Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

The United States was feeling bleak in 1933. People were still staggering from the economic fallout of the Great Depression. Drought and extreme heat baked much of the country, eventually leading to the Dust Bowl. Breadlines stretched for blocks in the city, and crime — including a notorious spree of bank robberies and kidnappings — was on the rise. In February, president-elect Franklin D. Rooseve...

When asked about the Declaration of Independence, most Americans quote memorable phrases from the preamble . “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” But historian Robert Parkinson says even Thomas Jefferson, who penned those wor...

Last month, the Wall Street Journal declared this summer to be the era of the “man band .” Those would be boy bands who’ve grown up — think New Kids on the Block, Boys II Men and the Jonas Brothers — along with their fans, who now have more disposable income to fork out. Exhibit A: The Backstreet Boys residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas last summer grossed more than $55 million. But it’s about mo...

Between death and emigration, Ireland lost almost a quarter of its population in the mid 1800s to the Great Hunger . Entire villages starved to death after potato blight wiped out the island’s primary subsistence crop, and British overseers did little to help. “ Hamnet ” author Maggie O’Farrell’s ancestors lived that history and stayed in Ireland. According to family lore, her great-great-grandfat...

When novelist Ann Patchett is on Big Books and Bold Ideas, watch out. She and host Kerri Miller trade quips, stories, theories and book recommendations like two longtime friends. And this week, Patchett returns to talk about her latest novel, “ Whistler .” She and Miller discuss the backstory about the novel within the novel. They trade stories about why friendships lost and rediscovered have a sp...

Has mythology given Medea a bad rap? Has her story been distorted because it was more appealing to portray her as a lusty, vengeful, violent woman married to a golden-boy hero? The essential conundrum, writes novelist Natalie Haynes, is Medea’s shift from superpowered sorceress to helpless, abandoned wife. Medea is at the center of Haynes’ new novel about Jason’s quest for the Golden Fleece and th...

Kate Bowler is officially over being grateful. Not because gratitude doesn’t matter. But because it’s been pushed as the latest iteration in a long series of self-help projects that are more obligation than opportunity. “It’s become a new form of toxic positivity or a despairing hopefulness,” says Bowler on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas, “that if you list enough things, you can stack up eve...

On the surface, the main characters in Kelly Yang’s new novel, “ The Take ,” have little in common. Ingrid Parker is a rich, white, female movie producer who has paid her dues and scrapped her way to position of power in Hollywood. Maggie Wang is a young, broke, Asian American writer who is desperately looking for approval and a break. But what they share is an an awareness of time: Ingrid doesn’t...

Hans Christian Anderson hoped to find a household straight out of a Charles Dickens novel when he visited the Dickens family at their country home in the summer of 1857. Instead, he found a marriage in shambles, a band of miserable and neglected children and a host who was desperately hoping Anderson would leave — the sooner, the better. But Anderson didn’t leave. He lingered, for five awkward and...

The theme for this spring member drive show is family. We mine the Big Books and Bold Ideas archives for the best conversations with authors who’ve used their own histories as inspiration. They include: Luis Alberto Urrea , whose novel, “Good Night, Irene” was inspired by his mother’s wartime experiences — which he didn’t learn the whole truth about until after her death. Poet Safyia Sinclair , wh...

When Tara Menon describes the underwater world that surrounds an island off the coast of Thailand, her language is both restrained and lush. “The reef is busy with color,” she writes, “Fiery scorpion fish, yellow frog-fish, red snappers, white-and-orange clown fish, a shoal of electric-blue angelfish, fat black sea cucumbers, powder-blue surgeonfish. Sand suspended between the dimpled surface glit...

On the day the Sharafs bury their 18-year-old daughter, the girl’s mother is so bereaved, she can barely stand. The father is so anguished, he nearly climbs into the grave himself. But as Patmeena Sabit’s debut novel unspools, it’s up to the reader to parse the truth about the girl’s death — and who may have been accomplices to it. The narrative is told through a kaleidoscope of viewpoints. Fellow...

Abby Jimenez is a powerhouse. Originally known for starting Nadia Cakes out of her home kitchen, these days she’s known more for her books than her bakery. Her latest rom-com, “ The Night We Met ,” hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list one week after it was released. It’s no surprise to her vast fan base. Jimenez writes witty, meet-cute romance books that also tackle real life issues like a...

After “ An American Marriage ,” her wildly successful 2018 novel, Tayari Jones signed a contract for her next book to be about a woman grappling with gentrification in modern Atlanta. She tried to write that story. But it wasn’t doing that “magical thing that lets you know you have art,” she says on this week’s Big Books and Bold Ideas. “It was a good idea. But the book wasn’t booking, as my stude...

Kerri Miller hosted a community conversation with presidential historian and author Jeffrey Engel in Red Wing on Wednesday night, April 8. Engel was brought in by the Duff Endowment , as part of their free lecture series, designed to increase civic engagement in the Red Wing area. During their discussion, Engel talked about the expansion of executive power in the United States and how that threate...

This week, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of President Donald Trump’s executive order that would undo birthright citizenship. That long-established legal principle was enshrined in the 14th Amendment. In part, it says: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens." In her new book, professor and writer Dais...

A new book by Minnesota author Louise Erdrich is always reason to celebrate. The acclaimed writer, already graced with a Pulitzer and a National Book Award, returns this month with a collection of short stories, taken from the past 20 years of her work. “ Python’s Kiss ” includes both previously published and brand new tales. Each is distinct. They include the aunt with four wedding dresses, a you...

What does it mean to live richly, even radiantly, while facing the impending darkness of climate change? How do we stand in awe at the planet we see around us even as we doubt that humanity will intervene in time to save much of what we love about it? Terry Tempest Williams’ new book, “ The Glorians ,” wrestles with that unraveling — the pull of one strand could undo the pattern that weaves us all...

When it comes to megaliths — massive stones set in place by prehistoric people — Americans are probably most familiar with Stonehenge. But the U.K.’s landscape is punctuated with thousands of these majestic stones. Some are set in circles, others in rows. A few even form doorways that align with the sun at solstice. Long revered for their mythical presence, megaliths woo both curiosity seekers and...

Daniyal Mueenuddin grew up in two vastly different worlds. As a child, he lived with his paternal relatives in Lahore, Pakistan. As a teenager, he spent summers on his maternal family’s farm in Elroy, Wis. A product of both of those worlds, Mueenuddin sees himself as a translator of sorts. He intimately knows both U.S. and Pakistani culture — particularly the more rural, faintly feudal villages in...

Rock climbing is risky. But so is life. And friendship. And following your dreams. Nothing is promised. Success is not assured. In Gabriel Tallent’s new novel, “ Crux ,” two 17-year-old best friends are facing down those fears as they climb self-described death rocks. Climbing is both their passion and their escape from futures that feel predestined. They both come from dysfunctional families. The...

When Tracy K. Smith was named U.S. Poet Laureate in 2017, the country was in a fragile place. In her new book, Smith writes that, by then, “we’d come to find ourselves in a climate of language — I’d call it a national vocabulary — grounded in fear, derision, and the notion of an intractably divided nation.” But Smith believes that poetry rises above the grim jargon. In “ Fear Less: Poetry in Peril...

Change is inevitable. But that doesn’t stop us from fearing it. We fear the uncertainty. We fear the pain. We fear who we might become. But cognitive scientist Maya Shankar says — while understandable — that’s the wrong posture. In her new book, “ The Other Side of Change ,” Shankar invites us to shift how we view life’s curve balls. What if curiosity was stronger than fear? What if we saw upheava...

It takes courage to reimagine a classic. Xiaolu Guo was drawn to Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick,” from the first time she read it in her native Chinese. The writing was lyrical — hard to translate — and the descriptions of sailing were dense. But the symbolism of the great white whale and the sea-faring captain obsessed with revenge captivated her. Her new novel is a retelling of this classic with a...

“You have a good life,” her aunt said. “You don’t want to ruin it with the past.” Those words were deeply unsettling to journalist Christine Kuehn. She always suspected there was more to her paternal family history. Her father was kind but evasive, and her aunt flat out refused to discuss it. But no one would talk. Then she got a letter from a screenwriter who asked if her family could be the same...