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 The 2011 Twin Cities Book Festival is back. The eleventh installment of the festival will be Saturday, October 15, at the Minneapolis Community & Technical College, in downtown Minneapolis. Doors open at 10:00am. Meet publishers, literary organizations, and booksellers. Hear great readings and talks by renowned authors from near and far. Browse Rain Taxi's used book sale. Find new writing at the Literary Magazine Fair. Among the writers appearing at the Festival this year are:
There will also be panel discussions, a children's book pavilion, and much more. Visit www.raintaxi.com/bookfest for all the details. |
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Nobody can say for sure how many lost mansions haunt the Twin Cities, but at least five hundred are mentioned in public records and archives. In Minneapolis and St. Paul, entire neighborhoods of luxurious homes have disappeared, virtually without a trace. Many grand estates that once spread out over hundreds of acres along the shores of Lake Minnetonka are also gone. The greatest of these lost houses often had astonishingly short lives: the lavish Charles Gates mansion in Minneapolis survived only nineteen years, and Norman Kittson's sprawling castle on the site of the St. Paul Cathedral stood for barely more than two decades. Railroad and freeway building, commercial and institutional expansion, fires, and financial disasters all claimed their share of mansions; others succumbed to their own extravagance, becoming too costly to maintain once their original owners died. An absorbing read for Twin Cities residents and a crucial addition to the body of work on the region's history, Once There Were Castles brings these "ghost mansions" back to life. Larry Millett is an architectural historian and the author of Lost Twin Cities, Twin Cities Then and Now, and AIA Guide to the Twin Cities. He has also written six mystery novels featuring Sherlock Holmes, all but one of them set in Minnesota. He lives in St. Paul. Wednesday, October 5, 7:30pm--Henry Emmons, MD, discusses his books The Chemistry of Joy and The Chemistry of Calm
Renowned psychiatrist and therapist Henry Emmons visits Magers & Quinn to discuss his two bestselling books, The Chemistry of Joy and The Chemistry of Calm. Henry Emmons, MD integrates mind-body and natural therapies, mindfulness and allied Buddhist therapeutics, and psychotherapeutic caring and insight in his clinical work. Dr. Emmons obtained his medical degree from the University of Iowa College of Medicine and did his residency in psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center, where he was Chief Resident. Dr. Emmons is in demand as a workshop and retreat leader for both healthcare professionals and the general public. He practices general and holistic psychiatry and consults to several colleges and organizations nationally. He currently serves as Consulting Psychiatrist at the Allina Medical Clinic in Northfield, Minnesota.
Friday, October 7, 7:30pm--Chris Bohjalian reads from his new novel The Night Strangers
In a dusty corner of a basement in a rambling Victorian house in northern New Hampshire, a door has long been sealed shut with 39 six-inch-long carriage bolts. The home's new owners are Chip and Emily Linton and their twin ten-year-old daughters. Together they hope to rebuild their lives there after Chip, an airline pilot, has to ditch his 70-seat regional jet in Lake Champlain after double engine failure. Unlike the Miracle on the Hudson, however, most of the passengers aboard Flight 1611 die on impact or drown. The body count? Thirty-nine--a coincidence not lost on Chip when he discovers the number of bolts in that basement door. Meanwhile, Emily finds herself wondering about the women in this sparsely populated White Mountain village-self-proclaimed herbalists--and their interest in her fifth-grade daughters. Are the women mad? Or is it her husband, in the wake of the tragedy, whose grip on sanity has become desperately tenuous? The Night Strangers is a poignant and powerful ghost story with all the hallmarks readers have come to expect from bestselling novelist Chris Bohjalian: a palpable sense of place, an unerring sense of the demons that drive us, and characters we care about deeply. "Bohjalian has crafted a genre-defying novel, both a compelling story of a family in trauma and a psychological thriller that is truly frightening. Fans of Alice Sebold's The Lovely Bones and Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye and The Robber Bride will find similar appeal here."--Library Journal Chris Bohjalian is the critically acclaimed author of twelve novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Skeletons at the Feast, The Double Bind, and Midwives,which was a selection of Oprah's Book Club. His work has been translated into more than 25 languages and twice became movies (Midwives and Past the Bleachers). He lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter. Visit him at www.chrisbohjalian.com. -----
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. Monday, October 10, 7:30pm--Paul Metsa discusses his new memoir Blue Guitar Highway--and plays music!
"There is a drop of blood behind every note I play and every word I write," Paul Metsa says. And it's easy to believe, as he conducts us on a musical journey across time and country, navigating switchbacks, detours, dead ends, and providing us the occasional glimpse of the promised land on the blue guitar highway. His account captures the thrill of the Twin Cities when acts like the Replacements, H�sker D�, and Prince were remaking pop music. It takes us right onto the stages he shared with stars like Billy Bragg, Pete Seeger, and Bruce Springsteen. And it gives us a close-up, dizzying view of the roller-coaster ride that is the professional musician's life, played out against the polarizing politics and intimate history of the past few decades of American culture. Written with a songwriter's sense of detail and ear for poetry, Blue Guitar Highway conveys all the sweet absurdity, dry humor, and passion for the language of music that has made his story sing. Paul Metsa is a legendary musician and songwriter from Minnesota. Born on the Iron Range, he has been based in Minneapolis since 1978. He has received seven Minnesota Music Awards and has played more than five thousand gigs, including forays to Iceland and Siberia. He lives in Northeast Minneapolis with his faithful dog, Blackie; a dozen or so guitars; twenty-five orange crates of LPs; hundreds of books, compact discs, magazines, and vintage postcards; and several kitchen cupboards full of old cassettes. -----
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, October 11, 7:30pm--Bonnie J Rough discusses Carrier: Untangling the Danger in My DNA
As Bonnie J. Rough and her husband consider becoming parents, their biological legacy haunts every decision. Confirmed a carrier of the genetic condition hypohidrotic ectodermal dysplasia, or HED, Bonnie begins a journey to uncover the complicated details of her family's past. HED might seem only to be a superficial condition: an unusual facial bone structure, sparse hair, few teeth, and an inability to sweat. But a closer look reveals the source of a lifetime of infections, breathing problems, and drug dependency for Bonnie's grandfather Earl, who suffered from the disorder. After a boyhood as a small-town oddity and an adulthood fraught with disaster, Earl died penniless and alone at the age of forty-nine. Bonnie's mother was left with an inheritance that included not just the gene for HED, but also the emotional pain that came from witnessing her father's misery. In a time when genetic testing offers answers that can lead to excruciating decisions, even forgoing a test is a deliberate choice. Caught between science and the heart, Bonnie and her husband find themselves faced with a modern moral crisis-and one that ultimately reveals the eternal tension between past and future. "Bonnie Rough has crafted a memoir like no other: lyrical, investigative, haunting, and tender, all fueled by a powerful imagination and fiery intelligence unlike any other in the literary cosmos. Carrier is boundary-busting nonfiction at its finest."--Robin Hemley, author of Do-Over! "There are many things to praise in Bonnie Rough's deeply felt memoir, in her report from the brave new world, but most striking are her compassion and her wisdom as she navigates the harrowing choices, the complex choices that medical technology allows us."--Jane Hamilton, author of Laura Rider's Masterpiece Bonnie J Rough holds an MFA from the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa. She has taught at The Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis, where she was the recipient of a Bush Artist Fellowship, a McKnight Artist Fellowship for Writers, and a Minnesota State Arts Board grant. More information is online at www.bonniejrough.com. -----
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. Sunday, October 16, 4:00pm--Wendy Call discusses No Word for Welcome: The Mexican Village Faces the Global Economy
Call's story, No Word for Welcome, invites readers into the homes, classrooms, storefronts, and fishing boats of the isthmus, as well as the mahogany-paneled high-rise offices of those striving to control the region. With timely and invaluable insights into the development battle, Call shows that the people who have suffered most from economic globalization have some of the clearest ideas about how we can all survive it. "A terrific read. Wendy Call has reported passionately and written sensitively about the people of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec---one of Mexico's great cultural repositories--at a crossroads in their history. That there are no easy answers to the dilemmas of modernity and cultural authenticity is the painful conclusion she draws us to, in one engaging episode after another."--Alma Guillermoprieto, author of Looking for History: Dispatches from Latin America "Wendy Call has a big, pertinent story to tell--globalization--and she does a marvelous job of bringing it to life."--Phillip Lopate, author of The Whale Wendy Call is a recent writer-in-residence at Seattle University, New College of Florida, and Harborview Medical Center. She is the coeditor of Telling True Stories: A Nonfiction Writers' Guide, author of numerous essays, and translator of Mexican poetry and short fiction. -----
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, October 18, 7:30pm--Russell Banks reads from his new novel Lost Memory of Skin
Lost Memory of Skin shows us a troubled society where zero tolerance has erased any hope of subtlety and compassion. Suspended in a modern-day limbo, the young man at the centre of Russell Banks's uncompromising and morally complex new novel must create a life for himself in the wake of incarceration. Known in his new identity only as the Kid, he is shackled to a GPS monitoring device and forbidden to go near where children might gather. He takes up residence under a south Florida causeway, in a makeshift encampment with other convicted sex offenders. Barely beyond childhood himself, the Kid, despite his crime, is in many ways an innocent. Enter the Professor, a university sociologist of enormous size and intellect who finds in the Kid the perfect subject for his research. But when the Professor's past resurfaces and threatens to destroy his carefully constructed world, the balance in the two men's relationship shifts. Russell Banks is the Pulitzer Prize-nominated author of Affliction, Cloudsplitter, Continental Drift, Rule of the Bone, and The Sweet Hereafter. -----
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, October 19, 7:30pm--Henry Rollins discusses Occupants
For the past twenty-five years, Henry Rollins has searched out the most desolate corners of the Earth-from Iraq to Afghanistan, Thailand to Mali, and beyond--articulating his observations through music and words, on radio and television, and in magazines and books. Though he's known for the raw power of his expression, Rollins has shown that the greatest statements can be made with the simplest of acts: to just bear witness, to be present. In Occupants, Rollins pairs visceral full-color photographs--taken in Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Northern Ireland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and elsewhere over the last few years--with writings that not only provide context and magnify the impact of the images but also lift them to the level of political commentary. Simply put, this book is a visual testimony of anger, suffering, and resilience. Occupants will help us realize what is so easy to miss when tragedy and terror become numbing, constant forces--the quieter, stronger forces of healing, solidarity, faith, and even joy. Henry Rollins joined the Southern California band Black Flag as vocalist in 1981. Upon its demise, he formed Rollins Band, and has been making records, writing books, and touring the world ever since. Rollins has averaged over one hundred shows a year for over 30 years. He also performs in movies and TV shows and hosts a weekly L.A. radio show. He lives in Los Angeles, California. Tuesday, October 25, 7:30pm--Matt Burgess reads from Dogfight, A Love Story, and Scott Sparling reads from Wire to Wire
Crime pays when two great authors read from their novels at Magers & Quinn. --
Also, he needs to steal a pit bull. For the homecoming dogfight. Burgess brings to life the rich and vivid milieu of his hometown native Queens in all its glorious variety. Here is the real New York, a place where Pakistanis, Puerto Ricans, Haitians, An �glos, African Americans, and West Indians scrap and mingle and love. But the real star here is Burgess' incredible ear for language--the voices of his characters leap off the page in riotous, spot-on dialogue. The outer boroughs have their own language, where a polite greeting is fraught with menace, and an insult can be the expression of the most tender love. "With an acute ear for dialogue and the poetry of the street... a cliche-free depiction of gritty urban reality, reminiscent of Richard Price."--New York Times Book Review This is the best first novel I have read in years."--Charles Baxter, author of The Feast of Love and Gryphon Matt Burgess, a 28-year-old graduate of Dartmouth and the University of Minnesota's MFA program, grew up in Jackson Heights, Queens. Learn more at www.mattburgessbooks.com. --
While riding a freight car through Detroit, Michael Slater suffers a near-fatal accident--a power line to the head. After a questionable recovery and a broken relationship, he abandons his new home in the Arizona desert, though not before leaving a man for dead. Slater returns to Michigan in a busted-up Ford to reunite with an old train-hopping pal, but quickly discovers that the Pleasant Peninsula of his youth is none too pleasant. As Slater's past catches up with his present--a love triangle, a local drug dealer, the damaged residents of a destitute Northern Michigan town--rock bottom keeps slipping farther away. Originally from Michigan, Scott Sparling lives outside Portland, Oregon, with his wife and son. Wire to Wire is his first novel. "I lived in Minneapolis for three years in 1970s and in fact did a lot of my train-hopping there. My roommate at the time was a brakeman on the C&NW and used to sneak me in the caboose from time to time. So it'll be a lot of fun to be back in the Twin Cities, says Sparling. For more information, visit www.scottsparling.net. -----
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, November 2, 7:30pm--Peter Eichstaedt discusses Consuming the Congo: War and Conflict Minerals in the World's Deadliest Place
In Consuming the Congo, author Peter Eichstaedt goes into these killing fields to unearth what is behind the bloodshed, traveling the countryside to hear the stories of those who live a nightmarish reality. He talks with survivors of villages decimated by war and desperate miners slogging through muck while militias and renegade army units roam the jungles, killing and raping with impunity, taking the profits, and leaving villagers to grueling labor, brutality, and disease. Millions of Congolese have died, and the bloodletting continues at a frightening pace. Consuming the Congo offers not only a view into the situation behind the headlines, but examines how we, as part of the problem, can become part of the solution. Peter Eichstaedt is a veteran journalist and author dedicated revealing the stories behind human rights abuses. Formerly senior editor for Uganda Radio Network and Africa editor for the Institute of war and Peace in Reporting in The Hague, Netherlands, Eichstaedt is the author of the books First Kill Your Family: Child Soldiers of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army; If You Poison Us: Uranium and Native Americans; and Pirate State: Inside Somalia's Terrorism at Sea. And in the months ahead, we'll be hosting readings by:
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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.
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.
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Several recent bestsellers will soon be available in paperback. Here are a few of our favorites.
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson
In this epic, beautifully written masterwork, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson chronicles one of the great untold stories of American history: the decades-long migration of black citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities, in search of a better life. From 1915 to 1970, this exodus of almost six million people changed the face of America. Wilkerson compares this epic migration to the migrations of other peoples in history. She interviewed more than a thousand people, and gained access to new data and official records, to write this definitive and vividly dramatic account of how these American journeys unfolded, altering our cities, our country, and ourselves. Wilkerson brilliantly captures their first treacherous and exhausting cross-country trips by car and train and their new lives in colonies that grew into ghettos, as well as how they changed these cities with southern food, faith, and culture and improved them with discipline, drive, and hard work.
At Home: A Short History of Private Life by Bill Bryson
With his signature wit, charm, and seemingly limitless knowledge, Bill Bryson takes us on a room-by-room tour through his own house, using each room as a jumping off point into the vast history of the domestic artifacts we take for granted. As he takes us through the history of our modern comforts, Bryson demonstrates that whatever happens in the world eventually ends up in our home, in the paint, the pipes, the pillows, and every item of furniture. Bryson has one of the liveliest, most inquisitive minds on the planet, and his sheer prose fluency makes At Home one of the most entertaining books ever written about private life.
The Mind's Eye by Oliver Sacks
"Frank and moving. . . . His books resonate because they reveal as much about the force of character as they do about neurology."--Nature
Wicked River: The Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild by Lee Sandlin
Beginning in the early 1800s and climaxing with the siege of Vicksburg in 1863, Wicked River takes us back to a time before the Mississippi was dredged into a shipping channel, and before Mark Twain romanticized it into myth. Drawing on an array of suspenseful and bizarre firsthand accounts, Sandlin brings to life a place where river pirates brushed elbows with future presidents and religious visionaries shared passage with thieves-a world unto itself where, every night, near the levees of the big river towns, hundreds of boats gathered to form dusk-to-dawn cities dedicated to music, drinking, and gambling. Here is a minute-by-minute account of Natchez being flattened by a tornado; the St. Louis harbor being crushed by a massive ice floe; hidden, nefarious celebrations of Mardi Gras; and the sinking of the Sultana, the worst naval disaster in American history. Here, too, is the Mississippi itself: gorgeous, perilous, and unpredictable, lifeblood to the communities that rose and fell along its banks.
We have plenty of suggestions for you. Stop in today to find the perfect book for you.
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 One Minneapolis, One Read is Minneapolis' first-ever community read where everyone in town is invited to read the same book. One Minneapolis, One Read will bring people in the city together and spark conversations about race, family and neighborhood history. Visit www.oneminneapolisoneread.com for details.
One Minneapolis, One Read begins October 3 with a launch at the Guthrie Theater. Join NPR's All Things Considered Co-host and author Michele Norris and MPR News host Kerri Miller at the Guthrie Theater for a discussion of The Grace of Silence. Dessert reception will follow the discussion. Tickets are $10 each ($5.00 for seniors, students, and those of limited income.) Tickets are available at www.GuthrieTheater.org or by calling the Guthrie at (612) 377-2224. You can also meet Michele Norris Friday, October 7. She'll be at the Minneapolis Urban League's Glover-Sudduth Center (2100 Plymouth Ave. N, Minneapolis) from 1:00pm to 3:00pm. Arleta Little, Executive Director of the Givens Foundation for African American Literature, will lead the discussion. Visit www.givens.org for more details. There will be more events throughout the fall. Find out how you can participate at the One Minneapolis, One Read website. |
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In his keynote address, "Restoring the American Dream," Dr. Zakaria will discuss the new world landscape to help the United States face the challenges and opportunities of the post-American world.His book, The Post-American World, discusses the "rise of the rest"--the growth of China, India, Brazil and many other countries - and what it means for the future. Sponsorships, corporate tables and individual seats are available. To purchase, please complete this reply form (.pdf) or contact Elizabeth Johnson at 763-398-0090 x225 or ejohnson@bestprep.org. This event benefits BestPrep, a statewide, nonprofit organization with a mission to best prepare Minnesota students with business, career and financial literacy skills through experiences that inspire success in work and life. Enriching the teaching and learning experience for students and educators, BestPrep's programs connect classroom theory with the world that lies beyond academia. With the help of over 2,500 volunteers per year, BestPrep reaches more than 60,000 students and educators through its six programs. Visit www.bestprep.org for more information.
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The Twin Cities are a literary hotbed. Outside of M&Q's huge array of readings (see the complete list here), you can meet fascinating authors every night of the week all over the metro area. Here are a few of the authors you can see in the weeks ahead:
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Books & Bars provides a unique atmosphere for a lively discussion of interesting authors, fun people, good food and drinks. This month's meetings will be Tuesday, October 4, 7:00pm, at the School II (600 Market St, Chanhassen, Minnesota 55317) and Tuesday, October 11, 7:00pm, at the Aster Cafe (125 SE Main Street, St Anthony Main, Minneapolis; call 612/379-3138 for table reservations).
"The narrator of The Gargoyle is a very contemporary cynic, physically beautiful and sexually adept, who dwells in the moral vacuum that is modern life. As the book opens, he is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and suffers horrible burns over much of his body. As he recovers in a burn ward, a beautiful and compelling, but clearly unhinged, sculptress of gargoyles by the name of Marianne Engel appears at the foot of his bed and insists that they were once lovers in medieval Germany. In her telling, he was a badly injured mercenary and she was a nun and scribe in the famed monastery of Engelthal who nursed him back to health. As she spins their tale in Scheherazade fashion and relates equally mesmerizing stories of deathless love in Japan, Iceland, Italy, and England, he finds himself drawn back to life--and, finally, in love. He is released into Marianne's care and takes up residence in her huge stone house. But all is not well... Books &
Bars is not your typical book club. 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.
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 Thanks to our generous customers, M&Q was able to collect over 500 children's books for People Serving People. The books will be distributed to waiting rooms and hospitals in Minneapolis.
Thank you to all who donated books! |
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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:
info@magersandquinn.com
Call us:
612/822-4611
Or visit our website:
http://www.magersandquinn.com
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