Minnesota Reads

Put on your hip waders, folks. I’m about to heap an enormous amount of praise on to Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The star is 9-year-old Oskar Schell, perhaps the most likable protagonist to ever land on a page. To...

There is a place in my brain that had seized up and was unable recognize writers who produce book after book after book. It was nothing I ever thought about, just on some subconscious level I had created an equation that quantity diminished quality...

Cassette mix tapes are a generational thing. My parents didn’t make them, probably because they had those crappy 8-tracks. At least they had vinyl. I made tons of mix tapes for practically anyone I met. I started when I was 14. ...

Big Noise by Jen Wright is a Northwood’s thriller you can curl up with on a snowy night. Main character, Jo, is in need of a vacation from her stressful work dealing with troubled and sometimes dangerous teens. ...

I finished reading Dan Chaon’s Await Your Reply two weeks ago, and it wrecked me. I haven’t been able to read more than ten pages in any book since, which kind of makes sense considering Chaon’s novel is so fucking good it blew my mind. This...

Phase two of Stephenie Meyer’s beloved vampire series begins on our self-lathing heroine Bella Swan’s 18th birthday. In New Moon, the gothess is struggling with a Matthew McConaughey-ism: She will keep getting older, while her boyfriend stays the same age. Be...

MN Reads is taking a brief hiatus. Mostly because I am sick and then I had to write a story and now I’m way behind on work. I need to takes care of that that which pays money above that which brings joy. I am philosophical as a sick person. I always feel weird posting [...] No related posts. ...

Browsing through my favorite bookstore, I picked up a copy of Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell. I don’t usually buy national bestsellers at an independent bookstore, but the manager highly recommended it, and I respect her opinion – so there ya go. Wh...

Bucky Bleichert and Lee Blanchert are boxers turned coppers who have recently forged a friendship and partnership after kicking the shit out of each other in a highly-publicized, post-retirement boxing match that resulted in huge headlines, cash for the LAPD, and a promotion for Bucky in James...

John Irving worries about young writers and gives good quotes. He’ll be reading at 7 p.m. on Monday, November 9 at Comedy Sportz in the Calhoun Square. If you didn’t get tickets, Magers & Quinn is having a listening party at the store. Find out more. Th...

While reading American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang, I had to consistently remind myself that it was graphic novel for young adults. Without that reminder I found myself growing a little weary of the premise — dealing with racism in America, trying to find your identity, etc. ...

I love a new take on an old tale. It’s why I see every version of Hamlet I can. There is a comfort in knowing what comes next, but there is also sheer excitement in never having seen it in such a way before. ...

There’s something entrancing about a brainiac flirting with a mobster… especially when he flirts back. Moonlight in Odessa is a steamy and somber novel that gives the reader a love story caught in a world of beauty and corruption. It...

Last week I was talking with my writing teacher, Dale, about graphic novels. I was reading one before class started and he, pretty unfamiliar with the form, was curious what a lit snob like me thought of them...