Minnesota Books

Another VERY interesting book from Larry Millett - I couldn't put it down, lots of fun and great comparison pictures. Brings back a lot of memories!

I'm reading this book for Augsburg College's history of the Twin Cities. I think the photography is first class and I love reading this book. It is one of few class reading I enjoy (as well as Larry Millett's Lost Twin Cities). Lewis Nelson

I thought this book was very interesting, and not at all something that would appeal only to Minnesotans. It's sometimes hard to remember just how rapidly the neighborhoods and infrastructure of American cities have changed in the last hundred years, and seeing the movement documented is really fascinating. As the authors point out in an early chapter, nothing in a city is permanent, sometimes not even the streets themselves. The book does have some unhappy overtones. Like other cities, Minneapolis-St. Paul have chosen at times to simply bulldoze seedy areas of town and fill them with bland new buildings rather than try to redevelop them. New is not always better, for the city or its inhabitants. It's sad to see a block of aging but still beautiful turn-of-the century commerical buildings give way to cold-looking open spaces, or a stately mansion lawn turn into a weed-choked hillside behind a college. But this book is excellent whether you are interested in social commentary or just amazed at how quickly cities change to meet our changing needs.

We love this book in our home. My daughter has loved watching birds since she was 6 months old looking out into our backyard. We moved about 6 months ago and she has missed watching the birds. Now she walks over and grabs this book every day- she can say hawk, eagle, snowy owl, turkey, pheasant, chickadee and probably a few more- and she just turned 18 months. Her grandmother and her look thru it a few times a week and just love to look at the pictures. I'm sure as she gets older she'll appreciate this book more and more. I love that it highlights some of the most interesting facts on the photograph page and goes into more detail on the opposite page. I also really appreciate that they include a picture of the male and female of most species that differ in coloring. We love this book in our house.

This is a great bird book for beginner adults. The format is intriguing, the photographs inspiring, and the information comprehensive. It travelled to Minnesota with us on vacation, and although my 6 year old granddaughter and I had fun watching the pelican perched on a lake rock and reading about it, I also had fun researching the birds I was seeing out my cabin window. Most of these birds are also Iowa birds, so as I watch my bird feeders, I can consult the book so I know what I'm watching.
I have given these books as gifts, and they are much appreciated by adults and children. If Ms. Porter had added a chapter on how to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeders, I'd be even happier! Great book.
Pat Larson

I bought two copies of this book intending to give them to my siblings who live in Minnesota. One copy never left my home because my three-year-old grandson loves it. He's too young to read, but he often grabs it for reading time instead of Dr. Seuss. He's learned the names of most of the birds, and each time we look at it with him, he asks new questions. He knows that we can find what sounds the birds make, what they eat, how big they are, etc. The pictures are page-size beautiful photographs, not just drawings. The format is colorful, easy to use, and geared for young people (but our interest age ranges from 3 to 60!). Warning: you may find yourself investing in bird feeders.

After reading "900 Miles from Nowhere" I am amazed at the pioneer spirit, and their toughness and tenacity. Settlers of the Great Plains suffered hardship upon misfortune living in crude huts and sod houses and breaking ground in an often inhospitable land. Their prize was 160 acres of free or inexpensive land given by the United States government to help populate the drier lands of the middle west. "All" they had to do was improve their land for several years, during which time they experienced some or a combination of the following natural disasters: drought, tornadoes and high winds, extreme heat, plagues of locusts, and blizzards, as well as personal torments in the form of isolation, scarcity of food and funds, unsanitary and uncomfortable living conditions, disease, and death. That anyone managed to hang on, let alone prosper, in these conditions boggles my "modern day" mindset.

The letters and diary entries in this book showcase the actual thoughts, experiences and emotions of many pioneers between 1860 and 1910. Their stoicism is inspiring and their work ethic is astounding. The optimism and sometimes the bleakness of some excerpts really tugs at your heart. The photographs are amazing, collected from many historical museums in the midwest. You see formally dressed families proudly posing in front of their sod huts, and in the background the flat prairie seems to stretch to infinity, looking more like Mars than somewhere on Earth. It's fascinating to study the faces of these people, and know that you are looking at some of the builders of America who gave it their all.

Several of my ancestors lived on claims in Montana during that same period. Now I know what they must have experienced in trying to get their share of the American dream.

If you're one of those people who think hardships mean your computer is down or you've lost a cell phone call or maybe your morning coffee isn't just the blend you prefer, this book should be a wake up call. Steven R. Kinsella 's "900 Miles From Nowhere," is a compilation of letters, journal entries and other documents in which the settlers of the Great Plains describe in their own words the immense hardships they faced as they established homes, farms and towns on the vast American prairie.
Kinsella, a former press secretary to U.S. Sen. Tom Daschle, now lives in St. Paul, Minn. He is a great-grandson of Great Plains homesteaders. Kinsella did hours of research for this fascinating book which offers insight into the courage and determination our ancestors faced as they struggled to make new lives for themselves in the frontier.
The book's title comes from a letter written by a new bride whose husband had taken her to a sod house in western South Dakota. Still, the 23-year-old woman was cheerily optimistic as she wrote about the construction of her "other house," a two-story frame structure that she was more than anxious to occupy. Her determination to succeed despite being "900 miles from nowhere" is a common theme among the writings, and is a pretty good indication of just how this a large part of this country was settled - by people who refused to be defeated.
History buff or not, most readers will find this a very good read. I received it as a gift and ordered a copy to give as a gift.

Possibly the most important political science book I've read in the last five years. Drawing on ideas of race advanced by Noel Ignatiev ("Race Traitor") and David Roediger ("The Wages of Whiteness"), Olson provides a compelling argument for the idea that the United States was not founded upon an idea of an ever-expanding democracy, but firmly on white-supremacist, racist democracy that must be uprooted if any true democratic ideals are to be reached.

Olson's conception of "white citizenship" as the basis for rights in the United States is persuasively argued; racism is not, as is often stated, simply an oversight on the part of the founders but rather endemic to the system as it was designed. Olson's historical excavation of a racialized citizenship, building upon Ignatiev, Roediger and others, has profound implications for twenty-first century democracy, implicating modern citizenship as a passive kind of privilege rather than a participatory right.

Olson -- who I'm happy to say is a professor near where I grew up in rural northern Arizona -- has been active in radical politics, including the phenomenal organization Bring the Ruckus (bringtheruckus.org) as well as Phoenix CopWatch. His radical goals and anti-authoritarian approach are apparent throughout the book, and lend an important mark of social change to his political and historical essays.

Dr. Olson's book will be a benefit to those who read it. His critical analysis of the ideas of race and democracy in the u.s. is fresh and powerful. This book has it's place in the classroom and in the streets. The writing is in plain words easy to digest. Highly recommended.

The Abolition of White Democracy is a closely reasoned discussion of the central paradox of U.S. life: the necessary connection between democracy and white supremacy. In other words, in the U.S., democracy for some has been predicated on the exclusion of others; white citizenship and the oppression of black folk have been mutually constituted. Racism is neither an oversight in an otherwise democratic project nor a reflection of the contradiction between American ideals and practice.
Olson traces the origins of race in colonial times as a cross-class alliance between poor and upper class whites at the expense of black folks who were pushed down into slavery. The resulting racialization of citizenship-white citizenship-has led to a passive model of citizenship, that is, citizenship as a privilege and an identity, rather than an active, participatory model.
In conclusion, he sketches the outlines of abolition democracy, a challenge to the privileges of whiteness, which would expand the promise of American democracy and make white citizens human.

Having read lots of "guidebooks" about cities both in the states and in other countries, I can confidently recommend this book as one of the most comprehensive and usable! As residents of the Twin Cities, our household brings out this book everytime we want to know more about a building we've seen, when we want to know how late the zoo is open, or when we can't decide where to have a great dinner out. It is fun to read, very well organized by areas of the cities, and includes great information, such as history of neighborhoods and buildings, menu recommendations for restaurants, and where to find "hidden" locales. Excellent!

Unlike all the other Minneapolis guide books i saw. this one has an entire chapter about the mall of america (which is the whole reason for our trip to minneapolis), but it lists and describes many of the stores (especially the unusual and unique ones), and it has interesting facts about the mall. The book also has great maps. And the best part is, it color codes it's entries. Parks and outdoor activities are printed in green, hotels are in blue, resturaunts in red, etc. This book was a huge help in planning what to do and how long to stay.

Most people think of themselves as opposed to censorship and on the side of freedom. While the contributors to this stellar, striningly innovative colection no doubt view cesnorship negatively, their essays show in very persuasive and detailed ways that censorship takes many forms other than brute repression, and, more oever, that those forms cannot always be clearly differentiated from the practices of criticism, editing, museuum exhibition, and so on. A very compelling and provocative book.

This is a path-breaking collection of essays on censorship. Contributors focus on examples ranging from the early modern (Milton's Areopagitica) top the modern (Joyce's Ulysses) to the postmodern. The collection as a whole shows how complicated censorship turns out to be. Burt's own essay on the LA County Musuem of Art's recontruction of the 1937 Nazi Degenerate Art exhibition is a masterpeice. A must for anyone intersted in censorship of litterature, the arts, musuems, academia and music.

I had a day off from work on a cold day, so I poured myself a cup of coffee, grabbed a cookie, and sat down with this book under my arm. I'd planned on reading a few chapters before heading down to the basement to do something creative. I ended up reading the whole thing and when I closed it, there was a cup of cold coffee and a half-eaten cookie sitting on the table. I chose the title of this review because reading this made me homesick. I don't usually use the word "wonderful" to describe a book, but this collection of essays brings that word to mind.

AFTER THE FIRE is a collection of essays that are compiled by a gifted writer. "The Blind World" is one essay worth the price of the book. Mr. Zimmer was a "guinea-pig" GI during the Atomic Bomb tests in Nevada,in the mid-1950's. He writes that when he covered his eyes with his hands, his hands became an x-ray because his company was so close to the fiery blast of the bomb. That one chapter would make one great movie.

But Mr. Zimmer also writes with insight and passion about his many loves, including his wife Suzanne, and his first-hand experiences with great jazz musicians, including Lester Young, Art Tatum, Thelonius Monk and Sarah Vaughn. Zimmer writes, "They even stuffed whole bands--Basie, Kenton, Herman--onto those small stages." That essay, "Young Jazz" is one of the best pieces written about American music this side of Down Beat.

We also learn that Paul Zimmer has had a long literary career as editor and director of several publishing houses, where he introduced numerous writers, including Gary Gildner, Richard Shelton, Gary Soto, Norman Dubie, Jack Anderson,and Bin Ramke, to the literary world.

This is a finely honed, remarkably insightful and humane collection of essays. I thought I would read one essay, put the book aside and savor it, but found myself reading the entire book in one sitting.

This book will stay in your memory for years! I keep a copy near me and often relate a story or two from it. There are lots of stories from people from all walks of life in Minneapolis and surrounding communities. Many towns and farms and places are described. If you live around here, you will recognize many of the places.

The stories that touched me the most had to do with the rural farmers - some readily accepted stranded guests and some did so reluctantly. Many risked their lives in saving people. Some people were prepared for the blizzard, but most were not. Some were struck with tragedy, and some with a lot of good luck!

It is fun to relate to your children some of the hardships that people in the 1940's had to go through during the winter back then and they might like to hear some of these stories during a rare "snow day" that we have now and again here in Minnesota!

I highly recommend this book. I picked it up at my grandparents' house and couldn't put it down. It tells the personal accounts of a devastating, unexpected Minnesota blizzard that caught hundreds of hunters out on what was expected to be a beautiful, mild Indian summer day. The details are memorable: women caught wearing sandals in the snow, people taking hours to walk 2 blocks, and more. This book is one of those valuable record-keepers of Minnesota history. Thanks to the publisher for publishing it.

Since the marginal films of " Boca do Lixo" until "Macunaíma", this book shows the post-Cinema Novo.

Since the marginal films of " Boca do Lixo" until "Macunaíma", this book shows the pos-Cinema Novo. Enjoy, 'cause here in Brazil we don't have hardcover of this book!

Someone gave me this book, and I am lucky, for I never would have read it otherwise. But it seems that almost no one has ever read "American Daughter"(originally published in 1967), though it should be listed as of the greats of American letters. Thompson is quoted in the preface as saying, "Usually an autobiography is written near the end of a long and distinguished career, but not taking any chances, I wrote mine first, then began to live." That's tongue-in-cheek, and characteristically self-effacing. Very much so. After writing "American Daughter", Thompson went on to be associate editor of the newly established EBONY magazine, as just the start of a distinguished publishing and writing career. But it is this memoir, which should be reissued for mainstream attention--that is her great triumph--a touching, beautifully written book that enriches the lives of all who read it.

Miss Thompson has done an incredible job here. Her autobiography is so personal and touching. In reading her story, I watched her grow up in North Dakota and saw how the family struggled when they first started farming. From the early morning sunrise to the bitter cold weather, Era Bell Thompson is a master of description. She paints a beautiful picture of life, and likewise how hard the death of her mother and father were on her.
Her early 1900 work ethic makes us pale in comparison. Her friendships blossom on the pages. Her sorrows, pains, joys, love, and strength of spirit are poignant and enduring.
She is brave and hard working. She wants to share her soul with us, the readers, and has done a trememdous job!
Please purchase this book and read it. I promise it will be hard to put down and you will have been blessed by reading it.
Come share with me what I experienced by learning about a true american daughter, Era Bell Thompson.