the musty air and onto the dirt floor of the church basement. The oddly glowing rectangles syncopate over the damp ground and illuminate even the darkest, stooped-down corners of the space beyond. The only sound is the ragged breathing of two men, a young parish priest and a much older laborer. Aboveground these men belong completely to this place, in both body and soul. A glimpse of their faces anywhere in the sanctuary, the rectory, the school, the barn, or the gardens would be a welcome sight. But here below, these men of Isadore are interlopers. Only trespassers would sneak silently into the church's sloped underbelly without witness to carry out such a sinful and secret errand as this one. Despite their tools, and their lantern, and their resolve, neither is equipped for the task at hand or for what is to come. Mardi Link, a former crime reporter, was named Antioch's Betty Crumrine Scholar for Creative Nonfiction in 2007. Her first book, When Evil Came to Good Hart, also published by the University of Michigan Press, spent four months on the Heartland Indie Bestseller List. This true story was the basis for the Broadway play The Runner Stumbles and the film of the same name. Front cover: Photograph of cemetery © John L. Russell, Great Lakes Images; image of face ©iStockphoto.com/duncan1890.

This collection of 267 personal letters will introduce you to Oliver, Eleanor & Marietta Boizard and their friends. You will journey with the Boizards to Florida during the Seminole Indian War where Eleanor works as a laundress at Fort Myers while Oliver's Army unit is building a road through the swamp near Lake Okeechobee. From there Oliver's Army unit moves to Fort Leavenworth and Fort Ridgely in the Nebraska Territory. In 1861 when the American Civil War begins, Oliver is stationed in Newport Barracks, Kentucky. At the expiration of his enlistment in February 1864, Oliver moves to Chicago. Due to health reasons, his wife and daughter move to Glen Arbor, Michigan. From 1864-1870 Oliver and Eleanor write to each other and occasionally visit. Oliver works to support his family. You will read about Indians, military outposts, Civil War Battles, General Grant, Sherman's march and the assassination of President Lincoln. You will also discover the cost of many everyday items during the mid-1800's.

Explores ghosts and haunted places, local legends, cursed roads, crazy characters, and unusual roadside attractions found in Michigan.

The young maiden Leelinau is forbidden from going into the Spirit Wood. But Leelinau so enjoys her time spent there with the Pukwudjinees (the tiny fairies of the forest) that she risks playing with them time and time again. The legend explores the resistance many of us harbor of entering adulthood. This is the fifth title written by Kathy-jo Wargin and illustrated by Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen in our Legend series which currently has 400,000 copies in print. The Legend of the Sleeping Bear, the title that began the series, is the official State of Michigan childrens's book. "Leelinau was so happy to be in the Spirit Wood once again that she began to dance all around. Then she sat down amidst a mess of large tree roots that fit like a chair made just for her. But this time, as she sat there to rest, she heard strange whispers. At first, Leelinau thought it sounded like baby robins trying to catch their first breaths, or ferns being tossed back and forth in the wind. But Leelinau wasn't quite sure, so she listened more carefully. She heard more whispers, and then voices. Leelinau became frightened. Her heart pounded like a large drum in her chest, and her throat felt tight and narrow."