Books

"October 27, 1940, Sunday -- Went to chapel all day as usual. Our big meeting next Sunday. Gwilym Rees will be preaching. "October 29, 1940, Tuesday -- Went to school. My feet fit easier into the shoes than they did yesterday, as I have corn remove on and I hope they will succeed....

"Now that science has attained its youth and superstition is in its dotage, the trembling, palsied wreck says to the athlete: 'Let us be friends.' It reminds me of the bargain the cock wished to make with the horse: 'Let us agree not to step on each other's feet.'" --Robert Ingersoll,...

Sometimes an author doesn't realize he's got a good thing going and plunges on ahead when he might well have done better had he looked back. Popular Minnesota author Jon Hassler's first adult novel was "Staggerford," which drew rave reviews from the New York Times. Unfortunately...

I met a traveler from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert...Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command, Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which...

Heads up! We've got a book about heads this week, "Heads in Beds," by Jacob Tomsky (Doubleday, $25.95). But first a brief dissertation on what I like to call the "insider" novel, which has been around for centuries. One of the first is "Moll Flanders." In which Daniel DeFoe gets...

I often receive books that make me think of old friends and relatives no longer here to enjoy them. Whenever I receive a book by Jerry Apps,...

After a quarter century of book reviewing, I guess it's time for me to admit that until recently, I never read a novel by bestselling author John Grisham. That's partly because most of the reviewers who worked for me put dibs on his novels before they came out and so what was I to...

"Thirty Rooms to Hide In," by Luke Longstreet Sullivan (University of Minnesota Press, $24.95) has a subtitle that sort of grabs you: "Insanity, Addiction, and Rock 'n' Roll in the Shadow of the Mayo Clinic." Who's insane at the Mayo Clinic? And who's addicted? That would be a prestigious...

Have a history buff on your holiday guest list? You won't be disappointed to find all manner of biography and serious history new to bookshelves this winter. For starters, try "Geronimo," by Robert Utley (Yale University Press, $30). Utley a National Parks historian traces the...

Someone on your holiday gift list who likes to read books by and about characters in the upper Midwest? There's a plethora in that category this year. If your target is politics, try "Minnesota's Miracle," by Tom Berg (University of Minnesota Press, $22.95, paper). Berg served...

The holiday season is upon us and the search for appropriate gifts has begun. In our family the children get top priority and upper Midwestern publishers have been burning the midnight oil to give gift givers a wide variety of choices. Here's a sampling of new books for kids from...

When I was a kid one of the biggest deals of the year was when the Al G. Kelly and Miller Brothers Circus came to town. It was a mid-sized circus, nothing like Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, which always stopped in Eau Claire.

The University of Minnesota Press's Fesler-Lampert Heritage Book Series is a rare and wonderful bird indeed. It describes its mission as attempting "to republish significant out-of-print books that contribute to our understanding and appreciation of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest."...

Today let us begin with two very productive upper Midwestern writers who continue to write about our neighborhoods with relish and sometimes very dramatic substance. First, there's Jerry Apps, a retired University of Wisconsin professor who's written 30 books of fiction and non-fiction....

Now that the election is over I thought I might stir the pot a bit with mention of a new book that's been receiving attention. It's "The Oath: The Obama White House and the Supreme Court," by Jeffrey Toobin (Doubleday, $28.95). A writer for the New Yorker magazine, Toobin has written...