Your Oasis on Flame Lake


Book Description

Best friends fast approaching forty in the small Minnesota town of Flame Lake, Devera and BiDi were recently voted “Least Changed” at their twentieth high school reunion—a label neither one finds very appealing. For each craves a change in her life: Devera desires a break from her humdrum marital routine; BiDi longs to reconnect with her distant fourteen-year-old daughter (the only girl on the high school hockey team), not to mention jump-start a sex drive stuck in neutral. So when Devera’s husband decides to fulfill his longtime dream of opening a nightclub in his basement, Your Oasis on Flame Lake arrives not a moment too soon. Nothing fancy, it’s just a BYOB joint where you can hang out, sing, dance, tell jokes, and be yourself. But then an unexpected crisis throws both families into chaos, forcing them all to take stock of their lives—and learn the power of forgiveness.




Best to Laugh


Book Description

No one steps up to life’s banquet, holds out her tray, and orders, “Grief, please!” But as a child, Candy Pekkala was served a heaping helping of it. Every buffet line has a dessert section, however, and when a cousin calls with a Hollywood apartment to sublet, it seems as though Candy is finally offered something sweet. It’s good-bye to Minnesota and hello to California, where a girl who has always lived by her wits has a real chance of making a living with them. With that, the irrepressible Lorna Landvik launches her latest irresistible character onto the world stage—or at least onto the dimly lit small stage where stand-up comedy gets its start. Herself a comic performer, Landvik taps her own adventurous past and Minnesota roots to conjure Candy’s life in this strange new Technicolor home. Her fellow tenants at Peyton Hall include a female bodybuilder, a ruined nightclub impresario, and a well-connected Romanian fortune-teller. There are game show appearances and temp jobs at a record company and an establishment suspiciously like the Playboy Mansion, and of course the alluring but not always welcoming stage of stand-up comedy. As she hones her act, Candy is tested by humiliation, hecklers, and the inherent sexism that insists “chicks aren’t funny.” Written with the light touch and quiet wisdom that have made her works so popular, this is classic Lorna Landvik—sometimes so funny, you’ll cry; sometimes so sad, you might as well laugh; and always impossible to put down.




Views from the Loft


Book Description

“Packed with inspirational, useful, and thought-provoking essays on the craft of writing from some of the best writers around.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune Teachers, exercises, mentors, critiques, humor, and inspiration: these form the fuel all writers need when they get down to work every day. For decades the Loft Literary Center has provided this fuel to an enormous community of writers. Views from the Loft brings together the collected wisdom of that community—its authors, students, and editors—giving anyone the tools and inspiration necessary to thrive in the writing life. A who’s who of writers on writing ranging from the National Book Award–winning poet Mark Doty to Newbery Medal–winning children’s author Kate DiCamillo, and touching on issues as delicate as the representation of family in memoir and as hilarious as a “sad-epiphany poem” mad lib for frustrated poets, this book is an essential collection of crucial tips and challenging questions for everyone who puts pen to page. The essays and interviews in this book include superstar writers like Rick Bass, Michael Cunningham, Grace Paley, Jim Moore, Kathleen Norris, Susan Power, Susan Straight, Bao Phi, Marilyn Hacker, Shannon Olson, R.D. Zimmerman, Lorna Landvik, Vivian Gornick, Yehuda Amichai, and many more.




The Tall Pine Polka


Book Description

In the small town of Tall Pine, Minnesota, at the Cup O’Delight Cafe, the townsfolk gather for what they call the Tall Pine Polka, an event in which heavenly coffee, good food, and that feeling of being alive among friends inspires both body and soul to dance. There’s the cafe owner, the robust and beautiful Lee O’Leary, who escaped to the northwoods from an abusive husband; Miss Penk and Frau Katt, the town’s only lesbian couple (“Well, we’re za only ones who admit it.”); Pete, proprietor of the Shoe Shack, who spends nights crafting beautiful shoes to present to Lee, along with his declarations of love; Mary, whose bad poetry can clear out the cafe in seconds flat; and, most important of all, Lee’s best friend, Fenny Ness, a smart and sassy twenty-two-year-old going on eighty. When Hollywood rolls into Tall Pine to shoot a movie, and a handsome musician known as Big Bill appears on the scene, Lee and Fenny find their friendship put to the test, as events push their hearts in unexplored directions—where endings can turn into new beginnings. . . .




Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons


Book Description

“A lively story as delectable as a five-pound box of chocolates . . . a thoroughly engaging chronicle of friendship and the substantive place it holds in women’s lives.”—Anne D. LeClaire, author of Leaving Eden The women of Freesia Court are convinced that there is nothing good coffee, delicious desserts, and a strong shoulder can’t fix. Laughter is the glue that holds them together—the foundation of a book group they call AHEB (Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons), an unofficial “club” that becomes much more. It becomes a lifeline. Holding on through forty eventful years, there’s Faith, a lonely mother of twins who harbors a terrible secret that has condemned her to living a lie; big, beautiful Audrey, the resident sex queen who knows that with good posture and an attitude you can get away with anything; Merit, the doctor’s shy wife with the face of an angel and the private hell of an abusive husband; Kari, a wise woman with a wonderful laugh who knows that the greatest gifts appear after life’s fiercest storms; and finally, Slip, a tiny spitfire of a woman who isn’t afraid to look trouble straight in the eye. This stalwart group of friends depicts a special slice of American life, of stay-at-home days and new careers, of children and grandchildren, of bold beginnings and second chances, in which the power of forgiveness, understanding, and the perfectly timed giggle fit is the CPR that mends broken hearts and shattered dreams. “It is impossible not to get caught up in the lives of the book group members. . . . Landvik’s gift lies in bringing these familiar women to life with insight and humor.”—The Denver Post “A guilty pleasure . . . This light, snappy read may be [Landvik’s] best yet.”—Midwest Living




Once in a Blue Moon Lodge


Book Description

Set adrift when her mother sells the salon that has been a neighborhood institution for decades, Nora Rolvaag takes a camping trip, intending to do nothing more than roast marshmallows over an open fire and under a starry sky. Two chance encounters, however, will have enormous consequences, and her getaway turns out to be more of a retreat from her daily life than she ever imagined. But Nora is the do-or-die-trying daughter of Patty Jane, who now must embrace the House of Curl’s slogan: “Expect the Unexpected.” With her trademark wit and warmth, Lorna Landvik follows Nora and an ever-growing cast of characters between city and wooded retreat, Minnesota and Norway, a past that’s secret and a future that’s promising, but uncertain. Responding to a mysterious letter with a Norwegian postmark, Nora’s grandmother Ione travels to her native land to tend to a dying cousin and her husband—two people who played a painful, pivotal role in her past. Nora accompanies her and is surprised by her grandmother’s long-ago love story—but even more surprised by the beginning of her own. A book about making new beginnings out of old endings, Once in a Blue Moon Lodge invites readers to check in, set down their baggage, and spend time with the kind of people who understand that while they can’t control all that life throws at them, they can at least control how they catch it. And as anyone who has stopped in at Patty Jane’s House of Curl will tell you: you’re in for a rollicking good time with characters whose strengths, foibles, and choices will have you laughing and crying. Hankerings for coffee and gingerbread cookies may also be experienced.




Moon Minneapolis & St. Paul


Book Description

Bustling, modern, and hip, the Twin Cities are far from hibernating. See what makes them shine year-round with a local in Moon Minneapolis & St. Paul. Explore the Twin Cities: Navigate by neighborhood or by activity, with color-coded maps of the most interesting neighborhoods in Minneapolis and St. Paul See the Sights: Browse contemporary art at the Walker Art Center and Sculpture Garden (and play mini-golf on the roof!), learn about local history at the Minnesota State Capitol, shop at the Mall of America, or stroll along the banks of Lake Calhoun Get a Taste of the City: Pop into a hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese restaurant on Eat Street, sample the flavors of Minnesota's Polish past, order from a fusion food truck, or grab a table at an innovative farm-to-table restaurant Bars and Nightlife: Catch a performance at the Dakota Jazz Club, see where Prince got his start, sip fruity concoctions at a tiki bar, find the best spots for microbrews, or visit the Twin Cities' most popular gay bars Local Expertise: Minneapolis local Tricia Cornell shares insider know-how on her two favorite cities Itineraries and Day Trips: Explore nearby Stillwater, Duluth, and Lake Superior, or follow city itineraries designed for budget travelers, outdoor adventurers, and more Full-Color Photos and Detailed Maps Handy Tools: Moon provides background information on the history and culture of the Twin Cities See the Twin Cities with a local with Moon Minneapolis & St. Paul. Exploring more Midwest cities? Try Moon Chicago. Craving some fresh air? Check out Moon 75 Great Hikes Minneapolis & St. Paul.




Welcome to the Great Mysterious


Book Description

“[A] sweet, funny story . . . as good as Patty Jane’s House of Curl.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune Megastar of stage, screen, and television, Geneva Jordan now has a command performance in Minnesota, where she agrees to look after her thirteen-year-old nephew, a boy with Down’s syndrome, while his parents take a long-overdue vacation. Though Geneva and her sister, Ann, are as different as night and day (“I being night, of course, dark and dramatic”), Geneva remembers she had a family before she had a star on her door. But so accustomed is she to playing the lead, finding herself a supporting actress in someone else’s life is strange and unexplored territory. Then the discovery of an old scrapbook that she and her sister created long ago starts her thinking of things beyond fame. For The Great Mysterious is a collection of thoughts and feelings dedicated to answering life’s big questions—far outside the spotlight’s glow. . . .




Patty Jane's House of Curl


Book Description

A whimsical novel with strong but emotive female characters in the tradition of Fried Green Tomatoes features a pair of sisters in Minnesota, including an abandoned mother, who open a cozy beauty salon. Reprint.




The Year of Ice


Book Description

Brian Malloy's acclaimed debut novel set in Minneapolis in the late 70's, The Year of Ice is the story of a painfully revealing year that threatens to shatter the tenuous bonds between a father and his teenage son It is 1978 in the Twin Cities, and Kevin Doyle, a high school senior, is a marginal student in love with keggers, rock and roll, and--unbeknownst to anyone else--a boy in his class with thick eyelashes and a bad attitude. His mother Eileen died two years earlier when her car plunged into the icy waters of the Mississippi River, and since then Kevin's relationship with his father Patrick has become increasingly distant. As lonely women vie for his father's attention, Kevin discovers Patrick's own closely guarded secret: he had planned to abandon his family for another woman. More disturbingly, his mother's death may well have been a suicide, not an accident. Complicating the family dynamic is the constant meddling of Kevin's outspoken Aunt Nora--who will never forgive Patrick for Eileen's death--along with Patrick's inability to stay single for very long. His loyalties divided between his father and his aunt, between his internal reality and his public persona, Kevin is forced to accept his gay identity and reevaluate his notions of family and love as painful truths emerge about both.