Category Archives: Books

Shelter by Sarah Stonich (2011. Borealis Books. ISBN 978-0-87351-775-1) A fine novelist can make a fine nonfiction storyteller. That’s the thing one learns if one has read and appreciated Minnesota native Sarah Stonich’s works of literary fiction (These Granite Islands … Continue reading →

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende (2010. HarperAudio. ISBN 978-0-06-199362-6) Yes, that’s my title of this review of author Isabel Allende’s latest effort. I took a lot of heat from my buddy Mark Rubin, who was one of the … Continue reading →

O River Remember! by Martha Ostenso (1943. Grosset and Dunlap) As a member of the Rural Lit R.A.L.L.Y. Advisory Board, a joint effort of Buena Vista University and Buffalo State University to preserve essential (but forgotten) novels of the Great … Continue reading →

The Mysterious Life of the Heart edited by Sy Safransky, Tom McKee, and Andrew Snee (2009. The Sun. ISBN 978-0-917320-04-0 I’ve been a subscriber to Sy Safransky’s little experiment in literary journalism, The Sun, off and on now for almost … Continue reading →

The Myth of a Christian Nation by Gregory A. Boyd (2005. Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-26731-7) To be sure, there is much to be admired in an Evangelical theologian who understands the hypocrisy of many Americans who label themselves “God fearing, fundamentalists” … Continue reading →

                    Finns in Minnesota by Arnold R. Alanen. (2012. Minnesota Historical Society Press. ISBN 978-0-87351-854-3) Anyone of Finnish descent interested in a brief, concise history of the Finnish experience in Minnesota … Continue reading →

Gabby by Mark Kelly and Gabrielle Giffords, with Jeffrey Zaslow (2011. Scribner. ISBN 978-1-4516-6106-4) On January 8, 2011, a gunman came to a “Congressman on the Corner” event in Tucson, Arizona where Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was meeting her constituents, taking … Continue reading →

                            Freedom by Jonathan Franzen (2010. Picador. ISBN 978-0-312-57646-2) Mmm…Where to start? I actually bought this contemporary literary novel for my third son, Christian, either as a … Continue reading →

Planet of the Blind by Stephen Kuusisto (1998. Delta. ISBN 978-0-365-3327-6) I met poet and memoirist Stephen Kuusisto over a glass of hard cider in Helsinki when we were both looking for Finnish poet, Jarkko Laine. Not really. Though, in … Continue reading →

Bleachers by John Grisham (2003. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-51161-2) Better. Much better. I was troubled earlier this week by my review of Grisham’s latest, Calico Joe. I was pretty hard on the attorney-turned-wordsmith. But I try in this blog,  just like … Continue reading →