Minnesota Books

Fawn Island is a place where crows serve as alarm clocks, white-throated sparrows leave the tracks of their songs upon the even hush, and chickadees help a woodsman learn to whistle. The island is also a gateway to the sprawling Voyageurs National Park. An accomplished author, Douglas Wood takes the reader into the heart of the deep North Woods with his text (illustrated by his own artwork) that evokes the charm and adventure to be found in the quite of the pine-clad shores, as well as the neighborliness, and independence of those who live in this remarkable place. Fawn Island is enthusiastically recommended, entertaining, and occasionally inspiring reading for naturalists, armchair travelers, and anyone else who enjoys experiencing the what a wilderness retreat in the North Country has to offer.

This is a terrific collection-- and one of the first I have seen to explore the connection between documentary and feminist film theory, history, and practice. The introduction by Walker and Waldman is extremely informative and helpful-- I have used it often in cinema studies classes and in writing papers and it has greatly expanded my knowledge in both fields of study.

Cloquet, Minnesota native Jim Johnson wonderfully captures little observations of life's importance and beauty in his poetry showcased in A Field Guide To Blueberries. His verse interweaves his own personal views of life, people, and the "protection of the North Country" in a way that will resonate with readers of all backgrounds and geographical locations. Here is a poetry that is as universal and it is pleasing to the mind and imagination. In The Blueberry Bucket: A man picks blueberries all day. In the bucket/small green and withered sifting down,/too old and squashed against the sides,/ twigs leave spruce needles settled to the bottom/while the large ripe rise up to the top./So full of flesh, so ordinary--/a woman, at sunset/a blond woman leading a reindeer/across the horizon. You are that woman. I am that man./And this I give to you/is, if not the history of the world/at the end of the day, but/a bucketful of blueberries.

Kathleen Jesme is a native of Northern Minnesota, bordering Ontario, Canada in the Lake of the Woods region, and this is the setting of her first book of poetry, Fire Eater. The book moves from her pre-history, the land mark fire of 1910, that devastated the entire town of Baudette and much of the surrounding woodlands, through her own youth as a child in reconstructed Baudette in the fifties and sixties. It continues on through her years, at high school age, as a novitiate in a convent in Northwestern Minnesota. This is the journey of a bright young person, who now recalls her early years and details them into a vivid and beautiful perspective.
Jesme begins her book with 4 poems depicting thoughts or incidents from her childhood, all imbued with images of her recurring theme, fire. In the first poem, "The Arsonist", she relates her remembrances of the time she set the long grass on a popular hill in Baudette on fire, while trying to roast hot dogs.
Excerpt:
And try as she might, she will never be able
to remember it
quite right---

the way the fire truck sounds with its Doppler roar
and the soft swish of voices on the streets
as the news passes,

and later, the thought of burning up
with the grass,
how easy it would have been,

and the way the hill
becomes a black patch of shame she can't look at
until snow comes and covers it.

In the next segment, Jesme takes us back to the fire of 1910.
We learn of the fire itself, it's possible origins, and continue on through the tragic deaths and stories of the survivors until, in the poem, "The Fourteen Unknown", we are at the cemetery where
Excerpt:
In the chaos and fear of typhoid
after the fire,
they buried twenty-seven people
together in a trench;fourteen of them

unnamed
and no one knew for sure
who they were.

As a child, I used to visit them.
While my mother cut
the grass on my grandfather's grave,
I went down the hill to the monument,
to the indentation of earth

Many of the poems in this book reflect the love of nature, particularly in the late Fall, that Jesme has carried with her beginning with a childhood that was lived,in large part, outdoors.
This passion, combined with a quick and discerning mind, has culminated in an impressive store of knowledge and experience that makes Fire Eater the type of book that will have an immediate and profound impact on the first reading, and will certainly have many more riches to reveal as the years go on.
One standout poem, "Let Them", leads to a truly breath-taking conclusion-this is a poem with a good heart, much compassion and wisdom, great lines, and as much as I would like to partially quote from it, this is an experience a reader will want to have alone.
The book concludes with several poems from the poet's convent years. The works in this section are also simply stunning and add real and stark perspective to the readers understanding of one person's amazing journey. "The Pump Room" and "All I remember Now" gave me a small idea of how hard life in a convent could be, yet also a sense of how something beautiful and lasting can be carved from the roughest wood. All of our pilgrimages through life have those defining periods. These quiet and beautiful poems are exactly the kind that will require many re-visits over a span of years to fully appreciate, and I look forward to the pleasure. Very often a good poet can return to you old feelings and memories that you had thought lost.
Kathleen Jesme - Thanks for Fire Eater. Fire Eater - Welcome to the collection of poetry books that I carry with me into the woods on my Autumn vacation. May we have many Fall seasons ahead.

The definitive work on this fascinating mustelid

If you are thinking about fishing the "North Shore", this book is a must. I have been fishing for forty years all over the united states, but for years the shore baffled me. Then I read this book. I studied this book. I highlighted parts and pieces. Then I went out and started catching fish.
Dose it get better than that?

If Christopher Bellýs ýPortugal and the Quest for the Indiesý is written as popular history, in an adventurous style, and if C.R. Boxerýs masterpiece, ýThe Portuguese Seaborne Empireý excels in synthesis and displays a breathtaking grasp of world history, then Diffie and Winius have produced a 435 page ýhistory by the numbersý---a methodical, step-by-step story of how Portugal began to explore the Atlantic coasts of Africa, how it outmaneuvered its rivals, settled Madeira and the Azores, and developed a system of trade and control that lasted over a century before succumbing to more powerful, better organized rivals and to the consequences of a small nationýs being overextended. Puncturing the various balloons of myth and legend, the authorsý down-to-earth, but highly detailed approach to the history of Portuguese exploration and penetration of the trading world of the Indian Ocean and the Far East is an extremely useful and interesting volume, probably required reading for students in the field. FOUNDATIONS OF THE PORTUGUESE EMPIRE sticks to the period 1415-1580, at which later date, Portugal entered into a sixty year period of absorption by Spain. (Note: the title as listed on Amazon is incorrect.)

The strong point about this book is the documentation, so useful for further research or inquiry. Footnotes have been placed at the bottom of the page, not in the text, thereby allowing smooth reading for people like me, who are unlikely to need to know the exact sources. There are some good maps and a section of illustrations. Not only are the voyages and battles in the East covered, but the authors also keep track of what was going on back in Portugal; the royal follies, the intrigues and battles with Spain, the rivalries among the Italian city states, the fruitless attempt to conquer Morocco, and the energetic trade with the Flemish ports to the north. We learn how the Portuguese got their information and see how, though mercantile reasons seemed to be by far the strongest motivation for their exploits, they often made huge sacrifices for reasons of faith too. From Ethiopia to Japan, from Persia to the Moluccas, soldiers, traders, and priests spent their lives in the quest for riches and in (mostly vain) efforts to save souls. The authors point out that the Portuguese domination of trade in the Indian Ocean during the period under discussion was no accident. Rather, it was the result of a geopolitical plan to strangle Muslim trade, and control trade routes through strategically placed forts (Sofala, Mombasa, Ormuz, Goa, Malacca, etc.) and a strong fleet. Rivalries among Portuguese commanders in the East, as well as the Portuguese kingýs distrust of his far-flung lieutenants, led to many a disaster, but time and time again, Portuguese naval power and unbelievable bellicosity overcame huge odds. The last chapter of the book, entitled ýThe Balance Sheetý, tries to decide whether the whole thing paid off---if in fact, aside from individual fortunes made, Portugal benefitted from its explorations and conquests.

The weakest point in FOUNDATIONS OF THE PORTUGUESE EMPIRE is that the authors seem far more comfortable and authoritative when dealing with Europe, with the Portuguese side of the story. When, on a few occasions, they attempt to describe Asian societies, their explanations are weak. Some errors creep in. They hardly mention any African societies at allýthe Africans are acted upon, never actors. For an extremely thorough story of Portuguese methods of expansion and economic domination, however, I would recommend Diffie and Winiusý work to every interested reader.

Francheska. Hauglund, Cynthia. Francheska von Tolz is on the journey of her life. She leaves Bavaria and a father who wants to marry her off to a "burgomaster", fat and rich. Her mama helps her escape with a friend, Elsa, who owns an orphanage in New York. Seems to be the turn of the century 18--. Beautiful, masterful old-fashioned storytelling with grand eloquence that takes you straight in to the story and makes you experience the sights, sounds and smells of the trip. A joy to read! A book you wish would not end!

This wise and loving book begins with the funeral of Frederick Manfred, the novelist. Written in lean, spare prose by his daughter, the poet Freya Manfred, it moves by a series of flashbacks through almost five decades of her keen observations of her father.

It is interesting to see that her writing style is quite different than her father's more ornamented style, although he was her mentor and writer friend.

You'll enjoy reading one of Frederick Manfred's books at the same time that you read Frederich Manfred: A Daughter Remembers. I chose to read Lord Grizzly, which some people say is the best of his many books.

In its general lines, _Free Trade in the Bermuda Triangle_ inherits the classical deconstructive schema whereby the inside of any system is both constituted and perpetually undermined by its outside (Freud's return of the repressed, Derrida's différance, etc.) The careful choice of the word "counterglobalization" in the subtitle signals the book's main thrust, since Neilson questions certain presuppositions of the "antiglobalization" movement and its attendant rhetoric, detecting within it a utopian desire that ultimately equates the possibility of resistance only with the small and the local. Breaking with the implicit nostalgia and melancholy of this vision, Neilson suggests that the grey areas, black holes and internal contradictions of contemporary capitalism be engaged from the inside in order to explore their disruptive power. Our culture's current exaltation of change, risk and diversity, he seems to be saying, faithfully mirrors the instability and fragility of the system itself. To couch it in seismic terms, what is important is to locate and probe the fissures in the tectonic plate and the earthquake may well occur from within.

While many authors have exposed the fantasy of a global capitalism investing every particle of space and time in an inevitable forward march (in lock-step with "democracy") that will somehow lead to the emergence of a friction-free economic order, this book's originality lies in the way that it shows how certain stumbling blocks on the way to this totalizing vision can actually be mapped on to the earth's surface via what Neilson calls "real-imaginary" spaces. The four examples he chooses - the Bermuda Triangle, Transylvania, The Golden Triangle and Shangri-La - all subvert classical cartography and in the mismatch between their labile borders and the stringent confines of the nation-state, Neilson situates the various challenges to political and economic orthodoxy. To paraphrase Hamlet, "space is out of joint" here, and in this disjointedness popular culture intervenes with its books, movies and websites trafficking in vampires, the paranormal, illicit drugs and New Age fantasies. While many of these popular productions are specious from a rational and even ethical point of view, Neilson prefers to note how each of them fundamentally betrays a resistance to or disenchantment with the notion of a hegemonic global capitalism and at the same time affords pleasure or enjoyment to their practitioners. Each example here functions in essence like one of Roland Barthes' "mythologies" but whereas Barthes was consrained by a brief, journalistic format, Neilson gives full rein to a cultural analysis that dissects each of these rebel cartographies with the tools of a wide-ranging critical theory.

_Free Trade in the Bermuda Triangle_ is an important addition to the (anti)globalization debate and one that has the virtue of establishing a ground of argument for further economic and spatial studies. On the economic level, it made me think about all those modes of exchange that somehow escape "legitimate" capitalist activity: barter, piracy, counterfeiting, fraud, the underground economy, gambling and betting...At the spatial level, Neilson's insights might well be applied to the "imaginary-real" topographies of cyberspace and of popular computer games such as SimCity, the most populated metropolis in the world (it is also unique in that seven out of every ten inhabitants are purportedly women). French writer Chloé Delaume recently became the first person ever - but surely not the last - to demand asylum in SimCity. Let's see what the future has "in store".