Totally Criminal Cocktail Hour, a review of "All Us Saints," fair recs and more
Kerri's pick
'Undesirable: Invasive Species, Humans, and Where We All Belong' by Amy Crawford
If you’ve had your boat on one of Minnesota’s lakes this summer, you have a good chance of having encountered dire warnings from the Department of Naturall Resources about zebra mussels. The DNR says about 9 percent of Minnesota’s 11,000-plus lakes are infested.
"Infested" is the DNR's term. It’s the language of contamination, infection, ruin.
In her new book "Undesirable: Invasive Species, Humans, and Where We All Belong," science writer Amy Crawford examines how we came to see certain plants and animals as predatory and marauding. She writes that in this age of anxiety, ”Stories about invasive species tap into widely held feelings about environmental loss.”
Most particularly absorbing, she explores the concept of “invasion biology” and the hard questions that surround it: What is considered native to an ecosystem? What do we do when our own damage of a habitat gives way to new plants, insects and animals? Is it time to reconsider how we try to control these environments?
It's time for the State Fair! For a limited time only, become a sustaining member at $10/month and receive MPR’s latest tote bag designed by Marlena Myles plus the Minnesota Mammals Nalgene.
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?
True crime lovers, this one will draw you in. Here's the situation: Nineteen years ago, Edna St. Cloud's twin, Roland, murdered her three best friends in their home. Edna survived, wounded, and every year since she has gathered the entire remaining family back to the scene of the crime for an anniversary ritual and all-night vigil.
"All Us Saints" takes place on that night on two consecutive years, with an interlude in-between in which we hear the killer's side of the story.
What I liked about this book is that the writing on this is so smart. Minneapolis author Katherine Packert Burke frames the story like a play, with a cast of characters listed at the beginning and a feeling of curtains opening on the family home. It's a perfect structure for a novel about watching, being observed, and considering who gets to tell the story.
Each person in the family is a storyteller who is continually recounting the events that changed their family forever. Edna is a photographer, but the photos that made her famous document her recovery from that night. She has married the much older man who wrote the official "true" crime account of the St Cloud family. Her sister, Calla, is a playwright, currently obsessed with a Sims-style computer game that lets her build an alternate reality. Their brother, James, is a horror film afficionado, who every year rewatches the film made about that killing.
But, what is the true story? Was Roland wearing his sister's dress when he committed the crimes? Does his gender expression matter in this story? Is there room for Roland to be cast as anything other than a monster? Shifting seemlessly from room to room as the wakeful characters connect and relive events, "All Us Saints" is a haunting story about sex and sexuality, tragedy and the way we're shaped by the stories we choose to tell.
— Emily Bright, newscaster and producer of Ask a Bookseller and Art Hounds
📰 Bite-sized Minnesota book news
Love the Minnesota State Fair and need a new book recommendation? Big Hill Books has your back. "Butter" by Asako Yuzuki, "Big in Sweden" by Sally Franson, you get the picture. And, while you're at the fair, make sure to head to the Steller Handcrafted Goods stand in the International Bazaar and check out the
mystery mini linocut prints by printmaker and children's librarian Rebecca Beatty.
Beck's Books is no more. The pop-up used bookstore is now known as Long Live the Bookstore. And a little tipster told us to watch out for an indie storefront coming soon.
A new book by science writer Amy Crawford examines what we call invasive. How do we decide that one plant or one animal is undesirable? It’s more random and less scientific than you might think.
It’s part of numerous cuts Her suggested — combined with property tax increases — to close a $26 million budget deficit. The city is expected to pass its budget in December.
Knox Frederickson a teen poets and a rising senior. Amanda Rosas is one of the mentors and a teacher at Visitation School. They talked with MPR News host Nina Moini and shared pieces of their work.
