THE ULTIMATE ILLINOIS BUCKET LIST BOOK!

The Ultimate Illinois bucket list book

It’s my pleasure to announce my fifth book; part of Reedy Press’ nationwide line of bucket list books. Why a bucket list? It’s about setting priorities. What to do with a free day, weekend, or even a week? This book sparks ideas for places to…eat, float, ride, play, wander, and stay in places you may never have thought existed. Note that many of the items included are FREE or minimal cost.

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The Story of A Man, A Family, a Generation, AND a Science Not Well Understood

It’s an honor to have written the biography of David Johnston, who hailed from Oak Lawn, Illinois, and found his way to volcanoes when the science was about to explode with knowledge. David was a young volcanologist when Mount St. Helens ended its 123-year dormant period in 1980. When the volcano blew, he was on a ridge northwest of the mountain’s summit and was killed. This book tells the story of the Illinois boy who heard sonic booms at 14 (daily reminders of the Cold War), and at 15, saw Vietnam in his future. The world has heard of Dr. Johnston the scientist, but few have heard about the 30 years that came first. Unsung heroes walk among us each day. David was one of many heroes in spring 1980. And he was one of 57 who died as a result of the eruption. University of Illinois Press, with its stellar peer review process, was the best publisher for this book, which comes highly recommended by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, plus recommended by the American Library Association’s Choice Reviews. If you've visited Mount St. Helens, you've likely stood at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, named for David. The book is available in paperback, E-book, plus new in 2024, it is an audiobook (narrated by Jeff Renner, who was there in 1980, and wrote the Foreword). AND NEW FOR 2025 - in Washington State’s Talking Books & Braille Library (TBBL), the book is being made into braille.

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My first book is out of print as of June 2025. The Female Assumption: A Mother's Story, Freeing Women from the View that Motherhood is a Mandate--which won a 2014 Global Media Award from the Population Institute in Washington DC--focuses on the words we use to describe womanhood. Not all women are able to achieve motherhood; some don’t want it. This book holds the voices of 200 women, nationwide, those with and without children, whom I polled and interviewed in 2013. Are you listening to the women in your life? Or do you just assume to know? Thank you for caring to know the difference.  

Photo taken at the Award Ceremony of the Population Institute, Washington DC, Jan. 2015. The Institute’s president at that time was Bob Walker (RIP 2024).

Released in 2020: Manteno/Images of America

Released Feb. 10, 2020, this book is meant to teach. It tells of the Potawatomi who dwelled in the area before fur traders and settlers. In the words of Professor Emeritus of Sociology & Community Studies (Governors State University) Larry McClellan, this book is “uniquely Manteno’s story, but also representative of the broad sweep of similar communities.” Some of Manteno’s stories have never been told; others forgotten. A woman who campaigned for married women’s rights began her fight here. In 1930, the first patients arrived at the newly built state hospital on the town’s eastern fringe. A parochial boarding school brought French nuns to the town, as well as boarders from Chicago and elsewhere — boarders who were of a broad array of ethnicities. A community hospital was built by Korean immigrants, named for a woman whose missionary work in Korea was nothing short of heroic. Arcadia Publishing offers 2 lengths for their books: 128-pages and 160-pages. Holmes needed 160 pages to do this town justice. To purchase, you can click the image of the book above and you’ll be brought to Arcadia’s catalog. It is also available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

In the words of Professor Emeritus of Sociology & Community Studies (Governors State University) Larry McClellan, this book is “uniquely Manteno’s story, but also representative of the broad sweep of similar communities.” Some of Manteno’s stories have never been told; others forgotten. A woman who campaigned for married women’s rights began her fight here. In 1930, the first patients arrived at the newly built state hospital on the town’s eastern fringe. A parochial boarding school brought French nuns to the town, as well as boarders from Chicago and elsewhere — boarders who were of a broad array of ethnicities. A community hospital was built by Korean immigrants, named for a woman whose missionary work in Korea was nothing short of heroic.

Arcadia Publishing offers 2 lengths for their books: 128-pages and 160-pages. Holmes needed 160 pages to do this town justice. To purchase, you can click the image of the book above and you’ll be brought to Arcadia’s catalog. It is also available at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.

Released in 2021: The Secret Life of Postcards

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Limited release in Feb. 2022. This book is available only from the Kankakee County Museum gift shop (call 815-932-5279), or from the author (send an email request).

Postcards were once a popular and important form of communication, much like the cell phone text of the 21st century, but with beauty, art, and symbolism. Upon researching her maternal grandmother’s large vintage postcard collection (1906 - 1930s), Holmes connected the dots on the history of not just a family but of a generation/culture.