Books

Thirty years ago, Marine on St. Croix resident Tom Warth traveled to a library in Uganda and found it lacked something important: books. He came home with a mission: to get books into libraries across Africa, and Books for Africa was born.
Read more about World of Books

Tim Bouvine always has been a Midwestern guy. He’s spent his life in the area, with the exception of a few years in Texas. Bouvine is also a family man, with two adult kids and now two step kids (after marrying his wife Trish last summer). Read more about Writing in the Valley: Meet Local Author Tim Bouvine

Kathleen Eddy uses Valley Bookseller as a platform. The Stillwater bookstore famously makes savvy, up-to-date recommendations to its customers. Every month, it hosts book clubs for readers of crime, mystery and the classics—often featuring area authors—and connects with local libraries and schools in a commitment to community outreach that has spanned 27 years. Tourists from abroad make it a destination. Read more about Your Summer Reading

When he got to the military, Stillwater native Adam Dince was a self-described hot mess. “Those movies where the overweight guy gets to boot camp, and they pick on him? That was me,” he says. He got his high school diploma because the military wasn’t accepting GEDs. But since then, Dince has earned a master’s in integrated marketing communication, and his first book came out last November.

Hopeful to Hired gives high school students the advice Dince wishes he had received before graduating: about soft skills, about networking, about building a “Google resume.” Read more about From Picked On to Published

In Winter, the final book in the Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer, we are introduced to Princess Winter, beautiful in spite of facial scars, kind to everyone she encounters and in love with her lowly guard. In the series, Meyer shows heroines taking control of their destinies, set against a fully developed imaginative world.

—Kathleen Eddy, Valley Bookseller Read more about Books: A Lunar Winter

For local parenting consultant and author Jenny Hanlon, raising a child and writing a book have a common thread: Both are processes of discovery that require patience, openness and a solid set of guiding values for when the going gets tough. Read more about From Expert to Author: Jenny Hanlon on Writing her First Book

After celebrating the photography of David Parker in our December issue, word came to us that another local artist is utilizing his charming portrait of the iconic Stonebridge school in a book, The Magic that was Stonebridge, by longtime local elementary teacher and retired administrator, Bernie Anderson. Read more about Bridging Generations

From her secluded studio in Marine on St. Croix, Wendy Fernstrum creates intimate, cerebral meditations on language, love and identity. Her paintings, prints and artist books have been exhibited locally at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts (MCBA) and the Walker Art Center, as well as at libraries across the country. Read more about Marine on St. Croix’s Wendy Fernstrum Wins Minnesota Book Artist Award

For the past 16 years, book lovers from across the Midwest have made their way to Gunflint Lodge in Grand Marais for a long weekend of reading, discussion and scenery. The annual Books in the Woods event, co-sponsored by Stillwater’s Valley Bookseller, includes facilitated discussions, guided nature activities and author talks. This year’s featured authors are Nicole Helget and Allen Eskens, who will give presentations followed by book signings. Read more about Books: Into the Woods

Ah, the new year, when everyone’s thoughts turn to new beginnings, life changes and optimism for the future. Instead of sharing a book about resolutions such as diets and healthy cooking, I’m recommending something different: Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. Many people know Gilbert from her best-selling memoir Eat Pray Love. Read more about Books: Big Magic