Minnesota Books

This creative book begins with a brief account of the author's experience as the famed mascot, Goldy. From that point on, Bernstein cleverly interweaves facts on important people and events in Gopher history with entertaining first-hand accounts from ex-Gopher players and coaches on numerous topics ranging from their most memorable game to freshmen initiations. This book is an excellent read for anyone, Gopher fan or not, who wants to learn about the greatest College hockey program in the country.

This creative book begins with a brief account of the author's experience as the famed mascot, Goldy. From that point on, Bernstein cleverly interweaves facts on important people and events in Gopher history with entertaining first-hand accounts from ex-Gopher players and coaches on numerous topics ranging from their most memorable game to freshmen initiations. This book is an excellent read for anyone, Gopher fan or not, who wants to learn about the greatest College hockey program in the country.

This book is really great! It's extensive coverage of the Golden Era of U of M football should be in every graduate's library. The author has extensive knowledge of this era - his father having played in it. If you want to know some fun facts, this book is for you!

This book has a lot of very useful statistics. It is excellent for report writing, and for "taking a trip down memory lane"

Peter M. Gideon should be revered in American history and enjoy the stature and fame of George Washington Carver. Yet, through a the machinations of a small, but powerful, group of jealous and small-minded competitors Peter Gideon's reputation was all but lost to history.

In "The Great American Apple Wizard," Jim Curran has rescued the tale of Gideon had as illuminated the contributions that this once world-renown man had on pioneer America. Drawing on extensive personal research, Mr. Curran has artfully told the tragic story Peter Gideon's rise to celestial fame and then his rapid fall into obscurity.

With a warm and capitivating writing style, Mr. Curran details the life of a man whose character and determination were as rugged as wild as the times he lived in. The result is a tale of personal conviction, perseverence, triumph, and ultimately betrayal that is fit for a Hollywood screenplay.

A must read for those who study horticulture, America's pioneer past, or great Americans.

I am so glad that this book became published, as this information is an important part of our agricultural history. I also happen to be a great fan of the Wealthy apple variety, a hybrid developed at great personal cost to Peter Gideon. Congratulations, Mr. Curran!

With a text that glows as brightly as the book's sumptuous photography, Growing Home is a triumphant celebration of "diversity." But Ms. Price's work is far from mere political correctness; every page is warmed by her deeply felt sense of community with her subjects. From the Russian-born botanist who declares that gardening "is my soul" to the Hmong mother preserving her Laotian heritage and feeding her extended family, these men and women represent "a vast, invisible network of people living full, well-integrated lives." Their serenity and common sense testify that "even in the midst of a culture nourished on fast foods and hurried entertainments, it is still possible to live in concord with the rhythms of the earth." Beautifully designed and produced, the book is a perfect gift for any garden enthusiast...I love it.

Growing Home is a real treasure of a book. Price has profiled a very diverse group of "transplanted" gardeners--mostly immigrants--who use gardening as a way of maintaining connections between their ethnic and cultural roots and their present-day lives in Minnesota. The profiles effectively turn the subjects' gardens into windows on their life stories, revealing the broader cultural meaning behind the simple act of tending a plot of land. Price skillfully balances the botanical, historical, and culinary backgrounds of the gardeners she profiles, and John Gregor's photographs are beautiful on their own. I think this book's stunning layouts and engaging stories make its appeal extend far beyond the world of Minnesota gardeners.

where every paragraph leaves a distinct impression. Ellen Hart writes with a deft sense of place and time which mysteries often lack.

She has also crafted her main characters well to convey a sense of friendship, intimacy, and an amazing sense of humor.

This not only fine writing within the mystery format, it is fine writing, period.

Needless to say, the lesbian element was handled beautifully. This is the kind of statement about gays which should be made because it transcends the garish, tabloid styles of too much of the media (or, counter-media) and presents the human side... of human beings.

Clever plotting; rare character subtleties; solid, often unexpected, humor; special insights; an unusual location with deft understanding of the urban university society.

Yes.

I don't know who I liked more, the lesbian sleuth Jane Lawless or her slightly overweight (yeah!) buddy Cordelia! More than just a "whodunnit," this book is part character study, part Minnesota travelogue, and very much a good read. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Peter Rachleff writes this narrative of the Hormel Strike from the prospective of the common man. His unique vantage into the Labor movement is both intriguing and compelling. He breaks with the standard fodder of analyzing union structure and instead delves into the plight of the "every-man" (i.e. the rank-and-filer). Excellent.

Rachleff, labor historian who "studies the past because he is interested in the future", writes the perfect and much needed antidote to Barbara Koppel's Academy Award-winning documentary about the Hormel Strike, a film that cast the P-9ers and their supporters as "hapless victims" engaged in a hopeless cause. As an academic AND an activist who personally participated in this struggle and became the chair of the Twin Cities P-9 Support Committee, Rachleff succeeds in putting things into their proper historical perspective, describing the betrayal of a community by a formerly paternalistic family owned corporation (and a DFL governor) and a rank-and-file by their own international union, but most importantly, he inspires all working stiffs by showing union democracy in action and the potential of a movement that motivates family, friends, and workers from around the country. The final chapter outlines the positive lessons drawn from these experiences and gives hope for the future of the labor movement. This is a must read for any union member and anyone thinking that they need a union.

After the death of both Deleuze and Levinas in 1995, the mantle of "greatest living philosopher" presumably went to Jacques Derrida for a while. But Derrida has always refused to be a philosopher other than in the sense of not being a philosopher (which is also being a philosopher). So his cohort and quasi-follower Jean-Luc Nancy had to take the real philosophy from Derrida back to the question underlying all post-modern thought, namely how to deal with the empty space left behind by Heidegger's deconstruction of the tradition. With this little book, Nancy himself has become "the greatest living philosopher" - that is to say he has done to Hegel what Heidegger did to Nietzsche in the 1930s and 1940s: presented him as the key thinker of the break of modernity, and, unnoticeably perhaps, stepped beyond him. This book is indeed a marvel - one gets slightly dizzy reading it. Its intensity is at times (no: always) well-nigh unbearable. Nancy, like Heidegger with Nietzsche, takes a drill to the concepts of Hegel and allows them to shine in ways hitherto unthought(see the editorial review above, no need to repeat the details). In the end, this is the overturning of the boring old French Hegel of Kojeve and Hyppolite and the most exciting discovery in philosophical reading of another in sixty some years. I had always thought of Hegel as the great synthesizer. But Nancy's Hegel "returns" Hegel to pre-Socratic instability and shaky difference, where the restless thought-in-process constitutes the sense of the world, and philosophy is as alive as it ever was. A friend of mine says that Nancy reminds him of the color of the LED on alarm clocks: well, he's right, 'cause Jean-Luc Nancy is very much a phenomenon of a new morning. The owl is disoriented but it is all a marvel. Yes, I guess that is what you could say.

Kojeve's "Introduction to the Reading of Hegel" is a great work of philosophical interpretation and a great aid to understanding Hegel, but I believe that this work by Nancy now supersedes Kojeve in terms of unlocking Hegel's relevance for us living at the dawn of the 21st century.

This volume not only illuminates the roots of those such as Heidegger, Derrida, and Deleuze in Hegel (rewardingly illuminating their own work in turn), but it provides the best recapture of Hegel from his pessimistic right-wing interpreters.

Even on the basic level of helping clarify and bring to life Hegel's core modes of insight, this book carries the day. For instance, in the chapter called "Becoming", Nancy gives the easiest and yet most satisfying explanation of a particularly controversial moment in Hegel's thought - the presupposition of the absolute. The way Nancy explains this moment helped me to understand how a misunderstanding of this moment can lead to much confusion and difficulties in later moments.

The Finns settled in parts of the upper midwest states at the turn of 20th century to find a better life. This book tells stories of the men and women who came here in a light story-telling manner. This book is going to Finland as a gift to a school teacher cousin and I am certain it will be shared with her students. A great read, fun and enlightening.

Stubborn, ignorant, unneighborly. That's what we Finns sometimes are here in the Old Continent. That's what they seem to be in Michigan, particularly in Upper Peninsula, particularly in Keweenaw Peninsula. Other folks live somewhere else. they are beyond Mackinac Bridge, i. e. downstaters or they are some odd relatives from Florida who have lost their ability to survive in real "Finnish" circumstances of cold weather, snow or rain. After having read many hilarious stories about us Finns here in Finland by Finnish authors it's been a fun to find out that a writer of Finnish descent could catch the same proudly humbleness (or is it humble pride?) where vices are almost virtues. But a reader wonders if anybody could get offended because nobody is serious. Except in "An Odd Collection of Finns" where more tragical elements of being an immigrant suddenly arise as a main theme. Even these extraordinary stories could not arouse the interest beyond the readers of Finnish origin I sincerely recommend them to the folks in both sides of Mackinac Bridge - or should I say in both sides of Atlantic Ocean?

Richard Bissell is a master of dialogue and character development. The story of one trip on a tow boat up the Mississippi unfolds almost as a back-drop, as conversations between characters reveal the lives of the boatmen and their perspectives on life.

One of these marvelous perspectives, on growing older, was "...there is such a short time between being scared and wondering how to purchase a ticket to Sioux City, and then all of a sudden knowing too much about tickets, trains, and especially Sioux City."

This is a wonderful book. If you are from the Midwest, you will appreciate the honest, uncomplicated, realistic way Bissell presents the people and places, without the sarcasm of Sinclair Lewis. And, no matter where you are from, you will recognize the character types and enjoy the subtle presentation of deeply thoughtful insight found in "High Water."

I started on the river as a deckhand in May, 1955; worked every job from that thru manager of a barge line company. I retired in 2004 but still make trips out there when I feel the urge. I never read anything even close to how Richard Pike Bissell brought back so many memories of how it really was and still is when it comes to working out there. His characters were so "real" that I seemed to "remember" literally each one of them sometime during my own experiences. I know he's "been there and done that" when I'm reading his stuff.

Recently, I read a statement by the best murder mystery writer in the business. Elmore Leonard stated that Bissell's writing inspired him in his own writings. Bissell's attention to detail with people is so intense that so many other writers allow it to just go right over their heads. And to their detriment. Leonard does the same in his thorough research of people and places before he ever sets a pen to it.
"Dutch" told me something once I'll never forget. "Bob, you have written a history of events. In order to do a story, you must have people."

That was Bissell.
Thank you Amazon.com, Borealis Books and the Minnesota Historical Society for keeping High Water available.

Robert R. Nally
US Coast Guard licensed Master/Pilot and Chief Engineer

Great reading. It is certainly very illuminating to approach structuralism - the movement of synchronity & autonomous discourse - from a diachronic & contextual point of view. To me it was particularly interesting to understand the context in which Foucault emerged, how he used the structural paradigm brilliantly for his own purposes.

If you add "Jacques Lacan" by Elisabeth Roudinesco, you get an excellent take on the (sometimes flamboyant, often narcissistic) characters and institutional battles of the French 20th century intellectual scene (minus Sartre, fortunately). This will help you a great deal when approaching particular fields or thinkers more systematically.

This book is the definitive critical history of the most influential intellectual movement in the late twentieth century. Dosse focuses on the personalities and the historical conditions which gave birth to the structuralist movement, but he also concisely explicates the ideas it produced without impoverishing its richness and variation. And it also has lots of cool pictures in both volumes (Julia Kristeva was a babe). I have found Dosse's book indespensable for grappling with the vagaries of French theory. I honestly don't know how I managed without it.