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