The Thread joins bookshop, a recommendation for "Har Mar" and Book Lovers Day!
Who is your pick?
Mystery character of the month
This mystery character comes to life in a first-person story told by someone who knew them in all of their glittering, tragic glory.
They burn with an ambition and charm that will grease the rungs of the ladder they climb to wealth and celebrity.
They shared key elements of a childhood with the writer who created them, which infused the character with depth and authenticity, although the character lies about where they were born.
The writer who concocted this mystery character did not know that readers would forever be puzzling over the characters choices and motivations.
When you know who the mystery character is, email me at kmiller@mpr.org. I’ll answer all guesses until Monday at 5 p.m.
— Kerri Miller, MPR News
A note from the Thread ... we're on bookshop!
If you're a fan of MPR you know our motto — no paywall, ever. Supporting local is important to us, which is why we have decided to start a Bookshop storefront where you can find all the titles mentioned here and over at the website.
Why Bookshop? Unlike sites like Amazon, Bookshop supports independent bookstores. A portion of every profit on Bookshop will go back to the local indie bookstore of your choosing and MPR.
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?
When Har Mar Mall opened in 1963, it was one of the first enclosed malls in the country — a testament to innovation and connection. Today, the strip mall in Roseville is mostly deserted, waiting in limbo for its phoenix-life moment of rebirth.
During the years in-between, Har Mar was home to all the ordinary moments of suburban life — buying new school shoes, birthday celebrations around large bowls of ice cream, going to the movies (albeit with crystal chandeliers overhead). So it’s fitting that Hilal Isler’s new story collection about women navigating life’s complexities in the midst of the everyday is called “Har Mar.”
I talked with Isler this week on Minnesota Now. She recently moved to Texas — and was in Turkey visiting family at the time of our interview — but she grew up in Minnesota and decided to name her story collection after Har Mar Mall precisely because of its ordinariness.
During our on-air conversation, she said that she feels like “literature — literary fiction especially — traditionally has privileged certain kinds of places. We hear about the Paris cafes, and the grand cities, and even private enclaves and family homes. But I feel, especially as a first-generation American, that a lot of contemporary life happens in places just like Har Mar.”
I was so delighted with our interview — and with the few stories I read from her book — that I followed up via email to ask if she has an enduring memory of Har Mar itself.
She wrote that her “most vivid early memory of Har Mar is of the mall walkers. In the winter, I remember there would be older people doing laps inside, wearing their sneakers, counting steps. In my mind, they transformed the mall into something more than just a site of transaction, of commerce. I came to see Har Mar as a place of routine, companionship, community. I think that's one reason I eventually borrowed its name for my story collection. I'm drawn to ordinary places that quietly sustain us, becoming part of our emotional lives. Har Mar is one such place for me. If they do decide to raze it, I will mourn its loss!”
In the book, Isler’s interconnected stories follow women whose lives span Turkey and Minnesota as they navigate family, grief, love and the challenges of building a life between cultures. You can get “Har Mar” online at MPR New’s new Bookshop or even, for now, at the Barnes & Noble at Har Mar Mall.
— Kelly Gordon, producer
📰 Bite-sized Minnesota book news
Happy Book Lovers Day! Aug. 9 is a nationwide event to celebrate reading across the country. You can commemorate the day by going to your favorite indie bookstore, finding a cozy space to read outside and exploring a new library. Several bookstores will have stickers to celebrate from Penguin Random House.
"Mississippi River Open School for Kinship and Social Exchange" comes out Aug. 11. It is an artist designed book that shows work from more than eight years along the Mississippi River from its headwaters to the gulf. It is published by the University of Minnesota Press.
Are you a local author, bookstore or literary lover? Send your book news to sstroozas@mpr.org and we'll add it to the newsletter.
Laura Haave of Content Bookstore in Northfield said one of her top recommendations so far this year is a YA graphic novel called “Wake Now in the Fire“ written by Jarrett Dapier and illustrated by AJ Dungo.
There are more than enough new book releases in August to keep readers contentedly antisocial and entertained until the humidity breaks. This month brings riveting novels about dogs, stars (the Hollywood kind), small towns and characters with bigger woes than just sweat stains.
Daniel Mason's new novel is a spin on Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," in which academics collide with locals — and a few seductive fairies — in the woods of Vermont.
Author Hilal Isler talked to MPR News host Kelly Gordon about “Har Mar,” her debut story collection that uses a Roseville shopping center as the backdrop.
