The Two Books Two Communities program, a partnership between Northern Michigan University and the Marquette and Alger County communities, has chosen The Women of the Copper Country and To the Copper Country as the books for the 2020 community read.
The Women of the Copper Country by Mary Doria Russell is a historical novel about “America's Joan of Arc” based on Calumet's Anna "Big Annie" Clemenc, the courageous woman who started a rebellion by leading a 1913 strike against the largest copper mining company in the world, which ended in tragedy. The publisher describes it as “an authentic and moving historical portrait of the lives of the men and women of the early 20th century labor movement, and of a turbulent, violent political landscape that may feel startlingly relevant to today.”
Doria Russell is a bestselling and award-winning author. The committee previously hosted her in 2010, speaking on her book The Sparrow.
To the Copper Country by Barbara Carney-Coston is a young readers book (K-5) about 11-year-old Mihaela and her family, who embark on a journey from Croatia to the Keweenaw Peninsula in 1886 to join her father, who works in the copper mines but suffers from a painful eye disease. Mihaela and her mother, an expert plant-based healer, work to save his eyesight and support the boarders in their new home. The book won the 2017 Midwest Book Award for children's fiction and 2018 State History Award.
Author presentations and programming details will be announced in the fall and updated here.
