Scoop: Notes from a Small Ice Cream Shop
Scoop: Notes from a Small Ice Cream Shop
by Jeff Miller
Minnesota Historical Society Press • ISBN: 978-0-87351-943-4 • $17.95 Softcover
When a lawyer and an executive with successful, world-spanning careers decide to move from London, England, where would you expect them to relocate? Well, Hayward, Wisconsin, of course.
Jeff Miller and his partner, Dean, bought West’s Hayward Dairy and Ice Cream Shop, thus acquiring a building in desperate need of remodeling, an old vehicle, old equipment and an old employee, who dispenses wisdom while he avoids dispensing their ice cream.
Jeff’s wit makes every chapter fly without being sarcastic or mean. I laughed out loud because it rang true; I’ve met these same characters in the small towns where I’ve lived.
Reminiscent of Bill Bryson’s, Jeff’s storytelling holds you beginning to end. You get a ride back in time to small-town America and are left with a desire for a scoop of the dairy’s “Almost Sinful” ice cream. – Mike Link
Yankee Yooper
Yankee Yooper on the Keweenaw
by Phillip J. Howard Jr., M.D.
Xlibris • ISBN: 978-1-49318-789-8 • $17.99 Softcover
When urologist Dr. “Jay” Howard answers the call for temporary medical help in the Upper Peninsula, he feels like he’s discovered a whole new land … and really he has.
His obvious warmth toward the U.P.’s people and landscapes comes through in this combination of memoir, medical dialogue and travelogue. Naturally curious, he sets out to learn about this new shore.
It’s refreshing to see how exotic we can be and what this good doctor from Massachusetts notices, such as local honesty and caring. (He also reveals where to get the best Reuben in the U.P.) As on any journey, not every detail is right, but this fun read is for those who live by the Big Lake and those who really should. – Konnie LeMay
The books reviewed here should be available at local booksellers by using the ISBN number.