Meet Henry Rollins and See the World at M&Q

For the past twenty-five years, Henry Rollins has searched out the most desolate corners of the Earth—from Iraq to Afghanistan, Thailand to Mali, and beyond--articulating his observations through music and words, on radio and television, and in magazines and books. Though he’s known for the raw power of his expression, Rollins has shown that the greatest statements can be made with the simplest of acts: to just bear witness, to be present.

In his new book Occupants, Rollins pairs visceral full-color photographs--taken in Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Northern Ireland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and elsewhere over the last few years--with writings that not only provide context and magnify the impact of the images but also lift them to the level of political commentary. Simply put, this book is a visual testimony of anger, suffering, and resilience. Occupants will help us realize what is so easy to miss when tragedy and terror become numbing, constant forces--the quieter, stronger forces of healing, solidarity, faith, and even joy.

You can meet Henry Rollins, see more photographs, and learn much more at M&Q tomorrow. Rollins will be in the store at 7:30pm, Wednesday, October 19. Details are here.--David E

Susan Niz's new novel Kara Lost has gotten great reviews. Alison McGhee called it "a masterful debut,” and David Housewright thinks it's “smart as hell."

Sixteen-year-old Kara fless the suffocation of her surburban life, trading in her home and family for a gritty, anonymous existence on the streets of Minneapolis. She begins a perilous journey, naive, well-intentioned, and isolated as she struggles to reconnect with her older sister.

Part of the book's charm also comes from it's setting: Uptown in the 1980s. If you visited M&Q when it first opened 17 years ago, you'll recognize Niz's description of the neighborhood:

Walking down the street, I asked myself what was so exciting about Uptown in the first place. There was plenty to look at, that's for sure. People with nose rings and spikes and patches on their black clothes. Fire-engine red and eggplant-plant purple hair, dyed with this Manic Panic stuff, drew attention from a block away. I had always shown up as is, looking suburban or not. I would watch the people as they panhandled for money to buy a case of beer, a meal, or a pack of smokes. In Uptown, I got off by Calhoun Square and walked the block toward McDonald's. There were more street kids out in the April weather than when I left in February, but most of them wouldn't come out until after dark. Looking down at the sidewalk dotted with embedded wads of gray gum, I wondered what had been so fun about hanging out there. All I wanted was a safe little place to live and I could give up ever going there again.

Susan Niz comes to M&Q at 7:30pm, next Tuesday, September 27, to read from her new novel Kara, Lost.--David E

Cookbook recommendations from Chef Lucia Watson

If it weren't for a steady diet of tea, coffee, soups, salads, sandwiches (and cookies!) from Lucia's To Go, just around the corner from our store, we here at Magers & Quinn would have a difficult time doing much of anything. We asked Lucia Watson herself to recommend a handful of her favorite cookbooks. Here's what she had to say.

M&Q:How long have you been in business? And why?
LW:: "26 years!!! For 26 years, Lucia's has been creating weekly menus, selecting delicious wines and greeting our wonderful customers! Our Restaurant, Wine Bar, and Lucia's To Go are inspired by high quality local foods, exceptional cooking, and genuine hospitality. The seasonal, nourishing, and cultural properties of cooking continue to be our passion.

1. Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi "My newest love is a book called Plenty by London-based chef Yotam Ottolenghi. It's just vegetables. So inspiring and so beautiful!"
2. Simple French Food by Richard Olney "To me, this is the authentic hands on book that describes how to cook the way the French do. I just love this book. I go back to it over and over..."
3. Savoring the Seasons of the Northern Heartland by Lucia Watson and Beth Dooley "Can I say my own book? It is true that it is the one I turn to always for the basics of how I like to cook: seasonal foods, roasted chicken, soups, etc."

"Other books I love and refer to frequently are Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller, The River Cafe Books by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers and all of Deborah Madison's books ."

M&Q is full of good cookbooks. Come by today to find the right one for you.

Brooklyn, Burning Is Hot Reading

Steve Brezenoff--one of Minnesota Monthly's recent "Artists We Love"--reads from his latest novel at Magers & Quinn this Friday. Join us at 7:30pm, Friday, August 26, for a rather adult Young Adult reading.

When you're sixteen and no one understands who you are, sometimes the only choice left is to run. If you're lucky, you find a place that accepts you, no questions asked. And if you're really lucky, that place has a drum set, a place to practice, and a place to sleep. For Kid, the streets of Greenpoint, Brooklyn, are that place. Over the course of two scorching summers, Kid falls hopelessly in love and then loses nearly everything and everyone worth caring about.

Brooklyn, Burning is a fearless and unconventional love story that addresses the challenges of teens questioning their gender or sexuality. Throughout the entire book, Brezenoff never identifies the gender of his two main characters, leaving readers to draw their own conclusions about Kid and Scout.

Steve Brezenoff is the author of two young adult novels, The Absolute Value of -1 and Brooklyn, Burning (both published by Minneapolis-based Carolrhoda Lab, an imprint of Lerner Publishing Group). Born in Queens, Steve spent much of his twenties and early thirties living in Brooklyn. He writes about Greenpoint, the northern-most Brooklyn neighborhood, in vivid and unmistakable detail. Steve left his apartment in Greenpoint when he moved to Minnesota with his dog, Harry. It was in that apartment that he proposed to his wife, Beth (the reason he moved to Minnesota). He lives in St. Paul with Beth, their son, Sam, and Harry.

Punch-Worthy Events

Three local bookstores (Magers & Quinn Booksellers, Common Good Books, and Micawbers), three local publishers (Graywolf Press, Milkweed Editions, and Coffee House Press), one literary journal (Rain Taxi Review of Books), and the Loft Literary Center have joined forces to offer the TCLPC. Attendees can get their cards punched--as you'd do at any coffee shop--at readings and other literary events. After twelve punches, the punch card becomes a fifteen dollar gift certificate.

Join Twin Cities literary organizations for a happy hour gathering--5:00pm, Wednesday, September 14, at Club Jäger (923 Washington Ave. N, Minneapolis). Receive your Literary Punch Card, learn about the card and the events coming this fall, drink punch, and celebrate the vibrant literary community. Oh and get punched for the first time (at least by us)!

Details on the program are at www.litpunch.com.

Tuula

We love our animal friends here at Magers and Quinn. Not only do almost all of us have one or more pets, but one of them, Tuula, a 1.5 year old Poodle/Miniature Pinscher mix, visits the store. Tuula, as the Finns spell it, is shy and spends her time at the store napping and, at times, venturing out for treats. If she had to choose, her favorite books would be Bones: Those Delicious Treats and 20 Places to Bury Them Indoors by Ima Dog, The Joy of Chasing Squirrels by Miniature Pinscher, Poodle: The Seven Most Highly Effective Ways to Be Cute, Just by Being Yourself by The Poodle Association.

Wine Book Recommendations by La Belle Vie's Bill Summerville

With more than 16 years of restaurant experience, Bill Summerville has developed his own following; his attention to detail and taste in wines have been responsible for creating some of the best wine lists in the Twin Cities. One of La Belle Vie's three owners, Bill is the restaurant's managing director. With a residence mere blocks from the store, he can often be found strolling through our enormous cookbook selection.

Here are a few of Bill's recommendations for all you budding oenophiles out there:

"Karen McNeil’s Wine Bible is hands down the best overall book on wine. And it's written in a style that is so easy to read and understand."

"Anything, and I mean anything, by Andrew Jefford - articles, blogs, everything - but I especially like The New France. He writes on a level that is not for the beginner, but that does not mean a beginner should not read it as it will spark more interest on the more complex topics."

"Champagne by Don & Petie Kladstrup. Great look at the history of the amazingly tenacious people of Champagne."

"What to Drink with What You Eat by Dornenburg and Page is a great book on pairing written in a manner that makes it easy to understand with lots of great examples from sommeliers and chefs."

"Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl's Drink This: Wine Made Simple is great because she makes some very good points that other wine writers don’t approach."

Retail Life

After losing her job as a journalist, Caitlin Kelly was hard up for cash. When she saw that The North Face--an upscale outdoor clothing company--was hiring at her local mall, she went for an interview almost on a whim. She tells the story of what happened next in her book Malled: My Unintentional Career in Retail and at M&Q. She'll be in the store at 7:30pm, Thursday, August 11. Details are here.

Suddenly she found herself, middle-aged and mid-career, thrown headfirst into the bizarre alternate reality of the American mall: a world of low-wage workers selling overpriced goods to well-to-do customers. At first, Kelly found her part-time job fun and reaffirming, a way to maintain her sanity and sense of self-worth. But she describes how the unexpected physical pressures, the unreasonable dictates of a remote corporate bureaucracy, and the dead-end career path eventually took their toll. As she struggled through more than two years at the mall, despite surgeries, customer abuse, and corporate inanity, Kelly gained a deeper understanding of the plight of the retail worker.

In the tradition of Nickel and Dimed, Malled challenges our assumptions about the world of retail, documenting one woman's struggle to find meaningful work in a broken system.

A regular contributor to The New York Times since 1990, Caitlin Kelly has also written for USA Today, New York Daily News, Toronto Globe and Mail, Montreal Gazette, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Glamour, and More. Born and raised in Canada, she has lived in the U.S. since 1988.--David E

Spooky Minnesota

M&Q brings you great Minnesota-made young adult fiction when Rebecca Davis reads from Chasing AllieCat--Monday, July 25, at 7:30pm.

Dumped with relatives in a small Minnesota town for the summer, Sadie Lester is relying on her mountain bike to save her from total boredom. Then she meets Allie, a spiky-haired off-road mountain biker who's training for a major race. Allie leads Sadie and Joe, a cute fellow cyclist, up and down Mount Kato, and the three become close friends. But the exhilarating rush comes to a halt when they find a priest in the woods, badly beaten and near death. After calling for help, Allie disappears from their lives.

As they search for Allie and try to find out why she left so suddenly, Sadie and Joe discover more about Allie's past, including her connection to the priest. Only on the day of the big race does Sadie finally learn the complete, startling truth about Allie--and the terrible secret that forced her into hiding.

Rebecca Fjelland Davis, of Good Thunder, MN, is a serious cyclist and the author of Jake Riley: Irreparably Damaged. She teaches English and humanities at South Central College in North Mankato, Minnesota. Visit her online at www.rebeccafjellanddavis.com.

Details on this and all our author events are here.--David E

A Real Gem

If you missed last night's reading by Sapphire, you missed a good time. The poet and author of Push gave a mesmerizing reading from her new novel The Kid.

But don't despair. We'll post video of the event soon at www.youtube.com/magersandquinn.--David E