booking around the twin cities

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Mystery with Hart Ellen Hart was a professional chef for 14 years, so it’s no surprise that her mysteries have a culinary twist. Jane Lawless, a lesbian restaurateur and part-time sleuth, stars in 23 of Hart’s novels, including her most recent, The Grave Soul.

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Where’s Micawber? Regulars of Micawber’s Books know the store moved early this spring to a new location just a few doors away in the charming courtyard of Milton Square. They also know you won’t find any Mr. Micawber behind the counter. The store takes its name from the Dickens character who was hopelessly in debt.

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Literary cocktails and novel fortune telling added up to bookishly crazy fun at Lit Crawl MN on Saturday, June 4.

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Minnesota Maid Charles Schulz based the character of Lucy, at least in part, after his first wife, Joyce Steele Halverson of Minneapolis. The couple met while Schulz was teaching at the Art Instruction School in downtown Minneapolis. “Sparky’s Little Folks,” a precursor to Peanuts, first appeared in the Minneapolis Tribune in June 1947.

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Prize-winning look for books Uptown’s Walker Library recently walked away with a 2016 Library Building Award. It was one of seven libraries receiving the award from the  American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the American Library Association (ALA). The new building, designed by Minneapolis firm VJAA, opened in 2014.

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Passport to Books More than two dozen independent bookstores enrich the Twin Cities and Kevin Cannon has illustrated maps to most, if not all, of them. Ten of these bookstores are featured in the Independent Bookstores Passport distributed as part of Independent Bookstores Day on April 30. Cannon has also created a poster featuring bookstores around the state.

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Cafe Society  Brew and books have been perennial bedmates for ages. From the London coffeehouses of the 17th century to the San Francisco espresso haunts of the Beat Generation, coffee has fermented intellectual discussion and inspired writing. Nina’s Coffee Cafe continues the tradition with a writer-friendly vibe in the same St. Paul neighborhood where F. Scott Fitzgerald penned his first successful novel.

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Prized Stories The party was on at this year’s Minnesota Book Awards held at Union Station in St. Paul on Saturday. Well known local writers nabbing top prizes included Charles Baxter’s “There’s Something I Want You to Do” for Novel and Short Story, Ray Gonzalez’s “Beautiful Wall” for Poetry, and Ellen Hart’s “The Grave Soul” for Genre Fiction.

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Patron of Poets

April may be Poetry Month but Garrison Keillor promotes poetry 365 days a year through a daily poem on the Writer’s Almanac. His selections shine a spotlight on contemporary poets like Joyce Sutphen and Robert Bly while still paying homage to classics from Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost and others. Many of the selections are captured in his anthology series, Good Poems. His commitment to poetry doesn’t stop there, though. This month his bookstore, Common Good Books, is sponsoring a poetry contest with $5,000 in cash prizes.

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The Art of Reading Jane Austen Deep in the heart of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, book lovers can take a break from the visual feast. The Jane Austen Reading Room offers an abundant collection of books by and about Austen for visitors to enjoy. The adjoining Georgian drawing room has been staged to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Austen’s novel Emma. The exhibition runs through June 26.

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Booked for Murder Uncle Edgar’s Mystery Bookstore stokes the Twin Cities voracious appetite for cloak-and-dagger stories from the Siamese-twin location it shares with Uncle Hugo’s Science Fiction Bookstore. The uncles’ namesakes are the coveted Edgar and Hugo awards which honor the year’s best works in mystery and science fiction, respectively.

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A True Bohemian

Bohemian in both ethnicity and inclination, Minnesota author and illustrator Wanda Gag honed her crafts at art schools in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Her book, Millions of Cats, is the oldest American picture book still in print.

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Books on Books It takes more than good writing to make a book--let’s talk about typography, papermaking, printing and design, just for starters. Where can you go to learn more? The small but mighty collection in the James and Marilynn Alcott Library at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts focuses on the art of the book. In addition, the shelves hold a treasure trove of artists’ books, eclectic zines and fine press editions.

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Leapling at the Guthrie Born on Leap Day in 1860, Anton Chekhov brought an extra shot of talent to his plays and masterful short stories. Along with Tennessee Williams, August Wilson and others, he is among the handful of playwrights muralized on the walls of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

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Rondo Renaissance Man After dropping out of St. Paul’s Central High, Gordon Parks went on to do great things as a writer, photographer and filmmaker. Gordon Parks High School on University Avenue salutes Parks’ legacy with a media-infused curriculum.

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At Home with the Prof When Sinclair Lewis taught fiction at the University of Minnesota in the 1940s, students were invited to his spacious Minneapolis home on Mount Curve for Sunday night consultations. His butler would serve ginger ale and cookies to the students as they awaited their turn with the master.

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Language of Love. Romance writing appears to be flourishing in the Twin Cities given that Minnesota is home to not one but three chapters of Romance Writers of America. The organization nurtures career aspirations of romance writers. Members of the Romancing the Lakes chapter have published several anthologies, including their latest, Romancing the Lakes of Minnesota - Winter.