Here's a great way to add a new dimension to your book discussion group. We select a list of books (mostly fiction, and a couple of good mysteries) that feature Northwoods and Minnesota authors and illustrators. Afternoon presentations (in various formats -readings, presentations, or panels) feature the authors who will be joining us for the weekend. We co-sponsor this special weekend with the Valley Bookseller in Stillwater, Minnesota.

We are delighted to announce that we will be welcoming New York Times Bestselling Author Steve Thayer, (Saint Mudd, The Weatherman, and others) and Sarah Stonich (Shelter, Ice Chorus, plus others, and featured in Fiction on a Stick) as our lead guest authors.

Steve Thayer is the New York Times bestselling author of The Weatherman, Silent Snow, and The Wheat Field. His first book, the classic gangster novel Saint Mudd, was self-published in 1988, became a small press publication in 1990, a Viking Penguin hardcover in 1992, and then a Signet paperback. Now Saint Mudd is available in its ninth edition, as a trade paperback from North Star Press. The Weatherman, too, has been reprinted by North Star. Steve Thayer was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Today he makes his home in Edina, Minnesota.

Sarah Stonich is the author of internationally acclaimed novels These Granite Islands, and The Ice Chorus, stories which have left their marks on readers worldwide. Her first novel, These Granite Islands was translated to eight languages and was short-listed for France's prestigious Grand Prix de lectrices d'Elle. The eagerly awaited paperback version of The Ice Chorus is now available, and her memoir, Shelter, is now out to rave reviews. A story from Sarah’s recently completed Vacationland appears in Fiction on a Stick, an essential collection for fans of the North Star State, regional fiction, and serious literature.

The reading list is as follows:

The Weatherman by Steve Thayer

Saint Mudd by Steve Thayer

Tales From The Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Shelter by Sarah Stonich

Fiction on a Stick: New Stories by Minnesota Writers

Just Kids by Patti Smith

Vestments by John Reimringer

Until They Bring the Streetcars Back by Stanley Gordon West