Some stayed only a short time, others made interesting and often challenging lives. Their stories, collected by Grand Valley State University Professor Victoria Brehm in The Women's Great Lakes Reader, reveal a wide range of voices and experiences, from the poetry and travelogues to letters and diary entries about life in mining camps and homesteads around the shores of these vast bodies of water.
    Among several dozen chapters are the polished words of novelist Constance Fenimore Wilson, who committed suicide at age 54, after becoming a popular and successful author. Weaving narrative into rich and vivid scenic detail, Wilson puts herself in the shoes of Roxana, who follows her husband into the west.
    Brehm also includes brief but fascinating Chippewa tales penned in English by Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, daughter of a fur trader and a Native American woman who married explorer Henry Schoolcraft.
    Written from 1789 to present day, each of the stories in this collection holds a unique place in women's history. Best of all, The Women's Great Lakes Reader reflects a diversity of women's voices and reinforces the timeless notion that no one voice speaks for us all.

Listed on the State of Michigan's web site as one of "50 Essential Michigan History Books," The Women's Great Lakes Reader is published by Ladyslipper Press and can be ordered through Amazon.com