How to Talk Minnesotan: Revised for the 21st Century

by Howard Mohr 

 Penguin               2013

288 pages            Humor

Well folks, I am not going to write a review of How to Talk Minnesotan at all, except to say that the revisions for the 21st century of this classic book will be out on May 28. Not much changes in Minnesota, so the revisions are minimal, except to changes in the prices on the advertisements and a few other additions.

The other day, I heard the checkout woman say, "You bet!" to me as I cashed out at the grocery. When I asked her if she had grown up in Minnesota, her response was "You bet!" I instantly felt comfortable.

I have to go to Minnesota every once in a while to get my fix. When my parents were alive, I was there every month or so. Oh, how I missed it when I wasn't going frequently. Last December, my siblings and I got together for my brother's birthday. Now if you really want to hear someone talk Minnesotan, just talk to my brother. He has it down pat!

Other than calling my brother and talking to him, you can hear classic Minnesota language on this video made by the author of How to Talk Minnesotan, Howard Mohr. You can find it here.

Or you can watch the classic movie Fargo where the accents are so thick you can cut them with a knife. My favorite scene in the movie is when two men are talking to each other with their parkas on. You can't see their faces; all you can see is the steam coming out of their mouths. Classic Minnesota! I saw Fargo for the first time at a theater in Kalamazoo. For much of it, I was the only person laughing.

Minnesotans, however, really know how to put their "You bet!" into action. Last week the House in Minnesota passed the marriage equality bill and the Senate is almost sure to pass it this week. The governor, Mark Dayton, has promised to sign it. My niece, Cory Dack, was there and has been at the forefront of the lobbying. Extremely proud of her.

But in keeping with the theme of the book, I have included two hotdish recipes. One is the classic Tuna Noodle Hotdish and the other is a family favorite, Wild Rice Hotdish. In my family, Wild Rice Hotdish was made for special occasions, like Thanksgiving and Christmas. This particular recipe calls for water chestnuts. If that is too exotic for you, you can leave them out. When I was last there, I brought home 12 pounds of wild rice. "Yah, You Bet. Not too bad!"

Tuna Noodle Hotdish

6 oz. egg noodles (wide or extra wide), cooked

1 small can of tuna, drained and flaked with a fork
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk
1 cup frozen peas, cooked
1/2 cup (or more) grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 cup fresh bread crumbs cooked in 1 T. butter until slightly crisp
fresh grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. In a large bowl, stir together first six ingredients until well combined.
3. Spread into a small greased casserole dish then sprinkle bread crumbs and parmesan cheese evenly over the top.
4. Bake uncovered in a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 minutes and serve warm.

yield: four servings

Traditional Wild Rice Hotdish

1 lb. wild rice, cooked

1 lb bacon, crumbled

3 celery ribs, sliced

1 medium onion, sliced

6 diced fresh mushrooms

2 cans cream of mushroom soup

1/2 c. water chestnuts  

1 10 1/2 oz. can chicken broth.

1. Cook and crumble bacon, set aside.

2. Saute onion and celery and mushrooms in bacon fat until tender.

3. Mix all ingredients together, including water chestnuts.

4. Cover and bake at 350 for 1/2 hour until heated through.

5. Keep chicken broth on hand to moisten, in case of drying while baking.

For a book about my part of Minnesota, read The Long Shining Water by Danielle Sosi

Reconstructing Amelia

by Kimberly McCreight

 Harper     2013

383 pages     Fiction YA

I have to admit it--I peeked ahead to the end of the book. The suspense was killing me. I promised myself that I wouldn't do that with a book I was blogging, but there I was peeking. The remarkable thing was  the peeking didn't spoil the book for me. It remained a good read.

Amelia is a precocious 15-year-old, the daughter of Kate, a single mother who is a high priced, overworked lawyer in New York. The two live in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and Amelia attends a tony prep school, Grace Hall. Amelia dies in the first chapter of Reconstructing Amelia, and the rest of the book is spent "reconstructing" the events leading up her death. As her fog of grief departs, Kate decides that the reports that Amelia's death was a suicide can't possibly be right, and she sets out to discover the facts. 

The story is told in the alternative narratives of Amelia and Kate, although Amelia comes across a more appealing character. Tweeting, texting, emails, and Facebook all play a huge role in the plot development as well as in the design of the book. The story line is heartbreaking from beginning to end--from Amelia's death in the beginning scenes to the visit of Kate to Amelia's grave in the final scene.

I find it interesting that the school, Grace Hall, is portrayed as the school from Hell. Certainly it is hellish from the prospective of the students. The teachers are enemies, the dean of students is evil, and the principal is a bit of a dolt who operates at the whim of the school board. Even the teacher Amelia loves turns out to have some fatal flaws. The Kirkus reviewer suggested that the depiction of the school was a bit "over the top," and I think that I would have to agree with that. 

McCreight truly is able to capture the angst of being a high school student. The harmful forces that influence decision making among teenagers play a role in the plot--bullying, sex, alcohol, drugs. And she uses social media in all the ways teenagers use it--both positive and negative. Amelia is typical in that she struggles to find her place in the vast hierarchy of the schools popularity rankings, so when she is invited to join an elite and secret sorority, she is both flattered and flabbergasted. She doesn't tell her best friend, Sylvia, that she has been picked to be part of the Maggies, and she is consumed with guilt that she doesn't clue her friend in.

When Amelia finds herself in over her head, it is the adults who fail her most. She tries to tell her mother what is happening to her several times, but Kate is always too busy. Sylvia is self-absorbed like most teenagers, and her text-buddy Ben is far away in Albany. The school counselor and the principal try to help, but it is too little too late. 

  And then there is the whole issue of popularity. The reviewer in the New York Journal of Books says, "The mix of desire and disdain for popularity and acceptance many women face and the way it shapes them as human beings and informs their actions is the heart of Kimberly McCreight’s Reconstructing Amelia." This is at play both with Amelia and with Kate. Kate works extra hard for acceptance at work, and Amelia is in the midst of her own crisis of acceptance. 

I had two questions as I was reading the book: What did I not know about my children's teenage years? and Is this a YA book or an adult book?

I don't think that I want to ask the question of my adult children, "What did you do that I didn't know about?" At this point, with them all responsible adults, I am not at all sure I want to know. I was always comforted to know that the concept of consequence is the last thing to develop in the human brain, and that for some young adults, it doesn't develop until the early 20s. My children survived; Kate's daughter did not.

On the issue of the YA audience, I think this fits very well with the older teenager who is past some of the more hideous parts of being a teenager and can look at Amelia's crisis with more adult eyes. More appropriately, I think it fits very well as a cautionary tale for parents of teenagers who may think that their kids are way too smart to engage in risky behavior. Last year I read Defending Jacob by William Landay, and I was left with the same feelings of devastation.

The close of the review in the Entertainment Weekly website says it just right: "Every single twist in Reconstructing Amelia is clever, and rightfully earned. As that righteous babe Virginia Woolf once said, ''Fiction is like a spider's web.'' McCreight is a masterful weaver." 

Reconstructing Amelia appears on the New York Times bestseller list. One last thing: I don't know when a cover has more appropriately conveyed the atmosphere of a book. It is perfect.

The review in Entertainment Weekly: http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20685797,00.html

The review in New York Journal of Books: http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/review/reconstructing-amelia

The review in Kirkus Reviews: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/kimberly-mccreight/reconstructing-amelia/?gclid=COywifaghbcCFUNqMgodPCcA1Q

Kimberly McCreight's website: http://www.kimberlymccreight.com/

My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places

by Mary Roach

 Reader's Digest 2013

191 pages     Humor

The Shortlist

Mary Roach is having a good year. Her non-fiction book, Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal is a best seller, and Reader's Digest has just released a book of her humor columns, called My Planet: Finding Humor in the Oddest Places.

My Planet contains short essays that have appeared in the Reader's Digest over several years. Each essay explores one aspect of Roach's life, from her marriage to "the man I call Ed," her run-ins with technology, to the major idiosyncrasies of modern life. There are essays about "the wall of cold remedies," buying bathing suits after the age of 40, family trips, and massages. Many of the essays are about life in a long-time marriage. As a matter of fact, I just read a passage to my pack rat husband about her pack rat husband 

My philosophy of life seems to match Mary Roach's. That is: You have to laugh about the crazy stuff in life. Otherwise you would be crying all the time. Well, reading about Mary Roach's world had me crying with laughter all the way through the book.

My Planet would be a great gift for a mom who spends all her time in cars dropping kids off at one practice and then waiting to pick the next kid at another practice. Each essay is about 5 minutes long--just about the right amount of time. Wonderful good fun.

Here is Mary Roach's website: http://www.maryroach.net

The History of Love

by Nicole Krauss

W.W. Norton     2005

252 pages     Fiction

There once was a book called The History of Love. Published in South America, it affected a young man so greatly that he named his daughter Alma after one of the characters in the book. Nicole Krauss's book by the same name is the story of that book, and through convoluted turns, it tells the stories of several people and their involvement with The History of Love. 

There are several parallel stories happening in the chapters of Krauss' book. Luckily for the reader, each chapter heading has a small symbol which helps you know who the narrator is in advance. Alma is a young teenager. Her father has died, her mother, a book translator, is in deep grief, and Alma feels that if she could solve the mysteries of The History of Love, her mother would become happy again. Her other missions are to make her little brother appear normal, and to have some friends. Leo is an old man, an immigrant from the Polish holocaust. He is connected with another man named Litvinoff and they are both connected with the book, as well.

The characters are very unique. Leo is worried about dying alone. He and his friend Bruno, who lives upstairs, have a code: "Three taps means ARE YOU ALIVE?, two means YES. one NO." Leo has had a hard life, and he should be angry but he says, "I had left my anger somewhere long ago. Put it down on a park bench and walked away." He is on a search for a son, Isaac, who may or may not know that Leo is his father.

Darling Alma is on a search for purpose, like many teenagers. She has the additional burdens of her suffering mother and spacey brother. Alma says that her mother "chose her father, and to hold on to a certain feeling, she sacrificed the world."  Little by little, Alma wades through the mysteries of The History of Love and brings together some sense to the seemingly disparate lives. 

The History of Love is a sentimental book, but not one you weep over. It is more the kind of book that you savor and sigh when it is finished. I once edited a dissertation written by a psychotherapist who had studied the burden of the holocaust on the emotional well being of modern Jews. There is some of that sentiment evident in The History of Love as Leo and Alma search for meaning. 

Reviews of The History of Love are all over the place. Apparently people either Loved (with a capital L) the book or hated it. The Washington Post reviewer loved it and calls it a "beautiful confusion." In speaking of Alma and Leo, he says, "the persistence of love drives them to an astonishing connection. In the final pages, the fractured stories of the History of Love fall together like a desperate embrace." The New York Times reviewer felt that the book's structure and mystical nature were too close to the structure of the books of Krauss' husband, Jonathan Safran Foer. Her review is really quite devastating; I probably wouldn't have read the book if I had read that review first. Lucky for me, I didn't know that Krauss was married to Foer. So, I was reading the book without any of those prejudices. When I looked at the reviews on Goodreads, I noticed that the most positive reviews came from men, while women were much more critical. I alternately loved and hated it. It is beautifully written, and I became caught up in the words, but I grew a bit impatient as I waited for the confusion to resolve itself. 

 My book club read this book last month in anticipation of a visit by Nicole Krauss to the Dowagiac Dogwood Fine Arts Festival on May 10. I am looking forward to hearing her talk. Here is an original e story that you can read called An Arrangement of Light. Her other books are: Man Walks Into a Room and Great House.

Nicole Krauss' Website: http://nicolekrauss.com/

The Washington Post Review:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/28/AR2005042801320.html

 The New York Times Review:  http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/books/review/01MILLERL.html?pagewanted=

The World's Strongest Librarian

by Josh Hanagarne

Gotham    2013

288 p.     Memoir

I can see it now. The librarian is doing her best to hand sell the book, The World's Strongest Librarian.: "Well, it's a memoir by a  6'7" Mormon librarian who lifts weights and has Tourette Syndrome."  Uh-huh! That's going to sell it! 

In the past three years, I have read and blogged about more than 30 memoirs, but reading Josh Hanagarne's inspiring story makes me want to know him, and not just his story. It is my favorite book thus far this year. I was compelled to read Josh's story (can I call him Josh--I feel like I know him so well) when I noticed the structure of the book.  He uses Dewey library classification numbers to outline what he is going to discuss in each chapter. Then he tells a disgustingly humorous incident from his library work followed by narrative from his life story. It is poignant. It is extremely funny.  Somehow it all fits together into a splendid whole.

My knowledge of Tourette Syndrome is limited. I once had a second grade student who we feared had Tourettes, but he moved on to a special school and we never saw him again. Josh describes his condition thus: "One of the reasons I work here (the library) is because I have extreme Tourette Syndrome. The kind with verbal tics, sometimes loud ones, the kind that draws warning looks. Working in this library is the ultimate test for someone who literally can't sit still. Who can't shush himself. A test of willpower, of patience, and occasionally, of the limits of human absurdity." So as we read along, we learn all about Tourette Syndrome, how it was diagnosed in Josh, and the extreme measures he has developed to cope with it. That in itself is reason to read the book. But the book is not another disease memoir. 

My knowledge of the Mormon faith is also limited. I learned a great deal about Mormonism from reading about Josh's upbringing, his mission, his wife's faith, and his questions. This I especially appreciated, because I have come to realize that questioning is part of religious belief, and frankly, I like to read about people who don't just blindly follow a religious path. He writes about his questions and the peace he has made with his lack of "religious" faith, although he continues to exhibit a great deal of "spiritual" faith.

I didn't know much about bodybuilding and absolutely nothing about kettle bells, which Josh took up to try to alleviate the stress of the Tourette Syndrome. I am all for finding natural ways to alleviate debilities if at all possible, and I was interested in learning about how bodybuilding helped him. I loved the story about his going to work out with a famous bodybuilder in North Dakota. Darkly funny.

One thing I do know a lot about is family, and I particularly enjoyed reading about Josh's wonderful family. His gracious understanding of how important family is to him is evident throughout the book, but especially as he struggles with his Mormon faith. Mormons believe that family will be together throughout eternity, and makes his struggle with religion all the more dramatic.

Most of all, I know about libraries. I loved all the reasons why Josh became a librarian and why he stays a public librarian. A woman recently told me that her husband doesn't like to go to our wonderful public library because there are so many homeless people there. Josh talks about the reasons why the library serves ALL the population of the community. Some of the stories are hysterically funny and some are thought provoking. My favorite is about how Josh came upon a drunk vomiting in a waste can in the library stacks. He asks if he can help him to the bathroom. The drunk responds, "No. I'm fine here!" I could just see it happening. Another favorite is when he was asked why the books about religion weren't in the fiction section of the library. That was one question I had never thought of. I was reminded again of how librarians are among the greatest spokespeople for freedom of speech. He says, "If you believe censorship is poison, here lies paradise. We have sections on anti-Mormonism, anti-Semitism, anti-anti-Semitism, anti-atheism, anti-god, anti-feminism, pro gay . . . there's something to offend everybody."

 Josh Hanagarne's story, The World's Strongest Librarian, is totally unique. You have never read this story before. To say that it is inspiring is not to do it justice, because it is complex and utterly human. I could just go on and on. Thank you Josh for telling your story. I have been moved and inspired. One reviewer said, “Everything about this book is big: certainly it is the story of a 6′ 7″ librarian with Tourette’s, but it is also the quest for how we know, how we feel, and how we love… without reservation. I found it impossible to put down; save a day to read this.”

Good review in Shelf Awareness: http://www.shelf-awareness.com/max-issue.html?issue=46#m95

Josh Hanagarne's website:  http://worldsstrongestlibrarian.com/ He also has a book club that he runs from his website.

This is the video introduction to the book. You can meet Josh Hanagarne here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnlYOa1_f4M