A funny, bittersweet ode to the power of family bonds and the solace of good food.

STARTING FROM SCRATCH
A Novel with Recipes
Susan Gilbert-Collins

 www.simonandschuster.com

Touchstone / Simon & Schuster
$15.00 Trade Paperback
ISBN 13: 978-1-4391-4316-2, On Sale: August 3, 2010

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An unforgettable novel about love and loyalty, homeland and belonging, and one woman’s courage in the face of the most punishing adversity.

THE PERSONAL HISTORY 
OF RACHEL DUPREE
A Novel
Ann Weisgarber

www.annweisgarber.com

Viking / Penguin Group (USA), $25.95 Hardcover
ISBN-13:  978-0-670-02201-4, August 23, 2010

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A wry and deeply affecting story of forgiveness, flexibility, happiness, and the art of moving on…

THE BLESSINGS OF THE ANIMALS
A Novel
Katrina Kittle

Website: http://katrinakittle.com/ 

Harper Perennial / HarperCollins
$14.99 Original Trade Paperback
ISBN-13:   978-0-06-190607-7, August 2010

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At last!
The sequel to SHIVER is here………..

LINGER
by Maggie Stiefvater
http://www.maggiestiefvater.com/linger.php

 Scholastic Press, $17.99 Hardcover
ISBN-13:  978-0-545-12328-0, August 2010
Be sure to read SHIVER — now in paperback!

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Two hard-core surfer brothers helped transform Sheboygan, Wisconsin, into one of the most recognized freshwater surfing spots in the world!

SOME LIKE IT COLD
A Sheboygan Surfin’ Safari
By William Povletich

www.SomeLikeItCold.net

Clerisy Press / PGW, $14.95 Trade Paperback
ISBN 978-1-57860-347-3,  May 2010

Featuring our Midwest Connections Picks for August!

STARTING FROM SCRATCH by Susan Gilbert-Collins
Touchstone / Simon & Schuster

THE BLESSINGS OF THE ANIMALS by Katrina Kittle
Harper Perennial / Harper Collins

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF RACHEL DUPREE
by Ann Weisgarber
Viking / Penguin

SOME LIKE IT COLD by William Povletich
Clerisy Press / PGW

Please download these PDF files and print out the Twin Cities Live “What to Read Next” sign and shelf-talkers to use with your displays of these books.

SIGN FOR AUGUST 16 FEATURED BOOKS (PDF)
SHELF-TALKERS FOR AUGUST 16 FEATURED BOOKS (PDF)

  _____________________

AUGUST 2 BOOK SEGMENT
– Click the link above to get to the video of this segment, starring Charlie Leonard, owner of The Bookcase, Wazata, MN!

Terrific summer reading for kids and young adults
– new books with local connections from Scholastic Press!

LINGER by Maggie Stiefvater
Scholastic Press

SHIVER by Maggie Stiefvater
Scholastic Press

JULIA GILLIAN (AND THE DREAM OF THE DOG)
by Alison McGhee
Scholastic Press

ELVIS & OLIVE: SUPER DETECTIVES
by Stephanie Watson
Scholastic Press

Please download these PDF files and print out the sign and shelf-talkers to use with your displays of these books.

SIGN FOR AUGUST 2 FEATURED BOOKS (PDF)
SHELF-TALKERS FOR AUGUST 2 FEATURED BOOKS (PDF)

THE QUICKENING by Michelle Hoover
Other Press / Random House

THE CRYING TREE by Naseem Rakha
Broadway Books / Random House

CHEAP CABERNET by Cathie Beck
Voice / Hyperion / HarperCollins

THE MINNESOTA TABLE
by By Shelley N. C. Holl with recipes by B. J. Carpenter
Voyageur Press / Quayside Publishing Group

SIGN FOR JULY 26 FEATURED BOOKS (PDF)
SHELF-TALKERS FOR JULY 26 FEATURED BOOKS (PDF)

Note:  The shelf-talkers need to be printed on card stock and cut apart along crop marks. Each book has its own shelf-talker, which is double so that it can be used either on the shelf under the book, or as a slip card standing up from the top of the book like a large bookmark.

JULY 12 BOOK SEGMENT
Entertaining novels for summer reading — plus a terrific way
to share nature with your children!

WATCH THE VIDEO OF THE SHOW!

SILENCING SAM by Julie Kramer
Atria Books/S&S

THE STORMCHASERS by Jenna Blum
Dutton / Penguin Group (USA)

WHILE I’M FALLING by Laura Moriarty
Hyperion / distr HarperCollins

EVERY NATURAL FACT by Amy Lou Jenkins
Holy Cow! Press / Consortium
Please download these PDF files and print out the sign and shelf-talkers to use with your displays of these books.

SIGN FOR JULY 12 FEATURED BOOKS (PDF)
SHELF-TALKERS FOR JULY 12 FEATURED BOOKS (PDF)

Note:  The shelf-talkers need to be printed on card stock and cut apart along crop marks. Each book has its own shelf-talker, which is double so that it can be used either on the shelf under the book, or as a slip card standing up from the top of the book like a large bookmark.

July launches four terrific books — two exceptional novels which explore the often painful relationships among families and friends; the third suspense hit from a bestselling Minnesota writer; and a unique guide to exploring the natural world with children. 

Click on the links below for much more information about these books.

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

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THE QUICKENING
Michelle Hoover

www.otherpress.com 
www.michellehoover.net

Other Press / distributed by Random House
$14.95  Trade Paperback Original
ISBN:  978-1-59051-346-0
July 2010
Fiction / Midwest rural farming life

Told in lyrical prose in the voices of two women, within a landscape that binds and challenges all members of their families, THE QUICKENING is a story of survival and hardship, violence and betrayal, and the discovery and loss of lifelong love.

“This is a book about survival under great hardship and an exploration of the lengths to which a person will go in order to survive.” 
- Lanora Hurley, Next Chapter Bookshop, Mequon, WI 

“I grew up among Iowa farm women, and Michelle Hoover has perfectly captured their voices and stories with great wisdom, tenderness, and beauty.” 
—Ted Kooser, U. S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006 

__________________________

Forgiveness has the power
to transform lives in this compelling novel.

THE CRYING TREE
Naseem Rakha

www.naseemrakha.com
www.randomhouse.com

Broadway Books / Random House
$14.00  Trade Paperback Reprint
ISBN:  9780767931748
July 2010
Fiction / a Midwest family in crisis

Dramatic, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting, THE CRYING TREE is an unforgettable story of love and redemption, the unbreakable bonds of family, and the transformative power of forgiveness.

“THE CRYING TREE is a story about that land and the kinds of people that live and depend on it. People whose farms, communities, history and families are as strongly attached to them as their skin. The book is set in the fictional town of Carlton, Illinois, which sits on a ledge of the Mississippi River in southern Illinois. It is about a family whose child is murdered during a brief move to Oregon’s high desert. When the family returns to Illinois, they struggle with their loss and the secrets it enfolds.”
– author Naseem Rakha

________________________

In this town, gossip kills!

SILENCING SAM
Julie Kramer

 www.juliekramerbooks.com

Atria Books / Simon & Schuster
$23.99 Hardcover
ISBN:  978-1-4391-7799-0
June 22, 2010
Suspense fiction set in the Twin Cities / third in a series

 In her timely and provocative new thriller national award-winning investigative journalist Julie Kramer explores the fine line between news and gossip, an issue that the media struggles to resolve in these days of celebrity journalism, 24/7 twittering, and endless blogging. 

“VERDICT:  Best-selling author Kramer (Stalking Susan; Missing Mark) has delivered her finest Spartz novel to date; fiction readers will love this riveting, action-packed journey into television news investigations.”
—starred, LIBRARY JOURNAL on Silencing Sam

________________________

A mother and son explore parallels
in the world of people and nature.

EVERY NATURAL FACT
FIVE SEASONS OF OPEN AIR PARENTING
Amy Lou Jenkins

www.holycowpress.org
www.AmyLouJenkins.com

Holy Cow! Press / Consortium
$14.95 Trade Paperback
ISBN:  978-0-9823545-1-3
June 2010
Nature & outdoors/Parenting/Wisconsin

Rich in sensory immediacy, characterization, natural history, and humor, these explorations of natural history, flora and fauna, and parenting themes demonstrate that the mythic thread that winds through everything can still be found, even in a world of wounds.

“If you combined the lyricism of Annie Dillard, the vision of Aldo Leopold, and the gentle but toughminded optimism of Frank McCourt, you might come close to Amy Lou Jenkins, a writer who obliterates the distinction between regional writing and actual, honest-to-god writing. I, for one, would follow her anywhere.”
—Tom Bissell, author of The Father of All Things

________________________

Click on the book title links for more information about these picks!

The new novel from the bestselling author
of Those Who Save Us

THE STORMCHASERS
Jenna Blum

Dutton/ Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
$25.95 Hardcover
ISBN:  978-0-525-95155-1
Published May 27, 2010
Fiction set in the Midwest and Great Plains / family relationships

How far would you go to protect a sibling — and at what cost to yourself? 

____________________

An eloquent tribute to the small farmers
who are sowing the seeds of change
for how we produce food

DEEPLY ROOTED:
UNCONVENTIONAL FARMERS
IN THE AGE OF AGRIBUSINESS
Lisa M. Hamilton

Counterpoint / Publishers Group West
$15,95 Trade Paperback
ISBN:  978-1-58243-586-2
March 2010
Current affairs / American agriculture

“…when I read of the Podoll family’s thinking about local adaptation and their effort ‘to get the maximum from the minimum,’ I wanted to stand up and shout.”
— from a letter to the author by Wendell Berry

_____________________

Remember the farming life of the past and learn from it…

 HORSE-DRAWN DAYS:
A  CENTURY OF FARMING WITH HORSES
Jerry Apps

Wisconsin Historical Society Press
$24.95 Trade Paperback
Color and B&W photos and illustrations
ISBN:  978-0-87020-445-6
June 2010
Midwest rural heritage and farming history

“When an old tractor dies, no one grieved its going. But when an old horse died, the family shed many tears, for the animal had been a part of the family, and a friend.”
– from the Introduction

 ____________________

The definitive account of an epochal American tragedy

WOUNDED KNEE:
PARTY POLITICS AND THE ROAD
TO AN AMERICAN MASSACRE
Heather Cox Richardson

Basic Books / Perseus Books Group
$27.50 Hardcover
ISBN:  978-0-465-00921-3
June 2010
U.S. History / Native Americans / the American West

“Beyond grace and intelligence, what makes this book so important is that it demonstrates how one of the most tragic moments in all of American history is best understood not only as a spasm of genocidal violence, but as something emerging from the everyday processes of politics and culture in the late nineteenth century.  It is precisely that mixture of the banal and the horrific that makes this book compelling, significant, and deeply troubling.”
– William Deverell, Director of the Huntington-USC Institute  on California and the West

____________________

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

New Marketing Program Supports
MBA Independent Bookstores 

Book Segments Begin May 3
Book Club Launches May 6 & 7

Click here for complete details about this marketing program

BOOK SEGMENTS ON
TWIN CITIES LIVE

Midwest Booksellers Association (MBA) and the locally produced live magazine format television show Twin Cities Live (TCL), produced by ABC affiliate KSTP-TV in Minneapolis/St. Paul, are partnering to create twice-monthly book segments plus a quarterly book club to promote books and authors of particular interest to the Upper Midwest states of Minnesota and Wisconsin. This exciting new collaboration promises to generate high visibility and interest with the general public for the featured books, as well as driving customers to MBA independent bookstores in this region.

These book segments, to be presented twice each month, will be hosted by Elizabeth Ries, co-host of Twin Cities Live and an avid reader.  She will be joined in the studio for each segment by independent booksellers from MBA member bookstores or by Susan Walker, MBA’s Executive Director, who will present and discuss four titles each time.

The book segments are paid advertising presented as an integral part of the show’s content.  The ad rate per book in a segment is $250 through August 2010, payable to MBA by the book’s publisher. For September through December 2010, the ad rate per book is $350.

However, MBA and our participating booksellers will choose books to feature which we feel are most appropriate for the show’s audience and for our bookstores’ customers.  We also will emphasize books of Midwest interest which we and are stores are promoting through MBA’s Midwest Connections regional marketing program, the MBA Catalog, and the Midwest Booksellers’ Choice Awards. 

Publishers and MBA booksellers are urged to contact MBA to recommend titles for inclusion in book segments.

TWIN CITIES LIVE BOOK CLUB

In addition, Elizabeth Ries will select 4 books a year to be the featured titles in her new quarterly on-air book club.  Each book club selection will be introduced to the show’s viewers and fans at a Thursday evening preview party at an MBA bookstore in the Twin Cities, followed by the announcement of the book before a live audience on the show the following Friday afternoon.  If the book’s author is available in person for the launch, that is highly desirable, but not a requirement.

MBA will recommend books to Elizabeth for the club, particularly Midwest Connections Picks, books advertised in the MBA Catalog, and Midwest Booksellers’ Choice Awards titles.  However, the choice of a book will be hers to make, and it will not be revenue-driven.  In 2010, there will be no advertising fee to the book’s publisher when its book is a Twin Cities Live book club pick.

Publishers and MBA booksellers are urged to contact MBA to recommend titles for consideration as Twin Cities Live Book Club picks.

Both Midwest Booksellers Association and Twin Cities Live will cross-promote these book segments and book club picks extensively on our websites, providing dedicated pages and online features and incentives to encourage web traffic and interest.  In addition, both MBA and Twin Cities Live will use Facebook, Twitter, and other social media to generate interest in our featured books and in the MBA independent bookstores which sell them.

For more information, please contact Susan Walker,
MBA Executive Director, susan@midwestbooksellers.org
612-926-5868

May’s Midwest Connections Picks offer you three excellent novels — a heart-warming family story, a hard-hitting novel of self-discovery, and a mystery to keep you up late at night, plus a gorgeous cookbook for great eating.  You won’t want to miss any of these!

 Click on the titles for more information about these books.

Meet a little girl with a big voice and bigger determination . . .  

HOW HIGH THE MOON
A Novel
Sandra Kring

Bantam Books / Random House
$15.00 Original Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-385-34121-9
On sale April 2010

In this tender novel set in 1955 Mill Town, Wisconsin, Sandra Kring explores the complicated bond between mothers and daughters, the pressure to conform, and the meaning of friendship and family.

____________________

How far would you go to understand?

THIEF
A Novel
Maureen Gibbon

Sarah Crichton Books
Farrar, Straus and Giroux / Macmillan
$14.00 Original Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-374-27454-2
Available May 2010

A raw and moving novel of self-discovery and perseverance.

__________________

They’re back…..

 SHOOT TO THRILL
A MONKEEWRENCH MYSTERY
P.J. Tracy

G.P. Putnam’s Sons / Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
$24.95 Hardcover
ISBN:  978-0-399-15520-8
On sale April 29, 2010

The Monkeewrench crew returns in a remarkable, heart-stopping new thriller.

____________________

Wonderful recipes for family and friends fill this bestselling cookbook!

THE PIONEER WOMAN COOKS
Recipes from an
Accidental Country Girl
Ree Drummond

William Morrow / HarperCollins Publishers
$27.50 Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-06-165819-8
Available now

#1 New York Times Bestseller!
A perfect gift for mothers, newly married couples, graduates — and anyone who cooks!

As featured on Twin Cities Live in our May 3 TCL What to Read Next TV segment!

____________________

AND — Don’t miss these other Midwest Connections Picks — now in paperback!

COOP
A Family, A Farm, and the Pursuit of One Good Egg
Michael Perry
Harper Perennial

SUPER STOCK ROOKIE
A Motor Novel
Will Weaver
Square Fish / Macmillan

Click on the title links for complete information about these books. Download the reading group guides as well.

Now available in paperback!
New reading group guides available now, too!

THE TURTLE CATCHER
by Nicole Helget

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
$13.95 Trade Paperback
ISBN 978-0-547-24800-4
April 2010

Reading Group Guide  
for THE TURTLE CATCHER

——————————

Now available in trade paperback!

THE GIRLS FROM AMES
A Story of Women
& a Forty-Year Friendship

By Jeffrey Zaslow

Gotham Books / Penguin Group (USA)
ISBN 978-1-592-40532-9
$16.00 Trade Paperback

Reading Group Guide
for THE GIRLS FROM AMES

—————————–

Now available in paperback!

THE GREAT PERHAPS
A Novel
By Joe Meno

W. W. Norton & Company
$14.95 Trade Paperback
ISBN 978-0-393-30456-5
April 2010

Midwest Connections Picks for April and springtime are here!

Click on the title links below for more info about these books and audio CD box set.  Buy them from your favorite locally owned and operated Midwest independent bookseller!
Click here for the directory of our member bookstores

MBA booksellers — go to the web pages for these titles for promo materials, photos, marketing details, and lots more info.

____________________________

The perfect book club pick — now in paperback!

THE CRADLE
A Novel
Patrick Somerville

www.patricksomerville.com

Back Bay Books / Hachette
$13.99 Trade Paperback
ISBN:  9780316036115
Reading group guide available!

Elegant and astonishing, Patrick Somerville’s first novel tells the story of one man’s journey into the heart of marriage, parenthood, and what it means to be a family.

____________________________

This thrilling modern ghost story will keep you reading straight through to the surprising end!

THE TALE OF HALCYON CRANE
A Novel
Wendy Webb

Henry Holt / Macmillan
$14.00 Trade Paperback Original
ISBN:  978-0-8050-9140-3
Reading group guide available!
Also an Indie Next Pick for April 2010

A young woman travels alone to a remote island in the Great Lakes to uncover a past she never knew was hers….

___________________________

There are two reasons for flying. The first is just to get somewhere. The second has nothing to do with destination.

NEVER LAND:
ADVENTURES, WONDER AND ONE WORLD RECORD
IN A VERY SMALL PLANE
W. Scott Olsen

University of Nebraska Press
$24.95 Hardcover
ISBN: 978-0-8032-1750-8

A celebration of aviation that brings to bear the intellectual precision, emotional passion, exhilarating risk, and incalculable reward behind the human desire to fly.

__________________________

“A Prairie Home Companion” celebrates motherhood as only this show can: with equal parts laughter and love—and maybe just a little guilt.

MOTHERHOOD
A RADIO COLLECTION
Garrison Keillor
Performed by
Garrison Keillor and 
the ensemble cast of 
“A Prairie Home Companion”

HighBridge Company / Workman Publishing
www.highbridgeaudio.com
$24.95 , two audio CDs box set
ISBN: 978-1-61573-040-7

Collected from live radio broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion, these rib-tickling and heartwarming stories and songs celebrate the ups and downs of motherhood.