👻 Haunts and Horrors Book Fair, a Pulitzer review and a new Abby book!
Who is your guess?
Guess the writer
Here’s the latest edition of my fun new reader’s game: I am a writer, who am I?
I am a writer who never forgot my tumultuous and melodramatic childhood, and I chronicled my experiences and turned them into exceptional novels.
I am a writer who could describe the very scent and taste of my childhood, and you’ll find that description in one of my books.
I am a writer whose mother ushered her kids reading in a library in the American South that she considered to be a “palace of desire,” and I was forever grateful.
I am a writer who was invited to movie sets, where beloved stars portrayed my characters.
And I am a writer who said of my dedication to reading and writing: “Here is all I ask of a book – give me everything.”
When you have a guess, email me at kmiller@mpr.org. I’ll answer all guesses until 5 p.m. on Monday.
— Kerri Miller, MPR News
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Hosted byaward-winning MPR News journalists 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?
Americans in recent years have become accustomed to seeing people without homes setting up tents on sidewalks or in parks. Panhandlers at intersections. Cars with windows blocked by cardboard as the occupants sleep.
The five families author Brian Goldstone follows through modern Atlanta in "There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America" are less visible, but they’re right there, making your coffee and trying to keep their balance on the slippery edge of homelessness. It doesn’t take much, usually a misunderstanding with a shift manager or a broken rule at an apartment, to make them lose their footing.
The book sensitively brings readers into the precarious existence faced by so many Americans, from sketchy emergency shelters to the pricey, run-down extended stay hotels that have bloomed on the outskirts of American cities.
It isn't all gloom. There are moments of beauty and joy. But anxiety infuses the stories in this book, and stress permeates every character. The subjects’ dreams are modest. They want safe housing, a decent job and a future where they can enjoy more of life’s small pleasures. It’s heartbreaking to watch even these little dreams fall away.
Abby Jimenez has a new book coming out in the spring that is the third installment in the "Say You'll Remember Me" series. "Feels Like Falling" is slated to release April 20 and follows a character readers met in "The Night We Met," Michael Maddox.
The Hennepin County Library system will not cut its hours. The system reversed course after 2,500 people protested. In St. Paul, it's still not clear if city leaders will close the Dayton's Bluff Library.
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.
British author Lucy Foley revives Agatha Christie’s beloved Miss Marple in her new novel, “Murder at the Grand Alpine Hotel.” Foley joined Kerri Miller in St. Paul on Sept. 25 for Talking Volumes.
In “Fight & Win,” author John Hanson tells the story of how the 1934 Minneapolis Teamsters strike, which his father was a part of, helped make Minneapolis known as a union town.
Carol Anderson, one of the country’s leading experts on voting access, worries the Jim Crow-era is beginning anew with persistent attempts to deny communities of color their right to vote.
Min Jin Lee's new novel is the third in a planned four-novel series about the Korean diaspora. Nearly 10 years in the making, this sweeping-but-intimate 600+ page book is overwhelming — in a good way.
