Minnesota Books

Why is contemporary African American literature -- particularly that produced by black women -- continually concerned with issues of respectability and propriety? Her first book, Private Lives, Proper Relations, Candace M. Jenkins looks at how African American writers express the political consequences of intimacy for the susceptible black subject. Jenkins argues that this fascination grew from recurrent beliefs about African American sexuality, and that it expresses a basic aspect of the racial self: an often unexpressed link between the intimate and the political in black culture.

Jenkins's analysis of black women's narratives -- including Ann Petry's The Street, Toni Morrison's Sula and Paradise, Alice Walker's The Color Purple and Gayl Jones's Eva's Man -- offers a theory of black subjectivity. Here Jenkins describes how the middle-class tries to save the black community from accusations of sexual and domestic oddity by embracing traditionally "normal" values and behavior. Unfortunately behind those efforts there is the implied "doubled vulnerability" of the black intimate subject: racial scrutiny and the proximity of human intimacy.

This book was not an easy read for me. I had a very hard time getting into it. I must say, however, that the content is illuminating and definitely worth the time invested if you stick with it. For anyone interested in Women's Studies and studies of gender, sexuality and class in African American literature, particularly that of the 20th century, this book is for you. Private Lives, Proper Relations is a powerful contribution to the crucial effort to end the distortion still surrounding black intimacy in the United States.

The Privilege For Which We Struggled surveys the fifty-five year epic struggle of Minnesota women to win the right to vote. Showcasing twenty five women who lead the political fight to enfranchise women, the informative text is enhanced with rare historical photographs and the reproduction of a little-known article from the Minneapolis Sunday Tribune from April 4, 1915, featuring a cartoon of Minnesota suffragists planting their gardens with the yellow flowers symbolic off the suffrage movement. The Privilege For Which We Struggled is an important, seminal, scholarly, highly recommended and welcome contribution to women's studies in general, and the history of the women's suffrage movement in particular.

I find this book to be very well written, researched and valuable. It tells the immigrant story with grace and compassion, delving into the motivations, disappointments and successes of the generations. Not only those of Norwegian descent will understand the challenges and victories of immigrant people. It is a book that addresses common fears and the ways the community rises up to overcome adversity. It is worth rereading several times.

I am using this book for a graduate class, and I can only say that it has been invaluable. This book is a must-have for any aspiring clinician that plans to use the MMPI-2 for assessment. It has everything you need and more, and breaks down the scales in a comprehensible manner.

This book is a detailed analysis of some philosophycal questions about Carnap's philosophy. Only interesting for specialists. But if you are reallly interested in Carnap, then it is a good book for you.

Charles Edward Russell's time on the river occurred decades after the four short years when Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) was in the pilothouse. Like Twain (and like George B. Merrick, too), Russell began working for a newspaper in a river town, later went on the river as a steamboatman, and finally settled on a career as a writer.

Amazon has already provided a professional review that highlights other aspects of Russell's activist career. But two of his books stand separately from his political and muckraking writings. One, "Theodore Thomas and the American Orchestra," a biography of the great conductor and founder of orchestras, won the Pulitzer Prize.

The other is "A-Rafting on the Mississip." Here, Russell brings to life the era when great lumber and log rafts, acres in size, came down out of the Great North Woods of Minnesota and Wisconsin, to build the towns and cities along the Mississippi. From the early days when rafts of cut lumber floated with the current, through the decades when steam towboats pushed and maneuvered even larger rafts of logs, Russell describes the industry and the men who made it, some of whom were personal acquaintances and others of whom were on the boats with him.

And on top of all this thoroughly researched and well-written history, Russell's powers of description rival and at times exceed those of Mark Twain. Twain could describe a sunrise or sunset on the river such that the reader's eye pictures it easily. Russell's powers go beyond the visual to capture the rivermen's reverence, respect and devotion to the great and mysterious Mississippi, constantly flowing (in his words), "out of the mystery above the point, into the mystery below the bend."

If you're a devotee of river history and steamboats, you must have this book.

I needed a good map to use in the car for my recent trip to Minneapolis. I purchased both the Minnesota map and the Minneapolis map available from Rand McNally. The Easyfinder maps are now my favorite maps of all time. Not too bulky, easy to read in the passenger seat and fold up just to look at the info you need. They are laminated as well so you can mark them up with a sharpie or felt pen and then just wipe off your markings later. If I ever need a map for anywhere else again I will be sure to look for the easyfinder first. Very satisfied.

I know I'm not going to get lost because I have my new trusty Rand McNally map of Saint Paul. Rand McNally is a name that I trust and have used for years.

The most complete handbook for rehabilitators of diurnal and nocturnal birds of prey. Very good information on all possible aspects of determining and healing all kinds of problems which could occur in this field. Good tables and figures complete this significant work and is a must have for laboratories and rehabilitation centers working with raptors and owls. Also falconers will gain a good impression on the possible diseases and illnesses of their most beloved birds. The only minus could be its presentation being ringbanded and if written by a typewriter but this should be forgotten as the information included is yet the best in its field in addition with previous work of these authors.

Randy Zak is starting to get homesick for New York City, even though her mother wants to remain in Acorn Falls, Minnesota. Can her male friend (Sheck) from NY, who's coming to visit for Thanksgiving, help her make up her mind?

Out of the four girls in this series, Randy is my favorite, and I could empathize with her in "Rebel, Rebel" (though I'm not sure why it was titled that). While reading this book, I kept flashing on another series character: Stacey McGill from The Baby-sitters Club, who shares quite a few similarities with Randy--they're both from NYC (and miss it), they dress a little wild, both of their parents are divorced and they live with their mothers, etc. Young readers who like that series will probably like Girl Talk as well. (But what's up with the pink-is-for-girls, Pepto Bismal book coloring? It's an eye sore.)