Reading a good book is a way to step into another world, if only for a couple chapters. 

We read to escape daily routines and stress, to explore other people’s experiences and to better understand our own.

Many of us found more time to read during the pandemic. Sales of print books in 2021 were up almost nine percent.  

MPR News Host Angela Davis spoke to booksellers and listeners about what we’re reading for pleasure as we hit the middle of summer. 

Guests: 

• Pamela Klinger Horn is the event coordinator for Valley Booksellers in Stillwater and founder of Literature Lovers Night Out, a series that brings local and national authors to independent bookstores in Minnesota.




• Anthony Ceballos is a bookseller and events coordinator at Birchbark Books & Native Arts in Minneapolis. He is also a writer and performance poet. 




• Mary Taris is the founder of Strive Publishing and the new Strive Bookstore in Minneapolis, which focus on Black authors in Minnesota.

Book recommendations from the guests and our listeners:

“Be Frank with Me” by Julia Claiborne Johnson

"Brood" by Jackie Polzin

"Changing Planet, Changing Health" by Dan Ferber and Paul R. Epstein

“Chronicles of a Radical Hag” by Lorna Landvik

The Cork O’Connor Mysteries by William Kent Krueger

“The Dragon Keeper” by Mindy Mejia

The Emigrants series by William Moberg

“The Evening Hero” by Marie Myung-Ok Lee 

“Gratitude” by Oliver Sacks

“Inflamed: Deep Medicine and the Anatomy of Injustice” by Rupa Marya and Raj Patel

“Jayden’s Impossible Garden” (children) by Mélina Mangal

“Lessons in Chemistry” by Bonnie Garmus

“Life on the Mississippi” by Rinker Buck

"The Midnight Library" by Matt Hague

“Nightcrawling” by Leila Mottley

"A Psalm for the Wild-Built" by Becky Chambers

“Red and the Egg Pie” (children) by Donna Gingery

"The Sentence" by Louise Erdrich

“The Ski Jumpers” by Peter Geye

“The Tale of Halcyon Crane” by Wendy Webb

"Under the Whispering Door" by TJ Klune

"Uprooting Racism" by Paul Kivel

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Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.