Minnesota Books

This is my favorite; a rare, witty, believable, up-to-date romance by Candace Schuler (sorry, it wasn't Candace Bushnell, my mistake). Typical of Candace's style of writing, the main characters (Natalie the private investigator, investigating Lucas the computer security expert, on her brother's business partner murder) are so natural, extremely witty and explicitly described, giving them depth, and bringing the characters alive. But what I like best about the story is it explores a modern woman's need to feel secure about her own capabilities - careerwise or otherwise, and judgements. I cannot say this to the majority of romance books. There's no apparent logic flaw in this story. Recommended for collection. It is worth it.

This book is a mysterious, haunting book that invites the reader to participate with their own imaginations. It's wonderful rainy, autumn weather reading.

Reading my mother's stories in your book was the best birthday present I could ever have received. F. Rawn, Duluth

Daycare & Diplomas featured brief essays by teen mothers who remained in school to pursue their education and secure their eventual graduation from high school. Each contributor speaks with candor on the issues the specifically pertain to being pregnant and in school, providing invaluable insight and authority to their explanations and commentaries of what they had to cope with and how they were able to succeed. Recommended reading for adolescent girls (and boys), Daycare & Diplomas is a very highly advocated addition to high school library and counseling center collections, and is also very informative reading for parents and friends of girls facing the challenges of child-bearing, school attendance, and educational achievement.

In Death of a Nation, David Noble examines America's frequently-shifting foundational myths. This book offers an analysis of the ways in which artists, writers, and historians participated in building and changing American Exceptionalism, from the early national landscape themes, through what Noble repeatedly refers to as "bourgeois nationalism" to the present "international marketplace."

Noble tracks the rises, falls, and mid-life ideological conversions of prominent American historians, literary scholars, and artists. Many of his subjects are people he has personally known during his long career at the University of Minnesota, so the conversion stories are frequently quite vivid. Along the way, Noble's anecdotes about his colleagues highlight trends in thinking that contributed to America's changing foreign policy and domestic policy, as well as shifts in pop culture.

Death of a Nation is certainly a must-read for students of American Studies/American Civilization programs, or anyone who is curious about why America has become what it is today. Great insights.

After studying Urban Planning and then switching to Literature, I find myself continually concerned with the ways our spatial environment affects who we are. This interest made McKittrick's book a natural fit. Her careful attention to the ways that space, geography, and the ideas that shape Black women's existance all fit together to direct how they move about the world has changed the way I view every book I read.

It is an academic book, and even after years of graduate school it required a careful, methodical reading, but it was well worth the effort for the amazing amount of information she packs into such a slender book. Any student/fan of African American history or literature will find themselves well rewarded for the effort of immersing themselves in McKittrick's particular genius.

When reading of the locations Dennis goes to you feel you were in the back seat with him. He gives very vivid detail of exact places.
One place he reviewed was Manistee Michigan the Victorian Port City. the Milwaukee House was owned by Great Grandfather and Grandfather Diefenbach and we know the information was factual and interestingly portrayed.
There are many such articles that make you want to go to these byways he deplicts.

As a garden designer, I need the simple version. I picked up this book hoping to get some ideas for improving the borders around my home. I was delighted to find that the book exceeded my expectations . . . both in describing the principles of border design and in providing beautiful examples which I could use as templates.

The book contains twenty-four original border designs by the accomplished John Brookes, Rupert Golby, Penelope Hobhouse, Noel Kingsbury, Piet Oudolf and Sandra and Nori Pope. Each one brings a unique and fresh vision of borders that expanded my imagination enormously. The photographs by Mark Bolton make this book a treasure to have.

The designs begin with a rough sketch or the sort that even I could create. That eased my tension quite a lot. I once had a series of borders designed and the plans were exceptionally detailed and complex. Not being a draftsman, I had felt intimidated ever since about what could be accomplished. The photographs assume that many readers (and certainly including me) will not know what many of the plants are so you see examples to give you a feel of the appearance and shape of these plants. The designs make use of plants that I would never have considered including many foliage plants and colorful vegetables. It's inspiring. There's a good discussion of the conditions needed for each design and when blooms will occur and what colors will be available.

But the book goes beyond designing and helps you understand how to prepare and maintain your borders. There are excellent planting directions for how thickly to place the plants.

If you only read one book on borders, this one is a fine choice!

Kristine Miller's new book is the clearest, most concise and concrete discussion of issues around the definition of public space that I've encountered. Among the issues Miller explores are:

- What constitutes a public?
- How are law, regulation, rhetoric and design used to control who gets to use a space, and what they're allowed to do there?
- Just how is eminent domain - the state's prerogative to claim private property, for the ostensible benefit of the public - constructed?
- How can aesthetics be deployed to muddy the fact that an apparently private domain like the atrium at Trump Tower has in fact been paid for (and continues to be subsidized) by you and me, the public?

Each of these issues is brought to vivid life through well-chosen examples from the recent history of New York City, from the controversy over Richard Serra's "Tilted Arc" to the design-abetted, megacorp-friendly "renewal" of Times Square. Even though these conflicts are far from obscure, Miller's careful explication reveals facets of each that have hitherto not been well aired - for example, I was unaware of the bowderlization and betrayal of photographer Neil Selkirk's "Faces of 42nd Street" series until Miller reported on it. (Apparently, neither was Selkirk.)

In its distillation of some important ideas from Habermas and Lefebvre, "Designs on the Public" reminds us that the seemingly self-explanatory notion of "public space" is something continually in the process of being constructed, renegotiated, and challenged. It's a bracing, not always happy but absolutely crucial read: those of us who believe that democracy is something that happens in public are best served by understanding how very contingent access and the right to use can be. I've added it as required reading for the course I teach at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program, and recommend it wholeheartedly to anyone concerned about the life of cities.

Really enjoyed this book. Quite informative and well written. Well researched as well. While I was not familiar with some of the films that Davidson discussed, after reading the book I wanted to view them all. Buy this book!