July 2019

November 1, 2020


Fall's bounty of books

It's been a tough year for the bookstore. We miss seeing you in the store. We miss talking about what you're reading and what you're hoping to read soon. Virtual is nice, and we'll continue to introduce you to new books and authors. But of course we're looking forward to better days when we can meet you in person again. For now, we need your support. Like most local businesses, we rely on holiday sales to keep us going through the long winter months. Shop local, and help keep our community strong.

The store is stocked with wonderful titles. We're here to help you find just the right book for everyone on your list. Here are a few of the books we're excited about. For even more ideas, call us at 651/225-8989 Monday to Saturday between 10am and 3pm to talk to a bookseller. We love making recommendations.



RECOMMENDATIONS FROM SOMEONE WHO'S READ EVERYTHING

Pulitzer Prize–winning literary critic Michiko Kakutani shares 100 personal, thought-provoking essays about books that have mattered to her and that help illuminate the world we live in today—with beautiful illustrations throughout.

Discover novels and memoirs by some of the most gifted writers working today; favorite classics worth reading or rereading; and nonfiction works, both old and new, that illuminate our social and political landscape and some of today’s most pressing issues, from climate change to medicine to the consequences of digital innovation.


FOR MORE THAN 50 YEARS, NIKKI GIOVANNI'S POETRY HAS DAZZLED AND INSPIRED READERS.

As sharp and outspoken as ever, Nikki Giovanni returns with a book of poetry in which she continues to call attention to injustice and racism, celebrate Black culture and Black lives, and and give readers an unfiltered look into her own experiences.

Giovanni reaffirms her place as a uniquely vibrant and relevant American voice with poems such as “I Come from Athletes” and “Rainy Days”—calling out segregation and Donald Trump; as well as “Unloved (for Aunt Cleota)” and “”When I Could No Longer”—her personal elegy for the relatives who saved her from an abusive home life.

Stirring, provocative, and resonant, the poems in Make Me Rain pierce the heart and nourish the soul.


FROM THE AUTHOR OF BEAUTIFUL RUINS

"Filled with colorful characters fictional and real, Gig and Rye’s experiences during a turbulent era keep pages turning. The novel is a timely reminder of the violent and hard fought beginnings of the labor movement that gave way to unions, better pay and working conditions that we take for granted today."--Jean

"Featuring an unforgettable cast of cops and tramps, suffragists and socialists, madams and murderers, The Cold Millions is a tour de force from a “writer who has planted himself firmly in the first rank of American authors”--Boston Globe





"A TIGHTLY CONSTRUCTED NOVEL. A WONDERFUL BOOK."--NICKOLAS BUTLER, AUTHOR OF SHOTGUN LOVESONGS

"Long after its exciting climax, the captivating characters, vivid images, and provocative themes of American Gospel are sure to linger with readers."—Larry Watson, author of Montana 1948

On a small farm beside a lake in Minnesota’s north woods an old man is waiting for the Rapture, which God has told him will happen in two weeks, on August 19, 1974. When word gets out, Last Days Ranch becomes ground zero for The End, drawing zealots, curiosity seekers, and reporters—among them the prophet’s son, a skeptical New York writer suddenly caught between his overbearing father and the news story of a lifetime. Into the mix comes Melanie Magnus, a glamorous actress who has old allegiances to both father and son.


"BULLETS, BLOOD, BODIES, AND BELLY-LAUGHS: ALL THE INGREDIENTS OF A CLASSIC MYSTERY NOVEL"--ALAN BRADLEY, AUTHOR OF THE FLAVIA DE LUCE SERIES

A wildly charming and fast-paced mystery written with all the panache of the hardboiled classics, Fortune Favors the Dead introduces Pentecost and Parker, an audacious new detective duo for the ages.

It's 1942 and Willowjean "Will" Parker is a scrappy circus runaway whose knife-throwing skills have just saved the life of New York's best, and most unorthodox, private investigator, Lillian Pentecost. When the dapper detective summons Will a few days later, she doesn't expect to be offered a life-changing proposition: Lillian's multiple sclerosis means she can't keep up with her old case load alone, so she wants to hire Will to be her right-hand woman. In return, Will is to receive a salary, room and board, and training in Lillian's very particular art of investigation.

AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 3

"Each story is masterfully crafted and deeply contemplative, barreling toward a shimmering, inevitable conclusion, proving once again that Krauss is one of our most formidable talents in fiction.”--Esquire

To Be a Man plunges fearlessly into the struggle to understand what it is to be a man and what it is to be a woman, and the arising tensions that have existed from the very beginning of time. Set in our contemporary moment, and moving across the globe from Switzerland, Japan, and New York City to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, and South America, the stories in To Be a Man feature male characters as fathers, lovers, friends, children, seducers, and even a lost husband who may never have been a husband at all.


AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 3

David Sedaris’s best stories and essays, spanning his remarkable career, selected by the author himself

Collected in one volume for the first time, The Best of Me brings together Sedaris' funniest and most memorable work. In these stories, he shops for rare taxidermy, hitchhikes with a lady quadriplegic, and spits a lozenge into a fellow traveler’s lap. He drowns a mouse in a bucket, struggles to say “give it to me” in five languages, and hand-feeds a carnivorous bird.



Shop early to get the books
you want for the holidays

It's time to start making your list and checking it twice.

For a number of reasons--consolidation in the printing industry, safer slower warehouses, shipping disruptions--bookstores are going to have a challenging time keeping hot titles in stock during the coming holiday season. More than ever, it's important that you buy your December must-haves now. Preorder a book now, and there shouldn't be any problems getting it in time to put under the tree. Leave things until the last minute, and you might need to give a gift certificate instead of an actual book.

To help you find the right book for everyone on your list, we'll be featuring some of the year's big titles. Here's a selection to get you started. We'll have more in future newsletters, on our social media feeds, and on our website in the weeks ahead.

And we always enjoy making more personalized recommendations. Call us at 651/225-8989 Monday to Saturday between 10am and 3pm to talk to a bookseller. 

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November's virtual book events
Meet great authors in the comfort of your own home.

Pull up your comfiest chair and enjoy great conversations about books. We've got some wonderful conversations coming your way this month.

Night Of A Thousand Authors
Tuesday, November 3, 2020 - 4:00pm until very, very late

Vote, then chill. Your responsibility is done. You’re not obligated to watch them count. Instead, relax with talk of murder, mayhem and terror.

Night of a Thousand Authors is a marathon of 10 minutes interviews hosted by the Executive Director of ITW and ThrillerFest, Kimberley Howe and book blogger Ryan “The Real Book Spy” Steck. Each author will share the first two minutes of their interview on the screen with the previous guest and the last two minutes of their interview with the next guest.

Among the confirmed guests are Janet Evanovich, Brad Thor, Lisa Scottoline, Gregg Hurwitz, Brad Meltzer, Ruth Ware, John Connolly, Kyle Mills, Kathy Reichs, Karin Slaughter, Jennifer Hillier, R.L. Stine, William Kent Krueger and Alafair Burke with many more committed and still to come. 
 




Outside the Margins: A Speculative Fiction Book Club discusses The Scapegracers, Hannah Abigail Clarke--Tuesday, November 3, 2020 - 5:00pm

An outcast teenage lesbian witch finds her coven hidden amongst the popular girls in her school, and performs some seriously badass magic in the process.

Skulking near the bottom of West High’s social pyramid, Sideways Pike lurks under the bleachers doing magic tricks for Coke bottles. As a witch, lesbian, and lifelong outsider, she’s had a hard time making friends. But when the three most popular girls pay her $40 to cast a spell at their Halloween party, Sideways gets swept into a new clique. The unholy trinity are dangerous angels, sugar-coated rattlesnakes, and now–unbelievably–Sideways’ best friends.

Rich with the urgency of feral youth, The Scapegracers explores growing up and complex female friendship with all the rage of a teenage girl. It subverts the trope of competitive mean girls and instead portrays a mercilessly supportive clique of diverse and vivid characters. It is an atmospheric, voice-driven novel of the occult, and the first of a three-book series.





Far Out Man: Tales of Life in the Counterculture By Eric Utne --Tuesday, November 16th, 2020 - 7:00pm

Far Out Man is the story of a life-long seeker who was occasionally a finder as well. In 1984, Eric Utne founded Utne Reader, a digest of new ideas and fresh perspectives percolating in the arts, culture, politics, business, and spirituality. With the tag line “The Best of the Alternative Press,” the magazine was twice a finalist for a National Magazine Award and grew to more than 300,000 paid circulation. In the nineties, the magazine promoted the Neighborhood Salon Association to revive the endangered art of conversation and start a revolution in people’s living rooms. More than 18,000 people joined, comprising naearly 500 salons across North America. Utne devoted the magazine to bringing people together to help make the world a “little greener and a little kinder.”




Some People Let You Down By Mike Alberti --Friday, November 20, 2020 - 7:00pm

The nine stories in Mike Alberti’s debut collection shine a sharp light on small-town American life —not the Arcadian small towns of yesteryear, but the old mill towns hanging on after the mill has stopped running, the deserted agricultural communities in the middle of vast industrial farms, places where bad luck has become part of the weather. But even in these blighted, neglected landscapes, the possibility of renewal always presents itself: there is hope for these places and the characters who inhabit them. In these fresh, innovative stories, some people let you down, but some people don’t.






The Sun Collective: A Novel By Charles Baxter--Monday, November 23, 2020 - 7:00pm

Once a promising actor, Tim Brettigan has gone missing. His father thinks he may have seen him among some homeless people. And though she knows he left on purpose, his mother has been searching for him all over the city. She checks the usual places—churches, storefronts, benches—and stum­bles upon a local community group with lofty goals and an enigmatic leader who will alter all of their lives. Christina, a young woman rapidly becoming addicted to a boutique drug that gives her a feeling of blessedness, is inexplicably drawn to the same collective by a man who’s convinced he may start a revolution. As the lives of these four characters intertwine, a story of guilt, anxiety, and feverish hope unfolds in the city of Minneapolis. 

A vision of modern American society and the specters of the consumerism, fanaticism, and fear that haunt it, The Sun Collective captures both the mystery and the violence that punctuate our daily lives.




Confessions in B-Flat By Donna Hill in conversation with Bernice L. McFadden --Tuesday, November 24, 2020 - 7:00pm

The year is 1963. In Harlem, the epicenter of Black culture, the fight for equality has never been stronger. The time is now. Enough is enough. Yet even within its ranks, a different kind of battle rages. Love thy neighbor? Or rise up against your oppressors?

Jason Tanner has just arrived in New York to help spread the message of his mentor, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., of passive resistance, while beat poet Anita Hopkins believes the teachings of Malcolm X with all her heart: that the way to true freedom is “by any means necessary.” When Jason sees Anita perform her poetry at the iconic B-Flat lounge, he’s transfixed. And Anita has never met anyone who can match her wit for wit like this…

One movement, two warring ideologies—can love be enough to unite them?
Confessions in B-Flat is a celebration of the hard-won victories of those who came before us, and a stark reminder of just how far we still have to go.




Next Chapter Book Club discusses The Warlow Experiment, Alix Nathan--Sunday, November 29, 2020 - 4:00pm

Herbert Powyss lives in an estate in the Welsh Marches, with enough time and income to pursue a gentleman's fashionable investigations and experiments in botany. But he longs to make his mark in the field of science--something consequential enough to present to the Royal Society in London. He hits on a radical experiment in isolation: For seven years a subject will inhabit three rooms in the basement of the manor house, fitted out with rugs, books, paintings, and even a chamber organ. Meals will arrive thrice daily via a dumbwaiter. The solitude will be totally unrelieved by any social contact whatsoever; the subject will keep a diary of his daily thoughts and actions. The pay: fifty pounds per annum, for life.

Only one man is desperate to apply for the job: John Warlow, a semi-literate laborer with a wife and six children to provide for. The experiment, a classic Enlightenment exercise gone more than a little mad, will have unforeseen consequences for all included.







Now in paperback

Recent bestsellers--in a softer, pocket-friendly format.

2021 calendars are here!

We have wall calendars, engagement calendars, and pocket-sized planners to keep you on track in the year ahead. Check out a few of our favorites at www.nextchapterbooksellers.com/2021calendars, or browse our whole selection here.



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 Facebook; we’re @nextchapterbooksellers on Instagram; and we’re @NextChapterMN on Twitter.


--all of us at Next Chapter Booksellers