Minnesota Reads

This series is the dim sum of anthologies. Short stories, lists, magazine articles and snippets of graphic novels are chosen by two groups of high school students. Where did they get such good taste at such a young age? The Nonrequired Reading edition of the Best American series is released annually and edited by Dave [...]

According to his bio, Paul Lundgren is an acclaimed columnist and a very nice man. We’ll take his word for it (mostly because MN Reads’ own Christa is willing to vouch for him). Lundgren, a frequent contributor to Perfect Duluth Day, is about to release his first book, The Spowl Ribbon so we asked him [...]

David Sedaris still holds the title of Best Comedy Writer in my mind, but after reading My Horizontal Life, I've decided Chelsea Handler is making a pretty strong bid to be the heir to that throne. In My Horizontal Life, the unapologetically (almost proudly) promiscuous Handler recalls her many one-night stands with a tart, dry [...]

Most often when I’m reading, I’m alone in the room if not the entire house. I usually don’t laugh out loud while reading unless there’s someone nearby I can share the humor with. I don’t know why that is, it just is. Most books make me smile at one point or another, most humorous books [...]

I met Jodie, aka FFJ [Fabulous Friend Jodie], in a short story writing class at The Loft back in 2003. And even though I totally rolled my eyes when she said her favorite author was Shakespeare, we still became friends. After the bookclub we joined fizzled into oblivious we started a sort-of-monthly book podcast called [...]

The Soul Thief by Charles Baxter: Despite the fact that Charles Baxter induces a plot amnesia that always makes me forget what his books are about within a week of reading them, I am always keenly aware while I’m reading them that this man is a word genius. In this one, Nathanial Mason’s life story [...]

I was a late comer to the David Sedaris party. While everyone I knew was going on and on about how funny he was, I was busy reading dark and depressing, serious “literature” or, you know, liner notes of CDs. But long about 2004 (September 06, 2004 to be exact), I picked up Naked and [...]

A few weeks ago over at How Was The Show, the musicgeeks were getting all hopped up about all the great music coming to Minnesota in October, I mean Rocktober. I was just updating the Minnesota Reads calendar and noticed that booknerds can have just as much fun in Rocktober as their musicgeek brethren. Here [...]