A book I'd like to give:

The Lyrics
Paul McCartney

I happen to know a baby boomer or two who might enjoy this Paul McCartney gem!

Books I'd like to receive:

Feral Creatures
Kira Buxton

This is a follow-up to Hollow Kingdom, which I enjoyed, so I’d love to read this one too! (Surely it’s as weird and witty as the first!)

Centered
Anthony Ianni

I like basketball, I like memoirs, and I’m interested in learning more about autism, so this seems like a can’t-go-wrong book for me!

A book I'd like to give:

The Midwest Survival Guide
Charlie Berens

When they hear “Minnesota,” some of our friends and family in other parts of the country think snow and cold weather. This book by comedian Charlie Berens may not convince them that Minnesota is habitable, but will be a highly entertaining attempt at trying!

The Unwinding
Jackie Morris

One of my favorite books this year was Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty. I saw an interview with him on ZOOM, and he mentioned being taken with the work of Jackie Morris. I think I’d like to be taken with her work, too. The publisher says this book is a book for dreamers, and its purpose is to ease the soul. Sounds like what I need.

Lightning Strike
William Kent Krueger

Well, you can never go wrong giving WKK.

Books I'd like to receive:

Led Zeppelin: A Biography
Bob Spitz

It’s always good to know the background of music I grew up on.

Mercy
David Baldacci

I can't go wrong when I get my husband a new David Baldacci title, and Mercy sounds like it won't disappoint.

Raising Ollie
Tom Rademacher

I think my schoolteacher neighbor will enjoy Raising Ollie by Tom Rademacher. Tom has been awarded Teacher of the Year. This is an account of a new school year and his brilliant, art-obsessed child.

The Fishermen, the Horse and the Sea
Barbara Joose

There are so many great and interesting books for children it's hard to pick. For the great grandchildren books about horses are always a winner as their grandmother has four. The Fishermen, the Horse and the Sea sounds exciting and Pony by well-known author Palacio should be great, too.

Books I'd like to receive:

Narrowing down the list is not easy, because the list is excellent!

Days Like Smoke: A Minnesota Boyhood
Jon Hassler

Days like Smoke will be a good choice for my daughter to add to her collection. Hassler had a summer cottage on Lake Belle Taine and she cleaned for him every summer.

You Belong Here Now
Diana Rostad

You Belong Here Now by Diana Rostad has to be good since it is recommended by William Kent Krueger!

Poison for Breakfast
Lemony Snicket

Poison for Breakfast by Lemony Snicket sounds intriguing. I got to hear him speak one year at a book convention, and he was fun.

American Christmas Stories
Connie Willis

One last pick is one for the whole family: American Christmas Stories, a book to be read this year and years to come.

The Man Who Lived Underground
Richard Wright

What a treasure: a book Wright couldn’t get published in his lifetime. It’s about an innocent man who escapes police violence in the sewers under the city. This is incredibly timely now: perfect for people who like social issues in the form of a novel by a fine writer. 

Sentence
Louise Erdrich

The novel opens with funny Tookie, indigenous but not tuned into traditional life (or into reality really) making a bad decision, not realizing the implications of what she’s doing. She breaks the law and receives a very harsh sentence that clearly reflects the court’s bias against indigenous people.

The novel then skips many years, to her working at a bookstore (Erdrich’s Birchbark Books?) in Minneapolis in 2019. Tookie’s experiences through 2020 make the horrors of that time and place real. Sometimes when I feel anxious for a character in a novel I stop and remind myself that this person doesn’t actually exist. In Tookie’s case that didn’t help. I couldn’t make myself not care: I was deeply concerned for her and had to drop everything to read to the end in hopes that all would be well.

There are layers on layers in this book: it’s a ghost story, and a fascinating look into life in an independent bookstore, and it shares the challenges of modern city life for indigenous people… well, I need to read it again sometime to understand more of the nuances.

Erdrich says her writing process starts the titles. I went to a dictionary (Erdrich begins the novel and her Acknowledgements stories of a dictionary) and looked up sentence. First, sentence refers to the grammatical definition. The word evokes the importance of writing and books that are key elements in the novel, but it’s more specific. The characters talk about perfect sentences. In the climax of the book, searching for a sentence with magical powers is the only hope for one important outcome.

And of course sentence refers, as noun and verb, to the ruling of a judge. Synonyms include “judgment” and “ruling.” But sentence also means “to cause to suffer something” as in (the dictionary’s example): “sentenced these most primitive cultures to extinction. —E.W. Count.” Synonyms for the verb include “condemn, damn, doom.” This novel is about all of the above, with hopes that the last definition doesn’t have to endure in our world.

A bonus: there are book recommendations throughout the novel and extensively in the back matter. Reading Sentence inspired me to finally read Braiding Sweetgrass. I’ll be picking up James McBride’s Deacon King Kong soon.

Louise Erdrich has a Newberry Library interview about the book: you can see it here. You can see her launch presentation at Birchbark Books here. Or read an interview with her in the Minneapolis StarTribune here.

Books I'd like to receive:

State of Terror
Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny

I love love Louise Penny; I always buy her Three Pines books as soon as they come out. I was hesitant about State of Terror, not knowing how Clinton’s involvement would work. But now I’ve heard that it’s a success, so I want to read it.

The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear
Kate Moore

I usually read fiction, but this biography by the author of Radium Girls fascinates me. It’s about a woman in Illinois in 1860 whose husband and one Dr. McFarland lock her into a horrific asylum for the insane. Her situation was hopeless and yet she persisted. This one makes the feminist in me take notice.

Lightning Strike
William Kent Krueger

You had me at William Kent Krueger. That’s all I needed to know.

Books I'd like to give:

Dear Highlights
Christine French Cully

Because EVERYONE my age remembers Highlights!

Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony Doerr

I trust Doerr for a really good story.

Note: our copies of this book are autographed.

Books I'd like to receive:

Woodrow on the Bench
Jenna Blu

Nothing is Impossible
Ted Olson

I will read anything recommended by Madeline Albright!

The Last Mona Lisa
Jonathan Santlofer

I bought The Last Mona Lisa last week and finished it in two days. I recommend it highly to mystery readers and art lovers. Though who doesn't know Mona Lisa!

It's a compelling story—all the best of mystery and intrigue with well-developed, interesting, believable characters, plus the wonderful references to familiar artwork and artists, along with time spent in museums and libraries in Italy and Paris, especially the Louvre.