Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, and it also has many interesting books. In this series, we are sharing some of the books we like from Minnesota, or Minnesota authors.

We are mapping our literary journey around Minnesota, so you can see all the interesting places where our books are set. Follow our progress on our Google Map, accessible by clicking that link or searching for the title CMLE Reads Across Minnesota!

One of the most fun things about this series is discovering some of the fun new Minnesota books I didn’t know about; so thank you to everyone who is sending in suggestions!!

The Vanishing, by Wendy Webb
This week’s book is one of several by Minnesota author Wendy Webb, all in the “spooky country house” gothic genre. As the days are getting shorter, and the cold Minnesota nights are long and dark, it’s fun to have a spooky story set here in northern Minnesota!

From Amazon: “Recently widowed and rendered penniless by her Ponzi-scheming husband, Julia Bishop is eager to start anew. So when a stranger appears on her doorstep with a job offer, she finds herself accepting the mysterious yet unique position: caretaker to his mother, Amaris Sinclair, the famous and rather eccentric horror novelist whom Julia has always admired . . . and who the world believes is dead.

When she arrives at the Sinclairs’ enormous estate on Lake Superior, Julia begins to suspect that there may be sinister undercurrents to her “too-good-to-be-true” position. As Julia delves into the reasons of why Amaris chose to abandon her successful writing career and withdraw from the public eye, her search leads to unsettling connections to her own family tree, making her wonder why she really was invited to Havenwood in the first place, and what monstrous secrets are still held prisoner within its walls.”

If you like this story (and I’m not finished with it yet – so don’t tell me how it ends!), Webb has a few other books in the same genre that also sound like fun to read.

If scary stories, or the idea of scary stories, may be your new book reading interest, be sure you check out our book group podcast episode on the Horror genre. We have a giggling fun time talking about podcasts, fanfic, and books that are all part of the happily-spine-tingling genre!

Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, and it also has many interesting books. In this series, we are sharing some of the books we like from Minnesota, or Minnesota authors.

We are mapping our literary journey around Minnesota, so you can see all the interesting places where our books are set. Follow our progress on our Google Map, accessible by clicking that link or searching for the title CMLE Reads Across Minnesota!

This week we have a slightly different look at a Minnesota book; this one is not set in Minnesota – it’s not even set on Earth! But the author is a Minnesota resident, and supports Minnesota bookstores. So our map identifies this book in the author’s hometown of Medicine Lake.

If you like scifi books, this is a great series to read. And if you have not checked out scifi, this is a great place to start! The first two books in the series, in the internal chronological order, start with Cordelia Naismith as the main character. She is butt-kicking chick, stranded on a planet with a soldier, Aral Vorkosigan, who is not exactly an ally. They are both tough, strong, and good survivors. Naturally, they fall in love.

The first two books in the internal chronology focus on Cordelia as the main character. After that her son Miles is the main character, but Cordelia is never far from the action. Miles is pretty amazing, and it’s clear he gets a lot of his rare intelligence and skill from his mom. His dad is pretty great too; but Cordelia really stands out to everyone as a serious power.

I really like this series! It’s fun to read all the world-building Bujold does to make the assorted political systems and rivalries, the personalities, and the action seem both authentic and entertaining. And it’s fun that the series (minor spoiler!) covers decades. So you see Cordelia move from being a young single officer, through  motherhood and building a new career in the political world she didn’t choose but succeeds at to support her husband. Everything she does, she does on her own terms and the rest of the world moves to meet her demands.

From Amazon:  “Cordelia Naismith is enjoying a baptism of fire. Her first mission is to captain a throwaway warship of the Betan Expeditionary Force on a mission to destroy an entire enemy armada. Discovering deception within deception, treachery within treachery, she is forced into an uneasy peace with her nemesis: Lord Aral Vorkosigan. Discovering that astrocartography is not the soundest training for a military leader, Cordelia rapidly finds herself the prisoner of the Barrayaran Captain Aral Vorkosigan, also known as ‘The Butcher of Komarr’. But the notorious captain is not quite the beast Cordelia was expecting and a grudging respect develops between the two of them. As captor and prisoner on an abandoned outpost planet, the honourable captain and the resolute scientist must rely on each others’ trust to survive a trek across dangerous terrain, thus sparking a relationship that shares the struggles of culture and politics between their worlds.”