August 2009 - Vol 4, Issue 1
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Whether you need a book for a vacation or just for lazing on the porch, there's a lot to choose from this summer. We've got good tips in this latest newsletter. Come into Magers & Quinn Booksellers for more staff suggestions.


August marks the store's fifteenth anniversary. Magers & Quinn's longevity and success are truly remarkable. The same family that started the store in 1994 remains at the helm today and are fully engaged in the management and work of the store. Magers & Quinn is a true family-owned, independent business, with a great staff of dedicated book lovers. They have seen the bookstore grow from a small operation--books were laid on tables--into the Twin Cities' largest independent bookstore.

Magers & Quinn opened for business during the Uptown Art Fair in 1994. The first opening nights were exciting, as people thronged the store shopping for good art books. Not long afterward, work began to expand the retail space into the back portion of the building, called the Bryant Building, which was built in 1922 and originally housed a Chevrolet dealership.

To say "thank you" to the community, and to celebrate fifteen great years of connecting books and book lovers, Magers & Quinn is hosting a birthday party--Friday, August 28, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. Mingle with Twin Cities authors, publishers and booksellers. Music by M+Q staff, including members of Dreamland Faces, Self-Evident, Cloud Cult, the Wapsipinicon and Invisible North. All are welcome. This event is free and open to the public. Please join us!
For the last couple of years, Magers & Quinn has partnered with the Northside Adult Basic Education and their Northside Book Club. This year eighty-five people in the four Transitions/ABE/GED classes participated in the Book Club. Students received their own copies of Listening Is an Act of Love , edited by Dave Isay. Students, staff, and guests, including M&Q staff, had a great time discussing the book. You can see a slideshow of the event here.

We also donated children's books to help start a hospital library for children in El Salvador. Erin Lough, who travels there doing Medical work through Princeton in Latin America brought the project to our attention. PiLA is always looking for additional support. You can donate medical supplies such as Imodium, aspirin, rehydration salts, antibiotic cream (such as bacitracin), and Clotrimazole cream (or other antifungal cream). Or you can make a cash donation to PiLA here.

Thank you to our generous community and all of the great work you do!
In the store: $21.59
Online: $18.00 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $24.00
Available Now
Dave Eggers, author of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, turns his hand to nonfiction with his most recent book Zeitoun. It's the gripping story of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, who stayed in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. He canoed around his neighborhood, rescuing the stranded and delivering water to the thirsty. For his troubles, he was arrested, held incommunicado for three weeks, and finally released without explanation or apology.

Dave Eggers tracked down not only Abdulrahman Zeitoun, but also the officers who arrested and held him. Together their stories are a remarkable portrait of New Orleans in a time of crisis. The book is also a fundraiser. The Wall Street Journal reports, "The Zeitoun Foundation, founded by Mr. Eggers, McSweeney's and the Zeitoun family, will distribute funds from the new book to religious charities and nonprofits dedicated to rebuilding New Orleans and a group that provides legal aid to people who have been wrongfully convicted. The Zeitoun family will keep a portion of the proceeds to set up a college trust for their children; Mr. Eggers said he will receive no profit from the book."

Want to learn more? You can read an excerpt of Zeitoun here. Then come in get your own copy.
The Big Bang Book Club is a science book club for non-scientists. It's co-sponsored by Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Secrets of the City, and Grumpy's Bar & Grill. We meet at Grumpy's Downtown 1111 Washington Avenue South, in Minneapolis, on the fourth Tuesday of every month.

In the store: $14.35
Online: $11.99 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $15.35
Available Now
August's selection is The Black Hole War: My Battle With Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics. The book describes the author's professional battles with Stephen Hawking over theories about black holes, a conflict that has significantly influenced the scientific community's understanding of the universe's fundamental laws.

Grab a copy of My Stroke of Insight and head downtown for an evening of scientific inquiry and beer. We'll save you a seat.

The Big Bang Book Club is a monthly book club for non-scientists that relishes in folding arts and science into a heady brew. This event is sponsored by Magers & Quinn Booksellers; the Center for Science, Technology, and Public Policy; Secrets of the City; and Grumpy's.
The summer is bursting with great events. We hope you can attend one of these readings. You won't be disappointed.

June's Events
Visit our events page

for full details.


Aug 16 Mark Seive (Call Me Snot) 7:00pm

Aug 17 Julie Kramer (Missing Mark) 6:30pm at Beaujo's 4950 France Avenue S, Edina

Aug 17 Winners of the recent miniStories contest will read their flash fiction, 7:00pm at the Ritz Theater, 345 Thirteenth Ave NE, Minneapolis

Aug 19 Magers & Quinn Booksellers and Granta Magazine present a night of literary laughs and lectures at the Soap Factory--7:00pm to 10:30pm, at the Soap Factory, 518 2nd St. SE, Minneapolis

Aug 25 The Big Bang Book Club discusses The Black Hole War: My Battle With Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics, 7:00pm at Grumpy's Bar & Grill, 1111 Washington Ave S, Minneapolis

Aug 27 Mahmoud El-Kati (The Hiptionary: A Survey of African American Speech Patterns with a Digest of Key Words and Phrases) 7:30pm

Aug 28 M&Q's fifteenth birthday party, 6:00pm

Sept 2 Terry Hitchcock (A Father's Odyssey: 75 Marathons in 75 Days) 7:30pm

Sept 3 Norah Labiner (German for Travelers) 7:30pm

All events are at Magers & Quinn unless noted otherwise.
Sunday, August 16, 7:00pm--Mark Sieve--Puke of Renaissance Fair Fame--discusses his memoir Call Me Puke

In the Store: $14.95
Online: $14.95 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $14.95
Available Now
With wit and energy Mark Sieve, co-founder of Puke & Snot, the longest-running comedy duo in the country, weaves choice tidbits about his remarkable partnership with Joe Kudla against the backdrop of his early life in a small Minnesota town and his emerging career as an actor. A supremely affectionate book, Call Me Puke, finally puts to rest his mother's oft-stated and greatest fear: "I hope I die before I find out my kids are stupid."

What happens when a Minnesota farm boy with an arm of gold becomes a star athlete in college and is offered a contract to play professional baseball? Fate intervenes, Sieve walks away from the sport, and a chance meeting in a pub sets him on a new, often hilarious, three-decade long comedy career. But along with hilarity comes heartache. Faced with the sudden death of his sidekick in 2008, will the show go on? Mark Sieve's life story is as fascinating as his performances are side-splitting.

Wednesday, August 19, 7:00pm at The Soap Factory, 518 2nd St. SE, Minneapolis--Magers & Quinn Booksellers and Granta magazine present a night of literary laughs and lectures

Be a part of the Soap Factory exhibit Common Room as we celebrate the release of issue # 107 of NY/LONDON based literary journal, Granta magazine. This mid-summer issue features new writing from William T. Vollman, Kenzaburo Oe, Lionel Shriver and Mary Gaitskill. Magers and Quinn's Jay D. Peterson and Granta's Emily Cook will curate a variety of events, including a lecture on the topic of literary hoaxes, slide shows, 5-minute book reports, writing exercises and other literary fun and/or games. Special guests will include Eric Hanson. Hanson's illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Believer, Rolling Stone, and other publications. His fiction has appeared in McSweeney's.Others guests include Alison McGhee, Brad Zellar, Miranda Trimmier.

This event is part of Common Room--a temporary gathering space within The Soap Factory designed to facilitate interactivity and the blurring of the boundaries between curators, performers and audience, all within in a casual, living room-esque environment.

Sunday, August 23, 5:00pm--Magers & Quinn Booksellers and Letoile Magazine present a book release party for The Sartorialist

In the store: $22.45
Online: $18.75 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $25.00
Available August 12
Come celebrate the publication of blogger/photographer Scott Schuman's new book, The Sartorialist, at Magers & Quinn Booksellers. Featuring men's and women's street fashion from around the globe, The Sartorialist's blog has become one of the world's best sources for fashion inspiration.

Magers & Quinn brings you another untraditional book event. Have your photo taken in front of M&Q's towering wall of art books, nibble on Japanese street food from Moto-I and mingle with fashion writers, editors and photographers from local media. Accessories and styling provided by Blacklist Vintage. Fashion photography Digital Crush.

The event is co-sponsored by Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Letoile Magazine, secretsofthecity.com, and Blacklist Vintage.

Information on all our readings is always on our events page. Check it out any time.
A Japanese paper company and a publisher have teamed up to produce a novella printed on toilet paper. Drop is a horror story about a goblin who lives in, you guessed it, a public restroom. Each roll has multiple copies of the novella, so you don't have to finish it in one sitting. (Thanks to the NYT's "Moment" blog for the tip.)

You can find more stories from the literary world every day at blog.magersandquinn.com.
In the store: $13.45
Online: $11.21 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $14.95
Available Now
The next meeting of the Twin Cities' most unusual and interesting book club is Tuesday, September 8, 6:30pm, at Bryant-Lake Bowl, 810 W Lake Street, Minneapolis. Doors open at 6:00pm; the discussion begins at 7:00pm.

September's book is The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy. The novel tells the adventures of an American in 1950s Paris, determined to live life"I had to tell someone how much I enjoyed The Dud Avocado. It made me laugh, scream, and guffaw (which, incidentally, is a great name for a law firm)." --Groucho Marx

Books & Bars is not your typical book club. We provide a unique atmosphere for a lively discussion of interesting authors, fun people, good food and drinks. You're welcome even if you haven't read the book.

Visit booksandbars.com for details and to talk to fellow members!

Magers & Quinn is the largest independent bookstore in the Twin Cities. Stop in today or check our inventory on our website any time.

We'll be back soon with all the latest books for July.

Until then,
David Enyeart
Magers and Quinn Booksellers

Call us: 612/822-4611
Or visit our website: http://www.magersandquinn.com
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