Minnesota Books

Why do some people put their necks out for others? Why is the call for honor and justice answered even when there is so much to be lost? "Shelter Half" is the first and sadly only novel by author Carol Bly, who unfortunately passed away last year. Her tale lives on as an examination of honor among human beings, as a murder occurs in a small Minnesotan town. A finely written mystery from a new perspective, "Shelter Half" is highly recommended for community library fiction collections.

Carol Bly, "Shelter Half." Duluth, MN: Holy Cow! Press, 2008. 248 pages. $15.95. ISBN 978-0-9779458-6-3

Carol Bly's posthumously published and only novel is a remarkable achievement by any standard--plot, characterization, theme, intelligence, perception.
It esembles earlier Bly essays and stories, but extends and deepens her range as a fiction writer. Although, or perhaps because, she takes risks, they are all to good and relevant purpose. One senses Bly's beloved Tolstoy in the background, whispering, "go deeper," and she does, as the novel resonates with the history of the last half-century.
The narrative unfolds in a series of scenes following the discovery of a young woman's body on the outskirts of a small town in northern Minnesota. Each chapter almost a story in itself. Events and characters that may appear tangential to the main narrative, however, are eventually woven into its complex tapestry of related and integrated portraits and experiences.
Shelter Half's assemblage of characters and personalities may remind the reader of Chekhov, with various members of the community playing significant roles. They include a no-good, lying Brad Stropp and his abused wife, Arlene; Pearl, bartender, church organist, and a no-nonsense judge of character; Eliza MacInnes, a 23 year-old Episcopal rector; Vern Denham, a handsome young whistle-blower, and John Rubrick, a smooth executive whose Institute for Humane Research "tortured rabbits as part of product development." Each of the characters remain consistently and imminently believable, in their instincts and flaws, their failure and hard-won victories.
Flashes of wit inform the narrative, as in this comment by local social worker about Californians. "There was no more futile exercise than agreeing to do psychological work with clients in California; they came to their first sessions full of cheer like expectant shoppers for in-season organic fruit."
Thirty-year old Imogen Tenebray, is a kind of central consciousness, whose choices and decisions impinge on other characters. She is a memorable woman thinking her way through her life and making choices that distance her from her family and neighbors, even those sympathetic to her values. Her thoughts, as she is about to talk with her therapist "about something very, very bad, are representative: "For a murderous species. we are certainly courteous,"
Following a personal tragedy earlier, Imogene has immersed herself in the moral and political concerns of the wider community, as a counselor and director of a peace center in Duluth. Once admired as a community organizer, she is eventually forsaken by her contemporaries for tolerating homeless people sleeping on the stairway to the peace center.
Imogene's parents, Peter and Natalie Tenebray, are local sophisticates who "didn't share their private lives with folks having coffee at the bakery or even after church. They were said to give bash-up dinner parties on the weekend, where other Episcopalians who were college graduate types went--but news never sifted from those parties out to...the Friday night philosophers at the VFW." Peter, a Harvard alumus, supplements his inherited income writing articles that present corporation's interests "in the light of that company's good intentions and potential good behavior." He is a "whitener," in other words, whose moral behavior is shaky, but not completely hopeless.
Shelter Half concludes with a meeting of a German and an American veteran of World War Two, conquered and conqueror, in a reconciliation at once mysterious, complicated, and convincing. Bridging a gap that we sometimes feel toward events of the past half century, it offers valuable insights into the moral, cultural, and aesthetic implications of the present.
Not surprisingly, the novel responds to demands Bly made of American writers, in her memorable pamphlet, Bad Government and Silly Literature, 1986. "Most of the characters in American fiction are fools," she wrote at that time, "who have no political or ethical feelings, seldom betraying any feelings of shame for our nation and fear for the planet itself." Although they "are not meant to be fools, the characters "conduct their joys and frets during unjust wars and terrible domestic poverty and never notice.
Ducking that condition, if we like," Bly continued "our literature will remain what it largely is now--rather too self-centered and capricious, with its plots full of private love life and financial considerations". Needless to say, Shelter Half ventures far beyond the narrow fictional landscape that she criticized.
In a body of work that includes essays, stories, commentaries on writing, ethics, and community, and finally this novel, Bly claims a special place among American writers. She is populist and sophisticated, with a moral vision and wit reminiscent of Sinclair Lewis and J. F. Powers. Although her gentle satire differs from theirs, it reflects a similarly penetrating eye for detail, as she plummets the depths of that Upper Midwestern and American culture.
Having known Bly's work, since we first became friends three decades before her death, I have long admired her intelligence and daring as an artist. But I must admit to being even further impressed by this novel. It took my breath away. The prefatory note on the title, Shelter Half--that is, the half a pup tent issued to American infantrymen--is alone worth the price of the book.
--Michael True

Shepherdess is a delightful book that kept me laughing throughout, it reminds me of the James Herriots "All Things Bright and Beautiful." In this true story Joan tells of the transition from research biochemistry to shepherdess with all the changes of image, the loss of romance and the discovery of self. Tis is a great book to read aloud and share the laughter. While there is information that would be helpful for someone looking to make this transition, it' really a good read for everyone.

As my husband and I were pondering our move from City to Country Life, this book was given to us as a gift, and we found it to be an absolute joy! The short chapters make it amazingly easy to pick up for short reading spurts. Each chapter tells it's own story of Joan's sometimes hilarious, sometimes frightening, but always entertaining adventures from biochemist to shepherdess. Her willingness to poke fun at her obvious naivety regarding sheep is refreshing. Everyone we've loaned our book to has found it very entertaining. You'll be amazed at what you learn about sheep! (We now have our own flock of 25 ... be careful!)

Szasz's twofold premise is that not only is the plethora of contemporary products touted as helping improve the environment not doing all that much, but these are also diminishing the prospect that the large-scale, systematic programs and practices required for actually improving the environment will be conceived and promulgated. To bring a focus to his premise and multifaceted argument for it, Szasz reaches back to the fallout shelter phenomenon of the early 1960s. And he also points to the phenomenon of suburbanization which accelerated about that time and continued over the following few decades. These two phenomena--the first part of a government program to deal with the nuclear threat, the latter a widespread sociological movement--are ways large numbers of Americans responded to threats and concerns in their day; similarly to how large numbers of Americans are responding to environmental, ecological, and health threats these days.

The plethora of environmentally "conscious" products and practices (e. g., recycling, diet regimens) allow individuals to devise a "personal commodity bubble for one's body". While this bubble does offer genuine physical and psychological wellbeing, collectively--even considering the millions who follow similar environmentally aware lifestyles--they bring virtually no material improvement to the environment. Nor in that they bring no improvement, do they do much to conduce to better health or a better environment for the society in general.

The phenomenon of suburbanization exemplifies how individuals--mostly more affluent individual families--make choices to improve their own lives but do nothing to resolve fundamental social problems. The fallout shelter phenomenon urged by government and enthusiastically bought into by many businesses exemplifies for Szasz how major programs devised and promoted by central institutions can, like suburbanization, be a way to avoid coming to grips with a problem, in this case the environmental problems which are worsening year by year.

The way many individuals are responding individually and in some cases by communities or groups to the environmental problems is a form of "inverted quarantine" whereby they are walling themselves off from deteriorating environmental conditions instead of acting to improve the environment permanently for the good not only of their own children but for future generations and for their own society and global society. Szasz does not argue that the environmental products and the consumer choices and lifestyles developed around them should be abandoned--even as "inverted quarantines"--but that no matter the number and ingenuity of such products and increasing numbers of individuals availing themselves of them, these are "not enough". The professor of sociology at the U. of California-Santa Cruz and author of the book "EcoPopulism" tenders some specific changes in perspective on environmental issues and some specific policies for environmental improvement. Mainly though, he argues for a society-wide approach to dealing with evident and perpetuating environmental problems which can be led only by government at all levels and social policies and practices that are different from consumerism or fancy types of escapism. Only when the "fallout shelter" mentality of dealing with a problem is put aside will relevant, effective ways for dealing with environmental problems come about.

I worry about my family's health. I buy organic food, I use "green" cleaning products, and I buy bottled water. But I have always had an uncomfortable feeling that these choices were woefully inadequate to protect them and the planet we inhabit.

Reading "Shopping Our Way to Safety" showed me how my efforts are "sold" to me, along with the belief that I can protect my family by being a conscientious consumer. Szasz explains that individual consumption not only doesn't make us safer, it masks the true problems of the toxins that fill our environment. What will make a difference is when we all work together to impact policy changes to address these huge problems.

After reading the book, I notice examples of Szasz's theory of the inverted quarantine everyday. Yesterday, and I am NOT making this up, I saw a TV ad for a product that removes toxins from your body through the bottom of your feet while you sleep!

"Shopping Our Way to Safety" gave me a framework to understand how we got into this environmental mess and how we can get out of it. It is easy to read and filled with a fascinating history of how many of us came to believe that we could ignore the rest of society while imagining that we could protect ourselves. Szasz never pontificates nor slams you with dense sociological theory. He does explain the race and class dimensions of the problem and gives you plenty of sources for more information. Easy to understand.

After reading this book, I donated money to my local environmental justice group and our state-wide occupational health and safety organization. I plan to work with both of them to protect people from workplace toxins and to demand cleaner air, cleaner water, and non-toxic food and goods, not only for my family but for all of us.

If you are a Minnesota sports fan, as I am, then Sid will give you great memories of all of the major pro and college sports teams. His years of expertise and great photos will bring back a lot nostalgia. Sid is the dean of Minnesota sports coverage. A great book at a great value through Amazon.

For someone who grew up through much of these events and missed many others this book is a must-have. It is a great way to look back at the memories and learn a thing or two in the process.

An indispensable volume of Native American writing. Every library, home, and school should have a copy.

This anthology of contemporary Native women's voices is the first of its kind to weave a plethora of voices and visions together. Many great authors and works in the book. A worthwhile purchase!

I really enjoyed this book. I know most of the places mentioned. It was wonderful to hear about the people's stories. I'm very impressed that they also put in a section honoring Native Americans. VERY good.

This is the sort of guidebook real Minnesotans appreciate, not one of those listings of pizza parlors and nightlife opportunities for all persuasions. In fact, even if you're not planning a visit to our northern wonderland soon, you ought to get this book and keep it in the dash compartment of your car, cuz you never know when the urge to get buried might come upon you. I can guarantee there's no more friendly place to be interred than Freeborn County, where I am now.

If you're considering a long sojourn here, however, I suggest doing an amazon search for guidebooks. You'll find something for almost every traveler's taste. But don't forget your bug spray or your mittens.

Enjoyable, challenging book. Osa uses multiple data sources to analyze how socio-political change was accomplshed. She demonstrates how group ties evolved, moving from unsuccessful events to the successful ties and events. Osa challenges the current explanations, and succeeds.

In these days where 'uninformed wishful thinking' controls US policymakers, it is most helpful to read how political-social change was actually accomplished. Osa carefully and clearly describes the networks (personal & organizational) and historical events that lead to massive positive political change. She documents the changes in groups, and the composition of groups, that lead through sets of failed uprisings and culmunated in real political change. It is a most worthwhile book that challenges both common (mis)understandings and academic arguments about political change.

This is my favorite of Bill Durbin's books and I've read them all. The setting, the characters, the Minnesota winter, this amazing young boy Matt who becomes the man of the family ... it all adds up to a vivid depiction of life when Europeans were making their newfound way in this country.

As a teacher I've read lots of homestead books, but this one is unique in its northwoods setting. The historical details are well researched, and characters and their struggles are depicted in a realistic manner. Adults as well as kids will enjoy this story. I've used THE BROKEN BLADE in my classroom, and I intend to incorporate this one into my curriculum as well.

This book offers a great insight into the history of Saint Paul. Not just the Architecture, but the cities life as a whole.

Published in cooperation with The City Of St. Paul Heritage Preservation Commission, St. Paul's Architecture: A History is the collaborative work of cultural historian Jeffrey A. Hess and public historian/historic building consultant Paul Clifford Larson. Beginning with buildings from the founding in the 1840s of St. Paul, Minnesota, through the city's great construction boom of the mid-1880s, to the Period Revival architects of the 1920s and 30s, and the rise of modernism after World War II, the city's distinct history and character as reflected through the architecture of its buildings provides the reader with an historical survey of a rich architectural heritage that concludes with a final chapter on the architecture of present-day St. Paul. Presenting more than 225 notable surviving buildings and the history of several diverse city neighborhoods, St. Paul's Architecture is profusely illustrated with period photography and illustrations, making it a seminal reference for architectural students; admirers of St. Paul's special beauty, charm and history; and a seminal addition to any professional or academic library's Architectural Studies reference collection.

One of the most important books in documentary studies in the past few years, "States of Emergency" is well-written, profound, and disturbing. Zimmermann is opening a whole new angle on the field.

Randolph Lewis (author of Emile de Antonio: Radical Filmmaker in Cold War America)

We urgently need a new world image order!

(If that's not a call to arms, I don't know what is!)

So begins Patricia Zimmermann's wonderfully, powerful new expose on the current state of the world. Right from the start I was amazed at how she was able to capture an incredible amount of energy and emotion in such a simple way. The introduction absolutely blew me away. The urgency she created is unlike anything I have ever read before ... honestly. I felt like she was sitting right there in front of me, trying to drill it into my brain. AWESOME.

You have to realize, that this kind of power and urgency does NOT exist anywhere outside of academia (that I can think of). It doesn't happen in the workplace, it doesn't happen on the news, and it's doesn't happen on Oprah. It's AMAZING.

And, hello, women aren't supposed to talk like this. Especially moms that wear fashionable clothes that need to be dry-cleaned. She is taking on transnational corporations, nation states, and rich white dudes ... if I were her publisher, I would be fitting her for a bullet-proof vest right now. Hello!

Do not be fooled by any attempt at categorizing this book, they do no justice here. Zimmermann covers nearly 20 areas of studies, from film to finance from politics to health care. Think about it, how can one talk about issues in the world today without overlapping these areas of study? They are all intertwined! Zimmermann exposes the seams of the simple cause and effect relationship and why it has NEVER existed. Be ready, it will rock your world.

You know what's really incredible, Zimmermann has recorded the history of the public space in the later part of the twentieth century. She did it, it's right there! What other document has done this? Do you know how incredible that is? Do you know how many people don't want the public to know what happened? It is now impossible for them to try to re-write history. She snuck in the backdoor. There is no need to theorize about what happened, she just wrote it all down for future generations to see. That's amazing.