---

Skip to staff reads, Youth Yak, or book groups »
Newsletter  Archives

7th Annual 4th of July Pie Baking Contest & Auction! Once more Beagle Books will host this delicious event in support of the Park Rapids Area Library. This year there are some exciting new twists: The American Pie Council will offer a “Lifetime Amateur Membership” to the Best of Show winner! This includes an invitation to the National Pie Championship in Celebration, Florida next April! This year's July 4 prizes will include autographed copies of America’s Best Pies and Garden Country Cooking Pies donated by John Michael Lerma/Garden County Cooking. Other pie-focused kitchen bling (which retails for $75.00) will also be awarded. Pie entries should be brought to Beagle before noon on the 4th.  Pies will be auctioned off at the 2nd Street Stage immediately following the 4th of July Parade. What a deal—buy a pie and support the library! Contact Beagle Books (218-237-2665) or stop by for entry forms and additional information. Waldo's back...           ...But where? Waldo will be hanging out around Park Rapids all through July. Those who spot him can win prizes, including stickers, book coupons, and more. Pick up a “Find Waldo Local in Park Rapids!” passport at Beagle Books to see where he's hiding, then get the passport stamped or signed for each Waldo they spot. The first 100 Waldo seekers to get their passports stamped or signed at 10 sites earn prizes. Collect 20 or more businesses and you'll be entered in a grand prize drawing on July 31. The top prize is a six-volume deluxe set of Waldo books!  Get more details about Waldo. Meet children's author Deb Lund! Saturday, July 13 at noon at Beagle Books. Deb Lund's books include Dinosoaring, Dinosailors, All Aboard the Dinotrain,and Monsters on Machines. BestSellers for June Beagle Books     Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals       Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline     The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe Sister Wolf Books     Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger           Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline     Wild by Cheryl Strayed           Notes from Hannah Editor’s note: Since the announcement that ownership of Goodreads will change, many people are looking for an alternative. Hannah has been working with the development of just such an alternative, and we asked her to write about it this month. Looking for a Goodreads Replacement? A lot of people are looking for alternatives to Goodreads, and I highly recommend checking out Riffle, at read.rifflebooks.com. Riffle is a start-up, freshly out of beta, and still developing—so there’s still some patience involved in using the site; however, I think it’s a spectacular site for tracking your own reading, discovering new books, and really a great place to interact with other readers. When you sign up, you’ll be asked to select categories of books you generally read, and then you’ll automatically follow people who have been deemed as “experts” in that category. This is mainly because the main page is set up to look a bit like Pinterest , and the content is made of the books and lists from people you follow. You can also easily search for people you know, so your Riffle experience will quickly be personalized to both your reading tastes and to the books your friends are reading. The idea behind Riffle is to create a space that has really high quality content that’s both useful and fun. It’s easily connected to Facebook and Twitter, although you can keep it completely separate if you choose. Despite minor hiccups that come with a new and developing site, the interface is clean and easy to use, and I definitely think it’s a great replacement for Goodreads.  I’m very happy to answer questions about the basic usage of Riffle. If you’d like to know more, e-mail me at sisterwolfbooks@arvig.net, putting “Question for Hannah” in the subject line. Midwest Connections for July Books or authors of particular interest to our region A 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Walk: One Woman’s Trek along the Shorelines of All Five Great Lakes by Loreen Niewenhuis This book chronicles Niewenhuis’ latest adventure: a 1,000-mile walk along the shorelines of all five Great Lakes. The book takes the reader on a ground-level walk through the beauty, the history, and the tender ecology of Lakes Erie, Huron, Michigan, Superior, and Ontario, including portions of trail found in Minnesota and Wisconsin. The book also chronicles an exploration of self. The Night Gwen Stacy Died by Sarah Bruni This is an offbeat love story, a novel about the adventures and mutual rescue of a young woman out of place in her hometown and a mysterious stranger who calls himself Peter Parker. The Night Gwen Stacy Died is about first loss, first love, and finding our real identities. The Quirks: Welcome to Normal by Erin Soderberg a middle-grade book Each member of the Quirk family has a magical power: Mom can control minds; Grandpa twists time; Penelope's imagination makes her ideas come alive; Finn (the pesky kid brother) is invisible. The book's protagonist, Molly, has the most unusual quirk of all--she's normal. Lively characters, plenty of hijinks, and bright, sharp illustrations from Kelly Light make The Quirks a great introduction to a series that tackles pertinent problems for its readership: fitting in, family, and finding your place in a quirky world.