Book reviews

Check out the latest reviews of University of Minnesota Press books.
Humane Ingenuity newsletter: Bookwork and Cloud Labs
I found Whitney Trettien’s wonderful new book Cut/Copy/Paste to be perfect reading for those of us trying to understand and design the new forms of writing, like newsletters, that have surfaced in digital media.
Pop Matters: 'The Dylan Tapes' Peeks Behind the Curtain at a Landmark Biography
Anthony Scaduto’s posthumously published The Dylan Tapes is an engrossing journey into the research process of one gifted writer as he profiled another.
The Last Bookseller named Against the Grain Book of the Week
Gary Goodman's The Last Bookseller has been named Against the Grain Book of the Week.
Star Tribune: Minnesota's most prolific cookbook author is the authority on casseroles
Beatrice Ojakangas' "The Best Casserole Cookbook Ever" has been reissued, and it's just as tasty.
Imagine Otherwise Podcast: Josef Nguyen on the Politics of Flexibility
In their conversation, Josef and Cathy chat about the promises and perils of flexible planning, especially when environments require new flexibility without funding it.
LSE Review of Books Blog: The Migrant's Paradox
In The Migrant’s Paradox: Street Livelihoods and Marginal Citizenship in Britain, Suzanne M. Hall draws on interviews with migrant shopkeepers in five UK cities to explore the formation of street livelihoods and edge economies in the urban margins. Through the process of ‘writing the street as world’, this book brings the migrant experience – and the migrant’s paradox – to life for readers, writes Yasemin Karsli.
JSTOR Daily: Philanthropy and the Gilded Age
Laura R. Fisher’s scholarship on settlement houses shows how working class immigrants took issue with the power dynamics embedded in their funding structures. Wealthy Jewish philanthropists who funded the settlement houses expected them to be sites of assimilation and uplift.
Inside Health Care Interview with Amy Sullivan
Inside Health Care March 2022 interview with Amy Goodman.
THE BIG ISLAND starred in Youth Services Book Review
To whom would you recommend this book? Readers who enjoy true stories about animals in the wild and the balance of nature will appreciate this story.
Southside Pride: Even if coordinated strikes don't happen, this is historic
Speaking of the last time MFT members struck, there is quite a tale hanging thereby. And who is better suited to write that tale than a person who has sat on the Minneapolis school board, stepped in to rescue the school system as superintendent for four years when it had a leadership crisis, and was a professor of history at Augsburg University both before and after his stint as MPS superintendent? That very person, Dr. William (Bill) Green, has done just that.
FasterSkier: The Legends We Are Living Out
In a history of American skiing centered around the Upper Midwest, author Ryan Rodgers weaves together the stories of individuals who have found joy, love, and purpose in skiing with their heel detached, inspiring his readers to do so, too.
Archidose: Two Louis Sullivan Books
Archidose blog review of RECONSTRUCTING THE GARRICK and LOUIS SULLIVAN'S IDEA.
Gastro Obscura's New Favorite Things interview with Susan Marks
Much like how tourists roll around Silicon Valley hoping to peek inside the campuses where all the tech magic happens, thousands of mid-century American cooks flocked to the General Mills headquarters in Minnesota to see new products and trendy recipes in development. But unlike super-secretive Apple, General Mills encouraged visitors to visit the Betty Crocker Kitchens, even providing a phone number for tour requests.
Sierra Magazine: Take the Earth on a Date
Ecosexuality is at once a sexual orientation, environmental activist strategy, and grassroots movement. And, it’s unabashedly queer. Compared to overly earnest, New Agey environmental movements, “it’s more of a punk rock, queer, drag pin-up-girl version of environmental activism."
With Good Reason Radio: Newton's Annotator
A lot of the day’s popular shows like Lovecraft Country and Watchmen have their roots in Black newspapers. Brooks Hefner says these stories imagined futuristic solutions to issues of Jim Crow and racism.
Electric Lit: White Futurism No Longer Holds Center Stage in HBO's "Station Eleven"
The adaptation of the novel disrupts the typical apocalypse story by allowing marginalized characters to survive
Margaret Atwood: "The book that everyone should read"
Margaret Atwood recommends Thomas King's THE INCONVENIENT INDIAN in Elle Magazine's Shelf Life column.
ASU News discussion with Ron Broglio: Are animals really in revolt?
ANIMAL REVOLUTION takes a hard look at real-life incidents of animals crossing boundaries between their world and humans' – from reports of radioactive boar invading towns to jellyfish disarming battleships. And it couldn't be more timely.
Carolyn Holbrook on Island of Discarded Women podcast
Special guest Carolyn shares with Sue her journey from incarcerated teen to celebrated literary arts advocate. Brittany offers up a mistaken door that led to healing. Silvia recounts a phone number that changed her life. And musical guest Ivory Doublette sings the original “We Are One” with Zippy Laske and Tim Carrow.
Krystal Kyle & Friends Podcast: Conversation with Catherine Liu
With the war in Ukraine on our minds, we talk to author Catherine Liu about how class position affects daily life, particularly on the issue of war and peace. How does your class identity shape your understanding of and interactions with American militarism? Catherine makes the great point that the massive wealth commanded by the American military’s adventurism is a cost paid by American civilians, and that today’s military conflicts are used to avoid the implementation of a robust healthcare system.
The Grio: 15 Black histories to read beyond Black History Month
Pulp fiction wasn’t just for white folks. In academic Brooks E. Hefner‘s exploration of “a rich archive of African American genre fiction from the 1920s through the mid-1950s,” he reveals Black pulp fiction to be a creative response to the suppression of the era and a vehicle for imagining what racial justice in America might look like. As the fight for equality evolves in tandem with a new era of Black speculative fiction, fans of Lovecraft Country to the films of Jordan Peele can connect those contemporary works to their origins in this study of how it all began.
CBS Minnesota interview: Will Steger Unveils New Cookbook
Steger teamed up with his niece, Rita Mae, for the new cookbook “The Steger Homestead Kitchen: Simple Recipes for an Abundant Life.”
New Books in Folklore interview with Linda LeGarde Grover
Stephanie Khattak speaks with Dr. Linda Legarde Grover, an award-winning author whose latest book interweaves family and Ojibwe history with stories from Misaabekong (the place of the giants) on Lake Superior in Duluth, Minnesota: Gichigami Hearts: Stories and Histories from Misaabekong.
MyVillager: Gilats pens a hard-won guide to overcoming overwhelming grief
Gilats was finally able to go back and read the 754 letters she wrote to her husband in the first two years of widowhood. “They were my way of sharing my day-to-day life with him,” she said. “Looking back on it, I think it’s possible that my daily letter writing habit may have saved my life.”
Fangirl Sports Network: 5 Fun Facts About Jessie Diggins
Brave Enough. That’s the title of the book Jessie wrote (yes, she’s an author, too!). Published in 2020, Jessie penned the autobiography as a way to honestly share her journey to overcoming an eating disorder, with the hope that her story can help others.
Racket: In 1970, Minneapolis Teachers Risked it All, Broke the Law, and Went on Strike
In his forthcoming book Strike! Twenty Days in 1970 When Minneapolis Teachers Broke the Law, historian, professor, and former superintendent of the Minneapolis Public Schools Bill Green takes a look at a watershed moment for labor in Minneapolis and in Minnesota. The legislature had passed a law banning public employees from striking in the 1950s, and in going on strike that April, teachers risked everything: their jobs, their pensions, their futures.
Book Riot: 10 Queer Books from Indie Presses You Definitely Don't Want to Miss This Year
These ten upcoming indie press books are just ten of the many I can’t wait to get my hands on. This list reflects my personal interests, so it’s heavily weighted toward contemporary fiction and hybrid nonfiction. But no matter what kind of queer book you’re craving, I guarantee you’ll find something here to fall in love with. These ten books are a great representation of just how varied queer lit from indie presses is.
Philadelphia Inquirer: When we talk about Penn swimmer Lia Thomas, we're listening to the wrong voices
We need to invite real experts into any conversation or policymaking discussion that impacts trans people.
Neural: "An exquisite book"
The auditory domain, the ideology of technology and the representation of intelligence are researched through an interstitial chronology of films depicting talking machines. Faber’s definition of the “acousmatic computer” reflects these concepts perfectly.
MPR News: Adventures in the book trade
Now semi-retired Goodman joins MPR News host Angela Davis to talk about the wild world of book dealing. Judith Kissner, the owner and operator of Scout & Morgan Books in Cambridge, Minn., joins the conversation to shed light on how the business has been transformed by the internet and the pandemic.  

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