HILTON EVERETT MOORE is a published short story author who lives and writes at his remote cabin in the near wilderness of Baraga County in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He has held many positions in his life including: a stint as a kennel man for a Humane Society, a factory worker, later as a certified pipe welder in the oil fields of West Texas, and also as an assistant manager of a lumber company. Ironically in a chapter he would like to forget, a gut-wrenching failed attempt at owning a restaurant. After a midlife crisis he went back to college and received a Master’s Degree in Social Work. Upon graduation, he was employed in the Michigan prison system as a Clinical Social Worker. Presently he enjoys writing in his cabin in the wilderness. He likes to fish with worms..

The short stories, such as “A Shotgun Wedding", in North of Nelson are relatable to anyone. In this chapter, a woman felt forced to get married because of pregnancy and then found out she was not happy with the result. Many people have struggled when it came to pets and they were presented with problems that were not easily solved which was described in the chapter called “A Dog Named Bunny.” And the situation described in “The Irascible Pedagogue” is equally relatable. If only the protagonist had asked her to dance with him instead of getting cold feet, things would have turned out so much differently. That story reminded me of the movie My Best Friend’s Wedding with Julia Roberts. Julia’s character did a whole host of things to win back her friend and take him from the person he was going to marry.

I recommend this book because of the stories filled with touching moments about real-life situations and how the characters struggled to overcome their life challenges. Sometimes a problem took on a whole new life of its own without any solution. Moore provided the reader with the ramifications of many of the hardships the characters in his stories faced. I wanted to find out what was going to happen to the well-developed characters, individuals who resembled people I have met throughout my life. Moore brought to life the pain Nimkii experienced as a Native American woman and the pain of loneliness for a boy while he dealt with polio. I highly recommend North of Nelson, Vol. 1 if you want to learn more about life during The Depression, about life at the Baraga orphanage, and other experiences from the past concerning the characters from Moore’s book who lived in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  -- read the full review by Sharon Brunner, U.P. Book Review