Book reviews

Check out the latest reviews of University of Minnesota Press books.
Christian Science Monitor: 10 new baseball books for summer reading
Includes TONY OLIVA by Thom Henninger.
Cincinnati.com: Slave chose death for child
Our History series discusses the actions of Margaret Garner, whose story is profiled in WHO SPEAKS FOR MARGARET GARNER? by Mark Reinhardt.
Cineaste on The Right to Play Oneself
Thomas Waugh's book in UMP's Visible Evidence series reviewed by Susan Ryan for Cineaste.
Cineaste reviews Dream Factories of a Former Colony
"Before anything, I’d like to say that José B. Capino’s Dream Factories of a Former Colony: American Fantasies, Philippine Cinema, is a precious gem, a resource of great value."
Cinema Sentries: 'Our Gang' is book club pick
As racial politics changed, the adventures of Alfalfa and his friends were criticized for their past connections to racism.
City Lights event: Arthur Kroker
The author discusses his book Body Drift at City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco.
City Lights interviews Arthur Kroker
On BODY DRIFT and the work of Judith Butler, Katherine Hayles, and Donna Haraway.
City Pages: 5 intoxicating drinking books
Includes Doug Hoverson's LAND OF AMBER WATERS.
City Pages: Author Zeke Caligiuri reflects on redemption, family, and writing from prison
There’s no graceful way to say it: Zeke Caligiuri, author of the new memoir This Is Where I Am, is in prison. But the story of how he became an inmate is told in a poetic narrative anchored in the Powderhorn neighborhood where Caligiuri grew up. From falling in with the wrong crowd to selling crack, the book retraces the trajectory that resulted in Caligiuri’s imprisonment. The book is not without its bittersweet moments, including interactions with his beloved grandmother.
City Pages: Best Book (Nonfiction)
THE KIND OF SKID ROW selected among the year's best from City Pages.
City Pages: Best Cookbook
THE BIRCHWOOD CAFE COOKBOOK is selected as the year's best cookbook.
City Pages: Bill Sullivan's memoir 'Lemon Jail' revisits his glory days as the Replacements’ roadie
Bill Sullivan could tell you stories. And in Lemon Jail: On the Road with the Replacements, a “more hysterical than historical” tour diary about his experiences as a roadie in the ’80s, he does just that.
City Pages: Brave Enough
Article on Jessie Diggins, author of Brave Enough
City Pages || F. Scott Fitzgerald's Minnesota: Revisiting the haunts and homes that still stand
St. Paul native F. Scott Fitzgerald got around. Though he didn’t live his entire life in the Saintly City, he certainly left his mark during his stints here. Author Dave Page, a Fitzgerald scholar for 30 years, has collected info on upwards of 180 of the adored novelist’s local hangs -- including friends’ domiciles, relatives’ estates, and downtown attractions -- in his new book F. Scott Fitzgerald in Minnesota: The Writer & His Friends at Home.
City Pages: Grocery Activism
Article by Craig Upright, author of Grocery Activism
City Pages: Minnesota's favorite cookie contest has a heartwarming, belly-filling new book
Fifteen years ago, Star Tribune food critic Rick Nelson decided he needed a cookie. Not just any cookie, but the best cookie. And he knew Minnesotans could provide it.
City Pages: One Minneapolis teacher's brutally honest (slightly unprofessional) tale of surviving public schools
It’s the book I wish someone had handed me when I was starting. Or maybe that time in my third year when I almost quit. Or the time that kid threatened to shoot me. The stories below are excerpts, picked to highlight just how hard it can be, and just how incredibly worth it teaching is.
City Pages: Rediscover a bounty of Midwestern flavors with 'The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen'
“What did my ancestors eat before the Europeans arrived on our lands?”
City Pages: The black depths of Harry Hayward, murderous rogue of Minneapolis
Here’s how Harry Hayward tells the story of the best night of his life.
CityLab: The Alchemy of Meth
Review of Jason Pine's The Alchemy of Meth on CityLab
Civil Defense Architecture and a Culture of Possible Apocalypse: A Conversation with David Monteyne
The Urbanologist interviews David Monteyne, author of FALLOUT SHELTER.
Civil Eats: 22 Noteworthy Food and Farming Books for Summer Reading—and Beyond
Food justice cannot be achieved without addressing structural inequalities across multiple systems including the prison-industrial complex, labor movements, and immigration.
Cleveland.com: New in Paperback
Nice feature on LOVE IN VAIN by Alan Greenberg
CNN: Labeling South Africa turmoil 'xenophobia' scapegoats poor blacks
Author Cawo Abdi ('Elusive Jannah', Fall 2015) discusses anti-migrant violence in South Africa.
Coffee Break: Tom Rademacher on His New Book, the Moment He Wanted to Teach and Getting Hit by a Deer
“Mr. Rademacher will do anything in his power to help his students succeed.” One of Tom Rademacher’s students wrote that about him in a nomination for Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year, which he won in 2014. His new book, “It Won’t Be Easy,” comes out April 25. He wrote it “because I often feel like I’m on an island as a teacher,” he explains in the introduction. Like his profession, he’s both uplifting and demanding.
Colors of Influence Blog: "Each story deserves a pause and applause"
Review of Carolyn Holbrook and David Mura, We Are Meant to Rise, in Colors of Influence blog.
Colors of Influence: "Ideal intellectual conditions to revisit [Moreton-Robinson's] work"
Aileen Moreton-Robinson’s seminal work on Indigenous feminism, “Talkin’ Up to the White Woman,” is an indispensable guide to understanding how intersectional forms of oppression uphold colonial structures in modern Australia.
Combined Academic Publishers Blog: Author Q&A with Nichola Khan
Nichola Khan is a reader in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Brighton. She is author of Mohajir Militancy in Pakistan and Mental Disorder: Anthropological Insights, and editor of Cityscapes of Violence in Karachi: Publics and Counterpublics. She is the author of Arc of the Journeyman (2021), published by the University of Minnesota Press.
Comics Worth Reading reviews Mechademia 5
Coming soon: The Twin Cities’ very own cookbook club
First up: The Sioux Chef's Indigenous Kitchen.