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Author Archive

Melissa Slachetka

Website
http://melissaslachetka.blogspot.com/
Details
Melissa graduated with a degree in English Literature. After moving to Minneapolis, she discovered freelance writing. Melissa's work has been featured in local publications such as Twin Cities Statement, Rain Taxi, The Bridge, The Downtown Journal, The Northeaster, and Twin Cities Daily Planet. She also enjoys photography, writing poetry, and traveling.

A journey into the past

August 13th, 2010 By Melissa Slachetka

The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee is a novel of epic proportions. The book is set in the present tense, but very much of it takes place through remembering life during war. June and Hector are the two main characters and they met during the Korean War. June was a young girl who lost her family [...]

Fiction ,

The Color Violet

August 7th, 2010 By Melissa Slachetka

Romantic chick-lit crossed with Japanese illustrated Manga is a fusion too good to pass up. Like exotic bubble tea that keeps popping up in local tea shops, you just have to try it, whether or not you will like it can be determined after the first sip. Response, written by Penny Jordan with art by [...]

Graphic Novel ,

Racing and Reincarnation

July 10th, 2010 By Melissa Slachetka

It seems like a recipe for failure to have your storyline told by a family pet, expound on the sport of racecar driving, and top it off with the idea of reincarnation. The fact that this novel works is a testament to Garth Stein’s skill as an author. The plot is crafted beautifully, the characters [...]

Fiction ,

Sometimes it is the Destination

June 20th, 2010 By Melissa Slachetka

Off We Go into the Wild Blue Yonder is a new novel by Travis Nichols, with the title taken from a popular World War II bomber song. The story is told through a group of letters written to Luddie, a Polish woman, who hid the main character’s grandfather from Nazi’s during the war. The main [...]

Fiction ,

Girls Who Rock

June 4th, 2010 By Melissa Slachetka

Laurie Lindeen (who answered MN Reads 6 questions last year) sets us up for a solid rock-n-roll road-trip in Petal Pusher: A Rock and Roll Cinderella Story. With its sassy pink cover, this memoir will do its best to surprise you with brutal honesty and boundless energy. Lindeen and her band, Zuzu’s Petals, may not [...]

MN Authors, Non-Fiction , ,

The weight on her shoulders

May 23rd, 2010 By Melissa Slachetka

Bonnie Rough expertly straddles the fine line of too much information in her new book Carrier, Untangling the Danger in my DNA. Reality and memoir fill in the pieces to Rough’s past as she writes about her genetic abnormality – an inherited DNA trait – that she could likely pass on to future children. “In [...]

Non-Fiction ,

All Sauced Up

May 13th, 2010 By Melissa Slachetka

Dreams of Sex and Stage Diving is the best Martin Millar book since Good Fairies of New York. It is uncouth, dirty, and a lot of fun. Millar taps into confused youths brave denial of any proper society, by pushing sexual boundaries and creating a punk-rock playground. The writing is graphic and gratuitous, with an [...]

Fiction ,

Genocide and tears

April 24th, 2010 By Melissa Slachetka

Shocking and powerful: Mornings in Jenin by Susan Abulhawa is a history of heartache that will turn on the water-works. It is an intimate portrait of true loves’ deep scars and generations of families that get brought together and pulled apart so many times, that it’s like ripping a band-aid off the same place again [...]

Fiction ,

Who is Miss Peach?

April 22nd, 2010 By Melissa Slachetka

Under the idyllic and pastoral cover, The Stranger Manual by Catie Rosemurgy is a creepy little book of poems. It juxtaposes the realities of grotesque and pretty: of comic and disturbing. While this seems alarming, it may not be a bad thing. Miss Peach, an ever-appearing character in the verses, is as compelling as Miss [...]

Poetry

It’s all in the Cards

April 3rd, 2010 By Melissa Slachetka

The Last Days of Madame Rey is a perfect companion to A. W. Hill’s Nowhere-Land. Both feature the daring PI Stephan Raszer, and although Madame Rey came first, it has just been newly released in a paperback with brand-new cover art. Both reads are intense, but Madame Rey has an earthy mother-nature tone where science [...]

Fiction , ,