Staff Recommendations: Regional Authors

"A gripping Dust Bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraska town."-- Provided by publisher.

"A storyteller "of great humanity and huge heart" (Minneapolis Star Tribune), Leif Enger debuted in the literary world with Peace Like a River which sold over a million copies and captured readers' hearts around the globe. Now comes a new milestone in this boldly imaginative author's accomplished, resonant body of work. Set in a not-too-distant America, I Cheerfully Refuse is the tale of a bereaved and pursued musician embarking under sail on a sentient...

"The disappearance of a local politician's teenaged daughter is major news in Minnesota. As a huge manhunt is launched to find her, Cork O'Connor's grandson stumbles across the shallow grave of a young Ojibwe woman--but nobody seems that interested. Nobody, that is, except Cork and the newly formed Iron Lake Ojibwe Tribal Police. As Cork and the tribal officers dig into the circumstances of this mysterious and grim discovery, they uncover a connection...

"Ancient Light, a timely and innovative collection by renowned Anishinaabeg poet Kimberly Blaeser. It looks squarely at pressing social issues of our time while simultaneously invoking Indigenous pathways of kinship, healing, and renewal"-- Provided by publisher.

In the winter of 1841, a Norwegian immigrant in Wisconsin strapped on a pair of wooden boards and set off across the snow to buy flour--leaving tracks that perplexed his neighbors and marked the arrival of Nordic skiing in America. To this day, the Midwest is the nation's epicenter of cross-country skiing, sporting a history as replete with athleticism and competitive spirit as it is steeped in old-world lore and cold-world practicality. This history...

"From the founders of the popular food website Heavy Table comes Lake Superior Flavors, a celebration of food culture around the shores of the greatest of the Great Lakes. Author James Norton and photographer Becca Dilley take readers on a culinary tour around Lake Superior, hitting high-traffic tourist spots and cultural institutions as well as off-the-beaten-path discoveries. Norton and Dilley also meet food producers and artisans--fishermen, cheesemakers,...

Audrey Evans, 19, disappears in the dead of an arctic winter night after leaving a convenience store in Brainerd, Minnesota. Investigator Jon Fredrick is called in and is not about to let Audrey end up one of the 40,000 missing women in the U.S. In Jon's personal life, a deceptive past lover jars his intense relationship with Serena and sets in motion a pending tragedy. The explosive situation is amped up further after Jon's name is used to solicit...

"The remarkable eighty-five-day journey of the first two women to canoe the 2,000-mile route from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay"-- Provided by publisher.

Crocodile Man Kills American Researcher in Central Africa. Kael Husker stumbles over this National Enquirer-like headline in a week-old edition of his local Southeast Alaskan newspaper. The dead researcher had once been a friend of his, and soon after reading of Molly's unusual death at the hands of a Central African sorcerer, Kael is haunted by vivid visions of her reaching out for his help. He leaves his live-aboard boat and unemployment behind...