The Library of Michigan announced the winners of the 2006 Michigan Notable Books. These twenty titles, all published last year, highlight “…Michigan people, places and events.” They must be written by a Michigan native or resident and are wide-reaching in coverage.

On the list this year are 14 non-fiction titles, four novels, and two children’s books. The winners in alphabetical order are:

Non-fiction

Beast of Never, Cat of God: The Search for the Eastern Puma by Bob Butz

Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink by David Margolick

Booking Passage: We Irish and Americans by Thomas Lynch

The Dodge Brothers: The Men, the Motor Cars, and the Legacy by Charles K. Hyde

Grit, Noise, and Revolution: The Birth of Detroit Rock 'n' Roll by David A. Carson

Legends of Light: A Michigan Lighthouse Portfolio photographs by Ed Wargin

Made in Detroit: A South of 8 Mile Memoir by Paul Clemens

Michigan Agricultural College: The Evolution of a Land-grant Philosophy, 1855-1925 by Keith R. Widder

Michigan Shadow Towns: A Study of Vanishing and Vibrant Villages by Gene Scott

Mighty Fitz: The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Michael Schumacher

Singing in a Strange Land: C.L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America by Nick Salvatore

Soapy: A Biography of G. Mennen Williams by Thomas J. Noer

Under Michigan: The Story of Michigan's Rocks and Fossils by Charles Ferguson Barker

Vintage Views of the Charlevoix-Petoskey Region by M. Christine Byron and Thomas R. Wilson

Fiction

How Like an Angel: A Novel by Jack Driscoll

The Lake, the River and the Other Lake: A Novel by Steve Amick

Please Don't Come Back From the Moon by Dean Bakopoulos

The Summer He Didn't Die by Jim Harrison

Children

Harry Sue by Sue Stauffacher

Winter's Tale: An Original Pop-up Journey by Robert Sabuda

Quick, can you name last year's Oscar winner for Best Documentary Feature? (Answer under "read more," below). In the wake of all the media hype over popular feature films, documentaries usually get short shrift. Oh sure, you'll recognize March of the Penguins when this year's nominations are announced Tuesday morning, but that's largely because the sub-zero chick-rearing practices of the Emperor penguin featured prominently in America's perennial culture war last year. But many other excellent documentaries from 2005 (including Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man, left, one of the best-reviewed films of the year) won't be among the nominees either, whether due to a lack of interest on the part of an obscure group of Academy voters or equally obscure Academy rules....

Fred Adams, professor of astrophysics at the University of Michigan and a world-renowned theorist on star and planet foundation, talks about his book Origins of Existence: How Life Emerged in the Universe on Community Access Cable Televison Channel 17 on Tuesday, January 31 at 3:30 p.m.; Thursday, February 2 at 1:30 p.m.; Friday, February 3 at 5:00 p.m.; and Saturday, February 4 at 1:30 p.m. The program was originally recorded in April 2003 as part of the library's 'Booked for Lunch' series, now known as 'Sunday Edition'. Among Dr. Adams' many provocative ideas is that life began inside our planet, not on its surface -- and that the universe exists in a forest of universes in space-time. His talk is also available on VHS Video at the library.

Betty Berzon, influential psychotherapist and author who championed gay rights for more than 30 years, died Tuesday, January 24, 2006.

Born January 28, 1928, Dr. Berzon was a pioneer in providing therapy to gay clients in the early 1970s, just a few years after she came out publicly and more than twenty years after her conflicts with her own sexuality led to a suicide attempt.

Berzon was the author of several important books on homosexuality, including Permanent Partners: Building Gay and Lesbian Relationships that Last (revised edition, 2004). In 1979 she edited Positively Gay: New Approaches to Gay and Lesbian Life, which she edited beginning in 1979 and which has remained in print ever since.

There were three new titles last week and three this week. Romance and mystery/suspense are still what most people are buying and reading these gray winter days and long cold nights.

At #1 is The Hostage by W.E.B. Griffin: the military investigates the murder of a diplomat and the kidnapping of his wife who has ties to the Iraq oil-for-food scandal.

At #6 is All Night Long by Jayne Ann Krentz (aka Quick, Amanda): the death of a friend leads a journalist back home to Northern California and an old cold case of murder.

Today (January 26) Paul Newman turns 81. He is a very notable contributor to film as both an actor and director and a personal favorite of mine. Here are some of my favorites:

The Sting (1973), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), The Color of Money (1986), and The Hudsucker Proxy (1994). He also directed Rachel, Rachel (1968), The Glass Menagerie (1987), and more.

Did I miss any??

Hilary Spurling, author of Matisse, the Master, captured the 2005 Whitbread Book of the Year after a hotly contested discussion among the judges. Even more surprising is that it was a children's, The New Policeman by Kate Thompson, which nearly took the much-sought-after literary prize.

The Whitbread Book of the Year is selected from the five finalists in the following categories:

Fiction
Ali Smith for The Accidental

This weekend is the 29th Ann Arbor Folk Festival at Hill Auditorium, an annual benefit for The Ark. This year's lineup includes The Robert Cray band, the Lyle Lovett Trio, Iris Dement, the Holmes Brothers, and Jonatha Brooke. Also included are top-notch regional acts, from Ann Arbor guitarist Bill Kirchen and Ypsilanti's Mady Kouyate, a Senegalese-born player of the kora, a 21-stringed harp, to 97-year-old Wade Mainer, a Flint native who taught Earl Scruggs the banjo.

For more information on performers, showtimes and tickets, check out The Ark's website.

Mes petits choux, you must know the divine Edith Piaf--she is very classique. But there is more: pour yourselves a nice cup of coffee, get a slice of gateau or another delight from the creperie, and imagine yourself in a Parisian Cafe with these compilations of French music. If perhaps you are more inclined to the contemporary, preferring the Pompidou to the Louvre, you might try One Step Forward or Princesses Nubiennes from duo Les Nubians. Last but not least, try Air, French Band.