Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney Every year, in the thick of August, I stumble on a beautiful book that completely matches my mood. It happened again with Conversations with Friends, a perfect book that…
Browsing Category MN Authors
How I Spent My Winter (in words)
Ill Will by Dan Chaon Insomnia isn’t my thing, but on the one night I woke during the witching hour and couldn’t fall back asleep, I magically had this weirdo mess of creepiness to keep…
Everything You Want Me to Be
The first thing I will tell you about Mindy Mejia’s mystery Everything You Want Me to Be is that when the big reveal comes, when whodunnit is revealed, I gasped because I did not see…
Charmed, For Sure
I tend to avoid essay collections/memoirs by bloggers. This is a little strange, considering I’m an aspiring author with a blog that will be 16 years old this month. But a lot of times when…
6 Questions We Always Ask – Steven Hyden, Author
As I am typing this intro, Steven Hyden is on 89.3 The Current talking about his new book Your Favorite Band is Killing Me and his reading at 7 p.m. tonight at Magers & Quinn…
Scott on Scott
I’m going through a bit of a Scott Jurek phase right now that started with reading Born to Run and was helped along when he recently distance-ran the shit out of the Appalachian Trail. It helps…
The Great Midwestern Novel
As I sit here in front of my computer and try to come up with the words to explain why I enjoyed reading J. Ryan Stradal’s Kitchens of the Great Midwest so much and why…
Pretty Sweet
My favorite part of Fast Food Nation when I read it back in 2001 was the parts about the flavor factories in New Jersey. At least I think they were in NJ. I’m going with…
Midwestern Gothic
Here’s a confession: when a book’s description mentions how it takes place in 18something, my eyes immediately glaze over from anticipated boredom. Same goes for anything that takes place during any war be it Civil,…
6 Questions We Always Ask: Stephen J. McInerny, author
This week on 6 Questions We Always Ask we offer up answers by a writer after my own heart. A copywriter by day and a fiction writer by later that same day. It sounds exactly…
This One’s Going to Leave a Mark
Disclosure: I adore Carrie Mesrobian. She is my one of my very favorite Twitterers. Also, we like to watch the music-themed soap opera “Nashville” together — she on her couch in a northern Twin Cities…
Meet a Bunch of Local Authors & Support Indie Bookstores on Nov. 30
Earlier this year author Sherman Alexie asked authors all over the country to take part Small Business Saturday (the day after Black Friday (and all these official names for shopping kind of makes me want…