This week, we have new releases from Pema Chödrön, George Saunders, Barbara Kingsolver, and more; plus, Halloween book recommendations, and facts about a Minnesota cryptid...

First off, we have the Christmas Ghost Story series from Biblioasis. These reprints are feature fresh, eye-catching design and illustration by Canadian cartoonist Seth. They're perfect to read anytime October through December!

Honk if you love ergot poisoning! -Emily

A dialogue between a dying mother and a boy who is dead or alive or a ghost or imaginary. Schweblin's narrative unspools in a continuous, unbroken thread of paragraphs, with phrases repeating like banshee chants. Fever Dream is an irreducible work, the kind that lingers in your mind far longer than any mere mass of words should. -Hank

It won't just be the numerous reveals that leave your head spinning after this book, but the fascinating, exquisitely-voiced narrators (including ,yes, the gay Christian housecat). If you want a straightforward horror-thriller you might be disappointed, but if you're looking for something strange, disturbing, and beautiful you'll enjoy your time in this house. -Graham

For more spooky recommendations, come see our new display in the store or check out the list on our website!

Starting your holiday shopping now is the best way to support Next Chapter and make sure you get the books you want for the people you love! (Please imagine this being read in the dulcet tones of a public radio jockey hosting a fundraiser.) Stop by the store today, check out our website, or call us at 651-225-8989.

How We Live Is How We Die – Pema Chödrön

Endings happen in every moment. In her newest book, Chödrön shares her wisdom for working with this flow of life—learning to live with compassion through uncertainty, embracing new beginnings, and preparing for death with openness rather than fear. Her teachings on the bardos—a Tibetan term referring to a state of transition, including what happens between this life and the next—reveal their power and relevance. She also offers practical methods for transforming life’s most challenging emotions about change and uncertainty into a path of awakening and love. As she teaches, the more freedom we can find in our hearts and minds as we live this life, the more fearlessly we’ll be able to confront death and what lies beyond.

Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults –  Robin Wall Kimmerer and Monique Gray Smith 

Drawing from her experiences as an Indigenous scientist, botanist Robin Wall Kimmerer demonstrated how all living things provide us with gifts and lessons every day in her best-selling book Braiding Sweetgrass. Adapted for young adults by Monique Gray Smith, this new edition reinforces how wider ecological understanding stems from listening to the earth's oldest teachers: the plants around us. With informative sidebars, reflection questions, and art from illustrator Nicole Neidhardt, Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the lessons of plant life to a new generation.

Dinosaurs – Lydia Millet

Over twelve novels and two collections Lydia Millet has emerged as a major American novelist, writing fiction that vividly evokes the ties between people and other animals and the crisis of extinction. In her exquisite new novel, new neighbors move into the glass-walled house next door to Gil, and his life begins to mesh with theirs. This warmly textured, drily funny, and philosophical account of Gil’s unexpected devotion to the family explores the uncanny territory where the self ends and community begins—what one person can do in a world beset by emergencies. Dinosaurs is both sharp-edged and tender, an emotionally moving, intellectually resonant novel that asks: In the shadow of existential threat, where does hope live?

Liberation Day – George Saunders

With his trademark prose—funny, unsentimental, and exquisitely tuned—Saunders continues to challenge and surprise. “Love Letter” is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson, in the midst of a dystopian near-future. “Ghoul” is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park in Colorado and follows the exploits of the lonely, morally complex Brian, who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his reality. In “Mother’s Day,” two women who loved the same man come to a reckoning in the middle of a hailstorm. These nine subversive, profound, and essential stories coalesce into a case for viewing the world with the same generosity and clear-eyed attention Saunders does, even in the most absurd of circumstances.

The Last Chairlift – John Irving

Little Ray was a championship slalom skier until she got pregnant and and moved to New England to become a ski instructor. Her son, Adam, grew up in a family that defied conventions and evaded questions concerning the eventful past. Now, looking for answers, Adam travels to Aspen, Colorado, home of the National Downhill and Slalom Championships. In the Hotel Jerome, where he was conceived, Adam will meet ghosts: neither the first nor the last ghosts he sees. John Irving has written some of the most acclaimed books of our time—among them, The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules. A visionary voice on the subject of sexual tolerance, Irving is a bard of alternative families. In The Last Chairlift, readers will once more be in his thrall.

Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, Demon Copperhead is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.

Learning about your health doesn’t have to read like a colonoscopy (informative, but difficult to sit through without sedation). Staying healthy is serious business, but it doesn’t have to be boring. This must-read guide provides actionable advice, so you can stop worrying about your health, do something about it, and get on with your life. You’ll learn how to eat right, address your risks for heart disease, exercise effectively, manage your weight, reduce stress, deal with back pain, avoid the three cancers that men commonly develop, know if your T levels are right, and handle getting older­ – not unscathed, but with a sense of control and dignity. Think of it as the ultimate checklist for your next checkup.

Dr. Craig Bowron, MD, FACP, is a practicing physician and a board-certified internist. He works with first-year medical students at the University of Minnesota Medical School and trains resident physicians at the Internal Medicine Residency Program of Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. His writing has appeared in the pages of Forbes, Slate, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Minnesota Monthly, and MinnPost. A member of the Association of Health Care Journalists and a fellow of the American College of Physicians, Dr. Bowron lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Kerri Miller is host of MPR News with Kerri Miller and Talking Volumes. She was the political reporter for KARE 11 television in Minneapolis-St. Paul before coming to MPR in 2004.

Sinister Graves — Marcie Rendon

Join us to celebrate the third book in Marcie Rendon’s Cash Blackbear series, which follows the titular 19-year-old Ojibwe woman as she helps her guardian Sheriff Wheaton in his investigations. A snowmelt has sent floodwaters down to the fields of the Red River Valley, dragging the body of an unidentified Native woman into the town of Ada. The only evidence recovered from the body is a torn hymnal written in English and Ojibwe. Cash's search for justice for this victim takes her to the White Earth Reservation, a place she once called home, where she is pulled into the lives of a malevolent pastor and his troubled wife. Marcie Rendon is an enrolled member of the White Earth Nation; an author, playwright, poet, and community arts activist; and a speaker on Native issues, leadership, and writing. Her second novel in the Cash Blackbear mystery series, Girl Gone Missing, was nominated for the Sue Grafton Memorial Award. Rendon was recognized as a 50 over 50 Change-maker by the Minneapolis AARP and Pollen in 2018. She lives in Minneapolis.

NCB Manga Club: Look Back

Come to NCB at 5pm on the second Saturday of every month to talk manga with other weebs! Hosted by our resident manga experts Emily and Graham (yours truly), the Manga Club provides free Japanese snacks, a 10% discount on ALL manga in the store, and most importantly, a forum to discuss a new title every month. For the wistful late fall, we're discussing an artist's manifesto in manga form, a standalone story by modern manga master (and Chainsaw Man creator) Tatsuki Fujimoto. Look Back is a perfect little cup of tea: rich, sweet, complex, and just a little bitter. If you've ever had complicated feelings about art, mourned a lost friendship, or shared a dream, don't miss this month!

Perma Red –  Debra Magpie Earling

-Keelin

In Lake City, Minnesota, there is a body of water called Lake Pepin. The massive aquatic creature that is rumored to live there is affectionately referred to as Pepie. Pepie has been sighted as far back as 1871, and as recently as 2004; an 1871 newspaper article describes the creature as "a marine monster, between the size of an elephant and rhinoceros, [that] moves through the water with great rapidity."

Monsters of the Midwest, by Jessica Freeburg and Natalie Fowler

Today, we have a verse from Thich Naht Hanh's new collection of meditative poems to recall during daily life. This one is for washing the dishes:

-Thich Nhat Hanh, Present Moment Wonderful Moment: Mindfulness Verses for Daily Living

What's your favorite season for reading?

Well, this certainly explains why we've been getting busier lately! There might be some other reasons related to religious customs surrounding certain holidays, but I'm not sure.

Now for this week's poll! I'd definitely appreciate your help with this one!! Click on "Select" to choose your answer! The results will be in the next newsletter. And our question is: