Admittedly, I remember very little from the 1970s beyond having panel walls in our kitchen, and matted mustard carpeting in the living room. So, luckily, I am able to see beyond the frustrations of sexually stifled housewife Sandy Pressman, and instead take Judy Blume’s hidden-in-the-hamper novel from the era for something better: Wifey is Pure. Comic. Gold. The book opens [...]

Sometime around the time I read Blackbriar I decided it would be fun to revisit other books I loved while growing up. I wanted to see how the books held up, and find out how much I’d remembered. Second on this list of childhood favorites is Judy Blume’s Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. As a kid I had a [...]

The adage about kids who see their parents read turning into readers holds true with Jaycie Kimball, 11, our newest MN Reads reviewer. She’s the daughter of reviewer Ben Kimball and my sister Ericka, and happens to be my absolute favorite niece. Jaycie’s been an avid book lover since, well, birth I think. When she was a wee little toddler, [...]

Yeah, I cannot deny that I’m pretty excited to have Jake Mohan writing for MN Reads. I first discovered Jake’s writing years ago on his personal blog The Dependent Clause. His writing is so good that I cyberstalked him at Reveille and Utne. But now, I won’t have to look too far to find his musing on literature. They’ll be [...]

The other day Mighty Girl, Maggie Mason wrote about the eight books that changed her. Since I read the post I’ve been thinking about what books have changed me, the ones that shook my foundation or rocked my world. It’s a tough question and I’ve been pondering it for a few days. My go to answer to this one is [...]