I’m only 50 or so pages into Remedies by Kate Ledger so I can’t talk about how awesome the book is (yet). However, it does come with high praise from Dale, my writing teacher, which is a pretty strong endorsement. The last book he recommended to me was so good it made me cry and I read the ending three or four times because it was so good (Atonement). Anyway, Kate’s spent years as a writer for Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, but now she lives in St. Paul with her husband and kids. Also, you can see Kate read at 7 p.m. Thursday, September 10th at Magers & Quinn (3038 Hennepin Ave South, Minneapolis) and if you can’t make that reading, don’t worry you can her next week too 7 p.m. Thursday, September 17th at Common Good Books (165 Western Ave North Ste 14, St. Paul).

What book(s) are you currently reading?
Little Children by Tom Perotta and A Mercy by Toni Morrison

Have you ever had a crush on a fictional character? Who?
Yes, but don’t judge me by my taste in fictional men. I’ve had crushes on difficult types: Mr. Darcy of Pride and Prejudice, Heathcliff of Wuthering Heights, and–maybe strangest of all–Holden Caulfield of Catcher in the Rye.

If your favorite author came to Minnesota, who would it be and what bar would you take him/her to?
I’d invite Alice Munro for something–her choice–from the award-winning wine cellar at W.A. Frost. She’s that good.

What was your first favorite book?
Charlotte’s Web taught me the joy of a good cry.

Let’s say Fahrenheit 451 comes to life, which book would you become in order to save it from annihilation?
For practical purposes, I’d probably have to be assigned something really short like Candide. I doubt my memory is good enough for anything longer. But for posterity, I’d want to save Toni Morrison’s Beloved.

What is one book you haven’t read but want to read before you die?
Middlemarch. I keep wanting to get to it.