In 1959, Kevin Fenton was born on a family farm overlooking Rollingstone, Minnesota—a tight-knit village founded by Luxembourgers and so Catholic that the parish school was the only school in town. The farm, and Kevin's memory, is filled with the closeness of his large family. Dennis, the oldest brother, drives everyone—rather dangerously—to school. His sisters dance to records in the afternoons. At bedtime, ...
In our fast-paced modern world, quitting one's job to live off the land is a common if often unrealized dream, but Kathy Sletto and her husband Terry know that one of them will simply have to. They were both raised on farms, they own a picturesque parcel of land, and they love the sheep they are raising on the side, but the work with the animals is taking over their lives. She is the fiber arts specialist, and she jumps at the chance.< ...
Kevin Kling, best known for his popular commentaries on National Public Radio's All Things Considered and his storytelling stage shows like Tales from the Charred Underbelly of the Yule Log, delivers hilarious, often tender stories to readers everywhere with his first book, he Dog Says How. Kling's autobiographical tales are as enchanting as they are true to life: hopping freight trains, getting hit by lightning, performing his b ...
One sunny day on his postal route, Vincent Wyckoff crosses the path of an elderly gentleman whistling for his lost parakeet. The old man is upset, and Wyckoff moves down the block slowly, looking high and low, hoping to spot the little bird. He reaches the man's house and offers sympathy to his wife, who smiles sadly and says, "We haven't had that bird for twenty-five years."<br /><br />Letter carrie ...
You answer a call from a fourteen-year-old boy asking for someone to arrest his mother, who is smoking crack in their bathroom. You talk with him until the cops arrive, making sure there are no weapons around and learning that his favorite subject in school is lunch. Five minutes later, you have to deal with someone complaining about his neighbor's clarinet practice.<br /><br />What is it like to be on the receiving end of de ...
What does an environmentalist do when she realizes she will inherit mineral rights and royalties on fracked oil wells in North Dakota? How does she decide between financial security and living as a committed conservationist who wants to leave her grandchildren a healthy world?<br /><br />After her father's death, Lisa Westberg Peters investigates the stories behind the leases her mother now holds. She learns how her grandfath ...
"Writing in a style that reads like fiction, Griffith takes readers into heart-stopping action alongside caver John Ackerman, who found unexplored Goliath Cave in southeastern Minnesota." St. Paul Pioneer Press<br /><br />Narrow passages, twisting upward or dropping precipitously. Huge vaults filled with fantastic shapes. Tunnels twined in tangled mazes. Over centuries, underground rivers can carve holes and rooms i ...
There's an old Yiddish saying: two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead. But two living people could keep a secret—as long as one of them was Augie.<br /><br />Augie Ratner, the proprietor of Augie's Theater Lounge & Bar on Hennepin Avenue, was the unofficial mayor of Minneapolis's downtown strip in the 1940s and '50s. In a few blocks between the swanky clubs and restaurants on ...
“Every day, I think about quitting this job.”?The job of an emergency call operator continues to change: new technology, new drills, new threats to the peace of the community. In this book, the author of Answering 911: Life in the Hot Seat returns, no longer a rookie, with new insights and stories that amaze and astound. ?“I’ve worked with some of the finest, funniest, most caring assholes who’ve ever lived.”?Caroline Burau takes a job in a sing ...
