94 Books Like Dandelion Cottage

This book appealed to me because of its strong central character, Helena, who’s carrying around a big secret. Let’s face it—we all have secrets. But most of our secrets are comparatively minor. Helena’s is anything but. Helena’s past is complicated, which makes the plot complicated, just the way I like plots, but the book is still easy enough to follow.

I was interested to see how Helena appreciated some aspects of her past life, even if most people would consider her present life much better. I kept wanting to know more about this imagined place in the U.P., which seemed so strange even though it’s not that far from St. Ignace or Sault Ste. Marie or even the Mackinaw Bridge. 

After I moved to the Upper Peninsula, I kept hearing about an event referred to as the Italian Hall Disaster in Calumet, Michigan, when over 70 people were killed, most of them children, in 1913.

This book features that event as part of its plot, but it really drew me in because I felt so sympathetic to its main character, Annie Clements. She cares about people, and she cares about justice, and I admired her from the start. I wanted her to succeed even as I sensed she probably would not. She’s one of the few characters I actually grieved for when I finished the book.

Who knew there had been P.O.W. camps in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula during World War II? Not me, at least not until I read this book. I was intrigued by these characters, mostly Italian soldiers, their American guards, and the local townspeople.

Some of these characters did exactly what I’d do in their circumstances, and some of them made choices that I can’t imagine making. That’s one of the things that makes reading fun for me—meeting characters who make me feel pretty normal and meeting others who make my jaw drop.  

I love the poems in this book, which are all about shipwrecks on the Great Lakes. I was drawn in by the writing itself, which is specific and imagistic. The author does a really good job of imagining the lives of people who worked on these ships.

One of the things I remember most is the description of the various cargoes—peaches, Christmas trees, logs—not to mention the description of a boiler that explodes and crashes through the roof of a funeral home during a funeral. I never realized there were so many ships at the bottom of these lakes. Even reading about such tragedies, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful Morgan’s writing is.

From the first sentence, “There’s a bullet in my chest…,” you know this story is going to be exciting. Set in the U.P. on the banks of Lake Superior, Paradise is a town with plenty of work for a newly-licensed private investigator. Hamilton’s protagonist is an ex-cop who barely escaped death, is dealing with PTSD, and just wants to live a quiet life chopping wood, having a beer at the pub, and on occasion getting a non-violent case to work. 

This author knows how to ramp up the action and keep the reader turning pages. He makes a well-worn mystery twist (a convicted murderer serving a life sentence appears to be killing people on the outside), seem brand-new and completely original.

I adore the wild, untamed island where this novel is set and the way the spirits of earth and water and forest make themselves known in eerie ways. Plus there’s the mysterious old house, Metsan Valo, the enigmatic caretaker, and his wife and the questions raised as to who (or what!) exactly they were. I’m also a total sucker for stories about characters who are faced with the challenge of accepting gifts and powers they didn’t know they had and aren’t sure they want to wield, so I was rooting for Anni. Plus there’s mystery and family drama and a touch of romance...so basically everything I love in a book is represented here.

The Lake Superior backdrop and surrounding area are so familiar from personal visits that it seemed like I was walking around in the book. I enjoyed the sense of place as much as the mystery. 

A young journalist struggling with the age-old problem of leaving his job at the office when he’s home with his family finds that the news stops for no man. He’s soon caught up in the mystery of why a native American woman came to town just to throw herself off a cliff over Lake Superior. Town politics, an elite family with enough power to squelch any gossip, and his own mother try to divert his attention from the story, but a newsman needs to know.

This is the first book I’ve read by William Kent Krueger, but it made me want to read the whole series. Set during a miserably cold winter in the northeast corner of Minnesota, a stone’s throw from Lake Superior, this mystery about a brutal murder and a missing native American boy will make you fear frostbite just from turning pages. 

Cork O’Connor is a complicated character in a seemingly downward spiral. Once the sheriff of this small town, he’s since lost his wife, his job, and is worried about losing his children. His mixed heritage of Irish and Ojibwe makes him see things a little differently than the new sheriff, but not having a badge won’t stop him from taking action when people he cares about are in danger.

I love how The Long Way Back peels the layers off the surface of social media. This story is another reminder that life is not all selfies near waterfalls—it can be full of difficult family dynamics, secrets, and a few plot-twists too.

The unique formatting of this book adds to the story’s atmosphere, because just like in today’s world, where a headline grabs our attention, the next part is usually a flood of Instagram posts on our newsfeeds about it, essays, interviews, and comment threads. In that sense, this book not only gives us a story, it gives us a world zeroing in on the thrilling events we’re reading about!

Full disclosure: I love Minnesota’s North Shore (of Lake Superior). I visit there often. It’s rugged and beautiful and passionate.

Peter Geye’s latest book is an epic set on Minnesota’s North Shore early in the last century. But it features two tortured souls. One who cannot let himself be known. The other who is making the best of her incredibly limited options. One of the two rises to become the human she was intended to be. The other suffers a fate by his own misstep. 

Also full disclosure: I took Peter Geye’s year-long novel writing class the first year it was offered (2018). He was a phenomenal teacher, and clearly, as he demonstrates with his latest book, he’s a phenomenal writer.

There is so much excellent writing in this book, you’ll be stunned by much of it. Give it a try; you won’t be sorry.