Minnesota Books

Pie In The Sky: A Memoir About Writing And Publishing is Patricia Condon Johnson's personal testimony on the joys and hardships of writing for magazines, writing books, self-publishing books, and the tragedy of losing her daughter to murder. Black-and-white photographs illustrate this thoughtful and deeply engaging accounting which is hallmarked by the author's tenacity and insight. Pie In The Sky is highly recommended reading, especially by those who aspire to have their own writings published, regardless of the pressures and challenges life puts in their way.

In Pie In The Sky: A Memoir About Writing And Publishing, Patricia Johnston shares her personal journey as a writer and self-publisher. Along the way Patricia also shares her views regarding the 1993 murder of her daughter, Jane Ellen Neuman, the subject of a CBS "48 Hours" television program and Patricia's ultimately successful crusade to bring her daughter's killer to justice. As a publisher, Patricia's Afton Historical Society Press has produced 37 titles (many of them award winners) and has pursued partnerships to produce and sponsor television documentaries and art exhibitions. Pie In The Sky will prove of intense interest to anyone who aspires to have their writings published, to become a small press publisher, or who has an interest in the small press phenomena and trends in today's highly competitive and rapidly evolving publishing community.

This book does a great job of giving a brutally honest, indepth view into lives of Indian women. It illustrates how important context is when explaining oppression of women. Painstaking work goes into giving rich details of the lives of women.

I read this book for a graduate school class and thought it was really amazing. First it is interesting to read about the differences between women living in India, a group of people that a western gaze tends to homogenize. It also shows the struggles that NGO's face, and the conflicts between the bureaucrats of those who run the NGO's and the real women who work for them. I would highly reccommend this book if you are interested in third world feminism, NGO's, and reading about real women's lives.

John Hicks wrote this, the original classic, of the populist movement. It is easy to read and flows smoothly from page to page. It is very thorough and is the most in-depth book I know of about the Farmers' Alliance. An excellent history! Begin with this classic, then read Goodwyn and McMath and you will have all you ever need on the history of the Populist movement! A must have!

Though little more than a label today, Populism once stood for something specific - a movement of farmers and workers pushing for political and economic change in Gilded Age America. Published over seventy years ago, John Hicks' book remains one of the seminal works on the history of this movement, tracing its origins and following it through to its demise at the end of the century.

One of the keys to understanding the Populists as Hicks sees it is in understanding the role that the American frontier played in America during the late nineteenth century. It was to this vaguely defined, constantly changing area west of the Mississippi that thousands of farmers flocked, setting up farms in the upper and central Midwest. Lured by the massive advertising campaign of the railroads and local promoters, these people came in search of cheap, bountiful land that could be purchased with easy credit.

This massive spurt of growth came to an end with the crop failures of 1887. As the rains disappeared and the land dried up, the price of real estate dropped precipitously. The effects were felt not just in the Midwest, where tens of thousands fled the region, but the South as well. Here, the region was still recovering from the aftermath of the Civil War, with many farmers working as tenants under the crop-lien system, which gave merchants a powerful hold over them. Their resentment of the system added to that of their counterparts in the Midwest, who felt victimized by the economic system. For many, their crops never brought in enough revenue to meet their needs, and blame was increasingly directed at the banks, railroads, and grain elevator operators which seemed to be profiting exorbitantly from their misery.

These farmers sought organization as a solution to their problems. The Farmers' Alliance, a loose organization initially founded in the 1870s, grew as members sought to protect themselves from their economic situation by organizing business cooperatives and pushing to use the power of the government to address their concerns. Though tactics differed - some organized independent political movements, while others sought to take over the dominant political structure from within - by 1890 the separate Midwestern and Southern branches of the Farmer's Alliance were actively involved in politics, enjoying successes that emboldened their membership.

Initially the Alliance sought enactment of a complex "subtreasury" plan of government-managed cooperatives designed to alleviate the farmers' plight, but the constant political obstruction resulted in frustration. Faced with the combined opposition of both the Democratic and Republican parties, many members sought to overcome it by forming a party of their own - the Populist Party. This new party put forward James B. Weaver as presidential candidate, wining six states in the Electoral College and scoring a number of victories in down-ballot races across the country. The depression created by the Panic of 1893 led the party to adopt the "free silver cause," only to be undercut by the Democrats' nomination of William Jennings Bryan in the 1896 presidential election. Though signaling the demise of the party, Hicks argues that the Democrats' adoption of many of the Populists' ideas was proof of the ultimate success of the Populist revolt.

Even today Hicks' argument for the origins of Populism must be taken into account when studying the movement. Using the wealth of publications that the Alliance and the Populists produced, as well as other primary and secondary sources, he makes a persuasive case for the importance of the economic background to the movement, one that remains generally accepted today. As such, this book continues to be required reading for any student of American history, though one that needs to be balanced with more current scholarship on the subject.

BEST little book I have and use alot. Bought it in 1994 and must say it's small, with simple ingredients, easy recipes gives you great tea breads and other bread quickly. A must in anyones kitchen. not heavy like the majority of books on cooking or baking. she's very good!

This is one of those few books that I pull out, again and again, from my overflowing cookbook collection. Each recipe is simple and easy to follow, and takes advantage of both fresh and canned fruits. I have successfully made loaves, muffins, and mini muffins from these recipes, and they all freeze beautifully, so that my freezer is always stocked with healthy snacks and breakfasts for my children.

I'm biased too (even though Gerecke mangled my last name in one of the cartoons) but even if I wasn't, I still think it's great--I'm not putting my copy up for sale!

All right, so maybe I'm a little biased, being the author and all, but this is the funniest book that I've ever read that I also wrote. As the verbose title implies, it's a collection of stuff I did for the Carleton College newspaper when I was a student there. The comic strip itself has some jokes that are pretty specific to Carleton, but substitute your own college's worst dorm for "Musser" and your favorite cheap college beer for "Pfeiffer" and you'll probably get the jokes.
Honestly, I was extremely surprised when a Google search revealed that a few copies of the book are for sale. I only printed about 400 of them, and sold most of them on campus back in 1991 to fellow students for a bargain price of 5 bucks. If anyone is still interested, I still have a few dozen copies, MINT CONDITION, mind you, sitting in a box in my basement. E-mail me at eegerecke@comcast.net and we'll haggle. Plus, my copies have the rare, hard-to-find "supplement" pages in them--the 88 page versions are missing that last few months of the strip, when Ralph 'n' Vern finally graduate and get a taste of the "real world."

Womack's book is the most provocative and important study of Native American literature since Arnold Krupat's Ethnocriticism in 1992. It is the first to really show what a tribally centered criticism can look like, and offers a remarkable synthesis of work by other Native scholars. While he is occasionally too dismissive of non-Natives, he is also funny, subtle, and persuasive in writing.

Craig Womak's "Red on Red" is a briliant analysis of the current state of Native Literature. He gives the reader insights and guidance for understanding native writers, and a scholar can learn the much needed literary foundations for learning to "read" native writers. THEN, just to prove that even criticism is fun, he changes up in mid-stream and offers extremely hilarious narratives, written from his own Creek roots. Very fun to read, and an engaging writer.

Spendid coverage of most Red Wing dinnerware. Separated by years, it shows pictures and prices of individual pieces. Indexed by line and pattern, there is a picture guide to lead you to the pattern you are looking for. Easy to glance through to look for patterns. A must for the Red Wing buyer and seller. Don't make a deal without it. Reiss is the best.

Spendid coverage of most Red Wing dinnerware. Separated by years, it shows pictures and prices of individual pieces. Indexed by line and pattern, there is a picture guide to lead you to the pattern you are looking for. Easy to glance through to look for patterns. A must for the Red Wing buyer and seller. Don't make a deal without it.

This book is great because it moves beyond the usual "war story" things about combat and big military maneuvers and shared not only stories of combat veterans, but the WWII experiences of wartime nurses or family members back home or even one woman who was living in Hiroshima when the bomb was dropped. Well-written and a great read!

I picked up this book after reading his other book about POWs in WWII (Long Hard Road: American POWs During WWII). I TOTALLY recommend that book!

With so many books on World War Two on the market, this one sets itself apart by the vivid recollections of men and women who lived through the 1941-45 years. Some were in uniform, and others were on the Home Front, but no matter who they were their experiences come to life in this book.
The chapter on combat experiences is especially good, and the final chapter, where those interviewed have a chance to reflect back on what it all meant, is also strong. The subtitle may be 'Minnesota's Greatest Generation,' but these oral histories help tell everyone's stories. The numerous period photos give readers a chance to 'meet' the speakers.

When I was in college I read a collected edition of the poems of Robert Lowell and its pages amazed me. They were like nothing I'd ever read before. I was completely inspired, but knew that his genius was something one could not easily approach. It's actually a good feeling though because it's nice to be reminded of the heights to which we can aspire. That being said I knew very little about the specifics of his life apart from the fact that he had experienced several breakdowns and spent time in a mental hospital.

The brilliance of Lowell's poetry is what caused me to purchase Hamilton's biography. Mr. Hamilton is an outstanding writer in his own right and this is a finely crafted narrative. Some readers may not appreciate this author's extensive use of primary source materials, but I think it's a strength overall. Allowing those who knew the man to give their accounting--via private letters and published works--provides readers with the most telling portrait of a subject's life and times. Length wise this volume was perfect.

As far as Lowell goes, this narrative (which is the truth) thoroughly knocks him off the pedestal. He spent a good bit of his life paralyzed by mental illness and was a burden to both friends and family. His is an ugly tale. His relationships were a horror show and Lowell was very lucky that he kept the associations he did given his bizarre and occasionally malicious behavior. Hamilton's biography also has value as a testament to the growth of modern psychiatry. How easy it is to forget that only a few decades ago bipolar disorder was a thoroughly debilitating illness one often leading to imprisonment, confinement in an institution, and an early death. Thank God for lithium along with all the drugs that have evolved in the time since.

This book, in addition to being a well written and entertaining biography, can give insight into the complexities of having a family member with Manic Depression.

Dean's book brought back many great memories of when I lived in Rochester; the beautiful sights, the fun places to go, the basic flavor of this great midwestern city. His abilities with the camera are wonderful, thanks for providing Rochester fans with a priceless souvenir!

For anyone who has visited, lived in or is currently living in Rochester, MN, Dean's book is a beautiful keepsake to remember the beauty of the city. An update of Rochester: The Images, this book is really much more of a entirely new book with a wider range of pictures and informative captions (along with a history of the city).
Dean's has an amazing ability to capture the beauty in everything the city has to offer - from the Mayo Clinic to the Plummer House. Its a beautiful book and a worthy addition to anybody's library.