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What’s Happening Labor Day Week-end? A whole lot! You’ll want to stop by both stores this week-end to experience all this: On Saturday, August 31, Jeanne Cooney will be at Beagle at noon, signing copies of Hot Dish Heaven: A Murder Mystery with Recipes. Select books will be on sale at Beagle during Labor Day week-end. Sunday, September 1, 1:00 to 3:00, there will be four authors signing at Sister Wolf: Candace Simar and Angela Foster Farm Girls Candace will also be signing copies of books in her trilogy of Minnesota history:  Abercrombie Trail, Pomme de Terre, and Blooming.   Chris Husom Winnebago County Mystery Series   Connie Lounsbury Thrift Store Shoes In addition, an end-of the-season sale will be going on at Sister Wolf. Cookbooks will be 20% off; all chocolate will be 50% off; select jewelry will be 50% off, select cards will be $.50 and our sale section has been re-stocked. The sale will run through the end of the season, but items will be moving quickly—shop early for best selection. Introducing  Iain  Wallace! Hello there to all you readers of the newsletter! My name is Iain Wallace and I am the new employee at Beagle Books. I began working here during the first week of August and have been having a blast. In the weeks since my first day here, I have met a great many people, as well as learning about many new and different types of books. I have also found that there are a lot of books that I need to read, just to keep up with everyone else! Yes, I am referring to Mr. William Kent Krueger. However, if anyone wants to come in and talk sci-fi and/or deep thinking, feel free. I hope to see you soon at Beagle! Hours to change at Beagle Books & Bindery Effective September 3, our hours will be: Monday through Saturday: 9:00 to 5:00 Sunday: 10:00 to 4:00 We’re hiring at Beagle! We’d like to add a bookseller to our staff! We’re looking for someone who likes to read and has good people skills as well as computer skills. This position is for 15 to 20 hours a week, plus one weekend a month. E-mail beagle-books@arvig.net for an application. Sister Wolf's season is nearing the end. September 22 will be the last day Sister Wolf will be open this year. Until then, we’ll continue to be open every morning at 11:00, and hope to see you in Dorset! BestSellers in August Beagle Books It’s been a William Kent Krueger month at Beagle!     Tamarack County by William Kent Krueger   Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger   Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline Sister Wolf Books     Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline   Lighthouse Road by Peter Geye   Hot Dish Heaven by Jeanne Cooney Festival Follow-Up Dorset’s Festival of Authors and Artists is a great way to connect with Minnesota writers! Recently, a customer e-mailed to tell us that she and some friends had a wonderful meeting with Beryl Bissell (A View from the Lake and The Scent of God), which resulted from her conversation with Beryl at this year’s Festival. Their book group will discuss The Scent of God at their September meeting. Notes from Hannah A Year Gone It was about a year ago that I flew to New York for a job interview, and moved here for good about two weeks later. It’s absolutely incredible that a year has passed since then; it seems not long enough to have made as big of an impact as it has. I think I’ve fit both too little and too much in a year, but then again every year seems to swing big changes even as empty months fall easily out of memory. I received my New York driver’s license yesterday, after surrendering my Minnesota one, and I’m now a New York resident registered to vote in this state. These new surface changes to my identity have thrown me off a bit. This year is the longest I’ve ever been out of Minnesota at one time, it’s definitely the first time I’ve claimed residency in a different state, and the first time I’ve had a driver’s license outside of MN. In the past year I’ve come to love New York and the people here. I’ve begun a life here and each day is another part of that foundation. It’s easy to say that I have found a home in New York. Still, I’m irrevocably rooted in Minnesota, even as life goes on and I seem to drift further away from where I came from. It’s a good thing the accent is difficult to shake, so there’s no mistaking where I come from! Editor’s note: Hannah is a former employee of both Sister Wolf and Beagle Books. She now works for a major publisher in New York City. Midwest Connections for September Books or authors of particular interest to our region The Distancers by Lee Sandlin Journalist Lee Sandlin goes back seven generations in The Distancers, a memoir of joy and heartache that is at once universally American yet singularly Sandlin's own. From the nineteenth-century German immigrants who settled on a small Midwestern farm, to the proud and upright aunts and uncles with whom Sandlin spent the summers of his youth, a whole history of quiet ambition and stoic pride—of successes, failures, and above all endurance—leaps off the page in a sweeping American family epic. The book touches on The Great Depression, WWII, the American immigrant experience, the uses of proper manners, how to ride the rails in the dust bowl years, and home brewing during prohibition. The Distancers is a beautiful and stark Midwestern drama, about a time and place long since vanished, where the author learned the value of family and the art of keeping one's distance.  Thunderstorm A picture book by Arthur Geisert Thunderstorm follows the course of a storm through Midwestern farm country minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour, from late morning into late afternoon. Created on 34 copper plates, the book is designed to read continuously from one page to the next, like a scroll. (In scroll form, the book would stretch over 40 feet!) As it is, each page is a meticulously executed piece of artwork that will entice both parents and children. Through keen observation, Geisert beautifully captures the nuances and details of a Midwestern thunderstorm, from the ever-changing color of the sky, to the actions of the human inhabitants, to the reactions of the natural world, to the wind and rain. The Facades by Eric Lundgren Set in the fictional Midwestern city of Trude, where ornate old buildings lie in ruin, The Facades begins as a mystery: one night at Trude's opera house, the theater's most celebrated mezzo-soprano vanishes during rehearsal. When police come up empty-handed, the star's husband must take up the quest on his own. What follows is a descent into Trude's underworld of bizarre citizens: rebellious librarians, shifty music critics, a cop called the Oracle, and the minister of an apocalyptic church. Written with boundless intelligence and razor-sharp wit, The Facades is a comic and existential mystery that unfolds at the urgent pace of a thriller.