Midwest Connections Picks for June

Two thought-provoking books join our Midwest Connections Picks starting in June. One is a critically-acclaimed novel celebrating its 10th anniversary. The other is a timely study and call to action for our Midwest communities.

Click on the title links below for much more information about each one of these books for adults. And check out our children’s Midwest Connections Picks for summer reading , too.

Buy these books from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller! Click here for the new searchable directory of our MBA member bookstores.

A Prayer for the Dying
A Novel
10^th Anniversary Edition

by Stewart O’Nan

Picador USA / Macmillan
www.picadorusa.com
June 1, 2009
ISBN 13: 978-0-312-42891-4
Price: $14.00 Trade Paperback
Historical fiction / Set in small town in Wisconsin, mid-1800s.

“The Best Book You’ve Never Read” Summer Selection
“The Best Book You’ve Never Read” is selected by Picador’s sales representatives as one of their favorite titles from Picador’s extensive backlist.

“A PRAYER FOR THE DYING reads like the amazing, unrelenting love child of Shirley Jackson and Cormac McCarthy. It’s twisted proof that God will do worse to test a faithful man than the devil would ever do to punish a sinner.”
– Chuck Palahniuk

Methland
The Death and Life of an American Small Town

By Nick Reding

Bloomsbury USA / Macmillan
www.bloomsburyusa.com
June 2009
$25.00 Hardcover
ISBN-13: 978-1-59691-650-0
Contemporary American issues / Midwest small towns and rural communities / book focuses on the town of Oelwein, Iowa

The dramatic story of Methamphetamine as it comes to the American Heartland — a timely, moving, very human account of one community’s attempt to confront the epidemic and see their way to a brighter future.

“It’s estimated that more than 26 million people worldwide are addicted to crystal meth-widely considered to be the most dangerous drug on earth. Nick Reding…spent four years in Oelwein, Iowa (pop. 6,159), documenting the town’s meth-influenced decline. Through scrupulous reporting and fierce moral engagement, he conveys the tragedy of the meth epidemic on both a micro- and macroscopic level.”
-Village Voice

And don’t miss these two bestselling and critically acclaimed Midwest Connections Picks
– now in paperback for suspense-filled summer reading —