Reviews for Michigan Every Day

The average rating for Michigan Every Day based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-07-31 00:00:00 Josh Miller Let's see, what took longer; Robert Sullivan driving across the country from Oregon to NY City or me reading his book? It was me. Truthfully it wasn't always exciting to read. Reading about driving across the country probably has a lot in common with driving across the country; stretches of boredom; something to break boredom (in the case of this book that would mainly be the history of roads, driving and cross country trips in America starting with Lewis and Clark.) On the other hand, I could really relate. I love road trips myself; that anticipation and excitement to get going, the willingness to see what this trip will bring, how it will differ from plans and expectations, the happiness of sharing this with your children, the appreciation of the beauty of our country and our freedom to travel in it. Mr. Sullivan seemed kind of uptight at the beginning of the book, nervous, his jokes fell a little flat and sounded more like self-criticism than anything else. But he loosens up as he talks about history and he seems like a really nice guy when he talks about his family. His love of family and country come through loud and clear. I appreciated that he did a lot of research to write this book, I think he really wanted to teach his readers and I was interested in learning. Some of his philosophical thoughts near the end of the book: "On this bridge, in this daredevil-like moment of multilane over-the-river traffic, I can see that the modern American road is a common space where people share nothing. It is the thing that, while separating us, we all have in common" "When I wonder about the future of the interstates, of these things that cross and bind and rush-hour America in to a stupor of convenience and aggravation, and when I think of what seems so unlikely to change, I think again of how quickly things came to be--of the generations of my parents who saw the birth of the interstates, of the generation of their parents, who saw the birth of the car, of the generation of their parents, who rode the first railroads." In the afterword the author actually relaxes and says some truly funny things. It is an interview with Robert Sullivan and his two kids. Their performance of a song they sing on the road is really good.

Review # 2 was written on 2009-10-12 00:00:00 Donald Cline My Dad gave this book to me (and my sister) when we drove cross-country (from Providence to Santa Fe) in 2006. He had driven us cross-country as small children in the 50s, and thought this would be the perfect book for us to read while we travelled. I think we probably privately pooh-poohed the idea a bit, but travel can be tedious, and we did turn to the book, taking turns reading to each other as we took our respective stints behind the wheel. It turned out the book was a perfect traveling companion--we would read and then talk about it as we progressed across the country, and a couple of times there were serendipitous road encounters (like the time we discovered a piece of the pretty obscure Lincoln Highway, right after reading about it). On the surface, the book is a story about the author's trip with his family from west to east over a five day period. But he uses this structure to weave in the history of the cross-country highway system, the history of the car on the road, stories of other people who drove cross-country, a discussion of road-side coffee cups and hand-dryers in restrooms, and all kinds of other topics! Very well-written, very interesting, and a great read-aloud book. Thanks, Daddy, for knowing us so well! (When we got to Santa Fe, and my sister returned to the East Coast, I finished the book and then mailed it to her so she could finish. But we missed the intimacy of car-reading!)