A review of "The Hounding," a new book store in Lindstrom and "Dungeon Crawler Carl"
Book of the week
Book of the week
When you were a child, was there someone in your life who was the sun and the stars in your world? Not a parent, perhaps but someone outside your immediate family circle that you especially adored?
For me, it was my dad’s youngest sister. And when I think of her today, I still have a bit of that stardust in my eyes.
Ann Patchett’s new novel "Whistler" revisits that kind of kinship when Daphne, now in her 50s, resumes a friendship with a man her mother divorced decades before.
“I stepped into an open crack in time,” Daphne realizes, “and fell backwards.”
Patchett’s novel shines in what she does best: intimate relationships that unfold unhurriedly and effortlessly. And if you loved “Tom Lake,” Patchett’s last novel, spend a long summer weekend reading this one.
Mystery character of the month answer: Gulliver of Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift
— Kerri Miller, MPR News
Talking Volumes is back!
Hosted by award-winning journalists MPR News Kerri Miller and Catharine Richert, each evening offers an in-depth conversation with an author about their latest books, their creative process and the stories shaping our lives.
Email sstroozas@mpr.org to have your literary event added to the list.
🤔 What's the newsroom reading?
A mixture of "The Virgin Suicides," a little witchcraft and the dreamy English countryside — what could be better? I recently finished "The Hounding" for my book club and was absorbed with the story. I was in a reading rut and book club was in two days and I still had not started the book. (Other people do this too, right?). I sat down and buzzed through 100 pages quickly. The novel is just over 200 pages, the perfect size.
Xenobe Purvis tells the story of five sisters in a small village in 18th century England. There's a rumor going around about them — they can turn into dogs. The story is never told from the point of view of the sisters, but instead people in the village who love them, like their grandfather, or hate them, like Pete Darling.
“Girls — normal human girls — people could contend with; they were weak and small. And dogs too could be trained. But girls who became dogs, or who let the world believe they were dogs, were either powerful or mad: both monstrous possibilities,” Purvis writes.
"The Hounding" is sure to keep you hooked and leave you wondering were they really dogs? Or just young women who didn't act the way the village wanted?
— Sam Stroozas, digital producer
📰 Bite-sized Minnesota book news
Minnesota writer Ellie Palmer's latest book came out this week: "Married with Benefits." This is Palmer's fourth book and there's a change of scenary. Things take place in our friends to the east -— Wisconsin.
Speaking of romance, it's been announced that eight stores will be participating in the
Minneapolis Bookstore Romance Day Crawl! The crawl takes place the weekend of Aug. 8.
There's a new bookstore to put on your list, Bruyere Books & Tea in Lindstrom. The store describes itself as a queer and neurodivergent space for anyone who needs a place to exhale.
Are you a local author, bookstore or literary lover? Send your book news to sstroozas@mpr.org and we'll add it to the newsleter.
If you don’t have an epic road trip planned this summer, come along with Lauren Hough. She drove 14,000 miles across America with her dog Woody Guthrie and wrote about what she saw in her new book.
A Minneapolis bookseller recommends Matt Dinniman's bestselling "Dungeon Crawler Carl" series for readers looking to dive into an immersive summer read.
MPR News guest host Kerri Miller talks about what’s behind the decline in reading and why some people say it points to a fundamental shift in how we entertain ourselves, learn and think.
Duluth-based nature writer Stephanie Pearson has just published a new essay in Outside Magazine on what it feels like to see the Boundary Waters Canoe Area up in flames.
"Catch the Devil" by journalist Pamela Colloff highlights the potentially fatal consequences of a system more concerned with securing convictions than determining the truth and delivering justice.
