Swing Time
by Zadie Smith

I've been listening to Swing Time on digital libro.fm.

I’m really enjoying this friendship novel with the familiar ups and downs of female friendships paired with settings I’ve never visited and racial issues that are unknown to me personally. Here’s a link to the audio book and the publisher’s description of the book.

Walden
by Henry David Thoreau

Each year, the Beagle Women’s Book Group reads a classic, and this year’s choice is Walden. Interestingly, although we’re all familiar with the book, none of us can recall actually reading it!

In the 1840s, Thoreau lived in a cabin he built on Walden Pond, just outside Concord Massachusetts.  He lived there for over two years, but condensed the experience into a single year in the book Walden, first published in 1854.

Accounts of Thoreau's daily life on the shores of Walden Pond are interwoven with musings on the virtues of self-reliance and individual freedom, on society, government, and other topics.

I was immediately charmed by the writing, and I’m looking forward to discussing the book with the women's book group. The value of a person isolating him/herself for a period of time seems ever more relevant in an age where we're all slaves to our smart phones.

Cooking with Convection
by Beatrice A. Ojakangas

Do you have a convection oven? If so, do you use it? I rarely used mine because I didn’t know how to. And then I wrote a review of Beatrice Ojakangas’ memoir, Homemade. When I learned she’s written 29 cookbooks I was curious, looked them up, and discovered one was a book on convection cooking, I ordered it for myself, read through it, and it and I spent the next week-end in the kitchen in communion with the convection oven. I made Pannukakku twice, roasted vegetables and made the best butternut squash soup I’ve ever tasted, and marinated and roasted my first pork roast. (I am not confident with roasts, outside of a crock pot.) I’m not confident enough yet to modify recipes for the convection oven, but I’m committed to getting to that point—and I have a whole cookbook of delicious recipes to practice with! The directions are clear and practical, the recipes are varied (Greek, Italian, Mexican, Chinese, and Scandinavian cuisines are represented), and the book includes chapters on everything you might bake or roast. And if you’ve ever wanted to use an oven to make a salad, there are recipes for that, too! I highly recommend this book.

History of Wolves 
A novel in hardcover by Emily Fridlund

History of Wolves is a debut novel of stunning beauty and power. Linda lives with her presumed parents on a failed commune in northern Minnesota. Their isolation has provided her with few skills to navigate normal relationships at school and in the wider world. Linda is drawn to Lily, a classmate; to Mr. Grierson, a teacher; and to the Gardner family, neighbors for whom she babysits. Her lack of understanding of each of these relationships leaves her more confused and isolated, and the repercussions of her actions follow her into adulthood. The writing is beautiful and the story is haunting.

To Capture What We Cannot Keep
by Beatrice Collin

Last Bus to Wisdom
by Ivan Doig

Eleven year old Donal is being raised by his grandmother, a cook at a ranch in the Montana Rockies. When his grandma needs surgery, Donal is sent by Greyhound to spend the summer with Great-Aunt Kate in Wisconsin. Life with Aunt Kate is not what Donal had hoped for and the feeling is mutual. Before long, Kate has had enough.  Donal is packed up and to be sent back to Montana and placed wherever the authorities see fit. As it happens, Aunt Kate's husband, Herman the German, is also ready for a change. The combination of a fascination with the west and being dominated by Aunt Kate motivates Herman to pack his bags and join Donal in his travels on the "Dog Bus.” The pair of travelers meets all kinds of people and encounters a myriad of challenges and adventures. I found myself engrossed in the story and touched by the bond between Donal and Herman. I was rooting for them through all their ups and downs. I think that you will, too.

Editor’s note: Ivan Doig, the beloved author of 16 books, died in 2015. You Tube provides a video of him talking about Sweet Thunder, an earlier book. If you’d like to see and hear him, follow this link.

Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption 
by Bryan Stevenson

Just Mercy is a memoir and so much more. Early in his law career, Stevenson was somewhat unsure of where he was heading. However, after a summer internship with the Southern Prisoners Defense Committee, his focus became clear. Stevenson is the founder and director of the Equal Justice Initiative based in Montgomery, Alabama and has dedicated his life to increasing awareness of discrimination and injustice within the criminal justice system. The stories told in Just Mercy greatly increased my awareness of our criminal justice system, especially as it relates to the issues of poverty, discrimination, the death penalty, and juvenile justice. If I were asked to name the most thought provoking book that I've read in the past year, it would be Just Mercy.

Ancillary Justice
by Ann Leckie

I used to read a lot of science fiction( SciFi) but found there was a LOT out there and a lot of Fantasy (you know unicorn stuff) calling itself SciFi. So, I sought out some direction (much as you do with our staff) by going to the SciFi awards, like the Nebula or Hugo award winners, which ends up as books about books.  Anyway, I was pretty excited to find a book that won both of these aforementioned awards. So Ancilllary Justice is a “little” different in that it’s written from the viewpoint of an android.  No not like your phone (although I suppose it could be). No, a mechanical device.... more like C3PO, who’s sort of a half-human robot who can network with her sister androids.  Imagine seeing something here in Park Rapids and then switching to a view on the International Space Station where your “twin” is stationed. Needless to say, we’re not in Kansas anymore. You know, I kind of like to identify with my characters, so this android thing kind of puts a crimp in that and you may have noticed that I referred to them as “she.” That’s because it’s in a matriarchal society. Because of that, I had a little trouble getting into this book, but I think it’s worth a shot for the newer Sci Fi person who could enjoy a different sort of twist.

Editor’s note: Link to the first chapter.

Roughneck Grace
by Michael Perry

This book is a collection of the author's essays which have been published in the Sunday Wisconsin State Journal. Michael lives in Wisconsin and has written a number of books about his life there. I discovered what a thoughtful and humorous writer he is when I read Population 485 about his coming back to his hometown as a bachelor.  Now he is married with two girls. He is a part-time farmer, a first responder with the fire department, and a musician. Even though Michael is on the New York Times Best Seller list he writes like your down home next door neighbor.

Locally Laid: How We built a Plucky Industry-Changing Egg Farm-from Scratch
by Lucie Amundsen

Author Lucie Amundsen wasn't a bit enthusiastic when husband Jason said he wants to start an egg farm. Neither one of them had any farm background. Then Jason was laid off from his job, so it was now or never. Their first order was for 900 chickens! I enjoyed the humor and problem solving that went into building the business. Michael Perry, author of Coop (and Roughneck Grace), says, "If you want to know anything about chickens, read Lucie Amundsen."  The Locally Laid Egg Company is near Duluth. This is a fun read even if you don't want to raise chickens.

Here’s a video of Amundsen’s husband and business partner, Jason, introducing their chicken farm.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
by Sherman Alexie

I love this YA book by the author of The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven (aka Smoke Signals). I picked it up off a banned book display, and had trouble putting it down. The story of Junior is heavily illustrated with his drawings (well, actually Ellen Forney did the illustrations). This funny book is based on Alexie's experiences growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation.

Living Well Is the Best Revenge
by Calvin Tomkins

This is a gem of a book about Sara and Gerald Murphy, the couple who were the heart of the group of European and American expatriate artists in 1920s Paris. The Murphys brought their friends to the Riviera in the summer, a novel idea at the time, and demonstrated that a loving family and adult restraints could be maintained in a creative, non-traditional life. Fitzgerald was inspired by them in Tender is the Night. But then a family tragedy took the Murphys away from France just as the communities they had helped shape began to fall apart. (Dorothy Parker was among their friends…)

Dorothy Parker Drank Here
by Ellen Meister

In this light novel, Dorothy Parker hangs out at the Algonquin Hotel after her death. She is among those writers and celebrities who signed a magic book that gives them the option to delay their passing into the white light. There are fun plots and subplots, but my favorite chapter covers Groucho Marx's short visit. Meister is a Dorothy Parker fan: she has a Facebook page full of Parker quotations.

A Gentleman in Moscow
by Amor Towles

It isn't often one meets with the suave grace Towles gives us in the character of the Count in A Gentleman in Moscow. Towles' prose reads like butter, while the insights into how one's own resources: integrity, commitment, love, self-development and self-awareness, all come to bear on the lives we're forced to lead under circumstances beyond our control. What happens when the world we're living in is suddenly turned inside out?  How exactly does one cope? Who do we become, and how do we maintain our own sanity and standards? Maybe even more to the point, when do we resist? I might suggest these are lessons we're all in need of at present.