What We're Reading

Alix E. Harrow is the author of The Everlasting.(Contributed / Book cover—Tor; author photo—Elora Overbey)

New York Times bestselling author Alix E. Harrow has created fantastic stories with roots in tradition, but with wholly fresh takes. In her previous novels she’s written about doorways to other worlds, witches and a haunted mansion in the midst of dying Kentucky coal town.

But her new novel is like nothing I’ve read before.

The Everlasting (Tor, Oct. 28) is a genre-defying story that involves a legendary lady knight and a cowardly historian. Sir Una Everlasting was an o...

Children's librarian Tracy Kampa (Contributed / Tracy Kampa)

Tracy Kampa, children's librarian at the Grand Rapids Area Library is back for another season of recommendations for What We're Reading.

Across the Ice: How We Saved the Ojibwe Horse, by Darcy Whitecrow and Heather M. O'Connor, with illustrations by Natasha Donovan.

Tracy's take: Have you ever heard of the Ojibwe horse? I hadn't. The Ojibwe horse is a wild breed that once lived among the Ojibwe people in northern Minnesota and northwestern Ontario. The Ojibwe used the horses to help run their trap lines, pull...

Madeline Bell is the author of The Austen Affair.(Contributed / Macmillan Publisher)

Tess Bright is a B-list actress cast in a role of a lifetime in a film adaptation of Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey. It’s her last chance to prove herself as a serious actress but her co-star is Hugh Balfour, a serious British method actor who wants nothing to do with Tess. The two fizzle out on camera, but off camera, the sparks fly—their disdain for one another comes to a head just in time for an electrical accident which send the two back in time 2...

Tasha Coryell is the author of Matchmaking for Psychopaths.(Contributed / Author photo—Emily Covington Photography, LLC; book cover—Penguin Random House)

Minnesota writer Tasha Coryell’s new thriller Matchmaking for Psychopaths is so full of twists, turns and thrills that sometimes she’s at a loss as to how to describe this new book without giving too much away.

She explained, “I try not to delve too deep into what the other surprises are, because I know that's part of the reason why thriller readers are reading what they are, right? Because you want things to surprise you and yo...

Chris DeVille is the author of Such Great Heights.(Contributed / Book cover— Macmillian; Author photo—Stephanie Lehnert Photography )

In his new book Such Great Heights: The Complete Cultural History of the Indie Rock Explosion, Chris DeVille, music journalist and managing editor at Stereogum, reminisces how in the early 2000s the internet was becoming a hub for music discovery and fan communities.

He writes, “I didn't realize it then, but this was a paradigm shift. I drilled down into a world that existed just beneath the mainstream, into a subculture that would transform the way I approached music for be...

Anne-Marie Erickson is the author of In the Evening, We'll Dance.(Contributed / Book cover—Holy Cow! Press; Author photo—author's website)

GRAND RAPIDS - Writer Anne-Marie Erickson and her husband Dick Cain lived a simple and deliberate life in a log cabin they built together in the Northwoods. After increasing signs of memory loss beyond the levels of natural aging, Dick received a diagnosis of dementia, and Anne-Marie realized the two of them would need to build yet a new life.

Anne-Marie recounts their journey together in her new book In the Evening, We’ll Dance: A Memoir...

David LaRochelle and Colleen Muske are the writer and illustrator of the book How to Draw a Tree.(Contributed / Minnesota Historical Society Press)

“Go outside and find a tree. Introduce yourself.” This is advice found in the new children’s book How to Draw a Tree, story by David LaRochelle and illustrations by Colleen Muske.

David LaRochelle and Colleen Muske are both Minnesota writers and illustrators who've teamed up for this lovely new picture book from the Minnesota Historical Society Press.

In a r...

Journalist and author Hayley Krischer tackles the dark side of the wellness industry in her new young adult thriller You Belong to Me.

Hayley is the author of The Falling Girls, Something Happened to Ali Greenleaf and the adult fiction book, Where Are You, Echo Blue? She’s also written for The New York Times, Elle and The Atlantic.

In You Belong to Me, we meet high school student Frances Bean, seemingly comfortable in her group of goth outcast friends until a rich and popular girl she’s had a crush on for years shows inte...

Debbie Russell is the author of Crossing Fifty-One: Not Quite a Memoir.(Contributed / Debbie Russell)

Digging into family history can lead to interesting discoveries and insights into your family’s dynamics. Debbie Russell, Minnesota lawyer-turned-writer, experienced this firsthand and shares her discoveries in her debut book Crossing Fifty-One: Not Quite a Memoir.

In a recent What We’re Reading interview Debbie explained that she called the book “Not Quite a Memoir” because it is largely a multi-generational story. About 10 years ago, as her father Ralph’s health was deteriorating due to Parkinson’s Disease, she made a discovery in...

Kitchens of Hope tell the stories of immigrants in Minnesota and their recipes from home.(Contributed / University of Minnesota Press)

It started as an idea from some people involved with The Advocates for Human Rights in Minneapolis about 4 years ago: create a cookbook of immigrant recipes.

Among this group of people were Linda S. Svitak and Christin Jaye Eaton, lawyer and attorney, respectively, who volunteer with the Advocates. Food writer and former editor of the Minnesota Star Tribune Taste section, Lee Svitak Dean was eventually brought in, as well as Minnesota Star Tribune photographer, Tom Wallace.

Kent Nerburn is the author of Lone Dog Road. (Contributed / New World Library)

Kent Nerburn is the Minnesota author of several books on spirituality and Native American themes including the internationally acclaimed books Neither Wolf nor Dog, The Wolf At Twilight, and Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce.

His new book is a novel called Lone Dog Road. The story revolves around two young Lakota brothers on the run from a boarding school government agent. They journey across the prairies of South Dakota in search of pipestone in Minnesota to replace their great-grandfather’s čhaŋ...

Librarians Tracy Kampa and Tammy Bobrowsky talk about Erin Entrada Kelly's book The First State of Being.(Contributed / Tammy Bobrowsky; book cover—Harper Collins)

What We’re Reading producer Tammy Bobrowsky and Tracy Kampa, children's librarian at the Grand Rapids Area Library dive into Erin Entrada Kelly’s The First State of Being in their latest mini book conversation. This is a great story for young and old alike.

This conversation has been edited for clarity.

Tammy: The book we have read is Erin Entrada Kelly’s The First State of Being, which this Jan...

Frank Bures is the author of Pushing the River.(Contributed / Book cover—Minnesota Historical Society Press; Author photo—Author's website)

Minnesota writer Frank Bures grew up skiing, fishing and canoeing on the Mississippi River in Winona.

This informed his new book Pushing the River: An Epic Battle, a Lost History, a Near Death, and Other True Canoeing Stories. It’s a fascinating collection of true stories about canoeing on our Minnesota waterways.

These days, we hear the occasional story about personal journeys people take paddling down the Mississippi River, but back in the day, people raced...

Lili Taylor is the author of Turning to Birds: The Power and Beauty of Noticing.(Contributed / Mike Fernandez, Audubon)

Many may already know actor Lili Taylor from her work in films such as Ship of Fools, Ransom, Girls Town, Mystic Pizza and Say Anything, but now, Lili is also an author.

During a much-needed break from her work, she sought peace and quiet--and in that quiet she rediscovered birds.

Now an avid birder, Lili wanted to share how birding has helped her listen, practice mindfulness and be present and engaged with the world. She shares...

Children's librarian Tracy Kampa (Contributed / Tracy Kampa)

Grand Rapids Area Library children's librarian Tracy Kampa returns to What We're Reading with four more great books to recommend.

The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape, by Amy Alznauer, illustrated by Anna Bron.

Tracy’s Take: By all accounts, Marjorie Rice was a quiet homemaker in the 1950s. Yet for her entire life, she had been fascinated with geometry and art, and that fa...

Amor Towles is the author of Table for Two.(Contributed / Book image—Penguin Random House; Author photo—Dmitri Kasterine )

Amor Towles was running out of time.

He needed to submit his manuscript to his editor, but he still hadn’t come up with a title for his new collection of stories.

In a recent What We’re Reading interview, Amor explained how hectic the publishing schedule can be, “You are reading that manuscript from beginning to end 10 times. You're doing it almost on a daily basis, or every other day...You're reading the piece from beginning t...

Locker Room Talk: Women in Private Spaces is a new anthology from Spout Press. (Contributed / Spout Press)

The idea for the anthology Locker Room Talk: Women in Private Spaces happened in an actual locker room, according to the book’s co-editor, Michelle Filkins.

In a recent What We’re Reading interview, Michelle, a founding editor of Spout Press and professor and librarian at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, explained that at the time of the book’s inception, she had been contemplating on how the locker room in the traditional sense had become an excuse for conver...

“What is magic but a change in the world?”

In Amal El-Mohtar’s new novella, The River Has Roots, the said river is brimming with grammar, and grammar is magic.

Amal is a Canadian writer of stories, poems and criticism. She is also the co-author, along with Max Gladstone, of the Hugo Award winning novel, This is How You Lose the Time War (2019).

The River Has Roots is based on a seventeenth-century murder ballad type, the “cruel sister,” wherein the same man will court two sisters, and the older sister will usually murder the younge...

Children's librarian Tracy Kampa reviews and recommends children's books.(Contributed / Book covers—via publishers)

Two new picture books and three middle-grade books are among Tracy Kampa's latest recommendations. Tracy is the children's librarian at the Grand Rapids Area Library and reviews books for What We're Reading.

Picture books

A Little Like Magic, by Sara Kurpiel.

Tracy's take: She didn't want to go. It was cold and windy and she didn't like heavy coats or boots or places she'd ne...

Dennis E. Staples is the author of Passing Through a Prairie Country.(Contributed / Cover—Counterpoint Press; Author photo—Alan Johnson Photography)

BEMIDJI—Dennis E. Staples is a writer from the Bemidji area and a member of the Red Lake Nation. His debut novel This Town Sleeps was published in 2020—a thrilling story taking place in Northern Minnesota blending Ojibwe legends with the modern world, and featuring Marion LaFournier, a mid-twenties gay Ojibwe man whose family has ties to sacred power.

Marion’s story continues in Dennis’s new novel Passing Through a Prairie Country. In this story, fresh from a...