There are tons of exciting titles on the way, and here are four coming next month:
- “Gentlemen of the Woods” by Willa Hammitt Brown: This one has “cabin bookshelf” written all over it. It’ll be fun to pick up in between hikes and dips in the lake, to browse through its quirky stories about lumberjack life. Packed with eye-opening illustrations and photos, “Gentlemen” begins with Paul Bunyan and the manly, mythical image of lumberjacks that character helped create. But then it deconstructs the myth to reveal what lumberjack life was really like. The word “gentlemen” is used fairly loosely in the title and in the book that publisher University of Minnesota Press bills as “compulsively readable.” (Feb. 18)
- “The Queens of Crime” by Marie Benedict: The writer of “The Mystery of Mrs. Christie,” which imagined what happened during the real-life 11 days in 1926 during which nobody knew where mystery writer Agatha Christie was, returns with another book that features the English legend. She plays a supporting role in “Queens,” inspired by a real-life case that fascinated Christie’s fellow crime writer, Dorothy L. Sayers. In the novel, the two join forces with three other female mystery writers to investigate the murder of a woman who disappeared while on vacation in France and whose body later turned up in a forest. Fun fact: In real life, both Sayers and Christie served as presidents of the Detection Club, which admitted male and female writers but was said to be dismissive of the latter. (Feb. 11)
- “Pure Innocent Fun” by Ira Madison III: The host of the wickedly clever podcast “Keep It” has crafted a book of essays about pop culture and his formative years as a Black gay kid, growing up in Milwaukee. The topics explored by Madison, who’s also a critic, actor and TV writer (“So Help Me Todd”), range from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” to “Clueless” to listening to NSYNC. He’ll have more to say about books, music, movies and TV when he appears at Queermunity, in conversation with Minnesota writer, professor and podcaster Chris Stedman. That event is at 7 p.m. Feb. 12 at 3036 Hennepin Av. S. (above Magers & Quinn, which is hosting it and selling books by Madison and Stedman). The $40 admission includes a signed copy of “Pure Innocent Fun.” (Feb. 4)
- “Show Don’t Tell” by Curtis Sittenfeld: The Minneapolis writer follows up her wildly popular “Romantic Comedy” with a collection of stories she says are about women facing big choices, including a compulsively chatty writing student waiting to find out if she won a big prize, a woman who has become a minor Karen (perhaps deservedly) in “White Women LOL” and a mini-sequel to Sittenfeld’s debut novel “Prep,” in which that book’s main character returns to school for a class reunion. It’s Sittenfeld’s first story collection since “ You Think It, I’ll Say It,” which the Star Tribune called “a treat.” (Feb. 25)
