August book signings

All of these are Paws Points events!

August 1, noon to 2:00

Norma Knapp will be signing copies of her new memoir, Scoria Roads. Knapp writes heart-rending stories about living in twenty different houses in her first twenty-one years. The book is a touching meditation on what it means to love, lose, accept, and negotiate fate’s obstacle courses. The memoir is filled with Knapp’s towns and landscapes changed from the sweet safe ’40s and ’50s to a chaotic world today caused by a blistering oil boom. Knapp will also be signing copies of her earlier book, Missing My Best Friend, a children’s book about grief.

August 8, noon to 2:00

August 18, noon to 2:00

Join us as we welcome two poets to the store! Kathryn Kysar will read from her latest book, Pretend the World. From her Saint Paul kitchen to the historical shores of Lake Superior, from a rock outside of Bagdad to a clothing factory in Guangdong, Kysar constructs and reconstructs a world in poems that confront our false sense of safety and explore the inequities and fissures in women's lives. Poet and staff person LouAnn Muhm (Breaking the Glass) will facilitate the session. Books by both are now available at the store.

August 22, noon to 2:00

August 29, noon to 2:00

New Men’s Book Group?

We’ve heard interest expressed in starting a men’s EVENING group. If you’re interested, please email Jen at jen@beagle-books.com with the subject line MEN’S EVENING BK GP. It’s possible we could host a men’s evening group on the 2nd Thursday of the month, which is the same time that the women’s Beagle book group meets—in separate rooms of course.

Now in paperback!

The Rosie Effect
by Graeme Simsion

If you haven’t already read The Rosie Project, read it and then the sequel, The Rosie Effect. Both are great summer reads—screwball romantic comedies with quirky yet endearing characters.

Stone Mattress: Nine Tales
by Margaret Atwood

This is Atwood’s latest release—a collection of nine short stories which I forced myself to read slowly to savor. While I enjoyed Atwood’s science fiction/future dystopian novels, I’m really enjoyed a return to the feminist novelist I fell in love with as a young woman. The first three stories in the collection are connected—each is presented from a different perspective about a pretentious famous poet and his love interests. Throughout the three stories, a lot of time is covered—at one point in one of the stories the poet is young and unknown, in another, we witness the poet’s funeral after he died as old man. Atwood does an amazing job of weaving wit and irony with the human condition, and incorporating new technology (which should not have come as a surprise—if you want to talk to Atwood, get on Twitter—really.)

Close Your Eyes, Hold Hands
by Chris Bohjalian

Emily Shepard is on the run after the nuclear plant where her father worked has suffered a cataclysmic meltdown, and all fingers point to him. Now orphaned, homeless, and certain that she’s a pariah, Emily has taken to hiding out on the frigid streets of Burlington, Vermont, creating a new identity inspired by her favorite poet, Emily Dickinson. Then she meets Cameron. Nine years old  with a string of foster families behind him, he sparks something in Emily, and she protects him with a fierceness she didn’t know she possessed. But when an emergency threatens the fledgling home she’s created, Emily realizes that she can’t hide forever.

Midwest Connection Picks

Kitchens of the Great Midwest
by J. Ryan Stradal

A novel about a young woman with a once-in-a-generation palate who becomes the iconic chef behind the country’s most coveted dinner reservation. Each chapter in this startlingly original book tells the story of a single dish and character, at once capturing the essence of the Midwest, the rise of foodie culture, and delving into the ways food creates community and a sense of identity. By turns quirky, hilarious, and vividly sensory, Kitchens of the Great Midwest is an unexpected mother-daughter story about the bittersweet nature of life—its missed opportunities and its joyful surprises. It marks the entry of a brilliant new talent, sure to appeal to readers of Where’d You Go, Bernadette?, Olive Kitteridge, and Garrison Keillor.

And just for fun, we’re giving away a recipe card with the purchase of the book, while supplies last.

This unforgettable introduction to a charismatic kid heroine also marks the dazzling debut of an extraordinary new artistic talent!

Note to self: If your teacher tells you to bring something from nature for show-and-tell, she does not want you to bring an alligator! But nothing will stop Magnolia, who's determined to have the best show-and-tell of all—until her reptilian rapscallion starts getting her into some major trouble. Now it's up to Magnolia to find a way to send this troublemaker home—but what could possibly scare an alligator away?

Read about this book's remarkable path to publication.

Author Elsie Parsley lives in Moorhead, Minnesota.

Summerlong
by Dean Bakopoulos

One night Don, a father of three, leaves his house for an evening stroll, only to wake up the next morning stoned, and sleeping in a hammock next to a young woman he barely knows. His wife, Claire, leaves the house on the same night to go on a midnight run—only to find herself bumming cigarettes and beer outside the all-night convenience store.

As the summer lingers and the temperature rises, the town’s adults grow wilder and more reckless while their children grow increasingly confused. Claire, Don, and their neighbors and friends find themselves exploring the most puzzling quandaries of marriage and maturity. When does a fantasy become infidelity? When does compromise become resentment? When does routine become boring monotony? Can Claire and Don survive everything that befalls them in this one summer, forgive their mistakes, and begin again?

Award-winning writer Dean Bakopoulos delivers a brutally honest and incredibly funny novel about the strange and tenuous ties that bind us, and the strange and unlikely places we find connection. Full of mirth, melancholy, and redemption, Summerlong explores what happens when life goes awry.

BeagleAndWolf.com

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