Magers & Quinn is pleased to host an evening with John Irving--Monday, November 9, at 7:00pm, at the Suburban World Theater (3022 Hennepin Ave S). He will read from his new novel
Last Night in Twisted River.
This is a ticketed event. Tickets are available only at M&Q and are $30.25 plus tax. This price includes admission and a signed book and admission to the reading. Only 200 tickets are available. This will be John Irving's only public appearance in the Twin Cities, and no other signed copies of
Last Night in Twisted River will be available in town.
“Veteran novelist Irving’s twelfth novel is full to bursting with story, character and emotion…. Irving is a natural-born story-teller with a unique and compelling authorial voice. He shapes his over-the-top plot and larger-than-life characters into an artful reflection of how the past informs the present, both for the unforgettable trio at the heart of his novel and the flawed but indomitable country they live in.”--
Booklist (starred review)
Over the course of an extraordinary career that spans more than forty years, John Irving has earned a distinguished reputation as one of the greatest storytellers of our time. With a body of work that includes novels, short stories and memoirs, Irving has taken readers on incredible journeys into the hearts and minds of characters who are trying to find a place for themselves in a world that has a tendency to turn topsy-turvy. Whether telling the story of a young man’s memorable coming-of-age (
The World According to Garp); chronicling the trials and tribulations of an unforgettably eccentric family (
The Hotel New Hampshire); describing the life of a young orphan as he tries to make a place for himself in the world (
The Cider House Rules); recounting with laughter and tears an ill-fated friendship (
A Prayer for Owen Meany) or documenting the extraordinary exploits of a magician caught up in a decades-old mystery (
A Son of a Circus), John Irving has set the standard of excellence in contemporary fiction. On
Last Night in Twisted River--John Irving’s achingly beautiful novel that explores the profound love between fathers and sons, the mysteries of love and sex, and the relationship between the memories that haunt us and the fiction they inspire--will be available on October 27, 2009.
The year is 1954. In a logging settlement in northern New Hampshire, Dominic Baciagalupo works as a cook, feeding a crew of hungry workers from dawn until dusk. A widower still reeling from the death of his beloved wife years before, Dominic is devoted to his twelve-year-old son Daniel. The camp is a rough and tumble place to raise a child, but the cook will do anything and everything he can to provide for his son.
Dominic is somewhat of a loner and spends much of his time prepping for the meals to come and attending to his duties as a parent. His closest friend is Ketchum, a hard living river man whose musings about life and the ways of the world become more abrasive with each drink he consumes. The two men are remarkably different, yet they are linked by an unusual history. There is also Injun Jane, the kitchen dishwasher, who dotes on young Daniel and offers Dominic companionship on lonely nights. Yet if Jane’s boyfriend, Twisted River’s ruthless lawman Constable Carl, were ever to find out about these trysts, there would be hell to pay.
On a fateful evening, young Daniel makes a tragic mistake that leads to the death of Injun Jane. In a split second, lives are changed forever. Dominic and Daniel are forced to flee Twisted River and become fugitives, trying to escape the vengeance of Constable Carl. In a journey that spans more than half a century, father and son travel from the buttoned-down repression of Boston in the late 1950s and early ‘60s, to the American Midwest at a time when the country is on a collision course with its past and its future, to the melancholic landscape of southern Vermont and, finally, to the Canadian north.
Aided and abetted by an unforgettable cast of characters, Dominic and Daniel experience the triumphs and tragedies that shape a lifetime. Over the years, their relationship deepens, as the roles of the protector and the protected inevitably shift.
In a recent interview, John Irving said, “There’s one thing that readers take away from many of my stories, which is don’t take the people you love for granted. Love them while they’re there, because you don’t know how the story ends.”
Last Night in Twisted River is a reminder that we should love the important people in our lives ferociously because, indeed, we do not know how the story ends. Sweeping in its scope and intimate in its exploration of the lives of its characters, the novel is a work of one of America’s greatest storytellers at the height of his powers.
David Cross will be at the University of Minnesota bookstore at Coffman Union on Monday, October 5 at 4:00 p.m., reading from his new book I Drink for a Reason. Here is a bit of his reading earlier this month at Book Soup in Los Angeles.
The UK's Telegraph newspaper heaps some derision on Dan Brown in their article The Lost Symbol and The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown: 50 factual errors. For example: "Brown claims the Washington Monument is the highest point in the city. This is false: the tower of the National Cathedral is the highest point. The Monument is the tallest building--555 feet--but the Cathedral, which is just over 300 feet tall, is built on Mount St Albans, a 400 foot tall hill."
JK Rowling is twittering. You can follow her at jk_rowling. But don't worry that she's taking time away from writing her next magnum opus. She twits, "I’m afraid you won’t be hearing from me very often."--David E
J. P. White reads from his novel Every Boat Turns South this coming Saturday, October 3, 7:00pm, at Magers &Quinn Booksellers.
Millions of people have cats, dogs and other pets. Once in a lifetime, there is one so special you will never forget it. That's the case with Bill Voedisch and his cat Mitten. Enjoy their antics, and those of their other two-legged and four-legged pals, in Citizen Mitten. But beware, Bill says anyone who brings home a pet accepts the responsibility for their death, be it a few years away, or 20, as in the case of Mitten. Why? Bill tells us in his sometimes hilarious, sometimes poignant, always memorable, stories. 
Diablo Cody, author of Candy Girl: A Year in the Life of an Unlikely Stripper and author of the screenplay for Juno has won a hard-fought battle to adapt the Sweet Valley High series of young adult books for the screen. According to her Twitter feed (via Jezebel), she wrote, "You have no idea how many [*&^!*!]s I took down to do this project. I went 'full Jessica.' Believe it."
Local book sales rep John Mesjak has written a blog posting that should be required reading for all computer-savvy fans of indie bookstores. How to Thank Your Favorite Bookstore talks about the importance of talking up your favorite stores on Yelp, Facebook, Twitter, and the like.
Only the Superrich Can Save Us is the vivid new novel by political activist and bestselling author Ralph Nader that answers the question, "What if?" What if a cadre of superrich individuals tried to become a driving force in America to organize and institutionalize the interests of the citizens of this troubled nation? What if some of America's most powerful individuals decided it was time to fix our government and return the power to the people? What if they focused their power on unionizing Wal-Mart? What if a national political party were formed with the sole purpose of advancing clean elections? What if these seventeen superrich individuals decided to galvanize a movement for alternative forms of energy that will effectively clean up the environment? What if together they took on corporate goliaths and Congress to provide the necessities of life and advance the solutions so long left on the shelf by an avaricious oligarchy? What could happen?
Saturday, September 26, 7:00pm, Eileen McMahon and Theodore Karamanski will be at Magers & Quinn Booksellers to discuss their book, North Woods River: The St. Croix River in Upper Midwest History. The new book is a thoughtful biography of the river over the course of more than three hundred years. Eileen McMahon and Theodore Karamanski track the river’s social and environmental transformation as newcomers changed the river basin and, in turn, were changed by it. The history of the St. Croix revealed here offers larger lessons about the future management of beautiful and fragile wild waters. 
Want a little inspiration to get you moving in the kitchen? We've got the event for you. On Wednesday, September 23, at 7:30pm, Trina Hahnemann will be at Magers & Quinn to discuss The Scandinavian Cookbook.
Terry Dunham's "The Last Trip to Bradford" is one of the winning pieces in this year's Flash Fiction competition miniStories, which is sponsored by Magers and Quinn and presented by mnartists.org. Terry's story was selected by Lisa Erdrich, author of Night Train, which won the Minnesota Monthly Tamarack Award. 
Free stuff! Who wants free stuff?! 
Here's a special treat for our loyal blog readers: We have 5 FREE passes for the new film The Baader Meinhof Complex, based on the book by Stefan Aust. Each pass is good for TWO admissions to any WEEKDAY showing of the film. 
Sue Leaf will be at Magers & Quinn Booksellers, 
Photos from our launch party for the book version of the Sartorialist are online, courtesy of Digital Crush Photography. If you were there, check them out to see if you made the grade. If you weren't at the party, you can still buy the book and get some tips for a fashionable fall wardrobe.
It begins: The shortlist of nominees for the 2009 Man Booker Prize for Fiction have been announced. It won't add much to your reading list--only one of the books is available in the States right now.
Fans of graphic novels and devotees of dark family stories alike will want to come to hear David Small when he discusses his memoir Stitches, Tuesday, September 15, at 7:30pm.
Seekers of all stripes will want to come to Magers & Quinn Booksellers at 4:00pm, Sunday, September 13, when intuitive coach Jodi Livon shares the fascinating true stories and hard-won wisdom she's acquired on her journey as a psychic medium. Packed with tips on trusting your senses, maintaining emotional balance, staying grounded, and interpreting signs from the Universe, along with fun exercises to develop your psychic abilities, Jodi's new book, The Happy Medium can help you learn to tune in to your own intuition for higher awareness and guidance in making life's decisions.
Toronto's online magazine The Gate has a nice bit of boosterism for Ian Halperin, author of Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson: "Ian Halperin has done what every Canadian author in the country has dreamed of doing, but only he has done since 1944--to see their name under the title of a book atop the New York Times Best-Seller list. Good for you Ian, keep up the good work--it is an inspiring achievement that we should all be proud of."
Salon.com has posted a great interview with Stephen Elliot, author most recently of The Adderall Diaries: A Memoir of Moods, Masochism, and Murder. In both the article and the book, Elliot discusses his childhood (drug-addled), his relationship with his father (fraught), his opinion of 60 Minutes ("exploitative") and his cagey plan to get advance buzz for his book (very successful). Through it all, Elliot comes off as entertaining and frank, just like his book, according to the reviews.
Two great poets will be at Magers & Quinn Booksellers on Saturday, September 12, at 7:00pm. 
Coffee House Press will be hosting its 25th Anniversary Benefit “One for the Books” on October 29, 2009 from 7:00 to 10:00 pm at our home in Northeast Minneapolis. The evening will include a reading by featured guest Ed Sanders, live music, food, an open bar, and a silent auction. Tickets are $40/person or $75 for a pair. To RSVP, please contact Emily via email.
Ken Waldman, Alaska’s Fiddling Poet, will be at Magers & Quinn Booksellers at 7:30pm, Friday, September 11. 
Magers & Quinn Bookseller hosts St Paul's own Kate Ledger, reading from her new novel Remedies, Thursday, September 10, at 7:30pm.
