September 2011 - Vol 6, Issue 2
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The approaching fall means it's time to stock up on books. Whether you're looking for a sweet new cookbook or a hot crime novel, this month's M&Q newsletter is chock full of recommendations.

In this month's newsletter:

  • Cookbook recommendations from Lucia Watson
  • The Twin Cities Literary Punch Card
  • Minneapolis gets a city-wide book club
...and much, much more. Read on.

M&Q is packed full of the fall's best new books. Here are several we especially like.

Bogeywoman by Jaimy Gordon

In the store: $13.50
Online: $11.25 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $15.00
Available September 6
National Book Award Winner Jaimy Gordon's bold and daring coming of age novel combines the teenaged angst of Catcher in the Rye with the humor and tragedy of Girl, Interrupted.

Ursie Koderer knows herself to be a monster--doomed to be different from other girls--very different. When she's discovered cutting herself at camp, she goes AWOL, and lands in a Baltimore psychiatric hospital. Ursie, now known as the Bogeywoman, joins up with the other misfits on the adolescent ward. They start a bughouse rock group, steal a nitrous oxide machine. As a mental patient Ursie is a success. But then she's implicated in the accidental burning of a friend. Locked away, the Bogeywoman meets the beautiful, mysterious Doctor Zuk, a woman psychiatrist from somewhere east of the Urals. Their affair is the main event in this gorgeous novel of love, crime, liberation, and flight to something like a new world.


All Our Worldly Goods by Irene Nemirovsky

In the store: $13.45
Online: $11.21 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $14.95
Available September 6
"Extraordinary."--A.S. Byatt, The Guardian

In haunting ways, this gorgeous novel prefigures Ir�ne N�mirovsky's masterpiece Suite Fran�aise. Set in France between 1910 and 1940 and first published in France in 1947, five years after the author's death, All Our Worldly Goods is a gripping story of war, family life and star-crossed lovers. Pierre and Agnes marry for love against the wishes of his parents and his grandfather, the tyrannical family patriarch. Their marriage provokes a family feud that cascades down the generations. This brilliant novel is full of drama, heartbreak, and the telling observations that have made N�mirovsky's work so beloved and admired.


That Used to Be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can Come Back by Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum

In the store: $25.20
Online: $21.00 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $28.00
Available September 6
America has a huge problem. It faces four major challenges, on which its future depends, and it is failing to meet them. In That Used to Be Us, Thomas L. Friedman, one of our most influential columnists, and Michael Mandelbaum, one of our leading foreign policy thinkers, analyze those challenges--globalization, the revolution in information technology, the nation's chronic deficits, and its pattern of energy consumption--and spell out what we need to do now to rediscover America and rise to this moment.

Friedman and Mandelbaum explain how the end of the cold war blinded the nation to the need to address these issues. They show how our history, when properly understood, provides the key to addressing them, and explain how the paralysis of our political system and the erosion of key American values have made it impossible for us to carry out the policies the country needs. They offer a way out of the trap into which the country has fallen, which includes the rediscovery of some of our most valuable traditions and the creation of a new, third-party movement. That Used to Be Us is both a searching exploration of the American condition today and a rousing manifesto for American renewal.


Wonderstruck by Brian Selznick

In the store: $27.00
Online: $22.49 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $30.00
Available September 13
The author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret once again sails into uncharted territory and takes readers on an awe-inspiring journey.

Ben and Rose secretly wish their lives were different. Ben longs for the father he has never known. Rose dreams of a mysterious actress whose life she chronicles in a scrapbook. When Ben discovers a puzzling clue in his mother's room and Rose reads an enticing headline in the newspaper, both children set out alone on desperate quests to find what they are missing.

Set fifty years apart, these two independent stories--Ben's told in words, Rose's in pictures--weave back and forth with mesmerizing symmetry. How they unfold and ultimately intertwine will surprise you, challenge you, and leave you breathless with wonder. Rich, complex, affecting, and beautiful--with over 460 pages of original artwork--Wonderstruck is a stunning achievement from a uniquely gifted artist and visionary.


Reamde by Neil Stephenson

In the store: $31.50
Online: $26.25 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $35.00
Available September 21
"Electrifying . . . hilarious...a picaresque novel about code making and code breaking, set both during World War II and during the present day."--New York Times Book Review

"A hell of a read."--Wired

Neal Stephenson, author of the bestseller Anathem, returns to the terrain of his groundbreaking novels Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, and Cryptonomicon to deliver a high-intensity, high-stakes, action-packed adventure thriller in which a tech entrepreneur gets caught in the very real crossfire of his own online war game.

In 1972, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa farming clan, fled to the mountains of British Columbia to avoid the draft. A skilled hunting guide, he eventually amassed a fortune by smuggling marijuana across the border between Canada and Idaho. As the years passed, Richard went straight and returned to the States after the U.S. government granted amnesty to draft dodgers. He parlayed his wealth into an empire and developed a remote resort in which he lives. He also created T'Rain, a multibillion-dollar, massively multiplayer online role-playing game with millions of fans around the world.

But T'Rain's success has also made it a target. Hackers have struck gold by unleashing REAMDE, a virus that encrypts all of a player's electronic files and holds them for ransom. They have also unwittingly triggered a deadly war beyond the boundaries of the game's virtual universe--and Richard is at ground zero.

Racing around the globe from the Pacific Northwest to China to the wilds of northern Idaho and points in between, Reamde is a swift-paced thriller that traverses worlds virtual and real. Filled with unexpected twists and turns in which unforgettable villains and unlikely heroes face off in a battle for survival, it is a brilliant refraction of the twenty-first century, from the global war on terror to social media, computer hackers to mobsters, entrepreneurs to religious fundamentalists. Above all, Reamde is an enthralling human story-an entertaining and epic page-turner.



Stop in today for more recommendations. We're always happy to help you find the perfect book.

If it weren't for a steady diet of tea, coffee, soups, salads, sandwiches (and cookies!) from Lucia's To Go, just around the corner from our store, we here at Magers & Quinn would have a difficult time doing much of anything. We asked Lucia Watson herself to recommend a handful of her favorite cookbooks. Here's what she had to say.

M&Q:How long have you been in business? And why?
LW:: "26 years!!! For 26 years, Lucia's has been creating weekly menus, selecting delicious wines and greeting our wonderful customers! Our Restaurant, Wine Bar, and Lucia's To Go are inspired by high quality local foods, exceptional cooking, and genuine hospitality. The seasonal, nourishing, and cultural properties of cooking continue to be our passion.

  1. Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi "My newest love is a book called Plenty by London-based chef Yotam Ottolenghi. It's just vegetables. So inspiring and so beautiful!"
  2. Simple French Cooking by Richard Olney "To me, this is the authentic hands on book that describes how to cook the way the French do. I just love this book. I go back to it over and over..."
  3. Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland by Lucia Watson and Beth Dooley "Can I say my own book? It is true that it is the one I turn to always for the basics of how I like to cook: seasonal foods, roasted chicken, soups, etc."
"Other books I love and refer to frequently are Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller, The River Cafe Books by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers and all of Deborah Madison's books ."

M&Q is full of good cookbooks. Come by today to find the right one for you.



Three local bookstores (Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Common Good Books, and Micawbers), three local publishers (Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions, and Coffee House Press), one literary journal (Rain Taxi Review of Books), and the Loft Literary Center have joined forces to offer the TCLPC. Attendees can get their cards punched--as you'd do at any coffee shop--at readings and other literary events. Find eligible events on the Twin Cities Literary Calendar. After twelve punches, the punch card becomes a fifteen dollar gift certificate.

Join Twin Cities literary organizations for a happy hour gathering--Wednesday, September 14, 5:00pm, at Club J�ger (923 Washington Ave. N, Minneapolis). Receive your Literary Punch Card, learn about the card and the events coming this fall, drink punch, and celebrate the vibrant literary community. Oh and get punched for the first time (at least by us)!

Details on the program are at www.litpunch.com.


September's Events
Tuesday, September 6
Nathan Everett reads from The Gutenberg Rubric, 7:30pm

Thursday, September 8
John Reimringer reads from Vestments, 7:30pm

Thursday, September 8
The Minneapolis Launch of Granta 116: 10 Years Later, 7:30pm at The Loft Literary Center at Open Book, 1011 Washington Avenue S, Minneapolis

Sunday, September 11
SL Smith reads from Blinded by the Sight, 7:30pm

Tuesday, September 13
The Hartless Murderers (Jessie Chandler, Joan Murphy Pride, and Brian Landon) read from their latest mysteries, 7:30pm

Tuesday, September 13
Books and Bars discusses The Lonely Polygamist, 7:00pm at the Aster Cafe (125 SE Main Street, Mpls)

Wednesday, September 14
Catherine Holm reads from My Heart is a Mountain, Sheila Packa reads from Cloud Birds, and Rebecca Manlove reads from Hauling Water, 7:30pm

Thursday, September 15
Norm Ornstein speaks at the Westminster Town Hall Forum, 12:00pm

Sunday, September 18
Kathryn Kysar and Jim Moore read from their new poetry, 7:30pm

Monday, September 19
Russ Van Heel reads from Life in Purgatory, 7:30pm

Tuesday, September 20
Nuruddin Farah reads from Crossbones, 7:00pm at the Minneapolis Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

Wednesday, September 21
John Vaillant discusses The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival, 7:30pm

Thursday, September 22
Peter Smith reads from A Cavalcade of Lesser Horrors, 7:30pm

Sunday, September 25
Sunny Love discusses An Incomplete Story of a Whole Person, 4:00pm

Tuesday, September 27
Susan Niz reads from Kara, Lost, 7:30pm

Wednesday, September 28
Calvin Trillin reads from Quite Enough of Calvin Trillin, 7:00pm at the Minneapolis Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

Thursday, September 29
William Adler discusses The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon, 7:30pm

Thursday, September 29
Lisa Randall discusses Knocking on Heaven's Door, 7:00pm at the Minneapolis Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis

Visit www.magersandquinn.com
for details on all our upcoming events.

Thursday, September 8, 7:30pm--John Reimringer reads from Vestments

In the store: $14.40
Online: $12.00 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $16.00
Available Now
"This book knows the soul of the great old city: the yellowing taverns and fraying neighborhoods, the sense of grace in decline, the doubtful saints wrangling their disbelief. John Reimringer writes with the confidence and observation of one who was there at the time and is there still, and his novel has the knuckles and shouting and beer breath of glory."--Leif Enger, author of Peace Like a River and So Brave, Young, and Handsome

"Ribald and wry, concerned at heart with faith and forgiveness, Vestments is a rich, involving debut."--Stewart O'Nan, author of Last Night at the Lobster and Songs for the Missing

Hailed as a Best Book of 2010 by Publishers Weekly, the bracing tale of a young man caught between faith, family, and his love for a woman from the past. Originally drawn to the priesthood by the mystery, purity, and sensual fabric of the Church, as well as by its promise of a safe harbor from his tempestuous home, James Dressler finds himself attracted again to his first love, Betty Garc�a--just a few years after his ordination. Torn between these opposing desires, and haunted by his familial heritage, James finds himself at a crossroads. Exploring age-old and yet urgently contemporary issues in the Catholic Church, and infused throughout by a rich sense of the history and vibrant texture of St. Paul, Vestments is an utterly honest and subtly lyrical novel.

A former newspaper editor and a graduate of the MFA program at the University of Arkansas, John Reimringer lives in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with his wife, the poet Katrina Vandenberg. Vestments is his first novel. For more, see www.johnreimringer.com.

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Bring your Twin Cities Literary Punch Card to this event and collect a punch. Collect a dozen punches, and your card becomes a $15.00 gift certificate. Find more events on the Twin Cities Literary Calendar.

The Twin Cities Literary Punch Card is sponsored by Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions, and Coffee House Press, by Rain Taxi Review of Books, and by the Loft Literary Center. Details are at www.litpunch.com.


Tuesday, September 13, 7:30pm--The writing group Hartless Murderers (Jessie Chandler, Joan Murphy Pride, and Brian Landon) read from their latest mysteries

Three Minnesota authors of silly, whimsical, and downright funny murder mysteries visit Magers & Quinn.

The Hartless Murderers are

In the store: $13.45
Online: $11.21 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $14.95
Available Now
Jessie Chandler, author of Bingo Barge Murder. "Jessie Chandler delivers a fresh murder motive in this engaging debut mystery."--Julie Kramer, author of Killing Kate. "Chandler's debut is fast and funny...crammed with memorably quirky Minnesota characters."--Brian Freeman, author of Immoral. Learn more at www.jessiechandler.com.

Brian Landon, editor of Why Did Santa Leave a Body and author of The Case of the Unnecessary Sequel and A Grand Ol' Murder. "Brian Landon had me at the title! After that, I couldn't stop laughing out loud as I read his latest novel filled with twists, turns and the totally unexpected."--Pat Dennis, author of Hotdish to Die For. "A laugh-a-minute mystery with plot twists, compelling characters, and a setting that can't be beat! If you threw Us Magazine, Paul Bunyan, and a funny bone into a wood chipper, this book would come out the other end."--Jess Lourey, author of September Fair. More info is at www.brianlandon.com.

Joan Murphy Pride, author of Double Cross Country and Not So Fast

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Bring your Twin Cities Literary Punch Card to this event and collect a punch. Collect a dozen punches, and your card becomes a $15.00 gift certificate. Find more events on the Twin Cities Literary Calendar.

The Twin Cities Literary Punch Card is sponsored by Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions, and Coffee House Press, by Rain Taxi Review of Books, and by the Loft Literary Center. Details are at www.litpunch.com.


Wednesday, September 14, 7:30pm--Catherine Holm, Sheila Packa, and Becca Brin Manlove read from their work

Three writers from northern Minnesota--Cook, Duluth, and Ely--visit Minneapolis to tell their stories.

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In the store: $13.50
Online: $11.25 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $15.00
Available Now
My Heart Is a Mountain: Tales of Magic and the Land is a collection of eleven fiction stories and one memoir piece. From northern Minnesota to Alaska, from the Dustbowl to Appalachia, from swamps to mountains to the afterlife, these tales blend the magic and the mundane as characters discover themselves, their limitations, and their greatness.

"Catherine Holm writes with great and winning assurance and with nuanced compassion. My Heart is a Mountain is a truly lovely book by a fine writer."--Robert Olen Butler, author of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain

"This fine debut collection of stories has great variety, and both reach and grasp of what it means to be fully human."--Will Weaver, author of The Last Hunter: An American Family Album

Catherine Holm is an award-winning writer who lives with her husband Chris in rural Cook, Minnesota, on ten acres of boreal forest. Her short stories have been published in several anthologies and chapbooks. She writes about human yearning and how it is shaped by land and place.

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Cloud Birds is a breathtaking flight through the western shoreline of Lake Superior north to the Iron Range of Minnesota. The poems are about bears, immigrants, bird migration, and women moving through violence.

Sheila Packa is the poet laureate of Duluth, MN. She has written three books of poetry, The Mother Tongue, Echo & Lightning, and Cloud Birds. She is the recipient of an Arts and Cultural Heritage Community Arts Learning to do poetry and writing workshops for those in transition, with a special outreach to those dealing with domestic violence. For more information about her work, visit www.sheilapacka.com.

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In the store: $11.65
Online: $9.71 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $12.95
Available Now
Becca Brin Manlove is the author of Hauling Water: Reflections on Making a Home in the North Woods. It is a collection of little love stories--love for the land, love between a man and woman, love of children and family, love for all the beings that share the neighborhood (even the occasional annoying bear in the garbage), and eventually love for a life well lived. The freshness of maple sap plunking into pails, the chill of a strong wind at an ice fishing hole, the satisfaction of a Thanksgiving dinner tradition, the dismayed thoughts at a lightning-struck pine, the camaraderie of the sauna, and much more are shared with humor, warmth, and respect for the wild places.

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Bring your Twin Cities Literary Punch Card to this event and collect a punch. Collect a dozen punches, and your card becomes a $15.00 gift certificate. Find more events on the Twin Cities Literary Calendar.

The Twin Cities Literary Punch Card is sponsored by Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions, and Coffee House Press, by Rain Taxi Review of Books, and by the Loft Literary Center. Details are at www.litpunch.com.


Wednesday, September 21, 7:30pm--John Vaillant discusses The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival

In the store: $13.50
Online: $11.25 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $15.00
Available Now
"Mesmerizing . . . a blistering good tale, stocked with fascinating characters, none more compelling than the tiger itself . . . the adventure book of the year."--Cleveland Plain Dealer

"A masterpiece. . . . What elevates The Tiger from adventure yarn to nonfiction classic is Vaillant's mastery of language."--Outside

Outside a remote village in Russia's Far East a man-eating tiger is on the prowl. The tiger isn't just killing people, it's murdering them, almost as if it has a vendetta. A team of trackers is dispatched to hunt down the tiger before it strikes again. They know the creature is cunning, injured, and starving, making it even more dangerous. As John Vaillant re-creates these extraordinary events, he gives us an unforgettable and masterful work of narrative nonfiction that combines a riveting portrait of a stark and mysterious region of the world and its people, with the natural history of nature's most deadly predator.

John Vaillant's first book was the national bestseller The Golden Spruce, which won the Governor General's Literary Award for nonfiction, as well as several other awards. He has written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Outside, National Geographic and The Walrus, among other publications. He lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, with his wife and children.

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Bring your Twin Cities Literary Punch Card to this event and collect a punch. Collect a dozen punches, and your card becomes a $15.00 gift certificate. Find more events on the Twin Cities Literary Calendar.

The Twin Cities Literary Punch Card is sponsored by Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions, and Coffee House Press, by Rain Taxi Review of Books, and by the Loft Literary Center. Details are at www.litpunch.com.


Thursday, September 22, 7:30pm--Peter Smith reads from A Cavalcade of Lesser Horrors

In the store: $15.66
Online: $13.46 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $17.95
Available September 9
For Peter Smith--whose weekly essays for Minnesota Public Radio have endeared him to thousands of listeners and readers--life is a cavalcade of lesser horrors. They may not be the easiest memories to relive, but they are often among the funniest. And by facing them squarely and perhaps even with a smile, Smith finds himself uncovering a simple reassurance, an uneasy truth we should take to heart: we're all on this wild ride together.

These awkward times are not without their humor, and a healthy dose at that. We all know the circumstances and places the lesser horrors are likely to await--sibling rivalries, high school gym class, job successes and failures, raising children. In this series of funny, honest, and moving pieces, Smith explores a few messy episodes from his own life: growing up Catholic on the south side of Chicago, seeing his tricycle stolen before his eyes, and onward to American life in the '50s and '60s, Vietnam, and a career in advertising, where bosses feed employees anxieties to increase creativity. Along the way, Smith discovers how these moments not only help define what it is to be human but are also a major source of our inspiration and imagination.

Peter Smith is a Twin Cities-based writer, humorist, and radio essayist. His audio essays appear each week on Minnesota Public Radio, and he is the author of A Porch Sofa Almanac.


Tuesday, September 27, 7:30pm--Susan Niz reads from Kara, Lost

In the store: $13.45
Online: $11.21 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $14.95
Available Now
"In Kara, Lost, Susan Niz's wonderful eye for detail and uncanny insight bring a troubled teenager's world to life. Kara's fierce determination to forge her own path in life and the challenges she faces on every front ring true. So true, in fact, that at times I wanted to put down the book and go find that girl and give her a home. A masterful debut."--Alison McGhee, author of Falling Boy

Sixteen-year-old Kara flees the suffocation of her surburban life, trading in her home and family for a gritty, anonymous existence on the streets of Minneapolis. She begins a perilous journey, naive, well-intentioned, and isolated as she struggles to reconnect with her older sister.

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Bring your Twin Cities Literary Punch Card to this event and collect a punch. Collect a dozen punches, and your card becomes a $15.00 gift certificate. Find more events on the Twin Cities Literary Calendar.

The Twin Cities Literary Punch Card is sponsored by Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions, and Coffee House Press, by Rain Taxi Review of Books, and by the Loft Literary Center. Details are at www.litpunch.com.


Thursday, September 29, 7:00pm--William Adler discusses The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill, American Labor Icon

In the store: $27.00
Online: $22.50 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $30.00
Available Now
In Chronicles: Volume One, Bob Dylan devotes three pages to Joe Hill, ending his paean with "Joe wrote the song 'Pie in the Sky,' and was the forerunner of Woody Guthrie. That's all I needed to know."

In 1915, Joe Hill was executed for the murder of 47-year-old, Salt Lake City grocer John G. Morrison. At trial, the state of Utah introduced no motive, no murder weapon, and no positive identification of Hill. Its case leaned entirely on circumstantial evidence, and primarily on the fact that Hill had a received a gunshot wound on the night Morrison was killed. As to proof of the defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, the prosecutor pointed to the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) red card found in Hill's pocket.

In The Man Who Never Died, the first full-scale biography of the legendary songwriter and labor martyr, William Adler presents never-before-published documentary evidence that both persuasively suggests Hill's innocence and points to the guilt of another man.

"Excellent... Adler's prose is first rate, his analysis of history impeccable. He draws conclusions where appropriate, and presents an honest account, yet allows the reader to put together the final pieces of the puzzle."--Union Review

William M. Adler has written for numerous publications, including Esquire, Rolling Stone, and Mother Jones. He is the author of Land of Opportunity, about the rise and fall of a crack cocaine empire, and Mollie's Job, which follows the flight of one woman's factory job from the United States to Mexico. He lives with his wife and son in Denver, Colorado.

Adler will be joined by singer and storyteller John Berquist. Bergquist has long focused on the music, traditions, culture and history of the Upper Midwest, especially northern Minnesota and the Iron Range. A long-time member of the IWW, Local 630, he worked with the Chicago Branch to plan the union's Centenary celebration in 2005. He took part in the Centenary Concert at Preston Bradley Hall along with Utah Phillips, Rebel Voices, the Citizens Band, Larry Long and Len Wallace. He's sung at labor rallies across Minnesota's Iron Range and took part in the centennial celebration of Canada's oldest and largest IWW Labor Hall in Thunder Bay.

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Bring your Twin Cities Literary Punch Card to this event and collect a punch. Collect a dozen punches, and your card becomes a $15.00 gift certificate. Find more events on the Twin Cities Literary Calendar.

The Twin Cities Literary Punch Card is sponsored by Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions, and Coffee House Press, by Rain Taxi Review of Books, and by the Loft Literary Center. Details are at www.litpunch.com.



And in the months ahead, we'll be hosting readings by
  • Larry Millett (October 4)
  • Dr Henry Emmons (October 5)
  • Chris Bohjalian (October 7)
  • Paul Metsa (October 10)
  • Anthony Bukoski (October 17)
  • Russell Banks (October 18)
  • Henry Rollins (October 19)
  • Alan Hollinghurst (October 27)
  • Chuck Klosterman (November 8)
Visit www.magersandquinn.com for all the details.
Magers & Quinn is pleased to host a reading by "the best English novelist working today" (Guardian). Alan Hollinghurst will read from The Stranger's Child at M&Q at 7:30pm, Thursday, October 27.

In the store: $25.15
Online: $20.96 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $27.95
Available October 11
The Stranger's Child, Alan Hollinghurst's first novel in seven years, is a magnificent, century-spanning saga about a love triangle that spawns a myth--and a family mystery--across generations. In 1913, George Sawle brings charming, handsome Cecil Valance to his family's modest home outside London for a summer weekend. George is enthralled by his Cambridge schoolmate, and soon his sixteen-year-old sister, Daphne, is equally besotted by both Cecil and the stories he tells about Corley Court, the country estate he is heir to. But what Cecil writes in Daphne's autograph album will change their and their families' lives forever: a poem that, after Cecil is killed in the Great War and his reputation burnished, will be recited by every schoolchild in England. Over time, a tragic love story is spun, even as other secrets lie buried--until, decades later, an ambitious biographer threatens to unearth them.

UK press on The Stranger's Child has been very good. The Guardian called the book "one of the British literary world's most keenly awaited events", and said "Hollinghurst has a strong, perhaps unassailable claim to be the best English novelist working today."

Alan Hollinghurst is the author of The Swimming-Pool Library, The Folding Star, The Spell, and The Line of Beauty, which won the Man Booker Prize and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has received the Somerset Maugham Award, the E. M. Forster Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction. He lives in London.

This event is co-sponsored by Quatrefoil Library. Quatrefoil Library is celebrating its 25th Anniversary in 2011. The volunteer-run, non-profit library collects, maintains, documents, and circulates gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer materials and information in a safe and accessible space. Quatrefoil's collection includes books, videos, DVDs, and sound recordings, which members may check out, as well as a large collection of non-circulating periodicals. Learn more at www.qlibrary.org.

Several recent bestsellers are now available in paperback. Here are a few of our favorites.

Dogfight, A Love Story by Matt Burgess

In the store: $14.35
Online: $11.96 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $15.95
Available September 6
Alfredo Batista has some worries. Okay, a lot of worries. His older brother, Jose-sorry, Tariq-is returning from a stretch in prison after an unsuccessful robbery, a burglary that Alfredo was supposed to be part of. So now everyone thinks Alfredo snitched on his brother, which may have something to do with the fact that Alfredo is now dating Tariq's ex-girlfriend, Isabel, who is eight months pregnant. Tariq's violent streak is probably the biggest worry on Alfredo's list.

Oh, and he needs to steal a pit bull. For the homecoming dogfight.

With a story as intricately plotted as a Shakespearean comedy--or revenge tragedy, for that matter--and an electrically colloquial prose style, Dogfight, a Love Story establishes Matt Burgess as an exuberant new voice in contemporary literature.

Matt Burgess will read from his novel at M&Q--7:30pm, Tuesday, October 25. He'll be joined by Scott Sparling, author of Wire to Wire. Sparling's novel features a cast of train-hopping, drug-dealing, glue-huffing lowlifes, tells a harrowing tale of friendship and loss, and creates a stunning portrait of Northern Michigan in the late 1970s.


Cleopatra: A Life Story by Stacy Schiff

In the store: $14.35
Online: $12.94 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $16.99
Available September 6
"This is an astonishing, scrupulously researched, meticulously assembled retelling of one of the world's most famous lives--and it will become a classic."--Simon Winchester, author of Krakatoa and The Meaning of Everything

Her palace shimmered with onyx and gold but was richer still in political and sexual intrigue. Above all else, Cleopatra was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. She was married twice, each time to a brother. She waged a brutal civil war against the first and poisoned the second; incest and assassination were family specialties. She had children by Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, two of the most prominent Romans of the day. With Antony she would attempt to forge a new empire, in an alliance that spelled both their ends. Famous long before she was notorious, Cleopatra has gone down in history for all the wrong reasons. Her supple personality and the drama of her circumstances have been lost. In a masterly return to the classical sources, Stacy Schiff boldly separates fact from fiction to rescue the magnetic queen whose death ushered in a new world order.


Half Empty by David Rakoff

In the store: $13.45
Online: $11.21 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $14.95
Available September 6
The inimitably witty David Rakoff, New York Times bestselling author of Don't Get Too Comfortable, defends the commonsensical notion that you should always assume the worst, because you'll never be disappointed.

In this deeply funny (and also wise and poignant) book, Rakoff examines the realities of our sunny, gosh�-everyone-can-be-a-star contemporary culture and finds that, pretty much as a universal rule, the best is not yet to come, adversity will triumph, justice will not be served, and your dreams won't come true.

The book ranges from the personal to the universal, combining stories from Rakoff's reporting and accounts of his own experi�ences: the moment when being a tiny child no longer meant adults found him charming but instead meant other children found him a fun target; the perfect late evening in Manhattan when he was young and the city seemed to brim with such pos�sibility that the street shimmered in the moonlight-as he drew closer he realized the streets actually flickered with rats in a feeding frenzy. He also weaves in his usual brand Oscar Wilde-worthy cultural criticism (the tragedy of Hollywood's Walk of Fame, for instance).

Whether he's lacerating the musical Rent for its cutesy depic�tion of AIDS or dealing with personal tragedy, his sharp obser�vations and humorist's flair for the absurd will have you reveling in the power of negativity.


Special Price--25% Off
In the store: $11.21

Online: $11.21 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $14.95
Available September 6
Minneapolis native and National Public Radio host Michele Norris returns to her hometown to help launch One Minneapolis, One Read, a citywide book club. The Grace of Silence: A Family Memoir tells the Norris family's experience as the first black family on their block in a south Minneapolis neighborhood. Norris also details her discovery of race-based family secrets. In her research for the book, Norris learned that her father, upon his return from service in WWII, had been shot by a Birmingham police officer. You can read the first chapter here.

One Minneapolis, One Read begins October 3 with a launch at the Guthrie Theater. Michele Norris and MPR's Kerri Miller will discuss The Grace of Silence and Norris' longstanding work to engage people in conversation about race.

There will be more events throughout the fall. Find out how you can participate at the One Minneapolis, One Read website.


We've got the first batch of 2012 calendars in the store right now. We have calendars featuring birds, bugs, and art by Charley Harper, Georgia O'Keeffe, or Mark Rothko, to name just a few. Take your pick while the selection is at its best.


Banned Book Week is September 24 to October 1. This year, for the first time, readers from around the world will be able to participate virtually in Banned Books Week, Sept. 24 - Oct.1. During this year's celebration of Banned Books Week, readers will be able to proclaim the virtues of their favorite banned books by posting videos of themselves reading excerpts to a dedicated YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/bannedbooksweek). Find how to record and upload your contribution at www.bannedbooksweek.org.

Here are a few suggestions of banned books you might read from:


Ninteen Eighty-Four CandideThe Grapes of WrathOne Flew Over
the Cuckoo's Nest

Or stop in today and find your own (un)banned book.

Books & Bars isn't your mother's book club. We provide a unique atmosphere for a lively discussion of interesting authors, fun people, good food and drinks. This month's meeting will be Tuesday, September 13, at the Aster Cafe. Doors open at 6:00pm; the discussion begins at 7:00pm. Call 612/379-3138 for table reservations.

In the store: $14.35
Online: $11.96 (plus S/H)
Publisher's price: $15.95
Available Now
September's books is The Lonley Polygamist by Brady Udall.

"The novel you must read this summer.... a riveting emotional tornado of a novel."--Entertainment Weekly

Golden Richards, husband to four wives, father to twenty-eight children, is having the mother of all midlife crises. His construction business is failing, his family has grown into an overpopulated mini-dukedom beset with insurrection and rivalry, and he is done in with grief: due to the accidental death of a daughter and the stillbirth of a son, he has come to doubt the capacity of his own heart. Brady Udall, one of our finest American fiction writers, tells a tragicomic story of a deeply faithful man who, crippled by grief and the demands of work and family, becomes entangled in an affair that threatens to destroy his family's future. Beautifully written and keenly observed, The Lonely Polygamist is an unforgettable story of an American family pushed to its outer limits.


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.

Books & Bars is presented by Jeff Kamin and Magers & Quinn Booksellers, sponsored by Aster Cafe, Metro Magazine and Fulton Beer.


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 next month with more great book news.

Until then,


David Enyeart
Magers and Quinn Booksellers

Write us: [email protected]
Call us: 612/822-4611
Or visit our website: http://www.magersandquinn.com