Wednesday, January 22, 7:00pm Magers And Quinn Booksellers (map)

Candacy Taylor presents Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America

Published from 1936 to 1967, the Green Book was hailed as the “bible of black travel.” At that time, it was very dangerous and difficult for African Americans to travel because they couldn’t eat, sleep, or buy gas at most white-owned businesses. The Green Book listed hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and other establishments that were safe for black travelers. It was a resourceful and innovative solution to a horrific problem.

It took courage to be listed in the Green Book, and award-winning author Candacy Taylor celebrates the stories of those who put their names in it and stood up against segregation. Taylor’s book covers Victor Green’s  founding of the guide and discusses how its content and history represents America itself, how the sites and businesses it featured have changed over the years, and how the untold story of black travel reflects African Americans’ struggle and triumph against incredible odds. Overground Railroad offers readers a rich opportunity to reexamine America’s history of segregation, how we arrived at our present historical moment, and how far we still have to go when it comes to race relations in America.

“Overground Railroad is an extraordinary reckoning with the America that whites have always believed existed, and at the America that blacks actually experienced, navigated, and made theirs despite every barrier . . . a true gift from author Candacy Taylor.” —Heather Ann Thompson, Pultizer Prize–winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy

Candacy Taylor is an award-winning author, photographer, and cultural documentarian. Her work has been featured in more than 50 media outlets including the New Yorker and the Atlantic. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships and grants including those from the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard University and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She lives in Harlem, New York.

Friday, January 24, 7:00pm Magers And Quinn Booksellers (map)

Stephanie Land presents Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive

At 28, Stephanie Land’s plans of breaking free from her hometown to chase her dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unexpected pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet, and with a tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life possible, Stephanie worked days and took classes online to earn a college degree, and began to write relentlessly.

Maid explores the underbelly of upper-middle class America and the reality of what it’s like to be in service to them. “I’d become a nameless ghost,” Stephanie writes about her relationship with her clients, many of whom do not know her from any other cleaner, but who she learns plenty about. As she begins to discover more about her clients’ lives-their sadness and love, too-she begins to find hope in her own path.

Her compassionate, unflinching writing as a journalist gives voice to the “servant” worker, and those pursuing the American Dream from below the poverty line.

Stephanie Land's work has been featured in The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Vox, Salon, and many other outlets.  She focuses on social and economic justice as a writing fellow through both the Center for Community Change and the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. She lives in Missoula, Montana.

Monday, January 27, 7:00pm Magers And Quinn Booksellers (map)

Let's Be Weird Together with Brooke Barker & Boaz Frankel

Calling all weirdos: join us for an evening with Brooke Barker & Boaz Frankel, authors of Let's Be Weird Together: A Book About Love!

Something interesting tends to happen when two people fall in love and form a relationship. They don’t become more normal…they get weirder. From husband and wife team Brooke Barker and Boaz Frankel comes a rare relationship book that captures the rituals and mini universe (Population: 2) that a couple creates together, in a sweet, small package with humor, charming illustrations, and endearing quirkiness.

This colorful and fully illustrated compendium of quirky love contains animal relationship facts (pufferfish create sand patterns to impress mates), relationship records (the longest underwater kiss is 20 minutes), and nicknames from around the world (“mon petit chou,” which translates to “my little cabbage” in French). There is a sampling of strange love-related laws (in New Orleans, fortune tellers and palm readers are not able to officiate at weddings), a selection of untraditional romantic getaway destinations (get hitched at Voodoo Doughnuts and snack on some donuts customized to resemble the newlyweds), a flowchart to help couples determine the type of pet that best suits them, and more. Let’s Be Weird Together also includes a bonus sheet of temporary tattoos designed specifically for partners, like a pair of mismatched socks or a cat and its Roomba. It’s the perfect gift for a significant other on Valentine’s Day, an anniversary, a birthday, or as a just-because-I-love-you gift!

Brooke Barker is the creator of the Sad Animal Facts Instagram account (with over 340K followers) and author of The New York Times bestselling book of the same name and its sequel, Sad Animal Babies. Brooke has contributed to The New York Times, Lenny Letter, The Guardian, Cup of Jo, The Stranger and more. And her comics have been featured by New York Magazine, Forbes, Bustle, Entertainment Weekly, Fast Company, Mashable, POPSUGAR, Parade, and The Guardian, among others. Brooke currently works as a freelance writer and illustrator.

Boaz Frankel is a filmmaker, writer, and talk show host. In 2011, Boaz created the Pedal Powered Talk Show with bike builder Phillip Ross, and together they have pedaled across cities, canyon rims, goat fields, even class III white water rapids, interviewing a diverse group of fascinating people. The show has been featured on all major TV stations, Oregon newspapers, USA.com, Bicycle Times, and more. Boaz curates a kazoo museum in Beaufort, SC and has appeared on NBC’s TODAY Show, as well as an episode of Portlandia. Boaz is also a former Guinness World Record holder for high fiving.

Today, Brooke and Boaz live in Pittsburgh, PA with an adorable dog named Kip.

Wednesday, January 29, 7:00pm Magers And Quinn Booksellers (map)

Rabbi Michael Lerner presents Revolutionary Love: A Political Manifesto to Heal and Transform the World, in conversation with Judge Bruce Peterson

From social theorist and psychotherapist Rabbi Michael Lerner comes a strategy for a new socialism built on love, kindness, and compassion for one another. Revolutionary Love proposes a method to replace what Lerner terms the “capitalist globalization of selfishness” with a globalization of generosity, prophetic empathy, and environmental sanity. Lerner challenges liberal and progressive forces to move beyond often weak-kneed and visionless politics to build instead a movement that can reverse the environmental destructiveness and social injustice caused by the relentless pursuit of economic growth and profits.

Rabbi Michael Lerner is the editor of Tikkun magazine. He is the author of eleven books, including two national bestsellers, Jewish Renewal and The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right. Lerner, who has PhDs in philosophy and social and clinical psychology, was chosen for the 2019 Humanitarian Award by the International Association of Sufism. He has also received Morehouse College's King-Gandhi Award for his work for peace and nonviolence.

Sunday, February 2, 5:00pm Magers And Quinn Booksellers (map)

Mill City Reading Series: February 2020

The Mill City Reading series is a showcase of works in progress by MFA in Creative Writing students at the University of Minnesota.

For more information visit their Facebook page.

As always, this event is free and open to the public. Don't miss the opportunity to see these fresh faces share their talents, and maybe someday you'll be saying "I saw them when..."

Tuesday, February 4, 7:00pm Magers And Quinn Booksellers (map)

Kathleen West launches Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes, in conversation with Gretchen Anthony

Join us for the launch of Kathleen West's debut novel!

Perfect for fans of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Small Admissions, a wry and cleverly observed novel about the privileged bubble that is Liston Heights High—the micro-managing parents, the overworked teachers, and the students caught in the middle—and the fallout for each of them when the bubble finally bursts.

When a devoted teacher comes under pressure for her progressive curriculum and a helicopter mom goes viral on social media, two women at odds with each other find themselves in similar predicaments, having to battle back from certain social ruin.

Isobel Johnson has spent her career in Liston Heights sidestepping the community’s high-powered families. But when she receives a threatening voicemail accusing her of Anti-Americanism and a liberal agenda, she’s in the spotlight. Meanwhile, Julia Abbott, obsessed with the casting of the school’s winter musical, makes an error in judgment that has far-reaching consequences for her entire family.

Brought together by the sting of public humiliation, Isobel and Julia learn firsthand how entitlement and competition can go too far, thanks to a secret Facebook page created as an outlet for parent grievances. The Liston Heights High student body will need more than a strong sense of school spirit to move past these campus dramas in an engrossing debut novel that addresses parents behaving badly and teenagers speaking up, even against their own families.

Kathleen West is a veteran middle and high-school teacher. She graduated with a degree in English from Macalester College and holds a Master’s degree in literacy education from the University of Minnesota. She lives in Minneapolis with her hilarious husband, two sporty sons, and very bad goldendoodle.

Gretchen Anthony is the author of Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners, which was a Midwestern Connections Pick and a best books pick by Amazon, BookBub, PopSugar, and the New York Post. Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Medium, and The Write Life, among others. She lives in Minneapolis with her family.

Tuesday, February 11, 7:00pm Magers And Quinn Booksellers (map)

Mara Hvistendahl presents The Scientist and the Spy, in conversation with Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl

A riveting true story of industrial espionage in which a Chinese-born scientist is pursued by the U.S. government for trying to steal trade secrets, by a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in nonfiction.

In September 2011, sheriff’s deputies in Iowa encountered three ethnic Chinese men near a field where a farmer was growing corn seed under contract with Monsanto. What began as a simple trespassing inquiry mushroomed into a two-year FBI operation in which investigators bugged the men’s rental cars, used a warrant intended for foreign terrorists and spies, and flew surveillance planes over corn country—all in the name of protecting trade secrets of corporate giants Monsanto and DuPont Pioneer. In The Scientist and the Spy, Hvistendahl gives a gripping account of this unusually far-reaching investigation, which pitted a veteran FBI special agent against Florida resident Robert Mo, who after his academic career foundered took a questionable job with the Chinese agricultural company DBN—and became a pawn in a global rivalry.

Industrial espionage by Chinese companies lies beneath the United States’ recent trade war with China, and it is one of the top counterintelligence targets of the FBI. But a decade of efforts to stem the problem have been largely ineffective. Through previously unreleased FBI files and her reporting from across the United States and China, Hvistendahl describes a long history of shoddy counterintelligence on China, much of it tinged with racism, and questions the role that corporate influence plays in trade secrets theft cases brought by the U.S. government. The Scientist and the Spy is both an important exploration of the issues at stake and a compelling, involving read.


Mara Hvistendahl covered China’s renaissance in science and technology as a correspondent in Shanghai for Science and has written for The Atlantic, Slate, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harper’s, and other publications. She is the author of Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls and the Consequences of a World Full of Men, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction. A fluent Mandarin speaker, she lived in China for eight years and now lives in Minnesota with her family.

Wednesday, February 12, 7:00pm Magers And Quinn Booksellers (map)

Leslie Morgan presents The Naked Truth

When Leslie Morgan divorced after a twenty-year marriage, both her self-esteem and romantic optimism were shattered. She was determined to avoid the cliché of the “lonely, middle-aged divorcée” lamenting her stretch marks and begging her kids to craft her online dating profile. Instead, Leslie celebrated her independence with an audacious plan: she would devote a year to seeking five lovers in hopes of unearthing the erotic adventures and authentic connections long missing from her life.

Clumsy and clueless at first, she overcame mortifying early missteps, buoyed by friends and blind faith. And so she found men at yoga class, the airport, and high school reunions—all without the torture of dating websites.

Packed with fearless, evocative detail, THE NAKED TRUTH is a rare, unexpected, empowering, and wildly entertaining memoir about a soccer mom who rediscovers the magic of sexual and emotional connection, and the lasting gifts of reveling in your femininity at every age.

"A formidable, addictive storyteller, Morgan provides a highly stimulating story of a midlife education in the messiness of modern sex and love. A steamy, liberating tale of self-exploration and self-love that encourages readers to 'revel in your sexuality.'"—KIRKUS REVIEWS

Leslie Morgan is the New York Times bestselling author of Crazy Love, Mommy Wars, and The Baby Chase, and over four hundred columns for the Washington Post’s parenting blog. Her TED Talks have been viewed by more than four million people in forty countries. She is a frequent speaker and media guest on women’s leadership and overcoming adversity. Visit her at www.lesliemorgansteiner.com.

Tuesday, February 18, 7:00pm Magers And Quinn Booksellers (map)

Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford present Rage Baking

Punching bread. Rolling out pie crusts. Balancing sweetness and acidity. Baking is a great way to express our rage about the current state of our country. RAGE BAKING: The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury, and Women’s Voices speaks to both skilled and beginner bakers who are looking for new ways to use their sweetest skills to combine food and activism.

Seasoned bakers and women’s rights enthusiasts Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford offer 50+ pastry recipes, as well as inspirational essays, reflections, poems, and interviews with well-known bakers and impassioned women and activists, including Cecile Richards, Rebecca Traister, Carla Hall, Ani DiFranco, Ruth Reichl, Pam Houston, Ann Friedman, Von Diaz, and more. Bake down the patriarchy with recipes like:

    • Impeachment Upside Down Cake
    • No More “Sheet” Cake
    • I’m Not Your Honey Cupcakes
    • Supreme Court Blueberry Crumble

RAGE BAKING offers a creative outlet to anyone needing to burn off some steam. Join like-minded chefs, writers, and activists in enacting change through the power of flour.

Kathy Gunst is a James Beard Award–winning journalist and the author of fifteen cookbooks. Her most recent books include Soup Swap and Rage Baking (with coauthor Katherine Alford). She is the award-winning Resident Chef for NPR’s Here and Now, heard on over 550 public radio stations with over 5 million listeners. She writes for many publications, including The Washington Post, EatingWell, Yankee, The New York Times, Food & Wine, and others. Gunst teaches food journalism and cooking at schools and universities around the globe.

Katherine Alford has a proven track record in food. She ran a New York Times 4-star kitchen, has been a Greenmarket Manager, as well as instructor and director of Peter Kump’s Cooking School (now Institute of Culinary Education). She spent the last twenty years at the Food Network, ultimately, as the Senior Vice President of Culinary, where she led the culinary team for TV, digital, and print. She ran the test kitchen that created multiple cookbooks that were IACP finalists, Food & Wine Best of the Best, and New York Times bestsellers. She oversaw recipe development and had a column in Food Network Magazine, the #1 food magazine with a monthly reach of over 1.3 million readers. She grew up in Washington, DC, in a politically active family; her passions are food and politics.

Wednesday, February 19, 7:00pm Magers And Quinn Booksellers (map)

David Riemer presents Putting Government in Its Place: The Case for a New Deal 3.0

David Riemer discusses his book, with special guests Barbara Crosby and John Bryson of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs.

Putting Government In Its Place: The Case for a New Deal 3.0 tells the story of the House that FDR Built. Responding to the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt and his New Deal team—most prominently, Frances Perkins and Harry Hopkins—created four new clusters of domestic  policy. Those policy clusters—(1) broad-based  economic security guarantees, (2) means-tested welfare programs, (3) across-the-board market regulation, and (4) massive market manipulation— emerged quickly during the original New Deal of 1933-1938 (Version 1.0). For the next 80 years, both Democrats and Republicans added dozens of new programs within the same four policy clusters, shaping today’s New Deal writ large (Version 2.0).

The model worked fairly well during the post-WWII era when the U.S. dominated the world economy and technology remained generally benign. But since the mid-1970s, the New Deal settlement has sputtered in the face of rising international competition and highly disruptive technology. For decades, we’ve been stuck on a plateau of little-to-no progress—at times, deterioration—in economic security and market effectiveness.

Putting Government In Its Place: The Case for a New Deal 3.0 explains the major gaps, flaws, and mistakes of the New Deal settlement. Equally important, the book spells out, in outline and detail, the fundamental and sweeping changes needed to revive the New Deal. The proposed New Deal 3.0 would guarantee far greater economic security for all Americans, make our market economy dramatically more productive, and enlarge the nation’s wealth. The result: America’s next birth of freedom.

David Riemer’s career defies stereotypes. A progressive Democrat, he has worked closely with both Democrats and Republicans to create path-breaking public policy at the local and state level, and to influence national policy.

Barbara C. Crosby is associate professor emerita at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs and former academic co-director of the Center for Integrative Leadership at the University of Minnesota.

John M. Bryson is McKnight Presidential Professor of Planning and Public Affairs at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota. He works in the areas of leadership, strategic management, and the design of organizational and community change processes.

Tuesday, February 25, 7:00pm Granada Theater (3022 Hennepin Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55408)

Catana Chetwynd presents Snug

Why bother getting out of bed when you could stay bundled up with that special someone and a book of cozy, cute comics? Chetwynd’s second book has the same charming and inviting style as her first, Little Moments of Love, and includes 50 percent new, never-before-shared comics. Snug is a celebration of the quirks and peculiarities of every one of us—and the magic that happens when we find our matching puzzle piece.

Join Magers & Quinn and our new neighbor, the Granada Theater, for a special evening with Catana and John, the stars of Catana Comics! This will be a ticketed event. Tickets will be available soon, through the Granada Theater. Stay tuned!

Catana Chetwynd is a self-taught traditional artist and the enthusiastic author of Catana Comics. She grew up in Saratoga Springs, New York, where she spent her time creating art and pursing an education in psychology until accidentally stumbling into the world of comics. Not only is her boyfriend John the daily inspiration for her drawings, but he was also the one who suggested a comic series about their relationship in the first place. Thanks to his idea and his inspiring daily antics, Catana was able to pursue her childhood dream of being a cartoonist. She currently lives on the East Coast with John and their tiny, angry dog Murph.