Here’s the perfect indulgence for a delicious summer morning: Think of three words that describe joy.
If you heard my interview recently with Terry Tempest Williams you know that she calls moments of joy “glorians,” where you are jolted into consciousness; when fear and awe and amazement “join hands.”
Ross Gay, the author of “Inciting Joy” believes it is the blending of tenderness and mercy.
Kate Bowler’s new book “Joyful, Anyway” is an irreverent, candid, contemplation of both the pursuit and accidental discovery of joy. She writes: “It’s a slippery thing. So often when it finds us, it doesn’t make any sense."
— Kerri Miller, MPR News
Mystery character of the month answer: Johnny Appleseed
Thread update: Ask a Bookseller by Emily Bright is going to look a little different moving forward. It will air every Tuesday morning, and only focus on Minnesota bookstores (and those close to our borders) instead of national. It will reair on Saturday mornings.
Did you miss our event in Duluth on Thursday? Here's the recommended summer reads from the North Shore
Amazing Alonzo Bookstore, Duluth
"It Wasn't Mean To Be Perfect" by Gaelynn Lea
"Skinny Dip" by Carl Hiaasen
"The Summer Book" by Tove Jansson
Back Forty Books, Two Harbors
"The Verdant Cage" by Jess Lourey
"This Story Might Save Your Life" by Tiffany Crum
"Dolly All the Time" by Annabel Monaghan
"The Book Witch" by Meg Shaffer
Drury Lane Books, Grand Marais
"Ink Blood Sister Scribe" by Emma Törzs
"The Road to Tender Hearts" by Annie Hartnett
"Lady Tremaine" by Rachel Hochhauser
"God’s Country" by William Kent Krueger
Bookstore at Fitger's, Duluth
"Liar's Creek" by Matt Goldman
"The Jilted Countess" by Loretta Ellsworth
"Beneath a Broken Sky" by Joshua Moehling
"The Shortest History of the United States" by Don Watson
"Happy Ending" by Chloe Liese
Foxes and Firefliess Booksellers, Superior
"Empire of Shadows" by Jacquelyn Benson
"All Systems Red" by Martha Wells
"Immoral" by Brian Freeman
"The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder" by David Grann
Wildflower Bookshop, Grand Rapids
"Yesteryear" by Caro Claire Burke
"The Quarry Girls" by Jess Lourey
"Our Perfect Storm" by Carley Fortune
"Whistler" by Ann Patchett
Zenith Bookstore, Duluth
"Upward Bound" by Woody Brown
"Honey" by Imani Thompson
"Look What You Made Me Do" by John Lanchester
"The Listeners" by Maggie Stiefvater
"Astronaut!" by Oana Aristide
Cloquet Public Library
"It Wasn’t Meant To Be Perfect" by Gaelynn Lea
"The Dungeon Crawler Carl" series
"One Summer: America, 1927" by Bill Bryson
Duluth Public Library
"I’m Starting to Worry About this Black Box of Doom" by Jason Pargin
"Sky Daddy" by Kate Folk
"The City of Belgium" by Brecht Evens
"The Carpool Detectives: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case" by Chuck Hogan
"The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" by Stuart Turton
"Mexican Gothic" by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
"The Library at Mount Char" by Scott Hawkins
"Wizard’s First Rule" by Terry Goodkind
"What No One Tells You About Money: The Real Key of Getting Unstuck from Someone Who’s Been there" by Jade Warshaw
"House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielewski
"Children of Time" by Adrian Tchaikovsky
"Hide" by Kiersten White
"Murder by Memory & Nobody’s Baby" by Olivia Waite
"Becoming Ghost" by Cathy Linh Che
Duluth MPR office picks
"Emperor of Gladness by" by Ocean Vuong
"Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere" by by Maria Bamford
Email sstroozas@mpr.org to have your literary event added to the list.
🤔 What's the newsroom reading?
I’m not supposed to like "Big Swiss." I’m a guy who’s engrossed by gripping thrillers and dark horror. The idea of delving into any type of book that explores relationships or romance of any kind sends shivers down my spine. And yet, "Big Swiss" had my full attention.
I should probably blame Marina, my girlfriend, for making me more open-minded to experiences outside my comfort zone. It’s weird because I’ve spent all my life chasing adventure and trying new things. However, romantic storylines have just never appealed to me. So I decided that if I was going to read a romantic book with her, it better be weird enough to make me forget I’m reading about love.
"Big Swiss" is a story about Greta, a 40-year-old woman who transcribes the sessions of a sex coach in Hudson, N.Y. Out of all the clients that the sex coach sees, Greta is obsessed with a repressed married woman she lovingly calls Big Swiss. One day, as luck would have it, Greta meets Big Swiss in a random encounter at a dog park. From there, Greta “organically” becomes friends with Big Swiss until the pair become … more than friends.
Of course, Big Swiss doesn’t know Greta has been listening in on her deepest, darkest secrets through her sessions with the sex coach. And Greta will do her hardest to make sure things stay that way.
Things get very, very messy from there. So messy in fact, that I couldn’t help but be mesmerized by seeing the pair’s relationship evolve. I was staring the same way I would be if there was a train in front of me, barreling towards a truck parked in the middle of the tracks. You know what’s going to happen, you don’t want it to happen, but you will make sure to be right there to see it happen.
"Big Swiss" is definitely not for everyone, but, against all odds, it was for me.
Minnesota author David Housewright's latest book in the Twin Cities P.I. Mac McKenzie Novels comes out June 23. After Rushmore McKenzie takes down a man wielding an AR-15 at a small town winery, he searches for the true target before the killer strikes again.
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.
Ann Patchett returns to Big Books and Bold Ideas for a boisterous conversation with Kerri Miller about writing a novel within a novel, the romance of friendship and how Kate DiCamillo changed Patchett’s new novel, “Whistler.”
