A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Award

A landmark work of science, history and reporting on the past, present and imperiled future of the Great Lakes.

The Great Lakes—Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario and Superior—hold 20 percent of the world’s supply of surface fresh water and provide sustenance, work and recreation for tens of millions of Americans.

...

Katie Lapp's identity had been shattered the moment she found the satin baby dress in the attic of her parents Amish home. Painfully torn from her close-knit community in the frightening ordeal called the shunning, Katie - now Katherine Mayfield - sets out to find the ailing birth mother she has never known. Her journey takes her to the peaceful home of Lydia Miller, where electric lights and telephones sets Katherine's mind whirling with "fancy"...

"It's spring on Washington Island. Despite her concerns about Roger's desire to bartend, Elisabeth is eager to plan a grand opening for their newly remodeled hotel, but she quickly realizes that she may also need to make accommodations for Roger's proposed goat yoga classes. Bored and lonely, Oliver Robert joins bartender Eddie in forming a great books club at Nelsen's, and Emily Martin, determined to make her mark on the community, forms a new Committee...

"When a community of Anishinabe people, with their natural resources dwindling, needs to find a new home, Evan Whitesky leads a dangerous mission back to their ancestral home in the Great Lakes region, during which they encounter other survivors, some who thrive on violence"--

"As the new Chairman of the Town Board, Fiona Campbell finds that life has become a series of petty squabbles, dull meetings, and papers everywhere, all complicated by her guardianship of the as yet unidentified screaming goat. In desperation, she hires an unknown newcomer, the compulsively orderly Oliver Robert, to run her office and keep her organized. Roger's fame as an idiosyncratic yoga practitioner continues to spread, and he and Elisabeth are...

"Since the first rustic vacation retreat for hunters and fishermen was built in 1871, Okoboji and the Great Iowa Lakes have been a drawing card for families, generation after genration. Over the decades, dozens of vacation resorts, from the magnificent Hotel Orleans on Big Spirit Lake to the iconic Inn on West Okoboji, have lured happy summertime visitors. Just mentioning the name of a resort often evokes memories of swimming, boating, fishing, waterskiing,...

This book looks at the world's rivers and lakes and how animals and plants have adapted to live in and around fresh water..