A Selection of Michigan
& Metro-Detroit Authored Books 2025
We were pleased to have hosted many local authors this year who have written and published outstanding books. You can help support our neighborhood author heroes, support reading, and uplift Michigan culture by purchasing their books. Links to books go to either our store website or our affiliate page at Bookshop.org. Sorry if you find a favorite book not listed. We tried to post as many authors that we did events for and others who we admired but still we couldn’t get to them all.
In September Kristen Remenar and Matt Faulkner stopped at Book Beat to present their book collaboration: Owl’s Fall Feast Fiasco a perfect picturebook for Thanksgiving giving! Signed copies are available instore or online at our Backroom gallery.
In October Ann Arbor artist and author Tracy Gallup signed her latest picturebook: My First Book of Zen alongside Dr. Barrett Klein who gave an entertaining presentation of his debut book Insect Epiphony. Signed copies of both are available instore and online. Watch Tracy Gallup’s Storytime Video on Haiku for the Asia Store on her earlier book: My First Book of Haiku .
Queen of Romance Beverly Jenkins led a wonderful discussion this fall with fans on her new title in the Blessing series: Calling All Blessings. Just a few signed copies of the paperback first edition are still available in-store only.
At Home in a Faraway Place is author/illustrator and Newbery Medalist Lynne Rae Perkins latest book for middle school readers. The New York Journal of Books called this, “An enriching, inspiring, and well-crafted story for young readers. It blends adventure, friendship, courage, and the transformative power of travel into a bilingual package.”
Starlight and Moonshine is a first novel by Joseph O’Malley. In a starred review Publisher’s Weekly wrote,”In O’Malley’s brilliant debut, a wife and mother’s death after driving drunk shatters her family’s placid surface in 1980 Detroit, laying bare their personality ticks and the rifts that formed over their lifetimes. O’Malley toggles between the perspectives of each family member, shining light on what they know about one another and themselves while also illuminating their blind spots. It’s an exemplary domestic drama.”
Halloween was celebrated with an author panel at Book Beat featuring four local authors who read from their books and went into a passionate discussion on the current rise of the horror novel in popular culture. Monique Asher’s second novel The Red Knot is an atmospheric blend of occult mystery and small-town horror. Josh Malerman’s (we’ve lost count…) Watching the Evil Dead is an inspirational and delightful non-fiction romp into his personal quest at finding the right balance to make writing the creative focus of his life. David Levin and Andrew Charles Lark both wrote short and ingenious Halloween stories in the Twilight Zoned-out collection The Devil’s Quill.
In March we hosted a signing for Cheryl Neely and her incredible and gripping book on the police investigations of murdered Black women. The rape and murder of a young girlfriend of Neely’s in northwest Detroit set the course for her life’s work in Sociology and Criminology and that shocking incident became the first chapter of her book. No Human Involved is the result of Neely’s lifetime work as an activist for victim rights. A starred Publisher’s Weekly review called No Human Involved, “A vital, infuriating addition to the literature on racial prejudice in US law enforcement.” Signed copies are available instore.
SS City of Detroit III, 1917
Bruce Allen Kopytek author of the gigantic 548 page Hudson’s: Detroit World Famous Department Store has done it again! His new book that just arrived is: The D & C Lake Lines and the Fabulous Luxury Liners of the Great Lakes another doorstopper that looks back at a glittering world of steam, speed, and luxury that has all but disappeared from our lakes and rivers today — and along the way, enjoy a greater understanding of these forgotten wonders of our maritime heritage.
Rebecca Mix and Andrea Hanna co-authored the acclaimed locked-room mystery I Killed the King. School Library Journal wrote: “Mix and Hannah play with dramatic irony and suspense, tipping tropes on their heads and subverting reader expectations while delivering a fun mystery that cleverly acts on the worldbuilding, ensuring most exposition moves the plot forward.”
Angeline Boulley is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She has won numerous awards and is the author of the New York Times #1 bestseller Firekeeper’s Daughter. Her new book: Sister’s of the Wind is a daring new mystery about a foster teen claiming her heritage on her own terms. “A shocking, urgent YA thriller that centers Native voices and cultural identity as it reveals the failures of the foster-care system…Through Lucy’s fierce, astute narration, Boulley effortlessly unpacks themes of survival, belonging, and intergenerational trauma, all framed by an engrossing mystery. A powerful testament to restoring one’s heritage.”–Shelf Awareness, starred review. Signed copies are available both in store and online.
Ruth Behar is the Pura Belpré Award-winning author of Lucky Broken Girl, Letters from Cuba, and Across So Many Seas that was a Newbery Honor and Sydney Taylor Honor Winner for 2025. She was the first Latina to win a MacArthur “Genius” Grant, and other honors include a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and being named a “Great Immigrant” by the Carnegie Corporation. An anthropology professor at the University of Michigan, she lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
In a starred review Publisher’s Weekly wrote, “Behar delivers a moving tale about four generations of a Sephardic Jewish family navigating cultural and societal upheaval from 1492 to 2003. . . . Divided into four parts, this enlightening read depicts one family’s determination to embrace and preserve her Jewish identity and offers glimpses into the long history of Jews in Spain. Behar crafts each included era with painstaking period detail and lush language, delivering a stunning portrayal of immigration and Jewish culture and religion that expounds upon the importance of remaining true to oneself, explores themes of prejudice and racism, and exposes the harm that bigotry can inflict on both individuals and society.”
Double authors Amanda & Frank Uhle at Book Beat
Amanda Uhle is the publisher and director of the great McSweeney’s one of our favorite non-profit small presses. Uhle presented her memoir Destroy This House at the Huntington Woods Library where it seemed that everyone in the audience had already read it in book groups. Joining her was husband Frank Uhle author of the o.g. classic of underground film: Ann Arbor Cinema. Signed copies of both books are available in store and online.
Mitch Albom’s latest #1 bestseller is Twice, a stunning love story that dares to explore how our unchecked desires might mean losing what we’ve had all along. “In addition to Albom’s legions, fans of Matt Haig and Nikki Erlick should pick up Twice too. Albom’s heartfelt novels have sold in the tens of millions, and his fans will devour this one too.” – Booklist (starred review)
Fear, Fortitude, and the Future by Lori Goldman and Cindi Cook is a book about fear, power, and accomplishment, and gaining the grit and gumption it takes to overcome obstacles and get where you want to be. “Moving women out into the world-—and pushing them forward with purpose and with power has been my goal ever since that chilly day in 2016 when I started Fems for Dems. It’s a book that will inspire women to get a firm footing, wherever they may land.” —Lori Goldman
Remarkable Women of Oakland County by local author Christine Blackwell tells the stories and history of women who have excelled in business, education, the arts, philanthropy, broke barriers, improved their communities and increased opportunities for future generations.
Kristen L. Berry is the Bestselling author of We Don’t Talk About Carol. A dedicated journalist unearths a generations-old family secret—and a connection to a string of missing girls that hits way too close to home—in this “nail-biting debut thriller.” –Booklist. Publisher Weekly named it a Best Book of the Year.
Hardcore Agatha Christie fans will adore and celebrate this debut mystery series set in the 1930s by Colleen Cambridge. Library Journal wrote, Two Truths and a Murder “Balances Downton Abbey–style period charm with a tight plot that twists and turns right until the end, with utter believability… Reminiscent of Jessica Ellicott’s ‘Beryl & Edwina’ series, this novel will please readers with its historical world and a plot that would satisfy Poirot.”
Diane Freeman write an award winning series of historical mysteries set in France. Her latest mystery A Daughter’s Guide to Mothers and Murder “is excellently done with twists, turns, and red herrings galore. While we are all down a rabbit hole with several clues, another murder happens. Can that one be related to the first murder? More suspects, more clues, and Frances and George have to unravel it all – and they do it with a surprising ending.”- Flipping Pages “Fans of witty, lighthearted Victorian mysteries will be enthralled.”–Publisher’s Weekly, starred review.
Cary Loren has a new artist book! 200 Monsters is a 168 page miniature (3″x4″) book printed in flashy neon pantone colors of his collages and their details made from 1975-2025. Recently published by Carnalito Press of Zürich, Switzerland in a limited edition, the book is available in store and online.