April is Poetry Month!


For more information, see Paws for Poetry.

We could be spring cleaning, but we’d much rather hang out for a day, talking about books and eating a meal someone else has prepared. Join us!

Our theme will be Mothers and Daughters and we’ll each have read the same two books ahead of time. We’ll move beyond the sentimental mother daughter relationships oftem depicted on Mother’s Day cards and in Hallmark movies to grittier and more challenging relationships.

The books will be Daughters of the New Year and Nonfiction: A Novel.

Both books are available in the store.

The cost of the retreat is $50, plus books.

We’ll be at Northern Pines Retreat Center, just north of town at 20033 County 1, Park Rapids, Minnesota 56470.

For complete details and registration materials, call the store, 218 237 2665.

See Sally’s staff picks for reviews of the books we’ll be discussing.

Author Fest call for authors

Our annual celebration of Minnesota writers will be June 15, and we’re now recruiting authors to participate. If you are an author, or if you know an author you’d like us to invite, contact Sally at Sally@beagleandwolf.com. We’ll be glad to share our guidelines for inclusion.

I Cheerfully Refuse release day
April 2

The release of a new book by Leif Enger is a cause for celebration! His latest, I Cheerfully Refuse, will be available April 2. We have signed copies of the book. In addition, Leif will be with us for a ticketed event at the Good Life Café on May 18, 11:30.

Photo by Robin Enger.


Here's a review by Lee:

The story opens in the town of Icebridge on the shores of Lake Superior, somewhere northeast of Duluth. It is set in a dystopian future where there is a wealthy class that cares little for others, except as they may prove useful. The necessary details gradually unfold, but the larger world is mostly ignored.

The story is told to us by Rainy, a large and mostly gentle man who loves his wife Lark, books, and his bass guitar.

Most of the beginning of the novel is about a life that is, given the circumstances, rather idyllic. But then a stranger comes to town who is befriended by Rainy and Lark.

This leads to tragedies that force Rainy to leave Icebridge, as he tries to find someone or something that may not even exist.

Enger’s prose is wonderful. It is descriptive and lyrical, and it is as good as any found in his previous novels: Peace Like a River (2000), So Brave, Young and Handsome (2008), and—my favorite—Virgil Wander (2018).

Four favorite quotes from this novel:

• Nothing sinks your spirit like your own cruelty.
• Words are one way we leave tracks in the world
• The best futures are unforeseen
• Maybe it was just how she stood there silent in full view like something from an ancient story none of them knew yet each somehow remembered.

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