How many authors can you meet in a month? We're going to find out, as Next Chapter Booksellers goes all out to connect readers and authors electronically.
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May's virtual book readings
Meet great authors in the comfort of your own home.
We have several new events to announce since our last email. Store manager David talks to Maria Reva, author of his favorite book of the year. William Kent Krueger catches up with Christopher Bremicker. And NCB's owner Nick chats with Elizabeth Wetmore, author of
Valentine
.
It's easy to join us for these readings. Register in advance (links are below), and you'll get a reminder email on the day of the event. Click and join and enjoy!
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Maria Reva talks about her debut book "Good Citizens Need Not Fear"--Friday, May 15, 6:00pm
"
Good Citizens Need Not Fear
is a fantastic collection of nine interlocking short stories, set in and around one Ukrainian village, before and after the fall of the USSR. With mordant dark humor, Maria Reva deftly guides the reader along the fine line between tragedy and comedy, through transitions political and personal. As satisfying as a novel, but sprightlier,
Good Citizens Need Not Fear
is gloomy and dark and funny as all hell. I loved it."--David
Maria Reva and NCB's manager David will talk about her fantastic short story collection, Communism, and humor in dark times.
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Christopher G. Bremicker talks about his book "Song for My Baby and Other Stories"--Saturday, May 16, 7:00pm
Song for My Baby and Other Stories
is best described as a work with great variety. What begins with the sudden demise of a father on a hunting trip transforms into a collection that deals with mental illness, hitting bottom, and an appreciation for those who stick around in the worst of times. Bremicker takes readers for a ride with no degree of certainty: From a high stakes golf game to pay off a son’s cocaine debt, a dating service that results in twelve dates in twelve months, a kidney transplant, a heart attack, a relapse on alcohol, to years in an out of psych wards and veterans’ homes, the book shifts gears from story to story.
Christopher G. Bremicker will discuss his book with bestselling author William Kent Krueger.
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In June of 1940, when Paris fell to the Nazis, Hitler spent a total of three hours in the City of Light—abruptly leaving, never to return. To this day, no one knows why. Kate Rees, a young American markswoman, has been recruited by British intelligence to drop into Paris with a dangerous assignment: assassinate the Führer. Wrecked by grief after a Luftwaffe bombing killed her husband and infant daughter, she is armed with a rifle, a vendetta, and a fierce resolve. But other than rushed and rudimentary instruction, she has no formal spy training. Thrust into the red-hot center of the war, a country girl from rural Oregon finds herself holding the fate of the world in her hands. When Kate misses her mark and the plan unravels, Kate is on the run for her life—all the time wrestling with the suspicion that the whole operation was a set-up.
Cara Black, doyenne of the Parisian crime novel, is at her best as she brings Occupation-era France to vivid life in this gripping story about one young woman with the temerity—and drive—to take on Hitler himself.
Cara Black will be in conversation with local best selling author William Kent Krueger
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Elizabeth Wetmore talks about her novel "Valentine"--Wednesday, May 20, 7:00pm
"Valentine
is the story of Glory Ramirez, a young Mexican American girl, who is brutally attacked and raped by a roughneck in Odessa Texas during in the mid 70s. It’s also the story of the five courageous women touched by the attack. It’s hard to believe this is Elizabeth Westmore’s first novel. She writes beautifully, expertly exploring the complexities of race, relationships, and life in small town West Texas. The characters are so compelling and the descriptions of the land so vivid that this story will stay with me for a long time. Valentine will very likely top my list of favorites for 2020."--Nick
“Valentine, Elizabeth Wetmore’s fierce and brilliant debut novel... joins the best Texas novels ever written.”--
Minneapolis Star Tribune
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Jennifer Ackerman discusses
The Bird Way: A New Look at How Birds Talk, Work, Play, Parent, and Think
--Friday, May 22, 7:00pm
From the
New York Times
bestselling author of
The Genius of Birds
, a radical investigation into the bird way of being, and the recent scientific research that is dramatically shifting our understanding of birds — how they live and how they think.
Drawing on personal observations, the latest science, and her bird-related travel around the world, from the tropical rainforests of eastern Australia and the remote woodlands of northern Japan, to the rolling hills of lower Austria and the islands of Alaska’s Kachemak Bay, Ackerman shows there is clearly no single bird way of being. In every respect, in plumage, form, song, flight, lifestyle, niche, and behavior, birds vary. It’s what we love about them. As E.O Wilson once said, when you have seen one bird, you have not seen them all.
(this event will not be recorded)
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Sarah Stonich discusses her novel
Fishing
--Tuesday, May 26, 2020 - 7:00pm
First published in 2015 under a pseudonym, this first installment in a trilogy filled with hilarity and heartbreak unspools with the gentle wit and irresistible charm that readers of Sarah Stonich have come to expect.
Fishing!
eases us into unsuspected depths as it approaches the essential question: When should life be steered by the heart, not the rules
Having fled the testosterone-soaked world of professional sport fishing, thirty-something RayAnne Dahl is navigating a new job as a consultant for the first all-women talk show about fishing on public television (or, as one viewer’s husband puts it, “Oprah in a boat”). After the host bails, RayAnne lands in front of the camera and out of her depth at the helm of the show. Is she up for the challenge? Meanwhile, her family proves as high-maintenance as her fixer-upper house and her clingy rescue dog. Her dad, star of the one-season
Big Rick’s Bass Bonanza
, is on his sixth wife and falling off the wagon and into RayAnne’s career path; her mother, a new-age aging coach for the menopausal rich, provides endless unwanted advice; and her beloved grandmother Dot—whose advice RayAnne needs—is far away and far from well.
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Lesley Lavery discusses
A Collective Pursuit: Teachers' Unions and Education Reform
--Thursday, May 28, 2020 - 7:00pm
Teachers’ unions are the organizations responsible for safeguarding the conditions of teachers’ employment. Union supporters claim strong synergies between teachers’ interests and students’ interests, but critics of unions insist that the stance of teachers in collective bargaining may disadvantage students as unions reduce the power of administrators to manage, remove, reward or retain excellent teachers.
In
A Collective Pursuit
, Lesley Lavery unpacks how teachers’ unions today are fighting for contracts that allow them to earn a decent living and build “schools all students deserve.” She explains the form and function of the nation’s largest teachers’ unions. Lavery then explores unionization campaigns in the Twin Cities charter schools. also examines teacher strikes and contract negotiations, school finance and finance reform, and district and union attempts to address racial achievement gaps, to provide a context for understanding the economic, political, and demographic forces that inspire teachers to improve conditions for students.
A Collective Pursuit
, emphasizes that while teachers’ unions serve a traditional, economic role, they also provide a vast array of valuable services to students, educators, parents, and community members.
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"Ask a Bookseller" returns
Thursday, May 28, 4:00pm
Looking for your next great novel? A gift for a graduate? A cookbook full of inspiration? We're hosting an occasional series of informal meetings with booksellers. Tune in for some good old-fashioned bookselling and help us figure out how to recommend books in this brave new world. Ask a question or make your own suggestion. We'll spend 30-45 minutes talking about books.
This installment of AaB will be focused on sci-fi and fantasy. Spaceships and swords, as it were. Emily will be your guide to all things bookish and fantastic.
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Check us out on YouTube
Miss an event that you were looking forward to? Did you want to share the experience with a friend? Maybe you just want to re live an event over and over again.
Now you can look up our virtual events on
YouTube
after the event
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#werecommendbooks
Whether you're reading to escape or reading to engage, we've got you covered. Order online, or call us between 10:00am and 3:00pm daily at 651/225-8989, and we'll help you find what you're looking for.
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Thanks for reading all the way to the end.
We've got lots more great books in the store. We hope you'll talk to us soon for a recommendation.
Follow us on social media for the latest news. We’re Next Chapter Booksellers on
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; we’re @nextchapterbooksellers on
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; and we’re @NextChapterMN on
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.
--all of us at Next Chapter Booksellers
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