By Victoria Tirrel, Library Committee

A few weeks ago the Minnesota Book Award announced their 2020 finalists. On the list are some well-known names, like William Kent Krueger (nominated for his novel, This Tender Land), and some familiar last names, Lindeke, as in Bill, as in Linda Lindeke’s son (nominated with co-author Andy Sturdevant for Closing Time: Saloons, Taverns, Dives, and Watering Holes of the Twin Cities).
 
How lucky we are as a community to have Bill and Andy as our guests for Book Night at 7:30 p.m. in the Social Room on Wednesday, February 19…yes, in just two days!
 
Also on the finalist list are one of my writing teachers, Ben Percy (for Suicide Woods, which is near the top of the pile beside my bed), and the newest mysteries from Allen Eskens (Nothing More Dangerous) and P.J. Tracy (Ice Cold Heart). The gala at which winners will be announced is April 28 at the Ordway. You can see a complete list of finalists at the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library website.
 
Whatever the book equivalent of mouth-watering is, it’s happening right now for me in 202!

By Greta Michaels, Library Committee
Originally published in the February 2020 issue of the 1666 Coffman Newsletter

How do we judge our leaders? Historian Michael Beschloss’s statement when describing FDR is that “a president’s job is not to follow the public but to lead it.”

The author looks at the responses of presidents to situations that were probable sources of political damage to them personally.

In very readable chapters, Beschloss considers these men and the problems they faced: Washington and the Jay Treaty; John Adams and possible war with France; Jackson and the Biddle Bank; Lincoln and emancipation, the draft, and the election of 1864; Teddy Roosevelt and the trusts; FDR and involvement in World War II; Truman and the recognition of Israel; JFK and civil rights; Reagan and detente with the USSR.