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Recent Reviews
Richard Schoch
Positive The Star Tribune Even if you were not a Sondheim fan on page 1, there’s a good chance by mid-book you’ll be ordering tickets for the next Sondheim show in town.
Simon Rich
Rave The Minneapolis Star-Tribune Extremely and creatively funny ... Rich’s stories are not only funny, but also thoughtful and revelatory.
Rena Pederson
Positive The Minneapolis Star-Tribune As much a sociological study of upper-crust Dallas society as a true crime story, enlivened by [Pederson\'s] sprightly writing style ... King of Diamonds is an enjoyable read, in large measure because of Pederson\'s extensive, high-quality research, obtaining compelling info from and about her subjects.
Calvin Trillin
Rave The Star Tribune Calvin Trillin is an annoyingly good writer ... Clearly, he\'s good. The annoying part is that he\'s good at everything. Trillin immerses himself in his stories. He doesn\'t just interview the subject of his articles, but also their friends and their friends\' friends. Also, he is simply a gifted writer, with a stylish way with words ... There are so many quotable sections, I don\'t know where to stop.
Douglas Brinkley
Rave Star Tribune This doorstopper of a book, however, is more than just a reminder of how deeply the country was buried in an ecological dumpster. It\'s also an inspirational tome, one that shows how a few dedicated people can take on the status quo and create meaningful change ... Brinkley has done a monumental job of research, all of which he presents clearly and dispassionately, refusing to criticize from our current more enlightened perspective actions taken 50 or more years ago.
Ben Rawlence
Positive The Star Tribune ... important ... The book is at times a bit of a slog. Rawlence occasionally repeats himself. He presupposes a level of scientific knowledge (and vocabulary) not every reader will bring ... But it is worth the effort. We\'re already beginning to feel the impact of climate change through droughts, food insecurity and supply chain problems. Rawlence offers no solution, but notes that understanding the danger we face and \'accepting that the status quo is irretrievable is also the door to action.\'
Tim Higgins
Rave The Star Tribune Higgins...has done an outstanding job. He\'s performed a deep dive into the nuts and volts of Tesla. His book is extensively researched ... While the book is long, there\'s no sense that it is bloated. The only question Higgins doesn\'t answer is if the ends justified Musk\'s means. Ultimately, the climate might say yes. But as for the people he tossed aside, well, not so much
Walter Isaacson
Rave The Star Tribune Author Walter Isaacson is one of the nation\'s premier biographers ... he\'s demonstrated an uncanny ability to do exhaustive research, organize it all and present it lucidly, separating wheat from chaff ... He puts all those talents to good use in discussing the monumental achievements of Jennifer Doudna ... It is Isaacson\'s genius that he explains this complicated process—and how Doudna reached it starting from ground zero—in clear, concise, layperson\'s terms. But he doesn\'t stop there. Isaacson also discusses a host of unresolved moral and ethical issues that Doudna\'s scientific work has raised.
Paul Starobin
Positive The Star Tribune If these shenanigans sound familiar, it is one of the reasons this book is important. If we do not study and remember our history, we are doomed to repeat it. What McKenzie did goes beyond mere avarice. To sate his greed, he willingly subverted the American system. This book also serves as a hopeful reminder that ultimately there are people who will stand up for what is right. As a matter of personal preference, I try to avoid books that begin with a listing of characters—and there are more than 50 characters noted here. But I needn’t have worried. The writing is fluid, the structure is logical without unnecessary diversions. Also, the events in Nome provided the final impetus for the 17th Amendment, the direct election of U.S. senators, and at least a partial decrease in the powers of the bosses.
Andrew Coté
Rave The Star Tribune Coté conveys one adventure after another ... He tells one lighthearted anecdote after another ... Everything is told with Coté’s light touch and excellent comic timing ... this book is fun, a near perfect bee-ch book (no, I will not apologize) for the summer.
Jason B Rosenthal
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune Wisely, Jason resists the impulse for melodramatic prose. His writing is simple, straightforward and perfect for this book ... Yes, My Wife is genuinely heartbreaking. But it is also heartwarming and, perhaps in an odd way, positive. There are people who go their entire lives without the kind of relationship Amy and Jason had. I’m certain they had no regrets. This is the first time I actually believed love means never having to say you’re sorry.
Michael Powell
Positive The Star Tribune ... less a basketball book than a Native American Fiddler on the Roof, a book about young people caught between tradition and bilagáanas, the world outside ... Powell, a sports columnist for the New York Times, has a fine reporter’s eye and sensibility. He talks to aunties and uncles and makes you understand why despite it all — the broken homes, the poverty, the lack of opportunity — the reservation is home. Canyon Dreams is a sports book, but one unlike any you’ve read before, and one that will stay with you long after the final horn has sounded.
Anthony McCann
Positive The Star Tribune Shadowlands,...offers fascinating insights and poses interesting questions ... McCann conducted extensive interviews with locals, area American Indians and, of course, Bundyites; each offered perspectives on the occupation. In fact, McCann interviewed everyone except federal law enforcement ... McCann seems to believe there is some merit to the Patriot movement, that the state has too much power. He also asks what constitutes a proper protest. Is it OK to block traffic and create chaos in a city, as the Black Lives Matter movement has? If yes — and McCann seems to think so — is that different from what the Bundyites did? Not giving the government an opportunity to respond makes the book appear unbalanced. McCann’s theses are further undercut by statements that make him look as out of touch as the Sovereign Citizens ... You may not agree with everything McCann says — and there were times he really ticked me off — but he does offer a valuable glimpse at a group of often overlooked people contributing to the great divide in American life.
Lindsey Hilsum
Rave Minneapolis Star Tribune \"For many reasons, In Extremis is the best biography I’ve read in what seems like ages ... Hilsum brilliantly synthesizes it all, separating wheat from chaff and building a portrait of a remarkable and somewhat troubled woman ... In Extremis seems fresh.\
David Attenborough
Positive Minneapolis Star Tribune ...stories that amaze and fascinate ... What shines through this enjoyable, well-written book is Attenborough’s thoughtful respect for the planet and his understanding of its fragility.
Chris Bohjalian
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune Yes, over the first few pages, The Light in the Ruins has all the characteristics of a potboiler, a grisly whodunit. But as is always the case with a Chris Bohjalian novel, there is nothing typical about it ... The action shifts back and forth in time, from 1943 to 1955 ... As we learn more about the Rosatis, we also uncover layers about the detective investigating the case ... Tension builds as the killer prepares to strike again — even planning to kill the wife and children of the Rosatis' one surviving son. The denouement is dead solid perfect. Bohjalian has written another winner.
Dennis Lehane
Mixed The Minneapolis Star Tribune ...early on, it seems this will prove less a vintage Lehane crime novel than a compelling psychological study of a troubled and flawed woman ... Because Lehane has so successfully and sympathetically drawn Rachel, readers are likely to be vested in her. I was. And as Rachel investigates Brian, coming out of her shell in the process, the book becomes as compelling as anything Lehane has written in the past. That is, until the story starts to unravel. To explain how and why it disappoints would reveal too much of the plot. Everything turns on Brian accurately anticipating what everyone will do, as unlikely as some actions may be. Since We Fell is a worthy effort, but ultimately it is not up to Lehane's standards.
Michael Sims
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune Sims combines extensive scholarship with excellent writing and organizational skills to produce a work that is not only informative but eminently readable. What's most interesting is how he places Doyle, Holmes and the genre in historical context ... My only nit is that is that the book stops around 1891, two years before Sherlock and his archenemy Prof. Moriarty plunge to their supposed deaths over Reichenbach Falls in The Final Problem. It would have been a perfect coda to an otherwise wonderful book to explain why he did it and why he ultimately resurrected the detective in The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Chris Bohjalian
Rave The Seattle Times ...both literary and compelling, a combination so rare I’m tempted to apply for federal intervention ... I hesitate to say more, because to know too much may spoil the fun of discovery. Rest assured the denouement is perfect. This is Bohjalian at his very best.
David Oshinsky
Rave The Seattle Times ...[a] comprehensive, fascinating and informative book ... Oshinsky won a Pulitzer Prize for Polio: An American Story, and this book is in that excellent tradition: a grand, potentially complicated subject, extensively researched, presented in an anecdote-filled, readable manner.
Peter Guralnick
Positive Minneapolis Star Tribune The author knew Phillips and worked with and interviewed him in the past. That firsthand knowledge results in a biography that — while occasionally exhausting in length — is almost always compelling and even revelatory to those who thought they knew it all.