Scott Carpenter Reading Friday, March 8th, 7:30 pm

Scott Dominic Carpenter will read from This Jealous Earth Friday, March 8th at 7:30 pm.

A man puts his beloved pets to the knife; a family prepares for the Rapture; a woman in a department store slips a necklace into her purse. Whatever the situation, the characters in This Jealous Earth find themselves faced with moments of decision that will forever alter the course of their lives. Always moving and often touched with humor, Carpenter’s stories examine the tension between the everyday and the transcendent—our struggle to grasp what lies beyond our reach. Whether hawking body parts in a Midwestern city, orbiting through the galleries of a Paris museum or plotting sibling tortures in an Arizona desert, his characters lead us through a series of dilemmas of universal appeal.

 

 

Joyce Sutphen and Basma Kavanaugh Poetry Reading

Minnesota Poet Laureate Joyce Sutphen and Canadian poet and graphic artist Basma Kavanagh will read from their work at Monkey See, Monkey Read on Saturday, January 19th, at 7 pm. This event is free and open to the public. Basma Kavanagh, a visual artist, printer, and poet, will read from her recent books Distillo (Gaspereau Press, 2012) and A Rattle of Leaves (Red Dragonfly Press, 2012). Kavanagh is in Minnesota during the month of January as an artist-in-residence at the Minnesota Center for the Book Arts. Her poetry displays a profound commitment to the natural world, so much so that her descriptions of both flora and fauna often feel like potent elixirs or ritual charms, rather than words on a page. Her artwork can be viewed at http://www.basmakavanagh.ca/

Joyce Sutphen, the current Poet Laureate of Minnesota and English professor at Gustavus Adolphus College, will be reading from her forthcoming collection After Words (Red Dragonfly Press, 2013), her fifth full-length collection and an obvious companion to her last collection First Words (Red Dragonfly Press, 2010). These two books center around the poet’s family and life on a rural Minnesota farmstead. From these down-to-earth, Minnesotan themes, Sutphen crafts poems that are approachable yet deeply steeped in the tradition of English literature.

A Christmas Home-Midwest Connections

The touching sequel to the beloved novel A Dog Named Christmas.

On Sunday, November 29, 2009, more than 12.5 million families fell in love with the television adaptation of the novel A Dog Named Christmas. Within forty-eight hours after the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie aired, the initial run of twenty thousand DVDs sold out. Two years later, when Christmas with Tucker, the prequel to the McCray family stories, was released, it was described by Dean Koontz as ”a perfect Christmas read,” by A. J. Jacobs as ”lovely and poignant,” and by Publishers Weekly as ”cute, hopeful, and heartwarming.” Now, the much-anticipated third installment, A Christmas Home, will prove to be yet another holiday classic.

Watching their children move out and live independently is a difficult task for many parents — but for George and Mary Ann McCray, it’s nearly impossible. Even though Todd, their disabled son, is in his twenties, George and Mary Ann fear that he cannot thrive without their support and supervision. But Todd is determined to be his own person — and he has a dog named Christmas and an entire community ready to help him find his way.

Gregory Kincaid lives on a farm in eastern Kansas with his wife, two cats, and two dogs, including Rudy, adopted from a local shelter. When not writing, he is a practicing lawyer and pet-adoption advocate.

Thank You

Small Business Saturday was a huge success at the Monkey this year. We saw more foot traffic and had a significant increase in sales. For that, I thank all of you who made it a big day for us. What are we doing to celebrate? We’ve ordered more inventory, lots of it.
 
We’re doing everything we can to make Monkey See, Monkey Read a better bookstore. Small Business Saturday was amazing. A great kick-off to the holiday shopping season. But it’s just one day. A business needs year round support to succeed. We’ve had a great year so far and look forward to a busy December. I’m grateful that our little bookstore continues to thrive in a challenging economy. We owe our success to our many customers. Thank you.

This commercial says it better than I can.

Small Business Saturday

Saturday, Nov. 24, 2012 is Small Business Saturday. The sane alternative to the mall. Shop small.

Hold on to your books for a while

We will not be buying any used books until July 6th. the ape in charge is taking some R&R.

We will be closed July 4th.

thanks

Taste of Northfield

Raffle tickets available at Monkey See Monkey Read

Making Sense of Social Media

Making Sense of Social Media: Northfield to Host University of Minnesota Extension Workshop Series

The Northfield Downtown Development Corp. (NDDC), in collaboration with its economic development partners the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce (Chamber), the Economic Development Authority (EDA), and the Northfield Enterprise Center (NEC), will host the second in a series of University of Minnesota Extension’s workshops. This one will focus on making sense of social media as part of a marketing and sales strategy.

 

The workshop will be Tuesday, May 15^th at the Northfield High School Computer Lab from 7:00 to 9:00 pm. This workshop, titled simply “Making Sense of Social Media”, is a broad strategic review of how businesses can and are using “social media” on the Internet. Social media, FaceBook and Twitter for example, are being used by more and more people, especially young people. Understanding how to use social media is critical for businesses wanting to reach these new customers and leverage their Internet presence using the many available tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flicker, blogs, and Google Places.

 

With nearly 5,000 college students and their visiting parents, plus residents, Northfield businesses have many opportunities to use social media to reach these customers. Join us for a presentation by Hans Muessig, Program Director with the Extension’s Minnesota Intelligent Rural Communities program, about how you can truly use social media to reach these customers.

 

This workshop will help you make informed decisions about how to use the social media most effectively for your business. It will provide both an overview and a detailed set of Internet strategies; you will walk away with some new ideas and online tools to help you have a successful 2012 and beyond.

 

For more information, contact Executive Director Ross Currier at (507) 663-0319 or rcurrier@nddc.org.

Louise: Amended Midwest Connections

“A  massive  brain  trauma  robbed  fashionable  young  Louise  of  the  shallow  currency  she’d   banked  on  all  her  life,  and  the  resulting  struggle  is  a  page‐turner  in  which  a  person’s  very   soul  deepens  before  your  eyes.  Louise:  Amended  rewards  a  reader’s  time-­‐a  must  read.” —Mary  Karr, New York Times bestselling author of The Liars’ Club

A  beautiful  young  woman  from  Kansas  is  about  to  embark  on  the  life  of  her  dreams (California! Glossy  journalism! French boyfriend!) only  to  suffer  a  brain  bleed  that  collapses   the  right  side  of  her  body,  leaving  her  with  double  vision,  facial  paralysis,  and  a  dragging   foot.  An  unflinching,  wise,  and  darkly  funny  portrait  of  sudden  disability  and  painstaking   recovery,  the  memoir  presents  not  only  Louise’s  perspective,  but  also  the  reaction  of  her   loved  ones–we  see,  in  fictional  interludes,  what  it  must  have  been  like  for  Louise’s   boyfriend  to  bathe  her,  or  for  her  mother  to  apply  lipstick  to  her  nearly  immobile  mouth. Now,  six  years   later,  Louise  has  astounded  doctors  and  loved  ones  by  recovering  not  only  much  of  her   vision  and  mobility,  but  a  ferocious  spirit  and  enviable  grace.

At age twenty-two, Louise Krug suffered a brain bleed and underwent an emergency craniotomy that disrupted her ability to walk, see, and move half her face. Now, six years later, Louise has astounded doctors and loved ones by recovering not only much of her vision and mobility, but a ferocious spirit and enviable grace. She currently lives with her husband Nick and daughter Olive in Lawrence, Kansas, where she’s a PhD candidate and teacher.

Atina Diffley to Speak at Just Food

Atina Diffley will be at the Co-op on Thursday, April 26, 7-8:30 p.m. to do a free talk on her new book and her life in the organic farming business.  Be sure to register and hear her words of wisdom.

About the book:

“Turn Here Sweet Corn is an unexpected page-turner. Atina Diffley’s compelling account of her life as a Minnesota organic farmer is deeply moving not only from a personal standpoint but also from the political. Diffley reveals the evident difficulties of small-scale organic farming but is inspirational about its value to people and the planet.”—Marion Nestle, author of What to Eat

“This book is wonderful on so many levels: the swift moving and dramatic story of Atina and Martin Diffley, the farmers of Gardens of Eagan, as they confront wild weather, development pressure, and pipelines. The transformation of Tina into Atina, from confused teenager to strong, passionate, and committed leader in organic agriculture. A powerful argument for organic farming and a must read for anyone thinking of farming—a vivid and realistic picture of the beauties, satisfactions, and stresses of farming as a way of life. And finally, a vision of hope for the future: blending intuitive faith in our oneness with Nature, the most advanced biological science, and the power of community.”—Elizabeth Henderson, author of Sharing The Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture

“What strikes me most about this amazing memoir is that for those of us who aren’t farmers but who are versant in such issues as organics, soil building, diversity, GMOs, certification and more—it is utterly different to hear how the farmer herself grapples with them in her daily life. Unlike reading about the same issues in an article, it’s immediate, powerful, tender, heartbreaking and above all, encouraging.”—Deborah Madison, author of Local Flavors, Cooking and Eating from America’s Farmers Markets