Category Archives: Books

…swift, bright, drift… by Diane Jarpvenpa (2016. Red Dragonfly Press. ISBN 9781937693831) There is is, hanging from the top of a living room painting like a dogwood pod or an old dried-up fig. So begins Twin Cities singer/songwriter and whimsical … Continue reading →

Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe (2006. Scribner. ISBN 9780743297318) Time for a confession. I have always confused the Thomas Wolfe, renowned contemporary of Hemingway, Faulkner, and Stein with the other Tom Wolfe (Bonfire of the Vanities) who was born … Continue reading →

Unrestorable Habitat: Microsoft is My Neighbor Now by Lois Pillips Hudson (2010. Foreverland Press. ISBN 9780996528924) I loved Hudson’s one and only novel, Bones of Plenty, a compelling melodrama set on the plains of North Dakota (see review elsewhere on … Continue reading →

Good Thunder, Blue Earth by Susan Stevens Chambers (2016. River Place Press. ISBN 9780990356363) Here’s why I enjoyed this collection of poems set in America’s rural heartland: No five a.m. eggs, no fresh cinnamon rolls at ten. Stay away from … Continue reading →

George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spy Ring that Saved the American Revolution by Brian Kilmeade and Don Yaeger (2013. Sentinel. ISBN 978-1-59523-103-1) My friends Nancy and Ron don’t always see eye to eye with Rene’ and I when it comes … Continue reading →

The Confabulist by Steven Galloway (201. Riverhead Books. ISBN 9781594631962) Two true confessions. First, from the time I saw an article about Houdini in a 1917 copy of Life magazine stacked amongst hundreds of other copies of that seminal 20th … Continue reading →

The Wright Brothers by David McCullough (2015. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-147672874) Masterpieces: The Path Between the Seas. John Adams. 1776. The Wright Brothers? Not so much. I’ve read the first three titles, all great works of non-fiction by Mr. … Continue reading →

Uprising A Novel by Dean Urdahl (2007. North Star Press. ISBN 978-0-87839-247-6) I met Representative Urdahl at Hostfest in Minot this past fall. We manned tables across from each other in the Nordic festival’s bookstore as we hawked novels to … Continue reading →

Simon’s Night (including Simon’s Night Journal) by Jon Hassler, edited by Joseph Plut. (2013. Nodin Press. ISBN 978-1-9356666-53-0) Jon Hassler. My wife’s favorite author. A Minnesota original. I’ve met and spoken to Hassler’s friend and former colleague, Joseph Plut, and … Continue reading →

Waverly’s Universe by Jim Trainor (2012. Up North Press. ISBN 9780615709215) Sorry, Rev. Trainor, but this is the weakest of the three books of yours I’ve read. There. That’s as plain as I can make it. My friend Vicky gave … Continue reading →