New Years News

M&Q will close a bit early on New Year's Eve. We'll shut the doors at 9:00pm (instead of our usual Friday closing time of 11:00pm).

Ah, but then we'll be open from 10:00am until 11:00pm, Saturday, January 1, for our customer appriciation sale. Everything in the store will be 25% off the marked price. (No further discounts or coupons apply.) Come in and pick up the books you didn't get for Christmas--at bargain prices.

Not everything is in a book...

...but everything worth reading is in one.--David E

25% Off Everything at Magers & Quinn on New Year's Day

Magers & Quinn Booksellers is having a customer appreciation sale. We'll be open from 10:00am until 11:00pm, Saturday, January 1. Everything in the store will be 25% off the marked price. (No further discounts or coupons apply.)

Come in and pick up the books you didn't get for Christmas--at bargain prices.

The Big Bang Book Club Stares Down Winter

The Big Bang Book Club discusses Winter World : The Ingenuity of Animal Survival--Tuesday, December 28, at 7:00pm.

Our subject this month is Winter World : The Ingenuity of Animal Survival. Award–winning writer and biologist Bernd Heinrich’s book is an intimate, accessible and eloquent illumination of animal survival in winter. Unlike humans, animals are adaptable to an amazing range of conditions. From flying squirrels to grizzly bears, torpid turtles to insects with antifreeze, the animal kingdom relies on some staggering evolutionary innovations to survive the coldest season.

The Big Bang Book Club mixes arts and science into a heady brew. It is sponsored by Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Secrets of the City (the daily digest of Twin Cities culture), and duplex restaurant.barDetails are here.--David E

Holiday Hours

Magers @ Quinn Booksellers will close at 4:30pm on Friday, December 24. We will be closed all day December 25.

We open again at 10:00am on Saturday, December 26.

Happy holidays, everyone!

For S-Shocks

Sara Gruen's smash hit novel Water for Elephants will soon become a movie. A defanged Robert Pattinson stars as Jacob Jankoski, who joins the circus during the Great Depression. Reese Witherspoon plays the object of his affection, Marlena Rosenbluth, equestrienne. There's no indication as to who plays Rosie, the titular elephant.



Water for Elephants (the movie) will be released April 15. The book is available right now.--David E

De-Recycling

The good folks at the University of San Francisco have reversed the normal process--they've turned books back into a tree. See more on their Flickr stream.--David E

Saturday Signings: Minnesota 101

Magers & Quinn Booksellers presents "Saturday Signings." Every Saturday in December, great local authors will be available to make your book a unique present--at Magers & Quinn Booksellers. Signed books are one-of-a-kind gifts. No one else can give your dad a copy of Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn dedicated to him by the author. Or a copy of Drink This with a personal recommendation from Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl.

Magers & Quinn Booksellers makes it easy for you to get personalized gifts for everyone on your list. Every Saturday in December, authors will be in the store signing copies of their books. The events are free and open to the public.

Bonus signing!--12:00pm, Saturday, December 18--Meet the authors of Minnesota 101: Everything You Wanted to Know About Minnesota and Were Going to Ask Anyway

Well-known Minnesotans weigh in on one of the nation’s most livable states. Crime historian Paul Maccabee spills the beans on gangsters in Minnesota, Howard Mohr tells us five ways even you can talk like a Minnesotan, Annette Atkins gives up the five things that make Minnesota Minnesota, and celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern dishes on hotdish and other favorites. From great parks, Minnesota shorthand, and outstanding theater to Nobel Prize winners, astronauts, and Minnesota“nice,” it’s all here.

Whether you're a lifelong resident or a first-time visitor to the Gopher State, there is no more complete book about Minnesota. If you love Minnesota, you'll love Minnesota 101: Everything You Wanted to Know About Minnesota and Were Going to Ask Anyway.

Support Rain Taxi

Rain Taxi's annual online benefit auction is underway. Offerings include signed first editions, beautiful broadsides, rare chapbooks, seminal graphic novels, quirky collectible books, and this year’s Rain Taxi Quilt. Browse the full selection here.--David E

Saturday Signings: Kevin Kling & Peg Meier

Magers & Quinn Booksellers presents "Saturday Signings." Every Saturday in December, great local authors will be available to make your book a unique present--at Magers & Quinn Booksellers. Signed books are one-of-a-kind gifts. No one else can give your dad a copy of Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn dedicated to him by the author. Or a copy of Drink This with a personal recommendation from Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl.

Magers & Quinn Booksellers makes it easy for you to get personalized gifts for everyone on your list. Every Saturday in December, authors will be in the store signing copies of their books. The events are free and open to the public.

1:00pm, Saturday, December 18--(Minnesota) Nice Books

• Kevin Kling, storyteller and author of Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn and The Dog Says How
  
• Peg Meier, author of Wishing for a Snow Day: Growing Up in Minnesota; Too Hot, Went to Lake; and Bring Warm Clothes

Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn is a romp through a yearful of holidays. A wiener dog with an amazing capacity for destruction impresses the whole family and contributes to their collection of favorite disastrous Christmas stories. A Choctaw and a nun go trick-or-treating on Halloween. A boy makes a frightening decision every year when he chooses which classmate gets the "Be Mine" Valentine. Kevin takes his mom to a Fourth of July demolition derby–and then he takes an epic trip around the bases at a ball game on Memorial Day.

"Kevin Kling's stories are not merely delightful. They are surprising, wise and redemptive. He is one of our great national treasures."--Krista Tippett, public radio host and founder of Speaking of Faith and host of Being

Kevin Kling is a playwright and storyteller, and his commentaries can be heard on public radio. his plays and adaptations have been performed around the world. He lives in Minneapolis.

Minnesota history comes alive in Wishing for a Snow Day: Growing Up in Minnesota. Beloved pets. Holiday rituals. Schoolyard antics. Teenage perspectives on a world at war. Childhood is a mixed bag of challenges and joys wherever one grows up. In Minnesota, youthful memories may be arranged seasonally: making snow angels in January, swatting mosquitoes in July. They may be tinged with a nostalgic glow or imprinted by lessons hard won.

In this new collection, Peg Meier explores the themes of childhood—the bitter and the sweet. Thanks to Minnesotans who took the time to write, whether as children in the moment or as adults looking back, Meier unearthed a wealth of material on the subject, ranging from diary entries to reminiscences to newspaper columns, along with plenty of photographs.

Peg Meier is a longtime and award-winning reporter for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

I Don't Have a Problem. I Have a Poster.

Grant Snider is selling his poster "Confessions of a Book Fiend" for only $15.00. What book lover on your list wouldn't love one? Get one here.

Tip of the hat to Wessel & Lieberman for the news.--David E

No Emergency

We don't let a little snow stop us. We're open, despite the snow.--David E

Hug Your Books

Commune Design's groovy hand bookends will set you back a steep $680.00, but M&Q can get you the books for cheap, so it balances out, right? Get a pair here.--David E

Sneak Preview

Bink and Gollie is just about the cutest kids book of the year. Library Journal loved it: "My suggestion is that you create a Bink and Gollie section in your library. Clear a whole shelf off in your room and display your copies of this book proudly." It made the New York Times' list of Best Illustrated Children's Books of 2010.

If you're still not convinced, check out this preview video and see what we mean:



You can meet author Alison McGhee--and get a copy of the book inscribed to your own Bink or Gollie--Saturday, December 11, from 1:00pm to 2:00pm. She'll be joined by Steve Brezenoff, author of the young adult novel The Absolute Value of -1. Steve's book is a fantastic choice for older readers on your list.

Details are here.--David E

Not-So-Ugly Mug

If--somehow, inexplicably, improbably--you are buying a gift that is not a book, might I suggest this curvaceous little eco-mug? It's 100% biodegradable corn plastic, grown and manufactured in the U.S. Even the inks are lead-free.

And there's a slogan which we heartily endorse.

Buy one here.--David E

Field Trip

Members of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School Book Club visited the Loft last weekend to take part in "Second Story," the Loft’s reading series for writers of young adult and children’s literature. They heard readings by Pete Hautman and Steve Brezenoff. A good time was had by all, as you can see in this picture.

You can find more events at loft.org.--David E

Whodunnit

Minnesota's Ojibwe history comes to life when Anton Treuer discusses his new book The Assassination of Hole in the Day--Monday, December 13, 7:30pm, at Magers & Quinn Booksellers.

On June 27, 1868, Hole in the Day the Younger left Crow Wing, Minnesota, for Washington, DC, to fight the planned removal of the Mississippi Ojibwe to a reservation at White Earth. Several miles from his home, the self-styled leader of all the Ojibwe was stopped by at least twelve Ojibwe men and fatally shot. Hole in the Day’s death was national news, and rumors of its cause were many: personal jealousy, retribution for his claiming to be head chief of the Ojibwe, retaliation for the attacks he fomented in 1862, or retribution for his attempts to keep mixed-blood Ojibwe off the White Earth Reservation. Still later, investigators found evidence of a more disturbing plot involving some of his closest colleagues: the business elite at Crow Wing.

While most historians concentrate on the Ojibwe relationship with whites to explain this story, Anton Treuer focuses on interactions with other tribes, the role of Ojibwe culture and tradition, and interviews with more than fifty elders to further explain the events leading up to the death of Hole in the Day. The Assassination of Hole in the Day is not only the biography of a powerful leader but an extraordinarily insightful analysis of a pivotal time in the history of the Ojibwe people.

“The Assassination of Hole in the Day is a masterful history, and more. Anton Treuer illuminates the character of a controversial and charismatic Ojibwe leader from within Ojibwe culture, and tells a powerful story of loss that reverberates in the present.”--Louise Erdrich

Anton Treuer, professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University, is the author of Ojibwe in Minnesota and several books on the Ojibwe language. He is also the editor of Oshkaabewis Native Journal, the only academic journal of the Ojibwe language.

Details are here.--David E

Saturday Signings: Alison McGhee & Steve Brezenoff

Magers & Quinn Booksellers presents "Saturday Signings." Every Saturday in December, great local authors will be available to make your book a unique present--at Magers & Quinn Booksellers. Signed books are one-of-a-kind gifts. No one else can give your dad a copy of Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn dedicated to him by the author. Or a copy of Drink This with a personal recommendation from Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl.

Magers & Quinn Booksellers makes it easy for you to get personalized gifts for everyone on your list. Every Saturday in December, authors will be in the store signing copies of their books. The events are free and open to the public.

1:00pm, Saturday, December 11--Books children of all ages

• Alison McGhee, author of Bink and Gollie, Julia Gillian and the Art of Knowing, Falling Boy, and many more books for young readers
  
• Steve Brezenoff, author of The Absolute Value of -1

Meet Bink and Gollie, two precocious little girls--one tiny, one tall, and both utterly irrepressible. Setting out from their super-deluxe tree house and powered by plenty of peanut butter (for Bink) and pancakes (for Gollie), they share three comical adventures involving painfully bright socks, an impromptu trek to the Andes, and a most unlikely marvelous companion. No matter where their roller skates take them, at the end of the day they will always be the very best of friends. Full of quick-witted repartee, Bink and Gollie, the brainchild of Newbery Medalist Kate DiCamillo and award-winning author Alison McGhee, is a hilarious ode to exuberance and camaraderie, imagination and adventure, brought to life through the delightfully kinetic images of Tony Fucile. For ages 4 to 104.

Noah, Lily, and Simon have been a trio forever. But as they enter high school, their relationships shift and their world starts to fall apart. Privately, each is dealing with a family crisis--divorce, abuse, and a parent’s illness. Yet as they try to escape the pain and reach out for the connections they once counted on, they slip--like soap in a shower. Noah’s got it bad for Lily, but he knows too well Lily sees only Simon. Simon is indifferent, suddenly inscrutable to his friends. All stand alone in their heartache and grief. In his luminous YA novel The Absolute Value of -1, Steve Brezenoff explores the changing value of relationships as the characters realize that the distances between them are far greater than they knew.

Not You, Personally, Of Course

From Falling and Laughing.--David E

A Second Chance to See Dave Zirin

If you didn't make it to M&Q last month to hear Dave Zirin discuss his book Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love, you missed an excellent evening of sports, politics, and humor. But don't go pulling your hair out just yet. Through the miracle of technology, you can see his remarks online--courtesy of Our World in Depth.

Our World In Depth appears on Minneapolis Television Network (MTN) Channel 17 on Saturdays at 9pm and Tuesdays at 8am, after DemocracyNow! And it's on St. Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) Channel 15 on Tuesdays at 5pm, midnight and Wednesday mornings at 10am. You only need basic cable.



Keep up with events at Magers & Quinn by visiting www.magersandquinn.com or sign up for or monthly email newsletter here.--David E

Reach Out and Read Book Drive

Magers & Quinn is collecting books for Reach Out and Read, which promotes early literacy and school readiness in pediatric exam rooms nationwide by giving new books to children and advice to parents about the importance of reading aloud. Books collected at M&Q will go to children and families at well-child visits, in the waiting room, and in the newborn program at the Broadway Family Medicine Clinic in North Minneapolis.

You can participate by donating new or gently used books at the drop off at Magers and Quinn. Below are some great choices, available at bargain prices at Magers & Quinn.

Boardbooks--$2.99 each

Illustrated Books and Early Readers--from $4.99

Young Adult Books--from $3.99

Sing It

From a blog whose name--while funny--isn't one I'm going to type on a work computer.--David E

We're #59!

Magers & Quinn's reading series is #59 on Mpls/St. Paul Magazine's "Best of the Twin Cities" list. What's more, we're also one of the sixty-four Bests competing in the best of the best showdown.

We're up against some stiff first-round competition--the Modern Cafe's meatloaf. Please log in and vote for great authors. I admit that meatloaf is tasty, but book readings have no trans fats or cholesterol. Vote here, and show the written word some love, would you?--David E

A Holiday We Can All Enjoy

Saturday Signings: Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl & Stewart Woodman

Magers & Quinn Booksellers presents "Saturday Signings." Every Saturday in December, great local authors will be available to make your book a unique present--at Magers & Quinn Booksellers. Signed books are one-of-a-kind gifts. No one else can give your dad a copy of Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn dedicated to him by the author. Or a copy of Drink This with a personal recommendation from Dara Moskowitz-Drumdahl.

Magers & Quinn Booksellers makes it easy for you to get personalized gifts for everyone on your list. Every Saturday in December, authors will be in the store signing copies of their books. The events are free and open to the public.

1:00pm, Saturday, December 4--Glorious food books

• Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, food critic and author of Drink This: Wine Made Simple
  
• Stewart Woodman, chef at Heidi's Minneapolis (2903 Lyndale Avenue S) and author of Shefzilla: Conquering Haute Cuisine at Home

"If you haven't lived with reading Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl every week, you have missed the reason why we humans have opposing thumbs. They're there so you can keep turning her pages. With Dara doing a wine book, the days are over of buying bottles because the labels match your home team colors. Be bamboozled and intimidated no more. Dara is about to give you the best and easiest kind of wine smarts, and gift you a good read in the bargain."--Lynne Rossetto Kasper, host of The Splendid Table

"Straight-forward, clearly organized and ambitiously witty, [Drink This] makes reading about wine fundamentals interesting again. Includes many "conversations" with bigwigs in the industry, provocative sidebars, and a clever "what's to love/hate" approach to major grapes."--Epicurious.com

On a brisk February morning, Stewart Woodman learned he’d been named a semifinalist for Best Chef: Midwest by the prestigious James Beard Foundation. That afternoon, a fire gutted his restaurant, Heidi’s, a southwest Minneapolis bistro whose inspired meals had garnered a passionate following among neighbors and travelers alike. Undaunted, Woodman turned his time and energy to cooking on a smaller scale--at home, for family and friends. He learned to adjust his tools and ingredients but not his style, and the result is chef-quality fare suitable for the home kitchen.

"Shefzilla is a great achievement--superb recipes, pertinent insight into the mind of a fine chef, a nifty glimpse into the kitchens I wish I worked in--but mostly this is a finely tuned chronicle of the food we all want to cook and eat with friends and family."--Andrew Zimmern, co-creator, host, and contributing producer of the Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods

Stay Warm

Fight winter's chill: Michael Nordskog and Aaron W. Hautala discuss the lure and lore of the sauna--7:30pm, Tuesday, November 30, at Magers & Quinn.

As many in the north country can attest, one of life’s great pleasures resides in the tradition of sauna--sitting in 180-plus-degree heat and throwing cool water on oven-hot stones to create a blast of steam (called löyly), followed by a jump in the lake, standing naked in subzero temperatures (or even rolling in the snow), or just relaxing on the cooling porch. To the uninitiated, there is a strange, alluring mystique to the art of Finnish sauna. But to an ever-increasing number of people--from their small urban saunas to backwoods and lakeside retreats--the culture and practice of Finnish sauna are as much a part of northwoods life as campfires and canoe trips.

Beginning with the origins of Finnish sauna and arrival of the practice to North America, and continuing all the way to contemporary design, The Opposite of Cold is an exquisite commemoration of the history, culture, and practice of Finnish sauna in the north woods. With stunning photographs of unique and historic saunas of the region--including the oldest sauna in North America, incredible surviving saunas from immigrant farmsteads, and the gorgeous contemporary saunas from noted architects--Michael Nordskog and Aaron W. Hautala unveil the importance and beauty of sauna culture in modern Midwestern life.

Richly illuminated by Hautala’s photographs of distinctive saunas from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ontario, and Finland, The Opposite of Cold is for people who grew up with Wednesday and Saturday evening saunas (or watched their steaming neighbors running toward the lake) and for those who dream of one day having their own. Through this book we see why Finnish sauna tradition is vital and enduring, from the warmest summer evenings to the coldest winter nights.

Michael Nordskog grew up in the heart of North American sauna country. He works as an attorney, writer, and editor, and he lives with his wife and three children in Viroqua, Wisconsin. Aaron W. Hautala is the creative director and owner of RedHouseMedia in Brainerd, Minnesota. He has helped launch a variety of magazines and was the founding art director at Lake Country Journal. His photographs have appeared widely throughout Minnesota.

Details on this event are here.--David E

M&Q's Thanksgiving Day Sale is Back

Start your holiday shopping early--and save 20%. Magers & Quinn's annual Thanksgiving Day Sale is back. We'll be open from 1:00pm until 9:00pm, on Thursday, November 25. Everything in the store will be 20% off the sticker price. Bring your list and get great gifts for everyone.

The fine print:

• Sale applies only to items in the store.
  
• No additional discounts or coupons may be used during this sale.
  
• Store credit is limited to a total of $100.00 on November 25.

Stretch your legs on Thanksgiving Day with a trip to Magers & Quinn. You'll be glad you did.--David E

Announcing the Grand Prize Winner in our 2010 miniStories contest

This week's featured author in our flash fiction series is Minnesota newcomer Hillary Wentworth.

Hillary Wentworth studied creative writing at the University of New Hampshire, the Salt Institute, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, where she received her MFA. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Black Warrior Review, Caesura, and the Fourth River. Hillary enjoys reading, traveling, hip-hop dancing, and roller skating, among other pursuits. As a new resident, she is excited about all things Minnesota.

Hillary's story, 146.9 Volts, was selected as the GRAND PRIZE WINNER by our all-star panel of flash fiction judges -- Alexander Chee (The Queen of the Night, Edinburgh), Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket series, The Basic Eight, Watch Your Mouth, Adverbs), Kevin Larimer (editor of Poets & Writers), Heather McElhatton (Pretty Little Mistakes, Jennifer Johnson is Sick of Being Single), and author Dennis Cass, who served as lead juror in mnartists.org's 2010 miniStories competition.

miniStories is a part of mnartist.org's mnLIT progam and is presented online by Magers and Quinn Booksellers and mnartists.org. All the winning stories, as well as the poems from our poetry contest, What Light, will be published on magersandquinn.com and mnartists.org in the months to come. So come back soon!

Click here to read Hillary's story.

Meet Michael Fischman at M&Q

“Michael Fischman’s journey reveals how fears and negative emotions can be transformed into love, compassion, and higher consciousness when a student has an authentic relationship with a wise teacher.”--Deepak Chopra

Stumbling Into Infinity is the intimate and sometimes startling account of Michael Fischman’s spiritual journey and the encounter that changed his life forever. His story opens on a flight to India, as he reflects on the unusual chain of events that led him from a challenging childhood to his unexpected role as friend and helper to a renowned humanitarian and spiritual leader. Michael Fischman’s fascinating and personal memoir takes us into the compassionate and mysterious world of an enlightened seer. It is a compelling narrative that blends remarkable experiences with an inner struggle and search for meaning.

Michael Fischman is a leader in the field of personal development. He is a founding member and current president of the U.S. Art of Living Foundation, a global non-profit educational and humanitarian organization, and is also the CEO of the APEX course, the corporate training division of the International Association for Human Values, an NGO founded by spiritual leader and humanitarian Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

You can meet Michael Fischman when he visits Magers & Quinn Booksellers--4:00pm, Sunday, November 21. Details are here.--David E

Get Happy

What lifestyle secrets can we learn from the world’s happiest people? Dan Buettner tells you when he comes to Magers & Quinn Booksellers--7:30pm, Monday, November 22.

In Thrive:Finding Happiness the Blue Zones Way, New York Times bestselling author and explorer, Dan Buettner, reports on the surprising findings from his five-year global study on the keys to personal happiness. In addition to sharing his extraordinary accounts of the happiest people on the planet, Buettner examines how their unique lifestyles correlate to their extraordinary well-being. Finally--and most importantly--Buettner details how to incorporate these powerful characteristics into our daily routine so that we, too, can thrive.

The National Geographic Society sent Buettner on assignment to the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark; the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon; the town of San Luis Obispo in California (arguably the happiest place in America); and perhaps counter-intuitively, the island of Singapore, a region known for its draconian justice system. To unravel the complicated mystery of how each of these four geographic pockets, and specifically their culture, geography, government policies and behavior of their thriving citizens, stack the deck in favor of happiness, Buettner began his research plumbing the most comprehensive databases--tens of millions of data points collected over the past 70 years and representing 95 percent of the world’s population--to determine which factors most directly impact happiness. In addition, he gathered valuable insights from social scientists, economists, politicians, writers, demographers, physiologists, anthropologists and even comedians in each location.

"Dan Buettner has hit this one out the ballpark. In fact, reading Thrive had the effect of asking myself whether it was worth devoting any more time to the arduous study of well-being. I would like to add the book to our class reading list, but again I am afraid of signaling to our PhD students that they need not bother learn statistics and survey methods…Thrive is really subversive!"--Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, author of Flow and Professor of Psychology Claremont Graduate

Dan Buettner is an internationally recognized research, explorer, and author. As a pioneer in exploration and education, he has traveled the world to find the best practices in health, longevity and happiness. Buettner's National Geographic cover story on longevity, "The Secrets of Living Longer" was one of the top-selling issues in history and a made him a finalist for a national magazine award. His 2008 book, The Blue Zones, hit the New York Times bestseller list.

Details on this and all our other events are here.--David E

Coming to America

In the Company of Angels, a luminous love story and an internationally acclaimed masterpiece, is at last being published in the United States for the first time. You can meet its author Thomas E Kennedy at Magers & Quinn--7:30pm, Friday, November 19.

“[A] wide-ranging and assured novel….The stories of torture that emerge…offer, in their horror and dignity, a quiet criticism of the characters with more prosaic problems.”--New Yorker

Imprisoned for teaching political poetry to his students, Bernardo Greene has been tortured for months in Pinochet’s Chile when he is visited by two angels who promise that he will survive to experience beauty and love once again. Months later, in Copenhagen, where he has come for treatment, the Chilean exile befriends Michela Ibsen, herself a survivor of domestic abuse. In the long nights of summer, the two of them struggle to heal, to forgive those who have left them damaged, and to trust themselves to love. Taking on the very best and the very worst of human experience, In the Company of Angels is a moving, achingly human story that achieves a fable-like quality rare in contemporary fiction. Dense with wisdom and humanity, this already acclaimed novel is a riveting testament to the resilience and complexity of the human heart.

“In the Company of Angels... is powerful and of the moment.... Kennedy writes clean, evocative prose, and an occasional note of humor leavens this dark novel. He is a writer to be reckoned with, and it's about time the reckoning got underway in the country of his birth.”--Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

Thomas E. Kennedy spent his youth hitchhiking and writing his way around the United States before moving to Europe, where he has quietly published over twenty books. In the decade from 1995 to 2005, he wrote the Copenhagen Quartet, four novels set in the Danish capital, his adopted home. Published in Ireland and Denmark, the Copenhagen Quartet won international awards and was hailed as a “masterpiece” by Duff Brenna. Critics concurred, establishing Kennedy as a daring writer of rare grace and vision. Yet his work has never seen major publication in his native country. In the Company of Angels is the first novel of the Quartet to appear here.Details are here.--David E

Saturday Signings Make Your Holiday Shopping Easy

Magers & Quinn Booksellers presents "Saturday Signings." Every Saturday in December, great local authors will be available to make your book a unique present--at Magers & Quinn Booksellers. Signed books are one-of-a-kind gifts. No one else can give your dad a copy of Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn dedicated to him by the author. Or a copy of Drink This with a personal recommendation from Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl.

Magers & Quinn Booksellers makes it easy for you to get personalized gifts for everyone on your list. Every Saturday in December, authors will be in the store signing copies of their books. The events are free and open to the public.

1:00pm, Saturday, December 4--Glorious food books

• Dara Moskowitz-Grumdahl, food critic and author of Drink This: Wine Made Simple
  
• Stewart Woodman, chef at Heidi's Minneapolis (2903 Lyndale Avenue S) and author of Shefzilla: Conquering Haute Cuisine at Home

1:00pm, Saturday, December 11--Books children of all ages

• Alison McGhee, author of Bink and Gollie, Julia Gillian and the Art of Knowing, Falling Boy, and many more books for young readers
  
• Steve Brezenoff, author of The Absolute Value of -1

Bonus signing!--12:00pm, Saturday, December 18

• Meet the authors of Minnesota 101: Everything You Wanted to Know About Minnesota and Were Going to Ask Anyway

1:00pm, Saturday, December 18--(Minnesota) Nice Books

• Kevin Kling, storyteller and author of Kevin Kling's Holiday Inn and The Dog Says How
  
• Peg Meier, author of Wishing for a Snow Day: Growing Up in Minnesota; Too Hot, Went to Lake; and Bring Warm Clothes

Stay tuned for details or check out www.magersandquinn.com for details right now.--David E

Popularity Index

The Independent has a headline sure to warm the cockles of an English professor's heart: "Shakespeare has more friends than J.K. Rowling." The article refers to the work of www.allfacebook.com, which compiled a list of authors ranked according to their number of friends on Facebook:

1. Stephen King (1,302,973 fans)
   
2. Nicholas Sparks (506,300)
   
3. George Orwell (399,403)
   
4. Shakespeare (356,920)
   
5. Nora Roberts (290,836)
   
6. Stephenie Meyer (261,176)
   
7. Jane Austen (230,814)
   
8. Anne Rice (229,192)
   
9. Jodi Picoult (209,637)
   
10. Sidney Sheldon (207,727)

Details are here.--David E

Best Pictures

Bink and Gollie is a powerhouse of a kid's book. It was written by Alison McGhee and Kate DiCamillo and illustrated by Tony Fucile. The stories and the language are charming, and the pictures are as quirky and energetic as the title characters. All that star power has paid off: Bink and Gollie is on the New York Times' list of the ten Best Illustrated Children’s Books of 2010.

Bink and Gollie is available now. And author Alison McGhee will be at Magers & Quinn on Saturday, December 11, at 1:00pm to personalize your copy. Signed books make great gifts, too, so get two. Details are here.--David E