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Read more about Read, Drink, Listen: September 2018

Read: Amor Towles
Read more about Read, Drink, Listen: March 2018

James Tucker is a Target executive and former international lawyer, and he’s truly a Renaissance guy. The Deephaven native recently published his first novel, Next of Kin (Thomas & Mercer, 2017), a crime thriller featuring an NYPD detective and his quest to protect the lone survivor of a wealthy family, 10-year-old heir Ben Brook.
Read more about Deephaven Native Publishes First Novel

In 1996, Ann Nye and Ellie Temple had been working together at Frog Island Books in Excelsior for eight years. When the owner retired and closed up shop that year, Nye wanted to keep a bookstore alive in Excelsior. “Ann turned to me and said, ‘Ellie, we could do this,’” Temple says. “I said, ‘I don’t think so. This isn’t the right time.’ So I agreed to do it for five years, and that was 21 years ago,” she says. Read more about Good Read

A Warm Winter by Feridun Oral
Recommended for preschool to grade three.
Snuggle up for this read-aloud. Little Mouse leaves his nest on a cold winter morning to gather firewood, but when it comes time to bring the gathered twigs home, he realizes it is much too heavy for one mouse. He must work together with the other animals before the big blizzard hits. This is a beautifully illustrated story of cooperation and perseverance that will warm any heart. Read more about Keep Kids Indoors and Cozy with These Winter Reads

When Jerry Holl retired in 2012, he was 57 years old, and he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do next. But he was sure what he wanted to be next.

“I wanted to be fully alive,” Holl says. “I had a good life, a wonderful family, and had had a successful career, but I felt like I was going through the motions.” Read more about Excelsior’s Jerry Holl Rode His Bike from Alaska to Mexico—Just to See If He Could

Last October, 16-year-old Justin M. Anderson started what, to his knowledge, is the first publishing company exclusively for teenage authors (ages 12 to 19). On June 24, Sigma’s Bookshelf, which is run by Justin and his parents, Jamie and Rachel Anderson, officially released its first two titles. The launch party was held at Roseville’s Barnes & Noble bookstore.

Justin just started his junior year at Wayzata High School. Read more about Justin Anderson Helps Fellow Teens Get Published with Sigma’s Bookshelf

Jim Rogers knew he was Irish by age 5. “My mother never let me forget. She pinned green shamrocks to my shirt when I went off to school,” he says. That was St. Patrick’s Day—maybe a superficial way to recognize one’s heritage, but one that stands out. Read more about Where Has Irishness Gone?

In 2013, on a plane to San Francisco, birthplace of Beat poetry, writer and mother Susan Koefod reflected on the McKnight Artist Fellowship for Writers she’d just won. Artist, it told her. Artist? She, a woman of the ’70s women’s lib movement: writer and mother and daughter and wife. She reflected on the breakaway Beat poets.

Then, in a flash, her book: A girl comes home to find her image gone from the mirror. Read more about Books: Gone from the Mirror

In 1961, a young Mary Ann Grossmann began working in the newsroom at what was then called the St. Paul Dispatch-Pioneer Press. After several years as editor of the “women’s department,” Grossmann went on to be named the books editor for the St. Paul Pioneer Press in 1983. She has since become one of the most highly regarded literary lights in the community, and a recipient of the Minnesota Book Awards Kay Sexton Award and a Page One Award. Read more about By the Book