What We're Reading

Kent Nerburn is the Minnesota author of several books on spirituality and Native American themes including the internationally acclaimed books Neither Wolf nor Dog, The Wolf At Twilight, and Chief Joseph and the Flight of the Nez Perce.

His new book is a novel called Lone Dog Road. The story revolves around two young Lakota brothers on the run from a boarding school government agent. They journey across the prairies of South Dakota in search of pipestone in Minnesota to replace their great-grandfather’s čhaŋnúŋpa, or sacred pipe, broken by that government agent.

In a recent What We’re Reading interview, Kent explained that the book was born out of the isolation and separation we endured during the pandemic.

“I wasn't sure what I was going to do during the pandemic. And I said, ‘This is a chance for me to write the book that I wanted to write.’ I wanted to write a book that was a pure novel and was inhabited by people that I cared about in a story that I cared about.”

The story of Lone Dog Road was largely inspired by an old photograph of a young Ojibwe boy Kent had come across during his work in Red Lake, around 25 years ago.

Kent described the boy in the photo: “He was about 11 or 12…he was looking right at the camera and I was looking back at him and he always remained in my memory as sort of an indictment of what we had done as a nation to the native people...He was a personage in my psyche.”

After decades haunted by the image, Kent decided that the boy in the photo would become one of his main characters, Levi, who is tasked with being his younger brother Reuben’s protector.

Kent’s books are known for highlighting themes of spirituality and nature and Lone Dog Road keeps in this tradition. He noted how the power of nature and spirituality and the sacred power of the pipe are like currents running through the story, eventually joining to show that there is a larger force we all participate in.

This is demonstrated in Kent’s character Karl-Martin, a man who once studied to be a priest, but instead married his wife Lillie, a Lakota woman, and moved to the prairie to become a farmer. Karl-Martin and Lillie befriend the two boys on their journey.

In the story, Karl-Martin comes upon a massive prairie fire that should have left him dead. Kent described, “The thing is almost alive. And he feels that it's alive. He feels that it has almost a malevolent purpose and that he sensed more spiritual power in that prairie fire than he had in all his theological training. It didn't destroy or negate his theological training or his Christianity, it just expanded it into something larger.”

Kent knows firsthand the power of the prairies. Having moved to the Bemidji area in the 1980s he assumed he would spend a lot of time in the Boundary Waters area, but instead he was drawn to the West.

He said, “The Dakotas have a power that just has a real hold over me and it is that singularity and that dominance and the sky is so much larger--you stand in front of it and you're diminished…you become small in the face of their very great forces. I wanted these people to be present. They were standing in front of the setting of nature, but nature was controlling almost everything they were doing.”

Each character in Lone Dog Road has their own beliefs and stories, and Kent was intent on weaving them together and putting them on a path for a larger purpose. He explained, “I have no desire to disparage or minimize anyone's belief. I just think that we need to have a larger embrace and have a larger understanding of mystery, a larger understanding of

God, a larger understanding of faith--and all of the characters participate in this larger understanding in the course of this book.”

Despite decades of writing, and with 20 books to his name, Kent had some trouble getting a publisher for Lone Dog Road. He wrote on his webpage, “The big publishers ran from it because it has the mark of Cain upon it. A white man writing about Indians.”

Kent reflected on what had changed since his last book had been published (Dancing with the Gods in 2018).

“The editors and publishers, all of whom are based in big cities somewhere, would look at this book and say, ‘Ah, we don't think we want to touch this book. This is a white man writing about Indians. And it's also an old white man. We want young voices. We want people who have a million TikTok followers.’”

Eventually Kent went with New World Library, a publisher he’d worked with before. He said, “They just let me tell the story. And I'm very happy about that and very proud of the book.”

Lone Dog Road is full of rich characters, vivid landscapes and a big journey that develops into a strong sense of purpose. But most importantly, as Kent points out, it is a hopeful story.

“There is so much darkness in us right now, so much anger…I don't like the growing cruelty at the heart of our national character. I don't like the adversarial nature, the anger that's in all of us. I wanted to write a book that was redemptive and so that was the goal: to have the boys’ journey be redeemed at the end. Hopefully people get done and they have a sense of hope as a result of having read the book.”

Kent Nerburn is currently on an author tour for Lone Dog Road. Locally you can catch him at the following events:

· June 3, Red Lake Nation College, 2 pm;
· June 4, Four Pines Bookstore, Bemidji, 6 pm; and
· June 5, Beagle and Wolf Books, Park Rapids, 7 pm.

More information about Kent Nerburn and Lone Dog Road can be found on his website.

Looking for a good book recommendation? Want to recommend a book you've just read? Check out our What We're Reading page on Facebook, or text us at 218-326-1234.

What We're Reading is made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

What We’re Reading producer Tammy Bobrowsky and Tracy Kampa, children's librarian at the Grand Rapids Area Library dive into Erin Entrada Kelly’s The First State of Being in their latest mini book conversation. This is a great story for young and old alike.

This conversation has been edited for clarity.

Tammy: The book we have read is Erin Entrada Kelly’s The First State of Being, which this January, won the Newbery Medal. Tracy, you picked this book out before it won the Newbery Medal—isn’t that right?

Tracy: Thank you. I did. I thought it was fabulous.

Tammy: So we're in an interesting predicament here because there's really not a whole lot we want to tell you about this book, because there's just so many great things that happen in it that we don't want to spoil. So, Tracy, how would we best describe this book for to-be readers?

Tracy: Let's start with a bit of a summary--here's what I'd like you to know: Michael is a 12 year-old living with his mom in an apartment complex in 1999. The Y2K crisis is looming, and Michael is desperately trying to prepare for what may be the end of the world. He gathers canned foods and stashes it under his bed in the hopes that he can keep his small family going. His 16 year-old neighbor Gibby watches Michael on some days when his mom is at work. Michael loves spending time with Gibby and might have a bit of a crush on her. But of course, Michael doesn't need a babysitter.

Also important to Michael is the apartment complex’s maintenance man Mr. Mosley, who frequently has lunch with Michael, sharing sandwiches and talking about anything that might happen to come up. On Michael's birthday, as Mr. Mosley is trying to give Michael $20 as a gift and Michael is trying to decline--although that money could buy a lot of canned peaches, his mom's favorite, when Y2K wreaks havoc upon the world; or he could use the money to pay for the peaches he just stole--Michael and Mr. Mosley are approached by a teen boy who is wearing odd clothing. He introduces himself as Ridge and asks the date. When he hears the year, he is visibly startled. Soon, Michael and Gibby befriend Ridge and Ridge tells them his truth: that he's from the future. How he got to this place and if and how he'll get back, frame a story of friendship, time travel and a whole lot of self-discovery across time. So, Tammy, what did you think?

Tammy: This was such a fun book to read and just really well-crafted because there are so many elements that you're going to pick up on throughout the story and then it's going to kind of all come together at the end and then you're going to want to go back and reread parts of it to see how they all hooked up again!

Tracy: It is outstanding the way they all come together in the end and you're going ‘What?!? Oh, my gosh, I never saw that one coming!’ One thing that I loved about this book, and I don't love about a lot of books, is that Erin Entrada Kelly has one character who intentionally was set up to be the nemesis. Everybody else you can like. You know, you cheer for them, and you hope it all goes well. And it reminded me about Beverly Cleary writing books because I think virtually every character that Beverly Cleary ever wrote you could like and she always stated that she wrote for her readers. She wrote for the average kid down the block she was trying to tell their story. And I was thinking about her and I was thinking that this would have made a great Cleary book. Both Beverly Cleary and Erin Entrada Kelly have a knack for writing characters, and I think that's what really stands out-- how these characters, even though they might have different goals, you can like them all.

Tammy: Right. Michael is just a great character. He's our main character, he's sensitive and smart and worrisome, but in a way that I think a lot of kids are--the way he's planning and worrying about Y2K, worrying about his mom, stockpiling his horde for what he thinks is going to be a disaster and a lot of us were pretty unsure about that time, so it's really relatable.

Tracy: I also think it's probably worth noting that this book was set in 1999, which is now considered historical fiction, and I think many of our listeners maybe weren't even around for Y2K or we're very young. But here was the problem: They call it the Y2K problem because before we turned to the year 2000 all computers only had two places for the year within their operating systems, well, once you get to 99, the next year you go to 00 or 01 and they didn't know if the computers could handle that because it would always be like going back in time. And we heard lots and lots of doomsday things that were going to happen--all of the grids were going to go off and none of the money was going to work anymore because the banks would fail. None of that happened, however, but that was the Y2K problem.

Tammy: I thought if this book had any fault, I was a little surprised at how advanced some of the content was for middle grade readers, as far as some of the scientific things in the book. There was some content that I thought was maybe more technical and more science-y than literature.

Tracy: Absolutely. And I think we can tell everybody that Ridge when he comes to 1999, he's coming from the year 2199 and he essentially brings a guidebook with him that tells him what slang to use in 1999. And what a mall might look like--he was very excited about malls and microwaves when he came to 1999. The thing I like about all the technical pieces, though, is that essentially they pulled them out, you know? I know a lot of kids in that age group who are very technically minded and would eat that up. But even the kids who aren’t could just skim over that and keep going. So I think that was a good way of handling it.

Tammy: I did pull out a quote because I know we like to do that, and I bet you have one too. My favorite quote is much later into the book. Michael is realizing that everyone makes mistakes. Both he and Ridge had been belaboring over some mistakes that they made and he says to Ridge, “Everyone makes mistakes. It doesn't mean you deserve only bad things.” And that is so important--learning to forgive yourself for making mistakes. That was kind of a big moment for me when he finally realizes that he’s not a bad person for making mistakes. He's telling this to Ridge. But Ridge also reminds him of this later. So I thought that was a nice moment.

Tracy: Absolutely. I also really appreciated another quote that Ridge said about history.

He said, “I know it doesn't seem glamorous or interesting to you right now, but that's because no one realizes they’re living history every minute of every day. Sure, there are big moments like the first black president or the first trip to Mars and Jupiter or the first STM. But the truth is we're making history at this very moment. Sitting on this couch together, every breath we take, we're contributing to history.”

I thought that was a wonderful way to bring a sense of self into this book and it made me sit back and realize, ‘I guess that's what we're doing.’

Tammy: Yeah, and it works with the title of the book, “the first state of being” is interpreted as living life right here, right now, being in the moment. So that's a great message there. It sounds like this is a big hit for both of us. What do you think, Tracy?

Tracy: I loved it very much. I've listened to it twice and I read it once and I loved each and every time, and I would highly encourage you to pick it up and to read it. I think anybody would love this story, whether you are a very old librarian or you are a young third grader.

Looking for a good book recommendation? Want to recommend a book you've just read? Check out our What We're Reading page on Facebook, or text us at 218-326-1234.

What We're Reading is made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Minnesota writer Frank Bures grew up skiing, fishing and canoeing on the Mississippi River in Winona.

This informed his new book Pushing the River: An Epic Battle, a Lost History, a Near Death, and Other True Canoeing Stories. It’s a fascinating collection of true stories about canoeing on our Minnesota waterways.

These days, we hear the occasional story about personal journeys people take paddling down the Mississippi River, but back in the day, people raced it. In a recent What We’re Reading interview, Frank described the Paul Bunyan Canoe Derby, one of the earliest canoeing competitions.

“The derby was a really huge event. It would kick off the Aquatennial and when the paddlers got to Minneapolis, sometimes there would be like 100,000 people watching the final sprint.”

While an early race in 1928 for the Minneapolis Diamond Jubilee ran 500 miles from the Mississippi Headwaters to Minneapolis, the Paul Bunyan Canoe Derby became the standard race. It began in 1940, ran intermittently until 1960 and started on the shores of Lake Bemidji.

The derby drew in paddlers from all over, including some very familiar with paddling both the rivers and lakes of the area. Frank noted that the Tibbetts family of Ball Club would frequently compete in the derbies.

“They were a big, big racing family, and they won a few of the derbies, and Jesse Tibbetts … they called him the Dean of the Derby. He raced in the first three or so races.”

The derby would also give us canoe-racing legend Gene Jensen and foster the beginning of modern canoeing as competitors worked to improve their canoes off-season.

Along with these aspects of Minnesota history, other stories in Pushing the River reveal the beauty and danger of the great outdoors. In the story “Dead Cold,” Frank recounts his own experience capsizing in a remote area of the river in nearly freezing water. He credits two men in another canoe for saving his life.

He explained, “I can't even tell you what kind of luck it was that they were there because you'd never see people on that river right in the middle of the city, especially at 7 o'clock on a Sunday morning in March. It was just really, really, super lucky.”

The book is full of interesting histories and stories like this and Frank brings each adventure alive. Pushing the River will be enjoyed by outdoor enthusiasts and those who don’t stray far from their couches alike.

Pushing the River is published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press. More information on Frank Bures and his other books can be found on his website.

You can meet Frank and hear him talk about Pushing the River in Bemidji in late May and Ely in early June. Visit here for more information on those events.

Looking for a good book recommendation? Want to recommend a book you've just read? Check out our What We're Reading page on Facebook, or text us at 218-326-1234.

What We're Reading is made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Many may already know actor Lili Taylor from her work in films such as Ship of Fools, Ransom, Girls Town, Mystic Pizza and Say Anything, but now, Lili is also an author.

During a much-needed break from her work, she sought peace and quiet--and in that quiet she rediscovered birds.

Now an avid birder, Lili wanted to share how birding has helped her listen, practice mindfulness and be present and engaged with the world. She shares this experience in her new book Turning to Birds: The Power and Beauty of Noticing.

In a recent What We’re Reading interview, Lili Taylor noted that there is a similarity in both acting and observing birds—namely, listening. She further explained, “I found that it’s crucial to [listen] not just when I’m observing birds, but really everything.”

The idea for the book was sparked by Lili noticing that whenever she mentioned birds to someone, they would light up. Even if they themselves weren’t into birding, they knew someone who was. She said, “I started to think that there were maybe people who would want to hear some of my observations. Then I started to feel that it wouldn't be honest for me not to share.”

Most chapters in Turning to Birds contain an essay focused on a specific bird species and Lili’s experience learning about it. For example, her essay on Cedar Waxwings speaks to the time Lili judged a bird tattoo contest and got her first glimpse of the bird--tattooed on the ankle of a contestant.

Another chapter on finches follows Lili while on location in Santa Fe filming a TV series. She installs bird houses in the area after observing a pair of House Finches trying to build a nest on one of the trailers that she knew would leave soon when the shoot wraps, destroying the nest in its wake.

Other chapters cover catbirds, cranes, swifts, and in a moving essay “Tribute in Light,” Lili volunteers in a bird count at the Tribute in Light memorial at the 9/11 site in New York. Each year on September 11, to memorialize the lives lost, two giant beams of light shine up into the night sky, but unfortunately, countless birds get trapped in the lights during their nighttime migration.

For those interested in getting into birding, Lili has this advice: keep it simple.

She explained, “Maybe start with a feeder. Just see what's going on in your neighborhood and get to know your neighbors--your bird neighbors.”

She also recommends resources such as Sibley bird guides, the Merlin Bird ID app, Cornell Lab and the National Audubon Society.

As Lili continues birding, a couple birds remain on her list to see.

“I would like to see an Albatross…seabirds fascinate me. But the first that one that comes to my mind, like, in my life, is a Pileated Woodpecker…they really do remind me of dinosaurs.”

Find out more about Turning to Birds: The Power and Beauty of Noticing here.

Looking for a good book recommendation? Want to recommend a book you've just read? Check out our What We're Reading page on Facebook, or text us at 218-326-1234.

What We're Reading is made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Grand Rapids Area Library children's librarian Tracy Kampa returns to What We're Reading with four more great books to recommend.

The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape, by Amy Alznauer, illustrated by Anna Bron.

Tracy’s Take: By all accounts, Marjorie Rice was a quiet homemaker in the 1950s. Yet for her entire life, she had been fascinated with geometry and art, and that fascination led her down a rabbit hole to the land of shapes. Have you ever thought that shapes could be invented? For hundreds of years, mathematicians had wrestled with the problem of the pentagon--that is a 5-sided shape. They knew that any 3- or 4-sided shape with straight edges could be tessellated or tiled so that it would fit infinitely one against the other, with no gaps or overlaps. Some 6-sided shapes could be tiled as well. But what about 5-sided shapes? Why was this so difficult? Reading her son's Scientific American magazine one day, Marjorie found an article about the pentagon problem. In 1918, a mathematician had listed five types of tiling pentagons and thought the list complete. After working on the problem for 35 years, three more types of tiling pentagons were discovered. Marjorie's interest was piqued, and she started out drawing pentagons or “little houses” as she referred to them and started pushing and pulling the edges. Marjorie Rice ultimately discovered four types of tiling pentagons helping to solve a puzzle that had baffled mathematicians for hundreds of years. Out of the 15 types of convex tiling pentagons discovered throughout the history of mathematics, Marjorie Rice discovered over 1/4 of them. The back matter of this book not only includes a great author’s note, but it also encourages readers to discover shapes on their own and to look at the works of other tiling artists and mathematicians, such as MC Escher. I was absolutely blown away by this picture book biography and I think any reader of any age would appreciate learning about the incomparable Marjorie Rice. It lit my imagination on fire, and there are a few dozen cut shapes on my desk right now. Give your brain a break and a challenge and check out The Five Sides of Marjorie Rice: How to Discover a Shape.

Stella & Marigold, by Annie Barrows, illustrated by Sophie Blackall.

Tracy’s Take: If you have an early chapter book reader in your life, you may have heard of the “Ivy + Bean” series by Annie Barrows, with illustrations by Sophie Blackall. This duo is again coming together to bring us a new book that has the hallmarks of becoming just as iconic as Ivy + Bean. Stella and Marigold are sisters—Stella, a 7-year-old second grader and Marigold, a 4-year-old preschooler. They live in the bottom-half of a house and live the normal lives that sisters do. They go to school and the zoo and they have friends and they get sick. But in each short chapter in the book, there is a little magic sprinkled--in the magic that comes from great imagination. The sick blanket might hold the key to dreams of stars and lions. The book their mother read to them launches Stella and Marigold into a quest for survival when they are left inside the house alone. They even had to burn their toys to keep warm. Thankfully, the flames they used were made of construction paper. A challenge to a best friendship is handled quite nicely by a hopping bunny. A closet turned rocket ship takes Stella and Marigold to Japan to see the snow monkeys. Through it all, Stella and Marigold stick together, navigating the world with their sister by their side and using wonderful imagination to iron out all the wrinkles. I hope there is more to come as I loved the time I spent with Stella and Marigold.

Halfway to Somewhere (a graphic novel), by Jose Pimienta.

Tracy’s Take: Ave lives in Mexicali, Mexico, just South of the US border. They love the time spent with their family, especially time outside in the desert, hiking through the hills. Ave’s mom, however, takes a job offer in Lawrence, Kansas and moves Ave and younger brother Ramon to the United States. All three had been born in the US, which made the move easier for them. Older sister Cruz and Ave’s dad had been born in Mexico and would join the family when they were able to. Abe struggles in Kansas. They're not sure of their English and their mother's Mexican expectations of Abe seem impossible to meet in this new culture. Abe is frustrated as Ramon seamlessly accepts this foreign culture as his own and makes a best friend. On his first day in Kansas, running helps Abe clear their mind and work through memories. They are very much looking forward to when the family will be reunited and hopes for a return to some normalcy.

Tensions boil over, though, when Abe’s mother tells them that the separation is permanent and Cruz and their father aren't coming. Exploration of identity is central to this beautifully drawn and colored graphic novel. How does Abe assimilate into this new culture while their definition of who they are is falling apart? Ultimately, Abe gets along with a lot of help from some new friends. I very much enjoyed this graphic novel.

It’s All or Nothing, Vale, by Andrea Beatriz Arango.

Tracy’s Take: Vale is a world class athlete pushed by her parents to excel in the world of fencing. A motorcycle accident, however, not only takes her out of competition, it forces her to spend four months away from school, away from her sport, away from the identity she has created for herself. But now she's back at school and ready to practice with her team. Expecting to be greeted as a returning hero by her team, she is instead introduced to the new member, Myrka, who has taken Vale's place as the head of the team. Her first practice back leaves her in doubt and frustration. Her leg is weak and she can't stand that Myrka not only easily beats her, but that the coach praises Vale even though she lost. While subsequent practices go slightly better, Vale comes to a slow realization that her life may be permanently different. Her hated pink cane is a reminder of how much life has changed and how her life may never, ever be the life that Vale recognizes. She is forced to start looking around her, allowing her laser focus on fencing to blur and shift. With great courage, she tells her family that it's time for a break. She not only sees her family in a new light, but she finds friends and more as her world grows. This novel in verse is a magnificent reminder that as difficult as change may be, it is possible and sometimes might be the only way forward. I cheered for Vale and think you will too.

Looking for a good book recommendation? Want to recommend a book you've just read? Check out our What We're Reading page on Facebook, or text us at 218-326-1234.

What We're Reading is made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Amor Towles was running out of time.

He needed to submit his manuscript to his editor, but he still hadn’t come up with a title for his new collection of stories.

In a recent What We’re Reading interview, Amor explained how hectic the publishing schedule can be, “You are reading that manuscript from beginning to end 10 times. You're doing it almost on a daily basis, or every other day...You're reading the piece from beginning to end as you're fixing things and looking for errors and refining sentences and double checking everything and reading it to yourself.”

He re-read the stories and finally a theme emerged: two people sitting at a table, talking.

He said, “I think we do end up eventually…literally or figuratively at the table with our spouse, with our child, with our sibling, with our colleague, with a potential lover…where life is being hashed out in real time. And where those conversations can have a great impact on the way the relationships evolve going forward.”

The collection was finally named: Table for Two.

Although Amor Towles had wanted to be a writer since he was in first grade and went to college for his masters in English, his first career was in finance—he and a friend started an investment firm.

Amor explained, “I ended up being a little claustrophobic in my illegal sublet. A little impatient and also broke.” He worked in that firm for 20 years.

In his forties, Amor wrote his first novel, Rules of Civility. After it was published in 2011, he left the firm to write full-time. He would go on to publish A Gentleman in Moscow (2016) and The Lincoln Highway (2021).

Table for Two was published in 2024 and recently re-released in paperback. The book consists of six short stories and a novella. Amor explained that he turns to short fiction when he’s between novels.

He said, “For me, writing a novel is a three or four year effort and all-consuming, so before I'm about to launch myself into that next novel, I may write a few short pieces, just sort of as a variation, just because it's enjoyable.”

The six short stories in Table for Two are mostly set in New York City—a Russian farmer and his wife emigrate to New York on a whim in “The Line;” a businessman finds himself responsible for a recovering alcoholic when their flights are cancelled in a snowstorm in “Hasta Luego,” and more, each with Amor’s signature wit and storytelling mastery.

Eve in Hollywood is set in Los Angeles. A novella, it brings 1930s Hollywood noir alive, told from seven points of view. Amor was pleased with the harmony of the selected stories and thought Eve in Hollywood was a good bookend to them.

He explained, “New York and Los Angeles stand out in that they have reached a mythic status, not only for Americans but around the world, anywhere in the world…because they're both cities of dreams. So it was very nice to have the collection sort of be thinking about it in those two cities, sort of juxtaposed.”

Yes--a new Amor Towles novel is in the works. Avid readers know that Amor tends to incorporate characters from his other stories into his new works: Eve Ross from Eve in Hollywood was originally a character in Rules of Civility who Amor thought deserved more of her story told, and Dicky Vanderwhile was another character from Rules of Civility that ended up in A Gentleman from Moscow.

So, can we expect to see a returning character in Amor’s next novel? He answered, “This novel…begins in Cairo at the end of the Second World War. And I'm maybe halfway through it now…yes, two of the characters from Table for Two will appear in the story, but I wouldn't tell you which ones.”

We’ll just have to wait and see.

Learn more about Amor Towles and his work on his website.

Looking for a good book recommendation? Want to recommend a book you've just read? Check out our What We're Reading page on Facebook, or text us at 218-326-1234.

What We're Reading is made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

The idea for the anthology Locker Room Talk: Women in Private Spaces happened in an actual locker room, according to the book’s co-editor, Michelle Filkins.

In a recent What We’re Reading interview, Michelle, a founding editor of Spout Press and professor and librarian at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, explained that at the time of the book’s inception, she had been contemplating on how the locker room in the traditional sense had become an excuse for conversations that subjugate women.

Michelle witnessed an exchange between two women that started as a casual conversation about what their weekend plans. She recounted, “One of the women mentioned something that was happening with her son and the conversation started to get a little more private and a little more serious. And wordlessly, I watched the other woman come over and give her a hug and the first woman said ‘I haven't told anyone about that. Thank you.’ And then they left.”

Michelle realized that was locker room talk.

She said, “What had been bothering me is that private spaces, which is where women are often their best selves, had been used as an excuse for men to be their worst selves. And so I wanted to kind of interrogate that idea and reframe the conversation around what locker room talk really means.”

Eventually, Michelle reached out to Margret Aldrich, a friend from graduate school who had worked in publishing for several years. Sharing editor duties, the two put out a call for contributors and as they reviewed the entries, one of the themes that kept coming up was how the most revelatory locker room moments for women happen between strangers and often in bathrooms.

Michelle explained, “I think is one of the reasons that trans bathroom laws are particularly hurtful is because bathrooms [are] safe spaces. In fact, one of the pieces is about different women … having exchanges in a bathroom--it's called 'Land Set Aside as Sanctuary.'"

Another theme that came up from the entries was the idea of showing up. Michelle said, “Showing up for each other in private, showing up publicly--it seemed like women are just so used to having those moments of care and those moments of connection that we almost don't think about them and celebrate them. And so, part of what we wanted to do is take a step back and say, ‘What happens between women, the way we support each other, is important, and that those moments lay the foundation for larger collective action and support.’”

Their call for contributors resulted in 38 original works from authors, activists, and ordinary women. One of the contributors is Shá Cage, a writer, activist, theater/film performer and director living in Minnesota. Her essay “Showing Up” was borne from the confluence of George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis and the ensuing uprising and the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many people, Shá felt the struggle of processing these events while still trying to show up for friends, family and community.

She asked, “How do women show up and how do they keep space and how do they give and how do they tend to those that need tending to? … How do we make space and how do we just show up?”

Shá’s essay also highlights the importance of showing up so that future generations learn of the importance of doing so. She explained, “We have been carving out our spaces for ourselves, even if that has been violated over and over again. And so, we've had to be creative in that, and it's definitely unseen. I'm not afraid that it's not going to be felt especially by the younger generation. But I do wonder who will archive us.”

Locker Room Talk: Women in Private Spaces also includes contributions from Minnesota writers Kao Kalia Yang and Alison McGhee, among many others. The anthology was recently named a Minnesota Book Awards finalist in the anthology category. Co-editor Michelle Filkins is excited at the thought that these women's stories will hopefully find a larger audience.

You can find out more about Locker Room Talk: Women in Private Spaces at Spout Press, and Shá Cage at her website.

Looking for a good book recommendation? Want to recommend a book you've just read? Check out our What We're Reading page on Facebook, or text us at 218-326-1234.

What We're Reading is made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

“What is magic but a change in the world?”

In Amal El-Mohtar’s new novella, The River Has Roots, the said river is brimming with grammar, and grammar is magic.

Amal is a Canadian writer of stories, poems and criticism. She is also the co-author, along with Max Gladstone, of the Hugo Award winning novel, This is How You Lose the Time War (2019).

The River Has Roots is based on a seventeenth-century murder ballad type, the “cruel sister,” wherein the same man will court two sisters, and the older sister will usually murder the younger out of jealousy. “[The man is] mysteriously never the villain of the ballad,” observed Amal in a recent What We’re Reading interview.

“My little sister is the most important person in the world to me and I just thought this ballad, while provocative, tells me nothing about my life and I feel the need to fix it,” explained Amal.

So, in Amal’s version of the ballad, the two sisters, Esther and Ysabel, love each other very much. Their family is tasked with the responsibility of tending to the enchanted willow trees in their small town at the edge of Arcadia, where the faeries dwell and a forceful suitor threatens their bond.

The river and the trees in the story seem to brim with magic, or as Amal calls it in the story: “grammar.” The story compares grammarians to constables and imagines a time and a place when grammar was wild. The very first line of the story sets this enchanting tone: “The River Liss runs north to south, and its waters brim with grammar.”

Amal explained that when she used to teach creative writing, “I always wanted to give them some hook into it that involved thinking about language as something inherently numinous. And inherently strange, like something that literally orders and organizes our thoughts as something very powerful and shouldn't be taken for granted.”

The River Has Roots is dedicated to Amal’s sister, and also her music teacher, Hoda Nassim. Hoda unfortunately passed away while Amal was working on this book. She recounted, “That made it very hard to work on the story. I had to put it aside for a while.”

Along with the loss of her friend, Amal, whose family is from Lebanon, also had to deal the grief of watching the bombings in Palestine unfold. She noted that there are elements in the book that are “a direct consequence of just trying to resolve the dissonance between working on something that is a fantasy-fairy-folkloric story, while at the same time these extremely literal material bloody terrible horrors are taking place.”

The River Has Roots is an enchanting story, but readers will have a difficult choice to make: physical book or audiobook? The physical book is very lovely, with linocut print illustrations by Kathleen Neely and gorgeous cover art, but the audiobook is very special as well--Gem Carmella’s narration brings the story alive, with Amal and her sister performing the singing, and the music of the flowing river throughout.

The physical book also includes a bonus story from Amal’s forthcoming collection Seasons of Glass and Iron.

For more information on Amal El-Mohtar and her work, visit her website.

Looking for a good book recommendation? Want to recommend a book you've just read? Check out our What We're Reading page on Facebook, or text us at 218-326-1234.

What We're Reading is made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

Two new picture books and three middle-grade books are among Tracy Kampa's latest recommendations. Tracy is the children's librarian at the Grand Rapids Area Library and reviews books for What We're Reading.

A Little Like Magic, by Sara Kurpiel.

Tracy's take: She didn't want to go. It was cold and windy and she didn't like heavy coats or boots or places she'd never been before, but Mom insisted so off they went with her favorite plastic horse in her pocket to watch people create beautiful works of art from blocks of ice. When they grow so cold that hot chocolate can't even warm them, they go home. Only to discover that the plastic horse is gone. It is hard to be without your security, even if it comes in the form of a plastic horse.

They go back one night to see the completed ice sculptures, and while it was magical, it was also crowded and she felt as if she were caught in a forest. Until she sees an empty spot next to a sculpture. “I'm going there,” she tells her mother, and steers her power wheelchair to the sculpture of a beautiful baby horse and at its feet is the lost plastic horse. Even though she laments the fact that the ice sculptures will melt, she also knows that they will always be with her.

If you read one picture book this year, please make it A Little Like Magic, by Sarah Kurpiel.

Kwesi and Nana Ruby Learn to Swim, by Kobina Commeh, illustrations by Bárbara Quintino.

Tracy's take: Kwesi is sad when all his friends are playing games in the water and he can't swim. His fears come to a head while playing a game with Nana Ruby. She reminds him that when she came to this country from Ghana, black people were not allowed to swim in pools with white people. And when the pools were desegregated, communities might even fill in their pools with dirt so black people couldn't swim. Because of that, generations of black people didn't learn to swim and couldn't teach their children. “So, I'll never learn to swim?” Kwesi asks Nana. Nana Ruby assures him that certainly he can learn how to swim, and if he does it, she will too. While it was not easy, especially when Kwesi felt the water was pulling his legs under, he did learn to swim, and Nana Ruby kept her word too. I loved this book.

Old School, by Gordon Korman.

Tracy's take: You know the same old book plot: kid gets sent to live in a retirement community with his grandma, and in order for the paperwork to go through, she puts his age at 60 instead of 6. Then six years later, the government is wondering why this 66-year-old man has never applied for Social Security benefits, only to find out he's 12. And has never gone to school. What? You've never read one like this before? Well, you're in for a treat because Gordon Korman, one of my all-time favorite authors, has published another winner.

In the six years that Dexter Foreman has been living at the Pines Retirement Village, he has been home schooled by some of the finest minds of the last century. His best friend, 99-year-old Leo, has even taught him how to code--a talent learned by Leo while winning World War II. But when the truant officer is sent to the Pines, everybody knows that the gig is up, and Dexter heads off to middle school. Everything at Wolf’s Eye Middle School is as foreign to Dexter as he is to the other students. After all, no other middle schooler has spent his life dressing in perfectly good hand-me-downs gifted to him by his 80-year old neighbors. Bullies crawl out from the woodwork, including Jackson, who is no longer the smartest kid on the math team now that Dexter has arrived. Dexter's skills, however, soon win the admiration of fellow students.

It is when Dexter pulls out his Swiss army knife though, to retrieve a packet caught up in a vending machine, that Dexter learns what a zero-tolerance policy is all about. Suspended from school, he soon becomes the center of student protest. While Dexter can't go to the middle school, the school comes to him as throngs of students descend on the Pines every day after school. They chat with the neighbors, they play shuffleboard and bingo, they learn to love hot tea, and when the time is right, they show up at the school board meeting.

Woven throughout this wonderful book is an ode to the generations before, to the folks who fixed things and helped one another and made do. You would do well to spend time with Old School, written by Gordon Korman.

No Purchase Necessary, by Maria Marianayagam.

Tracy's take: Ajay tries so very hard to live by the rules set by his strict Sri Lankan parents: know the difference between right and wrong, there is no such thing as a no-homework day and the list goes on. Looking forward to a fresh start at his new school, he knows that he needs to earn the respect of Jacob, the popular kid. Jacob, however, delights in tormenting Ajay.

One day, Jacob asked if Ajay would do him the favor of getting a Mercury Candy Bar for Jacob. After school, Jacob had been stealing from Scary Al’s convenience store and he thought that Al was on to him. Ajay recognized that this was his chance to get in good with Jacob, so he very reluctantly agrees. Ajay steals the candy bar, sliding it in the front of his pants. When he goes to give it to Jacob, he is met with derision. “You put it down your pants. That's disgusting. I don't want it now!” Jacob and his friends laugh as they walk away and Ajay is left standing with a slightly melted candy bar.

As Ajay eats the candy, he notices something written on the gold foil wrapper: “Congratulations. You are the winner of Mercury's $1 million grand prize.” And then Ajay's problems really begin. Ajay spends days agonizing over the ethics of claiming a stolen prize. His decisions ultimately lead him to work at Scary's convenience store without his parents’ knowledge, where he discovers that Al might not be as scary as Ajay was led to believe. Who owns the $1,000,000?

I'd highly suggest you check out No Purchase Necessary by Maria Marianayagam.

Will's Race for Home, by Jewell Parker Rhodes.

Tracy's take: Will is the first in his family to be born out of slavery—Will his parents and his grandfather farmed cotton for other people. Will's father comes home with news of the upcoming Oklahoma Land Rush set to commence at noon on April 22, 1889. Could Will and his family possibly become land owners just by staking a claim? And the adventure begins. This is the book that I look for each and every time I order books. This is pure adrenaline. Will and his father and their friend, Caesar, who they meet along the way, must stop thieves and con-men and somehow defeat Mother Nature. They must cross a raging river surrounded by other people's treasures that were lost during previous crossings and even amidst the bodies of animals and people who didn't make it. There are gunshots and wounds to dress. There's even quicksand to overcome. And there is a critical time when Will must decide if he can go on alone. If he can save this dream for his family.

This by far the most adventure-filled book I've read in a year. The authors' note not only speaks to African Americans in the land rush but also reminds that the land being claimed was land that American Indians had lived on for thousands of years. This is an important and unique look at a time that the history books might lead us to believe was only lived by white people. But even beyond that, it is a fabulous book that I'm so glad I have on my shelves. Don't miss Will’s Race for Home, by Jewell Parker Rhodes.

Looking for a good book recommendation? Want to recommend a book you've just read? Check out our What We're Reading page on Facebook, or text us at 218-326-1234.

What We're Reading is made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

LA CRESCENT — When it came to writing, David Nash had focused on songs and music for a good part of his life. In a recent What We’re Reading interview, the La Crescent, Minnesota singer songwriter recounted that his first venture into writing novels was when he was inspired to turn a song of his about Paul Bunyan into a book. The Man in the Pines, a reimagined life story of the folk legend, was published in 2018.

David’s second novel In Wells’ Time was published in 2024 and was recently named a Minnesota Book Award finalist in the Novel/Short Story category.

In Wells’ Time tells the story of a family trait, or curse, depending on how you see it: some members of the Monasmith family are able to stop time. The son, Wells, has developed the ability--which leads to the question: what would you do if you could hold on to time?

Despite the time-stopping elements, In Wells’ Time isn’t a work science-fiction--the story is more focused on characters, personal relationships and family. The time stopping aspects are nuanced and serve more as a mechanism for readers to think about what time means to us and how we spend it.

David explained that the idea behind the story, “What if you could hold on to time a little bit longer? What would you do with that time? It gets to sort of the deeper questions of ‘How do we use our time and what is valuable to us?’ ”

As the story progresses, we learn there are dire consequences to the gift of time-stopping, and that Wells has a tough decision to make. David compared this to addiction, and also noted some anxiety he was working through shortly after his youngest child was born.

“I remember waking up in the middle of the night and just [thinking], ‘They're growing so fast, and time is moving so fast,’ and that was the worst train of thought to get in at 3:00 AM when it's dark and you think of space and eternity…and that did at least spark some of that concept of what if I could slow it down? Hold on to a hug a little longer.”

As a musician, it’s no surprise that music plays a role in David’s stories and in his writing process. On the publisher’s webpage for his book is a playlist of songs that either inspired his writing or show up in the book, including artists such as Regina Spektor, Alabama Shakes, Bob Dylan, Gillian Welch, and Minnesota artist Humbird.

David explained, “I really like having music around, and if it's the right music sometimes I can just flow with it in a way. Humbird, who's a regional musician and a wonderful person, her album Pharmakon--I would just put that on and usually it fit with about the time that I had to write, so it actually kept as like a pacesetter for me and I could… write through a scene and it kind of let me get out of the way of myself.”

In Wells’ Time is David’s first book to be recognized by the Minnesota Book Awards. In January, his book was listed as a finalist with 3 other books, with the winners to be announced April 22. Being a finalist has David stunned. He said, “It's an honor. Exciting. It's bizarre. Unexpected. It's all just sort of a strange journey in a way…It feels maybe a little bit like Imposter Syndrome. And I'm excited to meet these other finalists and I'm excited and thankful just to be a part of it and that the book is resonating with some people.”

David will continue to work on music and writing. He’s working on a collection of stories due out in 2026 called The Burnt Wood Anthology, along with other writing projects. You can learn more about David’s music and writing on his website.

Looking for a good book recommendation? Want to recommend a book you've just read? Check out our What We're Reading page on Facebook, or text us at 218-326-1234.

What We're Reading is made possible in part by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.