Fifth Anniversary Sale at the Monkey

Five years of monkey business. It’s hard to believe we’ve made it this far, but we did it. We’d like to say thank you to all of our customers. So for one week, everything in the store is 20% off. The only items excluded are the bikes. They’re not really in the store because we park them outside. The sale starts during Crazy days and continues to Wednesday, August 3, 2011. Party on Wayne!

 

Once Upon a River-Midwest Connections

Once Upon a River

Starred Review. “A dramatic and rhapsodic American odyssey. A female Huckleberry Finn. A wild-child-to-caring-woman story as intricately meshed with the natural life of the river as a myth. Bonnie Jo Campbell conveys all that Margo does, thinks, and feels with transfixing sensuous precision, from the jolt of a gun to the muscle burn of rowing a boat against the current to the weight of a man. From killing and skinning game to falling in with outlaws and finding refuge with kind if irascible strangers, Margo’s earthy education and the profound complexities of her timeless dilemmas are exquisitely rendered and mesmerizingly suspenseful. A glorious novel destined to entrance and provoke.” –Booklist

 

Bonnie Jo Campbell is the author of three previous books, including American Salvage, a National Book Award finalist. She lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Things We Didn’t Say-Midwest Connections

Things We Didn’t Say

Filled with her “unflinching honesty” (Melissa Senate) and “nuanced, relatable characters: (Allison Winn Scotch), Kristina Riggle’s evocative novels beautifully capture the realities of women’s lives today. In Things We Didn’t Say, this acclaimed writer probes the emotional depth of family and the challenges that can break — or unite — us.

Kristina Riggle lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with her husband, two kids, and dog. A freelance journalist, short story writer, and coeditor for fiction at the e-zine Literary Mama, she is the author of two previous novels, Real Life & Liars and The Life You’ve Imagined.

Spellbound: The Books of Elsewhere Vol. 2-Midwest Connections

Spellbound: The Books of Elsewhere, Vol. 2

With no way into the house’s magical paintings, and its three guardian cats reluctant to help, Olive’s friend Morton is still trapped inside Elsewhere. So when Rutherford, the new oddball kid next door, mentions a grimoire — a spellbook — Olive feels a breathless tug of excitement. If she can find the McMartins’ spellbook, maybe she can help Morton escape Elsewhere for good. Unless, that is, the book finds Olive first.

The house isn’t the only one keeping secrets anymore. Mystery, magic, corruption, and betrayal abound (plus just enough laughs to take the edge off). You’ll never guess what happens next in this thrilling, chilling second volume in the critically acclaimed series.

Jacqueline West, a two-time Pushcart nominee for poetry, lives in Red Wing, Minnesota.

The Borrower-Midwest Connections

The Borrower

In this delightful, funny, and moving first novel, a librarian and a young boy obsessed with reading take to the road. The Borrower is an Indie Next pick and has garnered rave reviews in O Magazine, BookPage, and Booklist(starred review) among others.

“[Lucy's] relationship with Ian is charming and original. A stylish and clever tale for bibliophiles who enjoy authors like Jasper Fforde and Connie Willis.”
–Library Journal

“Makkai takes several risks in her sharp, often witty text, replete with echoes of children’s classics from Goodnight Moon to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, as well as more ominous references to Lolita . . . the moving final chapters affirm the power of books to change people’s lives even as they acknowledge the unbreakable bonds of home and family. Smart, literate, and refreshingly unsentimental.”
–Kirkus Reviews

“The Borrower proves [Makkai] is a great writer… This is a wonderfully entertaining story packed with moral conundrums and beautiful writing.”
–Patrick Neale, co-owner, Jaffe & Neale Bookshop & Cafe

Rebecca Makkai’s short fiction will appear in The Best American Short Storiesthis fall for the fourth consecutive year, and appears regularly in journals like Tin House, Ploughshares, New England Review, and Shenandoah. She lives north of Chicago with her husband and two daughters.

We Got the Bleepin’ Audio Book

A new listen now available at Monkey See-Monkey Read …

Happy Canada Day!