by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
Come to the library to find some new books with Minnesota
ties.
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| The Minnesota Book of Skills |
The Minnesota Book of
Skills: Your Guide to Smoking Whitefish, Sauna Etiquette, Tick Extraction, and
More is a fun, brand-new book from the Minnesota Historical Society
Press. Author Chris Niskanen has put
together a collection of short overviews of many topics, such as building your
own backyard ice rink, portaging in the BWCA, finding agates, and backing up a
trailer. I was curious to read the sauna
etiquette section, since my grandma had a wood-burning sauna I used often as a
child. I learned from the book that
there’s a Finnish word for the combined smell of the steam, wood, and woodsmoke
of a sauna: löyly. Now I know
that it’s löyly
that makes me powerfully nostalgic for Saturday sauna nights. This is a book I plan to read further and
probably give for Christmas gifts, because I think it’s both useful and
entertaining.
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| We Sinners |
Another book I look forward to reading doesn’t take place in Minnesota,
but it could have been set here because the same religious and ethnic group
lives in our area. We Sinners by Hanna Pylväinen is a novel about a Finnish Laestadian
Lutheran family in Michigan. Each chapter is told by a different person in
the eleven-member Rovaniemi family. Some
of the children stay in the church, and others leave. Some readers have told me that they loved it
and learned so much more about Finnish Lutherans, while others have said
they’ve been disappointed that it didn’t go deeper. The final chapter, which takes place at the
founding of the Laestadian church, tends to confuse most readers; it’s intended
as historical perspective. Amazon
named this one of its best books of the month in August, and it has gotten good
reviews elsewhere for Pylväinen's spare, nuanced writing.
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| Cooking With Pavarotti |
A Litchfield writer praised for her nuanced writing, Nancy
Paddock has a new book of poetry out this year that our library has added to
the collection this fall. Cooking with Pavarotti includes poems on
the culinary arts and many other subjects.
This book is published by Red Dragonfly Press. We do not yet have Joe Paddock’s new book,
but I will find a copy for our library.
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| Mni Sota Makoce |
Another new book from the Minnesota Historical Society Press
is Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the
Dakota. According to the book, “The
Dakota phrase Mni Sota Makoce, Land Where the Waters Reflect the Clouds, gives
the state of Minnesota its name.” The book tells the story of the Dakota people
in Minnesota: creation stories , archaeological history, interactions and treaties
with European Americans, and modern efforts to reclaim traditional cultural
places.
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| One Drop in a Sea of Blue |
Yet another book from the MHS Press, One Drop in a Sea of Blue: The Liberators of the Ninth Minnesota,
tells a little-known story of the Civil War.
In 1863, 38 men from the Ninth Minnesota Regiment held a train at
gunpoint to free a fugitive slave and his family who had been captured and were
being shipped out of state to be sold.
Because it happened in Missouri where the soldiers were not to interfere
with Union loyalists who were slaveholders, the soldiers were charged with
treason and imprisoned without trial for two months. Their case was debated in the U.S. Senate. The book follows these 38 after their release,
as they rejoined their regiment to be defeated at Brice Crossroads. Some were imprisoned at Andersonville
stockade. The Ninth suffered unusually
high mortality rates at Andersonville, but those who continued to fight helped
to win the western theater of the war.
Fourteen of the 38 liberators survived the war and left behind accounts
of their wartime experiences. Author
John B. Lundstrom tells a carefully researched story that is being described as
a microcosm of the entire Civil War experience.
A library should have books that cover local interests. I hope you’ll find something that interests
you among these new additions.
